Modern connectivity for the
classic BMW.
DELFA AUTO turns your E46 or E39 into a connected car. A small lineup of retrofit apps and devices for the bus-era BMW — NaviDash and DELFA Connect on your dash and in your pocket, CoreLink and SkyLink wired onto the bus.
Built and verified on a real E46 by a solo engineer — native DS2 / K-bus, not a rebadged generic tool.
Two apps. Two devices.
Four products for the bus-era BMW: NaviDash and DELFA Connect put the car on your dash and in your pocket; CoreLink and SkyLink wire intelligence into the bus. Different hardware, different jobs — run any one on its own.
Retro-digital instrument cluster on your Android head unit — live gauges, engine data & fault codes.
Your phone as the remote — lock, windows, mirrors, parking-A/C and a live cluster mirror. iOS now; Android in development.
Wired-in ESP32 gateway with its own colour touch screen — remote, cloud & an on-board K-bus scope.
Hidden, screenless gateway with built-in 4G + GPS — always-on telematics, no head unit needed.
NaviDash — your dash, going digital.
A retro-VFD digital instrument cluster for your aftermarket Android head unit. NaviDash plugs into a BMW K+DCAN (FTDI USB) cable and reads the car directly in DS2 — no OBD handshake, no root — rendering live gauges, engine data and fault codes with lightweight custom graphics. A self-contained in-car dashboard; a completely separate product from CoreLink.
- Live DME data — speed, RPM, coolant / oil / intake temps, MAF, throttle, ignition timing, battery, estimated torque & load, cooling-fan PWM
- Gear & gearbox (EGS) oil temp, outside temp, fuel & service interval, and a scrolling DTC fault-code reader
- PDC parking radar over the reverse-camera view + body status (doors / windows / trunk / hood / sunroof) with an on-car calibration wizard
- Selectable sources — K+DCAN (DS2), ELM327 Bluetooth, serial, simulated — plus a built-in bus sniffer & black-box logger
CoreLink — a tiny brain on the bus.
A standalone, pocket-sized ESP32 gateway that wires permanently into the I/K-bus — no head unit required. It brings your classic online: remote control and a live cluster mirror reachable from the DELFA Connect app and the cloud, with its own colour touch display. It even doubles as a workshop tool — a built-in K-bus protocol scope shows every telegram on the wire in real time. Want it hidden with no screen? SkyLink (DF-SL) is the screenless 4G + GPS sibling.
- Remote lock / windows / mirrors & parking A/C from your phone
- Live cluster mirror — speed, RPM, gear, odometer, VIN, ignition
- Cloud over MQTT / 4G + Bluetooth LE, NTP cluster-clock sync
- On-board touch TFT + live K-bus scope / protocol analyser
DELFA Connect — your car in your pocket.
The companion app for CoreLink and SkyLink. Lock and unlock, run the windows and mirrors, pre-cool the cabin with parking-A/C, and watch a live mirror of the cluster — over Bluetooth when you're near the car, or the cloud from anywhere. One app, both phones.
- Remote central lock, windows & mirrors with command confirmation
- Parking-A/C pre-cool / pre-heat with target temperature & blower
- Live cluster mirror — speed, RPM, gear, odometer, fuel & status
- Reaches the car over Bluetooth LE nearby or MQTT / 4G cloud anywhere
Different jobs. Pick by what you want to do.
NaviDash is about seeing the car on a big screen in the cabin. The gateways — CoreLink and SkyLink, driven by the DELFA Connect app — are about reaching and controlling the car remotely. They don't depend on each other; many owners run just one.
"I want a digital dashboard in the car."
You already have (or want) an aftermarket Android head unit and a K+DCAN cable. You want gauges, engine data, fault codes and a body screen on the dash while you drive — no soldering, no extra hardware on the bus.
"I want to control my car from my phone."
The app that drives CoreLink and SkyLink. Lock and unlock, run the windows and mirrors, pre-cool the cabin and watch a live cluster mirror — over Bluetooth nearby or the cloud from anywhere. It needs one of the gateways fitted in the car.
"I want a wired-in gateway with its own screen."
A visible in-car gateway with a colour touch TFT. Control body, lights and parking-A/C on the device itself, mirror the cluster, and read the bus with a built-in K-bus scope — plus remote & cloud through DELFA Connect over Wi-Fi.
"I want hidden, always-on access — anywhere."
