ronbot said:My 2015 finally stopped giving me updates on its condition (and stopped responding to my requests) on 3/10/2022... sad day.
Mine too.
Hoping to try this swap if I can find a 2016/17 box.
Best
:idea:
ronbot said:My 2015 finally stopped giving me updates on its condition (and stopped responding to my requests) on 3/10/2022... sad day.
Smartphones have Bluetooth (very short range), WiFi (short range), and cellular (long range) radios. Connecting directly to an i3 via Bluetooth or WiFi wouldn't be very useful due to their short ranges and pairing requirements.imkazaam said:IMO, it would be better to get an aftermarket module, that could allow your phone to securely connect directly to your i3, bypassing BMW's servers and the cell towers.
eNate said:airman2482 said:Well, here is an update on my 2017 i3 REX and the 4G TCU replaced under the original BMW factory warranty ...
Wait, yours is a 2017? What's your build date?
Are you sure your original box wasn't 4G? My July 11 2016 had a 4G box, despite the screen indicating 3G.
eNate said:airman2482 said:Well, here is an update on my 2017 i3 REX and the 4G TCU replaced under the original BMW factory warranty ...
Wait, yours is a 2017? What's your build date?
Are you sure your original box wasn't 4G? My July 11 2016 had a 4G box, despite the screen indicating 3G.
airman2482 said:Yes I’m sure it was a 3G telematics box (aka “TCB”). My actual build date was 04/17.
EvanstonI3 said:airman2482 said:Yes I’m sure it was a 3G telematics box (aka “TCB”). My actual build date was 04/17.
My 2017 also has a build date of 04/17 and it has an original 4G Telematics Control Unit.
I'm unclear why you continue to insist the original on your car was "3G", particularly when other owners with cars that have earlier build dates also have 4G Telematics.
airman2482 said:The question I ask is: Has anyone done a conversion from NBT ID4 with TCB to a NBT EVO unit with ID5 or 6 and an ATM and got BMW to recognize the new ATM telematics box so connected drive can be used?
I may have a working connected drive setup, but the older NBT ID4 is slower. Would be nice to have built in CarPlay with the newer setup and remote services active.
airman2482 said:And FYI, I have 2 other friends who have 2017 model year cars I helped put RoadTop units in and they did NOT have the new 4G LTE telematics unit installed in mine in their i3 either. Both of them no longer have connected drive.
EvanstonI3 said:airman2482 said:And FYI, I have 2 other friends who have 2017 model year cars I helped put RoadTop units in and they did NOT have the new 4G LTE telematics unit installed in mine in their i3 either. Both of them no longer have connected drive.
well, also FYI- on every other forum where someone with a 2017 stated they only had 3G and lost Connected Drive it turned out their subscription had expired. That's been my experience so far. They were going off the icon on the screen. Your experience as a data point is an outlier and does not make sense when BMW was known to have been putting the 4G modules in since mid July 2016.
I am not saying you are wrong and I am not looking for an argument. It just does not make sense to me given everything I have encountered over the past year.
I would be interested in seeing what the label looks like on your new TCU. particularly where it says "MODEL:"
airman2482 said:EvanstonI3 said:airman2482 said:And FYI, I have 2 other friends who have 2017 model year cars I helped put RoadTop units in and they did NOT have the new 4G LTE telematics unit installed in mine in their i3 either. Both of them no longer have connected drive.
well, also FYI- on every other forum where someone with a 2017 stated they only had 3G and lost Connected Drive it turned out their subscription had expired. That's been my experience so far. They were going off the icon on the screen. Your experience as a data point is an outlier and does not make sense when BMW was known to have been putting the 4G modules in since mid July 2016.
I am not saying you are wrong and I am not looking for an argument. It just does not make sense to me given everything I have encountered over the past year.
I would be interested in seeing what the label looks like on your new TCU. particularly where it says "MODEL:"
Yes, the screen still states “3G”.. I know what you mean.
FWIW: One of the two 2017 i3 owners I know tried to renew his connected drive and services and the person at BMW exclaimed he was “out of luck”…
It’s kind of crappy outside today, and I have a pile of stuff in the back seat, I’ll post a pic this weekend, I have to clean the car out after the winter, now that it’s highway construction season in Minnesota. (It seems there are only two seasons here in MN, winter and highway construction seasons, with a brief pause for the changeover)
And yes, this is a good idea to start a new thread!
