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      08-09-2020, 01:43 AM   #111
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Quote:
Originally Posted by zhoushilun View Post
Quote:
Originally Posted by kevinb21 View Post
I have a 2013 328i with navigation and the larger 8.8in screen, I wanted to do a Carlinkit CarPlay retrofit so I contacted Carlinkit and they requested a picture of my idrive screen and my vin. I sent it to them and they told me my car has cic, so they sent out a cic unit. That makes sense as my car has the smaller controller and the interface isn't the same as nbt. When I got the cic unit I installed it to the car but it wouldn't work and the idrive screen said no signal instead of displaying CarPlay.... the origional headunit on the car says "CIC-HIGH".... is there a way I can get the cic CarPlay unit to work? Or do I need to buy an nbt unit? Or is there such thing as a special cic-high unit????
Nonono, do not do the Carlinkit, I had one and they are horrible, no signal for navigation except the Apple map, very low volume for the microphone, overheat my iphone when I connect by wire.
Did you contact their tech support? Understand it's very good.
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      08-12-2020, 09:42 PM   #112
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What model year did nbt come in the f30?
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      08-13-2020, 06:24 AM   #113
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Hi. I've just purchase the Road Top CarPlay from Amazon for my 2014 F30, relatively easy to install and everything is working correctly apart from the tone from the parking sensors.

When I go into reverse the screen switches to the Parking Sensor screen as normal but there's no tone / beep when it detects an obstruction.

Has anyone else found a workaround for this?
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      08-19-2020, 08:16 AM   #114
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Originally Posted by ianlaverick View Post
Hi. I've just purchase the Road Top CarPlay from Amazon for my 2014 F30, relatively easy to install and everything is working correctly apart from the tone from the parking sensors.

When I go into reverse the screen switches to the Parking Sensor screen as normal but there's no tone / beep when it detects an obstruction.

Has anyone else found a workaround for this?
Strange, it just worked after installing in my F20 2012. Did not change anything.
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      08-27-2020, 10:44 PM   #115
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Originally Posted by f304dr View Post
On page 4 of this thread it says they got it with their roadtop kits and not sold separately, maybe ask the seller? Im going to ask if its included as well.

Edit: just asked the seller and he said it comes with it. Going to try to cancel my current order and get the roadkit.
My current unit (Cartizan) was awesome but I decided to order the road top unit as the seller said it will come with the mic tap.

Hopefully, everything will work out

Last edited by Fishie; 11-01-2020 at 12:19 PM..
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      09-30-2020, 12:52 PM   #116
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man have i been searching for this thread for years. don't know how i did not find it earlier. i have a 09/2012 build and am 95% sure i have CIC High with the 6 pin connector. going to order the Road Top NBT version and try this out.

it sounds like the mic tap comes with the NBT version from road top. the one question i have is, has anyone wired in a backup camera with this MMI?

i don't have a backup cam and was thinking of doing that retrofit at the same time.
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      10-15-2020, 04:41 PM   #117
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Quote:
Originally Posted by aps View Post
man have i been searching for this thread for years. don't know how i did not find it earlier. i have a 09/2012 build and am 95% sure i have CIC High with the 6 pin connector. going to order the Road Top NBT version and try this out.

it sounds like the mic tap comes with the NBT version from road top. the one question i have is, has anyone wired in a backup camera with this MMI?

i don't have a backup cam and was thinking of doing that retrofit at the same time.
I know, I started this thread looking for answers too after I bought a 400$ cic CarPlay paperweight. I got the road top unit. It's not bmw own level good but it's honestly great. I love it, for the backup camera the unit has a reverse camera trigger and input. Theoretically you just get power from the reverse lights or something to trigger the unit and a camera mounted and it should do the trick when the car is in reverse but I can't make any assurances. my car has the oem reverse camera. As for the mic, it gives you an adapter to use the oem one but I opted just to run a new mic and clip it to the a pillars due to my laziness, good luck with this project If anyone needs help feel free to message me!
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      10-16-2020, 06:05 PM   #118
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Quote:
Originally Posted by kevinb21 View Post
Quote:
Originally Posted by aps View Post
man have i been searching for this thread for years. don't know how i did not find it earlier. i have a 09/2012 build and am 95% sure i have CIC High with the 6 pin connector. going to order the Road Top NBT version and try this out.

