custom CD43 / carputer audio jukebox

[TLK]

This was my fall M3 project. Last winter I finally got the DLS amp in the trunk and completed the replacement of all parts of the hk sound system. Finally, now I needed a huge jukebox to randomly play hundreds of songs in high-fidelity. And I want to emulate the i-bus cdchanger so that the CD43 can control the playback and also display artist/titles.

Voila.

Sure, Ipod is cheaper, easier, but this ain't tinny sounding MP3s were talking about. All 600 of my currently loaded songs are losslessly encoded using a format called FLAC.

This is a mini-itx system using a Jetway board in a Morel case. I still have a lot of space left on the laptop-type hard drive. Playback hardware is no silly Turtle Beach Roadie USB based external DAC, I crammed a X-Fi ExtremeMusic into the case but had to delete the DVD drive. Mounting the case was an entire project in itself, but this is how I spent time this fall since the M3's been in such good shape, all it needs is tires.

The picture shows the computer mounted in the trunk on the CDchanger bracket. The horrible looking YouTube video shows the jukebox in action, where I operate through the CD43 buttons and song titles are being displayed. I start on playlist (CD) 1, which contains all 600 songs. Later I switch "CDs" to other playlists. I have a mellow one, and a rockin' one. I turn on random play with the CD43 RND button and then notice that the songs come up randomly.

The ultimate stealth stereo upgrade it complete. Speakers all changed, yet appear stock from inside the cabin. Amp changed, CD changer replaced.

TLK
'93 325i sedan
'98 M3 sedan

[TLK]

Sorry the original got messed. Pardon super low quality, no actual video camera available.
TLK
'93 325i sedan
'98 M3 sedan

[95DayVI]

casette adapter, don't cringe!_______
GC RTAB shims, RSMs, T/S Coilover with Koni DA f/SA R & 450#f/550#r Eibach ERS
Eyeball Arm CA mounts
Sunbelt CAMS w chip for 24# injectors, Euro MAF, Conforti/ITG CAI
96+ exhaust manifolds
Euro fLoAtErS, Ferodo DS2500
accessory UDPs
M roadster lever
All done in my garage

[wizman007]

[TLK]

It takes about 45 sec to come out of hibernation and little bit longer to load stabilize so the playback doesn't have dropouts.

I was going to add a menu system to allow navigating to an individual song, but haven't had time. Clearly skipping forward and backwards with 600 songs on the playlist isn't going to get you anywhere fast. Sometimes I can get close with random play and then drop out of random and skip to what I want. But mostly I just keep it on random let it play.

Output level is matched to the indash CD so they both sound the same volume when playing the same track. Windows mixing is disabled so as to avoid sound quality degradation. Although I have replay gain data stored for all tracks, I quickly found that the output level had to remain fixed to avoid issues with the signal being too high or low for the amp. Whatever, I just use the volume knob on the CD-43 as before for tracks louder or softer than usual.


TLK
'93 325i sedan
'98 M3 sedan

[kevin72]

did you use to connect/integrate the PC with the I-bus? And I guess you have some kind of accessory-powered relay to tell it when to hibernate/wake up? I've always wanted to do this, if only for the ability to update the playlists over wifi, instead of taking the iPod out, plugging it in to a computer, etc. Great work!


Kevro

[TLK]

I used the Car2PC interface. They have a website. I got the Car2PC BMW unit. It comes with a USB driver, and a WinAmp plugin. Support comes in the form of a BBoard you can post in. Although they did cut a new firmware rev for me based on my problems I had with CD43, the support generally not too good. I did convince them to give all the pieces of the plugin's source code, and ported it to a more recent Visual C++ version and then modified to do scrolling and generally work better.

So yes, Winamp is the player I'm using. It's pretty ideal for this purpose.

The M1-ATX 90W power supply board I used is exactly the same size as the original power supply board inside the Morex case, except that includes the startup/shutdown controller on it. All that's needed is a switched 12V input to serve as the start/stop signal.
TLK
'93 325i sedan
'98 M3 sedan

[kevin72]

Kevro

[dephs]

pilot g7 pens FTW!!

[bigblock]

that is really bad [Oops!] TLK.I use a $10 adapter to run my mp3 player through my cassette player [IMG][IMG]img=137859[/IMG][IMG]