[chrisnack]

Originally Posted by Mynoles1

Your knowledge of all of this is very impressive......

Ha thanks. Family of engineers I guess a few things have rubbed off. Even though I’m in IT/Sales.

[chrisnack]

Alright, excited to share an update. I kept thinking about the board and getting the 12v circuit correct from the mirrortap. I ended up staying up late last night working with a PCB designer and I now have a single board to handle everything.

Those are sent for production, and I should have them in a week or two.

So in terms of hooking up to the vehicle, you'll just have the 12v power wires, so mirrortap or hardwire, and then on the other side, you'll have the LED mount for the dash and the sensor.

I need to bench test the power, but it should handle the variable voltage in the car just fine, once i get the PCB in, then I can verify and hopefully no changes will be required.

So now I really need to get the LED dash mount sorted, as that's the last major component left to get to a finished product. I tried doing a clay mold of the dash so i could have something sitting on my desk here to work with, but that didn't work so well... Time will be a little tight this week, so might not get to it until the weekend.

That's all! Excited to share some more pics in a week or two!

[THATDONFC]

This is a great project! Are you still using the nano for controlling the LED?

[chrisnack]

Originally Posted by THATDONFC

This is a great project! Are you still using the nano for controlling the LED?

Sort of, the new board is a arduino clone, built to my spec. So I can run the same code easily, but the board was built for this project, if that makes sense. Has the 12v conversion built into the board to be able to hardwire into the car.

[THATDONFC]

Originally Posted by chrisnack

Sort of, the new board is a arduino clone, built to my spec. So I can run the same code easily, but the board was built for this project, if that makes sense. Has the 12v conversion built into the board to be able to hardwire into the car.

I think I get it. It's a PCB that works like an arduino and has a 12v-5v converter built in? Is the PCB something you designed or is it a modified version of something readily available?

[chrisnack]

Originally Posted by THATDONFC

I think I get it. It's a PCB that works like an arduino and has a 12v-5v converter built in? Is the PCB something you designed or is it a modified version of something readily available?

Correct, same chipset as the arduino. I designed it with some help.

[THATDONFC]

Originally Posted by chrisnack

Correct, same chipset as the arduino. I designed it with some help.

Amazing dedication right there! I love watching projects like these come to fruition. As someone who worked as a CAD designer and CNC machinist for 6 years, I especially appreciate the level of detail you're putting into this.

[chrisnack]

Originally Posted by THATDONFC

Amazing dedication right there! I love watching projects like these come to fruition. As someone who worked as a CAD designer and CNC machinist for 6 years, I especially appreciate the level of detail you're putting into this.

Thanks, i'm super picky, so i wanted to do it right or not do it at all I really didn't want to cobble together a bunch of random parts off Amazon if i could help it.

[Mynoles1]

Earlier, I believe, I mentioned having written a letter to the CEO. Today, I received a call from Logan at the BMWUSA HQ as a follow-up to my letter.

The usual pass-the-buck, "have you talked to the dealer", etc. She said she would escalate internally and let me know something by early next week - but not to get my hopes up of a quick solution. (no kidding, it's been going on since 2019)

She did ask if I had my windshield tinted which I do not. That may have helped a little bit, at least caused her a moment or two of pause. I am sure she was counting on my having a tinted windshield.

More to follow, hopefully, but certainly nothing as exciting as the project you have undertaken, chrisnack. It gets more interesting by the update.

Again, incredible.

[chrisnack]

I doubt BMW will fix it unfortunately and it would just be a software fix anyways (which is totally fine).

Oh well, I will have my stuff ready in a couple weeks hopefully. I worked on setting up a store online today so it’s easy to order and I can track stock and make sure you aren’t paying for one without me having stock... I don’t want people to think the money just goes into a black hole. I personally hate that, so you won’t be able to order one unless I physically have it completed and ready to go.

And I love when places support Apple Pay and google pay so I will support those as well! Thanks to Shopify.

[LexxM3]

Originally Posted by chrisnack

I doubt BMW will fix it unfortunately and it would just be a software fix anyways.

Nothing wrong with a software fix. A rather simple fix that would make everyone happy is a manual brightness override control and that should have been there in the first place. I was lucky enough to learn early in my engineering career that while automation is great, every automatic function must have a manual override because the reality is that engineers are never as smart as they think they are when it comes to real world inputs/situation and users (but defaulting to auto before user has their say is often fine and desirable) — many designers and engineers have never learned that lesson.

[Mynoles1]

Agree with LexxM3, an easy s/w fix would be great, but doubt we will ever see it.

