[SafariEdition]

Hey there everyone. I got around to tapping into the CAN so I can use the various data for my Racecapture and figured I would share how I went about it, as well as some of the CAN data I found in case anyone else was interested.

As I didnt take any pictures a long the way, I'll be borrowing some pictures from a few threads and sharing the links to them and to the site I got my cable to tap into the CAN wires with.

I personally tapped into it at the FEM on the passenger side, but there are countless other areas to tap into (other than right at the OBD port since this requires a ZGW check).

I followed the second half of the Awron installation guide for M3/M4's by tom@eas as it had some really great pictures for this.

https://f80.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh....php?t=1017936

Essentially, you need to use a 10mm socke to, take off the two nuts holding the kickpanel under the glove box in, and try to work your way around the edges to pull it down. This was probably the biggest PITA. Once you get that off, you can pull gently pull up the passenger side doorsill, then then pull the kickpanel holding the FEM and remove it.

Using a T20 Torx driver, loosen up the screw holding the FEM cover in and remove it. It is held in by clips as well, so be careful during this.

Next, I used this post (again by Tom@eas) to point out the proper wires I needed, and in which loom I needed to look for.

https://f80.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh...21&postcount=7

You'll be tapping into the wires on connector 8. Before you go any further, make sure you open up the wire wrapping and are tapping into a point BELOW where the connector goes into the connector housing, or you're going to have a bad day. The two you want are the blue/red and red wires on pins 47/48, where blue/red is CAN-hi and red is CAN-lo. I then tapped into the wires on pins 20/24 of connector three for power, where power is on pin 20 and ground is pin 24.

Autosport Labs makes a premade CAN tapping cable that I used, or you can make your own, which they have instructions on how to do. They include some taps, though a few friends who work in the automotive industry have recommended using another junction that might be a bit more secure than the taps that come with this.

https://wiki.autosportlabs.com/BMW_E46_CAN

I routed my cable under the passenger rug and under the seat to the center console where I put my Racecapture, though with more cable and more ambition, you could probably find a better routing.

After that, put everything back together, and you're all set to go.

Here are a few CAN id's I found that may be useful for those interested:

Steering: ID: 770 Offset: 3 Length: 2
Throttle Pedal ID: 217 Offset 3 Length 1
RPM ID: 165 offset 6 Length: 1
Brake pressure ID: 239 Offset: 2 Length: 2
Brake Pedal ID: 239 Offset: 3 Length: 1

[detroitm2]

Nice write up. Could have used this when I wired up my aim solo 2 dl. Ended up figuring it out after many hours

[SafariEdition]

Originally Posted by detroitm2

Nice write up. Could have used this when I wired up my aim solo 2 dl. Ended up figuring it out after many hours

Yeah, I had to do a ton of digging (and then logging to find the right CAN id's) so I figured posting this here might be helpful to those who are looking for better/faster data than OBD2 can provide

[imolam3]

I had my tech tapped into the CAN bus as well to mount the AIM Solo DL. In my e46 M3, I also had the AIM Smartycam connected to the Solo DL to get power and data, worked fine.

However, with the F87 the Solo DL by itself was working fine. Once I connected the Smartycam to it; my dashboard lighted up like a Xmas tree. All sorts of codes showed. I had to disconnect the Aim units altogether and had the shop cleared it with Autologic. Our theory is that the F87 has a tight window on voltage drop, once the Smartycam was connected it drawn excess power from the CAN bus causing the modules in the DME to show code.

I am going to check out Racelogic Vbox. Does anyone want a deal from some Solo DL/Smartycam combo?

[Megator]

Originally Posted by SafariEdition

Hey there everyone. I got around to tapping into the CAN so I can use the various data for my Racecapture and figured I would share how I went about it, as well as some of the CAN data I found in case anyone else was interested.

As I didnt take any pictures a long the way, I'll be borrowing some pictures from a few threads and sharing the links to them and to the site I got my cable to tap into the CAN wires with.

I personally tapped into it at the FEM on the passenger side, but there are countless other areas to tap into (other than right at the OBD port since this requires a ZGW check).

I followed the second half of the Awron installation guide for M3/M4's by tom@eas as it had some really great pictures for this.

https://f80.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh....php?t=1017936

Essentially, you need to use a 10mm socke to, take off the two nuts holding the kickpanel under the glove box in, and try to work your way around the edges to pull it down. This was probably the biggest PITA. Once you get that off, you can pull gently pull up the passenger side doorsill, then then pull the kickpanel holding the FEM and remove it.

Using a T20 Torx driver, loosen up the screw holding the FEM cover in and remove it. It is held in by clips as well, so be careful during this.

