[realcam]

Got an 8.8" version with camera and installed it this week. https://www.ewaying.de/products/10-2...40577905295512

My 2013 F31 has early CIC UI with business nav S606A (CHAMP). BimmerCode identifies HU_CIC but my LVDS cables are 6-pin. In addition to BT phone I enabled BT audio through coding which is how I listened to phone music/apps until now.

Installation of the main unit (screen) was easy enough, but having little experience the camera install was very difficult and took me several hours. Not the camera itself or the simple wiring diagram, but like others have experienced, running the cable from back to front of the car.
I ran it inside the boot lid through the rubber boot, then down towards the battery and the main wiring loom, then down the right hand side along existing wires under the doorwell covers just past the front seat, then across under the carpet into the centre console and up towards OEM head unit. The cable is just about long enough for this.

It's early days, but for now I'm pleased enough with this unit. Hardware quality seems very solid, good OEM like feel to it. The reverse camera has a perfect picture and works flawlessly all the time.

Where it falls down a bit is manual and documentation which is somewhere between barely adequate to poor. But I knew that going in. It's just a PITA having to ask support for everything and getting piece meal info like that. Wiki badly needed.

Also the overall integration is a bit puzzling. Like you're supposed to connect and pair the CarPlay unit with bluetooth to your phone (iPhone in my case) which establishes some adhoc wifi connection w/o password which the phone seems to auto-connect to. During CarPlay operation then it seems that bluetooth connection gets dropped and all goes over this wifi connection.

Which would make you think bluetooth is only needed for the initial configuration. Which in theory would allow use of the OEM bluetooth and microphone for voice call operations. And there is an 'original bluetooth' option in the settings, but the manual says 'not functional'.

Only that doesnt seem to be the whole truth, because this clearly worked for me for a couple of days. But this morning it wouldn't auto-reconnect until I had CarPlay bluetooth re-paired. I also noticed the name of the wifi connection seems to change and is not persistent. Maybe there are good reasons for this or maybe any approach other than the 'official' one is just not stable or buggy. Who knows, I have to keep playing with this.

Which is where - again - a good wiki would come in handy. Will have to trawl through this thread again to see are there any hidden hints and tweaks in here.

But still, even the way it is right now it's pretty good. Beats the old CIC UI and functions for sure.

Edit (many):
Contacted Ewaying on the question of best quality CarPlay integration, best quality music & voice calls, most reliable reconnects etc.

Their official line is pair bluetooth with CarPlay unit and not use OEM bluetooth. This will handle phone/voice and the unit has its own mic. Audio/music will be over AUX in the armrest. End of. They didn't acknowledge any hybrid approach at all.
Thinking that wired may be the best way. If I had to connect to CarPlay USB for best app integration and to use OEM BT then for voice calls would be acceptable for me. Running a USB extension into centre console to have it all nice and tidy would be easy enough to do, too. Will need to keep playing with it.

[realcam]

After a few days I've come to the following conclusion:

There is a definite drop-off in sound quality between Bluetooth and AUX. AUX quality is not satisfactory to me. Therefore I prefer the OEM Bluetooth configuration as described here.

I have the phone paired with both OEM (voice & audio) and Andream screen bluetooth. Of course only one BT connection can be active at any given time. I'm not sure which it is and there is also a WIFI connection in the mix that I'm not sure what it is doing or not. But I dont really care as long as it works which it does.

So I have OEM BT audio/music and I have OEM BT voice calls both passive & active. Meaning I have good sound quality and I have good phone call quality. And I have CarPlay with sounds/music apps and google maps. The Andream screen appears to act mostly just as a screen/control unit. Not quite sure yet what difference having AUX configured as 'manual' over 'auto' makes.

Back and forth between iDrive and Linux screen works perfectly. iDrive is a bit stretched on the 8" screen, but I dont even notice it anymore after a few days. This looks normal to me already. Both centre console and steering wheel controls work for everything I do both for iDrive and Andream screen navigation also for volume, answer calls etc

I havent gotten down into the finer details yet. As in mixed music and voice during google nav operations. Or Siri. Not a Siri fan anyway.

Overall this is pretty nice functionally and it looks really great. Dont get any glare from the screen. Love the reverse camera.
The hardware is good.

The Andream screen's USB cable I leave behind the easily removable trim under the head unit. I will use this just for boot logo or other updates meaning hardly at all. On the OEM USB in the armrest I use a short USB extension lead with charge/only, data pins not connected. Means when I plug the phone in for charging it wont mess up the entire connection situation by trying to go to OEM USB.

However, the unit seems to have its 'moments', these seem to be down to software. Once it started up just with a black screen but sound was working. Ignition off then back on and it was back to normal. Once it seemed to need a minute or so until it had itself all reconnected.

I'll wait and see how this pans out in the long run. If this remains somewhat stable I'll be very happy with my purchase.