Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

I simply yanked the Data Communications Module (DCM) fuse on my GR Corolla, but that has the unfortunate side-effect of also disabling the microphone. That means the only way for me to take hands-free phone calls is with the speaker phone option, so I've simply stopped taking phone calls at all when I'm driving.

When researching how I might be able to do something more surgical I ran across this post by someone who did it with their Tacoma:

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/simpler-solution-for-dis...

Reading this HN post on the Chevy Volt it's starting to look to me like the general approach of installing a 50ohm "silencing antenna" could end up working for a lot of different cars out there. I'll certainly be giving it a try on my GR Corolla now so I can get the microphone back while still keeping the DCM disabled.



> I simply yanked the Data Communications Module (DCM) fuse on my GR Corolla, but that has the unfortunate side-effect of also disabling the microphone....

> Reading this HN post on the Chevy Volt it's starting to look to me like the general approach of installing a 50ohm "silencing antenna" could end up working for a lot of different cars out there. I'll certainly be giving it a try on my GR Corolla now so I can get the microphone back while still keeping the DCM disabled.

I started researching this again because of this, and it looks like you may need to watch out for "Dark Draws" (https://www.reddit.com/r/subaru/comments/1bn1c3a/dcm_bulleti...) where the DCM trains the battery because it couldn't make a connection. Apparently this has been a problem with some 3G based units when they shut 3G down.

It looks like Subaru, at least, has made a replacement DCM "bypass" box to allow the DCM to be removed without disabling other car features: https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/2024/MC-10251102-0001.pdf


Thanks for the heads-up about that. If I go this route then it looks like I'll want to measure battery drain both before and after installing the silencing antenna.


ah yes, i recall the excitement of my GRC calling emergency services repeatedly while i was out on track. definitely just what i wanted.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: