Avic Z1 and 2003 Chevy Tahoe compatible...?

[ducatiboy]

Yep that's exactly it. Sorry for the confusion. It doesn't matter if they install my circuit at the same time as the head unit, but I say to install the head unit first and get the ILL wire working so I can say that you should make sure to CUT that wire and put my circuit in line.

Someone actually just tied the white and orange of my circuit together and both to the orange ILL wire still connected to the car's wiring. That's wrong. So I try to make sure I say to cut that ILL wire and put my circuit in between.

I do like your drawing. I have one that I did as well on the bottom of the order page:
[url=http://www.avic411.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=166]http://www.avic411.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=166[/url]

Sorry about the confusion. I have trouble putting my thought into words that anyone other than I can understand :)

[avictahoe]

Thanks Ducatiboy...I think you explained it just fine...my head was in fourth grader mode since it's friday, I was at work, and the only thing on my mind was six ice cold bottles of Sierra Nevada! BTW...I did receive the bypass that you shipped to me. Thanks a million! I'm getting everything installed tomorrow morning, so I'll check back in here and give a little report. Thanks for all the help. Have a great weekend.

[avictahoe]

Hi Ducatiboy and Sloppy...I had my unit installed today. Unfortunately, they would not install the bypass for me due to liability reasons. So, since my tahoe does not have an illum/dimmer wire in the factory harness, I asked them to make sure they install the orange w/white tracer illum wire of the z1 to a 12v. They said they did. I came home and installed the bypass, and removed the parking brake wire, but the unit will still not work the dvd when the pb is off. I do not have access to all the functions. I have a feeling that they did not install the illum wire to a correct place. I have been trying to find a 12v wire to tap it into, but can not find one. Do you know which exact wire I can tap into? Can I use the cigarette ligher? The unit works like it is supposed to with a normal install, but not with the bypass. I'm so frustrated right now! Any help would be great. Thanks

[ducatiboy]

[quote name="avictahoe"]Hi Ducatiboy and Sloppy...I had my unit installed today. Unfortunately, they would not install the bypass for me due to liability reasons. So, since my tahoe does not have an illum/dimmer wire in the factory harness, I asked them to make sure they install the orange w/white tracer illum wire of the z1 to a 12v. They said they did. I came home and installed the bypass, and removed the parking brake wire, but the unit will still not work the dvd when the pb is off. I do not have access to all the functions. I have a feeling that they did not install the illum wire to a correct place. I have been trying to find a 12v wire to tap it into, but can not find one. Do you know which exact wire I can tap into? Can I use the cigarette ligher? The unit works like it is supposed to with a normal install, but not with the bypass. I'm so frustrated right now! Any help would be great. Thanks[/quote]

Well, if before you installed this you could turn on your lights to put the unit into night mode and it worked then they hooked up the radio's ILL wire to the right place. Did you cut that wire and put my circuit in between it? The best place to get 12V swithed for the red and Black for ground is the harness behind the radio. Then you are sure of the right connections.

If this Z1 was used without the circuit installed, try "resetting it" with the little hole on the bottom left of the unit. I had one guy who installed the circuit and he needed to press that button to reset it before the "features" took effect.

If my circuit is installed (in line with the ILL wire) and you can turn the lights on and it puts it into night mode then it's installed correctly and it's working. If you are not seeing the features with the Z1 you want, reset the unit. If that doesn't work, then you have it connected to 12V switched which it powering on at a different time than the radio.

The white wire of my circuit doesn't matter for the lockouts. So connecting that to the right wire in your car only matters for putting it into "night mode" and dimming the radio when you turn the lights on.

[elgruen]

avivtahoe - Where did they install your GPS antenna and microphone? Can you post some pics of your install? Especially pics of the GPS antenna and microphone? Thanks.

[avictahoe]

Well, if before you installed this you could turn on your lights to put the unit into night mode and it worked then they hooked up the radio's ILL wire to the right place. Did you cut that wire and put my circuit in between it? The best place to get 12V swithed for the red and Black for ground is the harness behind the radio. Then you are sure of the right connections.

If this Z1 was used without the circuit installed, try "resetting it" with the little hole on the bottom left of the unit. I had one guy who installed the circuit and he needed to press that button to reset it before the "features" took effect.

If my circuit is installed (in line with the ILL wire) and you can turn the lights on and it puts it into night mode then it's installed correctly and it's working. If you are not seeing the features with the Z1 you want, reset the unit. If that doesn't work, then you have it connected to 12V switched which it powering on at a different time than the radio.

