Still can't get the unit to come on out of the car. Maybe it needs a can connection before it boots? 0 info on the internet. But is the harness really different? I don't see any parts for it on the ford website and only see one harness for sale. They do sell the amp and tray that holds it. Under the bezel where the USB and AUX is there is a 3rd hidden connector, it's not for the amp but for another control. Seats or something? H/P Volume control? Only way to find out would be dig under the seats at the junkyard again.

 

Sorry, it's a mystery to me since I've never taken one apart before. I wouldn't be surprised if it's looking for a CAN connection before booting, though, to prevent exactly the kind of thing you're trying to do. Lol.

 

By the way I decided to splurge and give myself a birthday present by replacing all four factory door speakers in the '10 with new 2-way units. I spent < $200 for all four and the connectors. No gold plated binding posts here, though. I bought two different models of Infinity speakers - 2x Infinity KAPPA-86CFX (front) and 2x Infinity Reference 8632CFX (back). The latter are less expensive, but they are two-way speakers with tweeters (vs. the factory 1 way) and I almost never have back seat passengers anyway. I'll write it up as I do the job but they won't arrive for another several days.

The stock speakers on most of these cars are usually not very good - "Premium Sound" or not - and these are 11 years old. After getting rich on Bitcoin recently I had a few hundred laying around and decided to try it out, just for kicks.

 

Buttons for the parking assist system and possibly also stability control live there on cars with those options. Mine has both buttons, all the cars probably have the same harness, but with that connector unused on cars that don't have the options. Could be heated seats also. I'll take a pic of my center console tomorrow.

It's funny how a lot of people think the automatic parallel parking is a "new" feature on cars. This car had it in 2010 and it works.

 

Decided to do it now. Here's my lower center console in front of the shifter, beneath the A/C controls. You can see the heated seat buttons above and then down below there is the stability control button (I think it *turns it off* because it is ON by default, but in any case it toggles it) and the parking assist button in addition to the AUX, USB and cigarette lighter. The lettering on the buttons is illuminated at night.

Also lots of dust on the black plastic. It doesn't look that bad in "reality" but in a flash shot you can see it and it does definitely stick to that black, shiny plastic. That finish was a poor decision on Ford's part.


Lower center console controls 2010 FEH Limited

 

It's probably the assist. But I didn't see the camera connector when I looked behind the radio. So that is a separate run. Funny, I leave the BTC alone to hedge against the dollar kicking over. A few years ago it was unlikely....

 

I have found the amp. $25... cheaper than a real amp. I also looked at the harnesses.

You can disconnect the radio harness inside the center console. Unfortunately I broke the only one at the junkyard. So now I have to go look at some other places for one. It shouldn't be more than another $10. What I don't know what to do about is the yellow screen and messy touch screen. The only other place that may have one wants $50 for a whole radio and while less than online prices, it seems like too much. Just the T/S is available for ~$20 on ebay.

In the end I dunno if it's worth it for the EV portion of this thing. I still want to see if I can get the cable and maybe just use the yellow screen until I see another one at the cheaper yard or find another source.

BTW, the amp can go anywhere you want, it's just in parallel with speakers.

Advantage over aftermarket radio:

Integration, EV screens. Factory wiring. Better build. Known quantity, you will wire the amazon/ebay radio and then find it's deficient in some way. i.e. the steering controls don't work and the ports like USB/AUX on the bottom or it just fails in a year.

Android radio:
New apps, new maps. DAB/HD radio. Easier to hack.


It would be a better deal in my case if I didn't have the screen backlight failing and sun damaged touch screen.

 

Nice work and this adventure is great documentation for the forum. As these touch screens and systems age....

Yeah it's kind of a pain about the screen being yellowed out. At first I thought it was the blue channel of RGB being completely gone but there are clearly blue pixels there, it's pretty strange.

 

It's the CCFL tube(s). But the worse problem is I can't find a harness. Literally NOBODY ordered these with navigation and I really wish I hadn't killed that original fish. I went to 3 or 4 places and only got the wrong harness (sirius connector under the seat, not amp).

So I have 3 choices.

1. Give up.
2. Keep looking and wait.
3. Go grab the harness I mutilated and try to splice it with the $7 complete harness I got.

 

Forgive me for my unsolicited "read" on your personality but I just don't think #1 is a realistic option for you. #2 should pan out eventually unless one turns up online through pure serendipity. #3 OTOH could be done fairly cheaply and easily with a good soldering tool and electrical bits and pieces.

It's times like this when I feel a little wistful that Radio Shack is long dead and gone -- at least, in any form similar to its former self -- because in Chicago I used to be able to walk down North Broadway to the local RS, and even though they sold mostly off-the-shelf pedestrian home electronics and had just branched out into the early "flip" cellphones (which everyone regarded as miraculous) they still had a good assortment of DIY electrical "tinkering" kit in the back of the store, and you could order a lot more from their catalog and just pick it up on your way to/from the El. At time I worked at a relatively boring desk job for a hospital there, and one of my side projects during "dead" times and lunch breaks was accessorizing the head unit from one of my old Audis with different color backlighting and new momentary-contact pushbutton switches to replace the "smushed" ones that no longer worked reliably. I wanted to keep the "look" of the center console with the original Blaupunkt head unit but "pep it up a bit." I was able to buy all the stuff from Radio Shack and sat at my desk with an assortment of electrical gear, and people thought I was a "mad scientist." That's become an increasingly rare kind of experience, almost nonexistent now.