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MMI retrofit experience (CarPlay)

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6.9K views 7 replies 4 participants last post by  Kierownik  
#1 ·
I absolutely hate any sort of airvent, suction cup and other phone holders + stock bmw navigation is extremely uncomfortable and outdated, so idea of MMI box for wireless CarPlay was a perfect solution for me. After finally finishing install of MMI box and testing it for couple of days thought I'd share some of my experience.

Ordering: There are many places you can get the MMI box from, starting from Chinese vendors from AliExpress all the way up to 5x more expensive ones from some big brands, but from what I read on different forums, they are mostly the same thing and difference is minimal so I decided to go for the cheap one that had most positive reviews on Ali (spoiler alert, it was a mistake). Seller contacted me right after the order went through to confirm my NBT version to make sure they are sending the right thing (I guess wiring and etc.). Seller had 3 warehouse locations from where delivery was possible, one of them was Czech Republic, so I living here in CZ chose it expecting relatively fast delivery but it still took 2 weeks and according to tracking code it came from China :D

Install, challenges and Communication issues with seller: There are tons of tutorials on YouTube how to install it, I recommend to follow fresh ones, since old versions might differ quite a lot from what's currently available and most of them didn't cover optic fibre cables at all. I followed
Anyway, I have HK headunit which as I noticed is bigger than some standard ones (that I saw in YouTube tutorials) but there still was enough space under it to fit the box itself and all the wiring. Everything went pretty smooth and I was almost done in 20-30 minutes but on my final step - connecting quadlock connector that goes between mmi box and headunit I faced a big issue...

The quadlock connector (the plastic housing itself) provided by seller was a bit too wide to fit in the unit, I guess guided plastic pins on the headunit were not taken in consideration as they were in place of even slightly sliding it in. Moreover it was extremely bad quality and "handle" on it broke right away. I messaged seller stating my issue, sending all detailed pictures and explaining as simply as possible what the issue was (communication was clearly just google translating from their side). Seller replied that they will need to consult with "engineer/technician" on my issue and get back to me. After around 1 week they happily announce that they found solution and will send me a video how to solve it. Another 3-4 days and they send me 5 sec video how they carefully raise a handle on the quadlock and that's it :D I guess communication was really an issue here so I explained everything again and after another 3-4 days they offered to send a cable replacement, which I agreed to, but later they changed their minds and offered me a refund and said that I would have to send the whole unit all the way back to China (they don't cover the shipping cost).

Taking into consideration that all this lasted for 1 month already + potential shipping costs + waiting for a refund and most importantly that I will be left with nothing, I went on ebay and found BMW OEM NBT quadlock connector plastic housing (cost me 6 eur, came in few days), got it repined and everything went smoothly after that.

Using Carplay: Carplay totally transformed multimedia experience for me. First of all, finally being able to use Waze on a big widescreen was the thing I was looking forward to the most, but later I found that split screen Waze/Spotify was the best combination. If you hate stock BMW navigation and if you are actively using Apple calendar and audiobooks app, CarPlay is definitely for you.

Some issues/disadvantages vs stock NBT:
- While having a phonecall, the person on the other side can hear him/herself, with a slight delay/echo. I haven't solved this issue yet but I remember seeing some solution on forums (can't seem to find it now :().

- Sound/Music is technically AUX and quality is noticeably worse than stock multimedia over bluetooth. It has and EQ to play with that I haven't touched yet but I doubt I can achieve the same sound. Overall not so critical having HK but I guess it might be worse in lower tier units.

- When you Reverse, system goes back to stock NBT and Camera turns on and after going back to Drive it should pop you back into CarPlay but on my 1st drive I couldn't get in CarPlay or MMI box menu after going back from Reverse to Drive. I re-paired my phone to MMI box and now it works flawlessly.

- Touchpad on iDrive knob isn't working for input. Not sure if it's a CarPlay itself or MMI box but I was using phone for fast input anyway.

- iDrive knob is backwards. Again not sure if it's a CarPlay thing or not but navigating the interface back/forward by rotating the knob is backwards comparing to stock multimedia (clockwise/anticlockwise). Just takes some time getting used to.

Conclusion: In the end I think it was totally worth it, at least from my point of view. If you have any questions or suggestions on how to solve some of the issues I mentioned, please feel free :).
 
#2 ·
Good to hear its working OK. I've been looking at the unit on Droid UK as its a good price / they seem to get good feedback + UK support. I saw ona video you can get sound via a USB drive in the armrest socket at the same time solving poor sound or use the cars dab radio then swap to the mmi functions?

Edit _ just noticed your not in UK so not sure how much shipping would have been from Droid..

 
#3 ·
robsaboy said:
Good to hear its working OK. I've been looking at the unit on Droid UK as its a good price / they seem to get good feedback + UK support. I saw ona video you can get sound via a USB drive in the armrest socket at the same time solving poor sound or use the cars dab radio then swap to the mmi functions?

Edit _ just noticed your not in UK so not sure how much shipping would have been from Droid..

Actually the unit I got looks exactly the same. Getting the thing from more or less trusted store is definitely worth a bit of extra money if you need some support! Also the seller I ordered from has 0 information about firmware/software updates at all.

*After recent events we have to pay import tax on anything coming from UK unfortunately :(
 
#4 ·
Hi.
I've been thinking about getting the mmi box for my car for a while and can't make my mind up.

Is the sound quality really that much worse? I use spotify 90% of the time and with my standard audio system I really can't imagine having the sound quality worse than it is right now.

My other concern is that for example when I'm listening to DAB radio station I wouldn't be able to hear navigation voice instructions due to both using different sound sources - dab playing from my HU and navigation needing aux to be heard.
 
#5 ·
Kierownik said:
Hi.
I've been thinking about getting the mmi box for my car for a while and can't make my mind up.

Is the sound quality really that much worse? I use spotify 90% of the time and with my standard audio system I really can't imagine having the sound quality worse than it is right now.

My other concern is that for example when I'm listening to DAB radio station I wouldn't be able to hear navigation voice instructions due to both using different sound sources - dab playing from my HU and navigation needing aux to be heard.
I'm not using radio but I think it's worth to check if your fav radio stations have an app for iOS/Android, so in that case everything will go through CarPlay/AndroidAuto
As for music quality, I use Spotify as well, with HQ streaming, and difference is noticeable, it's OK I guess but I would say less dynamic (?) Maybe it's more noticeable on Harman Kardon. EQ might fix it but I'm not sure, have to dig some settings that people use. Also as I read different vendors might have higher quality components and difference is less noticeable.
 
#6 ·
quick update on the issues.. Couple of times audio disconnected for half a second and 1 time the system froze completely mid journey, had to reboot it (long press on "back" button on idrive). Might be overheating issue or firmware..
 
#7 ·
Kierownik said:
Hi.
I've been thinking about getting the mmi box for my car for a while and can't make my mind up.

Is the sound quality really that much worse? I use spotify 90% of the time and with my standard audio system I really can't imagine having the sound quality worse than it is right now.
Do you have a 3.5mm to 3.5mm cable, try plugging your phone or another source in to AUX to hear how bad it sounds.
 
#8 ·
Fluffuser said:
Kierownik said:
Hi.
I've been thinking about getting the mmi box for my car for a while and can't make my mind up.

Is the sound quality really that much worse? I use spotify 90% of the time and with my standard audio system I really can't imagine having the sound quality worse than it is right now.
Do you have a 3.5mm to 3.5mm cable, try plugging your phone or another source in to AUX to hear how bad it sounds.
Great advice. Thanks!