Unlike the R56s the 1st gen mini OEM bluetooth option was super expensive. most people went aftermarket because of this.

My wife and I bought an '06 JCW new and about a year ago finally got around to a bluetooth setup. we had heard good things about the package from Mike at newministuff so we went for it and picked up a Parrot Mki9200 with an MFSW control interface. Mike really knew his stuff and made things painless.

It definitely works as advertised, but it's not OEM. OEM+ snob that I am, kept looking at the OEM bluetooth microphone trim panel by the sunroof controls and wondering why I didn't go that route. I had also recently picked up an E46 M3 and of course immediately started retrofitting OEM MkIV nav, bluetooth and tv module plus an eject box with an iPhone4 snap-in. pretty exciting.

anyway, I'm making great progress there and figure "let's go check out the OEM bluetooth retrofit options on the JCW". turns out is uses the same basic eject box, a ULF module just like the E46, the same bluetooth mic... wow. here's some info from WDS

WDS (go to component A117 - you'll see both ULF and non-ULF BT wiring diagrams)

well it also happens that there's actually a reasonably priced OEM bluetooth retrofit kit for the R53 now, BMW part number 84-64-0-404-810 (ECS link). it's designed to fit in the console armrest if you have it, otherwise you can retrofit the console armrest for about $240. Or just score one at the salvage yard..

as always the ECS Tuning guys have great pics, and with shipping included had the best deal I could find - $250 shipped. You still need to buy a phone specific snap-in adapter on top of that, so there are clearly cheaper ways to go. but this is not an unreasonable price at all for OEM.



description from the product listing seems perfect for my car
EDIT: text in blue is exact match to mini accessories catalog description for the $1250 Universal Hands Free Kit. More details further on in the thread

a few observations when you study the pic:
-- This kit INCLUDES a BMW/VISTEON ULF MODULE The kit I installed April 2013 had a "492" unit, which is a 2004 era module.
I also have a 552 module in my M3 which is supposedly a "first gen" older ULF. It works absolutely fine.
-- same exact bt mic and bt antenna as what's used in the E46
-- there's a bluetooth keypad in the kit which is optional if you have the MFSW. It mounts on the center stack near the driver's knee.

NOTE: My original kit arrived with no ULF module. ECS got in touch with me though and replaced the kit. They covered all shipping costs themselves. See below for more info, but it's pretty clear someone at Mini/BMW removed the ULF from the original kit. All is well now.

really looking forward to the project, and hoping there are others out there that have tried it. once it's in place and functioning there's still bluetooth music streaming and charging integration to deal with. and then there's the iPhone5 snap-in should that ever appear in a model compatible with the E46 and this kit.. but let's get the OEM BT working first..

PS there's a DIFFERENT BT OEM kit 84-11-0-302-897 that's more expensive and appears to not use the MFSW controls at all. I suspect this one is the "non-ULF" version that can be used by pre 2005 R53s ECS Tuning sells that one as well.

install instructions for this alternative kit here

UPDATE: Mike from ECS posted some great pics and info about these alternate kits later in the thread here

BTW I do not work for ECS. They're great people with a terrific website so I buy alot there.

UPDATE: I've posted video on YouTube showing my completed ULF project in operation

 

ECS just shipped my kit. Will post pics next week

 

This new kit seems pretty nice! I was actually really fortunate when I found my MINI for sale a couple years ago, because the previous owner loved options and pretty much checked all the boxes and the OEM Bluetooth system was one of the options he added. He had only put 21k miles in 6 years on the car, so I have no idea why he felt he needed all that stuff since he barely got to use any of it, but I'm not complaining! This new system actually seems nicer than the original one I have though. From the sounds of it, it integrates a little better into the car as far as using the MFSW controls and radio and I like how your phone can now stay in the arm rest. Looking forward to seeing pics of this installed. Good luck with the install, I imagine it will be somewhat of a pain to do!

 

sounds like you picked a winning car! also looks like you've tricked it out a bit perf wise.. take good care of it....

yeah definitely plan to document the install a bit. I couldn't find the install instructions online so I'll scan and post them when I get the chance.

just went through a more involved nav+bt installation on an E46 M3 which turned out perfectly. there are some excellent DIY guides out there for it which helped immensely. will try to do the same here as I haven't found anything at all.

