[seancarlin]

Originally Posted by seancarlin

I have the HiFi system. Do others that have that or HK hear music coming from their center speaker in the middle of the dashboard? I don’t hear sound from it when I am in CarPlay mode. I hear sound when I listen to FM radio.

UniChip sent me a new wiring harness and now the audio sounds great. My center speaker and all other speakers work as well. I must have gotten a mis-wired one before.

[Atiqofsweden]

Originally Posted by seancarlin

UniChip sent me a new wiring harness and now the audio sounds great. My center speaker and all other speakers work as well. I must have gotten a mis-wired one before.

Finally! Im glad to hear it worked out for you

[yorks26]

Having read various posts on here, I decided to purchase one of these Unichip Carplay Boxes from Unichip to fit into my E93 (BMW) 3 series with CIC.

Looking at the forums, their website, and youtube videos the box looks great.

However !! when installing it things dont look so good for me, and wondered if anyone has had similar issues.

Immediately after 1st install, the box seems to work for about 3 mins after presseing the #8 button on the dashboard - then the 8.8" screen went blank, and the dashboard error lights lit up like a christmas tree - the dial needles were pulsating.

We turned off the vehicle, and all the errors lights came immediately back on, and the screen came on showing a list of errors, serious electic fault, k-line faults the works.

We immediately removed the box, and put the car back together, errors light still came on, and needed to be cleared with laptop. Thankfully the car was back to normal !

We conatcted Unichip for assistance (Holly Yang / Gary) was told to reinstall as with might have the DIP Switches wrong, so we reinstalled and followed the instructiosn, and again the same issues, contacted Unchip again, was told Gary would FaceTime/Whatsapp with us, if we installed it for a third time - arrnaged a time and place (bearing in mind hte 8 hour time difference), and Gary refused to FaceTime/Whatsapp, he was just very rude, unhelpful, and derodgatory towards me and my audio engineer via text (who has 20 years professional car audio experience)

We believe we have a faulty unit, the wrong unit, or unit with corrupt software from them, so was wondering if anyone has any ideas, or whom has sucessully installed this unit with no issues

[yorks26]

Originally Posted by yorks26

Having read various posts on here, I decided to purchase one of these Unichip Carplay Boxes from Unichip to fit into my E93 (BMW) 3 series with CIC.

Looking at the forums, their website, and youtube videos the box looks great.

However !! when installing it things dont look so good for me, and wondered if anyone has had similar issues.

Immediately after 1st install, the box seems to work for about 3 mins after presseing the #8 button on the dashboard - then the 8.8" screen went blank, and the dashboard error lights lit up like a christmas tree - the dial needles were pulsating.

We turned off the vehicle, and all the errors lights came immediately back on, and the screen came on showing a list of errors, serious electic fault, k-line faults the works.

We immediately removed the box, and put the car back together, errors light still came on, and needed to be cleared with laptop. Thankfully the car was back to normal !

We conatcted Unichip for assistance (Holly Yang / Gary) was told to reinstall as with might have the DIP Switches wrong, so we reinstalled and followed the instructiosn, and again the same issues, contacted Unchip again, was told Gary would FaceTime/Whatsapp with us, if we installed it for a third time - arrnaged a time and place (bearing in mind hte 8 hour time difference), and Gary refused to FaceTime/Whatsapp, he was just very rude, unhelpful, and derodgatory towards me and my audio engineer via text (who has 20 years professional car audio experience)

We believe we have a faulty unit, the wrong unit, or unit with corrupt software from them, so was wondering if anyone has any ideas, or whom has sucessully installed this unit with no issues

Some further information to show whats happening

http://www.touhey.co.uk/carplay/1.MP4

http://www.touhey.co.uk/carplay/2.JPEG

http://www.touhey.co.uk/carplay/3.mov

[Sherry477]

Originally Posted by yorks26

Some further information to show whats happening

http://www.touhey.co.uk/carplay/1.MP4

http://www.touhey.co.uk/carplay/2.JPEG

http://www.touhey.co.uk/carplay/3.mov

looks like you have a E90/E92 i think this only works for the F30 generation.

[seancarlin]

Originally Posted by Sherry477

looks like you have a E90/E92 i think this only works for the F30 generation.

The YouTube below clearly shows it is supported. I wonder if the wrong wiring harness or CarPlay box was provided?

[bargonaut]

I just thought I'd follow up on our experience with UniChip. I finally have a working unit and harness for our 2013 F30 with NBT comobox + Nav. Our BMW has surround cameras and back-up camera. The original harness we received had no audio and disabled the vehicle cameras when installed. After many hours of troubleshooting with China via Skype at night, we determined 1) I needed an AUX adapter cable, and 2) they didn't test with my car setup.

