I upgraded already, it was almost plug and play, I had to modify the USB cable so the Apple Carplay phone stays in the glove compartment, I can still use the original USB outlet on the centre console however it is considered USB by the head unit and if I put something there I lose the audio on the phone I use for Apple carplay. I still cant make the mic work, hoping you have better luck than I am.

i will just buy a DAB/DAB+ antenna with fakra connection to make it simple.

please tell me if you were able to make your mic work. Thanks.

 

I have some thoughts on the microphone problem, but I won't get around to doing anything until early June.
The MMCS has a little box attached to the underside of it. This contains the hands free and USB interface and is refrerred to as the Hands Free Module (HFM).
The multi-pin connector plugged into the HFM carries the 4 microphone wires - Detect, Shield, Mic+ and Mic-.
I reckon those 4 wires need to be connected to the corresponding pins of the 16 pin plug on the SDA.
On my MMCS only 5 pins have wires and on the harness I got with the SDA, the mic pins have wires attached.
Ideally there would be an adaptor harness to assist with this re-routing of the 4 mic wires, but there doesn't seem to be, so some creative splicing needs to be done.
Hopefully I'll get to test my theory in June.

 

Looking forward to the success of your theory. I was looking at the schematics and I think there is one missing cable connection from the mic to the Handfree module. The cable no. 3 of the E-10 which is connected to cable no. 15 of C-223 which is then connected to SNSE and cable no.57 of C-157.

i dont think I make sense but that is thw difference I found.

 

OK, I got it working this morning.
The 28 pin connector going into the HFM has 3 of the 4 mic wires.
Pin 14 and 28 are the mic signal and pin 27 is the mic shield.
These need to be connected to the corresponding pins on the grey 16 pin connector which plugs into the SDA.
Pins 11 and 12 are the mic signal and pin 3 is the mic shield.
The mic Detect or Sense only requires 0V to make the SDA think there is a mic connected, so it can be connected to any Gnd - initially I just had it under one of the SDA mounting screws.
Making good connections from the 28pin connector to the 16pin connector is the weak link in all of this.
My connections are not that strong, but everything is working except the damn SDA doesn't support my Google Pixel 2 XL phone, so no Android Auto functionality.
Surely there is a way to upgrade the firmware to recognise newer phones.

 

Great! I will try that tomorrow, I just realised I lost (or maybe the SDA does bot support it) the ability to change some settings on the car like switching between litres/100km and km/litres.

Hopefully they will support Google Pixel 2 XL soon. Or is there any setting you can change on the phone?

I am still trying to find an antenna that will enable the DAB to work. The one I got works but signal is not good.

 

The two adaptors needed to add a fakra connection to the existing cable were very easy to source on eBay from my earlier post. Works really well

 

Do you have the link? Also does it work on the 2014 Outlander MY14.5?

 

Hi, do you have photos of how you made the connections?p from the 28 pin to 16 pin?

cheers steve

 

Hi Steve,

No I don't have any photos and they would be pretty ugly if I did.
All I did was tin the ends of 4 small gauge wires about 30cm long and stuck the ends into the connectors.
I have unplugged the 28 pin connector from the HFM so that the HFM is not powered and doesn't emit any Bluetooth signals.
The wires are just pushed directly into the front of the relevant holes in the 28 pin connector.
The other ends of the wires are pushed into the rear of the relevant holes in the 16 pin connector.
It needs to be already plugged into the SDA for the wires to stay put.
This is a very rough and ready solution to the wiring, which was only intended to prove that the connections I made were the connections that were required to make it work.
My plan now is to do a proper job by purchasing a socket for the 28 pin plug and inserting proper terminals into the 16 pin connector.
I have found a 28 pin socket at https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/263932283039.
It is for mounting on a PCB, but it will do the job - unnecessary pins can be cut off or just insulated.
The wires can be soldered to the relevant pins.
For the terminals for the 16 pin connector, I was luck enough to get some chopped off harness with the SDA that I bought from the wrecker (sorry, dismantler) and was able to remove 4 terminals and wires from that 16 pin plug to use for my new 'harness'.
I have not been able to identify the 16 pin plug, although maybe some car audio installer might be able to.

Cheers, Bob.

 

Hi Bob, I now have the connector listed above. One question I have, I cannot access the heating or charge timers as it says no timer to set. What does your radio do when you choose the timers?


Cheers Steve