Retrofit bluetooth on E85, anyone?

[Mangozac]

Yeah and in fact there's a whole steering column top trim with mic attached going on eBay ATM, but at least to begin with I'd rather just stick with the stock mic location.

At this point though it all hinges on the car being prewired and being able to track down a later gen ULF at a decent price. Will keep this thread updated.

[Mangozac]

Woohoo I'm prewired!

After peeling back the carpet I found the ULF mounting bracket. I unscrewed that and found the bit multipin connector and the bluetooth antenna connector. So from what I can tell I need the following:

1. ULF module preferably gen 8+ if I want voice commands
2. Bluetooth antenna (these are cheap only around $30)
3. Microphone

The instructions on Bimernav talk about the "eject box" which best I can tell is the lockable compartment behind the seats. I don't want to do all the phone snap-in adapter stuff so I'll have to find out which two pins to wire the pairing button to...

My multifunction retrofit kit for the steering wheel is on its way so I'm getting excited!

[srhutch]

I have a BT loom and pairing button, will dig it out later and tell you what you need, but from memory I think there will be a plug sitting there just for the button

[Mangozac]

That would be fantastic if you could. Yeah from what I can tell there will be a socket underneath where the CD changed mounts (if fitted), into which normally the snap-in adaptor setup connects. So I assume the pairing button just needs to wire into the appropriate pins from that.

Is the pairing button you have a proper one for the Z4? If so could I bother you for a part number?

[cj10jeeper]

That's great and will make alife a lot easier, although I expect you'll have a few twists and turns as you try to figure out what connects to what.

The pairing button I used is just a momentary on switch that I located under the coin holder. Saved messing about with wiring in the oem location.

[srhutch]

Pins 1 and 2 are the ones that have the button connected to them.

[Mangozac]

That's great and will make alife a lot easier, although I expect you'll have a few twists and turns as you try to figure out what connects to what.

Definitely!

The pairing button I used is just a momentary on switch that I located under the coin holder. Saved messing about with wiring in the oem location.

Pins 1 and 2 are the ones that have the button connected to them.

Cool thanks guys. Yeah I'll just stash a pushbutton switch somewhere (probably under the coin holder too). In even better news I just tracked down a guy on another forum who is selling a 6th gen ULF with the little pairing button harness for a very good price. Just waiting to hear if he still has it and will ship to Oz. If that's the case this could be happening sooner rather than later!

Oh and this guy claims that he has full voice recognition on this 6th gen as well, disputing the fact I've read on a few places that it was only available from 8th gen onwards. It seems that there two versions: one that is labelled just ULF and the other labelled "ULF MIT SES", the latter having voice recognition. It seems like just a difference in software...

Finally, is there an instruction document from BMW detailing installation of the bluetooth in an E85? Does anyone have a copy they could send me?

[srhutch]

All you need is here

http://www.bimmernav.com/bmw_Z_series_b ... rofit.html

[cj10jeeper]

In terms of the older generation ULF's also be aware that they tend to pair to less of e newer phones.

6 was launched iirc before the iPhone even hit the Market.

It's a bit of a gamble what pairs to what, but I'd hold out for later than a '6'

[Mangozac]

All you need is here http://www.bimmernav.com/bmw_Z_series_b ... rofit.html

Yeah I saw that, I was just hoping for something more "official"

In terms of the older generation ULF's also be aware that they tend to pair to less of e newer phones.
6 was launched iirc before the iPhone even hit the Market.
It's a bit of a gamble what pairs to what, but I'd hold out for later than a '6'

As an electronic engineer myself, I just can't understand all of the luck involved with getting a bluetooth link to work. I mean it's supposed to be a standardised system so after 17 years of the bluetooth system existing (according to Wikipedia Ericsson created it in 1994) why on earth are companies inventing devices that may or may not work with other devices? And shouldn't newer phones be backward compatible with earlier versions of the standard? It's crazy!

Sorry about that little rant - I don't expect anyone here will be able to answer it. The reality of the real possibility that I could go to all of this trouble and then not have it work with my phone just hit me. Additionally I may be upgrading phones in the next couple of months (definitely not to an iPhone though), requiring me to throw the bluetooth dice again.

I'll see what the story is with this 6th gen, otherwise will keep an eye out for an 8+.

[Mangozac]

OK here's the latest on the ULF front:

That 6th gen unit I inquired about had been sold unfortunately.

Instead however I inquired with the supplier I'm buying the multifunction wheel retrofit kit from and he has agreed to sell me a new 13th gen ULF for $450. Considering that the 13th gen units listed on eBay are in excess of $600 I'm going to jump on this. Plus it's only $125 more than the 6th gen unit mentioned above. So I think I'm onto a winner.

The more I read then the simpler this should be. It seems that a lot of the older generation ULFs that support voice recognition were supplied from the factory with it disabled (so it would have to be enabled by a dealer or Navcoder software), however from what I've read the later generations seem to have it enabled by default.