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Hi everyone,
I'm Matthias from Germany. I'm here on Stanceworks since almost 10 years, but didn't post so much. I just enjoy to watch your builds.
I drive a 96' E36 320i. Nothing special and it's 99% just standing covered in the garage but I still love, because it was my first own car. My daily driver is a VW Golf MK5 Variant 2.0 TDI. And for having fun I have a BMW 130i.
My E36 is nearly stock but in really good condition with M package and 17" Styling 5. The color is Madeira-Violett Metallic.
When me and my brother 3 years ago build an airride suspension in his 2002' E46 325i Sedan, my plan was to put my E36 on air as well.
I really like to develop stuff on my own and because my main profession is software developer, I decided to build my own airride suspension control with app control.
The Build
Let's begin with two old pictures on static suspension with the Styling 5
I replaced the plastic center caps with custom made aluminium center caps
In July 2018 finally my G.A.S. airride supsension arrived, so I could start in my garage to replace the static supsension. I was so excited on this day waiting for the delivery, that I checked every second the door camera
Finally the build for the airride control could start. The base is an Arduino Mega 2560 R3 micro controller, which should control an accuair V4 valve block. The first prototype was looking like this.
It was build for my brother's E46 together with a VIAIR 480cc compressor.
For my brother's build we want to use original BMW buttons to control the airride. For the up/down button we took E39 door window buttons. And to control different driving heights we took ASC buttons. The first prototype was done in a box for shoes
Later we sandblasted the ASC buttons and plotted new labels. Then we painted them again black and removed the stickers. This was the result:
Because the first prototype of my air ride control looked really crazy, I decided to design my own PCB shield for the Arduino to save space and put the whole logic on one board. After 4 weeks of waiting, I received it from China:
And after soldering the components:
In my own build for my E36, I didn't use a VIAIR compressor. Instead I mounted two E39 Touring compressors which are so much more quiet! This is what it looks now:
Because I didn't want to put any additional buttons, displays or anything in the original interior of my E36, I decided to solve everything with an app running on my outdated iPhone 6. Development startet...
Unfortunately the Styling 5 rims didn't fit under the fenders with air-out system, so temporarily bought some Styling 162 from BMW E90 with 215/35 18 and the first test drive could start...
I also made some little photo shooting together with my brother's E46 on 18" Styling 5 (also custom aluminium made center caps). On these pictures I had mounted some lip at the front. But I didn't like it, so it is removed right now...
These were my first experiments with an Arduino Uno reading the values from original BMW xenon height sensors (it was filmed already in 2017):
https://youtu.be/6VSQHg6o_Zw
I can run my Arduino system either with the original BMW xenon height sensors + pressure sensors (as I did at my brother's E46) or with ONLY pressure sensors as I did at my E36.
Here in Germany there is a rule that if the pressure in an airride system is too low or to high while driving, there must be some warning sound. So I implemented this feature in my app with the BMW typical sound from new models:
https://youtu.be/ys5qd_fUAJA
My latest feature in the app is to control the height mode by SIRI from my iPhone. I know this is not a real use case, but from a developer point of view, I really HAD TO DO THIS
https://youtu.be/6aC6wudaCgI
Additionally some video me and my brother filmed last year short before winter came. Over christmas I had finally the time to cut it. I hope you like it
My plans for 2019:
I'm Matthias from Germany. I'm here on Stanceworks since almost 10 years, but didn't post so much. I just enjoy to watch your builds.
I drive a 96' E36 320i. Nothing special and it's 99% just standing covered in the garage but I still love, because it was my first own car. My daily driver is a VW Golf MK5 Variant 2.0 TDI. And for having fun I have a BMW 130i.
My E36 is nearly stock but in really good condition with M package and 17" Styling 5. The color is Madeira-Violett Metallic.
When me and my brother 3 years ago build an airride suspension in his 2002' E46 325i Sedan, my plan was to put my E36 on air as well.
I really like to develop stuff on my own and because my main profession is software developer, I decided to build my own airride suspension control with app control.
The Build
Let's begin with two old pictures on static suspension with the Styling 5
I replaced the plastic center caps with custom made aluminium center caps
In July 2018 finally my G.A.S. airride supsension arrived, so I could start in my garage to replace the static supsension. I was so excited on this day waiting for the delivery, that I checked every second the door camera
Finally the build for the airride control could start. The base is an Arduino Mega 2560 R3 micro controller, which should control an accuair V4 valve block. The first prototype was looking like this.
It was build for my brother's E46 together with a VIAIR 480cc compressor.
For my brother's build we want to use original BMW buttons to control the airride. For the up/down button we took E39 door window buttons. And to control different driving heights we took ASC buttons. The first prototype was done in a box for shoes
Later we sandblasted the ASC buttons and plotted new labels. Then we painted them again black and removed the stickers. This was the result:
Because the first prototype of my air ride control looked really crazy, I decided to design my own PCB shield for the Arduino to save space and put the whole logic on one board. After 4 weeks of waiting, I received it from China:
And after soldering the components:
In my own build for my E36, I didn't use a VIAIR compressor. Instead I mounted two E39 Touring compressors which are so much more quiet! This is what it looks now:
Because I didn't want to put any additional buttons, displays or anything in the original interior of my E36, I decided to solve everything with an app running on my outdated iPhone 6. Development startet...
Unfortunately the Styling 5 rims didn't fit under the fenders with air-out system, so temporarily bought some Styling 162 from BMW E90 with 215/35 18 and the first test drive could start...
I also made some little photo shooting together with my brother's E46 on 18" Styling 5 (also custom aluminium made center caps). On these pictures I had mounted some lip at the front. But I didn't like it, so it is removed right now...
These were my first experiments with an Arduino Uno reading the values from original BMW xenon height sensors (it was filmed already in 2017):
https://youtu.be/6VSQHg6o_Zw
I can run my Arduino system either with the original BMW xenon height sensors + pressure sensors (as I did at my brother's E46) or with ONLY pressure sensors as I did at my E36.
Here in Germany there is a rule that if the pressure in an airride system is too low or to high while driving, there must be some warning sound. So I implemented this feature in my app with the BMW typical sound from new models:
https://youtu.be/ys5qd_fUAJA
My latest feature in the app is to control the height mode by SIRI from my iPhone. I know this is not a real use case, but from a developer point of view, I really HAD TO DO THIS
https://youtu.be/6aC6wudaCgI
Additionally some video me and my brother filmed last year short before winter came. Over christmas I had finally the time to cut it. I hope you like it
My plans for 2019:
- definitely other rims: My Styling 5 or something else (2piece)
- Class 2 spoiler
- other exhause
- Maybe (end of 2019) engine swap
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