DIY (How to) Interior - Ambient Light - Color change.

[PGH_X5]

Originally Posted by FCX5

To me this red, dark blue and lighter blue for the ambient light is the best combo for an M Sport look.

Which values exactly for those colors?

[Chilled]

Originally Posted by PGH_X5

Which values exactly for those colors?

Go here,
https://www.w3schools.com/colors/colors_rgb.asp Pick Colour, look at the #xxXXxx number

This the # is broken into 3 sections grouping of two.
ie. for red
The first set corresponds to the R value = FF (255)
The second set corresponds to the G value = 00 (0)
The third set corresponds to the B value = 00 (0)

Grab these numbers and put them into the custom values. ie. 0xFF or 0xA2 ,ect.

[PGH_X5]

Originally Posted by Chilled

Go here,
https://www.w3schools.com/colors/colors_rgb.asp Pick Colour, look at the #xxXXxx number

This the # is broken into 3 sections grouping of two.
ie. for red
The first set corresponds to the R value = FF (255)
The second set corresponds to the G value = 00 (0)
The third set corresponds to the B value = 00 (0)

Grab these numbers and put them into the custom values. ie. 0xFF or 0xA2 ,ect.

Very helpful, thanks. However, still wondering which specific color codes FCX5 used in that pic. Suppose I can get close picking a red / dark blue / light blue

[FCX5]

Originally Posted by PGH_X5

Very helpful, thanks. However, still wondering which specific color codes FCX5 used in that pic. Suppose I can get close picking a red / dark blue / light blue

My friend coded it. He did what chilled showed above, but I have no idea what they were. You can try just with what is available. The picture doesn't do it justice since the colors are much richer than the default ones. But you can probably get close with just the blue, purple and red. It's looks cool at night…

[PGH_X5]

Founds some info from a few different sources on original M logo colors and newer colors. Not sure when it changed. I'm probably going to do the newer colors in the order shown top to bottom.

Original followed by New

[PGH_X5]

Hmmm, also found this. Middle blue is more purple.

[Staszek]

So I was in bimmercode yesterday finally doing some coding on my wife's X5. I always wanted to play with ambient but never got around to it in expert mode.

Now I see its on the main page, but it only shows orange as the one to change. If I change that do I lose orange when I go back into the idrive menu to pick it?

Basically, what I am asking is if I change those in coding, does it just replace the one that was there, or do I still have orange and then an additional one?

If so how do I replace a different one so I still have the orange option?

[FCX5]

Originally Posted by Staszek

So I was in bimmercode yesterday finally doing some coding on my wife's X5. I always wanted to play with ambient but never got around to it in expert mode.

Now I see its on the main page, but it only shows orange as the one to change. If I change that do I lose orange when I go back into the idrive menu to pick it?

Basically, what I am asking is if I change those in coding, does it just replace the one that was there, or do I still have orange and then an additional one?

If so how do I replace a different one so I still have the orange option?

You can change all 3 colors for Orange using BimmerCode.

[Chilled]

Is it possible to have the lights turn off when you close the doors and only have them on whilst the doors are open.

As cool as they look, I would prefer to have them off whilst I'm driving. I do like the way they look on entry, but don't really want them on all the time.

[Staszek]

Originally Posted by FCX5

You can change all 3 colors for Orange using BimmerCode.

Change them back? I guess I am comfused, if I look at bimmercode right now the only ones I can change are the orange ones to another color. Once I do that I lose orange as a choice correct?

[Chilled]

Originally Posted by Staszek

Change them back? I guess I am comfused, if I look at bimmercode right now the only ones I can change are the orange ones to another color. Once I do that I lose orange as a choice correct?

Im guessing you are talking about the colour grouping/set. You can always change a different set if you don't want to mess with that orange set.

All the colour sets are call Ensembles, and there are multiple of them.


This is my experience with them, and where I found more info for the F85/F15.
https://f15.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh...95&postcount=6

[Staszek]

Originally Posted by Chilled

Im guessing you are talking about the colour grouping/set. You can always change a different set if you don't want to mess with that orange set.

All the colour sets are call Ensembles, and there are multiple of them.


This is my experience with them, and where I found more info for the F85/F15.
https://f15.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh...95&postcount=6

Thanks thats in expert mode which I figured, I was talking about the main page stuff, it looks like you can only change orange on that page.

[Chilled]

From memory on the main page (not expert), I could only pick from the existing pre-sets or something like that. There was no way to make a custom colour scheme.

[notnow]

Anyone else have issues with the LED modules dying prematurely after coding this? I purchased a used F86 which has custom ambient lighting and all the LED modules seems to be quite faded at ~65% - especially the main dashboard one which is probably at 10% brightness. Green LED on all modules/trims seems to be quite the most dead.

I had a same year F16 before with similar mileage with no ambient lighting coding and they were as bright as day 1. I also had other F3x's and F8x's as well with no ambient light issues, but they were just orange/white.

Just wanted to see if this sounds like a coding issue or hardware issue. Seems pretty tedious to replace the LED modules and/or diodes.

