iDrive in E53
 

Hi peeps, has anyone ever retrofitted an iDrive system from some of the newer BMWs (E70, etc) into the older models (E53, etc)...
I know there would be a lot involved, including major modifications to the dash, but....
Also some of the functionality may not all work...but someone may have done it.
So anyone know of someone doing this?

Wonder if there's a way you can wire it to the right knob on the nav. I feel that would be the most simple way. Then cut out a hole next to the shifter an plop it in there.

However I'm not sure about its "feedback" cause on the newer BMWs the knob tightens up whenever it hits the end of a menu or something.

i need to search an old post of mine - a guy in russia mimicked the right nav knob with an "i-drive" and he sells ot... for $300 bucks!!! or more... i have pics there too...

yeah I'm not thinking just the knob, I'm thinking the whole system!
I've watched people put so much effort into many devices like the Intravee, CarPC, Raspberry PiBus project, etc etc etc.....
All this is very exception work, but it all seems a little wasted when all most people want is an improvement to the OEM system that's more modern...aka iDrive!
Here are some examples of the kit I would like to install:
BMW 3ER F30 F31 F35 CIC Idrive Professional Navigation Multimedia Retrofit Parts | eBay
BMW X5 X6 E70 E71 Idrive Professional Navigation CCC DVD Navigationssystem | eBay

At the end of the day a system like this just needs 12v power and all the necessary signals from the car....
Maybe this is just to much to translate from iBus to the new systems, but also maybe not?
I wish I had the know-how, but I am not an electronics genius...

this would be some monumental undertaking - since the real idrive is using fiber-optic, one would need to have gazillion converters from copper wire to optic, besides the micro-controllers to interpret the ibus protocol into most protocol.. the system will be sluggish, as it takes time (and power) to translate a message from native ibus modules to the most and back... the whole car's electronics would need to be redesigned, and without the r&d support of a large construction/engineering firm this will be a royal flop...

but... i could be totally wrong...

old post from 2 years ago

http://www.xoutpost.com/bmw-sav-foru...rofit-e53.html

Yeah I think it's wishful thinking...
I wish it was posible to integrate an after market head unit properly...
So that you could still get basics like time/date on the dash, song name on the dash (intravee I know), maybe some nab data and also Bluetooth functionality on the dash.
So far the new parrot asteroid interests me as I can then have integrated tomtom!
But then you still loose so much....

Yeah I think it's wishful thinking...
I wish it was posible to integrate an after market head unit properly...
So that you could still get basics like time/date on the dash, song name on the dash (intravee I know), maybe some nab data and also Bluetooth functionality on the dash.
So far the new parrot asteroid interests me as I can then have integrated tomtom!
But then you still loose so much....

Yeah I think it's wishful thinking...
I wish it was posible to integrate an after market head unit properly...
So that you could still get basics like time/date on the dash, song name on the dash (intravee I know), maybe some navigation data and also Bluetooth functionality on the dash.
So far the new parrot asteroid interests me as I can then have integrated tomtom!
But then you still loose so much....