[130FeetDeep]

     Featured on BIMMERPOST.com

Obviously it goes without saying, but proceed at your own risk. You take the responsibility when you choose to code your car.

That said, I have wanted to change the ambient lighting in my vehicle for a while but didn’t have the time until recently to dig. After spending some time in the code and looking at what the G20 guys have been able to do, I was able to decode the color scheme for the G05 and change the colors and combination of colors on my truck. This can be done with Bimmercode. Unfortunately, I haven’t figured out how to change the i-drive labels, so you would need to remember the combos.

Specifically, I wanted to get rid of the bronze colors because I hate them and turn that category red. I also wanted to create a ///M scheme with red/blue combo and the reverse blue/red. The color scheme unfortunately is different on the G05 versus other models, so it took some trial and error to make it work. Anyway, here is how you do it.

1. How to change the stock colors of ambient lighting.

— Start Bimmercode as usual and enter the BDC controller. This is a big module so it can take a little while to load.

— Next, enter Expert Mode at the bottom of the app. This will give you access to the needed areas of the module.







— You first will enter the 360A LicLciColorLibrary.







— Then click the LIC_LCI_COLOR_LIBRARY_DATA folder.





— Navigate to the GO5G06_Lichtpaket_code1 packet. Note, this should have a check next to it. Highlight it and click the custom values down bottom to enter into the bytes section that needs to be modified.





— The original RGB HEX code for our trucks are the same as all other vehicles. This is how the stock colors are listed.

White - 90, E0, 90
Bronze - D7, 6E, 14
Orange - 93, 1A, 01
Blue - 00, 20, FE
Green - 10, FE, 32
Lilac - 78, 3C, FE

Remember, I wanted to add red, so we need to know that RGB HEX code:

Red - FE, 00, 00

Since I wanted to change the bronze to red, I replaced the bronze values at bytes 33, 34, 35 then 38, 39, 40 and finally 43, 44, 45 to red. That means the D7 value is changed to FE, the 6E is changed to 00, and the 14 is changed to 00.











One trick that you need to know is that you click the value you want to change, then hit the backspace button on the ykeyboard down bottom then enter the new value. Basically what you did is change bronze to red. Obviously this practice can work with any color you want to replace as long as you know the new RGB HEX code.

— Once those values are changed, you are ready to move on to assigning colors to the menu.


2. Changing what ambient light combo the idrive menu will activate.


— Once the new colors are assigned, you find yourself back in the prior menu that is BDC Module -> Expert Coding. From here, enter the 360DLicLciColorProfiles file.





— Navigate to the LIC_LCI_COLOR_PROFILES_DATA folder.





—The file you will be editing is the G05G06_Lichtpaket_code1 which should already be selected. If not, select it and go to the bottom and click custom value.


This actually got a bit complicated for me because the G05/6 color assignments are different than the G20. After a lot of trial and error, here is what I found each assignment means...

00 - White
01 - Blue
02 - Bronze (now red for me)
03 - Orange
04 - Green
05 - Lilac

You can go through each byte and see the combos that the i-drive is displaying. Example... byte 0 is displaying Bronze on the bottom of the dash and byte 1 is displaying Bronze on the top of the dash. Since I already changed those colors to red in step 1, those now will show red ambient lighting.

— I wanted to create a custom ///M red/blue and blue/red so I chose to assign the bronze/white and green/white for these. If you choose to do that, then change byte 3 from 00 to 01 creating a blue over red look.





To create the red over blue look in the “Green/White” I-drive menu item, change byte 16 from 04 to 01 and byte 17 from 00 to 02.





— Now you are ready to code everything. Once you code it, all the changes will take. Bronze menu items will now all show red ambient lightning, bronze/white will show a blue over red, and green/white will display red over blue.

Results:





The work is very easy and will apply to any colors you want to assign. Again, work at your own risk.

EDIT: Updated HTML hex code for red to avoid a BMW glitch.

*Note... for anyone creating custom colors, you should not use any HTML hex code with the value FF. Substitute FE for the FF part of the HTML hex code and it will look exactly the same but won’t affect the overhead splash LEDs that shine on the shifter area.

[BimmerVinyl]

Wow! This is awesome!
Not seeing any pictures though

[timmahh]

Awesome. Thanks for posting this, hope the pics work soon!

[130FeetDeep]

Crap, pics didn’t come through? GRRR.

How do I embed them without a ton stuck at the end of the post?

[rcrc]

Thanks for posting this. Very clear and easy to follow. I made the same change as you by following the G20 threads - changing bronze to red. The only problem I'm having is the B&W lighting hasn't changed. That still shows as bronze even though I changed all of the corresponding bytes to red in 360A. Anybody crack this part of the code?

[130FeetDeep]

Can anyone see the pics now? I can’t get rid of all of the duplicates at the end.

