dipkat

Should work. Definitely beats having a Apple A/V cable with 12v to 5v converter ($50 + $30). Make sure it says that it is an Apple certified cable. The A/V composite cable has a authentication chip inside and guarantees compatibility with future iPod/iPhone firmware upgrades.

dipkat

Just the other day, I was informed by Autotoys tech support that there are two different harnesses and that they had sent me the one that wires at the Nav-DVD unit in the trunk. I was all set to use this harness to wire at the radio and not a moment too soon after their earlier goof-up here's another blunder. Well, the information came just in time and this would have been yet another problem because the pins are reversed at the 2 ends of the navi harness between the Radio and the Nav-DVD unit in the trunk.

So they overnighted the harness that wires at the radio (for free) based on my request and also offered me a $50 partial credit on my original purchase.

So for those who have already purchased this or are planning to do so, please inspect and make sure that you have the right parts before you open up the dash/trunk. I have visually compared and inspected the two harnesses and I cannot observe any obvious difference between the two.

Here's the updated information from the product page on their website.

"There is 2 WIRE HARNESSES that can come with this kit. You can (1) WIRE IT AT THE RADIO LOCATION which will give you AUDIO IN or you can (2) WIRE IT AT THE REAR DVD NAV location to make things easier, you also need to power it here. Please select which harness you want when ordering as it is DIFFERENT."

When wired at the Nav-DVD unit in the trunk, USB charging and Audio-in are disabled. This works only at the radio.

I rationalized with the tech support that The XM sat tuner sits adjacent to the Nav-DVD unit in the trunk and if one can also interface the audio at the XM sat tuner as it has the same 14-pin connector. This would be much easier than removing the radio unit to make the connections. The answer was negative.

Well, here's some additional information if anybody is interested in installing it at the Nav-DVD unit in the trunk.

I someone would DIY this before my appointment with the installation shop so that I do not throw another set of benji's down the gutter.

mssidah

So how is everything going for you ? did you do it?

dipkat

I am currently at my installation shop and it is a repeat of the same problem from earlier. The 20-pin harness that they sent which hooks behind the radio does not fit at the radio. It has slightly different dimensions. So I got f****d again going on a wild goose chase.

As a backup, I had the harness that hooks at the navi-DVD in the trunk which plugs in right. However, there are complications. The Autotoys unit does not have a 12V power lead. If you look at the installation diagram, the power is supplied to the unit by the audio harness. So, my installer plugged in 'Y' harness for the audio and tapped into the pin that gets the 12V. The power was supplied by the power wire from the OEM harness that powers the navi-DVD unit. Yes we had to splice the OEM harness to get the power. At this point in time I had no other option.

This seems to work.

The audio interface is a PXAMG connected at the radio. I did not want to disturb this.

This setup seems to be working. The car is still open and I will update more later.

dipkat

I could have tried plugging the audio 'Y' harness into the XM sat tuner at the trunk, but could not afford more R&D.

dipkat

After all the painful research, the unit now works --> using it for video interface only.

Will try to post a video online tonight if I can.

mssidah

if i may ask, why are you only using the unit for video only ?

dipkat

Well, didnt have the time to experiment with audio. We opened up the front dash to get at the back panel to find out that the new 20-pin connecter does not physically fit. (yet again), so we went with the harness that fits at the back. I didn't learn from my previous mistake, that I should'nt trust these SOB's.

Long story short ... the product description said that when the harness for the navi-DVD is used, audio is disabled. I decided not to waste time researching the unsupported audio function. My radio was already hooked up for PXAMG and I reached a boiling point when I just had to finish the video part and put the car back together.

This has been a very painful experience dealing with Autotoys.com with them sending the wrong cables and not enough installation instructions. Also, I am spending $85/hr with my installation shop (really steep) and this had turned into a 'Moby-Dick' situation.

