[willba4]

hey all!

so i've done a few bits and pieces to my forester, and noticed that generally, when you add a new piece of hardware, that the car automatically adds extra functionaility elsewhere in the car. (for instance, if you add a GPS head unit from a wreckers yourself, it adds an extra couple of screens to the top screen, along with the speed limit on your speedo screen)

so i was wondering, surely we can add the dual mode X mode to our cars as well!

has anyone looked into this?


deep mud and snow mode appears to be SIMILAR to x-mode with TC off, but not quite. going from a video of the new outback in that mode going up a crossaxil hill, TC is still on, but allows a bit more wheel spin before it engages.

 

[FozzieBalou]

It may be a whole new ECM and other control module and not just as simple a swap as the radio head unit.

As X-Mode is handled by a multiple of controllers (engine, transmission, ABS, others?) it could be much more different....

Also, dual X-Mode seems to be on the Forester - notably the Sport and higher trim levels.

Of course, it could be like so many other items on the Forester - swapping out the basic part (the X-Mode control panel) may add that functionality to the Base and Premium units with "regular" X-Mode.

 

[willba4]

cant believe its been a full year since i last looked into this... but i guess thats covid for you.

so, i've been looking into CANBUS a little bit. planning on investigating the signals sent out by the dial on cars with single mode X mode, and comparing against those with dual mode X-mode.

as maybe i'll be able to add the dual mode X mode with my own buttons using a ESP32 and a SN65hvd230 or something along those lines

has anyone else looked into this at all?

 

[willba4]

so while this project kinda got dropped for a while, i spent another couple of hours on it today. (with this speed, maybe it'll be complete in 10 years haha)

i've got a device connected to the highspeed canbus, and i've already found the signals that show when the car is in x-mode, along with if the headlights are on etc.
i've got a feeling that the button for x-mode might be on a lower speed bus though, as when i sent these packets back onto the network, it didn't trigger the same result, so these addresses must be read only.

just need to work out where i can gain access to the lower speed bus.

any ideas on where i could splice into it, in a location that doesnt require taking apart of the dash to get to the back of the radio?

 

[zcrow]

Would be interesting to hear if you make any progress on this. This would be an awesome mod if it can work.