How to Retrofit a Bluetooth TCU to your car

Originally Posted by AceFX

Hi StuartJohn24,

Yes you can achieve Full Bluetooth functionality in your car but you need to change the TCU.
My car is a march 2003, DE78215, and I have successfully replaced the original TCU, which would be the same as your one now, with the facelift Bluetooth version TCU.
I did not try Bluetooth with my pre-facelift (original MMI). One of the first things I replaced in my car was the MMI with the facelift one.....more colours, better graphics and faster processing.
So, if your inclined, it can all be done.
If you need help with the diagrams just let me know and I will help as much as I can.
The ringtone is much better in the car too with the Bluetooth set up by the way......

Ace

Hi Ace,

Thanks very much for the reply, thats great news!

I will take the panel off and see which pins in the connector are occupied so i know which diagram i should be looking at!

I understand I will need a bluetooth antenna fitted under the arm rest that is wired directly to the new TCU, is that correct? does the TCU need any coding itself? or is it pretty much plug and play? (with the exception of the MMI coding of course).

One last thing! im sure you have covered this before so I apologise in advance!, exactly what software and interface are you using to code the MMI? I may have looked it up before and it was pretty expensive, can the same coding be done with NCS expert?

Thanks again!

let me know what your TCU is, take a photo or tell me the part number......photo is best though so I can actually see what you have.

BTW , it's not a longer TCU, it's the same length, it's just narrower, which gives the illusion that it is longer. It fits on exactly the same bracket. The bracket even has the mounts on it for either TCU, the fat one or the skinny one.

Ace

Originally Posted by stuartjohn24

can the same coding be done with NCS expert?

Thanks again!

Yes. Read the module (MMI in this case) with NCS expert and you get the NETTODAT.TRC file which contain the command lines Ace is referring to.

You can modify the hex value on line 3002 as per Ace's guide and save the file as NETTODAT.MAN then code the MMI using the basic functions/coapiCodeSgByNettoDATA Type "NETTODAT.MAN".

Hey Stuartjohn24,

I haven't installed a Bluetooth antenna yet under my centre console.... the old TCU had two antennas plugged into it. One was for GSM and the other was for WDCT. I plugged those two into the new TCU and presto, the Bluetooth is working off the WDCT antenna which is on the rear parcel shelf. Of course this is only temporary until I install the correct antenna under the centre console....... but it is working now as you have seen in my videos.

The TCU does not need any coding other than changing the VIN in it to match your car. I did this using Dashsoft.

The facelift MMI will give you the access you need to the Bluetooth Menu. I did not try this on a pre-facelift MMI as I was not interested. I wanted the facelift MMI with more colours, better graphics and faster processing. Remember the MMI is the 'Brains' of the system.

Ace

Hi politby,

Thanks for that, I will read the MMI this weekend and have a look. Im using INPA and DIS on my macbook using a virtual machine inside a virtual machine which is pretty slow! So im setting up a old computer in the garage at the moment purely for diagnostics etc...

Ace, do you have a list of hex values for the MMI that you know what they do? i.e. enable the various different options that I will need to program when I upgrade the MMI?

I will take a picture of the unit this weekend, The wiring sounds simple just need to find the diagrams for my unit and the new one i will be fitting and match the connections up.

Thanks again

Stuart

Originally Posted by AceFX

Hey Stuartjohn24,

I haven't installed a Bluetooth antenna yet under my centre console.... the old TCU had two antennas plugged into it. One was for GSM and the other was for WDCT. I plugged those two into the new TCU and presto, the Bluetooth is working off the WDCT antenna which is on the rear parcel shelf. Of course this is only temporary until I install the correct antenna under the centre console....... but it is working now as you have seen in my videos.

The TCU does not need any coding other than changing the VIN in it to match your car. I did this using Dashsoft.

The facelift MMI will give you the access you need to the Bluetooth Menu. I did not try this on a pre-facelift MMI as I was not interested. I wanted the facelift MMI with more colours, better graphics and faster processing. Remember the MMI is the 'Brains' of the system.

Ace

Hi Ace,

Oh I see, luckily I may be able to do the same then!

I have a feeling the old MMI wont have the option to enable the bluetooth function, in which case I will need to upgrade this first.

I already have the upgraded facelift nav computer (navi03) which is loads better than the original navi01! and the interface is much better!. Again i need to change the VIN on this unit because the BMW assist dosent work and I cannot seem to upgrade the unit to the latest software... thats another problem anyway!

This dashsoft does all the required coding you need to retrofit the newer modules? can the software work with different interface cables?

Thanks

Stuart

Ace papers an I are stuck here were trying to get all the pin correct for his TCU PLEASE HELP!

Hey ACE I sent you a message .

I think you gave me the wrong wiring information ???
Here is a pic of my TCU .
Please get back to me ASAP , AS you can see my wiring is all taken apart

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Bimmer App

for some reason the pic's showed upside down ???
& my phone is tripping GRRRRRRRRRRR

Give me a minute to check it out...I am at Uni at the moment doing a Presentation....

Wow Good luck!

Did your antennas plug into a compensator rather than the TCU?
How many handsets were in your car?
Was there only one in the front drawer?

