jochen 4 Report post Posted July 21, 2006 Well tonight I got stuck in. Parked the 540 in the garage, disconnected the battery and started dismantling. Out came the Japanese VICS receiver (for Japanese traffic information) - not needed. Means my antenna cable to the radio is now 2m shorter = more signal (in theory :-) Removed the nav unit + housing from it's centre boot location (why do they stick it there? On a Euro BMW it's on the left hand side!) Out came the VICS loom between old Alpine Jap nav unit and the VICS receiver, more dead weight. Out came the old Jap nav unit, that's also dead weight. Out came the old GPS receiver, more dead weight as the new nav unit has the GPS receiver built in. Test fitted the new nav unit in the location and struck... SNAG #1 - the GPS antenna cable has a different connector on my '97 E39 and won't fit the Mk3 or Mk4 nav unit. Bugger. On the '99 E39 I did the other day the connectors are the same. Oh well - dismantled the old dead-weight GPS receiver with a view to using the socket + bit of coax as an adapter cable. But I need to find a plug for the nav unit. Might have to get a new GPS antenna cable from a wreckers (hope I find one)... So then I thought I'd check my ABS unit was the same as the other E39, and struck... SNAG #2 - the ABS hydraulic unit is completely different, and does not have the connections I need. 30min later and some research revealed that the E38 instructions I have cover this scenario - have to hook the wheel speed sense wire to the ABS control unit under the dash. Whew. So time for bed, car is in pieces, tomorrow I bite the bullet and start cutting connectors and fitting new ones! Wait for the next installment... Jochen (your crazy nav system hacker...) Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
martyyn 2 Report post Posted July 21, 2006 Dont forget to take photos Jochen, Im really interested to see how you get on with this. Cheers Martyn Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jochen 4 Report post Posted July 21, 2006 Update 11am Saturday morning: Professional tuner unit fitted (easy) New connectors at nav unit fitted. Old wiring loom removed between nav and old GPS receiver - had to undo that horrible sticky black cloth tape, but I did it up again afterwards :-) Reverse light wire run and connected - had to remove CD changer and amplifier to run the wire neatly. Decided not to bother running it all the way to the front to the Light Control Module, I just tapped into the reverse light wire on the tail lights. Function checked: Oh no - here I have hit... SNAG #3 - my video module (TV tuner) is a special Jap version. Turns out my nav is an early Mk1, and the video module has an extra board inside and an extra cable just for the Jap nav unit. Grrr.. Tried connecting the nav unit to the tuner module as per the Euro wiring - but tuner didn't recognise nav unit. Damn. So have temporarily connected nav to tuner loom, and left tuner off. Function test (even thoughI have no GPS antenna) - nav, radio, CD all working. Only thing left to do: 1. Make up a GPS antenna cable adapter - or get a new GPS antenna cable (rather not) 2. Run the wire to the ABS control unit Till next update... photos to come... Jochen Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jochen 4 Report post Posted July 22, 2006 Update Saturday 1:23pm Went to my friends house, found an RF cable with the right connector for the GPS antenna socket. Made an adapter lead using the pigtail (short cable) from the old Alpine GPS receiver and the new coax cable + conenctor from my friend. Connected GPS antenna to nav unit and... IT WORKS! Within 2 min the nav unit had acquired my position. Took another 15min of driving for the nav unit to receive the GPS almanac Now it's all going - I'm very happy. Not yet with TV, I'll have to get another TV tuner, so I've bypassed the TV system at the moment, which means the nav unit is living in inside a cardboard box on the boot floor at the moment, but that's cool One last thing to do: run the wire to the ABS unit for the wheel speed pulses. Gotta go and run a wire... Jochen Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Rona318ti 0 Report post Posted July 22, 2006 Jochen what you guys do is just brillient, i can only decribe it as magic and you must have balls the size of ..... just to start touching all the expensive electronics. great! Ian Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jochen 4 Report post Posted July 22, 2006 Update Saturday 10:27 pm Well nav is fine but still no TV. I've managed to run the wire from the boot along the LH cable duct to the front footwell, but ran out of time as friends were coming for tea. Took the system for a test drive with the kids - my nice nav lady told me how to get to Cornwall park, then Mt Eden Must find a good German name for her... :-) Professional tuner works really well. Still looking for a Mk2 or later TV tuner - anyone out there who is a BMW wrecker got one for me?? Took a heap of photos, will load them maybe tomorrow. Going to go and plot a course to Miranda hot springs tomorrow.... take the car for a nice burblely V8 run.... Jochen Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
BMW POWER 2 Report post Posted July 23, 2006 Congratulations Jochen - Such an enormous acheivment and you really do have guts (and brains!) to pull all this shizz apart. Perhaps you should start actively advertsing this conversion around the place when you have everything sorted. Such a great idea, that has been put into practice and has worked! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jochen 4 Report post Posted July 23, 2006 (edited) Here's some photos as promised 1. Never do anything like this without lots of knowledge and the full instructions :-) 2. Here's all the Jap nav system removed from the car - Jap nav unit on the left, followed by the VICS receiver, the Jap radio tuner, and in front is the GPS receiver - all redundant 3. Here's the wiring loom removed - the VICS antenna extension cables, the VICS wiring loom, and the GPS wiring loom 4. Here is the new Nav unit - actually 2 of them, Mk4 on top, Mk3 on bottom. I'm fitting the Mk3 as I promised the Mk4 to someone 5. Here's a rear view of the Mk3 and mk4 - notice the similarity :-) 6. Here's a pic of the boot - professional tuner is fitted and working, video module is removed (RH side) as I was trying to nut out why I had no TV... was a compatibility issue! So nav got plugged in to video module connector temporarily - which is why it has been redirected from rear seat wall to centre of boot (blue plug by itself) 7. Here's the nav unit, ready to be connected, except the GPS antenna cable plug was different, so I couldn't plug it in :-( I made an adapter after this photo. This was all the photos so far, I'll take some more tomorrow and some screen shots as well. Cheers, Jochen (Jap import 540i with full factory NZ nav system) Edited July 23, 2006 by jochen Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jochen 4 Report post Posted July 25, 2006 Update Tuesday evening 10:44pm Just finished hooking up the ABS wheel pulses to the nav unit Now I have all the sensor inpurs complete and my dear little car will no longer get confused when it canot see the sky - like in my work car park, underground :-) Anyone want to see some screenshots? Jochen Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Huttey 0 Report post Posted July 26, 2006 Yep, sure do, you've almost convinced me to go down this road Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
