TobyMTDI

Managed to get the SMD components soldered onto a board today. Here's the board next to a pen for size: I've tested the board in my car and it all works okay. I've soldered some jumper cables onto CANH and CANL so I could test it, it's up to you whether you use them or not. 12V and GND are not needed as you don't need the board to be on before the tablet, so you can just power it through USB. The fifth output is for simulating the 12V ignition wire, but that's not connected up (hence the missing transistor just above it) as I made a mistake in the schematic. The rest of the board isn't affected by that. Key mapping is as follows: Vol + -> Vol + Vol - -> Vol - Mute -> Mute >> -> Next << -> Previous Up Arrow -> Play/Pause Down Arrow -> F2 MFSW lights -> F3 I use the SW lights button to toggle a screen filter, as my HU is far too bright at night even on the dimmest setting. I just use Screen Filter for that, combined with External Keyboard Helper to trigger the filter when I press the button. Thanks for the info on the reversing camera etc, I might well add one at some point.

No worries, you can use any CANH/L connection as long as it's on the right bus - connecting to the existing quadlock is ideal. It's what I've done, and it's also where I get my 12V and GND from. You could even get a quadlock extender and tap into that if you wanted, but as they seem to be about £15 I just hardwired mine to the back of the connector. For the board I could quite easily change which steering wheel buttons do what, currently I have them assigned as you'd expect (>>, <<, vol +, vol -, mute) but that leaves the two arrows doing nothing. It would be no hassle to make them simulate any keyboard key, play/pause and stop for example. How do you find the monkeyboard for DAB? I've considered putting something similar in but wasn't sure if it'd be worth the cost. Also how have you mounted your reversing camera? I'll PM you re. making a board.

Just had a look at the JoyCon thing you mentioned in the first post - it looks like it does almost exactly the same thing that my board does, but mine's much cheaper and much smaller

Hi, I have some experience in this area, as I did a low budget Android HU installation in my car a while ago. The steering wheel buttons communicate with the rest of the car via the CAN bus, this might be what you mean by digital? When I installed my HU I created a small PCB that sits on top of an Arduino Pro Micro and decodes the CAN bus messages. I still have a few bare PCBs left over as I accidentally ordered 10, and I think I had to buy the majority of the SMD components in packs of 10 as well so there's still some of those left too. If you're interested, I could order the rest of the parts and make a board up for you for the price of the components (including the Arduino)? Cost would be about £20 all in. When I first created the decoder I wrote some firmware for it which converts the steering wheel messages to HID keyboard equivalents (so it works for vol +, vol -, mute, skip forward and skip back. Providing that I can find the code, you'd just need to solder 12V, GND, CANH and CANL to the board then plug it into the USB OTG port on your tablet, and you'd be good to go. The wiring is easy to figure out by looking at a pinout for your original HU - although when you cut the CAN bus wires, make sure you keep them the same length as they're a twisted pair. The board is only about the size of a pack of chewing gum (48 x 18mm) so should fit easily behind your tablet. I'm in my final year of University and have exams/coursework for the next couple of months, but I could probably sort a board out for you in June if you'd be interested? Cheers, Toby

The bracket for the electronics on my detachable tow bar has snapped off, so I'm thinking about fabricating a new one. There's a spring going from the socket the bar sits in to the bracket, does anyone want to hazard a guess as to what it might be for? Do I need it? Picture of spring from Google:

You don't say whether this is a 1.9 or a 2.0 TDI, if it's a 1.9 then the DMF (dual mass flywheel) can be swapped for a SMF (single mass flywheel) for much less than £1000 - this isn't a downgrade, a SMF suits the 1.9 better than a DMF. I asked about the cost of this on here and was reliably informed it should be under £500 at a good indy. If it's the 2.0TDI then you can't do an SMF conversion, but it would still be considerably less than £1000. To me it does sound like the DMF is the problem, but perhaps someone more knowledgeable will be able to suggest other solutions.

I have B4 sport and eibach Pro kit, and I really like the combination. Can't remember the exact cost but it wasn't a lot to buy from German eBay and then fit myself. With the Pegasus alloys it's the same as the factory sport option, which IMO looks really good as well.

Thanks for your reply Mike. Re. the remap, I meant for the slightly worn out clutch already on the car - I think it's probably the remap which pushed it over the edge that bit sooner! I definitely agree that the SMF is worth doing, I bought the car from a local garage and he said that if he'd done the clutch he would have done the conversion, and it's likely that he did do the clutch as the previous owner was a regular customer of his. Unfortunately he couldn't prove that it had been done. £150 for labour is reassuring, total between £250 and £400ish depending on if the SMF conversion has already been done isn't too bad. The engine still runs very well, and I'm fairly confident that I could get another 100k out of it providing the turbo doesn't go, so I think I'll go ahead and get it done. Thanks again for your advice.