Next, I used this post (again by Tom@eas) to point out the proper wires I needed, and in which loom I needed to look for.

https://f80.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh...21&postcount=7

You'll be tapping into the wires on connector 8. Before you go any further, make sure you open up the wire wrapping and are tapping into a point BELOW where the connector goes into the connector housing, or you're going to have a bad day. The two you want are the blue/red and red wires on pins 47/48, where blue/red is CAN-hi and red is CAN-lo. I then tapped into the wires on pins 20/24 of connector three for power, where power is on pin 20 and ground is pin 24.

Autosport Labs makes a premade CAN tapping cable that I used, or you can make your own, which they have instructions on how to do. They include some taps, though a few friends who work in the automotive industry have recommended using another junction that might be a bit more secure than the taps that come with this.

https://wiki.autosportlabs.com/BMW_E46_CAN

I routed my cable under the passenger rug and under the seat to the center console where I put my Racecapture, though with more cable and more ambition, you could probably find a better routing.

After that, put everything back together, and you're all set to go.

Here are a few CAN id's I found that may be useful for those interested:

Steering: ID: 770 Offset: 3 Length: 2
Throttle Pedal ID: 217 Offset 3 Length 1
RPM ID: 165 offset 6 Length: 1
Brake pressure ID: 239 Offset: 2 Length: 2
Brake Pedal ID: 239 Offset: 3 Length: 1

Thank you so much for your work! After years of having a racecapture track MK1 I am finally getting data out of it!

I bought some OEM connectors so I could wire it in like Awron do. No cut or spliced wires (nothing against tapping in but I hate it having had 20+ year old cars with Fed up looms).

What is the difference between "Brake pressure" and "brake pedal"?

Also where did you get the CAN IDs from? want to add one for which gear the car is in.

[Fabb]

Originally Posted by Megator

Thank you so much for your work! After years of having a racecapture track MK1 I am finally getting data out of it!

I bought some OEM connectors so I could wire it in like Awron do. No cut or spliced wires (nothing against tapping in but I hate it having had 20+ year old cars with Fed up looms).

What is the difference between "Brake pressure" and "brake pedal"?

Also where did you get the CAN IDs from? want to add one for which gear the car is in.

Brake pressure is the actual pressure you applied the brake force. Pedal is the mere travel of the pedal. I only use pressure for my data review.

[Megator]

Originally Posted by Fabb

Brake pressure is the actual pressure you applied the brake force. Pedal is the mere travel of the pedal. I only use pressure for my data review.

Thats what I figured. Any help on the gear indicator ID? Looking for that and oil temp.

[Fabb]

Originally Posted by Megator

Thats what I figured. Any help on the gear indicator ID? Looking for that and oil temp.

I was tapping the CANBUS for AIM SOLO DL. The software resolved the PID automatically.. maybe you can search for the file from AIM

[calubi]

Originally Posted by Megator

I bought some OEM connectors so I could wire it in like Awron do. No cut or spliced wires (nothing against tapping in but I hate it having had 20+ year old cars with Fed up looms).

Looks like a nice way to go! If you don't mind sharing, what kinds of OEM connectors did you use? Are the pins on the wires going into the stock connectors a MQS pin?

Looking at your photo, it seems the teal connectors are acting as a splitter. On the right connector (power?), the OEM wires are on one side, and the other side has two wires per port, one going to the OEM connector for the FEM_BODY module, and the other to your race capture. Is that right? Are these just any kind of 2 pin connector that accepts MQS pins?

Thanks in advance!

[Megator]

Originally Posted by calubi

Looks like a nice way to go! If you don't mind sharing, what kinds of OEM connectors did you use? Are the pins on the wires going into the stock connectors a MQS pin?

Looking at your photo, it seems the teal connectors are acting as a splitter. On the right connector (power?), the OEM wires are on one side, and the other side has two wires per port, one going to the OEM connector for the FEM_BODY module, and the other to your race capture. Is that right? Are these just any kind of 2 pin connector that accepts MQS pins?

Thanks in advance!

Thanks! yes its pretty clean and 100% reversible I didn't even have to undo any harness tape

You are also 100% on the money with how its done. The OEM pin is removed from the ECU connector and inserted into a separate female connector.

A wire to the Racecapture/Aimsolo/whatever and a wire to the ECU are crimped onto a separate male pin, this is then inserted in the male pin plug.

The end of the wire to the ECU is crimped with an OEM female pin that goes into the OEM ECU connector.

In my case the 4 pin female connector I bought came with a length of wire precrimped. This was the perfect length to make the bridge.

Racecapture MK1 only reads one can bus and only needs 4 pins, MK2 can read two can networks so it needs 6 pins.

