spedwards

I hope this hasn't been covered before, I couldn't find it in a search...

I have fitted a used DAB unit into newly purchased OEM brackets in the rear of my E61. Now I need to connect it.

I have located the MOST junction box above the rear wheel arch. So that's going to be easy.
I have found a choice of several earth points.

What I don't have is any power source for the unit.

My car has no spare connections in this area that I have found so far. Does anyone have any suggestions where I can look for a spare connection? Or which wire I should be looking at if I were to tap into an existing wire in the nearby loom?

I'd rather not have to route it all the way from the CD changer power at the dashboard. Surely there's something closer?

bruce_miranda

The closest place you can tap into is the bluetooth unit. Otherwise go across to the fuse box.

spedwards

Thanks for the Advice. After waiting a few weeks for the rain to stop I've completed the job.

Having reached the bluetooth unit I was surprised to not find a combined power&MOST connector. Wiithout knowing which of the pins on the main multi-pin bluetooth connector carries power I ran it down the car to the avr500 in the glovebox instead. This only took about 15mins.

I'm glad I did this because on the way I found water at the bottom of the b,c and d pillars. The carpet surface was dry, but the foam touching the metal was soaked. The sunroof drains were blocked, fixing this only added about 10 mins to the job. It was well worth doing because there were trickles starting to run down the side of the wheel well in the boot. Fried (boiled?) electronics were not far away.

Not knowing the pin configuration on the Bluetooth unit ultimately saved me hundreds of pounds.

bruce_miranda

Moral of the story, don't spec a sub roof on the next car you buy.

kleynie

Spedwards, do you have a diy for this install? I always wanted DAB but thought it too hard to fit. I fitted the sports auto with paddleshift so I am quite handy with these things.

PS you are not a million miles from me, i am in Staines.

spedwards

I don't have a written up DIY, but most of what you need can be found in the last section of this thread:

https://5series.net/forums/topic/111...o-retrofit-it/

Which only leaves a few questions...

How to mount the DAB unit?
Which antenna to use?
Where to get power?
How to route the cabling?
How to actualy code the car to recognise its there at all?
How to tell the car that only having one antenna is okay and to stop whinging?

Okay, so there's more than a few questions. Here's my answers to them.

How to mount the DAB unit?
Buy the brackets from a main dealer. You will need two. One large one that carries the TV tuner and has a spare slot, plus a smaller bracket for the DAB unit that holds it in the slot on the larger frame.
You will need roughly 10 5mm chimney type captive nuts. Plus 14 5mm x 19mm bolts. Its 14 because 4 hold the DAB unit to the frame. I bought stainless steel ones from ebay which means I have loads left over and they were still cheaper than the dealer prices.

Which antenna to use?
There is no ghost power supply on my DAB unit. So you need to find an antenna that has its own power feed requirements or use an un-amped antenna.
I have an E61 which changes things a lot, because I have a rear side window to use for the antenna mounting. Eventually I'd like to get it out into the spoiler and hidden away. but that's some way down the line.

I have tried several antenna, and I'm still trying new ones in an effort to be less visible.

So far this one has worked best: "Connects2 CT27UV09 - Universal DAB Aerial Glass Mount" you can get it from many sources.

I'm also experimenting with this one: http://www.parkmyauto.co.uk/zorro-z-...nna-1235-p.asp

However the cable connector that is supplied with it won't plug directly into the DAB unit directly because its a different style of SMB connector. You will need an adaptor, which I have yet to receive. I'll report back when I make up my mind about it.

Where to get power and an earth?
I have eventualy taken it from the CDC feed behind the glove box, which is actualy pretty easy to reach as all the panels on the route pull away or come away after removing a few screws. There are three earth points near the DAB unit. Just follow any of the existing brown wires until they all come together in a block. Then use a ring connector on the bolt and nut that you find at that point to provide your earth. You will need to make a small Y loom to give power to the DAB unit and the antenna amplifier.

How to route the cabling?
This is a triple problem. You need to route a pair of power wires, a pair of optical cables, and a collection of power and signal cables for the antenna. You will have to remove the side of your boot space to gain access to the optical and earth points.

How to actualy code the car to recognise its there at all?
The slightly glib answer at the end of the thread linked above is in fact acurate, but until you learn to code a car it doesn't make much sense. It will also wipe any other coding that you may have already done because its telling every module to re-initialise itself to standard settings. Its a shotgun approach to the problem, but it is quick and easy to do. In fact you only need to code a few modules to get it working, not the whole car. The ICE cluster of modules and the LMA module. The actual sequence and module list varies depending upon what you have fitted to the car already, and if its already been coded away from stansdard settings for anything.

I learnt to code the car in order to do this job, using a cable from ebay and the software plus instructions from http://www.bmwcoding.com/

Yes, you are only 3/4hr away and I can do this for you once you have everything else in place if you want me to.

How to tell the car that only having one antenna is okay and to stop whinging?
This is not obvious, however once its coded to recognise the DAB unit the car will have FM, AM, DAB, CD as sources and at this stage you can go to settings (i) Tone (yes really) then scroll a long way to the right and find DAB where several antenna choices are found. Select to only use Band III and the start-up warnings for the missing L-band antenna cease.

When I was buying the DAB unit I hunted around and ended up chatting to the FabDirect staff after looking at their ebay shop. I asked them to please sell the units and the mounting brackets together in the future as they cant be mounted without them. As a result the latest couple of units that they've sold have come with brackets attached which should save the cost of one of the two that I mention above, assuming that the DAB unit came from the same type of car.

There is a list of suitable DAB part numbers on RealOEM.com. The DAB units were fitted to quite a range of BMWs, and I'm sure that the carriers for each chassis were slighlty different, so you may get lucky with the one on the DAB unit or you may not. But you'll always need to source the larger frame and all the captive nuts and bolts to hold it to the chassis yourself.

Tip1. The nearest optical junction box is right above the wheel arch about 14" away from the mounting point. The collection of Dension cables is a perfect length to fit using half of the stuff in the kit. I did all the electrical work and optical work before receiving the DAB brackets, and was able to do so because the Dension kit enables you to build a loop to continue the optical loom without needing to have the DAB unit in place and powered up.

Tip2. If you lose the power feed to the amplifier on the DAB antenna, but retain the earth and still have the antenna connected to the DAB unit, it will raise an alarm in the car that results in an iDrive warning about the steering lock being under strain and then may refuse to start the car. Either fix the power supply problem, or pull out the antenna from the DAB unit to get around this one. Because of this experience I have carefully routed and tied the cables well away from any packing that may end up in the cubby alongside and around the unit. I suggest that you do the same.

Oh, and one other thing. The "metal corrugated tube" from BMW is actually plastic with a slit down the side. Its very tight fitting however you can get it over the Dension optical cables, but only use plastic tools to do this - or use a fingernail.

kleynie

Wow, thanks for all the info, somehow I missed it until now. I may have a go at this when I get more time, still have my L7 tweeters to fit soon.