 

If it's BT you shouldn't need to install the stuff for the arm rest. it should work without it. but I guess if you want to stream music you would need it. I would just want it for the phone part

 

that's right. no need for the center console stuff for oem bluetooth, except that you need to wire up a bluetooth pairing button if you're using a ULF module. there's alot of info in e46fanatics forum about this.

the center console kit gives you the ability to use a phone cradle and phone specific "snap-in" adapter. these are pretty nice in that they give you a place to park your phone, charge it and improve reception with a supplemental antenna. It also looks pretty cool :-)

I'll add some more pics shortly

 

Here are some pics of my M3 setup. I'm showing them here because:
- the phone snap-in is identical to the one used in the mini
- electrically everything's the same
- finished setup

Here's the "generic" phone cradle setup.


The car needs to have the bluetooth console cradle harness to accept the cradle. as you can see it comes with a tray you can leave your phone in. Note also the bluetooth button on the front of it. You hold it down while turning the ignition to position 1 and it turns on pairing mode for the ULF (bluetooth module)

Here's the same cradle without the tray. you can see the phone snap-in connector on the right.


you then add the phone specific "snap-in" adapter. in this case it's for an iphone 4.


These snap-ins are not vehicle specific, but they do change with the vehicle platform. For an R53 you need an "E46 compatible" snap-in. Same one would work on other BMWs of the same era. You can surf RealOEM and find versions for Siemens, Nokia and Moto phones. Times have changed...

And finally here's the phone installed in the cradle. If you look closely you can see the charging indicator on.


So what does this have to do with an R53? well here goes. Here's the back of the iPhone 4 snap-in adapter.

Note is says MINI on it :-)

So let's see where it goes. If you have the R53 armrest console installed then this probably looks familiar. (If you don't there are OEM retrofit kits available).


Take a look at the same console with the rubber insert removed and the cover tilted up


Plenty of room for a phone cradle. In fact the shape of the rubber insert looks VERY similar to the iphone 4 snap-in...


Note the snap-in is shorter. If you go back to the M3 console pic you'll see why - to make room for the bluetooth eject/pairing button :-)

So bottom line, it's a very nice way to get a phone bluetooth connected and charged. With some additional mods that aren't very difficult you can also add music support (cd changer adapter, a2dp module, intravee - several ways to go).

 

by the way the snap-in needed a little "massaging" to get it to fit properly in my E46 console (and I'm almost certain the R53 fit will be the same).

UPDATE: no snap-in mod was needed. the R53 armrest setup seems to be wider.

These snap-ins are really aimed at newer BMWs. In this particular case the plastic along the sides was too wide for the snap-in to fit into the cradle properly. some careful work on a belt sander removed about 2mm of extra plastic on each side without causing damage. You can see the sanded areas in this pic. Note that the sanded areas are not visible when the snap-in is mounted in the cradle.

 

Here's the R53 cradle that come's with OEM kit. It has the generic cover mounted on it. This cradle replaces that rubber part from the console that I showed above. I zoomed the pic a bit.

 

if you believe the press release in that motoringfile article (see first post), that was one expensive option.

Interesting.. can you take a pic? if your setup doesn't use the MFSW buttons then it's probably not the same one in the post. There were multiple bluetooth setups available back then.. here's a pic from the 2006 "Youification Handbook" which I think is a similar setup from the press release, but without MFSW. The catalog shows a price of $450, not the $1250 quoted for the MFSW version. I actually scanned it if you're desperately bored :-)



UPDATE: just noticed there's a "B" in the console pic. went back to the catalog and found the exact same description that I posted from the ECS Tuning website and a price of $1250. So looks like the $250 ECS kit is in fact the same as the $1250 Universal Hands Free option from the motoring file post. COOL!

Catalog text:

 

Kit is here! No ULF module though.

UPDATE: ECS contacted me after seeing this post. They paid for return shipping of the current kit and replaced it. New kit INCLUDES THE ULF. Instructions are in the box this time, but in German :-( Pretty clear someone at MINI/BMW had raided the ULF from the original kit I received.

This is pretty significant as ULF modules are selling for $300+ on ebay all the time. It's clear this kit is a GREAT deal.

UPDATE: Here's the kit contents, including pics from BOTH the original kit that was missing the ULF and the new one (user manual not shown). The original box had been opened before but everything was intact and clearly new/unused. The new box appeared to have been unopened.



This inventory list was from the original kit - - note one of the part numbers is crossed out. It's definitely the ULF (LADEFREISPRECHELEKTRONIK = ULF) and was clearly supposed to be part of the kit at one point.