They initially shipped an AUX cable, which I wired into the audio lines. I did have to splice into the harness, but I am familiar with these assemblies. (Don't try to disable these connectors if you don't know how.) The AUX cord has to plug into the jack in the armrest (and stay there) for carplay audio to work with our system. Although this is functional, it's not an elegant solution. They claim the BMW combobox only supports AUX audio signals via the existing wires, so they have to plug into the armrest. It does sound fine -- equivalent to using your headphone output from your phone.

The surround camera problems were only fixed by getting a new unit and harness shipped from China. The initial wiring harness had several missing wires, that failed to pass-through to the factory connector. The new harness solved this by wiring all unused lines straight through. However, you do have to toggle off carplay (press 8) for the cameras to show. I did have to pay return shipping for the original unit, but they didn't charge anything extra.

All-in-all, we're happy with the Carplay features. My wife prefers Apple Maps to the built-in iDrive Navigation. Also, it's much easier to control Spotify and iTunes Music from iDrive vs fiddling with the phone while driving.

If you do have a technical problem, be sure to get in touch with Gary. He is much more qualified to discuss technical issues, but be prepared to take lots of photos and possibly change wiring. If you are not technical, don't try this project. Or, buy from codemybimmer for US support.

[madmunky]

Does anyone know how to get the rear camera working? I have mine wired in but not sure how to activate it?

Also is it possible make the system default to the Unichip box rather than iDrive?

[seancarlin]

Originally Posted by madmunky

Does anyone know how to get the rear camera working? I have mine wired in but not sure how to activate it?

Also is it possible make the system default to the Unichip box rather than iDrive?

1. Press 8 to go into the CarPlay box
2. Press and hold 7 until a menu with camera, parking and FM radio buttons comes up
3. Select camera if you have a backup camera only, or 360 if you have a 360 camera
4. Scroll down and select Exit
5. Anytime the car goes in reverse, the camera will show up

I don’t know how to default to the CarPlay box instead of iDrive

[madmunky]

Originally Posted by seancarlin

1. Press 8 to go into the CarPlay box
2. Press and hold 7 until a menu with camera, parking and FM radio buttons comes up
3. Select camera if you have a backup camera only, or 360 if you have a 360 camera
4. Scroll down and select Exit
5. Anytime the car goes in reverse, the camera will show up

I don’t know how to default to the CarPlay box instead of iDrive

Cheers, worked

Are there any plans for UniChip to support the guidelines moving with the steering wheel?

[seancarlin]

Originally Posted by madmunky

Cheers, worked

Are there any plans for UniChip to support the guidelines moving with the steering wheel?

My steering wheel lines work when my car starts moving.

[madmunky]

Originally Posted by seancarlin

My steering wheel lines work when my car starts moving.

Umm will have to try it again, is there anywhere to get the latest firmware/updates?

[Atiqofsweden]

Originally Posted by seancarlin

My steering wheel lines work when my car starts moving.

my lines are even working when the car is standing still with the ignition on!

[madmunky]

Seems to be all working today yay

Though I have an issue with the audio cutting out for a split second randomly anyone else had this, I thought maybe a loose wire but banged around and it doesn't seem to impact it.

[Pdankwerth]

Installed yesterday on 2016 base 320 A bit of fiddling to run some wires in the headliner to the microphone and usb to armrest and some static on the display on in CarPlay mode. Emailed unichip and they got back to me overnight. Flipped the dip switches to LHLHL and no issues. So far, very happy.

[madmunky]

Originally Posted by Pdankwerth

Installed yesterday on 2016 base 320 A bit of fiddling to run some wires in the headliner to the microphone and USB to the armrest and some static on the display on in CarPlay mode. Emailed Unichip and they got back to me overnight. Flipped the dip switches to LHLHL and no issues. So far, very happy.

What was the issue you email them about, the static? So far really happy with mine my only slight issue is on apple maps it's hard to see the roads (grey on white) not sure if the screen needs to maybe be slightly brighter or what.

[Pdankwerth]

When I turned on CarPlay, I was getting a white line along the left side of the screen from top to bottom. Was like a staticky line. Not very noticeable except in maps. The dip switch change fixed it. Set to the second bmw 800 x 480 resolution based on a post of install instructions on page 4 of this thread. It’s the innolux display under NBT.

[matty81]

Hi, I'm looking at getting one of these for my 2015 335 with pro nav. I'm a bit confused on if I would need the extra Aux cable, whats this for exactly?

Also I have changed my speakers and have an audison prima 8.9 amp do I need to do anything extra?

Thanks

[Pdankwerth]

Send them your vin number and they will tell you what’s needed. It uses the six input, so if you still want six in, you need a splitter.

[matty81]

Cool will do. I had an amp fitted so I’m guessing this will use an input

[matty81]

Looking at the install video only the harness goes into the back? Non of the other plugs

[Pdankwerth]

Meant aux, not six. Harness goes into back of head unit. Other end plugs into factory harness. Leads from harness then plug into display and into back of smart play box. bargonaut posted install instructions on page 4 of the thread.