Upgrade Touch iDrive Controller

[rimsilva]

Good evening,

After upgrade from the small screen to the 10,25 I would like to upgrade the idrive controller.

Has anyone done that? Can someone share the codding needed?

Thanks

[jfran2]

I think only the dealer can upgrade the iDrive controller. I think the only upgrade we can do is to the entertainment system.

[rimsilva]

I think only the dealer can upgrade the iDrive controller. I think the only upgrade we can do is to the entertainment system.

Don't think so, there are external companies that upgrade the all entertainment system, screen, idrive and head unit.

I found on the internet some code lines to change from one idrive to another, but I would like to get feedback from someone that has done it.

Thanks

[joni3s]

I think only the dealer can upgrade the iDrive controller. I think the only upgrade we can do is to the entertainment system.

Don't think so, there are external companies that upgrade the all entertainment system, screen, idrive and head unit.

I found on the internet some code lines to change from one idrive to another, but I would like to get feedback from someone that has done it.

Thanks

You would probably be more successful on the bimmercode forums and the "reporting" back here just to give others an idea of what you learned. while i like the aesthetics of the newer idrive ocntroller ( the round thing, right), the touch function is really tough to use.

[eNate]

...i like the aesthetics of the newer idrive ocntroller ( the round thing, right), the touch function is really tough to use.

I maybe am guilty of not knowing all of the functions of the touch controller, but for the ones I do use on infrequent occasion, it's very handy.

The handwriting recognition is great. Like, waaay better than the iDrive frustrating voice recognition, and I can input a destination or initiate a web search with an absolute minimum of distraction, while driving.

The other more-than-handy feature of the touch controller is geographic map searches. Say I don't want to go through the trouble of entering a specific address, but I just want to select a point on a map where I want to navigate to. I can use the clunky "four way controller" option of using the scroll wheel to locate my point, but it's far more natural to use the touchpad to get there.

First and foremost, I can use pinch-to-zoom out to view a larger geographic area, then pinch in to focus on a particular area. I can then use one finger scrolling to fine tune the area I want to navigate to, whether it's a regional park, my cousin's general neighborhood, or just a city in general. This isn't a Google maps type scroll wheel & mouse type of precision -- it's still limited to basically 8 degrees of movement -- but it's much more progressive than the binary functionality of the side-to-side controller.

Neither of these would be a big deal to me in any ICE car. In the i3, however, I constantly use the onboard Nav for accurate range predictions, even though I'm running Waze or GMaps on my phone concurrently. So that's the caveat -- if these are features you use, the iDrive touch controller is hella cool. If not, it's not that big a deal.

I believe it may also has uses in multimedia playback, but I'm not sure what those are.

[joni3s]

...i like the aesthetics of the newer idrive ocntroller ( the round thing, right), the touch function is really tough to use.

I maybe am guilty of not knowing all of the functions of the touch controller, but for the ones I do use on infrequent occasion, it's very handy.

The handwriting recognition is great. Like, waaay better than the iDrive frustrating voice recognition, and I can input a destination or initiate a web search with an absolute minimum of distraction, while driving.

The other more-than-handy feature of the touch controller is geographic map searches. Say I don't want to go through the trouble of entering a specific address, but I just want to select a point on a map where I want to navigate to. I can use the clunky "four way controller" option of using the scroll wheel to locate my point, but it's far more natural to use the touchpad to get there.

First and foremost, I can use pinch-to-zoom out to view a larger geographic area, then pinch in to focus on a particular area. I can then use one finger scrolling to fine tune the area I want to navigate to, whether it's a regional park, my cousin's general neighborhood, or just a city in general. This isn't a Google maps type scroll wheel & mouse type of precision -- it's still limited to basically 8 degrees of movement -- but it's much more progressive than the binary functionality of the side-to-side controller.

Neither of these would be a big deal to me in any ICE car. In the i3, however, I constantly use the onboard Nav for accurate range predictions, even though I'm running Waze or GMaps on my phone concurrently. So that's the caveat -- if these are features you use, the iDrive touch controller is hella cool. If not, it's not that big a deal.

I believe it may also has uses in multimedia playback, but I'm not sure what those are.

maybe I haven't learned the character recog well enough.. i've used most of the stuff you've described, with the 8 way scrolling being the most used,

i didn't know it had multimedia playback functionality, i'll have to look into that more.

[eNate]

maybe I haven't learned the character recog well enough.. i've used most of the stuff you've described, with the 8 way scrolling being the most used,

i didn't know it had multimedia playback functionality, i'll have to look into that more.

I was an original Palm Pilot user back in the mid 90's, so "graffiti" handwriting is sort of baked in. The iDrive touchpad is better / worse because it recognizes multi strikes, i.e. lift my finger to "cross" an A or a T, so my single-stroke characters sometimes trip it (me) up.

I only read a passing comment on a generic iDrive non-i3-specific BMW site about multimedia. If there is, I haven't figured it out. In this video, they only reference "multimedia search."


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

[rimsilva]

Already made the upgrade it's plug and play, but no touch control function available (have also codded the HU lines).

Apparently it's necessary an ECE touch module.