it sounds like the mic tap comes with the NBT version from road top. the one question i have is, has anyone wired in a backup camera with this MMI?

i don't have a backup cam and was thinking of doing that retrofit at the same time.
I know, I started this thread looking for answers too after I bought a 400$ cic CarPlay paperweight. I got the road top unit. It's not bmw own level good but it's honestly great. I love it, for the backup camera the unit has a reverse camera trigger and input. Theoretically you just get power from the reverse lights or something to trigger the unit and a camera mounted and it should do the trick when the car is in reverse but I can't make any assurances. my car has the oem reverse camera. As for the mic, it gives you an adapter to use the oem one but I opted just to run a new mic and clip it to the a pillars due to my laziness, good luck with this project If anyone needs help feel free to message me!
got the same one off of amazon. great product
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      10-28-2020, 09:00 AM   #119
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just picked it up off amazon and a backup camera. going to try the install this weekend!
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      11-03-2020, 07:14 PM   #120
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So I installed this Road Top unit over the wknd and it's been great so far. Impressed with the wireless connectivity on initial startup. Almost immediate. There is sometimes an input delay, but that's been the only somewhat negative I can think of.

I confirmed that I had CIC_High and the NBT plugs worked without any issues. I did run the mic extension over to my OEM mic which also functioned immediately as expected.

I ran out of time to wire up the aftermarket backup camera that I bought separately, which is honestly the main reason I bought this unit, so that'll be the next project, but very happy with this MMI.

Thanks to everyone in this thread for their feedback!
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      11-06-2020, 02:13 PM   #121
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Quote:
Originally Posted by aps View Post
So I installed this Road Top unit over the wknd and it's been great so far. Impressed with the wireless connectivity on initial startup. Almost immediate. There is sometimes an input delay, but that's been the only somewhat negative I can think of.

I confirmed that I had CIC_High and the NBT plugs worked without any issues. I did run the mic extension over to my OEM mic which also functioned immediately as expected.

I ran out of time to wire up the aftermarket backup camera that I bought separately, which is honestly the main reason I bought this unit, so that'll be the next project, but very happy with this MMI.

Thanks to everyone in this thread for their feedback!
Great to hear that your experience with it has been good so far! I've realized the mess searching for units myself with the confusion of CIC and NBT in the early F30s. My two questions for you are
1) As you have the larger OEM display, does carplay fill the screen or only do half of it..I've seen some units do the later and want to avoid it.

2) When you say you ran the mic extension, did you replace the OEM mic, splice it in, or did it come with a plug and play adapter?

Thanks!
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      11-06-2020, 04:20 PM   #122
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Joseph55 View Post
Quote:
Originally Posted by aps View Post
So I installed this Road Top unit over the wknd and it's been great so far. Impressed with the wireless connectivity on initial startup. Almost immediate. There is sometimes an input delay, but that's been the only somewhat negative I can think of.

I confirmed that I had CIC_High and the NBT plugs worked without any issues. I did run the mic extension over to my OEM mic which also functioned immediately as expected.

I ran out of time to wire up the aftermarket backup camera that I bought separately, which is honestly the main reason I bought this unit, so that'll be the next project, but very happy with this MMI.

Thanks to everyone in this thread for their feedback!
Great to hear that your experience with it has been good so far! I've realized the mess searching for units myself with the confusion of CIC and NBT in the early F30s. My two questions for you are
1) As you have the larger OEM display, does carplay fill the screen or only do half of it..I've seen some units do the later and want to avoid it.

2) When you say you ran the mic extension, did you replace the OEM mic, splice it in, or did it come with a plug and play adapter?

Thanks!
Sure man -
1. it fills the whole screen. I would have returned it if it was only partial because I agree, it is way better with full screen.
2. mic adapter was 100% plug and play. ran the wire across the steering column and up into the headliner. kiesmotorsports has a good video on how to do this and the adapter looks the exact same as the bimmertech plug and play adapter.
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      11-15-2020, 04:50 PM   #123
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Wow am I ever glad I found this thread!

So around a week ago I ordered a CIC MMI box for my 2012 f30 - after doing some more digging regarding the setup process I’ve come across a few people who run into the 6 pin CIC issue. I pulled off my screen and low and behold - 6 pins!

Luckily - AliExpress hasn’t shipped my order yet so I was able to cancel.