Here's the new inventory sheet. the grouped part numbers are basically the harness and misc connector hardware


the original kit was missing the instructions and had this label on the outside of the box.


the new kit DOES have the instructions in the box but URL TBD they're in German. Contacting ECS to see if they can access the BMW/MINI ASAP portal and send me an English PDF. Otherwise Google Translate time...

UPDATE: I URL TBD annotated the install instructions in English with help from Google translate. I have also posted a few annotated diagrams later in the thread.




user manual - now we know what "ULF" means :-)
per google translate: it means "Manual, Universal Charger Hands-free Device"
Note: the MINI ULF manual is basically identical to the BMW Owner's Manual for Voice Control (P/N 01 41 0 155 409)



Also there is no equivalent to the BMW ULF Owners Manual - good to understand the overall system

some pics of the cradle including the part number, with and without the cover, and with the iphone4 snap-in form my M3 (also not in kit)

Note the logo on the cradle button - everybody on the bmw forums like the 'talking head' icon - you can see it on the users manual cover. looks like they changed it here. you can't get the talking head dude anymore so it's kind of a thing. UPDATE: if you look at the '06 accessories catalog page I posted earlier in the thread, it has the same speaker looking icon on it.


by the way the part number in this pic is quite useful - google it

 

So are you saying the $250 kit needs another $300 part (plus the armrest) to be functional?

 

Hi Eric

Saw your power folding mirror post - next on the list if I keep this car, with OEM switch

UPDATED RESPONSE: ECS replaced the kit at their expense with another one that DID include the ULF module. So there are NO additional parts needed to install the universal handsfree kit.

BTW, in all fairness the armrest is either already on the car or not. If it wasn't installed then an owner is better off getting a different bluetooth kit.

 

.

 

Checkmate was trying to integrate the OEM switch, but ended up with engine issues and never completed it. Would be interesting to make that work.
Thanks for the update on the bluetooth.

 

I shipped the original kit back to ECS. While I'm waiting for the replacement I thought I'd describe how the phone features will work with an iPhone 4/4s. I've also added an overview of some key bluetooth information you should know so that you can understand how your phone connects to the car.

BLUETOOTH "PROFILE" OVERVIEW
The bluetooth protocol defines several "profiles" that describe how functions are supposed to work between your phone and the car (or any other bluetooth device you're connecting your phone to).

For a bluetooth connection to work properly, both devices on a bluetooth connection must support the same version or higher of the profile that's to be used.

There's a great article on the Crutchfield website about this stuff. You can also check out Wikipedia for more info about bluetooth profiles.

Bluetooth Phone Profiles
Bluetooth Hands-Free Profile (HFP) is what defines phone call support
Bluetooth Object Push Profile (OPP) and Phone Book Access Profile (PBAP) specifies how to access contacts over Bluetooth
There's also Bluetooth Message Access Profile (MAP) which provides remote text message display
Unfortunately the ULF does not support MAP, only HFP and some type of phone book access over bluetooth. So for simplicity let's call HFAP+OPP+PBAP "Bluetooth Phone" from now on.

Bluetooth Music Profiles
Bluetooth Advanced Audio Distribution Profile (A2DP) supports audio streaming
Bluetooth Audio/Video Remote Control Profile (AVRCP) supports stream control. AVRCP 1.3 and higher also supports ID3 tags!!
There is also a way to send images over bluetooth, but we won't talk about that here
So you need both A2DP and AVRCP (1.3 or higher) to support music over a bluetooth connection with ID3 tags (we can call this combination of profiles "Bluetooth Music")

UPDATE: for those of you using iPhones, there's an excellent Apple bluetooth support article that describes what the phone supports in detail. Early iPhone bluetooth support was pretty limited, but that's definitely NOT the case anymore.

CRADLE/SNAP-IN FUNCTION
Please keep in mind that all this cradle / snap-in stuff was originally designed for the R53, E46 etc platforms before the original iPhone was released in mid 2007. You can get iPhone 4 / 4s snap-ins, but afaik that's about it for these cars at the moment. Keep in mind the cradle and snap-in were designed for phone service only. Mods are needed to support music too.

UPDATE: these snap-ins are really hard to find in the US. eBay is your friend here, but most of the snap-ins that are available are in the UK and the sellers refuse to ship to the US. $80 seems to be a pretty typical sale price.

