BMW’s DSP system has thrown a wrench into many upgrade plans. While state of the art, perhaps for the time it was introduced, it complicated the aftermarket because instead of easy analog inputs on the CD changer connections, we have a digital signal directly from the CD changer to the amplifier via a SMB connection on a 50ohm cable. The aftermarket has provided some A/D converters specific to this purpose. I’ve always had the intention of playing around with the DSP system to see if we can help you DSP guys out a little better than what’s out there. What is cool is we are working on a hardware revision for our Bluetooth Adapter, and I realized that we can keep a digital stream all the way through the system. No need to convert to analog and then back to digital for the amplifier. I noticed that our BMW CD changer output is 4x oversampled, which helps during the analog reconstruction. According to the Nyquist theorem, we have to sample at twice the highest frequency we want to reproduce, which for a human ear is roughly 20KHz, meaning that CDs contain a sample rate of 44.1KHz. However, aliasing occurs at every 44KHz, so we have to use low pass analog filters after the DSP amplifier’s DAC to cut the aliasing. However these low pass filters have a phase response which distorts the music, and by using 4x upsampling (perhaps one valid sample and 3 zeros), our aliased images now occur every 176KHz, making it easier to build a low pass filter that will not introduce phase distortion. What I need to find out is whether the DSP amplifier always expects 176KHz samples or can deal with 44.1KHz samples. Some people have had success giving the DSP amplifier any sample rate 44.1KHz or higher, specifically 48KHz – a common sampling rate these days, but mentioned that the music through the 48KHz converter never sounded as good as the CD audio from the changer. Whether it was because of the multiple conversions D -> A -> D(48KHz) -> A, the sampling rate or perhaps the DSP amplifier analog reconstruction filters don’t attenuate aliased images below 176KHz very well, I’d like to know so we can get something working great for you. If you have any insights into this, let me know. And for those DSP customers who cannot use our aux input kit right now, we are working to see if we can put together a better converter for you as well.

We also want to mention that if you need help with your aux input kit, please email us and we will help you out.

Thanks to all of you, March 2015 turned out to be our best month yet as we shipped to more people than ever before! We are super excited about how many people we’ve been able to serve with our aux input kit. Our aux input kit is the simplest and cheapest way to get your phone connected to your pre 2003 radio, and if you’ve purchased our aux, please submit your review here. We also saw great interest in our bluetooth module, and we are excited to finally share what was our original dream (great Bluetooth integration). I believe that as we continue to develop this product, it is going to really serve a lot of people. I don’t really care about USB, and hardwired iPod integration is so 2009. But Bluetooth is such a requirement for cars these days, as all of our music is in our pocket and can stay there with great Bluetooth integration.
So thanks again for allowing us to serve you! I hope your April is great, and I’m thinking ours will be too!

We’ve been using the same basic Responsive theme for our website for a while, but we are working on adding WooCommerce to the website. WooCommerce will help us show off some cool additions for your car a little bit better, including slick galleries for our two products, automatic review forms, etc. We’ve been shipping the audio only Bluetooth adapter for a couple months and have heard back that these are working well for you. We are continuing to work on the microphone so that we can add bluetooth calling as that is a pretty key feature. We’ve got good volume now, and we are working on some noise issues we have with the current setup. It might be good enough for others, but we are really trying to nail this down, as the most annoying thing is poor call quality for whoever you are on the phone with. Our vision is to have great call quality while on the freeway at 80 MPH – both you and your party should be able to clearly communicate.

Anyways, please bear with the funky website for now. We promise that our products are better than the website, and we’ll always have the great customer service you’ve heard about from others. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE! We’d love your suggestions on how we can improve our products, website, purchasing, etc. – basically anything you’d need integration related with your BMW. We have our own great ideas, but sometimes, someone else has a need or idea we never thought of.

We have an incredible deal on our streaming A2DP bluetooth modules for only $99.99. These are a limited time/quantity deal, so if you need to get some tunes into your stereo wirelessly, hit up the link below. If you can wait a bit, soon we also will have modules that include HFP calling & other features for $179.99. Our Bluetooth module plugs into the CD changer connections in the trunk and gives SBC codec A2DP stereo sound with functional steering wheel controls to skip tracks. Our module takes about 10 minutes to install, and another 2 minutes to pair. We are continuing to add content for our Bluetooth adapter, including full specs, PDF description/installation/usage etc.

INSTRUCTIONS & DETAILS! ====> BluetoothInstructions

For now, e46 WITHOUT Nav only! We’ll have versions for everyone soon!

With the recent cold weather, I recently noticed that my car’s battery was dying after sitting a few days, and a couple customers mentioned the same. It turns out that aux input kits purchased between September and December have a firmware bug that can keep the car from going to sleep properly. Drop us a line letting us know, and we will exchange your module with a replacement that should take care of the issue.

