atekind

My Friend and I are building a pair of Auto PC's As i am an Automation technician and He is an Automation Programmer we should be able to get these things installed and working well. My Car is easy to tie into the audio, i suspect His Audi A4 may not be. I have read multiple things about Audi Sound systems some of which are split front and back with rear amplifiers, some with out. I know there was a guy on here who is an Audi technician and hopefully he or someone else with experience can answer some questions.

1. Is there a single amplifier that powers all of the speakers (Ireally hope so) and if so what type of signal does it expect to see (High-speaker, or Low-line level)
2.How is the amplifier told to turn on, is it with 12vdc on an input trigger or some weird voltage on an audio input as in the monsoon.
3. Are there any implications to removing the factory head unit such as security problems, persistant fault codes etc.
4. Are there any available pin-outs, wire drawings etc available?

And lastly has anyone to date done this sort of install in a current Audi A4?

My 1997 Jetta GLX will be simple and i dont want to start tearing his car apart without info.

Much thanks in advance.

SHaun.

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atekind

So i was looking at other posts and came across this thing:

http://www.autotoys.com/x/catalog/AU...ES_p_1194.html

It apparently allows you to convert the line level preamp out puts of a "New Headunit" to the wiring harness of the Audi. Correct me if i am wrong but why woudnt i plug this into the car, build some Audio lines that terminate in RCA female from the PC sound card in the trunk and job done. The power Harness seen in the link is nt necessary unless there is an amp turn on lead which i would use and heatshrink the rest of the wires up.

Let me know thoughts.

Thanks,

Shaun.

atekind

biggity bump

Postman

I'm in the process of doing my 2006 Audi A4 right now, so have been doing a lot of research. Should be the same as the 05 or the 05.5 (new body style). I had an O4 and it was the same.

1. With Bose, yes. The Bose Symphony and the regular symphony are the same, all the EQ is done in the amp with the Bose, and all the speakers are run off the amp in the trunk, non-bose is different though, it "splits", some off the deck, some off the amp (gotta love VAG cars huh?)
From what I understand with the Bose it sends a low level preamp signal to the Bose amp. I'll confirm Friday when I tap those and convert them to RCA without a LOC.

2. Yes, there is a remote turn on just like an after market HU. I know many people have used it as an aftermarket amp turn on, so I assume it's 12v.

3. Haven't heard it come up (ala VW which did have issues with the "K" wire as you probably know). I'm keeping the stock HU though, so didn't research this much.

4. Here you go, some schematics that may or may not be correct:

http://forums.audiworld.com/audio/msgs/53950.phtml
http://forums.audiworld.com/audio/msgs/44160.phtml

I've just run the power wire and installed a sub, but these are much harder then the VW's I've owned to install in. Assume double the time on whatever you're used to!

atekind

So are you using the integration kit that i have a link to? Or did you just tap into the wiring yourself. I really appreciate your Information, please keep me posted on your progress i would love to see some pics. What are you doing for your LCD, I am probably going to have to flush one into a metra bezel kit, what about you?

Thanks man.....

Postman

Others have it done it on here with the Metra kit, but I'm keeping the stock Symphony for asthetics and stealth. The deck with the Bose pin grounded has been tested to have an almost flat output and extremely good quality. Better then most aftermarket.

I'm going to be using one of these to control the PC from the factory HU:

http://indashpc.org/new/
http://www.car2pc.com/index.html

The only reason I'm doing this is for music. The factory unit will be run preamp low level into an Alpine H701, then into my amps. The PC will be controled by the deck with an optical in directly to the Alpine DSP.

Once I figure out a way to stealth mount a motorized screen, I'll have that available. I'm looking into right above the factory HU by removing the dash trim, but that won't be for a few months. There does seem to be enough room though. This way allows me to keep the factory deck with changer and factory Sirius, but still have my PC in the car.

I would avoid using that Bose amp personally. It does some very heavy tweaking in regards to crossovers and EQ, and will be very tough to work around. Avoiding as much of the Audi wiring will also be a plus. Just my .02 of course.

