Replacement of Alpine IVA-NAV-10

[JohnGarziglia]

No one can tell if the TR has the ISO connectors and an Alpine adapter, or if the Alpine 16 pin connector is hardwired?

Also, if you want to order from Tesla a new radio wiring harness to adapt to a different radio (so the original wiring harness is not altered but rather a replacement for it is fashioned for the new radio), here is the part number and the cost I paid in 2014:

 

[dpeilow]

I downloaded the manual for the radio I am looking to install (Pioneer AVIC-F77DAB) and can see the maximum current draw is 10A. There's no mention of continuous.

Likely to be a problem?

 

[JohnGarziglia]

I downloaded the manual for the radio I am looking to install (Pioneer AVIC-F77DAB) and can see the maximum current draw is 10A. There's no mention of continuous.

Likely to be a problem?

That is a hefty current draw. It could be an issue. Below is what I noted in my first post above as the power measurements on the OEM Alpine unit:

 

[dpeilow]

I called Pioneer and they said with not much running and moderate volume it will be about 2A, but with navigation, bluetooth and higher volume it can approach the peak mentioned above. So suck-it-and-see.

@JohnGarziglia when you measured 2A on the Alpine, what was it doing at the time?

 

[JohnGarziglia]

@JohnGarziglia[/USER] when you measured 2A on the Alpine, what was it doing at the time?

It was on at a moderately high volume but not measuring the current draw of the outboard HD radio and Sirius/XM modules.

The Alpine, and anything else that will be put into the Roadster 2.5, has a power amp behind it so audio volume should not greatly impact current draw. Pioneer, when referring to a current draw of 10 amps, may be measuring current draw when directly connected to speakers rather than speaker outputs going to a power amp.

 

[dpeilow]

Does anyone know if it is possible to get a female Alpine 16 pin connector on a harness (i.e. replicating the radio side), or if any other OEMs use the same head unit (or a compatible one) so that I can order one?

 

[dpeilow]

OK so I pulled the Alpine out yesterday to check the connectors. The 16 pin plug for power and speakers looked similar to the Pioneer, but unfortunately not similar enough.

Anyway, my car and I presume others in Europe are fitted with the Alpine IVA-W502R. This seems to have some important differences to the IVA-NAV-10.

The Nav and Bluetooth are off-board and connected through some proprietary multi-pin bus cables. Eventually these are going to have to be removed.

The reversing camera is connected through a white aux AV connector but only two pins are used and according to the manual I downloaded on the Alpine adapter this just goes to a yellow RCA, so I presume that it does not need the power supply described up thread (or that is somewhere in the wiring loom already).

I didn't see any RCAs or other leads going to speakers, so I presume that any power amp or the sub-woofer is fed from the normal speaker outputs of the Alpine. This would make sense as when I move the fader to the rear it loses the sub.

Anyway, it seems if I can get a female Alpine adapter, I can do a quick and dirty switch to check the Pioneer is working ok.


Link to the manual - installation and wiring details at the back: https://www.alpine-europe.com/filea...r_audio_manuals/IVA-W502R/OM_IVA-W502R_EN.pdf


Model details

Pin out

Head unit removed

Camera interface unit behind passenger side glove box

Bluetooth unit on driver's side. Note the navigation receiver is in the top right of the picture, on top of the switchpack

Main 16 pin power and speaker connector (hard wired with totally non-standard wire colours)

Camera connector

iPod / USB connector

Nav connector

 

[supersnoop]

Does anyone know if it is possible to get a female Alpine 16 pin connector on a harness (i.e. replicating the radio side), or if any other OEMs use the same head unit (or a compatible one) so that I can order one?

You really need to get the dash off. The Alpine wiring harness should be plugged into a more standard harness back in there somewhere. That's where you really want to start, and you'll need to remove all of those proprietary accessories.

 

[dpeilow]

I'm going to remove the dash with some assistance this Sunday. Last week was about checking out what connectors were under there - it was always my intention to remove the auxilliary units as well.

I fired up the Pioneer on my desk before committing to fitting it. Good news is it works. It seems to take around 2.2 A when the phone is plugged in (it's Android Auto so this will happen a lot). Without the phone it's 1.7 A and on standby my bench power supply couldn't measure it, so under 0.01 A.

