So, I might have been busy on eBay looking for cheap things for sale.. I think I'm done though now.
I have an FG (not a MK2 [nor a MK1 according to some, apparently, just an FG])
ICC. $100
I have an FG MK2
ICC. $330
I have an FGX
ICC. $600
The FG is just a low level LCD one... I was able to "record" the CAN-BUS from my car and get it to show a lot of stuff on the screen when playing back the raw data into the unit. I'm kind of done with it now though, climate controls showed up nicely, but I didn't get any radio things to display. This was a dirt cheap unit - so no great loss, I may come back to it later.
The FGX was delivered next. It has SAT NAV (and the SD card, SD/USB sockets, loom etc.) but I'm yet to trace the wires to get it to light up on the bench. I don't have the schematics of the plugs for the FGX - I didn't think I'd ever need them when I got hold of the FG schematics. Damn!
The FG MKII
ICC came today. It seems to have a newer firmware than mine, so that's good. Played back the CAN-BUS recording from my car and I got shown everything I had done in my car the day I took the recording! Climate and radio, including my tuned ACT stations.. Nice.
The FG & MKII has almost the same buttons circuit boards. It has no IC's! The button's wires go into the unit's screen box and are processed by the CPU in it. The FGX has a completely different circuit board for buttons, and it does have a small CPU on the board - and it would seem, all the wires do not go into the screen's box.
To my surprise, the MKII unit has SAT NAV too! It came from VIC, but the last address searched was 3 streets away from me as well - what are the chances? Seriously, it had my street showing an inch away from centre screen. Anyway...
I have some questions.
Did I read somewhere the MKII screen in the higher models (with SAT NAV) are less likely to break?
Somewhere I think I read the FGX
ICC is somehow larger and won't fit in an FG without grinding down something, is this true (ignoring the radio plugs, which I'm considering addressing by keeping my coded radio unit part)? It doesn't seem any different in size?
What does Sync2 on the FGX give me over the high-end FGII units?
I'm yet to decide exactly which direction I'm going to go next with all these bits and pieces, but I don't mind the idea of getting the FGX screen+buttons working with the FGII radio (using a translation CAN-BUS device, which I've already half built).. Might be a way of addressing these broken MKII screens, while at the same time bringing on more features.