[abc2710]

Hi all,

I've completed a fair bit of research both on this forum and through watching several Youtube videos so have a general understanding of what's needed to complete this retrofit.

I've a UK based car built in Jan 2013 with what i'm fairly sure is the bog standard CIC head unit (slow, red outline on selected menu items, 6.5" display with matte black borders, no nav, no EBT, Bimmercode app shows HU CICHB).

For anyone in the know, can I check if the following parts will do the job to retrofit an NBT Head unit, screen and controller? They're being ordered as a set from a supplier.

- 8.8" NBT Screen
- NBT Head Unit
- iDrive controller
- What appears to be a touch controller (BMW 9371374-01)

In addition, I plan to order
- NBT video cable
- GPS antenna
- BT/WiFi antenna (?)

My question is on the topic of getting this to work with my car. I've seen people discuss FSC codes vs emulators over the years. My preference naturally would be to not have to include a non-OEM emulator behind my head unit but if that's still the best option in 2020, so be it.

How feasible/cost-effective is it to not use an emulator and does anyone know how i'd go about it? I'd prefer to do everything DIY if possible. Pretty comfortable with tinkering around with cars and electronics so it's no big deal. There just seems to be a lot of "dark art" about it with most threads of info disappearing into PMs.

[Zheez]

An emulator will cost around £50, perhaps a bit more if you look for one that's a simple plug and play installation.

I bought my FSC codes for $80 over a year ago (£60 or so) so it makes sense to go that route. Even more so now that the place I got mine from (fscmap) is now only charging $40 for NBT (assuming you mean regular NBT and not Evo) so at around £30 it's not only a cleaner solution but it's cheaper too. They just request the last 7 characters of your VIN and then send you a couple of files specific to your car that you copy onto a USB stick and plug into the car. It makes the head unit reboot and after that you're all good.

Not sure if you'd need the BT antenna or whether the CIC HU would already have a connection for that though. One thing to bear in mind is the iDrive controller - do you know if it's the small or large dial variant? From what I remember, the small one is KCAN1 which would be a direct swap in your car but the large one is KCAN2 which would need a bit more messing about with wiring.

[abc2710]

Just found FSCMAP the other day actually so thank you very much for that. Definitely a better option than an emulator

Yes it has a touch controller so is KCAN 2. As I understand it, since i'm not going to use an emulator i'm going to just

1. Buy a simple quadlock wiring harness like this: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Plug-Play...QAAOSwIaFZLX5F
It's basically an extension cable so I don't need to splice anything in the OEM wiring harness.
2. Buy a Y splitter cable like this:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BMW-F10-F...8AAOSwafddidvC
3. Splice in the Y splitter into the quadlock extension cable block

And then... hopefully have a working 609 retrofit? After coding of course.

[abc2710]

For the edification of any future readers...

This parts list seemed to work! There's no need to buy an expensive PNP Quadlock cable for £100+. You can get a quadlock extension cable, some speaker wire and connect the y splitter fairly easily.

The jury is still out on if an emulator is needed or not. I bought some FSC codes to be flashed via USB but the USB is not working which i'm talking about in this thread on the coding subforum: https://f30.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh....php?t=1700578