Okay so I finally got everything hooked up and running. I had originally wrote most of this some time ago so I have added some updates here and there.
I got the Resler wired up via the extra 4 wire connector and all is working fine.
While I was waiting for my head unit, I was testing with just the Resler and my s7, I wired up the interface with some female servo leads from my RC stuff to connect to the car's 3 pin bus in the trunk and it worked perfectly, so I decided to keep it and add the male side to the harness for easy removal when I want I want to tinker on the bench.
It also has a switched wire for some acc. down the road, which is nice.
Head Unit Extension-___________________I-Bus Interface-
Black= Ground------------------------->-->-->Brown= Ground
Red= Positive ACC (switched) x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-Green= NTSC (Not Used)
Yellow= Positive Constant +12v------>-->-->Red= Positive +12v
Green= IBus--------------------------->-->-->White= IBus
While I was at it, I decided to get rid of that ugly bulky main square connector and tidied everything up a lot. I was about to hack off the extra on the trunk side too but since there is a bit of room there, I figured heck with it, I might be able to use those taps for something else down the road. Still waiting on antenna extensions to come in and some cloth tape to finish it all off.
*Update: After over a month of waiting for my custom FM antenna extension, a 6 meter ISO to 90* Fakra, that seemed lost in the mail, I gave up and ordered another one with expedited shipping that cost more than the cable, and got it within 4 days or so... and of course, about 2 weeks later, my original extension arrived. So I may have another one for sale for someone if they need it.
I re wrapped the the entire harness with the added 6 meter FM extension, 6 meter GPS extension, and a 8 meter RCA video cable with integrated power wire for triggering the rear view to the head unit (as I found out, it's not needed as the it will switch over from the signal of the canbus box) for the rear view camera (still trying to figure out what to do with the camera, don't really like the license plate light style (not water proof) or the trunk handle style (points too low and is in the way of the plate a little and if you have big hands, kind of sucks to get your fingers in there and open the trunk) and I have tried both of them).
So I turned this:
Into this:
I've also started modifying and fitting the brackets. The measurements in Wiki check out with my own measuring I did and it seems to be working and fitting well so far. I've also added some notches for the bottom screws to give a little extra support. I'm sure with due time, I will order some of the 3D printed ones but I think these will do just fine for now.
*Update: My brackets seem to be doing okay for now but I did contact Da Ondy and he is currently out of stock and waiting for parts for his printer to make some more and he assured me he would contact me when they are available again.
I would also recommend using the 2 black washers from the top screw sides of the factory bezel as they will help from crushing the bracket when you tighten the screws down:
I've also added some good closed cell foam (also from my RC stuff), to the bottom of the unit to help it rest on the HVAC box like the Eonon units do. Makes sense. Wonder why these don't come with some...
So here is where things got a little fun!! After getting everything wired up and installed, I found that there was not enough room for the unit to sit flush with the dash and was being pushed out by the FM Fakra connector, even though it was a 90* connector, it would hit on the HVAC (Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning) box inside the dash. So I snaked my bore scope (good thing I'm a mechanic lol) up and behind the unit through the hole in the glove box to see exactly where it was hitting on the HVAC unit:
I've only seen one other mention of someone here having this problem so I'm not sure why it's so rare??? Has nobody else experienced this problem? What did you do to solve it? Perhaps certain models of head units? Or models of cars? This installed on an 01 540I (E39) 4D sedan M Sport so perhaps thats the difference??
So after contemplating this for a while, I decided to do the unthinkable, Dremel into the HVAC unit. There wasn't much any other option that seemed like it would work... Hell pretty much the only option that I could think of. The ONLY reason I did this was being confident enough in my plastic welding skills in the fact that I could fill the hole back up or at the very least, I was going to use some kind of plastic epoxy or something to fill the hole.
My biggest worry was that was a blend door behind the area that I might interfere with or something but fortunately, it was all clear. The door was just an inch or so away but it was far enough back that it was totally out of the way. I forgot to take a picture of it after the hole was made.
Fortunately though, everything went pretty well. Just time consuming. The method I use for plastic welding works very well. I just simply use
plastic welding rods that can be found at Harbor Freight for 6 bucks and a Dremel tool (helps a lot if you have the 90* head attachment). The welding rods come in a pack of 3 types of plastic. PP (Polypropylene), ABS, and PVC. Conveniently enough, a lot of plastic parts are marked with what type of plastic they are made from. In this case, the HVAC unit is marked with a "PP" so we use the green PP rods. I use the drill style chuck with my Dremel and take one of the PP rods and insert it through the chuck until it bottoms out, then cut it leaving about 1"-1.5" inches sticking out of the chuck and snug the chuck. I use about 20-25k RPM on the Dremel. It's all about friction and getting a puddle of molten plastic to start to flow, then keep that flow going and keep spreading it out, building off existing pieces of plastic. Don't use much of any pressure or you will start to drill into your plastic. Don't worry how pretty it is as you can always sand it back down and smooth it all out. It will a little trial and error but it's pretty easy. Maybe practice a little in the area that is going to be Dremeled out to get the hang of it a little bit. There might some YouTube videos on how to do it too I'm sure but I taught myself how to do it just by messing around a little. It's a little like real welding in a sense so if you can do that, this should be easy.
