After some trial an error and late nights sitting in the car trying different codes I think I have come to a point where I can start on the firmware for the module.

To turn the head unit to Phone mode is as simple as sending

2D0#82F12xFy01

where x is the cellular signal strength (1-5)

y is the phone battery level (1-5)

If x or y is set to F then the applicable icon is not displayed.

To exit phone mode sending

2D0#E1E02xFy01

 Two 14 character lines of text can be displayed by sending

line 1 3F5#05xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

         3F5#02xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

line 2 3F5#15xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

          3F5#13xxxxxxxxxxxxxx (x is the ascii code for the text)

just looking back through my notes it appears i got stuck into this back on the 3rd of November - now 6 weeks later all Ive got to show for it is a couple of CAN ids ... its a bit depressing .... hopefully in 6 weeks time ill have something more substantial to show...