See the attached pics for what I ordered. It seems expensive but as with all these little bits you pay extra to buy just what you need and not 100s of units.

WARNING! I take no responsibility for your wiring job. It is each persons responsibility to check their wiring schematics.

[jgunny]

Originally Posted by Megator

Thats what I figured. Any help on the gear indicator ID? Looking for that and oil temp.

Replying to an old post, and hope you've found your answer alreadt but just in case....

I just found the Gear indicator for my 2020 M4 (DCT).

ID: 922 (dec) - Offset (bytes): 3 / Length(bytes): 1
- Subtract 36 (dec) and the resulting number is the gear selection
- Park, Neutral, and Reverse are between -3 and 0 (don't recall which is which, but easy to figure out--and you probably don't care)

Hope this helps.

[GasBurnlife(landapanda)]

Originally Posted by jgunny

Replying to an old post, and hope you've found your answer alreadt but just in case....

I just found the Gear indicator for my 2020 M4 (DCT).

ID: 922 (dec) - Offset (bytes): 3 / Length(bytes): 1
- Subtract 36 (dec) and the resulting number is the gear selection
- Park, Neutral, and Reverse are between -3 and 0 (don't recall which is which, but easy to figure out--and you probably don't care)

Hope this helps.

Can someone please confirm IF I'll be able to get the throttle position and brake pressure data with the OBD2 cable or do I have to order it with the can/rs232 cable?

[Fabb]

Originally Posted by landapanda

Can someone please confirm IF I'll be able to get the throttle position and brake pressure data with the OBD2 cable or do I have to order it with the can/rs232 cable?

Not with obd2 cable for brake pressure. That is not standard OBD data.

[GasBurnlife(landapanda)]

Thanks Fabb Spoke to AIM and they confirmed CAN bus needs to be tapped.

[TrackEnthusiast]

There is another option for those who want to spare some bucks (my case). Recently, I've put together some code to use a GoPro as video and GPS along with the MLaptimer app data. It is very straight forward to use, no need for wiring into any ECU neither pairing different devices via bluetooth. All you need is to go out on the track while recording with the GoPro and with the MLaptimer app. By the way, the MLaptimer for iPhone is a really cool app, specially if you consider that the car sensors (but the GPS) are very accurate.

The code I've put together will parse the MLaptimer low res GPS track with the high res GPS track from the camera, sync everything together, and output a csv file for rendering videos with Dashware or RaceRender. Even better, it also outputs a .vbo file, which can be used in CT to analyze the driving, with very good quality (of course, quality depends on how good you set up the GoPro). Check the results below and access www.easy-telemetry.com to know more. Note: processing the app files is free, but there is a little fee for processing GoPro files.

[ypk]

Originally Posted by TrackEnthusiast

There is another option for those who want to spare some bucks (my case). Recently, I've put together some code to use a GoPro as video and GPS along with the MLaptimer app data. It is very straight forward to use, no need for wiring into any ECU neither pairing different devices via bluetooth. All you need is to go out on the track while recording with the GoPro and with the MLaptimer app. By the way, the MLaptimer for iPhone is a really cool app, specially if you consider that the car sensors (but the GPS) are very accurate.

The code I've put together will parse the MLaptimer low res GPS track with the high res GPS track from the camera, sync everything together, and output a csv file for rendering videos with Dashware or RaceRender. Even better, it also outputs a .vbo file, which can be used in CT to analyze the driving, with very good quality (of course, quality depends on how good you set up the GoPro). Check the results below and access www.easy-telemetry.com to know more. Note: processing the app files is free, but there is a little fee for processing GoPro files.

Nice one, thanks for sharing. Out of curiosity, what frequency do you get from the camera? 10hz?

[TrackEnthusiast]

Originally Posted by ypk

Nice one, thanks for sharing. Out of curiosity, what frequency do you get from the camera? 10hz?

Hy there pal, glad you like it, it took me a lot of time to put everything together and I would be really pleased if you could try the website and eventually give some feedback.

Regarding the camera GPS rate: it acquires data at 18 Hz. I've been using it for a while now, and have used it in go kart and many track days sessions. What I've learned from all this testing is that the data quality dependes mostly on the camera field of view. In a go kart or any open vehicle it is allways fine, however, when used inside a closed one, data can get a bit inaccurate depending on the camera position. I've done some track days with the camera attached to my helmet, and got some good and some bad data. Then, I decided to move the camera to a fixed mount attached low on the windshield and, in this position, I got really accurate and reliable data.

Hope have answered your question.

[GasBurnlife(landapanda)]

So I finally got around to tapping the canbus. While I was at it, I added documentation and a few pictures to illustrate the process for those less electrically savvy like me. Link to that document can be found in the video description.