I’ve read through the whole thread but have a few questions here before moving forward with purchasing the road top unit

1. Can you guys confirm based on the attached photos that I’m dealing with the same situation as everyone else in this thread (6pin CIC/CIC_high)
2. If this is the case, is this the right box to be going with - with the mic tap and everything else needed included? https://a.aliexpress.com/_mOchrct
3. I’m regards to the mic tap process, can someone go into detail what that entails? If I want to use the OEM mic do I have to run up the A pillar to tap into it? Or is it just a connection I can do on the back of the head unit
4. With the box I sent , I’ve seen a few people say they need to run an aux cable and a few say it’s plug/play. Will I have to pull up my centre console trim and run an a cable from the box to the AUX in port? Or am I misunderstanding here


Thanks in advanced guys! So grateful this thread exists at all, nevermind it being so recent.
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      11-15-2020, 08:04 PM   #124
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Btdubs1 View Post
Wow am I ever glad I found this thread!

So around a week ago I ordered a CIC MMI box for my 2012 f30 - after doing some more digging regarding the setup process I’ve come across a few people who run into the 6 pin CIC issue. I pulled off my screen and low and behold - 6 pins!

Luckily - AliExpress hasn’t shipped my order yet so I was able to cancel.

I’ve read through the whole thread but have a few questions here before moving forward with purchasing the road top unit

1. Can you guys confirm based on the attached photos that I’m dealing with the same situation as everyone else in this thread (6pin CIC/CIC_high)
2. If this is the case, is this the right box to be going with - with the mic tap and everything else needed included? https://a.aliexpress.com/_mOchrct
3. I’m regards to the mic tap process, can someone go into detail what that entails? If I want to use the OEM mic do I have to run up the A pillar to tap into it? Or is it just a connection I can do on the back of the head unit
4. With the box I sent , I’ve seen a few people say they need to run an aux cable and a few say it’s plug/play. Will I have to pull up my centre console trim and run an a cable from the box to the AUX in port? Or am I misunderstanding here


Thanks in advanced guys! So grateful this thread exists at all, nevermind it being so recent.
Ok, you have a cic high head unit. You will be running an aux to your center console where there is an aux in but don't worry you will not need to pull your console or anything like that you simply take off the trim where your I drive controller is and the little rubber in your center console Bin and run it there. Keis Motorsport has an excellent video with more information on that. You need to buy an nbt CarPlay unit that HAS AN EXTERNAL AUX OUT, you will not get Audio if you use a nbt unit with integrated audio to the quad lock!!! . I couldn't confirm the link you sent had that but If you go through the thread and find the one I bought on Amazon I know that unit has the external aux you need. I beleive the one I got was a road top unit? Not sure. Just dig through the thread and you'll see it. As for the mic you have 2 options. Run a new mic like I did or go and do the tap with the factory mic. To tap the factory mic you will be doing it straight from the mic not from the back of your head unit. The keis motorsport video has excellent details on how you can do that. I originally had concern about the cic vs nbt controller protocol but turns out it's not a problem and your nbt unit will work great with your 6 pin nbt 8.8in display. Let this video help you
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      11-16-2020, 08:02 PM   #125
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Couple updates on my Road Top unit:

1. wired up an aftermarket reverse camera with no issues. camera has a yellow RCA male connector that plugged into the carplay unit. sourced camera power in the REM fuse box in the trunk. fairly straightforward install and picture quality is great. made sure to check the aftermarket camera box in the settings and camera flips on as soon as I throw it in reverse.

2. Sound quality - so over the last 2 weeks, I had gotten increasingly bummed out about the sound. I had been running the audio through the Aux input, which I thought was required. At first, the quality didn't seem that bad, but over the last week, it seemed like every song was flat and lacked depth. Even after spending some time with the EQ settings. I knew to kind of expect this given that USB keeps the audio digital and Aux is basically super old tech, but I thought it wouldn't be so obvious. So I was messing around with the iDrive inputs today and either I am an idiot and/or I misread something in all the research, but I figured out you can run the sound through USB (on iDrive) and still flip back to the Carplay screen to control the music! As soon as I switched the input, the sound quality was back to full depth and bass! The difference was way more noticeable going from Aux to USB. Now I basically have zero reason to go to the iDrive other than checking error messages or whatever.

