Can I convert a VW unit to a BMW unit?

[InterMurph]

My brother has a BMW, and he wants a Phatnoise.  The BMW units seem to be rather expensive.  Can I buy the VW unit for $116, and convert it into a BMW unit?  

I assume I would need to build or acquire a new cable.  But is that all I would have to do?

Thanks.

[bicsingh]

Hi there,

same problem, just curious if you had any success...

TIA Bic

[Terry_Kennedy]

same problem, just curious if you had any success...

I did this for another BMW owner. He bought the Audi version and a BlitzSafe BMW/ALP DMX V.1 adapter. I made up the BMW PhatBox cable and did the mod on the BlitzSafe (re-soldering the jumper from 12V to 5V) and reprogrammed his PhatBox and it is working fine.

[judb]

are there any details on the 5v mod you did that can be tossed up on the wiki? (if its not already there, I didn't check to be honest).. that would be useful info to capture.

[Terry_Kennedy]

are there any details on the 5v mod you did that can be tossed up on the wiki? (if its not already there, I didn't check to be honest).. that would be useful info to capture.

It is pretty trivial - it was posted on the old PhatNoise forums. Basically, the BlitzSafe has a jumper inside the case which is labeled "5" and "12" on the board silkscreen. A stock BlitzSafe unit will either have a solder jumper in "12", or an etch on the PCB doing the same thing. All you do is remove the solder jumper or cut the etch, and then place a blob of solder on the "5" side. This changes one of the lines (data? not sure) from the BlitzSafe to the PhatBox to use 5V signalling levels instead of 12V. This is also the reason you can't drop a BMW PhatBox into an old-bus Alpine system - the Alpine uses 12V.

[az1324]

Blitzsafe changed the software in these adapters and the new version doesn't work with the Phatbox FYI.