The Roadster I just bought had a double DIN Alpine INE-S920 head unit. Everything worked properly with it, but I had the Pioneer unit that I preferred. The Pioneer has Apple Car Play and a few other features I liked. So I swapped the unit in (makes it sound so easy!), and have a few issues with it.
First, of course the wiring for the Roadster is difficult to figure out as it does not seem to use any conventional color-coding. Second, the unit had the Alpine “direct connect” backup camera which uses a 6-pin harness instead of the usual RCA plug. The GPS antenna uses a different plug, as does the microphone. So be prepared if you are going to do something like this to do a lot of head-scratching. The issues:
As with any head unit, there is a lead for constant 12V and a lead for switched 12V (plus the ground of course). It took me hours to try and sort out why the wires from the car harness had the switched and constant 12V when measured, but the radio would not work when they were hooked up. It worked fine on the bench with a power supply hooked up. After a lot of measuring I found that the 12V constant power would drop to 2-3 volts when connected to the radio; why, I have no idea. If I jumpered across the 2 power supply leads then the radio worked fine. I didn’t know if this would do any harm but it seemed to work OK; and yes, it does power off when the car is shut down. The only issue is that when the car is started each time the radio is like it is booting up for the first time and goes through a couple of initial start-up screens, so this is not something I can live with. Is there something in the 12V constant power lead that is limited in some way? Can’t remember off-hand if it is the green or brown wire (1 is the constant power and the other is the switched). Is there another source for the 12V constant power I could try?
Second issue. The camera itself works when “rear view” is selected on the radio, but does not go into it automatically when in reverse. I’ve got it set on the menus for “power” as opposed to “ground” for camera trigger, but tried both. Pretty sure I measured the leads and found the one that had 12V when in reverse and nothing (or very low voltage) when in drive. But I must have this one wrong somehow.
The last issue is one that I’ve seen mentioned many times. How do you get the USB cable from the head unit to the rear of the console? I’ve searched and found bits and pieces of information on removing the console, but nothing that worked for me. I took the cover off the back of it (the traction control panel) and saw where the cable goes in. It would not pull out at all and seemed to come from the lower part of the console, not the upper part; when the console was loose at the back and I wiggled it the cable did not move. I took out a bunch of screws that I could see but nothing actually helped remove the console to see the cable run. I’ve seen it mentioned that the cable runs just under the transmission shift buttons, but like I said it seemed that mine was running under the lower part of the console. People putting in sound insulation must be removing the whole console, no?
So if anyone has any suggestions for any of this feel free to post.
thank you in advance,
Rick
First, of course the wiring for the Roadster is difficult to figure out as it does not seem to use any conventional color-coding. Second, the unit had the Alpine “direct connect” backup camera which uses a 6-pin harness instead of the usual RCA plug. The GPS antenna uses a different plug, as does the microphone. So be prepared if you are going to do something like this to do a lot of head-scratching. The issues:
As with any head unit, there is a lead for constant 12V and a lead for switched 12V (plus the ground of course). It took me hours to try and sort out why the wires from the car harness had the switched and constant 12V when measured, but the radio would not work when they were hooked up. It worked fine on the bench with a power supply hooked up. After a lot of measuring I found that the 12V constant power would drop to 2-3 volts when connected to the radio; why, I have no idea. If I jumpered across the 2 power supply leads then the radio worked fine. I didn’t know if this would do any harm but it seemed to work OK; and yes, it does power off when the car is shut down. The only issue is that when the car is started each time the radio is like it is booting up for the first time and goes through a couple of initial start-up screens, so this is not something I can live with. Is there something in the 12V constant power lead that is limited in some way? Can’t remember off-hand if it is the green or brown wire (1 is the constant power and the other is the switched). Is there another source for the 12V constant power I could try?
Second issue. The camera itself works when “rear view” is selected on the radio, but does not go into it automatically when in reverse. I’ve got it set on the menus for “power” as opposed to “ground” for camera trigger, but tried both. Pretty sure I measured the leads and found the one that had 12V when in reverse and nothing (or very low voltage) when in drive. But I must have this one wrong somehow.
The last issue is one that I’ve seen mentioned many times. How do you get the USB cable from the head unit to the rear of the console? I’ve searched and found bits and pieces of information on removing the console, but nothing that worked for me. I took the cover off the back of it (the traction control panel) and saw where the cable goes in. It would not pull out at all and seemed to come from the lower part of the console, not the upper part; when the console was loose at the back and I wiggled it the cable did not move. I took out a bunch of screws that I could see but nothing actually helped remove the console to see the cable run. I’ve seen it mentioned that the cable runs just under the transmission shift buttons, but like I said it seemed that mine was running under the lower part of the console. People putting in sound insulation must be removing the whole console, no?
So if anyone has any suggestions for any of this feel free to post.
thank you in advance,
Rick