Running the audio through USB with wireless Carplay makes this a no-brainer at $250ish. Zero reason to go for a full fledged headunit upgrade when I can retain OEM sound quality and also add Carplay, backup camera. Feel like I have the best of both worlds now
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      11-16-2020, 08:39 PM   #126
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Quote:
Originally Posted by aps View Post
Couple updates on my Road Top unit:

1. wired up an aftermarket reverse camera with no issues. camera has a yellow RCA male connector that plugged into the carplay unit. sourced camera power in the REM fuse box in the trunk. fairly straightforward install and picture quality is great. made sure to check the aftermarket camera box in the settings and camera flips on as soon as I throw it in reverse.

2. Sound quality - so over the last 2 weeks, I had gotten increasingly bummed out about the sound. I had been running the audio through the Aux input, which I thought was required. At first, the quality didn't seem that bad, but over the last week, it seemed like every song was flat and lacked depth. Even after spending some time with the EQ settings. I knew to kind of expect this given that USB keeps the audio digital and Aux is basically super old tech, but I thought it wouldn't be so obvious. So I was messing around with the iDrive inputs today and either I am an idiot and/or I misread something in all the research, but I figured out you can run the sound through USB (on iDrive) and still flip back to the Carplay screen to control the music! As soon as I switched the input, the sound quality was back to full depth and bass! The difference was way more noticeable going from Aux to USB. Now I basically have zero reason to go to the iDrive other than checking error messages or whatever.

Running the audio through USB with wireless Carplay makes this a no-brainer at $250ish. Zero reason to go for a full fledged headunit upgrade when I can retain OEM sound quality and also add Carplay, backup camera. Feel like I have the best of both worlds now
This is what I'm doing also but with Bluetooth. My harness didn't come with an aux output. I havent changed any of my settings, I just use the carplay interface over the Idrive system. My audio and phone is still connected to Idrive and I can control everything through the carplay interface Way less complicated in my opinion.
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      11-24-2020, 04:23 PM   #127
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Hey guys I have 2017 F31 can I turn carplay on with a simple file on a flash?
I have the large screen, touch pad, wifi antenna, wireless charging, nav and large display in the dash.
S609 Nav Pro
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      11-25-2020, 02:50 AM   #128
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Hey guys I have 2017 F31 can I turn carplay on with a simple file on a flash?
I have the large screen, touch pad, wifi antenna, wireless charging, nav and large display in the dash.
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Do you have the nbt evo? If so most likely you just need to activate CarPlay
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      11-25-2020, 03:43 PM   #129
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Originally Posted by kevinb21 View Post
Do you have the nbt evo? If so most likely you just need to activate CarPlay

I have NBT EVOP183621

I see no option.
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      11-25-2020, 05:21 PM   #130
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Quote:
Originally Posted by aps View Post
Couple updates on my Road Top unit:

1. wired up an aftermarket reverse camera with no issues. camera has a yellow RCA male connector that plugged into the carplay unit. sourced camera power in the REM fuse box in the trunk. fairly straightforward install and picture quality is great. made sure to check the aftermarket camera box in the settings and camera flips on as soon as I throw it in reverse.

2. Sound quality - so over the last 2 weeks, I had gotten increasingly bummed out about the sound. I had been running the audio through the Aux input, which I thought was required. At first, the quality didn't seem that bad, but over the last week, it seemed like every song was flat and lacked depth. Even after spending some time with the EQ settings. I knew to kind of expect this given that USB keeps the audio digital and Aux is basically super old tech, but I thought it wouldn't be so obvious. So I was messing around with the iDrive inputs today and either I am an idiot and/or I misread something in all the research, but I figured out you can run the sound through USB (on iDrive) and still flip back to the Carplay screen to control the music! As soon as I switched the input, the sound quality was back to full depth and bass! The difference was way more noticeable going from Aux to USB. Now I basically have zero reason to go to the iDrive other than checking error messages or whatever.

Running the audio through USB with wireless Carplay makes this a no-brainer at $250ish. Zero reason to go for a full fledged headunit upgrade when I can retain OEM sound quality and also add Carplay, backup camera. Feel like I have the best of both worlds now
Heyo! I have the exact same setup as you here CIC_High and the road top unit working well on AUX - what was the process in running the sound through USB? Did you have to run an additional USB cable to the centre console or anything? Or just literally go into drive and swap the input to USB?

