Any 9-3/9-5 owners interested in bluetooth audio?

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hutch
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Any 9-3/9-5 owners interested in bluetooth audio?

Postby hutch » Sat Feb 13, 2016 4:12 pm

I don't know how many others on here drive the evil new Saabs, but if so would anyone be interested in building a bluetooth audio adapter? I've been reading up on this site and thinking about building one:
http://bluesaab.blogspot.com/

There is a minimum order requirement for the PCB board and the harness connector so I figured I'd see if anyone else may be interested in building one if I ordered the parts. It'd be like $20 for the parts from me and then ~$50 for the other parts from Mouser.

Blue Jello Rain
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Re: Any 9-3/9-5 owners interested in bluetooth audio?

Postby Blue Jello Rain » Sat Feb 13, 2016 5:04 pm

Funny you should ask, I was just on OSH park ordering some boards I made to mess around with CANBUS and saw that.

I'm probably going to order a few boards and make one for my girlfriends 9-5, I added bluetooth to it awhile ago using the telephone input but it isn't the greatest quality, you can hear the DIC discharging.

Bluesaab tricks the canbus into thinking it's talking to the cd changer, much better quality and the steering wheel buttons work from what I read.

I've got all the stuff to program AVR microcontrollers if anyone needs it and wants to walk me through how to ship it to where you're at, along with a nice soldering iron if surface mount parts aren't your thing.

ajagodnik
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Re: Any 9-3/9-5 owners interested in bluetooth audio?

Postby ajagodnik » Sat Feb 13, 2016 7:50 pm

I'm interested! I have two 9-5s, one of which is currently occupying two bays of my garage. The completely assembled one has a Moto bluetooth, just for phone interface.

Any chance of me successfully assembling one of these? I'm pretty, uh, challenged in this kind of thing.

hutch
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Location: Lancaster, PA

Re: Any 9-3/9-5 owners interested in bluetooth audio?

Postby hutch » Sat Feb 13, 2016 8:16 pm

Blue Jello Rain wrote:Funny you should ask, I was just on OSH park ordering some boards I made to mess around with CANBUS and saw that.

I'm probably going to order a few boards and make one for my girlfriends 9-5, I added bluetooth to it awhile ago using the telephone input but it isn't the greatest quality, you can hear the DIC discharging.

Bluesaab tricks the canbus into thinking it's talking to the cd changer, much better quality and the steering wheel buttons work from what I read.

I've got all the stuff to program AVR microcontrollers if anyone needs it and wants to walk me through how to ship it to where you're at, along with a nice soldering iron if surface mount parts aren't your thing.
Sounds like you've got some fun projects ahead!

How tricky is programming the chips? I saw a cable they recommend to write the program but haven't gone far into learning how to actually do it. I know someone who has built some Arduino stuff that can hopefully give me some basic guidance.
ajagodnik wrote:I'm interested! I have two 9-5s, one of which is currently occupying two bays of my garage. The completely assembled one has a Moto bluetooth, just for phone interface.

Any chance of me successfully assembling one of these? I'm pretty, uh, challenged in this kind of thing.
If you can solder it seems like these are very straight forward to assemble. If you go to the forum on the blog there are a few people that sell assembled ones every once in a while too :thumbsup:

Blue Jello Rain
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Re: Any 9-3/9-5 owners interested in bluetooth audio?

Postby Blue Jello Rain » Sat Feb 13, 2016 8:54 pm

hutch wrote:How tricky is programming the chips? I saw a cable they recommend to write the program but haven't gone far into learning how to actually do it. I know someone who has built some Arduino stuff that can hopefully give me some basic guidance.


Pretty simple, easiest way is to get a cheap arduino or arduino clone using the 328P chip. It looks like they're using the arduino IDE/code, so it's a matter of plugging in the blank chip and burning the bootloader (About 3 mouse clicks) then uploading the program.

ajagodnik wrote:I'm interested! I have two 9-5s, one of which is currently occupying two bays of my garage. The completely assembled one has a Moto bluetooth, just for phone interface.

Any chance of me successfully assembling one of these? I'm pretty, uh, challenged in this kind of thing.


What years are they?

From their hackaday.io page:

This module only works in 1998-2002 Saab 9-3 (2003 9-3 convertible), and 1999-2005 9-5 (I think; not exactly sure on the years)


And from what I read this doesn't work with the kenwood head unit with navigation built in? (This was a thing?)

http://bluesaab-forum.2349123.n4.nabble ... td123.html

EDIT:

If somebody could tell me where the cd changer plug is located in a 2001 9-5 wagon, I'd appropriate it. I just dug around the left side a bit, took out that plastic bin on the bottom, didn't see anything.

hutch
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Re: Any 9-3/9-5 owners interested in bluetooth audio?

Postby hutch » Sat Feb 13, 2016 9:45 pm

Blue Jello Rain wrote:Pretty simple, easiest way is to get a cheap arduino or arduino clone using the 328P chip. It looks like they're using the arduino IDE/code, so it's a matter of plugging in the blank chip and burning the bootloader (About 3 mouse clicks) then uploading the program.
I should probably just ask over on their forum but since it sounds like you're pretty knowledgable about this... what does that cable they recommend (https://www.sparkfun.com/products/9717) have to do with programming the chip?

