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I don't believe the mic wires go to the head unit (CIC unit for me, CCC unit for you). They go directly to the TCU unit in the trunk which handles your Bluetooth functions. That's why the harness that came with my Android unit goes directly to the mic and not to any wires on my CIC unit. You could also get a cheap mic and put it in the ceiling and plug into your Android box. Here's a wiring diagram from a 2005 545i and you can see the mic goes to the TCU.
I don't believe the mic wires go to the head unit (CIC unit for me, CCC unit for you). They go directly to the TCU unit in the trunk which handles your Bluetooth functions. That's why the harness that came with my Android unit goes directly to the mic and not to any wires on my CIC unit. You could also get a cheap mic and put it in the ceiling and plug into your Android box. Here's a wiring diagram from a 2005 545i and you can see the mic goes to the TCU.
Ah! That makes sense now. I am still getting to know these cars, and it didn't occur to me that the bluetooth gear was anywhere except under the dash. This explains why more aftermarket units don't use the original microphone I guess.
My unit came with its own microphone and the instructions want me to run it up the a pillar to the ceiling etc, tucked in behind various bits of trim. I liked the idea of tapping into the oem microphone so as to avoid running the new cable (plus the oem microphone is in a good spot and looks perfect...)
Truth be told, I haven't yet. I have the Android box temporarily dangling next to the transmission tunnel by the passenger seat as I just got it recently and am waiting on a USB port that my CIC retrofit needs in the glove box. Until that comes everything is there on a temporary basis. I haven't pulled the lower dash trim off of the driver side yet but am hoping I can mount the box there. If I can, I'll then remove driver side A pillar trim and route the wires from under the dash through there, to the ceiling. I'll pull the weather stripping back from the headliner so that I can then push the harness through to the middle where the mic is. I've had the mic panel down in the past in order to tap into the power wires going to the Homelink buttons on my rearview mirror which powers my dash cam and it's not too bad getting into there, that's where the mic is. My unit also came with a mic, I guess for those who don't have one built in, but I don't intend to use it. I don't see any reason why you couldn't get an audio input cable and wire it up there, then tap into the two wires from the mic and send them to the mic input jack on your Android unit, which I'm assuming it has. I've never traced the mic wires to see where they go to when they leave the mic. They might go through the roof to the rear, or perhaps the A or B pillar. You could pull the weatherstripping off the headliner and see where they're going and tap into them at a lower location I suppose.
Heh, I am probably going to be in the same "almost done" box as you for now. I feel like once I open up the ceiling it is going to start taking a lot more time again. So I will route the microphone that came with it to some okay spot today and open it all up again in a month or two.
With regards to where to locate the android unit - aside from the fairly basic connection diagram I got with mine, the instructions were in the form of a video. The video is actually quite good but it is for an X5 with CCC not a 5-series. It didn't offer me a good location for the box itself as there seems to be more room under the panel under the glove box in an X5 than there is in my car. I have put mine inside the dash between the two cup holders on the passenger side. There is a fair bit of room there.
If anyone else happens to know what path the OEM microphone wiring takes through the car, I wouldn't mind finding out. My ideal is an invisible fitting, so if I can tap into the stock microphone wiring somewhere relatively easy I'll be happy.
I had a bit of a hunt for the oem microphone wiring, especially after I read somewhere that in an e90 they can be found in a white plug near the a pillar and fuse panel. This doesn't seem to be the case with an e60, but hey i had the glove box out anyway.
I also don't really think the stock mic is in a particularly good spot. I think where I have now put mine is a better location than the ceiling console for two reasons - 1, it is pointing at the driver's mouth, and 2 it is behind any wind noise from the hvac vents.
I wish my camera hid dust a bit better.
Here is where i put the mmi module. It's basically on top of the cd stacker. The rca plugs are for rear and front camera, the usb is from an otg cable plugged into the mmi module; the socket is labelled "update" so maybe there are some software updates to come.
There are a few things I don't like about this unit, so don't take my review as 100% positive yet... I am running a few issues by the seller and also just living with it for a bit.
It does do some core things perfectly fine though and i do have android auto on a 2005 bimmer screen, which is something...
I have an Avin unit that I just took out and will sell you fairly cheap. They don’t take 30 seconds to boot up, just a few seconds. Basically by the time the navigation legal disclaimer disappears it has loaded. If you use a reverse camera with it that will display pretty much instantly after turning on the car. I used mine with Apple Wireless CarPlay all the time and it was good. Only reason I removed it is I did a CIC upgrade and there are better CarPlay options for CIC.
So a question, given that you already had an Avin unit, what was lacking in it that made you switch to the CIC conversion?
I have been living with the MMI on CCC for a few days now and I am pretty happy with it. I believe it is better for Carplay than Android Auto but, as an Android Auto user, I am still content. It gives me Waze/Google Maps on the CCC screen and the resolution is perfectly acceptable and legible. I have Spotify working as well. Those are basically my main day-to-day things. When I get my OBD2 unit I will add Torque Pro, because I want things like coolant temp displayed. I should add that the MMI box does reverse camera as well and integrates the steering information so that you get the curvy lines when you are steering in reverse. I do not have a camera hooked up but can see the steering lines working.
