I retrofit MCU2, IC2, Tuner2, and FSD Computer into my HW2.0 Car

Here's my story of my DIY HW2.0 retrofit for MCU2, IC2, TUNER2, and FSD Computer:

I want to begin this post by offering the most honest caveat I can: I do not encourage you to repeat anything I have done. In fact, now that Tesla is offering the MCU2 and FSD Computer retrofits officially, I highly recommend you go do that. MCU2 + FSD is wonderful. I am presenting this post to hopefully provide some guidance and entertainment to members of this great community – a place that I’ve found endlessly fun for the past several years during my Tesla ownership. I make no claims that the guidance offered below is correct or suited to your circumstances.

Towards the end of January, late one night while tinkering with my Tesla, I had a realization – I finally knew enough about the Model S/X hardware & software architecture to attempt one of the most involved retrofits I’ve ever done on a vehicle – an MCU2/IC2/Tuner2/APE3 retrofit into my HW2.0 MCU1 Model S. After a LOT of research, and with tons of help from others in this community (thank you to those that helped; you know who you are), I wanted to share my success story of retrofitting MCU2/IC2/Tuner2/APE3 to work in my car. All told – I have a fully working MCU2/IC2/Tuner2/APE3 with all the Theater, Arcade, Caraoke, FM Radio, Web Browser, Dashcam, Sentry, FSD visualizations and other goodies you would expect.

“But Tesla now offers an official MCU2/APE3 retrofit!” you say…” Why would you want to do a retrofit yourself?” Good question…there’s a couple reasons I chose to do this myself:

• I completed the retrofit a couple months before Tesla finally came out with a public announcement that MCU2 retrofits were officially official. I’d been waiting for Tesla to follow-through on Elon’s never-ending tweets promising a retrofit was coming and finally just decided I’d do it myself.
• Tesla charges $2,500 for the MCU2/IC2 retrofit and does not include the XM/FM Tuner2. I thought I’d try getting Tuner2 to work – which I did.
• I found a person with a wrecked 2018 Model S who was willing to sell me the MCU2, IC2, Tuner2, and wiring harness out of the car – everything I needed from a hardware perspective for a reasonable price. All in, I saved roughly $1,000 doing this myself compared to asking Tesla to do it. Honestly though, I probably put 100+ hours into this project and went from knowing nothing to knowing a lot. I didn’t really save time/money; quite the contrary. I did this because it was a ton of fun.
• I got the APE3 (FSD Computer) unit on loan from a friend. I did purchase FSD from Tesla and will have Tesla install my forthcoming APE3 unit whenever they actually do it.

Come along as I take you through my journey of retrofitting the MCU2/IC2/Tuner2/APE3 hardware into my HW2.0 car.

 

[KyleDay]

If you’re doing it yourself, it just gives you a list of files to transfer over. It doesn’t actually do the work unless you’re Tesla.

If you’re trying this on a fairly recent 2021 firmware, you’ll run into trouble. Tesla made several of the configurations within the gateway “secured” such that you can’t edit them even with root access.

 

[kingpleb]

Hi Kyle,

Thanks for this great write up, it's helped me a lot!
Tesla have a harness adapter as part of their kit that can be bought separately for the mcu2 retrofit which I pick up next week as on my unit I'm left with a spare connector (J14) where the old purple connector can not fit into so I'm hoping this solves this and that the kit for the AP2 => AP3 upgrade is available as well.
Do you have another link to the UV lamp you used at all as I can't get the current one to work and the closest I can find is this one which I'm guessing will take a bit longer than 24hrs to clear the yellow bordering

 

[KyleDay]

Hi Kyle,

Thanks for this great write up, it's helped me a lot!
Tesla have a harness adapter as part of their kit that can be bought separately for the mcu2 retrofit which I pick up next week as on my unit I'm left with a spare connector (J14) where the old purple connector can not fit into so I'm hoping this solves this and that the kit for the AP2 => AP3 upgrade is available as well.
Do you have another link to the UV lamp you used at all as I can't get the current one to work and the closest I can find is this one which I'm guessing will take a bit longer than 24hrs to clear the yellow bordering

After a lot of fiddling with my UV curing process, and many days and hours of running the 100w lamp on areas, the yellow border would reappear after only a few days. I decided 100w isn’t powerful enough as a fix. I took my car to Tesla and they performed their fix using their 1,500w solution and that made the best difference. Do that.

 

[cellphonechris]

@KyleDay - is it possible to retrofit satellite radio into a Tuner2 vehicle without premium audio? I have an infotainment upgrade scheduled for my 2017 MS, but I miss having it integrated in the 2015 I owned previously.

 

[KyleDay]

@KyleDay - is it possible to retrofit satellite radio into a Tuner2 vehicle without premium audio? I have an infotainment upgrade scheduled for my 2017 MS, but I miss having it integrated in the 2015 I owned previously.

Perhaps but Tesla will not offer it. Would require a hardware antenna added under your glass roof at a minimum. I thought about trying on my older S but never did.