Anyways, the video interface works. The remote works. Here's a summary:-

1. Brightness, Contrast, Tint, Color, work as advertised
2. Day and Night mode's work. Night mode drops the brightness by 2 levels.
3. Save setting - saves the current setting
4. Restore setting - clears the memory and restores the factory setting -(Color, etc ...)
5. View Cam - Overrides the video input and displays the backup cam in park as well as forward motion
6. A/V input - switches to the video 1 source
7. Off - restores the factory navi video display.
8. All the other buttons on the remote do nothing in this particular setup.

Unfortunately, I haven't found the time to take a video. I hope to get to it tonight.

jhal

I've been having issues with these SOB's at autotoy.com also. Over a week ago they said they were mailing a new harness to me so that I could install the unit at the radio and maintain audio (since come to find out, they also sent me the wrong harness). Eleven days later and still no harness, so needless to say, I am very frustrated with autotoys.

I wanted to install it a few weeks ago, but because of the slow response time from autotoys and the lack of needed details from them, I have not yet installed the unit. I hope to get the harness soon, but knowing them, they probably haven't even shipped it when they said they did. And even if they have, it probably won't fit just like yours did not fit. I may end up doing what you did and just install it back at the Navi unit.

If, by some miracle, I get the correct harness from autotoys, and install it at the headunit, I will give an update and let everyone know if it works with audio. (Glad to hear it does work at the Navi Unit.)

dipkat

If you have the 20-pin harness that goes at the navi-DVD .. I would recommend trying the following easy, plug and play op.

The 20-pin 'Y' harness connected to Navi-DVD and the 14-pin 'Y' harness connected to the XM sat tuner next to the Navi-DVD unit. Give it a test. All connections should be easy.

I personally think this should work. I am sure, these SOB's do not know themselves about the installation. They are probably reliant on someone at the manufacturing plant in China who doesn't know any better.

In retrospect, it is not worth opening the head unit.

I have incurred $350 in extra labor charges due to these SOB's sending me on a wild goose hunt.

mssidah

The whole point of getting this unit is that I can watch video listen to audio and charge at the same time . if I can’t do that by plugging this unit in the back then it’s useless to me. There must be a way to get the right connecter from them or even the manufacturer, or even ghetto make my own . if we can get a Navi harness from Acura that fit there and just cut the cables and attach them together. Just like the old days when they didn’t make a harness that fit your aftermarket stereo and you had make your own.

Some questions on my mind

how hard is it to do your self ? i mean if the cable will just fit right do ? do i need to worry about anything when i do it myself ?

why is it so hard to talk to those guys at auto toys ? do they have a phone number, talking to someone can be better than emails some times ?

who manufacture the unit ? can we find a web site for them?

dipkat

That was the whole intention. However, I gave it my best try. I couldn't afford to purse this project anymore given the big financial loss I incurred and frustration of dealing with these SOB's.
I have learned so much on this forum, I felt compelled to give something back and kept pursuing this mod.

Lack of clear installation instructions, repeatedly sending the wrong harness, pathetic customer service (no direct phone line) , unknown/untried product manufacturer/quality and the cost of labor finally broke the camels back.

dipkat

The end of the harness that fits into the unit is specific to the Autotoys unit. You might want to use the installation diagram to use the Autotoys harness and figure out which wire goes to which pin at the navi.

No information on the manufacturer. The installation diagram mentions one Venture Technologies.

mssidah

I wish if I was home now, then I can be trying to play with it. Anyway I will be home from Iraq by the end of the month, I’m not going to give up.

Step one, I started Email traffic today regarding the unit with Auto Toys even that I never seen the box or what’s in it, I might even have the correct harness. However, I told them that I got the unit and the harness don’t fit.
Here is my Email I wrote “The 20-pin harness that you sent with the unit, which hooks behind the radio does not fit at the radio. It has slightly different dimensions. I ordered the WIRE IT AT THE RADIO LOCATION which will give you AUDIO IN . my installer spent 3 hours trying to make this work, and he discovered that the wrong cable was sent with the unit and it don't fit my in the back of the factory radio . its far away from a plug and play system as you advertise it .
please resend the correct cable for my car (2008 Acura TL Type -S ), my installer will try again ones i receive the correct cable. I will have to pay another $200 for installation so please make sure I get the correct cables this time .
Should you have a better installation guide other than what came with the unit, please provide that to me as well “.

