VW to Volvo transplant

[ddregs444]

I pulled my Phatbox from my wrecked Jetta and am attempting to install it in my 02 Volvo S60 with a HU613 radio. I think I have the wiring figured out, but I can't figure out how to change the firmware. I tried unzipping the Volvo firmware into the PHTSYS, but it still only see's the VW firmware, and the Phatnoise site doesn't offer any support anymore. Any ideas? I can give the wiring conversion I made if someone knows how it is supposed to look. The wiki  "VW Phatbox to Volvo Transplant (How To)" has some differences in the 26 pin plug than what mine seems to have.

[S80_UK]

Hi,

I am the author of said wiki page.  Others have taken VW boxes and wired them according to the information successfully, so I know it's good (even hand wiring the Phatbox connection from my instructions).

You say that the plug wiring does not match.  Where did your plug come from?  If it's from the wiring of your old Jetta then you will need to change it, since the Volvo firmware does use different pins on the connector compared to VW firmware.

When you say "it still only sees the VW firmware" - what exactly are you referring to?  What see's the firmware? 

You need to get the wiring sorted first.  Then, when you put the DMS cartridge into the Phatbox, after the red light comes on, it should spend about 5 minutes reprogramming itself with the Volvo firmware with the green light flashing continually 2 or 3 times a second.  After that, the box should restart and should then be seen by the S60 head unit.

Let's take it a step at a time.  Can you let us see your wiring details to see if there's a problem there?  I'm pretty confident that we should be able to sort this out.

[ddregs444]

I wired it using the same pins as the VW firmware - basically I used the VW cord, cut it in half and soldered it to a new 8 pin DIN. The power and ground pins were the same, but the clock, run, data, etc all were wired on different pin's from the box, so I'll have to change that first. I'll have to buy a 26 pin connector first.  The desktop Phatnoise Music Manager program is what shows that the VW firmware is still on the cartridge. In the old days you could click on a link and the Music Manager program would go to the Phatnoise website and download whatever firmware you wanted, but now they don't support it.  Thanks!!

[S80_UK]

OK - I understand.  Yes - you need to wire a new cable first.  It is possible to break into the moulding around the 26 way connector on the VW cable and then pull that apart, but you need a very sharp blade, care, and a lot of patience.  Buying the parts new may be easier.  The wiki page has some part numbers.

The Phatnoise software reports what is currently programmed into the Phatbox.  When you get the new firmware in the box, it should then report Volvo firmware when you check the DMS.

When you have the cable ready we can go to the next stage.  Are you comfortable with soldering etc?

[ddregs444]

I got the connectors, soldered everything up and connected the unit to the car. Now I need to figure out how to get the new firmware on the cartridge.

[VorTechS]

That doesn't souind too hard.

Download the DMS tools (a sticky in these forums), select the firmware you want to upgrade to and choose the option 'Reflash box'.  Then hit the 'Update firmware' button.  Or was it 'Upgrade firmware'...I forget now...

Well it has been a few hours since I last used them....

[ddregs444]

 Well, I think I reflashed it correctly, but the car doesn't recognize it for some reason. When I turn everything on, the car doesn't show the CD player option (on the radio display it has AM FM TAPE CD, but the CD disappears when the box is plugged in). The phatbox red light is steady, the green light blinks and then after a few minutes all the lights go off.  When I ran the DMS tools program, I ran the hack wizard -  not sure if I was supposed to do that, but the Music Manager says the Volvo Firmware is installed, so it seems I did it right. I ran the Phatnoise DMS doctor and it says the system files are corrupt, but that may not mean anything either. The solderable pins on the DIN connector seemed awful close, so maybe two of them are touching or something. Suggestions?   And by the way, all you guys that did all this work and offer all this support are OK in my book - Thanks a lot, and if I can get it running I'll be eternally grateful. If I am ever in England again I'll buy you a pint. Or two.

[VorTechS]

The hack installs the level 10 rc pairs so you should find a log file on your DMS in PHTSYS/.
It's something like error_log.txt, and should contain a bunch of lines with ---> and <---- at the beginning.

Can you post, or mail this file so we can take a look?

[S80_UK]

Hi,

I would check the wiring very closely.  As you say, the pins are close together.  Use a magnifying glass, and if you can use a meter on ohms range (or a continuity tester) to check that adjacent pins are not accidentally connected.  Also, re-check against the instructions, but it's sounding like progress has been made. 

The green light blinking was the firmware update.  Then the box switched off.  What happened then?  Were you able to get the red light to come on again (may be switch the radio and / or ignition off and then on again).  If you can, you could try sending a picture of your connector and I can then verify the correct pins are soldered.

[ddregs444]

Success!!!!   It turns out that either the 26 pin connector or the shell has been changed. When I went to Digikey and ordered it, one of them (can't remember which - probably the shell) was a superceded part number, so I ordered the number they suggested. These 2 parts (connector and shell) don't easily fit together and there is a raised edge on the shell that actually contacts some of the pins when you tighten the shell sides together. Thus, several pins were shorting. I must have flipped it over when I tried to put it back together because the next time I turned my key the fuse blew. I just left the shell off, wrapped some tape around the 26 pin connector and it worked like a dream. I'll have to see if it works it's way loose from the Phatbox since there is nothing to latch it on now. I'll probably make some sort of contraption to try to secure it.

[S80_UK]

Well done!     Glad you got it working.

My advice will be to secure that connector as tightly as you can.  It may seem a snug fit, bit nothing shakes electrical connections like going for a drive in the trunk of a car.  It would be unlikely to to damage if it came loose while driving, but personally I'd try to avoid the risk.

Do you have the part number of the connector that you ended up with?  If the original Digikey number is no longer valid, I may do some digging and see if I can come up with something which works reliably and which is still available.  Then I can update the Wiki (and my equivalent posts on the Swedespeed forum).

[ddregs444]

The connector p/n 10126-3000VE is "obsolete" according to them. The substitute a connector with a Digi-Key p/n 3M1769-ND, which crosses over to a manufacturer p/n 10126-3000PE. Maybe there is a way to find a shell to match this one better. No one wants to risk damaging their unit, and I know you've got to add disclaimers, but I tried running it in my car with the wrong firmware, tried it with wrong wiring, tried it with pins shorted, tried it with an electrical short, and when I eventually got it right, it's been running fine, so these things seem pretty tough.

[S80_UK]

The connector p/n 10126-3000VE is "obsolete" according to them. The substitute a connector with a Digi-Key p/n 3M1769-ND, which crosses over to a manufacturer p/n 10126-3000PE. Maybe there is a way to find a shell to match this one better. No one wants to risk damaging their unit, and I know you've got to add disclaimers, but I tried running it in my car with the wrong firmware, tried it with wrong wiring, tried it with pins shorted, tried it with an electrical short, and when I eventually got it right, it's been running fine, so these things seem pretty tough.

Thanks for that - I will take a look.  Re the disclaimers - actually when I wrote that stuff in the wiki page (in late 2005) I was pretty nervous about blowing stuff up - and not so much the Phatbox as the Volvo head unit and navigation system (I was installing in my 2 month old S80).  I could see that there is some reasonable electronic protection in the Phatbox design, but had no way to know how resilient anything else may be.  The issue is, even with fuses, car electrics can deliver a hell of a lot of current very quickly (before the fuse blows) and that can kill silicon, blow tracks of circuit boards, etc.  I also wanted to discourage those that lacked the competency to undertake such a project. Still, on the positive side, I don't think anyone's had a problem, so maybe my nervousness was misplaced. 

Once again - glad you got it sorted.  Enjoy!