Concert II and Symphony II in non- CANbus vehicle
 

I posted a while back about fitting a Concert II or Symphony II in my '99 A6 which does not have a CAN bus. There were a few problems with the change :
- connector pinouts different;
- no front panel lights;
- powered off after 1 hour;
- doesn't power of when you pull the key out.
and I know that there are ways to get around a couple of these problems by opening up the unit and soldering wires in etc.

I've spent a few weeks working on this and I wondered if there would be any interest in a plug-in box which goes between the old style harness and the new stereo? The box changes the pinout and also generates a CAN datastream from the hard-wired light/key wires to make the Concert II work as it would in a new vehicle.

It would work in any Audi....and probably any VW too.

Please let me know. I'm making one for myself and would like to know if there is any interest.

cheers
Dave

Yup...those are known issues....you forgot about the GALA (speed sensor wire)..
 

I have all the wiring connector part#'s for the female connectors...and I have built a plug/play harness for SymI-to-Nav+ upgrade (worked great...but there wasn't enough room behind the Nav+ for all of those wires/connectors).

The problem with your situation is that the Concert/Sym II do not have the [male] pins for the illumination, ignition power and gala (speed sensor). Plus, If you are dealing with a pre-2002 A4/A6/A8...then you won't have the necessary wiring within the car to allow you to tap into the CAN-bus protocol.

Therefore:
a) I'm not sure if a wiring harness would remedy that or...
b) you'd need to figure out how to tap into those functions inside each HU (i.e. take them apart). Check the tech section for the writeup on ConcertII illumination.

These are just my thoughts...based only on what I've read and heard from others...and not reflective of actual practice - just theory.


Just my .02.

Good luck in your quest!
-ted

Re: Yup...those are known issues....you forgot about the GALA (speed sensor wire)..
 

Thanks for the input. You're quite right that Older cars do not have a CAN bus. The purpose of my unit is to generate the CAN signals. I have a microcontroller in the box that takes in the old style signals....lights on, key position etc. and converts them into CAN signals which are consistent with the VAG Infotainment CAN bus spec. No intervention is needed into your new head unit. The box emulates all the signals required for illumination and key operation. All are implemented over the HU CAN connections.

Again, you're right that I haven't implemented GALA. This is certainly possible by reading the voltage on the GALA pin and converting this into CAN data, but I just haven't got round to writing that part of the software yet.

DB

CAN-BUS Pin Converter to a Non CAN-BUS '98 Audi A6
 

Hi Dave,

Yes, I would be interested also. I have just bought myself the newer Concert II HU and are also experiencing the same problems as you.

- Power off after 1 hour
- Illumination (fixed after a soldering session)
- Doesn't power off on key removal
- GALA Speed Control

I have also fitted the new Audi Phatbox into my Audi A6 and that works pretty well with the new Concert II. Its just really annoying that on a long journey it turns itself off. It would be great if you could design something to run off the pin connectors and convert to a non-can bus setup so that we can fix the power off problems. I managed to fix the illumination problem by manually opening the HU and soldering a wire to one of the internal pins and that works fine now.

Please do email me back to let me know what stage your at. If your design works, would you be interested in making me one too. I would of course pay you a reasonable price for making one.

Re: Yup...those are known issues....you forgot about the GALA (speed sensor wire)..
 

Hello,
please contact me hower@bermudai.lt and I will take your box.Just contact me.Thanks

so wat hapend to these project any body have figure someting out?

i'm interested on one box too

wat is hapening wit the project no evrevy body have forgot about it?