I-BUS Kit |
| I-Bus interface kit that uses the Melexis th3122 to have a bi-directional
communication with collision detection through the K-Bus found mostly in
BMWs.
This design also uses the USB port to connect to your laptop of PC, instead of a serial port. Since nowadays laptops don't even come with a serial port this kit saves you the hassle and money of buying a serial-to-usb adapter. And also, since PCs have only one serial port (if any) you might want to use it for your GPS. The USB drivers that need to be installed for this emulate a serial port, so even though it uses the USB, the software will think it is connected in the serial port and hence is compatible with existing software out there. Look for your drivers and installation instruction at FTDI website and install the VCP ones. You can use this kit to interact with your car's interface through the I-BUS. For example, you can catch with your laptop when you press the buttons on your steering wheel, or radio buttons, and run something on your computer. And, since this kit is bi-directional, you can also mimic your car's buttons from your laptop like raising the volume, or changing radio stations, or even display some text on your radio screen (MID) or your control pannel. There are many softwares out there that can help you with the mapping of your car's buttons, and you can create simple hot-keys or even create a program around it like in VB. We do not provide help on how to implement this kit as there are a million ways to do it, but we will list some resources and forums you can use to guide you in the right direction: - http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/HackTheIBus - http://www.mp3car.com Note: As far as we know these are the BMWs that support the IBUS/KBUS protocol completely: All e46 3 series models, All e39 5 series models, All e38 7 series models, All e53 X5, All X3, All Z4, All Mini. (Thanks Jason Russell for this info) |
|
|
The board is 1" wide by 2" long. It has a soldermask and a silk screen for easy assembly. |
|
|
Here you can see all the unmounted components of this kit. |
|
|
Picture two shows how nice the board looks in its finished state. |
|
|
Box used for shipping of assambled and unassambled kits (not for PCB only kit). |
|
(1) Locate your IBUS connector in your car. Most of the time I have seen
them in the trunk where the cd-changer goes, but search the internet for
more help on your specific model/year. Connect the board to the IBUS and make
sure nothing heats up. Do NOT connect the board to the USB port of your PC yet.
In my X5 the red wire is +12V, the brown wire is ground, and the white wire is
the IBUS.
(2) Install the USB drivers from the FTDI website (FTDI232BM chip). Please make sure you also download the installation instructions for this process for the same FTDI website. If you have any problems with this step please contact them. Note 1: Make sure you install the VCP drivers as what you need is a virtual COM port! NOTE 2: The board gets its power from the IBUS, so if you do not have it connected to the IBUS your PC will not recognize a new USB device! (3) After installation of the drivers you will see a new serial port in your "Device Manager" (if using wondows). Make sure you check its properties as in our case it gave it COM6 port and the software we use to test these boards only allows us to choose between COM1 through COM4. You can manually change this to the COM port you want but make sure you are not already using it (we used COM2). (4) We recommend using the "IBUS Monitor" software to test your board and also to get the communication commands within your IBUS. You can download it from the varan.org website. With this software you can monitor everything in the IBUS, even pings between devices. You can also save the log and then use it in your custom software. |
|
This is our testing setup where we connect our board to a laptop and the IBUS of an X5 and run IBUS Monitor to make sure we can receive AND send commands within the IBUS. |
|
Closer look at the board connected to the IBUS and the laptop. |
|
Print screen of the IBUS Monitor software. You can see how it recorded my steering wheel volume up/down buttons. If you select one of them and hit Send it will emulate you pressing the steering wheel button. |
We currently are TEMPORARILY OUT OF STOCK on all out boards. Please check with us soon. Thanks! |
| PCB Board | Contains ONLY the PCB board | US$6.99 | |
| Complete Kit ** | Contains PCB board plus all other components needed (NOT mounted) | US$24.99 | |
| Finished Board | Contains PCB board plus all other components needed mounted and tested | US$39.99 | |
|
* Shipping is US$6 for the continental US, and US$10 anywhere else. * Both assambled and unassambled kits are shipped in a small static-proof padded box. ** Note: Please be aware that the usb chip cannot be soldered with a regular solder iron because of its size. *** If you want to pay with money-order or personal check please send us an email to sales@eedesignkits.com for more info. * We are running low on assembled boards so shipping might take up to a week or so from the time you place your order. Thank you for your patience. |
|||