The factory universal hands free kit I'm installing here works with the MFSW, adds a microphone next to the sunroof switch, provides telephone audio through the car speakers and includes voice recognition support too. The R/T button on the MFSW lets you pick phone contacts, which display on the radio screen. Finally if you have the nav unit you can access your phone's address book in a page view.

The main function of the OEM phone cradle and snap-in is to charge your phone and connect to the car's antenna. I'm not 100% certain that iPhone's antenna is enhanced by an an E46/R53 era cradle, though I have seen some posts from iPhone users that confirm it does. Older Nokia, Siemens, Moto and Sony Ericsson "feature phones" had an antenna connector on the back of the phone that you could attach an external antenna to. Newer generation cars and snap-ins do definitely improve reception by providing some antenna pickups in the phone cradle.

 

REWRITE OF THIS POST IN PROCESS

If you're reading this OEM bluetooth retrofit guide, you're probably using the OEM head unit and want to keep things that way (I know I do). I will specifically avoid talking about aftermarket head units here. Plenty of info out there for that.

Since these cars were designed before smartphone music/audio streaming support became popular, we need to add this capability in. If you think about this a bit we're basically talking about a 3rd category of music and other recorded audio sources in the car now:

Category 1) broadcast radio and DAB services like Sirius/XM in the US (OEM receiver available)
Category 2) in car devices for recorded audio - CD/MP3-CD changer, iPod, USB device
Category 3) recorded (MP3/AAC/FLAC files) and streamed audio from your smartphone (Pandora, Spotify, and audio prompts like Siri and Nav)

I'll cover each of these cases below, describing what we can do to update them and make sure they work well with an OEM bluetooth phone cradle setup.

KEY OEM INTEGRATION CONSIDERATIONS
- no mods to the car's wiring harness that can't be reversed later (so plug and play install)
- use the radio/nav display for text whenever possible, just like ULF for phone functions
- use the MFSW buttons (volume up/down, track select) and radio preset buttons
- nav specific (does it take advantage of the nav display)

KEY PHONE CONSIDERATIONS
- using a phone snap-in
- no snap-in, just a generic "tray" in the cradle and phone specific connector going to the phone
more detail on this later in the post.

CATEGORY 1 MUSIC OPTIONS (Just the Head Unit)
The OEM head unit handles category 1 very well. If you don't have the Boost V.3 radio I would consider upgrading to that. eBay is your friend here.
Sound/speakers/amps are a different topic altogether. Definitely not covered in this post.

CATEGORY 2 MUSIC OPTIONS (Dedicated Music Device)
You probably have a setup for category 2 in your R53 already - a factory iPod interface, maybe the CD/MP3-CD Changer. maybe you added the factory aux-in cable with a headphone jack in the glovebox, and you've plugged some other music device into it. Are you still using these things?

If your "category 2" music device supports bluetooth (newer iPod for example), bluetooth music streaming support would be a nice addition. you could move the device around or even install it somewhere else in the car that's more accessible or convenient. Since the bluetooth device will need power, we can look at both charging+streaming here.

CATEGORY 3 MUSIC OPTIONS (SmartPhone Music)
- Maybe you want your smartphone to be your one device for everything - phone, recorded/stored music, streaming apps (and a phone of course). You probably use it for nav too, with voice directions.
- Mixed use (probably most of us). I think over time category 2 and 3 become very phone centric.

So we can consider all these things as we look at alternatives.

THE CD CHANGER INTERFACE - KEY TO OEM INTEGRATION OPTIONS
BMW has a "media network" in the R50/R52/R53 era vehicles based on a protocol called iBus. It's also used on other BMWs of that era including the E39 5 series and E46 3 series. It's the media iBus that let's us add cool things like music text display and mfsw controls without losing the factory radio.

This iBus network connects several of the "non safety impacting" electronic modules in the car together. The safety critical modules like the engine management computer, ABS module etc have their own separate iBus based network you and your BMW/MINI mechanic can tap into

iBus is a low speed serial interface that uses a couple of wires that are twisted together. It runs all over the car to the various media modules. If you've ever snooped around the wiring you may have noticed a WS/RT/GE wire (white wire with red stripe and yellow dot). This is an iBus connection. These modules send messages to each other. If you connect to this network with your own module you can send commands like button presses and text to display, monitor traffic - all kinds of cool stuff.

a CD Changer Adapter (or CD Changer Interface) is basically a black box you can buy that (at a minimum) pretends to be a cd changer to the rest of the iBus devices. They'll have an iBus connector on them and connectors for whatever device you want to use (iPod, maybe a USB storage device or phone, other connections, possibly bluetooth...). Some of them can do quite a bit more than that, like log data on the iBus, display info about the car, etc. What we need is a box that meets all the requirements we presented earlier.