[chrisnack]

Originally Posted by LexxM3

Nothing wrong with a software fix. A rather simple fix that would make everyone happy is a manual brightness override control and that should have been there in the first place. I was lucky enough to learn early in my engineering career that while automation is great, every automatic function must have a manual override because the reality is that engineers are never as smart as they think they are when it comes to real world inputs/situation and users (but defaulting to auto before user has their say is often fine and desirable) — many designers and engineers have never learned that lesson.

Totally agree, i didn't mean to say a software fix would bad or anything, just meant that's all they would NEED to do. Honestly if you could just control it in iDrive it would be fine, but you can't as far as i can tell.

[chrisnack]

Got the initial prototype piggyback boards in today that i designed a little over a week ago. So got that hooked up, here's a pic of the screw terminal test board and then the new board i designed for comparison, it's super tiny! The darker blue board underneath is the one i designed, it has the wiring for the circuit embedded in it. The 2nd pic with the larger board, most of the circuit is in the actual wiring itself.

The newest board will be a bit bigger, because it has the 12v circuit in there as well.

I also switched the wires to a silicon based wire, and it's much more pliable and will fish through trim considerably easier. I think i might drop the gauge even more though yet.

[nZtiZia]

2 weeks driving with 35% ceramic tint (98-99% heat rejection) on front driver/passenger windows, I don't seem to be plagued by the dimming dash issues BUT I will gladly support you when this product is released

[chrisnack]

Originally Posted by nZtiZia

2 weeks driving with 35% ceramic tint (98-99% heat rejection) on front driver/passenger windows, I don't seem to be plagued by the dimming dash issues BUT I will gladly support you when this product is released

Lol you just probably don’t know you have issues at least for me it was pretty shocking how much brighter the display is.

Maybe 35% isn’t as bad though, I’m 15%.

I’m betting where you are located geo wise and how intense the sun is plays a part as well. I’m in WI and it’s winter/early spring right now.

[Mynoles1]

Originally Posted by nZtiZia

2 weeks driving with 35% ceramic tint (98-99% heat rejection) on front driver/passenger windows, I don't seem to be plagued by the dimming dash issues BUT I will gladly support you when this product is released

An easy way to see if you are "plagued" by it or not is to sit in your vehicle under what you consider your normal conditions where you are not affected by dimming. Then, take your phone and turn on the flashlight and aim that beam towards the far left side of the instrument cluster, facing the light directly above where your headlight indicators reside.

Wait 5-10 seconds and see if the display brightens any more from your "normal" backlighting. If it does, you have it. Nothing wrong with that, many are used to it and accept it, others don't care.

I live in the Dallas area, where it gets VERY bright and very hot. Going under trees, skyscraper shadows, pop-up storm clouds, etc. really affects the display. If I'm wearing sunglasses, which everyone here has to do, it just makes the problem ten-fold. One minute you are looking out the windshield in the brightness and then look down at your displays and literally cannot see anything for a few seconds until your eyes adjust - rinse and repeat. It sucks. I have 35% tinting as well - none on my windshield.

I truly hope you don't have the problem, that would be great.

[chrisnack]

I assume there a few of you who are open to doing some beta testing for me?

Once this next round of boards comes in, even if i don't have the dash mount fully sorted, I'd like to get a couple people using/testing these for me. I've got a mount that clips in, it's just not as pretty as I'd like it to be yet.

[chrisnack]

Gosh... I didn’t have it in the car for a few days while I was redoing the board, wow did I miss it!!!

[nZtiZia]

Originally Posted by Mynoles1

An easy way to see if you are "plagued" by it or not is to sit in your vehicle under what you consider your normal conditions where you are not affected by dimming. Then, take your phone and turn on the flashlight and aim that beam towards the far left side of the instrument cluster, facing the light directly above where your headlight indicators reside.

whoah, ur right! the dash got so bright when i shone the flashlight on the sensor (update: I realized this was not an accurate test as I was in my garage with the only light coming through its upper windows.)

chrisnack i'm a little leery about tapping into power to beta test...

[chrisnack]

Originally Posted by nZtiZia

whoah, ur right! the dash got so bright when i shone the flashlight on the sensor.

chrisnack i'm a little leery about tapping into power to beta test...

Plugging into USB should still work if you don’t want to hardwire anything.

[nZtiZia]

Originally Posted by chrisnack

Plugging into USB should still work if you don’t want to hardwire anything.

sign me up! i'll likely hardwire after the beta testing.