[Turbanator]

Originally Posted by graaja

I have asked the service manager at my dealership to check this. Do you have any other contact at your dealership who can verify my VIN and tell if it is possible to do this upgrade?

I got this information from a very senior sales person. Have dropped a message to check the procedure and meanwhile asked my service guy who apparently has no clue

He has asked time till Monday. I hope the information is correct else it will be really stupid of me

[graaja]

Originally Posted by Turbanator

He has asked time till Monday. I hope the information is correct else it will be really stupid of me

Hope this information turns to be true. Fingers crossed

[Turbanator]

Originally Posted by graaja

Hope this information turns to be true. Fingers crossed

BMW India and local dealerships are closed today. Please send me your VIN, I will forward to the dealership and get you an answer in a day or so. Hope it works.

[Turbanator]

Update

Turns out to be a local dealer level initiative using the third party. Can ignore earlier posts.

Regrets for the goof up.

[Axe77]

Originally Posted by Turbanator

Update

Turns out to be a local dealer level initiative using the third party. Can ignore earlier posts.

Regrets for the goof up.

Thanks for clarifying. Personally I thought 90k was an astronomical amount for enabling this. Whether from dealer or BMW India.

[manishk123]

So i was just browsing around the BMW website to see if there is any firmware update available and I found one at this link: https://www.bmw.com/en/footer/software-updates.html

Has anyone tried updating their G30 software? Also will the 'unofficial" CarPlay continue to work if I update. Please let me know.

Thanks.

[supertinu]

Originally Posted by Turbanator

BMW India to Officially Enable Apple CarPlay at a Charge.

I understand we can now officially get Car Play activated from BMW Dealerships at a payment of around 90,000. This is possible on most of touchscreen iDrive based models, and perhaps one generation earlier but I am not sure completely. You can get VIN checked for this upgrade from the dealership.

This is really amusing, something which in today's context in India itself is a features available in most hatchbacks, commands a premium of ~1 lac in a beamer. This purely seems like since a beamer owner is spending 50lacs min on a car, he can surely afford another 1 lac for getting car play. In my view beamer should have just offered a free upgrade as a show of good faith to its customer and not try to milk them more.

[aseemsood]

Originally Posted by supertinu

This is really amusing, something which in today's context in India itself is a features available in most hatchbacks, commands a premium of ~1 lac in a beamer. This purely seems like since a beamer owner is spending 50lacs min on a car, he can surely afford another 1 lac for getting car play. In my view beamer should have just offered a free upgrade as a show of good faith to its customer and not try to milk them more.

Completely agree.
Infact, even this paid option is not available officially. I guess this 90k was quoted by someone unofficially.

[graaja]

Originally Posted by aseemsood

Completely agree.
Infact, even this paid option is not available officially. I guess this 90k was quoted by someone unofficially.

Yes. The 90k is not official BMW offer. It is unoffially done by a dealer.

[aseemsood]

Originally Posted by graaja

I have received the antenna from AliExpress - reached within 2 weeks. Now waiting for the cable to arrive.

dear @graaja,

Came across this video today. It shows installation of the wifi antennae.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubRPPpqkeLc

1) Is the wifi antennae in this video different from the one you bought?
2) Did you finally install the antennae and enable car play?

[graaja]

Originally Posted by aseemsood

dear @graaja,

1) Is the wifi antennae in this video different from the one you bought?
2) Did you finally install the antennae and enable car play?

The antenna I got is slightly different on the antenna side - it is a little bigger than one in the video. The connector that goes to the HU is the same.

I have not yet installed the antenna or enabled CarPlay. Still trying to get the dealer to do the installation. Due to lot of work related travel, have not been able to go and meet the service manager. Will discuss this when I visit for the 2nd oil service this week.

[anantc93]

Hey! Just found this amazing thread

I was wondering if CarPlay can also be enabled in the F30 3 series? Mine is a 2018 model. The above links don't work so I googled and found this which prices it at $120 and confirms that 2017-18 models of the 3 series are, in fact, compatible! That's a VERY cheap price to pay I believe and I'd love to get it, if all it requires is a 60 second USB install with no hardware fuddling. Mine does not have a touch screen though, if that's a requirement. Their VIN checker is returning an error, shooting them an email right away. But I wonder if they have any incentive at all to say that it's not compatible

[anantc93]

I got a response on their livechat saying that its not possible on 6.5" screens, only 8.8" screens.
Secondly, they did say that they have had customers from India, for CarPlay in 3 series.
Thirdly, did some reading on bimmerpost to find out that a firmware update will remove CarPlay, and using the same USB will not work again; a new FSC code would be required from the seller.

