Don't Brick Your Car Adding CarPlay - Modern CANBUS Systems.
Let's try an activity together.
Take a look at the CANBUS Module Tree depicted on the scan tool. Each box is a seperate module.
Read every module slowly and carefully.
This is exactly how all modern cars are connected and built in the factory. Each component comunicates to the next in the tree.
If a fault occurs in one unit, it travels upstream or downstream.
... Now let us imagine this is your car. Perhaps a BMW, Mercedes, Maserati, Porsche or Ferrari.
You install an unknown and hastily engineered device inbetween the signal chain. Suddenly, or maybe even a few months later, you hear a pop or smell a disctinct burning plastic smell.
Suddenly, you notice the recent "new" navigational device you installed no longer functions. Oddly enough, your headlights no longer turn on.
This is a theme that plays out thousands of times a year. To uneducated consumers, they just bought a radio somewhere for $100.
They can not understand how this can correlate... But once again, look at the tree. As a matter fact, the user is lucky that the cheap and poor quality component ONLY burned out his $400 headlight module and not the $1000 critical ECU, or worse yet multiple modules at one time.
When upgrading the electronics on a European vehicle, many inexperienced individuals do not understand the importance of the sensitive systems at play. In this article, BimmerDirect / EuroDirect will explain the importance of these systems even when just carrying out a basic CarPlay retrofit.
CANBUS:
CANBUS is the protocol which many modern vehicles communicate with each computer module onboard. Many modern cars use the protocol because it is highly accurate, aids in troublehshooting and increases the possibilities of innovation from a technological standpoint.
Within the CANBUS, you must realize that all computer modules communicate to each other. When there is a fault in one of the modules, the next module in the chain is aware of the fault.
Some of the modules within the CANBUS are:
- ECU / Engine Computer
- TCU / Transmission Computer
- Radio / Gateway
- Body Control Module
- Saftey Restraint Systems / Airbag Modules
- Lighting Module
- Suspension Control Module
- Roughly 100 other modules depending on the make / model of the vehicle.
As you can see, each of these modules reports to one another and ultimatley to the ECU.
This really does increase the ease of troubleshooting and vehicle efficiency.
Many vehicle owners do not realize that the "radio" in their vehicle is not the same type of radio found in a 1999 Civic.
On all newer and modern cars it is also used as a gateway or router. Think of it like your home WiFi router.
It directs traffic and manages incoming signals to interpret them. You see this as the ability to check your oil, read service messages, view vehicle data, etc.
This is all made possible with CANBUS.
It is extremely important to use electronics that properly function with the vehicles OEM CANBUS system. You can not bypass these systems. Many low quality factories attempt to do this and it almost always creates an issue down the line for an individual.
Reports of airbags not going off, error codes, disabled systems, vehicles running reduced power/failsafes, batteries draining, and even burnt out modules are all possible when using low quality electronics. To us, it is such a no-brainer common sense item, but to many, they truly think they are wiser than vehicle engineers or programmers. Although our factory is one of the largest in Asia, we know the tricks that smaller poor budget factories will attempt in order to take shortcuts and manipulate western customers.
These reports are constantly reported to us by customers who tried cheap components, on forums, and several other car enthusiast groups. The United States Federal Government and NHTSA have even began investigations into several lower-quality Chiniese factories who are not willing to build electronics properly and still decide to sell them to Western markets.
Our factory understands these engineering principles and creates our products to operate in tandem with the OEM system, not against it. Unlike smaller poor quality factories, we partner with American and European engineers to create stable hardware and firmware which can be relied on for the life of the vehicle.
It is hard to explain the level of testing that is invested during this process and in the future, we hope to allow for factory tours.