HMS Motorsports car party

Posted on by Ian C.

I went to HMS Motorsport in Peabody today, to a “Car Party” which was supposed to be for many BMW and MINI owners to get together, chat, show off their cars, etc. Sadly the threat of thunderstorms seemed to scare off many owners; apart from two MINIs owned by people that work at HMS, mine was the only MINI there! I had washed and waxed it yesterday, so it looked quite good – I got an award for “Best MINI Cooper”, but since I was the only car there I feel a bit guilty!
There were some other cars there, including a great looking Nissan 300ZX which got a prize for best non-BMW:


I bought some discounted Zymol products to make GBMINI even more shiny next time I show it off, so HMS got some return for their prize 🙂
The event was nowhere near as good as the MINI Peabody events, partly because there were so few MINIs, partly because there was no free food, and mostly because the general atmosphere was much less fun.
Hopefully when they do it again next year, more MINIs will turn up and it will be a better event!

Hacking the MINI iBus

Posted on by Ian C.

With information from the Yahoo HackTheIBus group, I have been analyzing the data which the factory head unit sends to the Harmon Kardon amplifier, to persuade it to work.
My work colleague Christian built this circuit for me, which allows a PC to monitor the communications:

iBus monitor circuit

I used some monitoring software (now downloadable from Sourceforge), written by Franck Touanen, to monitor the data messages sent from the head unit at turn-on, while trying different bass/treble/fade/balance/volume/mode settings.
So I can now identify what data is sent to the HK amplifier for each of the above settings. The audio control messages are curiously designed; in particular the volume control is very strange – it has a range of 63 steps, and data messages can be sent to adjust it up or down from 1 to 15 steps. So at turn-on a number of “volume up” data messages are sent (for example: if the volume is at position 33, two “up 15” messages are sent, followed by one “up 3” message).
My next task will be to make a circuit which transmits the appropriate messages, then see if it enables me to run the Harmon Kardon amplifier without the factory head unit.
ALSO:
Jayson Walker (owner of a Chili Red MCS with many performance enhancements) demonstrated his stereo system today. He has a DVD playing head unit which plays through the navigation screen (some details here).
He has a JL Audio amplifier but does not have subs in his car; yet the bass really gets the seats vibrating. Clearly the Harmon Kardon system is missing some low end … I might yet have to follow the lead of “scooterboy” and add a small sub to my car.

MINI USA nasty legal stance #3

Posted on by Ian C.

Mark Ferguson (owner of MCOL) has posted an update on the situation with the BMW lawyers:
… We did receive a new letter from BMW’s legal team … they attempted to provide some additional clarification on how they are classifying sites as enthusiast vs. commercial … they indicate that enthusiast sites (eg – clubs) can not have links to commercial sites such as a MINI-focused vendor and be able to have MINI or MINI COOPER in their name. This is still confusing to me in that clubs do not typically have any form of financial benefit for doing so …

So the BMW legal position still appears to be that if I have a link to, for example, the excellent Hot Pocket, then I should not have “mini” in my web domain name! Even though I make no money from that link; and even though MINI USA has no equivalent product so they are not losing any business.