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I'd fitted factory DAB+ digital radio to my Freelander2, and a half-dozen other cars now, but not the XJR. It was "too old" and the tech did not exist back in 2001 when the audio system in this car was first developed for the X-Type, same reason why there is no seamless integrated iPod connection, also using the orphaned D2B fiber-optic network doesn't make it any easier.
But...
The very last of the X350's in 2008/2009 did have a DAB digital radio option from the factory, also Sirius Satellite Radio or In-Band-On-Channel (IBOC) digital radio for the North American markets.
DAB is not the same as DAB+, and in Australia we use DAB+, an older DAB decoder cannot decode the DAB+ signal. Jaguar Land Rover added DAB+ support in 2013.
So i needed to put a 2013-era module into a 2004 vehicle...
Well, it works;
What I needed to do was get hold of a radio from a 2008/2009 UK or EU car, which has the software in it for DAB. Plus a few other things as well of course...
The problem is that the car is running the D2B fiber optic network, but the DAB/DAB+ modules are MOST network. Jaguar made a special gateway module for the 2008/2009 model to add a MOST module to the D2B network. This gateway is virtually impossible to find as it was only fitted to the X350 and X-Type in 2008/2009, and only if there was a factory install of DAB, Sirius or IBOC. I got one of these gateways from a wrecker in the UK a couple of years ago who didn't know what it was (or specifically, how rare it was) and i'd been sitting on it... there is no aftermarket D2B to MOST gateway, this is the only such device that exists.
I got a DAB+ decoder module from a wrecked 2014 Jag XF, and had to make up the wiring (which obviously wasn't there in my 2004-built car)
So you can see here the Gateway on the left, the DAB+ decoder on the right, plus the wiring and cabling for the power, antenna, etc..
The connector for the Gateway was impossible to find so I had to improvise using some pins from another connector, insulated with heatshrink, I crushed the pins a little to make a tight fit that won't pull out easily.
Next was to connect it all up into the car.
With that all in place, and the two fiber optic networks working (confirmed by red lights on the fibers) I still had no DAB on the screen, needed to get hold of the right radio unit. These had also proved very hard to find but I managed to get one from another wrecker in the UK, swapped it in and wow, I have DAB+
I still have to sort out an antenna. The 2008/2009 cars had a different rear window glass with the DAB antenna embedded into the glass itself. Obviously mine doesn't have this so to just test it out I used an antenna from a Jag XK sitting on the parcel shelf, this antenna is meant to be mounted in behind the plastic part of the rear bumper, which doesn't fit in the XJ.
It was just a temporary thing to see that all this actually worked, i've bought a universal active antenna off ebay so i'm waiting for it to turn up.
I'm pretty sure no-one else has done this retrofit before, and with the scarcity of the Gateway and the radio unit, very few others will either.
If you are in North America you have a choice between SDARS/Sirius, or In-Band-On-Channel (IBOC), there is no DAB over there.
The radio/cd player from the 2008/2009 models are different, there are two versions;
DAB (cars sold in UK, EU, Rest of World)
SDARS/IBOC (USA, CAN and MEX cars)
The units are not interchangeable, if you want DAB, you need a DAB radio, ditto for the SDARS/IBOC.
The way to spot one of these radios is that the AM/FM button is now marked BAND.
The Gateway module is the same regardless of if it's DAB, SDARS or IBOC.
You then need a SDARS or IBOC module, which can be taken from a later model Jag or Land Rover, like an XF, Evoque, LR2, whatever.
Then it's just the wiring and antenna. You can probably use an eBay-spec antenna for either...
This is not particularly cheap, or easy, but it's factory, some of us are into that sort of thing. The other options like an external unit mounted in the ashtray look like crap to me...
cambo , although I'm not interested in adding this to my car , it is very interesting .
and it blows my mind what you get up to with your spare time !
i will however have a go at a switchable video input/reverse cam one day though .
very cool this is true technical pioneering .
good to see you have the veffbox , great investment !
p.s love your red leather and piano black interior .
sorry , at a glance i thought the green box with the d2b cable was a veffbox . my mistake .
fair enough . i have to say the veffbox is great for us apple users ! love mine
i only have 24gb of music on my phone :-) so its a must for me .
Ah right. The little green box is a Land Rover DAB antenna amplifier, I hooked that up first to see if I could get a signal without having to connect to an external antenna. But it didn't work out so that's when i went to the antenna from the XK, which has a different amplifier.
@Cambo, did you have to update the NAV unit as well?
AFAIK it is the nav unit that draws the screen, so I was wondering how it knows about DAB/DAB+? The head unit would tell the nav about the station names etc., but I think the menu layout and the buttons come from the NAV unit's software.
I was looking for one of these D2BMOST gateways forever, but they seem to be made from unobtanium.
It's the original Nav DVD drive and screen from 2004, as far as I know anyhow.
The firmware in the Nav unit was updated at one stage when I loaded a 2012 European map disc, but the firmware is from 2007 when I look in the hidden menu.
I just swapped the radio and hooked up the modules...
Thanks for the write up Cambo, very interesting. I have a Alpine EZi DAB hidden in the ashtray at the moment, factory DAB would be better. Have you got a wiring diagram, is in mainly just power needed?
The DAB decoder has a + and - connection, the + is a permanent live one.
The D2B and MOST are self explanatory.
The coaxial for the antenna is a single cable needed only, the DAB has a double Fakra connector on the module and there is/was a cable available as a Land Rover part, but it's out of stock so i'm looking to get them made up by a local supplier.
Good info, thanks for the write up!
Do you know the Jaguar part number of the touchscreen that incorporates the DAB? I have a matrix of touchscreen part numbers showing what features they have and would be good to include that version too.
As far as I know the touchscreen has nothing to do with it, it's still the original touchscreen from 2004 in my car, the only thing that was changed was the radio/cd, and adding the gateway & DAB decoder.
At the risk of thread digression, can I tap into your boundless knowledge?
My X358 is a January 2009 build with factory DAB. It worked when I bought the car in Royal Sutton Coldfield, but didn't work down here in darkest Pembrokeshire. I put this down to no/poor signal and left the wireless tuned to the Home Service on FM, which apart from rare forays into the Third Programme or Classic FM is the only station I use.
Tried the DAB when back in England but it doesn't work. Everything else does.
11-05-2016, 06:00 AM
