Cement

Should pool our resources Although I suspect everybody wants the same parts off it hah ... would love the rear end, rear fenders, front fenders, bonnet etc

It's NZ new but sunroof was not part of the priority list when I purchased... Just a good straight car for project base was the order of the day.

Ahhhh yes another side hustle project is gathering steam ... looking to do a sunroof delete consisting of a carbon roof 😬

General Bla I've been researching whats required to do a carbon roof on the E46 coupe and might document here in case others want to follow the same path including the required LVVTA certification etc. One or two might think this is over capitalising somewhat on the ex 318 so will also document my reasoning 🧐 Got sunroof, don't want sunroof Weight savings (mostly in the sunroof delete) Want black interior so would need to do a new head liner anyhoo ... yes, the tail wags the dog It's within the realm of the DIY'er Have the opportunity to help manufacture the roof itself via vacuum infusion Just looks cool !!! On Certification I'm always keen to do things properly so I got in touch with the LVVTA to see if there is any certification interest in replacing the skin. As there is no definitive information for this procedure they took it to their Technical Working Group (TWG) for consideration. After a bit of back and forth the below statement was arrived at which provides the framework for doing the job. "Based on the information provided, assuming that the procedure involves removing only the sunroof cassette and single layer of roof skin, that any spot-welded areas (particularly along the roof seams and apron areas) are either unaltered or restored to OEM specification using a compatible repair process, that the central roof bow is attached in a way that replicates the OE method of attachment, TWG are happy with the principle of this idea. However, the final approval must come from an LVV Certifier, and in addition to the above, they must be satisfied that the structure of the vehicle has not been altered by this modification beyond a safe tolerance of OE. They must also be satisfied that the bonding agents used to reattach the new roof skin are appropriate for the intended use." I've been in touch with my certifier and he has outlined the inspections he would need for this: After the steel skin has been removed and the hood bow fitted After the new roof goes on but before glass installed Once everything is completed The Process There are many videos on YouTube of people doing the procedure, some of the better ones are linked below. Showing the roof skin being a single layer coming off the structural members: https://youtu.be/GhTOA7Cl9fk?t=140 Showing a bit more of the overall process: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmC-gooNM0M The official procedure from BMW for replacement of the M3 CSL roof can be found here, which will be the process of installation for me: https://www.newtis.info/tisv2/a/en/e46-m3-csl-cou/repair-manuals/41-body/41-31-roof/4K9opCv What Next Need final confirmation the mold is indeed to suit the E46 coupe then I need to locate some spare cash. May take a little while until the next update but that's where things are at currently.

Got all of the data on screen now, just with fake readings for the soon to be converted gauge sensors. Got to get a bit of wire and related items to get the sensors supplied with 5V and then plumbed in to the Arduino. Have the console apart again to start looking at the screen mounting also.

Not a major thing, but a major impact when I've been starting the car with a jump pack for the last month !!! Soooooo good having a new battery

Nice one @LsBeema got to be happy with that ... did they do any tuning work or just the power runs ?