[FinalBOSS]

Happy new year everyone! I wanted to ask for your support and ideas on how to fix an issue with the ambient lighting of my 2015 F15 where different colors can be seen on the top layer of the dash and front passenger door.

All of a sudden (no coding at all), my front passenger door color changed to green on the top layer. After researching about this I've tried Bimmercode to see if adding new colors would somehow "reset" the system to fix the issue, but no luck so far. I've tried to disconnect the battery for 45 mins, and also hold the radio button for 30s, but nothing seems to work.

Any ideas to fix this are appreciated

[FinalBOSS]

Originally Posted by MartindaleX5

Have you tried going into expert mode and forcing the colour to cyan? Or changing the cyan colour to another colour, to see if it sticks? Another alternative, if you want all cyan, is to code a different lighting sequence (that seems to be working , I.e. white, blue, blue) to be the colours you want.

#809fff is a nice blue (middle below)

Hi MartindaleX5, thank you for the suggestion!

I had the chance to try the expert mode today and add new colors manually but unfortunately did not work. The top passenger door layer always presents a completely different color, and that is driving me nuts

If I set it to blue, only that segment goes green. On dark blue, it seems the top layer goes off. When I set it to purple, it goes to a fade pink, as you can see in the photos below. Because that layer is lightning up and changing colors, I am pretty sure the issue is software related.

I found this article mentioning that one of the causes of this issue may be "The BDC (Body Domain Controller) is missing initialization and automatic addressing of all LED modules. ", but I had no luck on finding how to DIY this procedure using Bimmercode.

I appreciate it if you or another member of the forum can shed any light on this. Thanks and happy 2023 everyone!

[FinalBOSS]

Originally Posted by MartindaleX5

^Is it happening on all colour settings or just one (i.e. if you select orange, orange, orange in iDrive does it work properly?)

I had something similar occur where i got green and not blue (exactly what you’re getting),but orange would work fine, so I coded that selection gold and put blue in a different light sequence. I’m wondering if the led can’t produce the hex value for the blue colour.

I’d try setting colour to red or orange (something that doesn’t have blue light) on that strip to see of it will produce the correct colour. If not it might be a bad module (unless it is working on other lighting selections).

Hi MartindaleX5,

That's right: If I set the colour to orange, the colour is displayed correctly, which also happens when I set it to green, however, it seems that no shade of blue can be displayed on that specific door lightning segment for any reason.

Following your troubleshooting recommendation, today I coded red, and it worked perfectly (photo below), however, if I change it from red to blue that problematic segment goes back to green. I've also run a new test and disconnected the light over the front passenger footrest, causing all ambient lightning to stop working in the hope to make the "system" reset somehow, but that didn't work as well and that segment remains green when set to blue.

You mentioned "I had something similar occur where I got green and not blue (exactly what you’re getting),but orange would work fine, so I coded that selection gold and put blue in a different light sequence.". Sorry but I didn't understand how that worked for you. Did you give up on the colour blue entirely or by doing that the problem was fixed?

Below are the new photos in red and (OK) another take in the issue with blue and green.

Thanks again!

[FinalBOSS]

Originally Posted by MartindaleX5

I ended up coding blue using a different lighting sequence (I think I have it in white, blue,blue). Hope that helps!

Thank you for all the comments and suggestions, MartindaleX5!

Unfortunately, none of the actions taken fixed the issue, including setting different shades of blue in other color groups, removing the battery for 45 mins, removing the footrest led, coding blue in the expert mode in Bimmercode, etc, etc.

I guess I will have to ask for the $$$$ dealer to check in future visits. I ended up buying Bimmerlink (the other iPhone app from the same Bimmercode developer) to read the car errors to see anything related to it and found one that may be causing the issue (photo below), but also no more info is available.

Once again, thanks for trying to help!

[FinalBOSS]

Originally Posted by MartindaleX5

I ended up coding blue using a different lighting sequence (I think I have it in white, blue,blue). Hope that helps!

Hi MartindaleX5,

I am glad to report that I was finally able to fix the issue! As other forum members suggested in this other topic, the culprit was the top led module of the door, which could not show the color blue. I opened the door, replaced the module, and now everything is working as it should.

Thank you for all your suggestions on this. Have a great week!

Note: Below you can see the photos of the before, after, and defective part for reference.

[Bubbaspaarx]

I saw someone mention the ‘dome’ color to change the light strip on the back of the front seats however that option isn’t present in the options. Is there another section to change this. Mine is stuck on white.

[Monkeypoop]

Originally Posted by FinalBOSS

Hi MartindaleX5,

I am glad to report that I was finally able to fix the issue! As other forum members suggested in this other topic, the culprit was the top led module of the door, which could not show the color blue. I opened the door, replaced the module, and now everything is working as it should.

Thank you for all your suggestions on this. Have a great week!

Note: Below you can see the photos of the before, after, and defective part for reference.

Did replacing the LED module brighten up the stripe after?