Step two, I will take the car apart before I take it to insulation shop and I will try the harness to see if it fit. I guess I have to make sure everything is off and so I don’t burn anything. But again if everything fit why should I even take it to the shop ? I don’t know looking at the diagram that was posted last week it make this installation very simple. I guess I have to see for myself.


I will keep you guys updated

dipkat

My iPhne 3GS Audio & Video integration

I was not able to get any videos/pics of the install itself but here's the video of the unit in operation.

Just reminding once again - I only have the video interface with the unit, while PXAMG is the audio interface.

jhal

Thanks for the video! After seeing this I’m even more excited to install it in my RL. I’m still waiting on the harness from autotoys so who knows when the install will actually happen.

I did check my connections in the trunk to see if the connections would work. The 20-pin connector to the Nav DVD player did fit. However, the 14-pin connector did not fit to the XM unit. (Not sure if it’s different in my RL as compared to the TL.) I didn’t actually get the interface up and running from here as I wanted to wait for the other harness to compare the differences of the wiring.

Anyways, thanks again for all your insight on the set up!

mssidah

you know i Emailed those SOB's twice now and i have no answer yet

mssidah

looking real good man, congrats . i cant wait to get mine working as well .

please don't get me wrong but i really don't like the IR reviser location, you try to hide it somewhere in the driver side area.

and i have a question for you, how do you have the audio connected since you have the unit in the trunk then there is no aduio right ?

Thanks

dipkat

I don't trust them to even know what the correct interface / connector is. I have mailed them pics of the back of my radio and the 20-pin connector that did'nt fir, and have demanded them for a full refund. Let's see what happens. Just trying to subsidize the cost of my botched install

dipkat

The IR receiver wire length wasn't long enough to get it into the driver's side cabin area. Although, I do agree, it is bit of an eye sore on the dash, but it gives me the best line of sight with right-handed control. Now only if the unit could be installed at the radio, the wire length would have been a non-issue.

The PXAMG is installed at the radio, and the navi-video interface in the trunk. The L+R audio from the iPhone connects to the PXAMG AUX-IN at the radio. The video from the iPhone is routed to the back of the TL in the trunk and hooked up to the Auto-Toys unit at VIDEO 1 IN. The Audio inputs on the Auto-toys unit are unused.

jhal

I have good news and I have bad news. I’ll give the bad news first. I finally received the new video harness from autotoys, but it did NOT fit behind the headunit (no surprise). The good news is that I did get it installed on my 2005 RL with BOTH audio and video although it was a PITA.

What I had to do to make it work was place the Nav to Video unit in the trunk by the Nav DVD player. From here, I was able to plug in the 20-pin directly to the DVD player. For the audio, I had to splice the Audio Harness, so that the 14-pin connector was placed behind the radio (since this audio harness only fit behind the radio and not in the trunk), but the wires connecting it to the unit were extended to go the length of the car back to the Nav to Video unit.

The install took longer than I had expected since I couldn’t just plug everything in at the headunit, but at least it’s done. The IR eye and remote work as advertised and as shown in the video by dipkat with the addition of the ‘audio only’ button functioning.

I was hoping to have Nav to Video unit up where I could make adjustments directly to it while driving (i.e. change my video/audio sources – iPhone to iPod to dvd player - since the video/audio RCA connection on the unit only allows for one source), but I can accomplish the same thing by just putting in an RCA switch to change sources. I still need to install this and run my RCA cables from the trunk to front seat area.


A few other notes from the install:

- Although the harness I received to install at the head unit didn’t fit, I was able to compare this to the harness to go in the trunk and verify the differences. There were a few wires that were swapped. If anyone has questions on these so that they can complete their install, let me know.

-When playing audio (with or without video), the audio display on the Navigation screen or the upper (mini) display does not change. So, for example, if you were listening to Radio FM 102.7 before changing to audio only, this (FM 102.7) will remain on the displays although you are now listening to audio through your iPod/external audio source. Of course if you are listening to the audio of your video source while watching the video, this will not show on the Navigation screen, but only on the upper display.