Let me dig up the invoice, I’ll begin by giving the old and new part numbers from it.
jaaniwangu8 said:I wonder if the BMW Dealer has to do anything 'special' in registering the modem with BMW, other than programming it to the car with ISTA+?? Does ISTA programming pass on/register the new phone/ID number to the BMW Connected Drive server? Or is there some extra registration step that must be done by a BMW Dealer??
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alohart said:Smartphones have Bluetooth (very short range), WiFi (short range), and cellular (long range) radios. Connecting directly to an i3 via Bluetooth or WiFi wouldn't be very useful due to their short ranges and pairing requirements.imkazaam said:IMO, it would be better to get an aftermarket module, that could allow your phone to securely connect directly to your i3, bypassing BMW's servers and the cell towers.
The cellular radio's behavior is determined by a SIM card or eSim. Pairing occurs automatically and can't be controlled by the user. If a smartphone paired with a cellular device in an i3, phone call and Internet data connections would be broken until the phone paired with a cell phone tower. So how would connecting directly to an i3 via a cellular signal work assuming one still wanted to use a smartphone for phone calls and Internet access?
Seems like an Internet-connected server would be required, and this server would have to know how to connect to the cellular device in every i3 using this proprietary in-car cellular device. Hmm, sounds exactly like the system that BMW set up but doesn't manage very well.
I'm not aware of any ability of a cell phone to connect directly with another cell phone using the cellular radio in both phones. A cellular tower is always involved, so there goes your security.imkazaam said:Sorry for the late reply. First, the i3 has a phone in it. Someone with more knowledge than me can (and likely has) figured out how to put the built in phone 100% in service of the owner instead of the automaker.
imkazaam said:Second, the challenges you present are just logistical challenges the aftermarket solution would handle./quote]Plenty of people are more interested in convenience first, kudos to them, that's not me. I'm interested in convenience and security, not being data collected by the automaker is part of my security. We pay for a lot of expensive comforts people would consider useless, just driving BMWs, so I won't even engage anyone on the necessity or practicality of opting out of being data collected. I've owned my i3 for nearly 7 years. I've never used the app. Never will.
skelly14 said:I have a 2015 i3 rex in the USA, and have embarked on the journey to upgrade to 4g, as 3g disappears in Feb. So far, results are mixed. I was able to swap in a used TCB, and code it with eSys, and I can use it to call customer service or SOS, but tying the IMEI to the Vin in BMW's Connected Drive system seems to be impossible. The Connected Drive folks refuse to do it. I even tried contacting AT&T to see if they could help, but got nowhere. I will ask the dealership next week, but they are conservative, and I don't expect much.
So my question is whether anyone has succeeded in getting the remote services, such as remote lock, working with a retrofit 4g module?
The one interesting thing I noted is that when I made a roadside assistance call from the car, my mobile app was updated with the time and date. But that's it.
alohart said:I'm not aware of any ability of a cell phone to connect directly with another cell phone using the cellular radio in both phones. A cellular tower is always involved, so there goes your security.imkazaam said:Sorry for the late reply. First, the i3 has a phone in it. Someone with more knowledge than me can (and likely has) figured out how to put the built in phone 100% in service of the owner instead of the automaker.
I don't understand what you mean. Online banking using a bank app on a smartphone connected to the Internet via a cellular data connection (not WiFi) involves a cell phone tower connected to the smartphone. The cell phone tower transfers data from and to the smartphone to and from the Internet. The bank app doesn't connect directly to a bank's servers.imkazaam said:alohart said:I'm not aware of any ability of a cell phone to connect directly with another cell phone using the cellular radio in both phones. A cellular tower is always involved, so there goes your security.
If that was true, online banking wouldn't be possible. It's the same concept.
alohart said:I don't understand what you mean. Online banking using a bank app on a smartphone connected to the Internet via a cellular data connection (not WiFi) involves a cell phone tower connected to the smartphone. The cell phone tower transfers data from and to the smartphone to and from the Internet. The bank app doesn't connect directly to a bank's servers.
alohart said:I'm not aware of any ability of a cell phone to connect directly with another cell phone using the cellular radio in both phones. A cellular tower is always involved, so there goes your security.
imkazaam said:alohart said:I'm not aware of any ability of a cell phone to connect directly with another cell phone using the cellular radio in both phones. A cellular tower is always involved, so there goes your security.
Encryption secures the information shared, regardless of a cell tower or other device being involved in the transfer.
imkazaam said:IMO, it would be better to get an aftermarket module, that could allow your phone to securely connect directly to your i3, bypassing BMW's servers and the cell towers. Trading that little bit of convenience for all the data collection is not for me. I wonder how many people out there feel the same way (whether they care about the data collection or not).
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