PhatNoise Phatbox

thebluewhale · #1 14th April 2009, 05:55 PM

Just got my hands on a 20 Gig Phatbox.

Has anyone installed one?

The connector between the box and the existing multichanger cable seem to have different connectors. Is there an adapter available or will I have to run the phatbox lead through the car.

Had a quick search but couldn't find anything.

Does anyone know?

Ta

Steve

PsYcHe · #2 14th April 2009, 06:49 PM

I have one

Mine plugged straight in. There's a connector on the bottom of the box which then connects to the round 'din' connector for the changer - do you have that adapter cable?. Did it come from an Audi? If not, then you'll probably need to flash the firmware.. phathack.com is the place to go for that as the phatnoise site is usually down.

You'll also need their phathack music manager to re-create the voice prompts if you're running Vista as the phatnoise software doesnt' work properly under Vista (also needs to be run as administrator). This can also allow you to run larger HDDs in the unit too 120Gb can be had for about 45 quid).

thebluewhale · #3 14th April 2009, 07:37 PM

The cable that plugs into the din connector is square. It has a serial number CAS-001-VW-15.

Not sure which car it's come from but it has a fitting guide for an A4 and various Volkswagens.

I'll check out phathack site

Cheers

PsYcHe · #4 14th April 2009, 07:55 PM

I have this cable:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/AUDI-...fAudioQ5fVideo

Which runs from the box to the CD changer round DIN plug.

Cheers,

Richard.

EDIT: Just looked at some other cables on there.. There's two types.. one square, one round. I assume yours came from a VW setup or maybe a more modern Audi.

thebluewhale · #5 14th April 2009, 08:11 PM

That's the one!

I'll order it now.

I've just had a look at phathack site. Which sections have the firmware upgrade and music manager?

Cheers for that Richard

Steve

ulfilias · #6 14th April 2009, 11:55 PM

Hi there,

I have a kenwood music keg, which is basicaly the phatbox for kenwood stereo's. I'm going to junk the RNS-D i have and fit a kenwood stereo, but was looking at swapping mine to work with the RNS before and had worked out you need the adaptor cable from ebay - I think the long one that you have may be able to be used by replacing the cd changer cable abd plugging directly into the RNS....but its a lot of hassle running the cable through, so probably easier to stump up the £40 frrom ebay.

You normaly get the software on a CD. although you can download it from phatnoise

http://www.phatnoise.com/downloads/index.aspx has the usb driver if needed

http://downloads.phathack.com/firmware/ has the firmwares

http://www.phatnoise.com/downloads/download_pmmsw.aspx -media
http://www.phatnoise.com/downloads/download_sw.aspx -music

I'd recomend hacking the hard drive up....a new 2.5" laptop drive (not too fast though) - I use flac which is lossless and this gives a huge amount of excelent quality music. Although if you have a usb1 drive it can take hours to transfer !

cya,
Lee

thebluewhale · #7 15th April 2009, 07:52 PM

Hi Lee,

Thanks for the response. I was not sure which firmware I was looking for as the rns unit is not listed.

I'll have to use the media and music downloads as well as the effing CD doesn't work.

AND will probably have to hack the hard drive as the effing cradle doesn't effing work either.

Any help on the hack would be most appreciated.

Also I didn't realise it would play flac files. I thought it was wma and mp3 only. Flac is well cool.

Cheers

Steve

PsYcHe · #8 15th April 2009, 08:31 PM

Which cradle do you have?

If it says USB2.0 on the front then it should 'just work'. If not, then you need the driver from the phatnoise website. Did you get the mains adapter with it?

thebluewhale · #9 15th April 2009, 08:47 PM

It's a USB2 cradle with an adapter with a piece missing (the plug adapter). And another after market switchable adapter included which doesn't do power up the cradle.

I should really check this gear as soon as I get it

PsYcHe · #10 16th April 2009, 06:47 AM

Bummer...

Does the aftermarket psu do 9b@1A? As that's what the original unit gives.

Though you may be able to take it out the caddy and attach it using one of those laptop HDD to USB adapters you get as I don't think it recognises the caddy as anything special, just the volume names on the drive.