[graaja]

Originally Posted by abhi182

@graaja : I had actually been meaning to ask you if you got around to activating CarPlay

...

- My understanding is that even during a central server diagnostic/ update, the only possible risk of detection is if you modify the vehicle order (FO) as it will be an upfront reconciliation break .

If however you modify only a couple of setting flags (which is all you need to do for this), it’s a change on a few flags amongst thousands. Add the fact that these flags don’t have a standard baseline to compare against (because these flags also change based on other user modifiable settings you change)
Thus it’s almost impossible for an automated process to detect a modification unless a technician with a vendetta against you goes manually digging

Hi abhi182,

I am slowly getting there. Right now, I am going through all documentation on E-Sys.

As you mentioned, I am not worried about enabling features that need only a flag change. Unless BMW has stored the baseline files for all the ECUs, this is not possible to detect.

However, a VO change will be definitely detected and can raise a flag while hooked to the server. And CarPlay activation needs a VO change.

From the E-Sys documentation, I see that we can read the original FA from the car and save it as a backup. Same can be done for the CAFD files as well for each ECU. Before taking the car to the dealer, we can just restore the original files which should be fine. So, before I start changing anything, I plan to backup all the CAFD files and the FA configuration.

There are a few snags that I need to figure out.

1. The E-Sys launcher premium that was provided by TokenMaster has expired on 12th December. The only option is to get the Pro version which needs a donation of 50$ to a charity. However, from the posts from various users, it seems TokenMaster has stopped responding and many have made donations and have not received the launcher key. Found another option EsysX. I have sent EUR100 to their PayPal account and waiting for the software link.
2. Need to figure out the FSC code. I have sent a PM to BMWDriva and Chang2 in the Car Technology Forum. Waiting for a response.
3. I see various discussions on fake FSCs, original FSCs, patches, some comments that mixing fake FSCs with OEM FSCs can be a problem, etc. Unlike the E-Sys FA coding which has lot of documentation, there is very less documentation on adding FSC. Maybe Chang2 or BMWDriva will give some pointers there.

[abhi182]

Originally Posted by graaja

Hi abhi182,

I am slowly getting there. Right now, I am going through all documentation on E-Sys.

As you mentioned, I am not worried about enabling features that need only a flag change. Unless BMW has stored the baseline files for all the ECUs, this is not possible to detect.

However, a VO change will be definitely detected and can raise a flag while hooked to the server. And CarPlay activation needs a VO change.

From the E-Sys documentation, I see that we can read the original FA from the car and save it as a backup. Same can be done for the CAFD files as well for each ECU. Before taking the car to the dealer, we can just restore the original files which should be fine. So, before I start changing anything, I plan to backup all the CAFD files and the FA configuration.

There are a few snags that I need to figure out.

1. The E-Sys launcher premium that was provided by TokenMaster has expired on 12th December. The only option is to get the Pro version which needs a donation of 50$ to a charity. However, from the posts from various users, it seems TokenMaster has stopped responding and many have made donations and have not received the launcher key. Found another option EsysX. I have sent EUR100 to their PayPal account and waiting for the software link.
2. Need to figure out the FSC code. I have sent a PM to BMWDriva and Chang2 in the Car Technology Forum. Waiting for a response.
3. I see various discussions on fake FSCs, original FSCs, patches, some comments that mixing fake FSCs with OEM FSCs can be a problem, etc. Unlike the E-Sys FA coding which has lot of documentation, there is very less documentation on adding FSC. Maybe Chang2 or BMWDriva will give some pointers there.

Here is the thing - you don't need to change the VO to activate CarPlay (which is what I was trying to point to in my previous post)
The VO is essentially just an identifier and a baseline for multiple flags - From a coding perspective, it's like a template you can use for mass modifications in a single shot ..e.g. if you are changing the head unit or replacing an ECU

However to simply activate CarPlay (assuming you have added the license key already), all you need to do is change 2 flags manually on your HU (HU_NBT2)

CARPLAY_SWT => aktiv
APPLE_ENHANCEMENTS-> aktiv

You don't have to touch the FA/VO at all

As for e-sys and license , wish you had PMd me - I got my lic key for 50EUR and e-sys premium for 20gbp from a user called dconer on car technology boards
Communication issues in English aside, I have no reason to complain about the discussion/transaction

PS: FWIW, apple maps too now has traffic overlay.. The traffic info is not as good as gmaps but on the other hand gmaps tends to slow down CarPlay interface
As for CarPlay itself, one of the best 3500 INR I have spent - It gets full time usage and I can't remember the last time I fell back on the BMW OS other than vehicle settings