Adding DSP

[Juicybaka]

Thanks for everyone’s input and help with getting speakers situated, and now after watching some YouTube videos and reading some articles I have a better understanding of the DSP and why I will need one. So here we go, that hole I swear I wasn’t going down...
The components I’m adding aren’t the best, but I would like the best sound out of them. I’ve read on another forum that all Ford Sync OEM units have a configurable DSP which can be set flat. If so can an amplifier be added in, bypassing the factory.
Not a project I intend to tackle myself, but I am wondering if anyone has done this?
Thank you

 

[tech10002]

Your is a 13 or newer right? If so and if you want a truly flat output, I would pick up a Pac Amppro. https://pac-audio.com/catalog/amppro-amplifier-interfaces/ap4-fd21
You also need the https://pac-audio.com/catalog/audio-interfacing/5238-aph-fd01.
Lostneye turned me on to the Amppro. It’s just awesome. The Amppro is spectrum analyzer proven to give a truly flat output from 20-20000 hz and is linear with the volume control. It gives you analog outputs to your amp with a sub level **** and retains all your factory nav voice, beeps, Sync, etc with the exception of the radio/hvac control panel. You can get the control panel beeps back by passing the center channel through from the factory amp. That just involves splicing wires on the Pac harness. To get the best sound, I’d highly recommend the add on Apa-tos1 optical module and a dsp with optical input. I’m running the JL Audio Twk-d8 and LOVE it. You will have infinite control over crossovers, parametric eq, phasing, levels, etc, and you will have absolutely zero system noise or hiss with the optical. The Twk also has presets for different music types you can change on the fly with the included remote. Watch crutchfield for open box deals on the Twk. I paid a little over 300 for mine.

FYI: I wouldn’t recommend the Forscan hack to remove the processing. It doesn’t fully remove it, and you can still have noise issues. I don’t think anybody had figured out how to make it work in a Taurus either. The APIM strings are different from the Focus, F 150, Fusion, etc.

 

[Lostneye]

tech10002 summed it up nicely. I would recommend the PAC AmpPro.

Forscan can change configuration files in the ACM(factory deck) however no one I have seen has done it in a Taurus. You also need to splice the harness to get SYNC sounds into the main audio stream. Even with more popular models like the Fusion and F150s it's not as straightforward either as some still have issues. I have what "should" be the configuration info but have not tested it and at this point since the AmpPro works well I have no interest in pull the dash apart to mess with it.

 

[tech10002]

tech10002 summed it up nicely. I would recommend the PAC AmpPro.

Forscan can change configuration files in the ACM(factory deck) however no one I have seen has done it in a Taurus. You also need to splice the harness to get SYNC sounds into the main audio stream. Even with more popular models like the Fusion and F150s it's not as straightforward either as some still have issues. I have what "should" be the configuration info but have not tested it and at this point since the AmpPro works well I have no interest in pull the dash apart to mess with it.

Just out of curiosity, did you figure out the addresses and values to disable the processing in the Taurus? I played with it forever trying to disable the center channel pass through so I’d just get the beeps and never could get anything to work. That’s why I just built a passive crossover on the center channel to eliminate most of the unwanted audio. It’s easy in an F150 or Fusion to enable/disable the center, but the Taurus is totally different. That makes me think turning off the Sony processing and changing to a variable line level output will be totally different too.

An audio engineer in the F150 forum I think did an analysis on the Amppro using a spectrum analyzer and a sweep frequency source and proved it’s totally flat across the entire audible frequency range with linear response to the volume control. While I haven’t tried it myself, I’ve read enough about the Forscan method in other Fords that I’m pretty sure it doesn’t remove every last bit of processing, and as you mentioned, you have to hack up the harness between the APIM and ACM to get the Sync prompts to work. It seems like the Forscan method is the cheap way to do it, and the Amppro is the right way.

 

[Lostneye]

I have not tested anything but have been told that the ACMs are the same across a bunch of different models so F150 specs should roughly translate. With swapping APIMs to SYNC3 I pulled as-built for different model Taurus and compared against each other and info from F150s posted on other forums to be reasonably sure what I was doing before changing anything with forscan. I haven't got that far with the ACM, what I am reasonably sure of is where the values to make the changes are located.

The ACM is line 727, with 727-01-01 and 727-01-02 having 6 bytes(12 digits) plus checksums for each line.

For line level out the 2nd byte so second 2 digits on line 727-01-01 I believe should currently be A0 for fixed level and no Aux as this matches my car and the F150 info I have. Based on that the A most likely should be a 1 for variable, not sure about the Aux value. I don't believe the ACM has outputs for center speakers or subs regardless so this may not need to be changed.

For EQ the 6th byte so the first 2 digits in line 727-01-02 I believe should be 00 for flat eq and Sony cars would already be this way as my understanding the Sony amp handles the DSP duties not the ACM. Again this matches my as-built.

