Beiträge von TallTony

Well guys I have just received notification from YouTube that the video of me thrashing my car to 60mph in 6secs has qualified for Revenue Sharing Classic...... global recognition at last

view it here :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8FSDerBy5w

Approaching 200000 views it shows my car, not necessarily driven by me, being driven on an empty stretch of autobahn ;-). It is also the worlds highest rated search for "BMW 840"

Turns out that since I didnt put music to it, or add any BMW logos or such like, I qualify to have adverts placed on it, and therefore make some cash (probably 10p a year!) through the AdSense network.

Go on, have a look and click on the adverts as and when they appear. It'll cost you nothing.

Whats the betting that I bump this thread when the adverts actually do appear

thanks Revtor.

I really like this wheel. It does indeed have a much better grip that either of the previous wheels I've had. Bit of a job to modify the slip ring, but it can be done as I have shown.

TBH the paddles are a nice gimick, but when I have used they are fun

It's the bottom one of the two 6373 green relays that was faulty. Swapped with the other one and the work, although the high beam doesnt now, until I get a replacement.

s the title suggests, does anyone know where the fuse for the FTP flash bulbs is ? The sticker under the fuse box cover doesnt say, and they all seem intact anyway ?

Both flash lights dont work, and I have tested the bulbs, which do work.

The Main Beam does work, as do all other lights.

Cheers
Tony

Easy fix for the woeful lighting of the centre vent. Use a stronger light source.



That is a very bright 265k LED with resistor to work directly off 12v+.

Nice and clean looking. Cost about 40p.

On my light bar, the outer left and right strips have developed a slight brown tinge, due to ageing of the plastic, and this inhibits the light travel to the outer bits, but anyone who hasn't got that problem will have even better results than this.

I suspect wrapping the bar with reflective material will improve results. I will test that one day.

thankyou very much. Many cold sweats have been induced in doing it, but it's a hobby, so I enjoy it too.

here is short and totally unprofessional video of the cold boot sequence and a bit of playing around with both MF controls and touchscreen.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRDY0S9QW6Q

Music : Aphex Twin & Boards of Canada, FYI

Installed iBusRR.exe tonight and as a result we have FULLY functioning MF controls in my car

This is major step forward for the install as it removes total reliance on the touchscreen at a stroke. It could not be easier in the car now with these controls on the wheel :

Vol UP/DOWN, Track Scroll/Select, Mute, and also Screen Switching (Music/NAV/Home) ! Perfect.

Also added custom e31 silhouette boot screen (Inc matching Orange scrolling progress bar underneath), BMW iDrive splash screen, removal of blue welcome screen and automatic bootup of BMW iDrive clone software immediately at Startup. All this from complete cold start of PC in under 25secs (which is GOOD for winXP).

Feels very very 'Factory' now. I am a happy chap tonight

Timm : that description of iBus is the conclusion I had made with my own tests, but until you posted that I wasn't sure. Thanks for confirming.

I had the files.......

...they are installed... and as a result we have FULLY functioning MF controls in my car

This is major step forward for the install as it removes total reliance on the touchscreen at a stroke. It could not be easier in the car now with these controls on the wheel :

Vol UP/DOWN, Track Scroll/Select, Mute, and also Screen Switching (Music/NAV/Home) ! Perfect.

Also added custom e31 silhouette boot screen (Inc matching Orange scrolling progress bar underneath), BMW iDrive splash screen, removal of blue welcome screen and automatic bootup of BMW iDrive clone software immediately at Startup. All this from complete cold start of PC in under 25secs (which is GOOD for winXP).

Feels very very 'Factory' now. I am a happy chap tonight

(text copied into Work Log thread for completeness)

sadly I wont be employing MOD hardware in my system !

Mine will be similar to the mercedes version of visible IR as opposed to Thermal IR (deep deep pockets required for this).

Anyone see the Top Gear review of the 760 iL on Sunday ? This uses Thermal Imaging

BTW : Hooked up my MF wheel today. The PC is reading the ibus commands now, and have to configure it into RoadRunner FE now. I have the files......

Noggie, assuming you cant find the answer online, you could find out easily if you....

disconnect the batteries of both your cars. Remove both steering wheels, and then see if the e46 one fits the centre spline of your e31 (without slip ring). If it does then you can modify an e46 slip ring like mine, shave some of the plastic off from around the indicator stalk housing, and fit in the way I did. You will need to also make a small wiring connecter to fit into the 9 pin plug on the column side of the modded slip ring, and then connect the necessary e31 wires to that. I used a 10 pin (5 by 5) usb motherboard plug for £0.99.

If I can do this I'm anyone else can. Whilst I used a milling machine to modify the slip ring, I'm it could be done with just a 'dremel' tool.

best of luck

cheers guys for the largely positive feedback. Can't please everyone all the time, but I do a good job of pleasing myself when the mood takes me I'm not one to be told by BMW that they did the best job possible with every decision they ever made, and so where I see room for improvement, I will just get on an change it. They make cars for the masses, I have made a car for me.....

I will do a more comprehensive writeup of what is involved, although most of it is covered in a thread I started nestled away in the modifications section of the site, along with the carPC thingy.

The paddles work perfectly, as does the horn, and the multifunction buttons have power (they light up) to them and are wired upto the PC as of Friday last week, although I havent configured them into the OS yet. I do have the software for this, and it just needs a bit of time to concentrate on. TBH I was just happy to get it in a working nicely on Friday. Being able to adjust volume using buttons instead of the touchscreen will make life a little easier. Fatandre... you need buttons

Noggie, your car isnt compatible with the paddle shifters as I'm sure you know since it only the stepboxes that can be controlled this way, but I see no reason why you couldn'y modify a slip ring the way I did to get a similar non smg wheel to fit your car.