I bought my Octy in 2015, and it's served me well doing about 20k mostly fault free miles. However, a couple of weeks ago I though I noticed a hint of clutch slip accelerating in 5th. Today it's suddenly got quite bad, and slips a lot at anything over about 3k RPM in 4th and 5th, and a bit in 3rd too. It's done almost 200k, so I need to decide if it's worth repairing. First of all am I right in thinking that if it has had an SMF conversion, then it'll be cheaper to replace the clutch as the flywheel won't need doing too? Secondly, is it possible to tell if the conversion has been done without taking it apart? I'm concerned that it won't be worth the cost to do the conversion if it hasn't been done. Finally, what would a ballpark figure likely be for just replacing the clutch vs doing a full conversion at a local indy (not dealer)? Thanks in advance for your help. Edit to add: the car also needs new front bushes, new front discs and is almost due a cambelt replacement - so this might effect whether or not it's worth fixing the clutch. Also the car is remapped by Shark to about 140bhp and probably too much torque for the original clutch

I've got a BXE 1.9tdi Octavia, which has been remapped and had the EGR deleted by Shark Performance. Everything's been working fine for well over a year now, but today the EML light came on. I scanned the car with VCDS and found that there was a fault code for an intermittent short to plus from the EGR valve. Am I right in thinking that an EGR delete is just a blanking plate and having the EGR mapped out of the ECU? In which case should this fault be showing? I've cleared it and it's gone, but I don't know how long before it'll come back. Perhaps I should have a poke around the wires near the EGR valve and see if anything is lose? I'm not too worried about the fault, but I hate it when the EML is on!

Bit of a rant - part of the A12 near Ipswich (heading towards Lowestoft) has been resurfaced over the last couple of days, using stone chips. I can put up with the use of stone chips on a single carriageway with no overtaking lanes, but this is dual carriageway (with overtaking lanes), meaning you can't stop people cutting in front of you. The result is several new chips in my windscreen, and even more in my paint work. I want to know who's stupid idea it is to redress a dual carriageway using stone chips?!?! While on the road yesterday I got passed by a t**t in an Audi who was doing 70+ on the stone chippings, and driving right where the white line would have been - i.e. where the loose chippings are - and was throwing stones everywhere, and thoroughly peeing everyone off. I'm guessing there's no point in complaining to the council/asking for them to pay for repairs, I just wish they'd got the road done properly. It's a major road, it's not like doing a back lane. FYI they finally swept the chippings today, 2 days later. Rant over!

Thanks for the help, I suspect the rear bushes are worn as they don't look great from the outside (not that you can really tell). I've been considering getting some/all of the bushes replaced, but it'll need to wait until funds allow. Will I need to replace the entire arm or can the bushes themselves be replaced? It's interesting to know this - note that the garage was able to adjust the camber on the front left, but not the front right, any idea how they managed that? I doubt if I'll be able to get any money back from the garage, but I certainly won't be using them again. I travelled a bit further as they had a hunter rig, and probably ended up with a worst job than the local places without the tech!

Skoda themselves fitted this kit in the form of sports suspension to the Octavia, and that's not just the VRS. You could buy a 1.9TDI with this setup from the factory. Despite what you may think, I do have a reasonable grasp of kinematics and kinetics hence my question about the control arms. Even if I can't do something to bring the camber back to something slightly less tyre eating, I'd still rather keep the Bilstein sports shocks and Eiback pro kit as it makes the car feel much less boat-like and hence more enjoyable to drive.

Please, try and keep the discussion polite. I disagree that people who tune their cars are idiots. Yes, the eibach pro kit lowers the car. That's rather the point of lowering springs. However, as they are the same part as the (once) dealer available sports suspension it's hardly radical tuning. Plenty of people have fitted this kit without problems, so I wondered if there was something I could do to solve the problem. I bought the kit for the increased spring rate and the the fact it improves the aesthetics of my car. I like how they look and how they perform, at no point did I fall for any marketing. I did plenty of research and chose what was best for me. I wonder, did the factory sports suspension option have different control arms to account for the increased camber from the lowering springs? Or does the factory option simply have increased camber, and I shouldn't be concerned?

It wasn't F1, I think it was a flat rate plus £10 per adjustment, and I was only charged for the one adjustment so I suppose that's fair enough. Cost £45 total. If I wasn't in such a rush I might have asked a few more questions and maybe paid a bit less! Anyway, ignoring the company, is there anything that can be done about the max adjustment problem?