FINDING A BOX WITH BLUETOOTH MUSIC SUPPORT, BUT NOT PHONE (OR USING BOX FOR MUSIC ONLY)
There are many 3rd party solutions out there that include Bluetooth support. Most of them provide it for both phone and music, which is a problem. What we need it the Bluetooth Music support only. We have two options:

- Pair with the device for music only (iPhones and iPod Touches will not let you do this, but some Android phones can)
- Find a device that only does Bluetooth Music, not Bluetooth Phone

There doesn't seem to be alot out there with this separation of BT profiles, so the way to go seems to be a "no bluetooth" music focused interface box, and adding a separate Bluetooth Music adapter (dongle) to same.

This means is that your phone will need to pair to the OEM bluetooth ULF for phone service (Bluetooth Phone), and a separate bluetooth interface for music (Bluetooth Music).

BLUETOOTH MUSIC ADAPTER OPTIONS
With any Bluetooth Music setup, we will want the following
- devices should auto-pair / connect when the car is powered up.
- phone interrupt (inbound or outbound call) should mute the adapter (the OEM headunit and ULF should cover this)
- A2DP support (latest version should provide as good or better audio quality than the AUX input)
- AVRCP profile V1.3 support or higher (only needed for ID3 tags when the bluetooth music adapter is connected in a way that lets you pass that info to the OEM headunit - see next)

There are 2 ways to attach a bluetooth music adapter, each with different limitations
BT Music adapter on OEM radio's aux input
- MFSW volume controls work
- MFSW track controls do not work (the aux input doesn't have a way to let the music adapter know a button was pressed)
- No text display (the aux input can only send audio, not track info to the head unit)
considerations
- Needs it's own USB power source
- Can be mounted hidden in the glove box or console, but you do need occasional access to any pairing button the dongle may have
- You will need to navigate your music/audio from the device
- You will only hear audio when your headunit is set to AUX, so things like Nav prompts from your smartphone won't be audible if you're listening to radio, cd etc.

30 pin BT Music adapter plugged into the 30 pin iPod connector on the CD Changer adapter
- Both the MFSW volume and track controls work (VERIFIED)
- No text display (yet)*
* the dongle would have to emulate an iPod/iPhone somehow and send AVRCP 1.3 id3 tag data to the cd changer adapter. I have not found a CD Changer adapter+Bluetooth Music dongle combination (or combination bluetooth music+cd changer adapter) that can do this
considerations
The cd changer adapter will power the dongle

TEXT DISPLAY INTEGRATION
Text display for phone info on the radio is handled by the ULF so we're covered there (PHONE prompt, number display etc). Text display for music is not. If you're going to your music device to surf around while driving that's clearly not a safe thing to do.

If you have a limited recorded music library in your car and are ok with no text display, but still want to "stay OEM", just leave that iPod interface where it is, create your 5 playlists and motor on. The rest of us must have text music display (playlist/artist/album/song). Implications:
- rules out the original iPod interface adapter and alot of lower cost options out there as well (BSW Soundplicity, Denison GatewayLite...)**.
- forces use of a cd-changer adapter box that supports text (Intravee II, Dension, there are others)
we can't choose the adapter box just on this alone though

** The newer "low cost adapters" are a bit better then the original iPod adapter, but not much. While true you can nav music from the device with them, the only real problem they solve is powering newer iOS devices. That can be done at lower cost by getting a 30 pin iPod power adapter for your existing OEM iPod interface

MFSW CONTROLS INTEGRATION
If you have an MFSW the ULF works with it perfectly, so phone support is all set. Music is a different issue though. We need to navigate the music source via the track buttons (and maybe the radio preset buttons too). we also want the volume controls on the steering wheel to work.
- category 1 music is covered by the OEM radio
- category 2 and 3 music sources require a cd changer adapter box for the MFSW controls to work.