Nothing slows down the projects we have going around here like newborn twins. My wife and I were blessed to welcome our twin boys last month, and since then, we’ve been on about a 3 hour eat-change-sleep rotation. Trying to get productive work done has been certainly difficult, but we are getting going again on a project I’ve been really excited about with Bluetooth integration. I’ve been driving around doing pandora streaming while leaving my phone in my pocket. The nice thing about Pandora or another service like that is that I can break out of my typical music rut, and hear how the stereo and the bluetooth streaming handles different types of music. Lately I’ve been playing some more bass heavy electronic music, and I’m actually surprised and impressed how the 15 year old stock speakers and stereo handle it. It’s no glorious stereo, but all of a sudden, with a great audio source, it acquits itself.
Our next step is to finish some of the basic integration features like the microphone, SIRI, and then get some cables manufactured. We have the basic module done, but the cables will connect to the car’s existing wiring for easy integration. We aim to be a simple, effective solution to bluetooth audio. This is a basic requirement for a modern car, and I’v been amazed how many ads for economy cars highlight their bluetooth capabilities. By adding Quidzel’s bluetooth integration to your e46, you’ll be rocking these modern, necessary features, and can hold onto your car a little bit longer.

After doing BMW’s Ultimate Driving Experience about a month ago, I have done two autocross sessions with my 323i. The Windy City chapter of the BMWCCA puts on a well organized auto-x season in the Chicagoland area. This has proven to be quite the addictive fun, with decently low costs. I love the opportunity to explore the limits of my admittedly slow car in a safe manner, and I’m already looking forward to what sort of cheap mods I can do to both the driver and car to improve performance. I have to say all season tires aren’t the best, and I found myself sliding around a lot. Perhaps next year, I can get some decent summer tires. My front struts are due for a replacement after 290K miles 🙂 so when I replace them, I’ll remove the locating stud in the strut mount and add a bit more negative camber.

I also found a great app called TrackAddict that does video and some telemetry. It’s impressive, and I think I’ll pony up for the paid version soon. Here’s a quick sample video.

On the audio front, we are polishing up a bluetooth adapter which will plug into the CD changer connections for tightly integrated bluetooth audio and handsfree functions. Keep your eyes open for the release soon – we will be selling it for $200. If you’re interested, use the contact form below to send us your email, and we will keep you informed about the release of our bluetooth adapter. To get the ball rolling, we will be giving away one of these great new adapters to one of you who respond on the contact form. Thanks for your support!

During the startup phase, we tend to do our business production schedules serially. A lot of our activities can take a whole day, so we try to estimate when certain parts are running low, and then schedule a day to do a whole bunch of production. Some days, we focus on cable production. Yesterday, we assembled a bunch of boards, and today is the day we program our boards, which is fun as each of 75 aux input modules per panel comes to life for the first time. We do a burn in test to try to minimize any failures, calibrate the frequencies of each individual module to ensure reliable communication, and then encapsulate the modules. I think one of my favorite parts of my job is to manufacture our modules with quality that will make a big difference for each person buying our aux input, and building systems and improvements that make it more reliable/higher quality and easier to make.

I hope you are having as much fun doing your job today as I am doing mine!

We received a lot of great feedback from our first few customers when we first launched the aux input. Our customers were amazing, sharing their experiences with others, and we received a lot of thanks and positive feedback. The positive feedback is great – it tells us that we are doing something right, and boosts both our confidence as well as potential customers that we can deliver a good value.

However, not all feedback is positive, and we’ve had problems as well. In the beginning, the modules were sent out with errors in the programming that would cause intermittent failures, and we would hear from our customers about issues. We would scratch our heads to resolve these issues, and we had to send out replacement modules. This was embarrassing, but it drove us to refine our code, and discover the issue that was holding us back. Our customers in general have been patient with us when issues arose, and were gracious and even thankful when we were able to solve our own problems. Part of that is owning the problem. If there’s a problem, we own it. We fix it. We have confidence both in our product and in our customer service’s ability to make it right for our customers and deliver the value we promise.

Everything we send out is tested, but sometimes, I’ll get an email saying it isn’t working, and this keeps me up at night. The best customer service is for the customer to not need the customer service, even though we pride ourselves in great support. Sometimes, we’ve sent out a module that failed, or a faulty cable. Sometimes, we haven’t given our customers the information they need to install our products, and we get modules plugged in backwards, at the wrong connector (which usually fries them), or our customers cannot figure out how to install the aux cable. In any case, we take it on ourselves to own the issue, and try to resolve it, even when we cannot see what our customer sees.

The most recent issue, which is relevant to our current customers, is that the connector that goes to the back of the stereo is fragile. If it is pulled from the wire rather than the heat shrink strain relief, the pins can pull out. Generally speaking, if the connector is installed and you’re not experiencing issues, you’re fine. We had a customer ask for his money back because the pins had pulled out, and the best thing we can do after giving him his money back is to redesign our cables to prevent the pins from getting pulled out. We will be switching to dupont-style pins on this connector, as they crimp on, and snap/lock into the connector, giving us a more durable connector on this side. With this change, we will end up using a smaller connector, and the heat shrink that we use will be sized more appropriately to the cable. All in all, this is a great change that is exciting for us in that it makes it easier to build our cables, and we end up with a better performing cable for our customer.

This seemingly negative experience for both us and our customers that have experienced this issue is causing us to make a better product, and for that, I’m grateful. Truly it’s the negative feedback that spurs change for the better. I love hearing how we’ve done a good job, but I know it’s the times when we fail that will really cause us to grow. My message is to embrace the negative feedback. Let it sink in, and then let it motivate you. Own up to your failures, and become a better person/organization.