canDO+ VERSION 1.6 -- This update is great!
I posted about the canDO+ module previously and it just received a major update in features to the point that it now achieves everything I could have hoped it could do in the M2. It's a small box that plugs into the CAN bus under the center console and can change some settings on the car at the push of a button, or adjust settings when the car fires up. For example when I start my car canDO+ will turn on M-Sport screens and set my car to Engine/brakes/steering into sport, chassis into comfort, DSC ON, and Gear Change Assist ON. Without pushing a button. But you could also assign this to M1 or M2.
Link to pictures of the install here:
canDO+ Install - You do not need to wire an on/off switch like I did. canDO+ now has a stealth mode so it isn't active if you want to turn it off, coding, or going in for service for example. I'm a tinkerer...that part kept me off the streets for about 48 minutes
Here is an overview of what's in version 1.6. It allows you to assign actions to inputs, and these are called associations in canDO+ terminology. For me it has completely eliminated the need to interact with the touch screen to make any changes when driving this car in terms of "car stuff" (other than just the temperature buttons). I can do everything by interacting with buttons. No need to dig into the climate settings to turn on a seat heater, or turn it off, I now have buttons (without sacrificing the buttons original function either). I don't have to go into the Setup or M Mode menu, ever.
First I will start off with Buttons/Events that you can assign these macros to:
Engine start for example mine will run a macro setting up my basic drive settings with M Sport Mode Screens. I just have to start the car. Also since Engine Sport is the first setting my car starts with partial open valves so is a little more aggressive than the standard startup as a bit of a bonus. You can set separate events for M1 vs M2 buttons. M1 will put mine into M Road screens with the settings assigned to M1, and M2 will select M Sport Display with my M2 settings. When M1 or M2 modes are disabled that can also trigger a macro and my car will get put back into my base startup settings with M Sport Displays instead of everything in efficient/comfort which is the car's default.
For the iDrive buttons these are interesting. You will see 'Touch', 'Press', and 'Long Press'. Touch is just that - lay your finger on the button and it will fire a macro, I used these a lot outlined later. Press is when you press a button. It will do its normal action like "Home" and run your macro. I didn't use any of these. Long Press will run the macro after 2-3 seconds of holding a button without setting off the function the button is for.
So for my home button, if I touch the button but don't press it, Waze opens in CarPlay and gets me directly into the CarPlay side of things. If I press Home once, it works normally - takes me to the home screen in iDrive. So with this button I can now switch between iDrive and CarPlay easily. More importantly, not having to use my "shortcuts" with the iDrive controller. Very handy that the buttons work like the old shortcut buttons worked (1-8) in prior BMWs. The button is aware of a finger pad touch, and canDO+ can recognize that.
ACTIONS
There are 9 categories of actions that canDO+ can perform. Any of them can be included in a macro, or just a single action can be performed.
These are all the current actions. There are likely to be more. I would love steering wheel heating to be one of them for example but it isn't on the same CAN network that the canDO+ monitors, so there isn't likely going to be an ability to turn that on when the seat heater is turned on, but there still might be a way discovered since there is some crosstalk between networks and those codes can be creatively exploited (I'm told this is how the M1/M2 buttons work, they aren't on the same network but a way was discovered to indirectly detect that M1 or M2 was pressed and then fire the macros. So I'm hopeful. The system has a way to monitor and pare down traffic on the can bus and discover messages that will trigger events. I used it to figure out how to trigger Gear Shift Assist On and off for example.
Next section: My setup with version 1.6