Fighting with ford factory DSP, possible junk sub.

[Popwarhomie 5,000+ posts]

I have Forscan on my laptop and a wired odb switched dongle. I used it to make my fog lights stay on when the high beams are on.I tried making a line change to what I was told was the way to disable the factory bass rolloff, it made absolutely no difference.

To go back into the computer I would need to flash the car back to stock, Forscan won't recognize the car with the tune. I got the warranty friendly Ford performance calibration kit with the procal programmer, it's slow to flash and after you put the tune back on the car takes a week or more to relearn everything and start performing. I would prefer the Cobb unit but my dealership would not.

I remember reading something about the factory head unit have unclipped output all the way to max volume when in low level mode and a voltage near 4 volts.

I may look into this further when the weather warms up.

I'm happy to see that a proper DSP will work with the factory head unit, I will do some research on the models suggested and pick one that fits my needs.

I am a little disappointed with lc2i after all the hype I heard about how it fixes bass frequencies, to my experience it is a terrific LOC but the accubass is just a dynamic bass booster centered around 50hz.

Jesus. The Cobb accessport is really fast.

 

[Papermaker85 5,000+ posts]

Jesus. The Cobb accessport is really fast.

I wish I could s*** that fast it's a work in progress

 

[Ge_off_me 5,000+ posts]

Jesus. The Cobb accessport is really fast.

Yeah, that's what I have lol. I'd hate to wait for weird tuning methods. lol

 

[stones 10+ year member]

Ford kept it slow to justify the ridiculous install charge demanded at the dealerships.

 

[Popwarhomie 5,000+ posts]

That *****. I was at my E85 station and both pumps were down so I swapped back to my 93 tune under 5 mins. You could always go with the Accessport and take it off if you ever needed work done on the car.

 

[dbjunior 10+ year member]

The best option available is to use ODBLink and ForScan and rid yourself of the factory EQ and crossovers. Trust me.

Teach me more. I thought all those cheap odb2 units where read only.

 

[stones 10+ year member]

Teach me more. I thought all those cheap odb2 units where read only.

This one works with Forscan, can access all the modules and will write.

bbfly-BF32302 ELM327 USB modified FTDI Chip Forscan HS-CAN / MS-CAN Ford Mazda OBD2

https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B0744K8KBQ/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[SLAB153]

Oh man if it’s junk in the mustang then what’s the chances of sync 3 8” factory navigation head unit being junk too

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[stones 10+ year member]

Oh man if it’s junk in the mustang then what’s the chances of sync 3 8” factory navigation head unit being junk too

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

My complaints are specific to late model fords without factory amplifiers, all the amplification is done inside the head unit in a 4 channel config, 2 front speakers with tweeters spliced in and two rear speakers.

Power output for the Fords without amplifiers is in the 7 watts per channel range, clipping starts at volume level 20, the signal out from the head unit starts filtering out low frequencies at 50hz and cuts them off almost completely at 40hz, some further meddling is done to higher frequencies for reasons unknown.

The end result is a system that sounds like it is always playing from an FM radio source even after adding a subwoofer and better speakers.

I have ordered the Metra AX-DSP with the AX-DSP-FD2 T-harness in order to rectify the signal issue. There has been much nicer DSP units suggested in this thread but they are a bit of overkill for my modest 4 coaxial and 1 sub system that I am working on, the Metra has that proper 30 band EQ going all the way down to 20hz, F/R/Sub 5v pre outs, time alignment, F/R/Sub xovers, switched power output with acc delay, chime and backup alarm control and with the T-harness I don't need to cut a single factory wire, I will update on the Metra AX-DSP unit after I install it this spring as to whether it works well or not.

Here is a review of the Metra AX-DSP on pooptube



The AX-DSP-FD1 T-harness is also available for Ford owners with factory amplified systems.

 

[SLAB153]

What about the AudioControl dq61? I saw a review on it I think the guy had a 15 f 150 if I’m not mistaken.