USB
Power: Having a USB outlet accesible for power is pretty key. Lots of inexpensive lighter socket adapter out there, or just wire one up
Category 2 Music Devices: A USB flash drive can store quite a bit of music and eliminates the need for an iPod as well
USB Interface Support: Many of the cd changer adapter boxes support USB storage devices directly, with text display. You will want this if you aren't using an iPhone and/or are planning to have a flash drive in the car for music.

SUPPORTING SMARTPHONE + ONE OR MORE "CATEGORY 2" DEVICES WITH THE SAME CD-CHANGER INTERFACE BOX
There are some scenarios out there where you want to have more than 1 device going through your cd changer interface box
- you're keeping an old school mp3 cd-changer with text support in the car
- you have a nav display and want to play ipod video on it using a dedicated device (when it's legal and safe to do so)
- you have an old iPod that you keep in the car - maybe even two of them personalized for different people
In all of these cases you will need a switch of some sort. Which kind depends on the cd changer adapter you're using.

MORE ON THE PHONE SCENARIOS
using an iPhone 4/4S with a snap-in and OEM cradle
- full access to the phone screen and home buttons
- cradle charges your phone
- no access to the headphone jack
- you can't play music/audio from the phone's 30 pin connector without modifying the cradle harness, because the phone's 30 pin connector is connected to the car via the BMW harness, which routes audio from the phone back to the ULF. need to verify this behavior more info on the cradle/snap-in mod follows.

using a generic cradle - no snap-in, or phone is loose in the car
- iPhone5, Android etc scenario (or any smartphone really)
- phone is charged via a cable which is coming from a cd changer adapter compatible with that phone
- The headphone connector on the phone can be accessed
This definitely works and provides all the functionality we're looking for. it's just not as elegant as a snap-in.

iPhone 5 specific considerations
- there is an iPhone 5 snap-in now for more modern BMW platform cars, but it is stupidly expensive and not compatible with these cars
- you will at a minimum want a lightning to 30 pin adapter cable from Apple to connect up your phone to your cd changer adapter's 30 pin iPhone interface

iPhone/iPod charging considerations
- you may need a 30 pin charging adapter for your 30 pin iPhone/iPod interface, depending on the type interface box you are using. You just connect it between the phone and the adapter interface cable. If you plug in your phone or iPod and it's not charging, you probably need the charging adapter.

SNAP-IN/CRADLE MOD FOR MUSIC SUPPORT
this is pending verification it's really needed (though I'm almost certain it is) - the "right" BT dongle on the cd-changer adapter's 30 pin ipod interface may eliminate the need for this. I haven't seen anyone succeed yet at making this work WITH text display and full mfsw controls though. the mfsw controls will work but not the text, since you need AVRCP 1.3 or later on the bluetooth for it to send ID3 text info.

When the phone's in the cradle, if you want to get music/audio from the phone's 30 pin connector you need to modify the wiring to route some of the 30 pin connector wires to whatever cd-changer interface adapter you plan to use. this can be done without cutting the harness by finding a 30 pin connector y cable and modifying the snap-in to accommodate it.

CCFJ1 modded his cradle+snap-in by gutting it, taking the OEM snap-in connector and plugging a 30 pin extension cable to it. This let him connect the 30 pin snap-in connector+a 30 pin charging adapter to his Intravee+Alpine cd-changer adapter. There is a demo video later in this post that shows everything installed and functioning in an E46.

SNAP-IN/CRADLE MOD FOR OTHER PHONES
Definitely possible. I'll post some links to examples.

 

REWRITE OF THIS POST IN PROCESS


CD CHANGER ADAPTER BOX OPTIONS
So with all the criteria above in mind, there are a few options that pass muster. There may be more. This is why I took the time to write all the stuff above. We can go back and look at the requirements and assess. If your favorite device isn't here I either don't know about it or it doesn't meet the criteria above.

Dension iGateway (iPod/iPhone support)
Dension 300 (same, adds USB)


Grom USB2P

Intravee II + Alpine KCA420i (iPod support, no USB, general purpose iBus interface, active development)

What about the DICE MediaBridge and other DICE stuff?
The Dice MediaBridge looks pretty good for us on paper. It really does. I've stayed clear of the DICE stuff like MediaBridge though for several reasons.
- There is a ton of negative info out there about the interface including opinions from users that are quite knowledgeable. Check this thread for one of many examples
- Reliabiity issues - lots of stories about needing to reset the unit regularly
- Cost
- Functionality
- Audiovox is now the exclusive distributor. Maybe not a negative but it just adds more complications to DICE's ability to clean things up.

