DIY:Griffin TuneFlex AUX in a 135i

[_dopehead_]

Hey Everybody,

So i got my 2008 BMW 135i AW about 1 month ago, bought it used at a very nice price.
One thing i have been missing for music is something a little bit fancier than just connecting to the aux under the armrest, not really wanting to pay the crazy amount of money for the retrofit of 6FL for my car, i found the Griffin Tuneflex AUX.
http://www.griffintechnology.com/pro...ith-smartclick

It has a docking socket for my ipod touch (and all the other iphone/ipods), and has a line out, plus a handy little wireless remote which can be mounted on the steering wheel, or just lie in the car, it has 4 buttons, Prev/Next/Backlight/Shuffle, the Prev/Back can select next/prev song or scan through a song, the shuffle button can shuffle songs/albums or shuffle off. It also has a magnet on the back.

So one thing i didnt check before i got this, was that the swivel neck that is attached to the dock connector is not long enough,
since i only have a 12v lighter outlet under the armrest, also the 12v connector does not fit properly in the socket :-(

This had me a little annoyed, but it got me thinking that i really didnt need to see the ipod that often, since a can just use the shuffle/forw/back button
on the remote, fine for me, atleast for the moment.

So i had to figure out how to do this. I decided i would mount the dock socket with some doublesided tape in the armrest compartment, which is nice and flat and the ipod+dock fits nicely in there.

So i needed to take apart the tuneflex 12v plug to get it mounted in a smaller plastic case, and attach a lighter plug that fits in the car.

So i started by breaking the 12v plug apart, where i assumed all the hardware was housed, and i was right, in the longer part there is a board which looks like
some regulator circuits, and a larger board in the top of the plug, which houses the line out and volume control, plus the electronics for interfacing
with ipod, and charging it. So after trying to pull the plastic apart nicely i got a little impatient and just started with some plyers so break it up,
worked ok.but be careful not to break the boards or snag any of the wiring, which is quite thin and flimzy. Getting the swivel off was really the biggest problem as there is 10 wires going through it, and i could not figure out how
to take it apart without breaking both the hardware and my fingers in the process, so i cut the wires and soldered them back together instead they all have different colors so its not a big deal.

So now i have two small circuit boards, 2 wires coming out of one end for 12v and the dock connector in the other end, i am gonna find a small black
electronics box for those, drill a hole for the aux and volume control, plus the power will be a jack as well. Route a power cable with a jack connector and aux jack cable through a small hole in the armrest compartment,
there is a small jack cable with the TuneFlex, so i just need to find one for the power (using a big bulky connector for the moment), this way it can easily be unmounted from the car, but i havent gotten to that part yet.
I will update when its completed, i hope someone can use this as a DIY or at least inspiration

Here is a pic of the parts all layed out

Update :

I got all the small boards put into a little black plastic box with the jack/power and docking wires coming out of it, and put it in the armrest hold with some velcro strips underneath, sits fine. Also velcroed the flexaux dock to the other side of the little compartment in the armrest and am using shuffle/frw/rev on the remote, and it works fine, the ipod slides in and out no problem, i angled the velcro upwards a little with some doublesided tape, so it's a little easier to get your fingers underneath the ipod to pull it out again. Only issue is that volume seems a lot lower on the aux out of the tuneflex.

Unfortunately. i also realized that i really can't do without having the ipod in my line of sight, since i just got a plx kiwi obd probe, and that doesn't work well without the screen in front of you :-( So i am actually modding a apple universal dock to fit on top of the lower part of the cupholder that is on the side of the center console, right next to the gear shifter, it's in perfect reach, and i'm gonna spray it matte black, so it fits better with the oem look. I might even try and find a small ball joint so i can swivel the whole dock around, also i am thinking of doing some backing for the dock, as the ipod is a tiny bit wobbly in there. More updates and pics to come, when i find my friggin camera again :-).

[jwardell]

Wow, quite a hack!

I've had a tuneflex aux for several months, love its functionality over the competition. Unfortunately the girlfriend loved it even more and immediately "stole" it for herself. I can't argue, I have sirius, she doesn't...
After a few months though, the line out socket got loose and the audio pops in and out as you go over bumps. Let me know if you see this problem after a while.

And I agree, the flex cable is not long enough, and I don't like looking that far away from the road to see something that is in the lower console. I should consider doing the same as you and mounting it higher.

But still for $45 it is a nice accessory.

[_dopehead_]

Ok, so i got a pic of the armrest with the boards and dock in them. Also took some shots of the universal dock i am testfitting ontop of the cupholder assembly, seems to fit nicely, just need to fabricate something decent to hold it to the assembly, and paint it black. I routed the cables under the console, somewhat a ghetto install, but still, not that obvious.

[GtiGyver]

This is so ghetto, but I love it.

[1013mm]

nice ghetto mod!!! duct tape never fails!