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      12-22-2015, 03:25 PM   #1
zx10guy
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Bimmertech rear view camera and SmartView on an E82

Not sure if any of you all have installed this kit in your E82...for that matter an E88 too. I just know that installing it in my E82 with factory Nav in a 2013 was a royal pain in the rear. It required me to pretty much tear the entire lower dash apart on both sides of the car to figure out where I could place the multimedia box. The videos you see online for installs in a 3 (or 2 series) is going to be misleading on the amount of work you'll need to do to get one installed in an E82/88 with factory Nav. The space I thought I had behind the blank panel below the radio controls was not there as the CIC unit filled that space too. Had that space been available, the install would have been as simple as the ones shown in many of the online videos. In the end, I had to install everything on the driver's side.

Here are some pics. I didn't take enough pictures for a step by step documenting my entire process as I was too focused on just getting this install done and having my car driveable. But I think the pictures will give you a good enough idea of what was involved. If anyone wants to tackle this job on your own on an E82 or E88, feel free to reach out to me.

The boxes:
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The "carnage":
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This was also one of the other hurdles I had to overcome in the install. The picture below is of the iDrive/Nav screen. The data harness was buried/covered by the plastic housing. I tried to see if I could take apart the housing to get better access to the harness but gave up. Didn't want to damage the housing trying to take it apart. I eventually got the harness off the screen but it resulted in one of the tabs in the factory plug getting snapped off. I had to use an angled pick to manipulate the tab on the other side of the plug to get the harness free.
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Here's the rear camera/trunk latch assembly installed.
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The final location where I picked to mount the multimedia box. This took the most time as I was trying to secure the box in a manner which would prevent it from banging against the other hard points inside the dash making noise that would drive me crazy. I also added rubber feet in various spots to also ensure no banging noise. There was absolutely no location I could use to velcro the box to.
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Here's where I decided to "mount" the SmartView box. It's actually held there by duct tape. LOL. I couldn't find a location where I could mount the box which made sense taking into account the WiFi antenna. So far after a week or so of driving around, it seems to be ok there.
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Pic of the video from the rear camera.
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Pic of the mirrored screen from my Samsung S6 onto the iDrive/Nav screen.
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I use SmartView primarily for Waze or Google Maps. When I first got everything working, it was a bit of a pain using SmartView. The screen mirroring function on both my S5 and S6 phones required me to manually connect every time I got into the car. I did some digging and found some free automation apps in the Play Store. I set up a trigger which launches the Miracast app/shortcut when my phone connects to the car's Blue Tooth. Doing it this way has been a total joy and I can work with SmartView like any factory available/installed option. I'm currently debating if I want to also auto launch Waze or Google Maps.

Overall, the Bimmertech kit was just plug and play. Absolutely no coding involved. When I put my car into reverse, the rear view camera comes on automatically. Switching to SmartView just requires me to hold down the Menu button on my iDrive controls. Other than the installation challenges, I've been pretty happy with the system. I already can't imagine not having the rear view camera and more importantly SmartView in my car. As I've been saying in some other threads here about whatever feature BMW is hyping, BMW should have looked into having SmartView like functionality in their cars before what I consider as gimmicky features. SmartView also provides Android users like myself some integration into our cars as BMW has clearly given Android users the middle finger over iOS.

One last thing is get the Bimmertech trim tools if you don't already have a set. They're pretty quality tools and I did use it some during the last install hurdle I had. I would have used the tools for the start of the install if it weren't for USPS screwing me. I had to get back into the dash after putting everything back together when my climate controls went dead. Don't know what had happened but Fuse #77 had blown. I initially thought the harnesses worked loose somehow going into the climate controls or I had pinched or cut a wire putting stuff back together (thank goodness that wasn't the case).

Last edited by zx10guy; 08-11-2017 at 01:21 PM..
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      12-22-2015, 03:59 PM   #2
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nice...a PITA...but nice.

Now only to get something like a multimedia recorder to act as a traffic camera recording device, connect one cam to front and use this rear cam and you are set...
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      12-22-2015, 04:46 PM   #3
zx10guy
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Bimmertech does sell a front camera for this rear camera retrofit. I chose not to spend the money for one. The box has multiple A/V inputs. The front camera would connect into one of the 3 A/V inputs. The rear camera has a dedicated input for it. The box also has A/V outs which would be where you could connect a recording device. I currently am using the audio part of the A/V outs to provide sound from the SmartView device into the factory sound system. I had to run an RCA to 3.5mm cable from the box to the Aux jack under the armrest. I hid the cable through the dash and routed the cable between the carpet and the side of the center console.

Now I'm not sure if you can get the multimedia box to have both the front and rear cameras displaying at the same time let alone having the rear camera operate while the car is not in reverse. I'll have to check on the latter. But the multimedia box does have picture in picture capability. That's how I am able to have the satellite radio info displayed at the same time as the SmartView video in the picture above.
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      08-02-2018, 11:11 AM   #4
SamelCamel
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zx10guy,

I was hoping you could help with some details on this. I've got most of the hardware to do this, but haven't done it yet since I don't have exact instructions. I tried to PM you, but your box is full.

Do you have the exact coding you had to do to get this working? Any additional details like how to remove the dash and possibly a link for the smartview box?

Any help would be appreciated!


-Sam
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      08-02-2018, 07:42 PM   #5
zx10guy
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Quote:
Originally Posted by SamelCamel View Post
zx10guy,

I was hoping you could help with some details on this. I've got most of the hardware to do this, but haven't done it yet since I don't have exact instructions. I tried to PM you, but your box is full.

