Hey guys, I'm sure you've had this annoyance where there's no convenient way to get to Bluetooth Audio except by Sync. Well, I'm a mechanical engineering major at OU with some intermediate programming experience, and I was looking for some insight into doing a little reprogramming of the media center.

My goals of this project currently include:
- changing the "Aux" button's default from "Line In" to "Bluetooth Audio"
- possibly adding a new background
- not messing anything up

Any help is appreciated... starting with where and how to plug into the control system. I'm hoping I won't have to take anything apart, and access everything from the Sync USB port.

If this topic has previously been posted, please link me to it! I searched for a long time before just posting this.

Thank you!

 

I don't mean to be condescending, but if you don't know even where to plug in, how are you going to reverse engineer a proprietary system?

 

i'm much better at working backwards

 

My truck will stay on Bluetooth if that was the last setting used.

Or I press the screen and select Bluetooth
Or I press another button and say Bluetooth

But sure why not add another way to get to it

 

the only way I'm aware of to communicate directly with the sync system is through USB. What tools/utilities are you planning on using?

 

yeah I usually use the voice command, but it's annoying with other people in the car to stop mid conversation, and sometimes mine doesn't return to bluetooth even if it's the last thing i had on because of phone bluetooth issues. I just always wished i could hit the button and cycle through the aux options rather than just line in.

 

@cmbzln i was planning on using Eclipse because that's just what I have the most experience with, I may have to venture out if the language isn't supported. something for rasberry pi/beaglebone/arduino may work too.

 

Don't overlook the Steering Column Control Module (SCCM). That's what tells the radio what to do when an audio button is pressed on the steering wheel. The module measures a voltage drop when a button is pressed on the steering wheel, and sends the corresponding command to the BCM and IPC modules.

If you're an engineer, I highly recommend you go to motorcraftservice.com and register for 3 days of access to their database. It has all of the procedures and wiring diagrams that the actual dealer techs would follow.

 

well in order to change the mapping of a button, you'd essentially have to wire it to a controller, and then from the controller to sync. Programming would be the easy part. The hard part, at least i would think, would be intercepting the commands sent from the control module Fordtrucktexas just mentioned to find out what's it's sending to sync to tell it to switch to bluetooth. Not sure how you'd be planning on doing that, but I'd venture to guess you'd need a lot more than just eclipse.

 

@fordtruckTexan Very good point, I totally forgot about the buttons there. I'll definitely register and check their diagrams, I'm sure I'll need them. I will also see if I can get any help/recommendations from Microsoft (though I'm not expecting much).

@cmbezln Luckily I'm on good terms with the CS department here so I have access to quite a few platforms, and they would be willing to help since this is somewhat related to my education.

No matter what, I realize this isn't your typical "weekend project"