 

[Jcsaudio]

My complaints are specific to late model fords without factory amplifiers, all the amplification is done inside the head unit in a 4 channel config, 2 front speakers with tweeters spliced in and two rear speakers.
Power output for the Fords without amplifiers is in the 7 watts per channel range, clipping starts at volume level 20, the signal out from the head unit starts filtering out low frequencies at 50hz and cuts them off almost completely at 40hz, some further meddling is done to higher frequencies for reasons unknown.

The end result is a system that sounds like it is always playing from an FM radio source even after adding a subwoofer and better speakers.

I have ordered the Metra AX-DSP with the AX-DSP-FD2 T-harness in order to rectify the signal issue. There has been much nicer DSP units suggested in this thread but they are a bit of overkill for my modest 4 coaxial and 1 sub system that I am working on, the Metra has that proper 30 band EQ going all the way down to 20hz, F/R/Sub 5v pre outs, time alignment, F/R/Sub xovers, switched power output with acc delay, chime and backup alarm control and with the T-harness I don't need to cut a single factory wire, I will update on the Metra AX-DSP unit after I install it this spring as to whether it works well or not.

Here is a review of the Metra AX-DSP on pooptube

I tried to undo the factory Ford EQ in my sync radio without a factory amp using my JL TwK 88 and REW. Even when I got it close the bass just didn’t sound right. Once I used the Fix 86 the bass issue went away and now the bass is much better. I’m thinking the the time alignment for left/right channels was in conflict when they were merged into a mono signal for the sub amp. The fix undoes that so it is a better flatter signal instead without any time alignment messing things up before my DSP. These are my assumptions based on my experience with that radio, my DSP, and JL Fix, and the only thing I can come up with that explains this.

 

[stones 10+ year member]

What about the AudioControl dq61? I saw a review on it I think the guy had a 15 f 150 if I’m not mistaken.

Here is the guys at Five Star Car Stereo installing a similar LCQ1 in a 2016 F150 non amplified system. (Fast forward to 9:20)



It is a nice unit but you cannot adjust the EQ from the driver seat, no chime attenuation and you need to modify a 50 dollar custom order CarAV 12-240 harness to custom make a T-harness, the end total price comes to well over $500 in Canada.

One thing interesting in the video is when the installers put an RTA on the ford factory outputs, they find that the rear outputs do indeed have an aggressive high pass filter but the front channels do not, meaning that a person could get a much better signal by tapping into the front outputs if they only wanted to use an LOC.

 

[stones 10+ year member]

I had a chance to install the Metra ax-dsp over the weekend along with a 4 channel amp and new pioneer A-series 6.5's all around.

The unit works as advertised, I can make adjustments using the dsp app on my old samsung s7 over bluetooth.

Here is what I have noted so far.

-I was able to mount the brain on the underside of the factory hu with double sided tape.

-30 bands of eq adjustment for front , rear and subwoofer, there is a center channel output but I am not using it in this install.

-Time alignment adjustment, just measure the distance from ear to source and input the distance in inches in the blank space on the diagram.

-Variable crossover for each output.

-lock down command to save settings in the DSP's memory so the settings stay the way you set them, custom config files can be saved to tablet or phone to quickly load into the DSP as desired.

-Clipping limiter sensor, cuts volume when hu output starts to clip, adjustable sensitivity.

-The DSP has a 150ma remote on lead that can be set to turn on with the car or signal sense only.

-Chime volume adjustment.

-Some various setup options for using the DSP with an aftermarket hu or factory amplified system.There is an input for specific vehicle model.

-This DSP only effects it's low level outputs, it does not do any tuning the hu powered output wires so you will need to use an amplifier to make use of this DSP, factory amplified systems being the exception.

-The optional vehicle specific T-harness makes it so no factory wires need to be cut, just plug it in. If you want to use the factory speaker wires with your amplifier the harness does have a speaker line connector spliced off from the main harness that you can connect to a speed cable to run amplified signal through the factory wires and avoid having to rewire every speaker in the vehicle.

