I finished the Nokia 8260 some time ago - and I finally put together this article to share with the AW folks. Again, this is for the Nokia 8260 cell. I know it's possible to do this for other phone brands/models with a little work, but you can use this as a guide.

GOAL:

To integrate my Nokia 8260 with some of the aparatus and functionality Audi already has in
the 2001 A4 -- radio mute, mic and speaker wiring, etc. (My car: 2001 A4 2.8q with Bose)

DETAILS:
The kit that integrates with the radio and OEM mic and speakers is made by SmartEq. Their kit is called "Handsfree Pro" -- part #797553129042 (available for $150 at your local AT&T
wireless store or ATT's site www.attwireless.com). Take that part number with you as there are quite a few wireless kits available -- some of them cheezy and the people there could be clueless about what you're after.

Here are the contents of the kit (phone cradle, wires, speaker, mic, control unit, various other little doo-dads):




The control until will go underneath the backseat and everything connects from there:



A closer look:



I followed the instructions in Ed P's article (http://www.audiworld.com/tech/elec12.shtml)
-- soldering the various wires to the DB male connector. However, this caused me many problems -- the connection points are so small that it was hard to get a strong connection.

Also, a few of the connections are so close that they would end up making contact ... causing a short circuit (blown fuse). Add to that I'm a total novice at soldering and electronics, so not a good combination. (My problems, not Ed's articles'!)

So I decided to purchase an additional DB straight-thru cable and cut it to tap directly into the line. I also had to purchase a self-powered circuit tester ($4.99 at an auto parts
store). You can see the DB25 line cut & the circuit tester on the right:




To determine which of those lines belongs to which pin on the circuit you simply clip on the
lines with alligator end of the tester and touch the pins on the connector. If the light
comes on, then you know which line it is (the pins are numbered). This worked much better
for me -- I was able to make strong, solid connections and wrap them in electrical tape.

I also wanted to use the on OEM speaker (the extra speaker in the driver's door), so I cut the speaker line in the kit, and tapped into the DB cable as well (see Ed's article for connection points). The only ones you need to use are:

PIN on DB25#: -----> LINE:
10 -----> Yellow line from kit's harness
16 -----> Red line from kit's harness
5 -----> Blue line from kit's harness
3 -----> Black line from kit's harness
19 -----> Speaker + (white line)
25 -----> Speaker - (black line)
15 -----> Mike + (white line)
14 -----> Mike - (black line)


For the mic, I had read and heard that the OEM mike (behind the small grille by the sunroof controls) wasn't fully compatible with this kit. So I decided to mount the mic from the kit onto the windshield right next to the post of the rear view mirror. It's very subtle -- I then tucked the wire then thru the A-Pillar and down to the control unit in the back seat.




It works great and the sound quality is superb.

Note: I had to extend it with a mic extension cable from Radio Shack ($6.99). I would have liked to place the mic in the sunroof control area; I actually scoped this out. But it seemed beyond the scope of what I could do -- it would
have required drilling into the headliner, massive manipulation of that area, etc. No thanks!

Once everything is wired up correctly the phone actually automatically puts itself into 'Car'
mode/profile when it's in the cradle.

Once everything is wired up correctly the phone actually automatically puts itself into Car mode/profile when it's in the cradle.



You can then select various settings -- such as auto-answer, ring tone, ring volume, lights on/off, etc -- to take effect once the phone is in the cradle/car mode. The nice thing about this mod is I'll never miss a phone while driving again - unless I chose to. Too many times I don't hear the phone ring because the radio is blasting. But now, when a call comes in the radio mutes (CD and tape are paused) or during other phone activity (dialing/v-mail, etc). And when the call ends, the radio returns with the volume gradually returning to the previous setting.

When I'm on a call, the Symphony deck displays this:





And the dash console looks like this:

SOME OPTIONAL ITEMS
I decided to mount my phone to the dash as shown here:

I bought the bracket from Avalonmotorsports.com [zev@avalonmotorsports.com]. You have to
pull the radio out to properly mount the bracket. The tech at my dealer gladly pulled it for me. The bracket is $35. The SmartEq phone cradle mounts perfectly onto the bracket - in
fact, the SmartEq kit comes with all the appropriate screws to attach to the bracket.

I also highly recommend getting an external repeater antenna of some type. I went
without one for about a month and experienced lots of dropped calls and bad connections.

With the external antenna, the reception is much improved. In fact, in areas where I didn't get any signal, I can now get 2 bars of signal. I went for the Hirschmann Glassmount (Model MCA-1890 SLIM). I like it because it's very subtle and simple to install; it takes all of 10 minutes. I ran the wire down the passenger side A-pillar, under the dash and on to the control unit under the backseat (there is a connector for it directly on the control unit - no soldering required!) It cost me $45 at a local auto stereo shop.

This is the antenna module attached to my windshield via the adhesive patch.

COST:
The way I did it here is the total:
SmartEq Kit: $150
2 DB straight thru cables: $18
Self powered circuit tester: $5
Mic extension cable: $7
TOTAL: ~$180

Optional items:
Phone bracket: $30
Hirschmann Glassmount: $45

Talking on the phone safely while driving: PRICELESS

Many thanks to Ed P and SteveTrac (www.blacks4.com) for answering my stupid questions when I was doing this. I couldn't have done it without their guidance. Thanks guys!