Do you have the exact coding you had to do to get this working? Any additional details like how to remove the dash and possibly a link for the smartview box?

Any help would be appreciated!


-Sam
Sam,

Send me a PM again with your email address. I helped another forum member get theirs installed. And there is absolutely no coding needed to get the Bimmertech setup working with your car.
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      09-24-2018, 12:29 PM   #6
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Nice Install

Just saw this and while a lot of work finding a location in the interior nice job.
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      11-02-2018, 10:57 AM   #7
teaberry
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Thanks for all the hard work and documenting. Would you have a picture of what the driver side looks like after it was installed? If you were willing to sacrifice the glove box space, could it have gone in there? I wonder if e88 would be more complicated with the convertible mechanism in between but I believe you said it's wireless back there so no wire running from front to back? Thank you.
Quote:
Originally Posted by zx10guy View Post
Not sure if any of you all have installed this kit in your E82...for that matter an E88 too.
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      11-03-2018, 08:53 PM   #8
zx10guy
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Quote:
Originally Posted by teaberry View Post
Thanks for all the hard work and documenting. Would you have a picture of what the driver side looks like after it was installed? If you were willing to sacrifice the glove box space, could it have gone in there? I wonder if e88 would be more complicated with the convertible mechanism in between but I believe you said it's wireless back there so no wire running from front to back? Thank you.
Not sure what you're looking for as far as a pic of the driver side. It looks just as if nothing was done/stock.

You can't install the MMI box in the glove box. There are two sets of cables you have to connect to the Nav screen. The wiring harness from the MMI to the Nav screen may be long enough to reach. But you'll find the video cable from the MMI to the Nav screen won't reach. It would have been nice if a longer cable was included. Not sure if you can buy a longer cable. Had there been a longer video cable, I would have the MMI box somewhere else.

The backup camera is not wireless. You'll have to run the cable from the trunk to the front of the car. While it's a lot of work, to me it's better than a wireless system. Consistent operation. And better video quality. There is a thread where someone tried a wireless camera system which uses your smart phone for the video output. The video quality was found to be some what lack luster.
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      11-04-2018, 04:40 PM   #9
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Quote:
Originally Posted by zx10guy View Post
Not sure what you're looking for as far as a pic of the driver side. It looks just as if nothing was done/stock.

You can't install the MMI box in the glove box. There are two sets of cables you have to connect to the Nav screen. The wiring harness from the MMI to the Nav screen may be long enough to reach. But you'll find the video cable from the MMI to the Nav screen won't reach. It would have been nice if a longer cable was included. Not sure if you can buy a longer cable. Had there been a longer video cable, I would have the MMI box somewhere else.

The backup camera is not wireless. You'll have to run the cable from the trunk to the front of the car. While it's a lot of work, to me it's better than a wireless system. Consistent operation. And better video quality. There is a thread where someone tried a wireless camera system which uses your smart phone for the video output. The video quality was found to be some what lack luster.
Think this is the thread you're referring to:

https://www.1addicts.com/forums/show....php?t=1030435
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      02-17-2019, 10:45 PM   #10
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Lightbulb DIY Easy $60 Quality Backup Camera System

Did a DIY walk through on my camera install for my 2012 135i convertible E88 but it may help others wanting a camera with out costing a lot and involving a lot of complicated install labor.
See it here

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      11-03-2019, 08:49 PM   #11
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Just ordered my smartview, mainly for displaying all my gauges via JB4/MHD (shiftlights actually in my line of sight ) but also for google maps and spotify.

We'll see how it goes. Next step, activate siriusXM and I'll be golden.
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      05-05-2021, 11:16 AM   #12
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First off, huge thanks to OP for opening the door on this and showing how to get this maddeningly tricky install done. I just installed the latest MMI Prime plus backup camera on my 2013 135is, and it was frustrating to say the least. The backup camera was by far the easiest part.

I too installed the MMI box under the steering wheel, in the trim piece above the pedals, there was just enough slack in the cables to get it to sit on the far right side of that piece, and after a couple issues with the Idrive connections it finally fired up in working order. Install was over two days, but the camera was 1.5hrs, and the main system took about 7. I'm a fairly competent DIYer but the main thing i found was the fact that Bimmertech's instructions are not made for our cars but the E9X. So a lot of the simple parts on a 3 series end up being fairly intense on the smaller E8X.

For example, the center console trim around the shifter does not need to fully come out, only the trim around the shifter, then loosen the drivers side plug to free the center console trim from the carpet. Now you can wiggle everything in with a long cable tie. Anyways, i think this could be all fixed if they would just release a 1 series appropriate manual, so i will be writing to them to let them know.

At the end of it all, it is a really sweet, OEM quality upgrade, and it doesn't need to be presented in such a complicated manner, hopefully we can continue to amass people who have done the install here to help out until Bimmertech gets their instructions updated. Feel free to PM me if you find yourself having issues with this.

Here's some pics of the madness, enjoy!
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      09-03-2021, 11:37 AM   #13
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UPDATE -

So the CarPlay Siri voice control feature does not work due to the OEM system overriding the Bimmertech system, this is true whether i use the steering wheel or idrive button. The Siri logo comes up but the oem system does not allow my voice to be registered by the MMI software.

I have been in a back and forth with Bimmertech now for over a month regarding this. They say the only way to address this issue is to use the cable coding they provide, at $125 cost, to decode the oem voice control, which should allow their system to function as they actually advertise. I am refusing to pay extra for functionality that was advertised as built into the full package.

Has anyone else had this issue? I can't find anything about this on the forums, would love to know if there is a hardware/wiring workaround.
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