A screenless gateway you tuck out of sight, with its own 4G + GPS. No head unit, no Wi-Fi needed — it stays online over cellular, so you can reach and track the car from DELFA Connect from anywhere, even while it's parked far away.
| NaviDash · Android | CoreLink · DF-CL | SkyLink · DF-SL | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it is | App on an Android head unit | Wired-in hardware module | Hidden, screenless module |
| Primary job | In-car digital cluster & diagnostics | Remote control, telematics & cloud | Always-on cellular telematics & tracking |
| Connects via | K+DCAN (FTDI USB) · ELM327 BT · serial | Direct I/K-bus tap (T152 transceiver) | Direct I/K-bus tap (T152 transceiver) |
| Display | Your head-unit touchscreen | Own colour touch TFT (optional) | None — hidden |
| Connectivity | — | Wi-Fi · MQTT · BLE | 4G · GPS · cloud |
| Remote control (phone) | — | ✓ app + cloud | ✓ app + cloud |
| Body / lock / windows / mirrors | Status + read | ✓ status and control | ✓ status and control |
| Live engine data | ✓ full DME / EGS / IKE set | ✓ cluster broadcast set | ✓ cluster broadcast set |
| DTC fault codes | ✓ scrolling reader | — | — |
| Bus sniffer / scope | ✓ built-in sniffer | ✓ live K-bus scope | — |
| Parking A/C & NTP clock | — | ✓ | ✓ |
| GPS tracking | — | — | ✓ |
| Needs a head unit | Yes | No | No |
| On the car | On the dash | Visible · has a screen | Hidden · out of sight |
Run them together for the full picture: NaviDash on the dash, a CoreLink or SkyLink gateway on the bus, and DELFA Connect in your pocket.
Built on the language of the car.
Every signal is reverse-engineered and verified on real cars — not scraped from a generic scan tool. That's why control is instant and data is real.
Native bus protocol
Speaks the body I/K-bus and PT-CAN directly, framing and decoding the same telegrams the factory modules use.
Real-time, low latency
Broadcast decode means instant updates — doors, locks, lights and engine data reflect the car the moment it changes.
Cloud & remote
Reach the car over the internet via MQTT/4G or locally over Bluetooth — lock it, pre-cool it, check on it from anywhere.
On-device display
A colour TFT shows the dashboard, body status and a live bus scope — a workshop tool and a gauge in one.
Safe by design
Anti-pinch awareness, command confirmation and verified-only telegrams — nothing guessed is ever sent to your car.
OTA & evolving
Firmware and app update over the air. New decoded signals and features keep arriving long after install.
Made for the bus-era BMW.
DELFA targets the I/K-bus generation of BMW. Verified on the E46 and E39, with the wider chassis family on the bench.
Built by one engineer who drives one.
DELFA AUTO is a one-person automotive-electronics studio. After 18 years in enterprise IT, I started reverse-engineering my own E46's I/K-bus — telegram by telegram, on the car, not scraped from a generic scan tool. DELFA is the result: the tools I built to understand my own car, turned into products for people who love these cars as much as I do.
- Reverse-engineered and verified on real E46 / E39 hardware — every signal byte-for-byte
- Protocol self-test passes 19 / 19 on a real ECU
- Support comes straight from the person who built it — no call-centre
- Built in the open; firmware and apps update over the air
Founding-batch pricing.
Final prices are being set with the first production run. Waitlist members get founding pricing and priority shipping — here's the shape of it.
Indicative only — exact prices land with the founding batch. Join the waitlist to be told first.
Lock in founding priceQuestions, answered.
Which BMWs are supported?
Verified on the E46 and E39 today; the E38 and E53 share the same I/K-bus and are on the bench. If your car is a bus-era BMW, ask us before you assume it won't work.
Do I have to cut wires or solder?
No soldering. NaviDash just plugs into a K+DCAN cable; CoreLink and SkyLink tap the bus through a T152 transceiver on a single wire. Everything is reversible.
Could it damage my car or the bus?
It's read-mostly and only ever sends telegrams verified on a real car, with command confirmation and anti-pinch awareness — nothing guessed is ever sent to your car.
Do I need an Android head unit?
Only for NaviDash. DELFA Connect (your phone), CoreLink and SkyLink all work without a head unit.
When does it ship?
The founding batch is being assembled now. Join the waitlist and you'll get the exact date — and first place in line.
How is it supported and updated?
Firmware and apps update over the air, and support comes directly from the engineer who built it.
What happens to my data?
It's your car and your data. Cloud features run over MQTT to an endpoint you control; nothing is sold or shared.
What languages and regions?
The site and apps are curated in English and 中文; other languages are machine-assisted for now. We ship to China and the US to start — ask about your country.
Leave us a message.
Join the early-access list and tell us about your car — your chassis, your questions, what you want from DELFA. We read every message.
No spam. Your email is only used to reply.