W210 speed pulse connections for APS?

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IanT

Active Member
Joined
Feb 29, 2004
Messages
487
Location
Orpington, Kent
Car
W210 320CDI
I've spent most of today fitting my new M-B APS into my 2001 model W210, but have two wires remaining that I really would like to know where to connect.

I have a WIS printout, but this appears to be for a car without the newer Brake Assist System (BAS) and Electronic Stability Programme (ESP).

What I need to find are the two connections that give speed pulses from the front left and front right wheels. My existing (CANBUS and fibre-optic) Audio 10 had no speed pulse connection as far as I can see, although there is a grey wire in pin 1 of the ISO connector. The connections I need are the ones that alternate between 0V and 12V as the wheels rotate.

Has anyone any info to help me identify the correct wires to connect to in the loom?

All help appreciated!

Cheers, Ian.
 
If it helps, I have identified the ESP/BAS/ABS ECU under the bonnet, but it has around 50-60 connections to it, so I'll be there a while looking and don't want to take any expensive risks.

Ian.
 
Cheers Robert.

Any idea which of these wires corresponds to which wheel? Since the car is rear wheel drive and the sat nav wants both connections I can only guess that it uses both to determine whether the car is turning or not at junctions (this sat nav is probably too old to have gyroscopes).

Also, do you remember what secondary colour bands were used? (I just put mine back together before darkness set in, job done, bar those two pesky wires!)

Cheers, Ian.
 
IanT said:
Cheers Robert.

Any idea which of these wires corresponds to which wheel? Since the car is rear wheel drive and the sat nav wants both connections I can only guess that it uses both to determine whether the car is turning or not at junctions (this sat nav is probably too old to have gyroscopes).

Also, do you remember what secondary colour bands were used? (I just put mine back together before darkness set in, job done, bar those two pesky wires!)

Cheers, Ian.

Why does it need two, apart from your assumption as stated.
 
No idea - that was the only reason I could think of, although it holds good in terms of dead reckoning of position when GPS coverage was lost / iffy.

I was considering just wiring the two together for the time being, but I need to test the grey wire on A1 to see if that presents a speed pulse to the head unit or not.

Of course I'd really prefer to get the wiring correct, but when complete I'll write a How-2 if anyone's interested.

Ian.
 
BTTT

OK, I haven't got anywhere yet, I've connected both speed pulse inputs together and connected them to the grey wire in pin 1 of the 'A' connector. Looks like I'm still missing a compatible signal, as I put the box into manual location mode whilst at a standstill 10yds from a known road junction, told it where it was and then asked it to navigate back home,

Yippee I thought, as it told me to take the next right (correct). I started driving but it never registered that I had turned, so eventually it gave up and just showed the distance, with 'Off Road' on the display.

So.

Does anyone have the pinout for the traction control ECU under the bonnet please?

It's the one that appears to carry out the ABS, BAS and ESP functions.

Many thanks, Ian.
 
Just to clarify, it MUST be using these inputs as differential speed / distance inputs so that it can calculate whether the car is turning or not.

Ian.
 
Thought these units also have an internal Gyro (pretty sure that COMAND does . . )which detects turning etc . . . the reason why the angle of the unit in the dash is important . . . always thought that the speed sensor was a single unit taking signal from the front wheels ?

(I'm as clueless as the next person though when it comes to these things, so will go back to sleep now :D)

S.
 
LOL... cheers Sym, what I believe may be the case is that my APS uses the two wheel sensor inputs INSTEAD of a gyro - I haven't followed that area of technology to know how long ago they started being used in car navigation systems. In any case, the unit is level and installed otherwise as it should be.

The only thing I can guess is that I must persevere on these two connections.

Ian.
 
Hi Ian,

Which APS do you have - the APS4 or the later Audio 30 APS?

The Audio 30 APS has an internal gyro but also needs the wheel pulse signal to be on connector A1. This allows the navigation to continue when the number of GPS satellites received drops below 3. With the Audio 30 APS you can get to the calibration and 'sens' menu by selecting destination and then pressing softkeys 2 and 7 (but not both together). With the 'sens' menu you can check that the unit is receiving the wheel pulse signal (call rad).

Good luck, Robert
 
Robert, the one I have may be the APS4, it dates from 1998, this one: http://www.mbclub.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=3089

It has a DIN sized head unit (display) and a boot mounted NAV computer / CDROM drive, all of the navigation loom goes to the rear box, which then sends audio and insrtuctions to the head unit for display.

Any ideas?

Cheers, Ian.
 
Excellent.

All sorted now, I need to drive around for a while and see how well the calibration goes on my car, but I tested the two wires suggested ny our German friends and they seemed to work perfectly.

Navigated round our local streets fine too.

Many thanks!

Ian.
 
Hey Ian

I'm glad you got sorted ! Sorry I couldnt help as my car was the prefacelift.

Enjoy!

PS I 'd forgotton I left a disc in the CD rom unit !
 
Cheers Steve... all sorted now.

I copied the disc as it was a year newer than the one I had in one of my other cars, did you want it back? ;)

Ian.

EDIT:

If anyone is interested, I'll amalgamate the information I learned while doing this and write a How-2, if nothing else, the location of all the connections may be of use for fitting other systems.

Incidentally, I'm impressed with the APS4, it is obviously running exactly the same software as my old Blaupunkt RNS149, but the screen is more informative, telling what road we're on at the moment, as well as the name of the road to turn off onto. Speed calibration seems to be absolutely fine too, the announcements are made bang on when they are needed and are unambiguous. Next job is to find a cheap 2003 or 2004 TeleAtlas disc (non-DX version) so that I can upgrade the fleet... :rock:

After that I may have a play with CAN Bus and see if I can interpret the information flowing from the navi computer in the boot to the head unit and have it displayed in the instrument cluster - as the radio is already enabled in the IC I should at least be able to display distances, directions etc by imitating the radio and squirting text to it. About time I played with a different protocol! It's well down the list though, I'm buying a Tech1 this weekend so that I can have a look at the protocol between it and the Vauxhall ECUs... that should be something of a challenge, there are lots of people trying to do this but no one seems to have got there yet for the standard ECUs, only the special ones in Lotus variants.
 
Last edited:
IanT said:
Cheers Steve... all sorted now.

I copied the disc as it was a year newer than the one I had in one of my other cars, did you want it back? ;)

Ian.


LOL , No you're alright Ian . :D I'm glad youre happy with the set up . Its nice to see it go to a good home after all this time in my garage.
 
IanT said:
Excellent.

All sorted now, I need to drive around for a while and see how well the calibration goes on my car, but I tested the two wires suggested ny our German friends and they seemed to work perfectly.

Navigated round our local streets fine too.

Many thanks!

Ian.

What did they suggest ?
 

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