New to bluesaab - How can I help?

[danbr890]

Hi!

I was looking into doing this exact project a few months back for my 05 9-5 Aero Wagon, but found you guys along the way!

My background is in mechanical engineering, but I have lots of electronics (and some software) experience. I also happen to know a good deal about CAN from my current work.

I plan on ordering the boards from OSHpark and assembling at least one if not two units. Any reason not to use the v5.1 board yet?

Please let me know how I can help, would love to contribute. Maybe I can design a 3D printed enclosure for the board?

Thanks!

Dan

[Karlis]

Hi Dan,

Welcome to the club! :)

There are a lot of things we would need help with. All in all the module (hardware and software wise) seems to be working fine at the moment, but there are a couple of features that are still to be cracked. One of them is the custom SID text control. There's a thread here where people from around the world have contributed with their findings on how to get this feature to work. However we still haven't been able to make it fully work.

Another - hardware feature yet to be cracked is the microphone input. Seth and I have done a lot of testing back and forth, but still haven't been able to make the built in microphone to work with BlueSaab.

3D printing of enclosures sounds fun. Seth could chime in on this as a while back we were discussing ways of getting the newly built optional AMP board to fit in an enclosure.

Thanks!

[Karlis]

Forgot to mention.

As for v5.1 - I haven't tested it yet. The boards are being fabbed as I write this. I should get them from OSHPark in a week or so. I don't see any potential problems with it, but - famous last words... :)

[danbr890]

Haha yep, I've been on that side once before....missing ONE via. ugh.

I spent some time looking into using the stock microphone. I'm not sure if the CDC has the ability to bring audio back into the module. I'm assuming you'd need a hardwired connection into the headunit. I believe the mic wiring goes directly into the headunit.

I had given up on this once I realized my car wasn't even fitted with the Tel connections.

I know the mic has two biased outputs(low/high gain), we can take this to another thread if someone wants to. I unfortunately cannot test/poke around though (other than in the wis).

I've been thinking about dumping some ROM from the headunit/SID, that might be helpful in figuring out the sid text. Another option maybe to reach out to Carl who built the ipod-aux-in (audiotroll). He was able to get text info to the SID reliably, I think.

One last suggestion, maybe move towards using github to store and update code/board schematics? Its useful for tracking updates and so on. Makes collaboration easy (depending on how opensource you want this to be).

[Karlis]

danbr890 wrote

Haha yep, I've been on that side once before....missing ONE via. ugh.

I spent some time looking into using the stock microphone. I'm not sure if the CDC has the ability to bring audio back into the module. I'm assuming you'd need a hardwired connection into the headunit. I believe the mic wiring goes directly into the headunit.

What we were thinking of doing is to have the TEL IN wiring harness and connect that directly to BlueSaab via 3.5mm mic-in connector that all BlueSaabs since v2.0 have been provisioned with. TEL IN wiring harness connects to built in microphone on top of the dash and we should be good. If that was that easy... :)

I had given up on this once I realized my car wasn't even fitted with the Tel connections.

I know the mic has two biased outputs(low/high gain), we can take this to another thread if someone wants to. I unfortunately cannot test/poke around though (other than in the wis).

danbr890 wrote

I've been thinking about dumping some ROM from the headunit/SID, that might be helpful in figuring out the sid text. Another option maybe to reach out to Carl who built the ipod-aux-in (audiotroll). He was able to get text info to the SID reliably, I think.

At this point we are quite sure as to how the communications are happening and what the timing is. It's now up to adjusting timing and frame priorities to make SID ignore any text sent by IHU and accept text sent by BlueSaab. Carl used a "man-in-the-middle" deployment approach where AudioTroll was deployed inline between IHU and SID, so it could "intercept" IHU's frames, drop them and then send out a custom text on its own. BlueSaab is "out of path" deployment (as all nodes on SAAB I-Bus). This is per design, but obviously introduces some challenges, which, of course, make it more interesting to crack. :)

danbr890 wrote

One last suggestion, maybe move towards using github to store and update code/board schematics? Its useful for tracking updates and so on. Makes collaboration easy (depending on how opensource you want this to be).

Yeah, we are using Github already. Look for "SAAB-CDC" project.

[danbr890]

All awesome stuff!

I have much to read up on....

[kielbasa]

Hi Bluesaab forum,

The idea looks awesome and I'd like to have one of Bluesaabs units in my car but...I'm somewhat in the dark on this forum. Sorry for this question, but where can I find step by step instruction how to build this module and a list of all the parts needed? What's the price for the whole set ? Would appreciate any help.

Thanks!

[Karlis]

Hi there! Welcome to our forum!

First of all, you'll need to order PCB's and components for your module. Links to PCB manufacturer and BOM (bill of materials) for v5.1 of the module can be found here. Here's a link to v5.3 version of the module. Technically both versions are the same, however v5.3 has the AMP components on board.

When you order PCB's, keep in mind that they are sold in batches of three per order minimum.

Once you receive the components you'll have to solder them on the board. Once that's done, you'll have to burn bootloader onto ATMEGA-328 chip on board and then upload the latest version of the code, which you can find under "Software" section of this forum. In an essence, handling of software is the same as with Arduino Uno development kits, so if you have done some Arduino projects prior this, it will be easy for you.

Let us know if you have any questions. Good luck!

[MM81]

First of all, you'll need to order PCB's and components for your module. Links to PCB manufacturer and BOM (bill of materials) for v5.1 of the module can be found here. Here's a link to v5.3 version of the module. Technically both versions are the same, however v5.3 has the AMP components on board.

When you order PCB's, keep in mind that they are sold in batches of three per order minimum.

Once you receive the components you'll have to solder them on the board. Once that's done, you'll have to burn bootloader onto ATMEGA-328 chip on board and then upload the latest version of the code, which you can find under "Software" section of this forum. In an essence, handling of software is the same as with Arduino Uno development kits, so if you have done some Arduino projects prior this, it will be easy for you.

Good answers!