Postman

Here's someone the board doing a car like mine, which from an electronic point of view and interior is identical to the 05 (even though the exterior's are different).

http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/worklogs/84854-2006-audi-a4.html

Here's a good write up on a B6 A4 in regards to running some wires and tapping the amp signal. I think this is a non-Bose though.

http://www.a4mods.com/index.php?page...es/stereo.html

atekind

so your saying that the crossovers and eq functions are taken care of by the headunit and that i will have problems if i try to put line level audio directly into the OEM amp? Its important for my friends car at least for phase one to keep this thing as close to OEM as possible (Other than an LCD panel of course) I am going to work hard to make sure this is a tight install.

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Postman

No, jsut the opposite. The EQ settings are in the amp. It should work fine, just don't know how it will sound. I assume if you can get a flat signal into the OEM amp from the PC it should be fine. I assumed you were changing other components as well (like speakers and so on).

atekind

No this is just phase one of the project, i figure the audio side of things will cost $50.00 for the adaptors plus we work in an automation shop so we can build our audio, video and svga cables, if the audio sucks then we move on to phase two.
I am really glad we talked about this, as you have provided essential information, this is going to kick ***.

Thank you very much. I hope you dont mind if i ask more questions.

Postman

No problem, let us know how it turns it. I'm interested in your project since I'm not sure what direction I'll go for the final PC build.

There are a few people on the forum working with Audi's, so hunt around. This dude had something going, but don't know if he's done or still working on it.

EDIT: for some reason I can't post links without a 3 hour delay, guess a year isn't long enough to confirm I'm not a spambot. Anyway, search for 2006 audi A4 work log by geekinsc.

Also, saw your Sat radio post. I was told on some other forums it ain't gonna happen, which is why I decided to use the Car2PC with the stock deck. Let me know if you figure that out, I have a feeling it can be done.

Good luck!

atekind

im sure it can be done, but i think its beyond my personal technical experience. I would imagine that some sort of emulating interface would need to be built along with new software to allow us to control something on that CAN-BUS that Audi is using. But that connector looks like a standard connector so maybe we can at least use the antenna and just replace the box with the non-audi XM tuner that can be controlled giving a stock appearance at least? I will not know until i see the connector in the flesh, but if any one has seen the connector on the Audi OEM XM module let me know if it is standard.


Cheers

RedGTiVR6

It's not based on time, it's based on number of posts. 5 posts is the limit.

You shouldn't have any problems now.

__________________

dacookster

Hey Gents,

I'm the owner of the A4 atekind is talking about. I'm not a car audio buff per say(don't care about upgrading the stereo) but I have been a graphic artist for 10 years and an integration programmer for a few years now. I'm building a new road runner skin specifically for Audi as well as VW(same skin, different logos/bitmaps). I've seen what some other guys have created and I'm not getting too carried away. We work in the super high-end range up of custom residential systems integration, and as cool as this stuff can be, to be quite honest, it's mostly way over the top. So I'm keeping the skin clean, simple, and easy to navigate. Let's face it - we don't live in our cars, well not most of us anyway, so I think the ability to change the rating on an mp3 track while in my car is a little retarded. It will include the windows bios loading graphics as well. Anyways, for those Audi lovers out there, I'll make the skin available when it's done.

Also, POSTMAN, I've read in a lot of other threads that the front speakers are powered by the head unit, although you say it's not. Whats the deal there?? We just want to be prepared before we yard the HU out. Is that on older A4's?? Or maybe we won't really know until we dismantle the thing.

Anyways, thanks for all your help!!

atekind

I beleive the difference is between the Symphony system which is all powered from the rear Amp as compared to the concert system which is split. Thats what i got from Audi-world anyways. Peace out buddy i will talk to you monday. Ive already seen the beginning of his skins and they will make a nice addition to Ingolstadt and Wolfsburgs finest.

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