usinjin
07-11-2020, 04:00 PM
I finished my chime retrofit project today. Well, for the time being at least :) Basically, I've replaced the E46 chime/beep that comes from a pietzo buzzer mounted behind the instrument cluster with the ability to play a .wav file through the car's front speakers. In this case, I used a sound clip taken from the 2019+ year BMW's. Any and all of the original chime is replaced with the new one. That includes the "hey it's 37 degrees out" warning which never fails to startle the hell out of me.
At any rate, my goal for the project was to introduce some new element to the car without doing something that had been done countless times before. I'd experimented with hiding smallish speakers behind the dash, but even after running sound through various LP filters, it still sounded quite bad. So I decided to go the extra mile and pipe the sound through the door speakers which resulted in a far nicer sound. Everything is "bolt on" and can easily be reverted to the factory setup. No spliced factory harnesses. I might swap this chime out for the E90 chime if I find a clean sound file.
Yes, it took entirely too long to figure out and work the bugs out of, for such a small cosmetic change. But I learned a ton about how the car works, and I'm not doing anything more important these days anyway. Excessive yes, but also a hugely fun project.
Video below!
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wSAOo-uddX8SGb5tr286moK96Pjc14Fi/view?usp=sharing
At any rate, my goal for the project was to introduce some new element to the car without doing something that had been done countless times before. I'd experimented with hiding smallish speakers behind the dash, but even after running sound through various LP filters, it still sounded quite bad. So I decided to go the extra mile and pipe the sound through the door speakers which resulted in a far nicer sound. Everything is "bolt on" and can easily be reverted to the factory setup. No spliced factory harnesses. I might swap this chime out for the E90 chime if I find a clean sound file.
Yes, it took entirely too long to figure out and work the bugs out of, for such a small cosmetic change. But I learned a ton about how the car works, and I'm not doing anything more important these days anyway. Excessive yes, but also a hugely fun project.
Video below!
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wSAOo-uddX8SGb5tr286moK96Pjc14Fi/view?usp=sharing