2000_328ci Posted January 4, 2011 Report Share Posted January 4, 2011 Hello all and please forgive the ignorance. I searched around but with the massive amount of information, it was hard to get answers to the below. Before firing away, let me just explain the intentions as that will put this all into perspective : First and foremost, my 99 Range Rover came with a phenomenal system but did not include the factory navigation. That prompted the initial hunt for what has now become a potential large project. As a "hater" of aftermarket navigation systems just being thrown on a dash, my goal was to make the finished product look as close to factory as possible. The more like this, the better My car came like this with a cubby box instead Initially, I thought a double din would be my best bet. Problem is, the area where the OEM nav sits isn't even close to deep enough for anything with the depth of a standard head unit. It needs to be no more than a couple inches deep. So I looked around and found a bunch of individuals who had done carputers with thin screens which worked just fine... like so Looks nice and factory so let's try and imitate that. But a carputer is wayyyyy too invovled. So I thought, what about installing a navigation like TomTom. That lead me down a path of looking at Navigation units with back up cameras (4UCam : http://4ucam.com/ ) which ultimately lead me here. OK, so with that said, here are the problems. 1. The factory head unit in the range rover is rather complex. People often b*tch and moan about the integration of aftermarket units because there are some peculiarities with the wiring and amp. If you're technical, this will help elaborate: http://www.rangerovers.net/rrupgrades/entertainment/headunitadapt.html 2. As a result of 1, I'm interested in just adding navigation, a back up camera, bluetooth for phone, and an AV source independent of the head unit. That seems like the easiest way to go about with the project. My thought is that, with the AV input, I could just hook up an apple composite out cable and hook up either my iphone4 or 160 gig ipod to the cable and could display movies on the screen. For sound, I would simply use the cassete deck found in the head unit and one of those tape to 3.5mm headphone jack adaptors for $1 off ebay. Would then get the image on the screen and the sound through the car stereo. 3. If I did the above, I could use 4UCam's setup no problem but it runs about 400 bucks or so for their units. It also would require, should I want to listen to my ipod through the car stereo, that I buy a seperate adaptor that plugs into the cd changer in the trunk... that costs around 150 bucks and can be seen here : http://www.incaripod.com/Vehicle/Range_Rover/ICD_Direct_Control_iPod_Interface In other words, to get ipod music, ipod video, bluetooth, gps, av in (for watching movies), I would buy a 4ucam (400) and a cable (150)... that's a pretty penny. However, it would have a lot of functionality. Then I was told about AVIC and the 5000s in particular. It's thin enough that I could install it where the cubby hole currently sits and offers a lot of very nice functionality. However, I'm not sure if it's best for "my situation". Onto the questions. 1. How hard is the initial installation of the included Amp? I read it requires professional installation and splicing wires. I don't really feel qualified for that and the parrot adaptors I keep hearing about... well they don't make one for Land/Range Rovers. Yikes. 2. If I was able to get the amp hooked up properly with the head unit, how does the ipod functionality work? Would I be able to select ipod under AV sources and then have it play music through the car stereo? Can I play music and vids? What about additional iphone aps like netflix? Could I display them up? How about the entire iphone via TVMirrorOut programs? 3. For power, is it realistic to think that I could hardwire the unit to the car with no major issues? My goal is that I would flush mount it on the dash like seen above and not really ever mess with it again. I would lose some functionality (SD card, unplugging the unit and taking it with me on the road elsewhere, etc) but I don't really care. If I can have a nice in car unit for this car, I'm happy with it exclusively sitting like that. 4. Could I wire the unit to the parking brake so that movie watching and all that good stuff would work? Looking around, the answer seems to be a loud and clear yes, but I just want to double check 5. For wiring, I have heard that the avic amp thing can plug into a stereo head unit via rca... given that, I guess I could use this : http://www.incaripod.com/Vehicle/Range_Rover/Range_Rover_Auxiliary_Audio_Input_Interface Please let me know what you guys think. I'm sure I will come up with quesitons, but that should be fine for now. This is the other option... not as sexy but I wouldn't be tying anythign into the head unit which would be easier (though I would need to spend another 150 to buy a cable to hook up ipod to head unit) Quote Link to post Share on other sites
