reza

I've started at trying to determine the detail of the can protocol spoken between the stereo and the cluster. My initial attempt at hooking it up to a usb can adaptor didn't go over so well. I hooked it to a scope and saw some odd results -- only 0.150 volts output... I'm guessing something wasn't hooked up properly so I'm going to hack at the wires tomorrow and bring them out so I can do some serious playing with them. Though I was pleased to find that the only communications on the bus occured at the exact time there was an update on the cluster. I've started digging throught the various logs trying to find some more info about the can bus (i.e. the baud rate and message format), but most of the dialogue is about installing a nav unit.

Anyhow -- if anyone know any details about the bus implementation, please email me.

reza

Skydive@AI

There's a user over on the Navplus forums called bjarne. He's hacked the CAN pretty well, and now has control of the cluster's clock and its communication with the RNS-E. He's solved a lot of problems for use B5 retrofitters that way. He's a very good guy and he can probably answer most of your questions.

Secondarily, there's the folks at ADR, who have built a V-1 display in the cluster, via the CAN bus. (This is not the same as the EFU one, which doesn't use CAN, and is not compatable with CAN enabled clusters. (If you want NAV information in your DIS, you have to do it via CAN, so until the EFU folks finish their CAN module, the two are mutually exclusive.

Personally I could care less about everything the EFU offers except the V1 display, so I'm patiently waiting for the ADR device to come out of beta. (Lee Hicks is one of the beta users, and he has one working, so I know it's not just vapor.)

Too bad James Reedy's a lazy guy.

archimense

You can purchase two or three self study programs on the Audi CAN bus from Erwin.

They talk about general protocols and data packets. They also give one example dealing with the central locking system.<ul><li><a href="https://erwin.audi.com/erwin/showHome.do;jsessionid=6BC716ACA9B55E63A36012E0440 BAAD8.ASTPVWE1">https://erwin.audi.com/erwin/showHome.do;jsessionid=6BC716ACA9B55E63A36012E0440 BAAD8.ASTPVWE1</a</li></ul>

reza

Thanks for the pointers...

I'm looking at attaching to the K line and the CANBus behind the radio and being able to pull all sorts of good data off the VAG bus and be able to display it on the console. I've got a V1 as well so I'll probably try to integrate that as well. Finally -- and this a longshot, but I'm going to see about doing an NDA with phatnoise so as to modify their frimware to transmit track titles over the cd changer bus. I figure there will be a way to tx so it doesn't confuse the radio too much. I could then capture that info and display it as well.

Reza

Skydive@AI

James Reedy, (who is really, really smart, but unfortunately even more lazy than smart), had all the K-Line stuff figured out, we had built and shown prototype hardware. James got "busy" doing nothing and assured his partners, (myself and EdP), that nobody else could or would do this work, and not to worry...

...about the time the EFU started to become available.

It was a shame.

Good luck with it. Perhaps you can get some information about it from James. We never got into the CAN, but we didn't need to. (This was in the B5 era.)

-Michael.

reza

took about 5 hours to reverse engineer the protocol between the head unit and the stereo... Turned out not to be on the CANbus afterall (for my model). I was hoping for more of a challenge.

01010010 - R
00101110 - .
01000101 - E
00101110 - .
01001101 - M
00101110 - .
00011100 -
01000110 - F
01001101 - M
00110010 - 2


Thanks for the pointer to James. I am enjoying trying to figure this stuff out myself - kinda like a puzzle. So, in what capacity were you partners?

Reza

Skydive@AI

I supplied much of the money for the prototypes, did and did a lot of the theory... James was the implementation guy... and he mostly just didn't make time for it after the EFU, and procrastinated like mad, beforehand. EdP also supplied money, did the business work, and pre-marketing.

-Michael

James R.

just for the record, everyone paid 1/3 and I know for a fact that I paid more than anyone else because I incurred additional costs after the fact.

Not making a stink or anything, but the facts are the facts. Maybe as a kind gesture Reza could extend to you the offer of whatever his product is on the ultra cheap given the amount of assistance I've offered him. I've put considerable time into our email exchanges...

Furthermore, the software was began in earnest and then the programmer who was helping me *gratis* nearly up and died on me (21 days in the ICU)...

Plenty of procrastination on my part, but nothing is ever as simple as it seems...

Regards,

James R.

Skydive@AI

I'm just going to get an ADR module in about a month since my cluster is now CAN enabled, following RNS-E install.