Sure, that's exactly how the BMW diagnostics work. It accesses everything in the car via the OBDII port

Hey Jochen,

Sorry for the confusion, but can I connect to the Ibus, not the Idrive using my OBDII cable? Thanks

No. The I-bus does not connect to the diagnostic port nor the OBDII port. You can easily find an I-bus wire in the trunk.

You cannot. An OBDII cable is for the OBDII port only.

There is no ibus on the OBDII port, and the OBDII cable does not support the ibus protocol.

Just jumped into this thread; what can I do when conneting to Ibus on my X3...and how can I do it? Any open thread? thanks

Physically connect with an ibus interface to a laptop

The you can monitor the data communications of all devices on the ibus (information bus)

You can diagnose problems, reprogram control units, and add extra functionality through homemade hardware (PIC)

Examples:
Configure TV for permanent display when driving
Configure TV for a PAL-reverse camera
Configure nav computer to suit your tastes
Switch on optional Voice Recognition if your phone module supports it
Make all lights flash in sequence to your desire (requires hardware)
etc etc etc

Pretty much the only limitation to what you can do is your imagination, own technical experience, and of course some money.

I think that the easiest way to see what is possible to do via I-Bus is to download NavCoder (for this even there is no need to register it) and click through the menu of this program and to see what this program can do - you will have quit wide picture what is possible to do via I-Bus.... Then if you'll like the program you can register it and use with full functionality