Made quite a bit of progress this weekend and now have the first 'polled' metrics displaying nicely. These are things that are not broadcast on the CAN network as they are not needed to be consumed by other modules in the car. Examples are oil temp, gas pedal position, air fuel ratios, intake air temp and injector duration. All of these thing in my case are coming from the Nissan ECM but there is no reason you can't do the same for the BMW or any other car for that matter. Have also tweaked some visuals on the temp graphs to display blue when 'too cold' then green for normal and red when cooked. Plenty of easy mucking about left to do here when frustrated with the harder work. For those curious, the rough process of reverse engineering has been: Set up some light weight Arduino code to listen on the Nissan CAN bus and setup basic filtration to NOT show messages destined to known ID's (the things broadcast under normal conditions like coolant temp). For me these are ID's 0x160, 0x180, 0x1f9, 0x182, 0x580, 0x551 and 0x6e2. Connect the ELM32 Bluetooth adapter to the diagnostic (OBD) port which I know works with the Android software on my phone which talks Nissan Consult 3 protocol ... no easy suite of OBD2 for me unfortunately. Go about connecting via the Android application to the dongle and ECM whilst 'sniffing' the CAN network via the Arduino. Turns out there are commands that need to be sent before you can query the parameters successfully, annoying. Go about logging data for a specific metric one at a time if possible via a custom 'dashboard' in the Android app. For example I setup a dash with ONLY the gas pedal position ... in the Arduino serial debug I can see the CAN messages that are being sent by the Android app as well as the reply from the ECM. Make note of the request payload and all of the responses plus what real world value they correspond with. For example to get the gas pedal position I know the request is sent to the ECM diagnostic ID of 0x7DF and the payload is {0x03, 0x22, 0x12, 0x0D, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00}. For this Nissan generation the ECM replies to ID 0x7E8 with the requested info. An example of the data recorded which allows a formula to be worked out is as below ... you will see the actual values are represented in the bytes that change ... for this metric its bytes 4 and 5 (starting at 0, from the left): 0.67v is represented by {0x05,0x62,0x12,0x0D,0x00,0x86,0x00,0x00} 1.05v is represented by {0x05,0x62,0x12,0x0D,0x00,0xD2,0x00,0x00} 1.50v is represented by {0x05,0x62,0x12,0x0D,0x01,0x2C,0x00,0x00} 2.23v is represented by {0x05,0x62,0x12,0x0D,0x01,0xBE,0x00,0x00} 2.81v is represented by {0x05,0x62,0x12,0x0D,0x02,0x32,0x00,0x00} 3.06v is represented by {0x05,0x62,0x12,0x0D,0x02,0x63,0x00,0x00} 3.70v is represented by {0x05,0x62,0x12,0x0D,0x02,0xE3,0x00,0x00} 4.03v is represented by {0x05,0x62,0x12,0x0D,0x03,0x26,0x00,0x00} 4.26v is represented by {0x05,0x62,0x12,0x0D,0x03,0x54,0x00,0x00} 4.42v is represented by {0x05,0x62,0x12,0x0D,0x03,0x75,0x00,0x00} 4.82v is represented by {0x05,0x62,0x12,0x0D,0x03,0xC3,0x00,0x00} So from there you can try and work out how its representing the 'real' value in the data. This is quite the ball ache to be fair !! I used Chat GPT like any good geek to try and avoid fully understanding what I am doing and it got fairly close. In the end the learning from trying to get Chat GPT to do it allowed me to manually muck around with the data and come up with the formula. Good job if you are still reading I won't keep you in suspense any longer, the calculation is (the cool shades guy is an 8 then a right bracket hah): int raw_value = (buf[4] << 😎 | buf[5]; float voltage = raw_value / 200.0; If we take our value of 4.26v buf[4] is 0x03 and buf[5] is 0x54 this would be effectively concatenating the hex values to get 0x0354 (in hex) which is 852 in decimal ... 852 / 200 = 4.26 ta daaaaaaaaa !! Anyhooooo some pictures are below and my source code can be had at the link below also ... its starting to get pretty wild, needs a big refactor at some stage !! https://github.com/david-morton/BMW_E46_Gauge_Cluster_Control

Dang i thought it was all done as there were no dates for this year last time I looked. Is it going to be regular through summer ? My car is definitely more an April fools kinda machine 🤣

I'm in the lower North Shore and would come to Orewa for a tootle 👍🚗

Got a great condition console (shout out to @Dogballs !!) to mount the screen in when the time is right. Good progress also after the ethernet shield arrived. Got things all connected and real data is now populating on the screen ... had some teething issues which have all been resolved now. Not sure if folks are interested in the technical aspects or just keen to see pretty pictures ? Let me know if there is interest else i'll just keep a high level speel going. Next up will be back to trying to request the more interesting data from the ECM which is not streamed by default. On to the pics ... Raspberry Pi mounted to the back of the screen with HDMI jumper installed (comes with screen). Arduino and 3x shields now plus power distribution to the side. Getting things up and running USB power adapters for screen and Pi

This is indeed what I seek Mr Balls ... what do you want for it ?