Also separate to this, anyone have any luck coding out the voice button on the steering wheel so it does not trigger the BMW voice assistant, and just Siri?
I have found some guides on how to do this on the true NBT units using bimmercode, but no luck with our CIC high setups
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      12-01-2020, 01:04 PM   #131
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Hi all,

I also own a 2012 F30 with CIC_HIGH with 8.8” display and have tried 2 different options to get carplay to work.

In 2018 I ordered a carplay kit from ali for a CIC system, the seller told me it would be compatible with my car but off course this kit had a 4 pin lvds connector for the display and gave a ‘no signal’ error...
After that one I got the carplay mmi from bimmertech, which did work, but had horrible picture quality, it looked like there was an extra digital to analog conversion going on, the colors looked like a console system on a composite video connection.
Also the audio was really flat and dissapointing..

So I kind of gave up on carplay then, but recently I’ve been looking around and found this thread.

I saw woodcutter mention that in order to get the audio to work, you need to order a unit with a separate aux connection because aux spliced into the connector on the cic does not work.
I’ve been googling around and found a possible solution to that problem:
The cic unit DOES have aux on it’s block connector, but on our cars this input is disabled because we have the combox installed, however it should be possible to enable this input again by coding it.
source: https://www.e90post.com/forums/showp...7&postcount=25

(full thread -> https://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1569700)

I also found something interesting about the microphone input, I re-read the bimmertech installation manuals for their MMI box, they have a version for units with and one without combox, and only the installation for the combox version needs the aux cable and the microphone splitter cable, they both use the same MMI model and rest of the cables.
So it seems that, with a combox installed, both AUX en microphone inputs on the CIC_HIGH unit are disabled, which makes sense, they come from the combox.
At least the AUX input should be codable, but possibly also the microphone input

Did any of you get a NBT carplay kit with audio through the block connection, and if yes, can you test if this works?
Because I’m curious if there is any quality difference when using this aux input instead of the on in the armrest (which has extra resistors and capacitors)

Edit: jared21927 I saw you mention in this thread you use BT for audio because your kit does not have a separate aux connector, is this correct? which kit did you get?

Last edited by BreeeZe; 12-02-2020 at 02:16 AM..
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      12-02-2020, 11:30 PM   #132
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Btdubs1 View Post
Quote:
Originally Posted by aps View Post
Couple updates on my Road Top unit:

1. wired up an aftermarket reverse camera with no issues. camera has a yellow RCA male connector that plugged into the carplay unit. sourced camera power in the REM fuse box in the trunk. fairly straightforward install and picture quality is great. made sure to check the aftermarket camera box in the settings and camera flips on as soon as I throw it in reverse.

2. Sound quality - so over the last 2 weeks, I had gotten increasingly bummed out about the sound. I had been running the audio through the Aux input, which I thought was required. At first, the quality didn't seem that bad, but over the last week, it seemed like every song was flat and lacked depth. Even after spending some time with the EQ settings. I knew to kind of expect this given that USB keeps the audio digital and Aux is basically super old tech, but I thought it wouldn't be so obvious. So I was messing around with the iDrive inputs today and either I am an idiot and/or I misread something in all the research, but I figured out you can run the sound through USB (on iDrive) and still flip back to the Carplay screen to control the music! As soon as I switched the input, the sound quality was back to full depth and bass! The difference was way more noticeable going from Aux to USB. Now I basically have zero reason to go to the iDrive other than checking error messages or whatever.

Running the audio through USB with wireless Carplay makes this a no-brainer at $250ish. Zero reason to go for a full fledged headunit upgrade when I can retain OEM sound quality and also add Carplay, backup camera. Feel like I have the best of both worlds now
Heyo! I have the exact same setup as you here CIC_High and the road top unit working well on AUX - what was the process in running the sound through USB? Did you have to run an additional USB cable to the centre console or anything? Or just literally go into drive and swap the input to USB?

Also separate to this, anyone have any luck coding out the voice button on the steering wheel so it does not trigger the BMW voice assistant, and just Siri?
I have found some guides on how to do this on the true NBT units using bimmercode, but no luck with our CIC high setups
no additional cables. just ran the usb from the idrive input (in the center armrest console) to my phone. on the idrive menu I selected USB for audio rather than aux and then held menu to switch back to the carplay interface. voila! audio through usb, video through carplay interface
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