[130FeetDeep]

Originally Posted by rcrc

Thanks for posting this. Very clear and easy to follow. I made the same change as you by following the G20 threads - changing bronze to red. The only problem I'm having is the B&W lighting hasn't changed. That still shows as bronze even though I changed all of the corresponding bytes to red in 360A. Anybody crack this part of the code?

Yes. The G20 bytes are wrong for the G05 in 360D. I noted the correct ones in this post. Hopefully you can get it cleared up. ��

[BimmerVinyl]

I see the pics now. This is so awesome! Going to go in tomorrow and give it a whirl

[James_G0540i]

Great post, brilliant.
Send a message to the Bimmercode developers to make it available on "Standard" menu's rather than Expert mode.
The ambient lighting colors is something that al lot of people will be interested in....

[atlas]

This is awesome. Are the colours persistent until the coding gets wiped?

[130FeetDeep]

Originally Posted by atlas

This is awesome. Are the colours persistent until the coding gets wiped?

Absolutely. The only thing that would wipe it is if the BDC ecu gets updated like any other coding.

[rcrc]

Originally Posted by 130FeetDeep

Yes. The G20 bytes are wrong for the G05 in 360D. I noted the correct ones in this post. Hopefully you can get it cleared up. ��

Unfortunately, didn't work. I actually set mine up exactly the same as you. Green-white is red-blue. For the upper and lower ambient lights, works perfectly. Speakers still come up as green-white though. Must be another setting somewhere?

Will try to post a pic. On the positive side, I guess I figured out a way to get four different colors. May be handy around the holidays, lol.

[VTENGR]

Originally Posted by rcrc

Unfortunately, didn't work. I actually set mine up exactly the same as you. Green-white is red-blue. For the upper and lower ambient lights, works perfectly. Speakers still come up as green-white though. Must be another setting somewhere?

Will try to post a pic. On the positive side, I guess I figured out a way to get four different colors. May be handy around the holidays, lol.
Attachment 2362176

So when you code this using Esys, for every color you have to input it three times. So I wonder if the first, second and third position correspond with the dash, sunroof and speakers. If that's the case you could really go crazy with combos.

Double check your coding and make sure you accidentally didn't change the green hex code in one of the color positions.

[130FeetDeep]

Originally Posted by rcrc

Unfortunately, didn't work. I actually set mine up exactly the same as you. Green-white is red-blue. For the upper and lower ambient lights, works perfectly. Speakers still come up as green-white though. Must be another setting somewhere?

Will try to post a pic. On the positive side, I guess I figured out a way to get four different colors. May be handy around the holidays, lol.
Attachment 2362176

I am not aware of a way to change the speaker colors at this point and I can’t test since I don’t have the B&W.

[OzJedi]

Great post!!! Thanks for sharing!!!

[Unit]

That looks so cool! Wish BMW would offer this as standard as there is no reason not to.

[VTENGR]

Originally Posted by 130FeetDeep

I am not aware of a way to change the speaker colors at this point and I can’t test since I don’t have the B&W.

I'm going to run an experiment and see what happens if you change just one HEX value for a given color slot. I hope to do this mid afternoon so I'll report back my finding. My hope is that you can change the speaker and sunroof independently from the dash and doors.

[130FeetDeep]

Originally Posted by VTENGR

I'm going to run an experiment and see what happens if you change just one HEX value for a given color slot. I hope to do this mid afternoon so I'll report back my finding. My hope is that you can change the speaker and sunroof independently from the dash and doors.

Do we know if that guys B&W speakers changed to red on the bronze setting? That would answer the question fast.

[bav29]

The Red / Blue combo looks awesome, I'm also amazed this isn't a standard iDrive option...
I'm not familiar with coding but I am fairly techy, is there a post that explains coding for beginners?

Edit; just found Bimmercode download app site and links to various OBD's (guess they will all work for this application?)
Thanks again for this detailed guide, very useful...

[130FeetDeep]

Originally Posted by bav29

The Red / Blue combo looks awesome, I'm also amazed this isn't a standard iDrive option...
I'm not familiar with coding but I am fairly techy, is there a post that explains coding for beginners?

Edit; just found Bimmercode download app site and links to various OBD's (guess they will all work for this application?)
Thanks again for this detailed guide, very useful...

Once you get the App and OBD2 plug, then follow the directions and be deliberate to make sure you follow all details.

[bav29]

Originally Posted by 130FeetDeep

Once you get the App and OBD2 plug, then follow the directions and be deliberate to make sure you follow all details.

Yes, indeed I will!

[VTENGR]

Just ran my little experiment. Nothing changed if I just changed one HEX code within a color slot. What I did notice when I turned the B&W speaker color on is that the old color slot is what the speaker showed. So for example, if I changed the Green color slot to RED, my ambient lights will be red, but my speaker was still green. This was the case for all the colors. My speakers will showing the old colors even though they had been coded to different HEX. That means there must be another module somewhere that controls the speaker colors too. That's good and bad news ... the good news is, you can code your speakers to be any color you want. Bad news is, we have to find that module.