After very briefly reading up on this it seems like something like this is the easiest/only way to write the code onto the chip:
http://www.amazon.com/SainSmart-ATmega3 ... +uno&psc=1

I can't figure out where that cable would plug into to actually write any code :dunno:

EDIT x2
Blue Jello Rain wrote:If somebody could tell me where the cd changer plug is located in a 2001 9-5 wagon, I'd appropriate it. I just dug around the left side a bit, took out that plastic bin on the bottom, didn't see anything.
I've never owned a 9-5 but from this it sure seems like you were close and it is on the drivers side under the storage cuby
http://www.saabcentral.com/forums/showt ... hp?t=66739
Image

Blue Jello Rain
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Re: Any 9-3/9-5 owners interested in bluetooth audio?

Postby Blue Jello Rain » Sat Feb 13, 2016 10:46 pm

Crap, forgot about that. You do need either a programmer or a FTDI cable to burn a bootloader, sorry.

http://bluesaab.blogspot.com/

Look at the third picture, the finished board. At the bottom left is a row of pins, that is where the FTDI cable plugs into.

I didn't realize they had that on the board all nice and ready to go, all you need is that FTDI cable. The one you posted looks good.

Looks like I need to get my girlfriend the extension loom as well

http://www.eeuroparts.com/Parts/7828/CD ... s-0283382/

I guess some cars came didn't come with this last chunk of wiring.

ajagodnik
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Re: Any 9-3/9-5 owners interested in bluetooth audio?

Postby ajagodnik » Sun Feb 14, 2016 6:12 am

My 9-5s are 03 Linear (the project) and 04 Aero wagon, so they're in the MY range. It looks like I'll need the CD changer harnesses for both as well.

I had been thinking about doing a Nexus7 tablet install in the 03 once I get it up and running, but this thing looks a lot simpler to get going, pretty cool and well-integrated into the car. Plus I've kind of wanted to learn about Arduino anyway.

Hutch, count me in for two of the PCBs when you're ready to buy.

hutch
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Re: Any 9-3/9-5 owners interested in bluetooth audio?

Postby hutch » Sun Feb 14, 2016 7:54 am

Blue Jello Rain wrote:Look at the third picture, the finished board. At the bottom left is a row of pins, that is where the FTDI cable plugs into.

Ah of course, I was looking for another chip or something to plug into but that does make it really convenient...
ajagodnik wrote:Hutch, count me in for two of the PCBs when you're ready to buy.

I'll probably be placing an order tonight just in case anyone else may be interested but I'll keep you posted with the details. I'm glad there is some other interest in this!

Blue Jello Rain
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Re: Any 9-3/9-5 owners interested in bluetooth audio?

Postby Blue Jello Rain » Sun Feb 14, 2016 5:52 pm

Just ordered 4 of the cd changer connectors, 3 boards and one set of the components to make a single board. Should be here in two weeks or so if anyone wants me to be the test subject.

hutch
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Re: Any 9-3/9-5 owners interested in bluetooth audio?

Postby hutch » Sun Feb 14, 2016 10:19 pm

Yup just put my various orders in, I think they said my PCBs are being made on the 16th? So hopefully I'll be able to get it assembled in a few weeks time...

ajagodnik I'll give you a heads up when the PCBs and CD changer connectors arrive...

ajagodnik
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Re: Any 9-3/9-5 owners interested in bluetooth audio?

Postby ajagodnik » Mon Feb 15, 2016 5:21 am

Nice! Let me know the total.

BlueJelloRain, my wagon is an 04; doesn't have any obvious wiring inside the cubbies that I can see, but I assume there's a plug somewhere on the other side of the inner panels somewhere.

hutch
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Re: Any 9-3/9-5 owners interested in bluetooth audio?

Postby hutch » Mon Feb 15, 2016 8:39 pm

I had a funny conversation with the sales rep from the company that sells the CD changer connectors, he was curious why there was an influx of sales over the weekend of these random connectors that often had Saab in the company name :lol:

Anyway, it looks like most of the other stuff is shipping out so its just a waiting game on the PCB boards, hopefully by early March we should have these in hand...

hutch
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Re: Any 9-3/9-5 owners interested in bluetooth audio?

Postby hutch » Thu Feb 18, 2016 10:56 pm

Blue Jello Rain will you have any extra PCBs from your order you could sell ajagodnik? ajagodnik I don't want to limit you to one since you expressed interest first but I have a local Saab friend who seems interested in building one. He can always place an order himself so if theres not another for you I'll gladly still sell you the two you wanted....

Anyway, all the stuff except the PCB is here, now I just gotta figure out how to program this thing o_O

Blue Jello Rain
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Re: Any 9-3/9-5 owners interested in bluetooth audio?

Postby Blue Jello Rain » Fri Feb 19, 2016 6:30 pm

Sure thing, I'm still waiting for them to get here though. Got my electrical components today and the cd changer connectors.


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