If you have a facelift Tcu its just a simple coding change. Even if you don't have dashsoft

Originally Posted by AceFX

Did your antennas plug into a compensator rather than the TCU?
How many handsets were in your car?
Was there only one in the front drawer?

I have only 1 handset in the front center console like I told you before .
there are no Antenna plugs on my TCU as you can see in the pic's .

????

Originally Posted by MakaveliFaison

If you have a facelift Tcu its just a simple coding change. Even if you don't have dashsoft

I hope i've got facelift TCU)

Ace,

Below is the NETTODAT file (from NCS Expert) listing the command lines from the MMIGT on my car:

B 00300100,0010,01,00,16,20,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00
B 00300200,0010,3F,2A,28,48,FB,45,3D,D0,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00
B 00301000,0010,C8,00,20,00,00,00,00,BD,F0,22,21,55,50,52,55,7F
B 00310000,0010,00,00,03,00,16,03,02,BC,64,05,DC,64,0B,B8,64,13
B 00310010,0010,88,64,FF,FF,FF,FF,FF,FF,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00
B 00310200,0001,55
B 00310300,0002,1A,1A

On line 3002 I changed the "7F" to "3F" which I think is what you did in Dashsoft. Does this look familiar?

I have tried to do the coding but NCS Expert crashes with a general protection fault when I try the coding. I need to find out why, maybe the MMI does not support nettodat coding.

Unfortunately I have to run NCS Expert in a VM as I don't have a native 32-bit Win7 or XP system.

Can someone else who has NCS Expert try this?

Hey Paper, I am working on it now. Until I saw your pic of your TCU I had no idea that your antennas did not plug into your TCU

Hey Politby,
Command line 3002 ASCII code 7, which in that command line you have sent me is 3D. Change 3D to 3F.
Ignore 00300200, 0010, then start counting each pair....so the one that is 3F is the first pair, 2A is the second pair, 28 is the third pair and so forth.
There is a total of 16 pairs in command line 3002.

Ace

Originally Posted by AceFX

Hey Politby,
Command line 3002 ASCII code 7, which in that command line you have sent me is 3D. Change 3D to 3F.
Ignore 00300200, 0010, then start counting each pair....so the one that is 3F is the first pair, 2A is the second pair, 28 is the third pair and so forth.
There is a total of 16 pairs in command line 3002.

Ace

Thanks, I was wondering if you meant the actual decimal 7 or the hex value. Will change and try again. Guess I will have to setup an XP partition to run this Stone Age software from...

Originally Posted by Rostman

I hope i've got facelift TCU)

Now wouldn't it be swell if someone could tell us the definition of a "facelift TCU".

There are so many TCU part numbers in the BMW listings that it makes my brain hurt...

Okay, while working on creating a 32-bit Win7 partition so I can run NCS Expert natively, I made a little dry run.

I used Revtor's NCSdummy tool to compare the NETTODAT.TRC files before and after the change on command line 3002. That's a handy function to find out what a hex code change in the nettodat file will result in the human "readable" parameter file:

Generated with NCS Dummy version 0.5.0.5 - copyright © 2011 revtor software


Output       : Trace Differences
Chassis      : E65 (E65,E66,E67,E68)
Module       : MMI_E65.C03
Trace file 1 : "C:\NCSEXPER\WORK\NETTODAT.TRC" (Nettodata)
Trace file 2 : "C:\NCSEXPER\WORK\NETTODAT2.TRC" (Nettodata)
Differences  : Yes


1   2   FUNCTION KEYWORD        FUNCTION KEYWORD TRANSLATION
            PARAMETER KEYWORD       PARAMETER KEYWORD TRANSLATION
        ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
        BLUETOOTH_HANDY         
*           nicht_aktiv             not active
    *       aktiv                   active

As you can see the parameter affected by the "3D" to "3F" change in the 7th hex pair is the BLUETOOTH_HANDY value which gets set to active. "Handy", of course, being the German word for cellphone.

Now, it's anybody´s guess why something this obvious has not been successfully attempted by anyone on the German 7-forum, but my hunch is that this simple coding change may not work on every pre-sep-06 facelift car because the TCU versions may not necessarily be timed with the facelift date (s).

And for those using NCS Expert this means that coding this can be done via the standard method so coding by way of NETTODAT is not necessary.

Good morning Politby.........it's got cold here now....no snow....but it's down to 16.7 C.

A facelift TCU...... I guess a TCU that has Bluetooth that was produced after March 2005. Facelift came into being from March 2005.
Previous phone systems used wireless phones and SIM cards......facelift went all Bluetooth from what I can work out.

That is great what you did with NCS....

Now there are different values you can use on the 7th Hex pair....... FF, F1, 11, 3D, 3F so far are ones I have worked out to use.

There are only 16 Hex pairs, yet there are many more than 16 options that you can change, add or delete in your MMI. So in some cases, different codes affect more than just one thing. It's just working them all out.
From what I can gather so far, some of the Hex Values work in pairs...like pair one is independent but pair five and six work together.... but I need to spend a little more time on this to confirm my findings.

Need to help PAPER now with his wiring.

Ace

Don't know what happened then but my post doubled up