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Digital Cluster

Specific discussion about the E89 2009 Z4 (sDrive35is, sDrive35i, sDrive30i, sDrive23i)
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B21
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Post by B21 » Sat Apr 29, 2023 4:17 pm

AnubisZed wrote: Sat Apr 29, 2023 7:35 am The installation and set-up video is now LIVE :thumbsup:
Just waiting for the full HD version to be processed by YouTube, but at least it's uploaded.....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQUNAHEufHc
Great video..slightly warming to it..looking forward to part deux :tumbleweed:
We choose to go to on with this endeavour at this time and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard..

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Post by Marcoose » Sat Apr 29, 2023 10:54 pm

What’s going to be in part deux ?
2016 35is, monoballs, camber plates, KWV3, PS4S, xHP, MHD, LFB pedal, flat bottom wheel, red indicators, black headlamps
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Post by AnubisZed » Sun Apr 30, 2023 9:57 am

B21 wrote: Sat Apr 29, 2023 4:17 pm Great video..slightly warming to it..looking forward to part deux :tumbleweed:
Marcoose wrote: Sat Apr 29, 2023 10:54 pm What’s going to be in part deux ?
I wouldn't get too excited about part 2 :rofl: It'll just be my thoughts on the cluster and how I'm getting on with it. I was originally going to include this in the first video, but decided to leave this just as a How-To and separate my thoughts. Hopfully I'll get this done this week :thumbsup: :driving:
Dave
2011, 23i, Grey with Red leather. 8)

My E89 YouTube channel - BMW Z4 Mods
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCttNBt ... UQnoEvKB2Q

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Post by Christopher72 » Sun Apr 30, 2023 2:33 pm

AnubisZed wrote: Sat Apr 29, 2023 7:35 am The installation and set-up video is now LIVE
Just waiting for the full HD version to be processed by YouTube, but at least it's uploaded.....
I wish for a review on that piney freshener that you have hanging from the mirror. How well does it keep the cabin fresh with the top down? Area of effect when windows are up vs down, etc. :roll: :P
Christopher
2011 E89 Sdrive35i - Deep Sea Blue, Beige Kansas Leather
'fits in progress - PDC, Cameras, Comfort Access, Respray/Correction - all queued for poor weather.
(9) E46 convertibles; (1) E39 540i; (2) E36 Z3 roadsters; (1) Pre-prod E36 Z3- all gone

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Post by Kevin » Sun Apr 30, 2023 2:43 pm

ProfCJJ wrote: Thu Nov 17, 2022 10:03 am Other questions worth asking: is it running Automotive Grade Linux, and what hardware/cpu is it running on?

I’ve been reading up on Linux in automotive applications and there are standards to do with “fail safe” etc - I wonder how much these standards have been adhered to??
AGL seems to be a specific open source project rather than a standard. You can read quite a lot from the sponsorship levels. There are three platinum level car manufacturers (who are probably driving the design goals and perhaps using AGL extensively) and a lot of component manufacturers at the bronze level (who are probably mostly following, and perhaps influencing the design), with a few at the intermediate levels.

The safety standards almost certainly apply to braking, engine management etc. systems rather than information systems (like the instrument cluster), except where they relate to the bus interactions [which should be isolated from the display logic, and probably always monitored rather than updated]. An instrument cluster is essentially a read-only application, and should be self-contained without any strong real-time
requirements (accurately displaying road speed is probably the most stringent requirement, but the regulations have to cover old-fashioned
needle dials - my mother's A30 used to bounce between about 25 and 35 when she was doing 30mph, depending on the state of the
cable and how worn the gearbox connector was :) I'm fairly sure even amateur Linux code would be better than that!).
There are hardware standards that should be followed (eg ASIL B) and you don't want the cluster to fail/reboot, but in normal use, the worst that
should normally happen is that you temporarily lose information about speed etc and need to pull over to restart the system.
Without knowing this particular panel, as a general rule, I'd expect conventional instrument panels to be less reliable than digital ones
at a hardware level (many cheap components that can fail independently and have unique applications, versus fairly standard processor and
display technology that is simply adapted to the automotive setting). The useful lifetime is a bit hard to predict. I'd expect the hardware to
be solid state, so the main risk would be the quality of the soldering, or maybe component failure.
The very worst scenario would involve replacing the failed cluster with the original one, or a new replacement.

For safety-related automotive software applications, there are other development standards that people follow, eg MISRA and AUTOSAR.
I've worked with people who have supported these. It's quite an interesting space. As you'd expect, avionics has even more stringent requirements (adding a comment to a single line of code requires the whole Airbus codebase to be recompiled and tested, and they have very strong real-time and software/hardware separation/replication requirements - they even use 3-core systems for redundancy).

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Post by AnubisZed » Sun Apr 30, 2023 4:11 pm

Christopher72 wrote: Sun Apr 30, 2023 2:33 pm I wish for a review on that piney freshener that you have hanging from the mirror. How well does it keep the cabin fresh with the top down? Area of effect when windows are up vs down, etc. :roll: :P
:driving: This air freshener is from a newly developed "OTM Freshener" range (OTM = Open Top Motoring!) specifically designed for convertibles.
It's got a built-in YGTBJ-212 chip inside it that automatically detects when the roof is lowered and thus increases the fragrance displacement in specific directions so that the occupants can smell the scent, but at the same time reducing directional flow so as to not waste it. It was based on the previous YGTBJ-200 chip which suffered some disappointing test runs where it increased its fragrance displacement in the wrong direction which caused other motorists behind the subject vehicle to be overpowered by the scent. This was very unfortunate as 2 people were hospitalised as a result!