Now I would expect the normal use of Android Auto to be just the one screen, but what I am finding is that I am leaving my phone screen on in the windscreen cradle and using the CCC screen for navigation, and the phone screen for skipping tracks or whatever. This wasn't my original plan but it works very nicely.
So there are three or four issues I have identified with the MMI box. One, the next/last track steering wheel controls don't work in Android Auto. They apparently do in Carplay but I can't test it. Not really a biggy. The iDrive knob works fine in AA, and so does my phone touch screen.
Two, there is no properly working bluetooth-only built into the MMI box. I am not sure what the deal is with this, it has bluetooth and uses it for Android Auto. I did have bluetooth audio working through the MMI box but then lost it somehow (twice in fact) during set-up. It might be fixable with settings, but anyway is irrelevant to me since I am using Android Auto.
Three, again possibly fixable with settings but it doesn't seem to switch to night mode with the headlights. Not a big deal, I just run Google Maps in dark mode anyway as personal preference. I think worst case you can get the phone to decide night/day mode rather than the car anyway.
Four, when you shut the engine down it is clear that the CCC screen stays powered on for a minute or two. I am pretty sure this is normal CCC behaviour, but with a stock setup the CCC unit shuts down with a blank screen, therefore the screen is powered but blank. With the MMI unit, you have a minute or two where the screen is powered and has a garbled version of the CCC splash screen. It then shuts down fully. This is purely cosmetic.
Those are the negatives, the positives are that it is really a completely seamless integration of Android Auto in a fifteen year old car for $295 USD (and apparently even more seamless if you use carplay). I spent a bit of time on Whatsapp with their tech support and they did put the time in, but were not very much help. It's clear that development, updates etc are not going to be a big feature of this device. Hardware quality I can say was very good; this is not a cheap plastic item it is two electronic devices in steel enclosures that have some real heft to them, along with all the cables etc.
I am interested in what you didn't find satisfactory about the Avin unit, because I think that at some point in the next ??? years, I may want to switch to one of these. I think what's needed is better Android Auto/Carplay integration rather than an add-on dongle (in fact I don't think we really need a full Android deployment in the car, personally). It seems like they are only going to get better with time.
I also think that a big improvement would be to reposition the screen a little further forward and angled toward the driver. As it is the CCC/CIC screen is too far from the driver to be safely used as a touch screen. I did get offered a unit with a 10.25" screen when talking to suppliers, this obviously brought the screen forward but I felt it was TOO far forward, as it was completely outside the shrouded area (see the attached image).
Anyway, no new stereo stuff for me for a while now, CCC + MMI is totally good enough for now.
So a question, given that you already had an Avin unit, what was lacking in it that made you switch to the CIC conversion?
Good question. It's because someone locally was selling a retrofit kit that they didn't know how to install in their car for less than half of what I saw them going for on eBay. I also am a huge fan of OEM parts so being able to use a BMW screen was preferable to me. Also since E60 wasn't designed for touch screen it's a bit far for me to reach. The decision wasn't really because I thought CarPlay would be better or anything. Also, for the times where I do need the OEM functionality I like the new CIC interface. The Avin has a much higher resolution/brighter/clearer display but it also was sometimes more finnicky. I also like that this unit boots over to CarPlay automatically once it connects whereas with the Avin unit I had to always switch it to Android mode first each time I'd drive. The CarPlay app in this MMI box also seems to connect much more quickly than the CarPlay dongle on my Avin unit did.
Again, had I not found a sweet deal on the CIC I wouldn't have switched at all.
It's because someone locally was selling a retrofit kit that they didn't know how to install in their car for less than half of what I saw them going for on eBay.
This is logic that I understand. I will be keeping my eyes out for the same thing. No rush...
I am finding this pretty useable. It has a couple of quirks. Firstly, audio quality was down from factory quality, but this turned out to be because the master volume in the MMI unit was at its highest. I wound it back to 33 (it goes 0-40) and sound quality is now very good. One thing fixed.
There is an issue with Android Auto not switching to night mode. This is common with a lot of aftermarket devices, not just this one. My guess is that the only fix for this will be a future Android Auto update that has proper day/night mode switching driven by the phone instead of the head unit. It is meant to work already but doesn't (an android auto issue, not this device). On the other hand car-driven day/night mode switching really should work from the MMI device and it's a purely software thing given that the hardware signal is there in the quadralock loom. I hassled the vendor about this at some length and it just doesn't look like there will be a software update to address it.
That annoys me but it hardly matters, it is really only a factor with navigation and the solutions are to manually switch dark/light or just leave it dark all the time, to me it is still perfectly useable.
Now that sound quality is as it should be, I don't find the other issues serious enough to justify ditching this device. I consider it more than just adequate for my use. I should add it includes things like a digital equaliser etc, so it has more to offer than just AA/Carplay.
All that said, I have some good car audio gear here I kept from previous vehicles, so I am going to work on improving the factory sound from here as a bit of a background project.
On thing I intend to do with this device is relocate it. When exploring options for improving audio generally, I considered adding a centre speaker in the dash (there is provision for it). I won't be adding one; it's not actually an improvement in an E60 in my view. I am considering using that location for the MMI unit (shielded from the sun, though). The benefit I hope to obtain is better bluetooth connection. AA (and also Carplay??) requires bluetooth as well as a cable connection.
01-06-2021, 08:37 AM
