Originally Posted by Brad Kane

Hi everyone,

Thanks for all the info on the board it made this project super simple, also thanks to Roger at Aftermarketbulbshop.com for the goodies.

I'm about as electronically inclined as a caveman, the sheer mention of fiber-optic blinds me with expensive repair fears, but this was truly a simple job.

Based on Schulrog/Roger's DIY instructions and several other threads on the board, I thought I would add my own photos and experiences from today.

I have an 06 e61 with CDC prep, non-mp3 capability (until monday anyway). I order my ipod unit from aftermarketbulbshop.com.

My biggest problem was finding the wires and overcoming my fear about disconnecting a fiber optic cable. I located the power plug and the fiber optic connector after removing the glove box and the fuse plate:


From there I took two flat head screwdrivers and opened up the rectangular fiber optic connector, revealing the two green cables:



The cables plug directly into the adaptor plug that was included in the OEM BMW iPod kit, making sure I had the cable with the red light going in the right direction, I snapped the wires into place so it looked like this:



Then easily plugged the new adaptor into the power plug:


The last part was to plug the power/fiberoptic cord into the back of the ipod unit and the ipod cable and zip tie into place. I didn't have the CDC bracket in there so I had to use the zip ties as pictured which I will likely clean up at another time.


So after putting everything in place I turned on the key not sure what I would find and viola, the BMW logo appeared on the ipod screen!





I assumed that everything was all good if the logo appears. My car is not coded for MP3's/ CDC so my i-drive did not see the ipod there, my appointment on Monday at BMW should solve that issue.

For anyone concerned about doing this job, don't be it's ridiculously easy. Literally, the hardest part was figuring out how to zip tie the unit into the dash without the changer bracket. The threads on the board really helped out with visualizing how to do this. The only thing that I wasn't able to really see was how the fiber optic cable re-routing worked, there were mentions of it but no pics of the red light etc (at least from what I found). Most of the threads on here, people already had the fiber optic adaptor attached to the power plug.

Hopefully this post helps a few still on the fence about adding an ipod to your e60/61.

B.

Originally Posted by Brad Kane

Hi everyone,

Thanks for all the info on the board it made this project super simple, also thanks to Roger at Aftermarketbulbshop.com for the goodies.

I'm about as electronically inclined as a caveman, the sheer mention of fiber-optic blinds me with expensive repair fears, but this was truly a simple job.

Based on Schulrog/Roger's DIY instructions and several other threads on the board, I thought I would add my own photos and experiences from today.

I have an 06 e61 with CDC prep, non-mp3 capability (until monday anyway). I order my ipod unit from aftermarketbulbshop.com.

My biggest problem was finding the wires and overcoming my fear about disconnecting a fiber optic cable. I located the power plug and the fiber optic connector after removing the glove box and the fuse plate:


From there I took two flat head screwdrivers and opened up the rectangular fiber optic connector, revealing the two green cables:



The cables plug directly into the adaptor plug that was included in the OEM BMW iPod kit, making sure I had the cable with the red light going in the right direction, I snapped the wires into place so it looked like this:



Then easily plugged the new adaptor into the power plug:


The last part was to plug the power/fiberoptic cord into the back of the ipod unit and the ipod cable and zip tie into place. I didn't have the CDC bracket in there so I had to use the zip ties as pictured which I will likely clean up at another time.


So after putting everything in place I turned on the key not sure what I would find and viola, the BMW logo appeared on the ipod screen!





I assumed that everything was all good if the logo appears. My car is not coded for MP3's/ CDC so my i-drive did not see the ipod there, my appointment on Monday at BMW should solve that issue.

For anyone concerned about doing this job, don't be it's ridiculously easy. Literally, the hardest part was figuring out how to zip tie the unit into the dash without the changer bracket. The threads on the board really helped out with visualizing how to do this. The only thing that I wasn't able to really see was how the fiber optic cable re-routing worked, there were mentions of it but no pics of the red light etc (at least from what I found). Most of the threads on here, people already had the fiber optic adaptor attached to the power plug.

Hopefully this post helps a few still on the fence about adding an ipod to your e60/61.

B.

Originally Posted by jay8s

you pry the u shaped piece off of the other. the U will most likely break, the you pull the fiber optics out of the ends. hope that helps

Originally Posted by sd_dracula

Pretty sure you don't need to break or use that connector if you just follow the fibre cable you will find that one end (inside the glovebox) already comes with the 2 cables into 1 plug and will slot directly into the ipod unit.
That's what I did for my Dension.