And if you believe that load of %$* you'll believe anything :rofl:

Nah it's there just for when I'm driving with the roof up, it last quite a while actually, surprisingly :thumbsup:
Dave
2011, 23i, Grey with Red leather. 8)

My E89 YouTube channel - BMW Z4 Mods
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCttNBt ... UQnoEvKB2Q

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Post by Kevin » Sun Apr 30, 2023 5:03 pm

AnubisZed wrote: Sun Apr 30, 2023 4:11 pm :driving: This air freshener is from a newly developed "OTM Freshener" range (OTM = Open Top Motoring!) specifically designed for convertibles.
Sounds like a good marketing angle. I've heard worse :D

I'm going for the B&M "Inoffensive Odours" range, hidden in the sun visor. When I want the smell of fresh pine, I just have to lower the roof :) :)
(Nice thing about living in Scotland!!)

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Post by AnubisZed » Sat May 06, 2023 3:55 pm

A little update.

Firstly my 1 week review has been delayed, there are a few reasons for this, in no particular order...
It took more than a week to get the original installation video out :rofl:
I've found something out!!**
I'm going on holiday and now don't have time to complete it.
I've received a couple of questions after I did the initial filming that I'd like to include in it.

So it's going to be a one month review, not to worry though.

** I've found something out!... Well I've had a few people ask me about the car image. So you'll notice in the video that there wasn't one, although it was a setting. Well I've asked about this and it turns out that they are creating a E89 Z4 specific image that can be uploaded to the cluster and used. So I'm awaiting for that to be done and the arrival of the update USB cable that I didn't receive in the first place. So hopefully by the time I'm back off hoilday I'll have both of those so can film it and then get the review uploaded.

And update No/ 2 - Everything is still going all OK, no issues with the cluster at all :thumbsup:
Dave
2011, 23i, Grey with Red leather. 8)

My E89 YouTube channel - BMW Z4 Mods
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCttNBt ... UQnoEvKB2Q

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Post by Deepseaskateboard » Sat May 06, 2023 4:08 pm

Was an interesting video!

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Post by Marcoose » Sun May 07, 2023 1:41 am

What’s so specific about the USB cable ? Isn’t it universal ?
2016 35is, monoballs, camber plates, KWV3, PS4S, xHP, MHD, LFB pedal, flat bottom wheel, red indicators, black headlamps
Image

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Post by AnubisZed » Sun May 07, 2023 9:49 am

Marcoose wrote: Sun May 07, 2023 1:41 am What’s so specific about the USB cable ? Isn’t it universal ?
It's USB one end to a 4 pin Fakra HSD the other, and as I don't have a spare then I'm happy to wait. Like I mentioned in the video, mine was a pre production screen so that could be why it got left out, although it shouldn't have.
Dave
2011, 23i, Grey with Red leather. 8)

My E89 YouTube channel - BMW Z4 Mods
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCttNBt ... UQnoEvKB2Q

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Post by B21 » Tue May 16, 2023 1:02 pm

Discount price offered for the brave… :thumbsup:

https://acarmultimedia.com/product/new- ... -and-play/
We choose to go to on with this endeavour at this time and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard..

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Post by AnubisZed » Tue May 23, 2023 4:50 pm

UPDATE**

OK so I received the cable while I was away and also the update file.
File loaded very easily onto the cluster and we now have a few extra options....

Change to cluster theme sizes. Previously you could choose from E series or F series, this just basically moved the fuel tank and oil temp pictograms from inside the gauge to outside, but this is now lower than before. You now also have an E87 look, which is just the same as before with the same height.

On the left of the line below the digital MPH gauge you now have the correct colour band with an M logo on it.

Then you have the doors open pictogram in the centre. Different to the little red car on the far right that just shows both doors open, this is individual to which door or if the boot lid is open. In Sport+ theme this still appears in the centre but pushes the digital speed up a bit. It's on temporary.

Now to the car image.... This can be set to different colours, but the disappointment here is that it's a G29 and not an E89 :headbang: This appears in the centre of the screen between the speedo and rev counter, or to the left in Sport+ Theme.

EDIT** We now have the letters "BMW" on cluster screen startup and shutdown

I've attached some photos.
Attachments
Screenshot_20230521_151507_Gallery.jpg
Screenshot_20230521_151507_Gallery.jpg (89.96 KiB) Viewed 344 times
20230521_100502.jpg
20230521_100502.jpg (110.4 KiB) Viewed 344 times
Last edited by AnubisZed on Wed May 24, 2023 12:02 am, edited 2 times in total.
Dave
2011, 23i, Grey with Red leather. 8)

My E89 YouTube channel - BMW Z4 Mods
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCttNBt ... UQnoEvKB2Q

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Post by Marcoose » Tue May 23, 2023 6:03 pm

Brilliant update, Dave. Thank you.

ETA for fixing the image to an e89 ?
2016 35is, monoballs, camber plates, KWV3, PS4S, xHP, MHD, LFB pedal, flat bottom wheel, red indicators, black headlamps
Image

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Post by Christopher72 » Tue May 23, 2023 11:30 pm

Is it the angle or is the displayed image not level in the visible screen?

Looks like the 5k RPM bend is closer to the top than the 120mph bend... Asymmetry catches the eye.
Christopher
2011 E89 Sdrive35i - Deep Sea Blue, Beige Kansas Leather
'fits in progress - PDC, Cameras, Comfort Access, Respray/Correction - all queued for poor weather.
(9) E46 convertibles; (1) E39 540i; (2) E36 Z3 roadsters; (1) Pre-prod E36 Z3- all gone

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