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Illumination Wire.....


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Ok guys after a lot of research I found the VSS wire on my Cadillac CTS 04 and tapped into it. I had to remove the speedometer cluster....

 

Well I can't find what wire I can tap in the Illumination wire too.......

I even got a multimeter and found wire with current while headlights were on and when I found one I switched off the headlights to see if the current went away but was unsuccessful in finding a wire to tap in the illuminationwire.... any ideas?

 

Also any idea on the reverse wire?

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The easiest thing to do likely is to tap into a tail light wire. Headlights are tricky as DRL's screw things up, but your tail lights are only on when you turn on your headlight switch, or in a Caddy if your lights come on automatically. So I would try to find one of the tail light wires. You are essentially looking for any wire that has current flowing through it when you want the screen dimmed.

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Ok guys so I finished the install 2 days ago and decided not to connect the Illumination wire or the reverse wire because I was just going to do it later.

 

Well I have the map to Auto when it comes to Night and Day and even though the Illumination wire is not connected my system changes at night to night mode and at day to day mode. Weird huh? Maybe its set by time. So what is the purpose of the illumination wire since mine is dimming automatically without the wire?

 

Also I dont see a need for the reverse wire unless I install a backup camera which I think is too expensive.....

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I'm not sure about a Caddy but I installed a unit in my Silverado which is also GM and if you have an auto-tinting mirror then you should have a reverse signal going to the mirror. I found a wire in the pillar on the driver's side in my Silverado.

 

The illumination wire should be in the original wire harness for the stock head unit. (unless it either didn't have back lit buttons or they were always on)

 

And yes the day/night mode is based on the time. However, the screen dimming is not so if you want your screen to dim at night then you will need it.

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  • 2 months later...

boberto00 what wire are you talking about in the drivers pillar. I'm trying to help my brother install his AVIC D3 in a 2006 Silvarado (no onstar) and can't figure out the Illumination. Mine in my 06 Civic works fine but I can't remember (which I'm sure its different) what I done. He is also going to connect a back up camera to it. Don't it need the reverse wire instead? Thanks!

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The wire in the drivers pillar has +12v only when the truck is in reverse. In my case it was a light green wire I think, be sure to check with a multimeter before making any connections. (This wire is only there if he has an auto-tinting mirror.)

 

I'm not sure how the D3 works with a backup camera but with the F-series, if you put the vehicle in reverse, the screen automatically displays the video from the rear-view camera. If he is not connecting his camera to the D3 then he may not need the reverse wire in the driver's pillar.

 

 

The illumination wire is in the wire harness that plugs into the factory radio which you are of course removing. I'm not sure which one it is but it is usually best to get a harness for after market radios.

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The unit doesn't change night/day by the illumination wire that's all done by a timer, the only thing that is controlled via illumination is the brightness level.

 

So you could just leave the illumination wire alone anyway. Doesn't do much as you can see.

 

It's too bad it took so much effort to figure that out, amazing there is no oem illumination wire to the head unit anyway, I've never heard of that as most oem stereo's will have some sort of lights turn on when you hit the head lights.

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The unit doesn't change night/day by the illumination wire that's all done by a timer, the only thing that is controlled via illumination is the brightness level.

 

 

Seriously??? What are they using as a "timer"?

 

So I decide to drive to Edmonton, Alberta in July and my unit goes to night use at 9:00 p.m. when the sun is still up? Something doesn't sound right here.

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I think with the F-series it is done based on the time ,which it gets from satellites, in whichever region you are in. Not sure why it decided to turn on night mode at 9pm but maybe further south in Alberta it was darker already at that time. If you go far enough north in Alberta in the summer it actually never gets totally dark all night.

Or maybe if it does pick up the info from satellites it was just incorrectly entered info just as some parts of the GPS and or maps are sometimes off a bit.

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I think with the F-series it is done based on the time ,which it gets from satellites, in whichever region you are in. Not sure why it decided to turn on night mode at 9pm but maybe further south in Alberta it was darker already at that time. If you go far enough north in Alberta in the summer it actually never gets totally dark all night.

Or maybe if it does pick up the info from satellites it was just incorrectly entered info just as some parts of the GPS and or maps are sometimes off a bit.

 

It probably gets it from the sunrise and sunset calendars; these are static tables and decide each day when sunrise and sunset are based your geographical location and since this unit knows your GPS location, it can (again, probably) do some mathematical calculations to figure out what the proper times are.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Ok, just been reading here about the illum wire and day/night mode and dimming. My unit doesn't dim.. at all. I have the nav side set to "auto" and it pulls time from sat.. time is accurate on the unit .. but the screen brightness doesn't change when the headlights/dash lighting comes on with the headlights or by any sort of time reference. Any Ideas? I tested the illumination feed when I installed it, and it gets a solid 12+ v when the lights are on.

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.. hmm.. tried that in exactly that order.. didnt seem to work. I'll see about doing it again (when its not so damned cold out :D) .. and see if it takes. Is there a logic file built into the os that allows it to work that way? I really have alot more searching to do here.. lots to know. Thanks for answering the newb question!

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