 

[dpeilow]

So Sunday was a nice day and I finally got around to gutting the Roadster and removing the Alpine bits.

In addition to the head unit I had to get out the nav box, stuck onto the switchpack.

The Bluetooth module.

And luckily I was able to leave in place the Alpine reversing camera interface, which meant the connection to the new Pioneer unit is just a coax and phono connector (left of the vent) and not have to make a DIY power supply.

I was able to splice on the Pioneer connector to the Tesla wiring harness, despite Tesla's totally non-standard colours, and with a bit of experimentation got the reverse activation working too. What seems to be missing is a speed pulse and illumination status from the car. Anyone else got any ideas about a source for those?

Luckily I had former Roadster tech Neil Wise on hand to help with the disassembly and reassembly, otherwise the job might have taken two days. Big thanks to him for the help.

And finally I was able to get DAB in the car, despite not even installing the antenna for that in its final location with a ground plane it was getting reasonable reception at my place.

I still need to do a couple of minor items to finish the job, but the big issue still is trying to get Android Auto to cooperate with my Galaxy S5. In short, it's a pain. It worked for about 10 seconds playing music before freezing. Even a factory reset of the stereo and reinstall of the app hasn't sorted it. Slightly annoying as this was the main reason to get the radio and pay £300 more than the non AA variant. Methinks it's a Samsung problem or maybe poor USB cable.

Also need some airbag clips but I guess they're a Lotus part.

 

[Mark77a]

N-ICE !
Excellent write up and pictures David - Thanks for sharing, that's what makes this group !
I'm glad you tracked down Neil... a valuable UK Roadster resource.

The key question for me is: Do you get better BBC radio 4 reception ? (I know 'sad' )

• How does it work in patchy areas, such as across the New Forest A31 ?
• On FM or DAB ?
• Did you upgrade the aerial ?

I got a DAB adapter and rear window stick on aerial - which initially helped DAB reception, a bit, where FM was poor, but has now stopped working (so will be taken out). I have now gone back to Internet radio via Bluetooth (TuneIn and RadioPlayer apps) which is better than FM.

 

[simonog]

Mark: does your internet radio work around the New Forest? I have trouble getting anything working there.

 

[dpeilow]

One of the minor jobs as I mentioned is to put the DAB antenna on the passenger side of the windscreen. Right now it is in the area under the fuse box for storage.

It is one of the active glass mount types with an adhesive copper strap that you are supposed to stick to the car's A pillar under the trim, but on the Roadster there is no metal there to attach to. Reading through Lotus forums it seems that the trick is to run a thin strip of aluminium baking foil and prit-stick or similar glue down the corner of the A pillar to attach to the chassis, then stick the DAB antenna to it. I will attempt that later this week.

However the reception is already better than FM without this, although being digital the results are somewhat binary.

 

[dpeilow]

So I popped the head unit out and plugged my phone directly into the back using its own cable.

The good news is that the head unit is working fine.

The bad news is that the USB extension supplied by Pioneer that Neil so diligently threaded through the dash and down to the phone holder slot isn't up to the job. Arrgh.

Android Auto works fine however, if somewhat slow on the S5. It really pushes the resource utilisation to the limit.

 

[dpeilow]

By the way, does anyone have the red Tesla splash screen from the OEM radio that I can copy to this one?

 

[hcsharp]

By the way, does anyone have the red Tesla splash screen from the OEM radio that I can copy to this one?

How do I copy it off the OEM unit?

 

[dpeilow]

Not sure if it existed as a file anywhere else or there is a similar Tesla logo on red background that can be used. There is the one on the top right of this site but it is on a graduated background that is hard to expand.

 

[Mark77a]

Mark: does your internet radio work around the New Forest? I have trouble getting anything working there.

Yes, 99% - via my phone (O2), but phone only 75% thro there. I use the A31 quite a lot... I'll look out for you

 

[hcsharp]

Not sure if it existed as a file anywhere else or there is a similar Tesla logo on red background that can be used. There is the one on the top right of this site but it is on a graduated background that is hard to expand.

Just take a picture of the front of your car!

 

[Scene]

...and with a bit of experimentation got the reverse activation working too.

Hi David,

I put the Pioneer in several months ago. The installer could not get the reverse camera activation working (although I can select it manually). I think it's probably a voltage level issue. How did you fix it?