its worth every cent !
i waisted $120 on a high end fm modulator that had all the gimmicks .
antenna isolation switch / 3 separate fm frequencies to avoid interference /
blue tooth in / 3.5mm male and female input jack / and usb charge facility .
i still have it hooked up but only use it for the a charging jack now .
sure it got me up and running but lacked sound and sound quality .
the veff box sounds easily one third louder and clearer . and re initiated my steering wheel controls for skipping tracks or rewinding . i sure could not willingly go back to the fm modulator .

 

What is the Ven Box?

 

It's a Bluetooth streaming device ,
This is it here >

https://plus.google.com/+IquryUsJaguar

 

Got it, that was the first time I heard it called that.

 

Same here , I've heard it called veffbox , and that seems fitting and has a nice ring to it so I call it that , and I havnt been struck down by veffremov for doing so , ether way it's easier to write than iquirious D2B fiber optic streaming device , so I'm sticking with veffbox , unless instructed otherwise by the man himself.

 

No doubts veffbox is great product, but you simply can't buy it now. I just ate bait of previous replier with cost discussion rather than solution itself, sorry. I asked for solution concept in general. FM modulator is out of my requirements range. I can repeat them:

 

Okay so I have deviated slightly and gained more info along the way.

I opened up the stack in the trunk to take a look and see what all I had and needed. Consequently my Bluetooth module showed up also! Luckily I found the phone/bt harness, the vacm harness, and a spare optic for the ICE with a loop attached.

I installed the 7W93-10D893-AB module without an antenna since it has not arrived. I connected it to the correct harness and ICE optic. Immediately the car recognized it and was waiting for a connection. I had to place my phone right near to get it to see the signal, but soon "Jaguar" showed up on my phone. Punched in 1313 for the code, and the phone was fully functional and within minutes had pulled in my contacts! Hooray! Since the box is so light I will get some nice big patches of velcro and put it on the bottom of the CD player.

So I moved onto putting in the microphone. Pulled the bezel down and cracked the thin section of plastic by the lights (also ignore my missing wood grain, it needs to be reglued). that thing is horrible to get off, the Denali one had one screw and popped right off. Anyways, will find a replacement eventually. So I had to solder on new ends for the microphone from the Denali to plug in (fyi, you need a female plug for the microphone in case you are making your own.). Connected it up, made a call, and no one could hear me. So I changed polarity, same thing. Resigned to having to find a Jag microphone . Was standing in line picking up the pizza searching for the right part and BAM I remembered I needed to do the bypass in the VACM plug! Hurried home made the cross connects and we had 2 way communication! You can see in the pictures it is the same form factor as the Jag one, so I assume it is of similar quality and my test calls proved so.

So that took care of items 1 and 2 above. Just waiting on the antenna now to finish the phone piece.

While undertaking this, I figured I want to voice dial from the steering wheel, so I found a VACM PN 2R8F-14B292-BD I know it is the UK version, but it was reasonably priced and I had seen people on the forums in the US with the same PN. So it is on it's way along with IDS/SDD cable and software. From what I have found it likely will not be plug and play.

Deciding to add the VACM meant I needed more optic connections since I was short one. So I ordered a 1 female and 3 male optic cable. You can see in the attached drawing how I am going to use this to go from the ICE -- BT -- VACM -- LOOP -- ICE

So that is the update for now, and will continue once I have the next couple of items.

 

Congrats, the mic looks identical to the OEM except the color. It could be useful to other people if you share how to get one.

 

The mic came out of a 2002 GMC Denali equipped with OnStar. The microphone was attached to the left hand side of the overhead console. I don't use OnStar so stole it for the Jaguar. it has a clip that slides right over the edge of the trim.

From what I can tell any vehicle equipped with OnStar in that era has this microphone. GM Pn# 15247279.

As I stated above, you do need to solder on different ends (female) as the Jaguar console is Male. Do not cut off very much wiring as it barely reaches with very little slack. I used the following type of connector because it is what I had:



Going off of pictures, this connector might be better to use.
http://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/...BRUetC4I1GU%3d

 

Nice work Oly.

