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I am upgrading the sound system and installing a DSP (Audison Bit One)
I am having all kinds of problems turning it on using as signal the sound from the front doors as remote (a function of the Bit One). When the bluetooth kicks in it shuts down and many times it is very hard to get it back to work.
I need a switched power source in the trunk but so far none of the ones I found in the trunk is switched, they are all constant. Plus the user manual has nothing to do with what I have in reality.
This is what the manual shows:
This is what I actually have..
I also found someone said in another forum one of the pin of a 645 relay had switched power, I tried the only one I had int eh trunk ant also does not have switched power.
Anybody knows if there is a switched line I can use in the trunk?
I had a HELL of a time trying to find a switched power source on my A8.
I don't know if the B9 S4 behaves this way, but for some dumb reason, after you say unlock your car and open your door, ALL circuits (Even the switched ones) will have power. After say, 5 minutes, the switched ones then don't have power anymore. So it's not switched in the sense that it's on when you start the car and off when you turn it off, but +/- 5 minutes of each event = it does the same thing.
So unlock your car, open your door, keep the key away from your car (to disable power to the airbag ignitors), AND THEN go and use a voltimeter to figure out what's what.
About the switched power, I ended up running a wire all the way to the front where I used a fuse for the "Rear Seat Entertainment" D16 of the block inside the foot rest on the driver's side.
And yes I found 3 kinds of behavior: 1) Constant , unswitched power, 2) Switched but with a time delay (which I prefer but I only found vital things with that like the fuel pump and some sensors and 3) Accesory type with the start button opening current which opens and closes immediately after pressing (not my choice, might trace another one of the delayed type but one that is not a vital function for the car)
As far as the sound project it was such a pain in the @#$ss I could not find a current wiring diagram for the 38 pin connector, I only found for the 32 pin type and I had to map all the speakers myself.
The fiber optics line (which is what is called a MOST connector) I did not use because it would require to use a mobridge or an Audison DMI (those are like $600 and $700 respectively), but as it was the sound system (the B & O 3D) had been a very expensive addition (although standard in the S4 but accounts for the price difference in the car versus an A4) Instead I mapped the amplified lines and I used 7 speakers lines to complete the high level signal for an Audison Bit One 8 Channel DSP. In total the system had an addition of a JL Audio 12" Subwoofer in a custom designed box in the trunk, a Cerwin Vega free air 10" Subwoofer for the trunk shelf, a set of Audison components for the rear doors, a weirdly shaped set of midbass drivers for the front doors a component set for the rest of the front doors, a 900 watt JL Audio amp and a Hertz 1,000 amp, a DRC controller for the Audison Bit One at the front plus a subwoofer level controller in th front for the JL Audio amp. I am just finishing the system and needless to say it is a monster. Compared to the crappy B & O 3D it is now a state of the art half concert half night club setup. Maybe in the future I will replace the high level lines to a MoBridge but in the mean time that is enough money spent in that system and although I need to fine tune it it is already sounding pretty amazing..
Like 3 weeks of work to trace those freaking speaker lines and map them and to build all sorts of custom adaptations for the bigger speakers. I could not find a good schematic, not even from Erwin-Audi.The manuals (User and service) are a joke...
Is the 12V cig lighter aux outlet in the trunk (right side storage cubbyhole) not switched? I use it all winter long on ski trips to run boot heaters on the way up to the moutnain and boot dryers on the way down from it. I've definitely left my heated boot bag plugged in while skiing all day to no ill effects...I'd find it very hard to believe that draws power when the car is off.
Well we tested the circuit tagged "sockets" which I assume is the outlets and it showed constant current but since some circuits have a long time delay to switch off who knows.. Who knows what time the different delays are and who knows which ones are that type of circuit.
I found a group that is opened pressing start and closed pressing start again and that is good enough for my needs. The problem we were having was a delay in the DSP (Audison BitOne) starting and it would get stuck not starting whenever you would get a call via bluetooth. We switched the remote signal from audio channels as triggers to constant source when the switched power is on.
We will be testing the car for the next couple of days.
That car (the S4 B9) has been an absolute nightmare to upgrade the sound system. The Bang & Olufsen 3D system is absolute garbage when it comes to circuitry and setup, absolutely incoherent, overpriced and low quality everything (super crappy speakers everywhere), no wonder it sounds so mediocre.
Over the past 25 years I have owned hundreds of cars (tens of the very high end) and upgraded the sound system in tens of them (installing myself, I have been designing and installing sound systems for 32 years). I can say with confidence, this sound system is the most overpriced, crappiest, most cumbersome and incoherent I have ever dealt with. I still can't understand why would they change the colors that go from the connector to the speaker terminals, the only likely explanation is they want to prevent you from touching it so you are forced to do it with a dealer.
It would be nice to find a simple connector solution like the one Technic PNP offers for BMW.
I worked so much in it I am even considering manufacturing those connectors in China myself and selling them but I don't think it would be a profitable venture.
