Volkswagen UHV bluetooth touch adapter & its problems

My Volkswagen car has the "universal cellphone preparation" UHV built-in. This is the main part of a car kit, but requires an additional adapter for connecting to a cellphone. At first, I was using an adapter for my good old Nokia 6310, even after I changed to the Nokia E71. Connecting was easy: pair the phone with the "VW UHV" bluetooth entity, and done. This has the phone connected to the car kit at all times, so even non-call-related functions use the car audio system (e.g. voice recognition).
But progress will have its way, no matter what happens. So in comes the "bluetooth touch adapter". Instead of a phone-specific adapter, this is a small touchscreen device that slots into the UHV dashboard mount. Connecting a phone is very different now:

the Bluetooth Touch Adapter connects to the "VW UHV" device via bluetooth
the phone connects to "Touch Adapter" device, also via bluetooth

The device doesn't allow step 2 if step 1 didn't succeed. Apparently this complex setup was necessary to allow the Bluetooth Touch Adapter to request phonebook, call list, and SMS information from the phone.

But it's not just good news: because the audio link from phone to car isn't direct, non-call audio functions don't work. The phone thinks it'll receive audio through BT, so doesn't use its own mic, but there's no BT audio feed because the BT Touch Adapter knows there's no call going on. And maybe worse: from time to time, I've experienced connection problems in step 1: the Bluetooth Touch Adapter fails to connect with VW UHV. With the limited UI of the device, this is almost impossible to troubleshoot. This seems to happen mostly after I've unlocked the car, and then closed it without ever turning on the ignition. On opening and starting the car minutes later, the connection failure happens.

the only remedy I've found is to turn on the ignition, "open" the VW UHV for new connections (press the phone button on the steering wheel twice), and keep doing that (every 5 to 10 seconds) until the unit connects. If it still fails, keep "opening" the VW UHV unit and use the "Settings", "Bluetooth", "Connect UHV" function on the BT Touch Adapter to retry. I'm hoping this will be fixed in a firmware update some day...

Reset lost root password on vSphere ESXi 6.7

VMware's solution to a lost or forgotten root password for ESXi is simple: go to https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/1317898?lang=en_US and you'll find that "Reinstalling the ESXi host is the only supported way to reset a password on ESXi". If your host is still connected to vCenter, you may be able to use Host Profiles to reset the root password, or alternatively you can join ESXi in Active Directory via vCenter, and log in with a user in the "ESX Admins" AD group. If your host is no longer connected to vCenter, those options are closed. Can you avoid reinstallation? Fortunately, you can. You will need to reset and reboot your ESXi though. If you're ready for an unsupported deep dive into the bowels of ESXi, follow these steps: Create a bootable Linux USB-drive (or something else you can boot your server with). I used a CentOS 7 installation USB-drive that I could use to boot into rescue mode. Reset your ESXi and boot from the Linux medium. Ident...

GEM WS2 MIDI System Exclusive structure and checksums

MIDI is the standard for communication between electronic music instruments like keyboards and synthesizers. And computers! While tinkering with an old floppy-less GEM WS2 keyboard, I wanted to figure out the structure of their System Exclusive memory dumps. SysEx is the vendor-specific (and non-standard) part of MIDI. Vendors can use it for real-time instructions (changing a sound parameter in real-time) and for non-real-time instructions (sending or loading a configuration, sample set, etc.). In the GEM WS2, there's two ways of saving the memory (voices, globals, styles and songs): in .ALL files on floppy, and via MIDI SysEx. The .ALL files are binary files, 60415 bytes long. The only recognizable parts are the ASCII encoded voice and global names. The SysEx dumps are 73691 bytes long. As always in MIDI, only command start (and end) bytes have MSB 1, and all data bytes have MSB 0. The data is spread out over 576 SysEx packets, preceded by one SysEx packet with header informat...

GOM said…

Just googled by...
I'm expiring the same problem with my UHV to. Brand new car, picked it up last friday. My dealer is going to replace mine next monday. Hope it will work out better then.

1/3/10 17:28

Bert de Bruijn said…

Mine was at software level 0120. I just updated it to 0123 now, and will evaluate whether the problems persist. I'm sure the audio will still only connect while calling, so voice control on my E71 won't work.
Since your car is new, you should have software 0124 on the BT touch adapter: firmware updates for BT touch adapter.

6/3/10 14:45

I can confirm that the problems in my post are still valid for firmware 123. My car was delivered late 2007, so according to the documentation firmware 124 is not for me. I'm still thinking about trying it anyway.

10/3/10 10:13

Unknown said…

How does one upgrade the firmware. Is there a "how-to" available?

11/8/10 14:38

tomma said…

I hope VW salv the problem!!!!!!

11/12/11 00:52

I hope VW solv this problem

11/12/11 00:53

Hello, This issue have been solved with SW upgrade available in VW site with full step by step instructions: http://www.volkswagen.de/de/servicezubehoer/VolkswagenOriginalZubehoer2/Downloads/Software-Updates_und_Anleitungen/Touch_Adapter.html
Regards

2/11/12 12:34

I have the new updaate v233 and I am still having the same issue. It worked at the beginning, but now...no more. Volkswagen you have a lot to answer for.

24/11/13 04:53

Update: I don't have the VW bluetooth touch adapter anymore, so can't share newer experiences. A couple of years ago, I replaced the stock UHV unit under the passenger seat with a newer Skoda/VW module purchased from Kufatec: http://www.kufatec.de/shop/index.php?page=product&info=645 . Best thing I ever changed in that car! Bluetooth is rock-solid, no connection issues whatsoever, and there's good RNS510 and multifunction steering wheel integration.

19/7/14 15:26

I have a bottom rung polo trendline and don't use it.it is not needed.I purchased a scosche magnetic phone holder which sits perfectly in the cradle like it was made for it.I use an iphone.Siri always on.Turn on Bluetooth on radio display.Phone connects straight away.I have USB drive in glove box for music with all info of tracks on radio display.Make a voice call.Music drops out;continues when call finished.So instead of the v2 adapter I have an iPhone 6s Plus in its place.Adapter is in the glovebox.Not hard.If a cop sees me touching the adapter same law applies.$400 fine.The adapter doesn't need to be there.Is only an option for your convenience/inconvenience.

2/7/17 09:58

Hello there my ws1 midi files have songs can they all make the convarter for gem wk8 in the file of these?

11/3/18 17:13

wk_8@hotmail.com

11/3/18 17:14

the birdhouse in my soul

Search This Blog