Nothing of any great news here ... ordered an ethernet shield for the Arduino as it dawned on me that I probably don't need anything more powerful once I remove the existing display which is in the glove box. So as a first cut I'll simply link the Arduino to the Pi directly via ethernet and send forth the information 🤓 The other benefit of using the Arduino over ESP32 will be it works at 5v already (instead of 3.3v) so I can wire up the sensors more easily. Might be a challenge getting some of the more fun information (A/F ratios say) from the Nissan ECU as its not published onto the CAN bus and instead I may have to try and get it into diagnostic mode and query the params instead or some such black magic. Good news is once I crack that nut I can also get any DTC codes and check light status. On the physical front I'm trying to get a hold of another console so I can look to get the screen mounted.

Looking for the console / trim in front of the shifter. Assume every model has the cigarette lighter in there ? If not prefer one which is a generic storage compartment. Only need one switch cubby for the ASC (which I likely remove anyhow since its non functional) ... so fewer switch compartments the better really. I will be mounting my wizzy 7.9" screen into the upper of this thing so no need for the sun glasses holder or what ever may be in that location.

Been following the progress here, very cool. I predict within 6 months its a fully stripped race car for the road 🤣

I'm branching off into another time consuming side hustle to get a fancy screen replacing my 5x gauges ... started a separate thread to cover that one which can be found here:

So I've become a bit tired of my 5x regular gauges and I'd like to display a wider range of data (A/F ratios per cylinder bank, maybe speed / rpm, some performance stats etc). Also want to get the space in the console back so I can install a proper Android Auto head unit or similar. As I've already got a micro controller in the car hooking into the BMW and Nissan CAN buses its only a short(ish) jump to displaying things of interest on a screen. I came across Waveshare who make a really amazing range of screens and ordered the 7.9" 1280x400 capacitive touch model. Its about the size of a single DIN unit which should work really well ... will drive this with a Raspberry Pi mounted to the back of it. Will run Grafana on the Pi and stream data to it from the micro ... which I will change from an Arduino to much more capable ESP32 also. Anyhooooo ... a picture is worth a thousand words so here is the display and a simple mock up dash running off the Pi.

Not sure if you're getting my messages @Harper ? Lets get a deal happening before i go buy a helmet or new stereo instead

Sent you a PM earlier @Harper just mentioning in case you've missed it. You know you want the bits to go to a good Auckland home where you can check on them from time to time 🤣 Will pickup also so no need to package, we all hate wrapping things.

Damn !!! That sucks ... was it bare metal and rusting as we speak ?

Assume subject should be E46 coupe not cube ? I could be tempted, in true kiwi Trademe style ... swop four wood 1's and kAsh yur way ?? haw haw haw Hard to say what they're worth, at present I'm thinking in percentages of MFactory LSD's and $9xx is certainly a fair percentage of that.

I went in to Rapid Radio the other week, they seem to be focusing on the higher end of things and will likely have a few clues depending on what you're after.

Still jealous of the Draggy !! I'll have to change my code for 0-60 for comparison, but then i might need to pop a gear change in there hah I quite enjoyed trying to launch it, few tyre roasting experiences 🚭 Just realised i never did a 80-120 using 2nd gear to start !! Classic, will have to give it a go.

I'm waiting for some kind of meet up ... hopefully on a cloudy day as the no aircon life is tough Been working on the tuning lately, lots of learning and some doing ... got out for a good run tonight to Silverdale and around. First time finding the rev limiter at 7650 uphill on an onramp in 2nd for data logging. Looks like I'm out of injectors which is surprising !! Although it was running quite rich hmm. First real run into open loop territory. Did some 0-50's also which were a lot of fun with no modern traction control etc

It's January ya crazy capitalist supermarket cartel !!! Did I buy some ... why yes I did