In the manual for the Symphoby stereo that came with my Fabia it says a mobile phone hands free kit can be connected to it. After taking the stereo out there appears to only be one spare connector which I believe is for adding a CD changer. Can any body tell me where and how to connect a hands free kit to the Symphony?

My dealer reckoned it couldn't be done. Fitted it for me, but I have to turn the radio off when the phone rings. No big deal mind.

Is that what you mean...auto switch off of radio?

Actually, must take it back. Noticed that when the intermittent wipe is on, the phone bleeps after nearly every wipe!

I had a Halfords hands free kit fitted to my Octy last year - it works through the Symphony unit and cuts out the radio / CD sound when a call is made or received. There is a small microphone fitted above the windscreen and incoming sound is channelled through the car's speakers.

If the Furby symphony has the same connections as the octy symphony then it can be done, several on here have done it and its quiet simple as long as you have the right parts that go with the phone. Instructions are about 1/2 way down this page

http://www.packetradio.co.uk/Cars/octavia/radio.htm

Think I'll go and see my sparky mate..let him sort it out then...encouraging words lads..thanks!

Haven't really got an axe to grind with the dealer, as my job was done for services rendered.

Which model of symphony radio?

If it has the normal mini din connectors on the top slot, then the middle connector space in this slot is the one to connect the phone into (pin numbers 7 and 12). You can buy the plastic mini din connectors and connector pins.

The lead to mute the radio and feed the phone into the speakers goes into lowest multiple connector III pin 3 (external mute)

The mute lead switches the input of the amp within the radio to pin 7 (12 is the ground) so the phone comes out through the radio speakers.

Hope this helps

Dougal

Just given up on my Belkin Tunecast II. This looks promising. Any views or experience of running an MP3 player this way? Not keen to replace my headunit as it would be wasted on my poor hearing and who would want to nick the standard unit? Pin 7 and 12 understood, but what would I need to do with pin 3? Do you connect it to Ground or Positive? Will post some photos if I can get it working. This is using the standard single front loader CD player Symphony fitted to the current Fabia vRS. Hope this option works!

What kind of MP3 player? I know Dension do a kit to run an iPod which works on a Symphony head unit, am thinking about one myself. About

OMG the pretentiousness of it all, hands free kit in a Skoda...............

Pin 3 needs to be grounded for the radio to be changed to pin 7 input.

Note that input is not in stereo, only one input lead using this method.

Cheers

Dougal

Thanks for the info Dougal. Should have realised about the single line in! A circuit diagram may shed some more light on the stereo possibilities. Worst case I will have to get a new head unit. By the way it is an iRiver H340. Lovely piece of kit. 115 CD's using 10Gb so far and that leaves lots of space for transfering data from customer systems. I work in computers. Looks like I will need to start a new thread on this. Getting off topic. regards, Bagheera.

The other way of doing it is using a speaker relay system and ISO connector plug in module you get with car kits such as the parrot ck3000 bluetooth which I have.

As you don't use the line in on the stereo, there's none of those strange square connectors because a relay cuts the radio out to the speakers and "inserts" the phone call audio.

Downside is you don't have things like volume control on the head unit as it is effectively bypassed.

And of course, this is only of real use for phone sound. If you want to put an external mp3/hd audio player, you're better going in the line in and using the head unit's amps