Overall I am very happy with the AX-DSP it has everything I want in simple straightforward package. I was able to get the sub to sound proper by cutting at 150hz(on all channels) and boosting below 40hz, upper mids and highs were dealt with by disconnecting the factory a pillar tweeters and a heavy cut around 2500hz as there was an ear splitting peak there, I'll fiddle with it for the next little while, so much better than the crappy ford hu controls.

 

[stones 10+ year member]

Another update.

I could only put the volume up to 15 before the factory headunit started to clip and the major eq corrections to make up for the factory processing had me annoyed so I got out the laptop, flashed the car back to stock then grabbed my other odb dongle and fired up Forscan and made the following changes to my 2017 mustang.

ACM 727-01-01 xx5A xxxx xxxx (the x'es are ignored/unchanged #'s) (line level enable).

ACM 727-01-02 00xx (shuts off factory eq)

This gave me line level outputs and disabled factory processing, now the output from the speaker leads is flat and unclipped right to max volume.

The code info was from

https://www.f150forum.com/f118/2017-low-level-acm-reprogram-audio-build-372285/

There is another post on a fusion forum regarding 2016 and older fords where the code is slightly different

Variable Line Level Preamp Outputs From ACM (Factory Radio) For Amplifier Upgrades

Now I can run the dsp nearly flat, crank the volume to max and noticed the slight background hiss is gone now. The general controls on the headunit still function as they did before just no more factory EQ curve and the outputs are now low level unclipped. The performance tune was reflashed after the changes were made (forescan will not recognize a tuned ecm so you must flash to stock to make changes to the ACM)

 

[stones 10+ year member]

Here is a guide to FORScan for those interested in modifying their Ford stereo's

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-8dKaS_Spu4Zw4hV_CrKC4tLoP9G8yejqegF1wxIqxY/edit

ODB connector-

Cheap wired ODB connector

https://www.amazon.com/bbfly-BF32302-modified-Windows-ELMconfig-Forscan/dp/B01N9R9QS2

Wireless but more expensive ODB connector

https://www.amazon.com/ScanTool-426101-OBDLink-Bluetooth-Professional/dp/B006NZTZLQ/ref=pd_bxgy_263_img_3?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B006NZTZLQ&pd_rd_r=TR0KHKDH963QW32CVMNJ&pd_rd_w=qQU02&pd_rd_wg=nMV8u&psc=1&refRID=TR0KHKDH963QW32CVMNJ

This worked on my 2017 F150 and 2017 Mustang

Variable Line Level Preamp Outputs From ACM (for adding aftermarket amp without sound clipping)

ACM 727-01-01 xx5A xxxx xxxx

ACM 727-01-02 00xx

APIM 7D0-01-01 2xxx xxxx xxxx

Source

https://www.f150forum.com/f118/2017-low-level-acm-reprogram-audio-build-372285/

This works for 2016 and older (note the xx59 instead of xx5A)

This mod can be done with FORScan w/ODBLink MX Adapter:

727-01-01 xx59 F8x8 xxxx - Enables Line Level with Optional Subwoofer (Aux 1) and Front Center (Aux 2) Outputs Enabled*

727-01-02 00xx - Disables Factory EQ Processing

(ACM As-Built)

* This string breaks down as follows:

5 = Variable Line Level Audio Output

9 = Enable External Subwoofer (AUX 1) and Internal Amplifier (Aux 2) (0 - Disable)

F = Disable Open Speaker Circuit Detection (w/Active FM Radio Antenna - Otherwise use a D)

8 = Front Tweeters Present

8 = Aux 1 Type: Mono Subwoofer and Aux 2 Type: Front Center

7D0-01-01 2xxx xxxx xxxx

(APIM As-Built) - APIM change required only if you have Sony DSP before completing this mod.

Source

Variable Line Level Preamp Outputs From ACM (Factory Radio) For Amplifier Upgrades