An Andream Question - F11 if it matters.
Discussion
I'll try to keep this brief.
I had an Andream unit in my E61 and then put one in my E91. In both of those, there was no need to plug in a 3.5mm aux cable to get audio. It just worked out the box with idrive set to aux-in. And notably on both of those cars the skip track buttons on the steering wheel worked with apple carplay.
I put an andream unit in my F11 and this time, I had to plug a 3.5mm aux cable into the port on the centre armrest cubby to be able to use the unit with aux-in on idrive. I could use the unit without that cable if I used factory bluetooth for the idrive and in that secnario the skip tracks buttons worked on the wheel and I'd also see what song is playing on the cluster (not that important!). But Bluetooth was a pain in the arse as 1 in 5 times I'd get in the car I'd end up having to unpair my phone and start again with the connection. And it seemed to hate my wife's phone. Seems it's a common BMW issue on cars of that age. So it's generally much more convenient using the aux in and the cable is all hidden so no big deal but..... the track skip toggle on the steering wheel don't work. I'd sort of accepted this and used it like this for months but I remember the other day that it worked just fine on my other two cars so maybe I don't have to put up with this.
Anyone know anything about this topic and potential work arounds?
I had an Andream unit in my E61 and then put one in my E91. In both of those, there was no need to plug in a 3.5mm aux cable to get audio. It just worked out the box with idrive set to aux-in. And notably on both of those cars the skip track buttons on the steering wheel worked with apple carplay.
I put an andream unit in my F11 and this time, I had to plug a 3.5mm aux cable into the port on the centre armrest cubby to be able to use the unit with aux-in on idrive. I could use the unit without that cable if I used factory bluetooth for the idrive and in that secnario the skip tracks buttons worked on the wheel and I'd also see what song is playing on the cluster (not that important!). But Bluetooth was a pain in the arse as 1 in 5 times I'd get in the car I'd end up having to unpair my phone and start again with the connection. And it seemed to hate my wife's phone. Seems it's a common BMW issue on cars of that age. So it's generally much more convenient using the aux in and the cable is all hidden so no big deal but..... the track skip toggle on the steering wheel don't work. I'd sort of accepted this and used it like this for months but I remember the other day that it worked just fine on my other two cars so maybe I don't have to put up with this.
Anyone know anything about this topic and potential work arounds?
Steering wheel buttons are sent over CAN, same as the iDrive wheel movements. The Andream unit should just pick them up from the bus, not sure why it's not. It might be worth contacting them and asking if there's a firmware update. I can't think what else would cause the problem, if they're working in the car when you're not using Andream then the CAN signals are going across the bus, and if Andream is working with the iDrive wheel then it's picking up CAN signals.
Regarding the aux-in cable, it just depends on how the quadlock connector is wired - some have aux others don't, and I'm not sure if there's a particular pattern (if anything earlier cars seem to be more likely to be wired for aux via the quadlock).
Regarding the aux-in cable, it just depends on how the quadlock connector is wired - some have aux others don't, and I'm not sure if there's a particular pattern (if anything earlier cars seem to be more likely to be wired for aux via the quadlock).
pmorg4 said:
Steering wheel buttons are sent over CAN, same as the iDrive wheel movements. The Andream unit should just pick them up from the bus, not sure why it's not. It might be worth contacting them and asking if there's a firmware update. I can't think what else would cause the problem, if they're working in the car when you're not using Andream then the CAN signals are going across the bus, and if Andream is working with the iDrive wheel then it's picking up CAN signals.
Regarding the aux-in cable, it just depends on how the quadlock connector is wired - some have aux others don't, and I'm not sure if there's a particular pattern (if anything earlier cars seem to be more likely to be wired for aux via the quadlock).
Cheers. Yeah, strange one. But I did wonder if it's to do with the car itself disabling a track skip command when aux-in is selected. I shall contact them as you suggest. Regarding the aux-in cable, it just depends on how the quadlock connector is wired - some have aux others don't, and I'm not sure if there's a particular pattern (if anything earlier cars seem to be more likely to be wired for aux via the quadlock).
So, unless there is a way to code that out, it seems my options are to live with that (doable) or to use bluetooth. The latter is obviously preferable but I found the connection to the car's bluetooth really unreliable and everything seemed to get tied in knots as the andream initially also needs bluetooth to establish the wifi connection. I'll maybe do some digging to find out if there is a way of making that all work better otherwise I think the lesser of evils is to just use the touchscreen to jump tracks.
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