Well, the beemer has been my Faithfull companion for the last couple of
weeks commuting. So long enough to start modifying it beyond the foam
cup holder.
Two things have been bugging me.
1. The complete absence of cupholders, which might seem a small issue. Not so small if you factor in 270km a day starting at 5:30. Think morning cup of Joe and you get the idea.
2. No aux to the radio. Which is not too bad as long as you stay within range of a decent radio station or have a big cd collection. I was planning a round trip to bologna, so there goes radio coverage and my cd collection amasses to 2, of which one is a Michael Jackson cd I got as a birthday present when I was 12.
The first problem was quickly solved by cutting some foam in shape and sticking it in the central ash tray. Looks weird but gets the job done.
The second problem can easily be solved by giving bmw 60€. This buys you a 3.5mm jack you need to install in the car. Rather pricey for a stupid wire so off to Google for a better solution. I was rather disappointed not to found something better so I go thinkering. The schematics for the cable are easily found, I have a bluetooth receiver laying around collecting dust. So there you have a better solution, just put one and one together and hide it somewhere in the dash. Unfortunately that's way too easy. I wanted a completely integrated BT receiver, so I cracked open the receiver case, soldered on some wires. Now all I need is 5 volts to run the receiver off. So I cracked open the the radio and went hunting for a power line. That's where I got lucky and found a nice accessible 7808. Combine this with a 7805 I had laying around and pronto 5volts :-) Now a that's left is to solder the previously soldered wires to the corresponding pins and hot glue the receivers print inside the radio unit.
Here are some pics for you :
The all important collection of resistors and capacitors to trick the radio in thinking it has an AUX-IN attached to it.
Some wires soldered to the BT receiver :
Here's the 7805, which will feed the project
And the 7808 which was already mounted in the radio. With all that metal to cool it, it should be possible to feed the 7805.
The inside of the radio, with the pins where I'll solder the BT receiver
Some more metal to cool the 7805
All soldered up, ready to add hot glue (sorry no hot pics)
Two things have been bugging me.
1. The complete absence of cupholders, which might seem a small issue. Not so small if you factor in 270km a day starting at 5:30. Think morning cup of Joe and you get the idea.
2. No aux to the radio. Which is not too bad as long as you stay within range of a decent radio station or have a big cd collection. I was planning a round trip to bologna, so there goes radio coverage and my cd collection amasses to 2, of which one is a Michael Jackson cd I got as a birthday present when I was 12.
The first problem was quickly solved by cutting some foam in shape and sticking it in the central ash tray. Looks weird but gets the job done.
The second problem can easily be solved by giving bmw 60€. This buys you a 3.5mm jack you need to install in the car. Rather pricey for a stupid wire so off to Google for a better solution. I was rather disappointed not to found something better so I go thinkering. The schematics for the cable are easily found, I have a bluetooth receiver laying around collecting dust. So there you have a better solution, just put one and one together and hide it somewhere in the dash. Unfortunately that's way too easy. I wanted a completely integrated BT receiver, so I cracked open the receiver case, soldered on some wires. Now all I need is 5 volts to run the receiver off. So I cracked open the the radio and went hunting for a power line. That's where I got lucky and found a nice accessible 7808. Combine this with a 7805 I had laying around and pronto 5volts :-) Now a that's left is to solder the previously soldered wires to the corresponding pins and hot glue the receivers print inside the radio unit.
Here are some pics for you :
The all important collection of resistors and capacitors to trick the radio in thinking it has an AUX-IN attached to it.
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