2000_328ci Posted January 4, 2011 Author Report Share Posted January 4, 2011 Question... so to build upon the above... So here's what I'm thinking... So the Pioneer unit has a headphone out jack http://images.sonicelectronix.com/images/103680/big/avicf500bt.jpg So, I could simply run a 3.5mm headphone jack to RCA cables like these http://www.kc-kwan.com/online/pics/o_pc_audio_rca_cable_01.jpg Into a box sold by ICD. This box taps into the existing CD Changer and allows for an aux input in place of your cd changer. It looks like such http://www.incaripod.com/images/res/2007_11_21_03_17_31_AUX_EG_600_433.jpg We could plug the RCA cables into that box and it would then feed audio from the Pioneer unit into the stock stereo without any modification to the head unit/amp setup/etc That conenction would then feed audio for music or movies from an ipod which would be plugged into the pioneer via this http://www.extremeaudio.de/images/cd_iu200vm.jpg Select ipod on the AVIC, then set my car's radio on "cd changer", and I could play ipod through the car's speakers without having to cut into or modify the existing head unit/speaker set up... The question is, for the navigation and bluetooth phone, how would that then work? I assume there is an internal speaker built into the AVIC and, if possible, I could have that speaker used for bluetooth and gps navi and then use the headphone out for ipod and other add ons. That seems like it would be totalllll win as I woudlnt' have to modify anything and, could have - gps - sexy screen interface - bluetooth - ipod/video input for movies - back up camera If the sound for navi and bluetooth phone would come out the pioneer unit, this seems like total win. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
PhilGood Posted January 4, 2011 Report Share Posted January 4, 2011 I just installed F500 to my Volvo XC60 using AUX input to the head unit. It should be similar to what you intended to do. All sounds go to the AUX channel of the head unit, F500 handles all the muting between different application nicely. Here're things I came across and may help you: 1. I don't use the "always on" 12V connection. After some research, I believe this is for MSN traffic only and don't affect other functions. 2. I tapped the parking brake wire to a grounded point to activated the speed bypass. 3. I don't use the backup camera but connections is straight forward. 4. I use firmware 2.06 instead of 3.0 because it's more "stable" as I went through lots of threads here. 5. I'm running the latest iGo (8.3.2.90139) and 2010Q4 maps and everything works great. 6. I'm not using BT because my car comes with BT preped. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
2000_328ci Posted January 4, 2011 Author Report Share Posted January 4, 2011 Wow, thank you so much for the reply To follow on a couple: - For updating to 2.06, can you provide a very basic idea how this is done. Link saying "here idiot" would be fine - Is installing 8.3 hard? I have a dynavin in the bmw with igo primo and igo 8.3... I'm somewhat computer savvy but another "here stupid" would be great - Bluetooth and back up is a must for me... dont' have bluetooth in car already and it's a huge a$$ truck and I"m used to small sporty cars:) Lastly, iPhone4 should work fine with this right? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
PhilGood Posted January 5, 2011 Report Share Posted January 5, 2011 1. 2.006 firmware can be found in Pioneer site: here 2. Installing 8.3 is very simple, just get the FX3.1 image (Check the last couple pages for download link in this topic), unzip it and copy the APL2 folder, please remember to keep your original license file. The thread is long but take your time and read through it. Not sure about iPhone 4 support, other people may want to chip in. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
2000_328ci Posted January 5, 2011 Author Report Share Posted January 5, 2011 1. 2.006 firmware can be found in Pioneer site: here 2. Installing 8.3 is very simple, just get the FX3.1 image (Check the last couple pages for download link in this topic), unzip it and copy the APL2 folder, please remember to keep your original license file. The thread is long but take your time and read through it. Not sure about iPhone 4 support, other people may want to chip in. Thank you so much!!! Well, I went ahead and pulled the trigger on the unit. Now I have to figure out the above and then decide the best way to have it mounted in the dash. I may just end up going to an audio shop and have them build an enclosure that closely resembles the factory dash. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
PhilGood Posted January 7, 2011 Report Share Posted January 7, 2011 Here's my Pioneer AVIC F500BT in Volvo XC60: Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.