The X350 seems the perfect car for this sort of project, as most things can easily be controlled over the can bus, and the old audio can be removed and replaced with a more modern off the shelf system to bring carplay, reversing cameras, and high quality hi-fi. I (like a lot of others i suspect) hate the old system with it's giant buttons and tiny screens - so have been working to modernise this!

My end goal is to have a new climate control system with 3 dials for the climate control (left temp, fan speed & settings, right temp), and then a flush mounted modern screen above - biggest priority is for this to look totally OEM and be easily removable later if needed.

I've completed the reverse engineering of the can bus messages for the climate, and have put together an ESP32 dial to replace the old system which is all working now.

Progress this week was getting a test part 3d printed in carbon fibre to hold the new climate controls as a temporary solution, while i work on the final console (planning to have that in original shiny piano black finish)




You can see an early version of the climate system working here:

 

Todays progress has been hard wiring in a connection to the can bus, rather than picking it up from the OBD2 port which i'd been doing till now - the nearest and most reliable place to pick this up was the j-gate module - i just soldered into the back of the existing connector (IP32 on the XJ X350 electrical guide) and then ran a twisted wire pair and shrink-wrapped it and ran it via the original wire channels to the back of the console.

 

Richard,

I think it's brilliant that you are doing this. You are pioneering the way for people who want to upgrade and keep these wonderful cars on the road for years to come.

Keep us posted

Jeff

 

Why the long waight?
https://zwnav.net/products/12.1-andr...2009-car-radio
https://www.aliexpress.us/item/32568...Cquery_from%3A

 

thanks! Yes i saw that, as well as the JagDroid system - neither quite my cup of tea, don’t love the look of the vertical screen. Mostly this project is fun!

 

Installed one of those flat screens into my 2008 VDP. It works 90% of the time and still has some wonky quirks.

Really interesting project you have going. Will enjoy seeing updates and more details. Good luck.