 

[Krash]

…is it possible to retrofit satellite radio into a Tuner2 vehicle without premium audio?…

Please start a thread if you try this. I might try a DIY MCU3 retrofit if the codebase would allow a vertical screen. If so, I’d also try the DIY satellite tuner and antenna install. I assume you could run the antenna from inside and not remove the glass.

Otherwise, if I have a service center install MCU2, I might try putting the tuner in myself and see if I can hack the gateway configuration to standard audio and satellite tuner.

 

[kingpleb]

After a lot of fiddling with my UV curing process, and many days and hours of running the 100w lamp on areas, the yellow border would reappear after only a few days. I decided 100w isn’t powerful enough as a fix. I took my car to Tesla and they performed their fix using their 1,500w solution and that made the best difference. Do that.

Thanks Kyle, was it a day that it was in for the work to do the border?

also found out the harness for AP2=>AP3 is available as part number
1507950-00-A

 

[kingpleb]

Please start a thread if you try this. I might try a DIY MCU3 retrofit if the codebase would allow a vertical screen. If so, I’d also try the DIY satellite tuner and antenna install. I assume you could run the antenna from inside and not remove the glass.

Otherwise, if I have a service center install MCU2, I might try putting the tuner in myself and see if I can hack the gateway configuration to standard audio and satellite tuner.

I'd love to do that as well Krash, i know im only now just jumping to MCU2 but MCU3 would be ace!

 

[BigMo4]

Dang Kyle, you sure you're not a Tesla engineer? You definitely should be. I learned a lot, thanks for sharing!

 

[Rhys4422]

In MCU1, accessing the gateway was as simple as getting into factory mode. Once you're in factory mode, diagnostic port opened and BAM, you're in. Can reach the GW.

Pretty sure the new RJ45 port is where you need to tap into, but it remains closed. But getting into factory mode is as far as I've managed to get thus far.

how did u get into factory mode

 

[DebboR]

Hi! I'm trying to upgrade my MCU1 AP2 to AP2.5. Have installed everything in the car, and through root access and gwxfer I changed "dashw 2" to "dashw 3". Confirmed that the internal.dat sticks on the gateway, but the redeploy through service mode fails.

Then I noticed that I did not have "autopilotcameratype 1" in my config, so I also added that, but again no luck on the redeploy.

Anything else I can try before reverting my changes and reinstalling my AP2 computer?

 

[DebboR]

@KyleDay Anything I might be missing?

 

[KyleDay]

To my knowledge you cannot move from a 2.0 to 2.5 computer. The firmware doesn’t support 2.0 cameras on a 2.5 ape computer. There’s also SCCM and other differences it’s expecting, I think.

You should swap from 2.0 to the FSD computer (3.0). That will work

 

[DebboR]

To my knowledge you cannot move from a 2.0 to 2.5 computer. The firmware doesn’t support 2.0 cameras on a 2.5 ape computer. There’s also SCCM and other differences it’s expecting, I think.

You should swap from 2.0 to the FSD computer (3.0). That will work

Aha, I see. Will look out for a FSD computer then. Thanks!

 

[Rhys4422]

Hi! I'm trying to upgrade my MCU1 AP2 to AP2.5. Have installed everything in the car, and through root access and gwxfer I changed "dashw 2" to "dashw 3". Confirmed that the internal.dat sticks on the gateway, but the redeploy through service mode fails.

Then I noticed that I did not have "autopilotcameratype 1" in my config, so I also added that, but again no luck on the redeploy.

Anything else I can try before reverting my changes and reinstalling my AP2 computer?

How do u gain access to gateway?

 

[Akikiki]

That is not the sort of thing that should be posted here.

 

[advert]

Recently I did Tegra -> Intel retrofit, with AP2.0, everything went well, except Bluetooth. While it works well for streaming, it almost doesn't work for calls(feels like you entered tunnel). One guy told there were changes for bt antenna wiring, but I can't find confirmation to that. Any info on that?

 

[mmccord]

Recently I did Tegra -> Intel retrofit, with AP2.0, everything went well, except Bluetooth. While it works well for streaming, it almost doesn't work for calls(feels like you entered tunnel). One guy told there were changes for bt antenna wiring, but I can't find confirmation to that. Any info on that?

Harness - Media Control Unit (Retrofit).pdf

Shared with Dropbox

www.dropbox.com

See step 16. There is an external Bluetooth antenna needed.

I think the part# is 1052393-00-B

 

[Krash]

…There is an external Bluetooth antenna needed.

I think the part# is 1052393-00-B

Do the Service Centers always provide, connect and route this antenna? Or is it like the certificates where sometimes they forget.

Can you use a Bluetooth key? Can the 2021 S/X refresh use a Bluetooth key?

 

[MaxymSli]

Recently I did Tegra -> Intel retrofit, with AP2.0, everything went well, except Bluetooth. While it works well for streaming, it almost doesn't work for calls(feels like you entered tunnel). One guy told there were changes for bt antenna wiring, but I can't find confirmation to that. Any info on that?

Is your Tesla American or European?