(In this case, a 1993 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am.)

While I was pondering this project, I did a lot of research.

I read many posts on several forums made by very knowledgeable people who said that what I set out to do simply couldn't be done - installing a Class 2 Data radio into a car that used E&C and UART data protocols.

I'm going to post a link to a write-up I did of this install, as not to have to recreate it in here.

Anything is possible with electronics if you know what you're doing.

http://www.firebirdnation.com/forums...on-impossible/

Thanks for the info.Feel free to go make an intro thread and kick back in the lounge or browse Also we LOVE pictures if you wanted to post some of your rides i dont quite understand what all this is but i know how to put cd players in stuff and thats good enough for me!

Thanks!

Yeah, I'm sorry about the pictures...I forgot that you have to be a registered member on Firebird Nation to view attachments. I can upload them here...it'll take time.

Sorry, but I did neglect to introduce myself.

those would be cool also... Can you get just a hair more in depth with this for me...I dont know what the diff kind of radios are..<Not an electronic guy lol

Here'* a picture of the finished product. I'm at work, so this is the only one I have at the moment.

I'll post more stuff later - trust me I got lots of pictures.

plain English is the newer radios talk to the bcm to see if the it has the same vin as in the radio, if not it locks itself up. pretty crappy deal for someone like my uncle whos cd player broke and now he cant get a jy one cause hes lookin at 100 bucks for the radio and 50 for the stealer to reprogram.

Ohh so thats how that theftlock crap works..I got ya now

theftlock2 works that way tl1 is in the radio and can be unlocked with a google search and a series of button pushes. that would be the 90'* ones with the blinking led

got ya hm learn something new everyday lol

Yes, the TheftLock "II" is one of those things that needs worked around, but Class 2 Data, which is a proprietary communication protocol, is a little more complicated than that when it comes to radios. Such a radio doesn't turn "on" and "off" like the older radios do with a switched voltage signal. Basically, the thing is always on, it'* just "awake" and functions like it'* on, or it'* "asleep." The radio, along with just about every other computerized module, sits on the "data bus" that is sort of like a conference table with all these things talking. Their "speech" is given different levels of priority. Also, the modules send what is known as a State Of Health ("SOH") message every 1-2 seconds. The way the Class 2 radio knows when to wake up is when it receives a message from the BCM (or DIM, or whatever) essentially giving it permission to do so and respond to commands from the user, including telling it to go to sleep (turning the radio off). You could wire up a Class 2 radio, without the switched voltage wire because there is no such circuit in the radio, and try to turn the thing on. Without that Class 2 signal coming from somewhere, the radio will just sit there and won't do much of anything, except tell you what time it is.