-XM radio functionality is not lost with the audio connection.


When I am able to complete running the RCA cables to the front and install an RCA connection switch to switch sources, I will give a further update. I’ll also post some pictures at that point. I also need to purchase a ProClip to finalize everything so that it looks clean. (Speaking of ProClip, does anyone happen to have a valid discount code to use on the ProClip website? I have found some olds codes for 10% off, but they are no longer valid.)

Anyways, I thought I’d pass on the results of my weekend install.

dipkat

Awesome job bud. Congrats ! Thanks for sticking to the task. I really wanted to see someone go at it. Now I have more ammunition to go at these SOB's for a refund for my money. Did you discover any additional features on the remote with the audio enabled?

dipkat

How is the audio quality through this unit? Any pops while switching? Any other interference / distortion of any sort? How is the line level output level of the signal coming from the unit going into the radio?

mssidah

can you post PIC of the installation please

jhal

Thanks! Your notes definitely helped my strategize my install when running into problems!

For the remote features, other than the 'audio only' button also working, I didn't notice any additional features with the audio enabled. I'll play around with it a little more and let you know if I do find anything additional.

jhal

The audio quality seems pretty good. No pops that I've noticed yet while switching. No other interference / distortion that I've noticed yet. I'll probably be able to judge this better once I have the correct cable for my iPod/iPhone to connect to the unit via the botton plug on my iPod/iPhone. (I've currently just been using the headphone jack.) I just ordered this so hopefully I'll get it by the weekend and be able to give a better picture of the sound quality.

jhal

I'll try to get some pics up later this week or over the weekend.

mssidah

Thanks COZ i will be doing to installation by self and i dont wanna burn anything lol.

dipkat

This is what Autotoys emailed me a few minutes ago ...

"The only way the unit will wire according to the manufacturer is at the back of the car. They do not have the right harnesses made yet. It will not give you ipod. You can do this or if you wish you may return the product. Let us know"

A******s
Mo****F*****s !

jhal

I agree!!! Although I got mine installed with some wire splicing, I let them know the harness they sent doesn't fit. I have yet to hear back from them.

jhal

I have some pics that should help with your install. I plan on doing a more thorough write up with instructions, but here are the basics of how I got mine to work.

First, you'll want to look at the harness they sent you to determine if it should be installed behind the head unit (although it won't fit) or in the trunk by the Nav DVD player. This picture should point out the differences so if you have the wrong one to install in the trunk, you can splice and swap some wires to make it work.




Next, to get the video harness in the trunk (where the interface is also located), but have the audio harness behind the head unit, you will need to splice the wires right before the connector that plugs into the AUDIO interface in the trunk. (Do not splice the actual Y-cable of the AUDIO harness and DO NOT splice any part of the VIDEO harness)

To do this I bought a 100 foot roll of 22-gauge speaker wire from Radio Shack for about 10 bucks. The wire is in a strand of two wires. You'll need to cut lengths of this wire to run the length of your car. (For me I cut these in 14 foot lengths since I ran the wire under the side doors jams the length of the car and pulled into the trunk.) You'll need to cut enough of these lengths so that you can reconnect all the wires from the pieces of the harness you cut. One other thing you'll want to do while making these cutting these lengths is label each end so that you can be sure you connect the correct wires. I used masking tape and labeled using "1", "2", etc at each end. This will actually help after you have run the wires from the head unit to the trunk.




Next, and before you connect the wires to the cut harness, you'll want to run the wires from the head unit to the trunk. I'm not sure how similar my RL is to the TL, but I just removed some of the lower door trim and ran the wire under the carpet. In some tight spots and so I didn't have to take out the back seat, I used a snake (steel fish tape) to pull the wire through. (You'll probably also want to run the wire for the IR eye at the same time. And you'll want to run some RCA cables this same way to extend the input into the interface. I ended up running these through the center armrest, under the carpet, and under the backseat to the trunk since I was more concerned about the lengths of these.)