TLDR:
My as built is:
727-01-01: 12A0 3000 00xx
I would try:
727-01-01: 1210 3000 00xx

The fixed to variable should be easy to test but you would need an RTA to check the eq.

 

[tech10002]

Just out of curiosity, did you figure out the addresses and values to disable the processing in the Taurus? I played with it forever trying to disable the center channel pass through so I’d just get the beeps and never could get anything to work. That’s why I just built a passive crossover on the center channel to eliminate most of the unwanted audio. It’s easy in an F150 or Fusion to enable/disable the center, but the Taurus is totally different. That makes me think turning off the Sony processing and changing to a variable line level output will be totally different too.

An audio engineer in the F150 forum I think did an analysis on the Amppro using a spectrum analyzer and a sweep frequency source and proved it’s totally flat across the entire audible frequency range with linear response to the volume control. While I haven’t tried it myself, I’ve read enough about the Forscan method in other Fords that I’m pretty sure it doesn’t remove every last bit of processing, and as you mentioned, you have to hack up the harness between the APIM and ACM to get the Sync prompts to work. It seems like the Forscan method is the cheap way to do it, and the Amppro is the right way.

 

[tech10002]

Sorry. Hit post by accident above.

I’ll have to play with it sometime and give those values a try. I know the I have tried the F150 spreadsheet to change a few things in the Taurus and Flex and have only had a couple things work. It’s really odd because the APIM, ACM, etc are the same in many different models. You’d think the as built data format would be the same too.

 

[Lostneye]

Sorry. Hit post by accident above.

I’ll have to play with it sometime and give those values a try. I know the I have tried the F150 spreadsheet to change a few things in the Taurus and Flex and have only had a couple things work. It’s really odd because the APIM, ACM, etc are the same in many different models. You’d think the as built data format would be the same too.

Forscan can only change as-built which is the configuration files not the firmware. The actual part APIM, ACM, etc may work and may even be the same but if the firmware is different it will not function the same. This is the reason 2013s have climate functions in the IPC that cannot be added to later Taurus with forscan, you may be able to change the as-built but the firmware is different and it will not work.

I am pretty confident in which bytes control what functions but the values compared to the F150s may be wrong. I have no idea what the correct value would but they are hexadecimal so there are only 15 more choices lol.

 

[tech10002]

Forscan can only change as-built which is the configuration files not the firmware. The actual part APIM, ACM, etc may work and may even be the same but if the firmware is different it will not function the same. This is the reason 2013s have climate functions in the IPC that cannot be added to later Taurus with forscan, you may be able to change the as-built but the firmware is different and it will not work.

I am pretty confident in which bytes control what functions but the values compared to the F150s may be wrong. I have no idea what the correct value would but they are hexadecimal so there are only 15 more choices lol.

I guess I need to play with Forscan some more and just try stuff. It appears they’re just using one byte for each functionthen, so it should be easy enough to just increment by 01h and see what it does. Forgive my ignorance, but does the as built only go to 0Fh and not FFh? Was just wondering why 16 possible combinations and not 256. I understand hex and can code in a couple different obsolete assembly languages, but it’s been a looooong time since I messed with it, and this is not really coding, more like flipping switches.

 

[Lostneye]

It's 256 for the full byte but for front and rear outputs it should only be the first 4 bits, which I believe is only 16 possibilities. However I think the A0(10100000 in binary) bits are divided into 4 places(or 2 bits per function each controlling front and rear outputs respectively, other functions can be 1 or more bits). So the 1010 is 10 and 10 for front/rear output set to fixed output. You can actually just try changing the first 10 convert to hex for the full byte and test the front outputs and save some time.

 

[tech10002]

It's 256 for the full byte but for front and rear outputs it should only be the first 4 bits, which I believe is only 16 possibilities. However I think the A0(10100000 in binary) bits are divided into 4 places(or 2 bits per function each controlling front and rear outputs respectively, other functions can be 1 or more bits). So the 1010 is 10 and 10 for front/rear output set to fixed output. You can actually just try changing the first 10 convert to hex for the full byte and test the front outputs and save some time.

That makes it a lot easier to just plug in values then. I wish you could get a disassembly of the firmware where you could see what it’s actually looking for. It’s really surprising as many Fords are there are out that that nobody has hacked common modules like the APIM, ACM, etc. There’s all kinds of code documentation for a specific model of Android phone, for example. There has to be a lot less of one model phone than a Ford Apim that is common to about every car.

 

[Lostneye]

There has to be a lot less of one model phone than a Ford Apim that is common to about every car.

There are a bunch of different part numbers when I was looking at this for my SYNC3 swap. Even though the APIM for example can fit most of the same model year vehicles. My guess is the part number will denote the firmware but still nothing I have seen to decode it.