One thing I might have added to the process would be to to turn on the air so that when you do Dremel into the box, it would help blow out and plastic pieces and hopefully stop some from falling into the HVAC.
***WARNING!***
GRAPHIC PHOTOS! THE FOLLOWING CONTENT MAY NOT BE SUITABLE FOR ALL AUDIENCES! VIEWER DISCRETION IS ADVISED! VIEW & DO THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK!!
It's hard to tell from the pictures but all the green is concaved about a half inch.
It certainly fits much better but I may recheck it with the bore scope or make it a little deeper as it's not quite 100% like it is without any wires attached at all.
********DO THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK!!!!!********
I also decided to root my unit with the
Malaysk ROM, not necessarily for the root (although that opens up a lot more flexibility for the unit), but for the awesome features this ROM brings to the unit, complete with ViperFX for android pre-installed and along with the version 2.0, a supposed "Corrected sound controller", and a nice little app that does a good job with auto brightness and auto speed (installed separately, check the last few pages of the thread for an app called something like "my service"), and a whole host of other goodies.
So far I am really enjoying the ROM. It is built around the stock firmware and runs very smooth with some nice customizations.
********DO THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK!!!!!********
I highly recommend that you read everything very closely and think before you install this as the manufacture claims it will void your warranty. Not sure how they could tell as long as you could go back to the stock ROM, but do this on your own risk!!!!! There are reports of people that have bricked their unit, although they do provide a recovery method for a "soft bricked units" with good success rate. You've been warned!***
However, as long as you read very carefully, and follow the instructions to the letter, it went very smooth for me.
I just got this hooked up the other day. It's kind of hard to decrypt what they are saying in some parts as the translator is a little rough here and there. But I just hooked it up the way they said to: "
Reconnect to Consumer Shutdown"
-You need to remove the HVAC controls and remove the blue connector and get the blue shroud off the white connector simply by lifting the tab on the one side and slide it off the connector.
-locate pin #4 (written on the white connector in tiny print) that is a Red wire with Yellow stripe. Now you need to tap the power from that wire to the red switched power lead of the head unit (pin #14 on my unit, a PB7839BP). And they only want you to give this power to the head unit and that's it. Not sure what they meant by "
Note: In order to avoid the thinning of the standard apps when the ignition is switched on, the CAN-BUS box must remain at terminal 15 and ONLY the radio must be reconnected to VA." But I hooked up it they way they said. Just give the power to the head unit after the splice for the canbus box.
I chose to solder my wire (about a foot and half long in my case) to the terminal of pin #4. This may not be the best route for most people as it's kind of tedious and you need to file down your solder joint so that the terminal can be reinserted back into the white connector (don't forget some heat shrink to help hold the new wire in place) and have the blue cover slide back on and continue to function. Then routed the wire to where it met up with my extension harness and followed up the back of the unit to where the red switched wire of the head unit met with the splice of the canbus box (and a few other's splicing off) and just snip the wire just at the end of the solder joint, towards the head unit side and solder and heat shrink it to the head unit side of the wire you just cut and tape all up (I bought a few rolls of some nice Tesa fabric tape off Amazon) to keep it all nice and clean.
And it's a little too early to tell but so far seems to be working the way it should. Although sometimes it didn't shut down when I locked the car as it should but it should still shut off no matter what after 16min. But most of the time, it seems to work properly. Probably need to get some settings dialed in more.
I've been doing some playing around with the lighting options that are now unlocked like "Coming/Leaving Home" options to allow for automatic follow me home lights, that only come on during the night time, and seems to be working well so far! Really cool stuff!
Even manged to get the Angel Eyes set as DRL!
Can't really help you with the Ipod stuff as I don't do apple and would have no clue. But if all your after is play lists, I would consider Poweramp or something similar. I've been happy with it for a while, it's a paid app but I don't think cost too much, can't remember as I've had it for a long time. You could put your music on the SD and sort play lists through Poweramp. Although I'm not sure if you would have to rebuild your play lists or if perhaps there is some kind of importer or converter or something. But something to look into.
Good luck!
Sorry for the looooooooong post but I thought there would be some useful info to others here LOL.