Timm, the pc covers all media applications, as well as any other function that a 2GHz WinXP pc can do. It's pretty powerful. I run a BMW iDrive simulation Front End to keep things looking Stock, although there are 1001 different skins I could use. the only thing I didnt like was the tempermental nature of PC bluetooth, so I use a motorola one for that. Sat Nav is an iDrive clone again. The thread over in the Mod section pretty much covers how it was done, and much more...

SteveP, I am most definitely not a 'very clever dude'..... more like a pathological tinkerer who uses the web for ideas and advice and puts them into practice in my own things. I do continue to surprise myself with what is possible with a little imagination/determination ! Anyone who thinks my car has deviated away from stock should see what I'm in the process of doing to my motorbike.....

The nay sayers will point out that I dont have 100% full functionality of the airbag, but still did my 12 year old airbag still provide protection ?

That is a decision that will put many off, and I respect their views.

So, the e31.1 beta project is nearing completion now, with only one major addition to follow. I said I'd do it, and I will...... Infra Red Nightvision .......

Well it's finally in and working. I love it and is a decent addition to my mish mash of an e31.

Thoroughly entertaining to use, brilliant modern feel to the wheel, and looks awesome.

just and image bump for anyone who sunscribed to this thread



MF controls are now top of my list.

I have one of these.... http://www.reslers.de/IBUS/install.html

which I'm told by the seller himself that I should connect a 1KOhm resistor across the red (12+) and white (ibus) wires from the MF unit. This is because my car does not have an ibus circuit and I want the pc to be fed the ibus packets directly from the wheel via the ressler interface.



Does 1KOhm sound right ? I have conflicting advice from someone else who has done this mod who stated 10K ohm would be the one to go for (unless it was a typo). Obvioulsy I have asked him for clarification, but had no reply as yet.

To add further confusion, looking at this (incredibly exciting) video of the MF unit sending ibus packet info.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trd6-5TT9O4

With just RED and BLUE connected to LR6 battery all MF button PCB LEDs light up (albeit dimly due to the 9v supply)

Connect an external 12v Led (with protection resistor) +ve wire to GREY and -ve wire to WHITE on MF loom....

Pressing MF buttons now (on lefthand side) produces a variety of pulses in the LED and looks like iBus signals.

Volume UP/Down = constant rate flashing
Track up = One Pulse ON, One Pulse during hold (if held) and One Pulse upon release
Track Down = as above
Speak = as above
R/T = One Pulse ON, nothing upon Hold or Release

All looks very Ibus-like....?? I assumed from this that GREY is the iBus wire and WHITE is a secondary GND ??

HOWEVER the WHITE one is supposed to be the ibus wire, which is confusing me since when the LED +ve is connected to the GREY and buttons pressed, you get the flashing lights (indicating some ibus info being sent).

(Note, if the -ve LED wire is connected to GND with the +ve wire to GREY as before then the LED lights up constantly. No amount of button pressing changes this.)

I provisionally conclude that the system works like this :

The Grey Cruise wire is constant live, and the Cruise buttons vary the power signal sent using preset resistors built into that circuit ?? Thoughts anyone ?

The White Ibus wire is a ground, and the reason why you need to connect a resistor between the Red (12+ve) and White (ibus) wire to get power flowing through the system ??

For the purpose of this test the power for the ibus GND effect is coming from the Cruise wire (grey).

When you press an Ibus button, such as Vol UP (constant flashing), the power grounds through the MF circuits, but the flow of the power is regulated by internal circuitry (temporarily powered by the power flowing to GND) that produces the different packet streams, such as the Flashing, or single pulses ?

These packet streams are then read by the interface and send to the PC using a USB connection.

I just about follow that lot, but would appreciate your thoughts before I proceed

Well, here it is fitted and working - in so much as the shifters, horn and self cancelling indicators. Wire loom is in place for the MF controls, but haven't gotten round to configuring that (job for another day).



Three little mods to the wheel and it has my stamp on it already !

Welcome to the e31 money pit You'll find loads of fixes and improvements you can do our dinosaurs in here !

Lovely colour. Hope it serves you well.

I've gotta say that looking at what you get, compared to other brake upgrades out there for the 8er, that is surprisingly good value. Given that you can pay upwards of £4 K for APs or Brembo Front Only assmeblies, and with this set you get rears upgraded to proper 4 pots over the crumby looking efforts on from stock.... well, you do the math

Decent after market discs, standard size, are £600 for 4. Stock 4 pot front calipers are £300 each, hoses £50, pads another £100, (I dont know the price of the rear calipers) and suddenly it doesnt seem expensive, considering what you get for the dosh.

Look forward to seeing someone take the plunge

tried and failed (miserably) to become a member of the after eight club

Looks like I'll be buried in mine now as i cannot imagine selling, and after all that's been done to it, anyone actually parting with cash to buy mine anyway...

Good luck with the sale though Seb, and cheers for raising the profile of them somewhat in your mag

but what does one do if you live in Sunny Blackpool

I can echo Revtors comments. I saw a post from you earlier this week and was amazed that I hadn't seen your website before. That it has only been up and running for 2 weeks explains that !

Good to have another persoin passionate about their e31 enough to contribute to the community with clear, detailed and free advice !

Welcome and hope you enjoy you 8 as much as we all do (have done)

very nice and welcome