[alexwhittemore]

Originally Posted by JHZR2

However, it does not charge the phone!

It actually does, ish. Depending on current charge state, it's drawing power probably slightly lower than it's expending it with the screen on and LTE going, etc.

Anyway, in the case of the MULF and a newer phone, regardless of whether or not it SAYS it's charging, it IS pulling power, and also regardless, it's probably drawing too little power to actually charge with the screen and cell connection running.

Can I upgrade my mild or combox and recode my car to get some proper functionality from the USB port? If I read it all correctly, later cars do connect natively over a USB cable, and the head unit or some intermediate is the dac.

Thanks!

if you have iDrive, you can, and yes, the combox runs everything over USB so you can just use your regular USB cable.

[JHZR2]

Thanks! No idrive... Is that a show stopper?

[alexwhittemore]

Originally Posted by JHZR2

Thanks! No idrive... Is that a show stopper?

Yep, pretty sure it is.

[JHZR2]

Bummer, so the parts and/or software is completely different and incompatible? Ive found some threads of folks getting new MULFs and other parts and with the right coding enabling BT or enhanced BT... Which was what got me wondering...

[alexwhittemore]

The MULF is used for both handsfree bluetooth and USB, but it doesn't support bluetooth streaming audio. The combox also handles USB and bluetooth, but does support A2DP. It's also used for BMW Assist, BMW Connect, and SOS. I'm not exactly sure why it can't be integrated on a car without iDrive, but there are lots of menus to control combox functions in iDrive that can't or don't exist in the professional headunit, so it's not too unreasonable.