TheSilverBullet

So I'm currently trying to install a Parrot MKi9000 Bluetooth kit in my 2002 A6 with the Bose system.

Long story short, installing this kit on any symphony radio with Bose is a real PIA, and after a lot of research it looks like the best (maybe the only) way to get this working is to get an "SOT" harness (a replacement for the wiring harness that comes with the Parrot kit) from one of several vendors in the UK.

These SOT harnesses are designed specifically for interfacing between specific Parrot kits and specific radios/amps, and when selecting the appropriate one for my make/model/year, there appear to be two valid options: "Half-Bose (Rear Amplified)" and "Full Bose". Despite all of my research, I have no idea what this really means or which one of these systems my car has.

Unfortunately, it seems like an important distinction because the picture of each corresponding SOT harness shows a different number or connectors. If I were to base my decision entirely off of these pictures, I would say that I think I have the "Full Bose" system.

Does anyone know what the real difference between "half" and "full" Bose is?

Is there any way I can find out which I have for sure? I've checked my option codes and build date to no avail... Can I figure this out based on the connections available behind the radio or by finding the Bose amp?

Any help would be greatly appreciated...

jseklund

I have installed the MKi9200 in both my car (non-bose) and my mom's car (bose). I'm not sure of the half/full distinction - so I can't be of much help.

What I can tell you is that the phone can be made to work fine with the standard parrot harness.

The ipod is the issue. The only speaker that it will play over in the bose system is the driver's side pillar speaker (which is the factory phone speaker I believe). I don't think re-directing wires in any fashion can over-come this problem, so a harness probably won't work.

What I am aware of, but have not yet tried - is the connects2 setup which cost about $50 and will allow you to connect your parrot to the CD changer port on the back of the radio - but you lose your trunk CD changer (not a big deal if you have a Sym II w/ 6 CD changer in the dash - you can still use that changer). This is a trade-off I would happily take personally, but haven't jumped at the $50 expense yet

If you find more info, let me know - I'd love to learn that it can be rewired, I can make the connectors myself probably with the parts I have kicking around...

jseklund

If you post a link to the two harnesses you're looking at, I may be able to provide more insight...I've spent a good amount of time rewiring things for these radios in 3 audis...including putting a Symphony II into an 01 A4....

TheSilverBullet

That actually sounds like it might work out better than the SOT harness. Before getting the Parrot kit, I had considered getting something like the connects2 just for aux in and with the way that it connects it would probably work perfectly with the line out wires from the Parrot kit.

My goal is to get both phone and music running through the kit to all of the speakers, and the connects2 would do that for less than the more expensive SOT harness, but I agree I'd like to spend less than $50 on that and would definitely prefer to see if I could make something similar to the connects2 on my own...

Anyway, in the meantime I also figured out the Bose system is only "fully amplified" with a little more searching around. So, the SOT harness I would need is this one:

SOT-1002

I'm assuming that it provides the audio input in a similar way to the connects2, through the CD changer, but I'm not 100% sure about that. If so, it would also work perfectly for what I want but is only available from the UK at about £45 (about $72), without shipping. And that feels like way too much to pay for a wire harness...

So, if I was going to try to do this without buying anything else, couldn't I just wire the line out from Parrot kit directly to the CD changer port (splicing the wires that go into the plug or creating a connector like the connects2)?

jseklund

I don't think it can just be wired. The connects2 has other hardware/software that emulates the CD player to communicate with the radio head....otherwise you could just buy a connector and run the line outs right up to the CD inputs....but the radio won't recognize it from what I've seen.

I am reasonably certain the Connects2 is the best, if not only, solution for this.

TheSilverBullet

Yeah, I figured that was probably the case, however, I was taking a look at the connects2 and some similar adapters like the BlitzSafe, but the only thing I'm concerned about is that some of them don't seem to utilize all of the pins in the 20-pin connector. The BlitzSafe is definitely that way, but it's a little hard to tell if the connects2 is as well based on the poor quality pictures I've found. Will that still work with Bose (which uses several of the pins in that connector for line out)?

If not, the SOT harness certainly seems to utilize all of the pins in that connector...

What do you think? Should I just try the connects2 first, try to return it if it doesn't work, and then get the SOT harness?

jseklund

I will try to look at this some more tonight when I get home. The radio head unit does the processing that sends the signal to the Bose unit I BELIEVE, but not 100% sure. If there's a pin that is not included in the connects2 harness, the pins from the original connector can be removed and re-inserted into the connects2 plug if necessary, but it's a bit of a PITA.

TheSilverBullet

Thanks for helping me sort this out!

jseklund

Ok, so I'm looking at this now. Here's the problem I THINK you'll run into. I've never done this, it's just hypothesis. If you look at the CD section of the 20-pin plug in the back of the radio, you see all the inputs from the CD line to the radio. On the other side, you have a line-out section of the plug, where the signal is split into 4.

If you try to put line-outs from the parrot into the CD section, the radio won't know what to do with it, won't send it to the line-out, etc. If you try to by-pass the radio altogether, you would have to split the 2 lines into 4 somehow (the parrot has 2 line-outs, so maybe you can use these as 4)

I can see that an SOT harness MAY work here if you give the parrot the ability to control the amp'd speakers by bypassing the radio altogether. The only other issue I can see is that the amp needs to have some way of being turned on by the Parrot, since the radio won't be controlling it.

A possible way to test this, before you by the SOT harness, is to pull the radio out entirely, strip back some wire on the line-outs and insert those wires into the pins for each speaker and try to run the Parrot like that.

I'm kinda just guessing here, as I never got the IPOD working on my mom's (ran outta time). I would love for this to work, because it's actually a simple setup.

I still think the Connects2 is going to be the only solution...but the other method is worth a shot.

TheSilverBullet

Hmm, interesting... I think I'm going to test this and a few other things when I get home. I'll let you know how it goes.

Oh, and a question: If I end up splitting the 2 line out's into 4, does it matter which ones I use for L/R and Front/Rear? Is line1 the mono/left channel and line2 the stereo/right channel or do they both carry the same signal? I didn't see this in the Parrot documentation, but maybe it's there and I missed it. The Bose system obviously treats each speaker (location) as it's own channel so I'd like to know which signal I'm sending where.