Once you have the wire run, and after you have connected the audio Y-harness to the back of the head unit, you can now re-wire the Audio harness with the extension you created. Just make sure that you use your labels to correctly match up the wires.



With the audio harness extended and plugged into the interface in the trunk, you'll now want to complete the other connections (i.e. video harness, IR wired eye, and RCA cables from video source) and you should now be set.

Anyways, hope this helps. If you have any questions, let me know.

mssidah

Thank you for taking the time to post, i guess its just better if i take to someone to install

Cort4Life

Hey guys! This is my first post to this forum. Sorry to hop in on your conversation. I am so interested in getting my iphone 3gs to play video and audio through my 04 Acura TSX w/ navi. DIPKAT, I checked out your video and love the set up you have. I want to get started on this right away but your latest experiences with autotoys kinda discourages me. Any words of advice on how I should tackle this thing? Thanks

dipkat

jhal - awesome instructions. I am glad it worked out.

Cort4life - It should work for your TSX. Make sure you have the right harness. In my opinion, if you are not a DIY person, this mod is not for you. Too much pain. Get a installer to do it for you.

BTW ... I have opened up a dispute through Paypal with Autotoys.com ... lets see what happens. I have complained about them sending me the wrong/incomplete product.

mssidah

thats Sucks they don't even wanna reply to my Emails, the Mother*&$%#. anyways, i might have to get with your installer since he done it before and kind of know how mess with this thing . how far are you from Albany NY ?

dipkat

My installer is Sound Automotive - I have used them before for installs on my wife's Honda pilot -

2007 Honda Pilot LX, Black with Saddle interior & Honda OEM Chrome side steps
Pioneer Avic-D3 In-dash Navigation with CD-BTB200 Bluetooth wireless adapter & CD-I200 IPod Direct Control cable
Boyo VTL405 rear view camera
Infinity Reference 6010cs Component speakers (front) & 6012i 2-way co-axial speakers (rear)
Code Alarm CA680 Security & Remote start system with 2-way pager remote
Xpresskit XK05 Programmable Transponder Override Interface - key less bypass module for remote start
Llumar Axcess (signal interference free) 15% window tints
Superbright LEDs


Here's Sound Auto's myspace profile ...
http://www.myspace.com/soundautomotive

They have a website, but it is currently under offline ...
This is a professional install shop, not Joe Somebody's garage.
Sound Auto is a recommended vendor by local Princeton dealerships - Porsche, BMS, Lexus, Mercedes, Acura, etc ...

Contact/IM him for more details :-

Sound Auto
1102 Sylvan Ave
Hamilton NJ 08610

Phone number: 609-587-5555

I am providing a plug for this guy because they are genuine and know their shit. Great guy's to work with.

mssidah

Thanks, how much did he charge you ?

mssidah

ok so Auto Toys finally replied to me after 3 weeks now, below are thier respond. what should i do ?

We have heard back from the manufacturer, there is no harnes that will work in your TL at the moment. You may return it for a refund or you can wire it at the REAR DVD which you have the harness for already. If needed, we can send you a free AUX adapter to wire in the sound. Let us know

Should i get a refund and get a different one like NAV4all, or should i have them send me the AUX adapter to wire my sound ?

dipkat

Sound Auto charges $85/hr flat for labor. Because of the R&D involved during my install he burned up 4 hrs totaling to $340 in labor (also includes installation of the backup cam).
This was for the second time around. Additional $100 for installation of the PXAMG.
Parts additional. Thoroughly professional job and they warranty their labor.

If you follow either JHAL's or my install, you are looking at about 5 hrs labor IMO.

The choice is really yours. If I had to do it all over again, I would have gone a different way all together -
NavVideo video interface + PXAMG installed at the Nav-DVD and SAT tuner in the trunk. Tried and tested, hassle free installation.

mssidah

i should ask Auto toys for the manufacturer contact information, i dont think they will give it to me but i will give it a try . it must be a way to get this thing installed by the radio it must be