So I haven't tried the MediaBridge unfortunately, so I can't speak from personal experience. If there'a die hard Dice expert out there that wants to set me straight, please do. Heck send me an eval unit and I'll check it out. I'll update this post accordingly.

BLUETOOTH MUSIC ADAPTER/DONGLE OPTIONS
Miccus for aux-in - will not support text

TBD 30 pin adapter. Have tried several, but none send text to the 30 pin connector.

Demo videos
(1) Intravee interface with BMW Business / Boost radio. Look very closely at the radio screen as there's alot going on including iPod/iPhone AND CD Changer support (normally you have to lose the MP3 changer to get the iPod interface). You'll also see some fairly sophisticated music search capability.

(2) CCFJ1's modified iPhone 4/4s cradle with BT phone AND music support. Also shows the MkIV nav interface for music/playlist info. I believe this nav unit is identical to the one in the R53. It's what I have on my M3

(3) Here's a very old video showing Intravee on an R53 mini with nav. pretty cr@ppy unfortunately but if you look closely you'll see the interface is identical to the MkIV nav video above

One more comment if you're old school and for some reason want to retain a CD/MP3 changer - as shown on the Business CD intravee video you CAN leave an existing CD/MP3 CD changer in place and use an iPod/iPhone cd changer emulation interface. It would need to be an Alpine CD changer though (like an CHA-S634 which was very popular with BMW owners and still available on ebay), and you would need an Alpine KCA-410c AInet interface box (or something called an Intravee Switch) in addition to the KCA-420i iPod interface.

I'll be providing more info on this including links and pics.

3rd party cd changer interface adapter without text support (bsw, several others)

for each option:
-install considerations
-how/when used (which category above)
-tradeoffs
-how it interacts with factory OEM bluetooth (e.g., incoming call, placing a call)

 

I've got Nav and the Intravee II and LOVE it for music. Don't really use my phone in the car much, but like the idea of the OEM BT.

 

Excellent!!! please post a pic.... the Intravee really takes great advantage of the Nav UI. I know on the BMWs it also controls other features - things like 3 blink flashing, window controls... not sure if RichardP has done anything like that for the R53.

 

Here is the thread. I don't think it does any of the extra goodies on the MINI.

 

Subscribed.

 

thanks joylove. hope it's informative

ECS has shipped the replacement OEM R53 universal handsfree kit. will update once I have more info - probably friday or monday

 

Thanks Eric. There's some good Intravee info there, but the links needs to be updated. Bimmernav doesn't distribute Intravee anymore - you have to order from toysinyourcar.com in the UK. You can surf to http://www.intravee.com and it will redirect you to the right page.

Also please note that the original designer Simon passed away late 2012, and the intravention.co.uk website is not in operation anymore. RichardP is still managing the Intravee product though:

Full Intravee history
Intravee support info including user guides and latest firmware
New Intravee forum location

This is a pretty amazing example of an advanced Intravee install from ccfj1 in the UK. This is the same user that modded his iPhone4 phone cradle to support Intravee music+charging while using the factory bluetooth. On the M3 the Intravee box really acts like a general purpose iBus interface. It can datalog, modify flasher/blinker behavior, emulate the BMW factory DSP unit... I believe RichardP worked the last feature. Hopefully some of these kinds of extras will make it to the R53s too.

 

great pic of the Intravee installed in an R53, from the Intravee R53 thread that Eric posted. This particular car doesn't have the hk amp, so other arrangements needed for those cars. It goes on the cd changer interface. You can see the Alpine KCA-420i iPod interface adapter there too. The Intravee talks iBus to the car, and AI-Net to the Alpine interface box.

EDIT PIC GONE SADLY


Here's my current temporary setup - a BSW iPod/iPhone adapter. nice, simple, low cost setup


Box on the left is the stock HK amp. You can see the cd changer wiring right below it. most of the R53s had this wiring in place, just taped up and sitting in the position shown. The BSW adapter provides a 30 pin cable to the console, MFSW button control for track selection and volume - no music info on the OEM radio. I'll be dropping this for option (d) described earlier (OEM aux input + hidden a2dp adapter). It leaves the cd changer (iBus+audio) interface in the right rear hatch unused and available for an Intravee or something else down the road. It also opens up the possibility of just leaving the phone snap-in unmodified, since there's no need to plug the 30 pin connector to the phone.