Am going to look into using that GM part.

Thanks!
Mag

 

Is it only the (pre wired S types ) that have a pre installed mic ?
mine never came with phone or BT or voice from factory .
but if i enter hidden menu i can test the mic and it shows its working .
would it be wise for any one doing this retrofit to check the hidden menu for a mic response before purchasing one for the install?

 

i guess veffremov is the only person out there that can answer that ! but ill bet he won't .
and if he can't supply the veffbox at present then there is no alternative .
but wait till he can .

if you wire in a 3.5mm jack to the CD shuttle you could plug a 3.5mm bluetooth receiver in to it and hard wire a power supply to it . the steering wheel volume and mute will still work just not the skip function .

 

I can certainly answer that question: as far as I know my box is the only solution that can stream via BT, lets you control the playback via wheel controls and passes as high quality.

This thread has listed some alternatives, which have advantages and/or disadvantages. It comes down to the ingenuity of the person and what limitations they are willing to live with.

If your question is: "Can one swap the transport in the CD/CD changer with X?"
Sure, one can. I don't know of anyone who has done such a thing, but you can be the first to succeed. Would it be cheaper? We would not know unless someone tries and succeeds.

 

@veffremov: Are you still making these boxes? I signed up on what I thought was a wait list a few months back and never heard anything. I'm interested in your solution and would like to stream audio through my X350's sound system and I have the CDC. Thanks.

Jacob

 

Okay, BT has been working great, though the phone book and last redial are sometimes goofy. But now I am stuck, sorry this is a long one, but wanted to give all the detail I could.

I received Mongoose cable and am running SDD v130. Getting full access to the vehicle as I reprogrammed all of my transponders since I had only 1 key when I bought the car. Also received my VACM.

I added my looped fiber cable from the ICE plug through the BT - VACM - Loopback (see picture in previous post). I get a "communications error see dealer" on the head unit (Nav type unit) and no stereo audio. I figured okay, I need to program the modules in through SDD. So I try and program the VACM and get communication failed. So I tear everything out, plug only the BT back in to verify it is working still. It works.

Move onto putting in just the VACM, it works just as the BT module did without any programming. Okay, so I verified both modules work separately, but not when looped. So I started to suspect a faulty fiber optic. used my flashlight, and verified light is getting all the way through the harness (connected M/F and used loopback) good light coming through. So I decided connect everything back up and unplug the fiber on the AMP and turn the key off/on, run back, and verify the red light coming through the fiber. Yep, I got light, but no stereo audio.

So now I am back to thinking I need to get the modules programmed. I decide to start with the VACM. I connect only it to the ICE cable, go through all the steps in SDD and get it added. **side note, it has been discussed if the language can be changed on the VACM. Within SDD during programming it does have an option to change that among other things, however, when I clicked on it, I got something similar to a runtime error (will have my phone handy in case it happens ever again), and SDD stopped responding. Freaked the crap out of me! But alas it backed out and I was able to go back in and finish*** VACM works just fine after being added.

So now I want to add in the BT module. So hook only it up now, and start the programming and it throws errors left and right since it can't find the VACM. Okay, so add all the modules in with my looped cable, and try and program the BT, and just get communication errors again.

So I am at my wits end. And to summarize for the skimmers, each module VACM and BT work separately, but when both connected I lose all audio and get connection errors. I feel like I am missing something obvious, but just not putting the pieces together!

 

Sometimes a beer break is what you need! Looked up the following and decided to do the splice vs the loop I had originally thought would work and BOOM! all modules are a go!

Splicing, courtesy of a post from CAMBO in another thread.

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/a...tic_cables.pdf

So my theory is if the signal degenerates is too much it looses communication, so the additional loop is too long!

 

thanks for the awesome link olywrestle and cambo .
I'm thinking I'm going to need that soon . i purchased an up graded BT module a few days ago . hoping it all goes with out a hitch , though I'm banking on my car having the spare optic cable . i havnt checked . fingers x'ed.

 

Does the country code for VACM matter? What part number do I need for my 2005 VDP?