Haha, I am 6 foot tall so maybe it helps.

I am in the process of retrofitting iBus to this car. I have already installed an E46 paddle shift steering wheel and have an iBus controller in the carputer. I am going to connect the steering wheel buttons directly to the car pc to control track selection / volume etc without interfering with the rest of the car. This will reduce the need to reach to the touchscreen as often.

 

I thought the new cars didn't use iBUS but the MOST interface.

 

not bad...good job !

 

Correctomondo.... There is no iBus in these cars, its the MOST bus. Hence the need to retrofit my own mini iBus for carputer control. I replaced my original steering wheel with an E46 wheel so I could use its iBus buttons directly with the carputer. Otherwise if I try to use the MOST bus i would be changing tracks / volume etc on the headunit whenever I try to control the carputer.

 

I still don't get it. Why change the wheel? Surely the button are mechanical and its where there are connected that make the difference. OK I understand that you are going to have your own iBus but surely you could just use the same buttons and connect up your new iBUS interface to the existing buttons. Its not like the buttons on the wheel have a MOST interface built into the wheel, they much connect into the car's MOST.

 

 

See if any of the documents in the following post help out:
http://forums.e60.net/index.php?s=&sho...st&p=103940

The first document is from the display screen manufacturer (Sharp) and shows the pins for the screen itself. Unfortunately, it looks like there are 6 pins for each color (18 total not including gnd.)

I may be completely in over my head here so please correct me if I'm wrong but either way, keep us posted on if that helps you out any...

 

OK...that's awesome. I want that on my iDrive screen!!!! Forget getting the iDrive update. Hahahaha!

 

Nope, the buttons themselves are code generators. In the E46 the steeringwheel buttons have their own control circuit built into them. When you push a button each button generates a tiny unique voltage, much like a remote control for your tv, the control circuit built into the buttons reads this voltage and generates an iBus code and sends it through the 3wire iBus interface back to the body control module for relaying and interception by other iBus devices. (a carputer :-)

In the E60 the steering wheel is somewhat different, firstly yhe MOST bus is not as easily tapped into but secondly the buttons in the wheel are 3 seperate parts, the left and right buttons and the third, a button control circuit which also controls the airbag module in the steering wheel. To use the E60 wheel I would have had to disconnect the buttons from the rest of the MOST bus so as not to interfere with iDrive and radio controls etc. when using it for the carputer but to do this I would also be disconnecting the driver wheel airbag which is never a bright idea.

Solution.... replace the steering wheel with an E46 wheel, connect the airbag and keep it functional but build a mini iBus network between the E46 buttons and the carputer. Et voila, independant control of the carputer functions via the steering wheel while retaining a functional airbag.

 

Craggy, did the link I gave you in post #17 <{POST_SNAPBACK}>(click the arrow) help you out at all? Just wondering...