As I'm very deep in the stereo upgrade myself, I can tell you with confidence that if you really want perfect sound, you are going to need something with adjustable EQ curves. I love the idea of fiber but there are FIVE of them and I don't know which one goes where and what data is on it. I'm exploring passive filtering to bring things inline and I'll probably declare it good enough once I solve the bass/mid bass phasing issue.
BTW The front door speaker grilles are TERRIBLE too. The system sounds much better with them removed but I need them for protection from feet. Even after opening them up, it still sinks my heart when I put them back on.
If you put all your pin mapping data into a sheet, I would like to link to it from my speaker spec spreadsheet. The more information we can collect in one place, the better.
I already have a high level of certainty my mapping of that connector is accurate.
As soon as I get the Bit One to behave properly I will post here my findings for the connector so other people don't suffer the same way.
Unfortunately the Audison Bit One is terrible at mapping high level inputs, it uses an "I/O input wizard" and it does not allow to control anything (unlike with line level inputs that allow for correction equalization and input level control in volts). For the wizard you have to run a super annoying sequence of input and speaker mapping and the communication between that thing and the B & O amp is erratic/unpredictable , most of the times the input portion passes but the equalization part fails and by skipping it it takes a while to get all channels to finally work.. The software for the Bit One is so bad...first it only supports windows, second their driver is not Microsoft signed so you have to go through a huge number of steps to get the driver to work in the computer, once it works the GUI is terrible also, because it does not have a way to adjust size and it does not fit in a regular 14" or 15" laptop (768 pixels of height is not enough). Then there is the I/O mapping, the input part leaves you out of the equation, doing it automatically for you but failing most of the times.You work on the 4 memories and do hundreds of changes and if the mapping proves to be wrong in one or more of the speakers you have to do it all all over again (because I believe the memories also include the I/O mapping in which you have no say, but it is only my theory the memories include it all).
It is a terrible piece of software for an impressive piece of equipment. Getting it to sound the right way it can be spectacular but getting there is a nightmare and even worse with high level signal from B & O (which quite often fails in the subwoofer output due to the 2 x 8 ohm woofer setup, it appears it peaks with LOCs or with DSPs and triggers protection leaving you without subwoofer signal).
That system already has like $4k of additions in equipment so I am reluctant to also add a mobridge but I might not have a choice if the mapping does not work 100% right, the sound is already awesome but some speakers are distorting far below their capabilities. Midbass drivers (very expensive Audison Voce 8"s) should tolerate a bandpass cut of 90 Hz to 600 Hz with no problem but even at above 200Hz of the low cut they distort at only 150 watts, My theory is it is the bad signal.
My problem is the speaker setup is 12", 10" the, midbass (2) 8, Components (2) 6..5" (2) tweeters, components (2) 4" (2) tweeters, plus 2 more tweeters in the pillars. Mapped that for 8 channel of the
Bit One makes for a tricky setup. In theory it should work fine and immediately but in practice , due to the idiotic "wizard" it becomes erratic.. Leaves you with no control of the inputs and whatever the bit one decides deciphering the B & O signal. It should be fairly predictable because the calibration is always done with track 1 and 2 of the Audison materials but for some reason it renders different results every so often... I wish that stupid Audi connector had a couple of simple analog line outputs, life could have been much easier... Fiber optics are a pretty awesome source but not $600 to decipher them awesome...
The B&O applies some equalization especially on the front door woofer and the subwoofer that is really painful to deal with and get around. If you could get EQ working on just those two channels it would help a lot. They also appear to roll off the A pillar tweeters at 10K. I need to get in there and see if this is passive filtering or built in EQ. If it's the latter, I'm going to be pretty unhappy.
If you haven't done the front door midrange speakers yet, I found a set that fits with only a little effort and has truly extraordinary sound quality:
On my last attempt I believe the pin mapping for the connector I got completely right but now the freaking Bit One simply cannot find the input channels, in 7 attempts with the I/O wizard it never detected the subwoofer channels, I had it sunday working in all channels but the pillar tweeters and tweaking the thing now i cannot get the subwoofers . I was going to go for a Mobridge DA3 and get rid of the BIt One but it appears Mobridge does not support the new MMI from Audi because it has a MOST150 bus.
It appears the ONLY option for this system to get the fiber optic MOST feed is a device called Zen-V but it is $749.. Ouch...
I think I will get rid of the Bit One and try a MiniDSP C-DSP 8x12 V2.0 the mapping in that one is manual and it appears to be a wonderful piece of equipment and it is only $499. Because of the manual mapping of the channels (they call it "routing") I think that will save me from requiring a MOST150 interface. I will sell the stupid Audison BIt One and that will pay for the miniDSP.
I will keep you posted. As it is I still cannot confirm with 100% certainty my pin assignments are correct for the 38 pin connector.
If it wasn't for the Bit One I would have been done with that project 2 weeks ago I believe. That device is garbage.....
06-03-2019, 11:06 AM
Location of switched power circuit in the trunk