The white wire of my circuit doesn't matter for the lockouts. So connecting that to the right wire in your car only matters for putting it into "night mode" and dimming the radio when you turn the lights on.[/quote]

Hi Ducatiboy,
When they installed the z1, they installed as the instructions say to do so, including the parking break wire.I personally asked them to connect the illumination wire(orange/white) so that the z1 would dim.When I picked up my truck, I tested everything out, and the one thing that I noticed was that the deck was not dimming when I covered the light sensor.I also checked in the hardware settings of the z1 to see if illumination was on, but it was off whether I had the lights on or off.When I got home, I tested the dvd and it worked fine, then I released my parking break, and the video portion of the dvd shut off.So I took my dash apart, and installed your bypass on the z1 wiring harness. I tapped the red wire into the red wire, the black wire into the black wire, and the orange wire to the orange of the z1 and the white wire on the other piece of the orange z1 illum wire. Basically I placed the orange and white wire in between the Z1 illum wire after I cut it. I have no clue where they connected the z1 illum wire. But its obviously not working since the deck is not dimming and the settings says it is off. After connecting your bypass, I disconnected the parking brake too. I plugged everything back in, and powered on the Z1. It did its usual boot, and then turned on to the nav screen. I popped in a dvd, and I got the two warning messages. The dvd starts to play, but I only hear sound. I then tried to reset the Z1 per your advice. I reset it twice but to no avail. Any thoughts? Am I doing something wrong here?

[ducatiboy]

After you reset the unit do you have the 2 warning messages?

What were they?

Well, if the unit was installed and they connected the ILL wire to something in your car and it wasn't dimming the screen or changing the nav to night mode, then they didn't hook it to what they should have. If that doesn't work, my circuit won't either.

Here is a test, it's all hooked up but you don't know if you have the ILL wire from the car correct. A good test for my unit is to disconnect the white wire of my circuit from what ever you have it hooked to now. Then boot up the unit. Then take the white wire from my circuit and connect it to 12V when the unit is booted up. Does it dim the unit? If so my circuit is working. If not we have a problem.

When you reset the unit you did so by pressing the little recessed button on the front panel right? You didn't do it through the menu right?

[avictahoe]

[quote name="ducatiboy"]After you reset the unit do you have the 2 warning messages?

What were they?

Well, if the unit was installed and they connected the ILL wire to something in your car and it wasn't dimming the screen or changing the nav to night mode, then they didn't hook it to what they should have. If that doesn't work, my circuit won't either.

Here is a test, it's all hooked up but you don't know if you have the ILL wire from the car correct. A good test for my unit is to disconnect the white wire of my circuit from what ever you have it hooked to now. Then boot up the unit. Then take the white wire from my circuit and connect it to 12V when the unit is booted up. Does it dim the unit? If so my circuit is working. If not we have a problem.

When you reset the unit you did so by pressing the little recessed button on the front panel right? You didn't do it through the menu right?[/quote]

Ducatiboy, yes when it booted it up, I got two warning messages. I can't remember exactly what the first one said, but I hit the ok button. Then a few seconds later, the second message came about the ebrake not being properly installed. I then hit ok. Then when the dvd started playing, it was only audio.

Yes, I used the reset button on the front panel. The very small reset button. I tried it three times with no success.

I honestly don't believe they installed the illum wire to a correct switched 12 volt since the unit is not dimming and the nave is still daytime even at night. I'm planning on pulling everything out and finding where they connected the illum wire. I did notice that they added wire to the z1 illum wire, probably cause where ever they connected it was farther than the z1 illum wire could go. The wire they added to the z1 illum wire was also a bigger gauge wire than the z1 illum wire. Would that make a difference?

How would I do your test to test if the bypass unit is working? Where would I get the 12 volts to test it? Do I need to buy some kind of tester? I've been trying to find a good switched 12v in some whire in the car with a volt tester, but I haven't had any success with that either.

[ducatiboy]

[quote name="avictahoe"]Ducatiboy, yes when it booted it up, I got two warning messages. I can't remember exactly what the first one said, but I hit the ok button. Then a few seconds later, the second message came about the ebrake not being properly installed. I then hit ok. Then when the dvd started playing, it was only audio.

Yes, I used the reset button on the front panel. The very small reset button. I tried it three times with no success.[/quote]

So now you only have 1 warning message and your parking brake message is gone correct?

[quote name="avictahoe"]I honestly don't believe they installed the illum wire to a correct switched 12 volt since the unit is not dimming and the nave is still daytime even at night. I'm planning on pulling everything out and finding where they connected the illum wire. I did notice that they added wire to the z1 illum wire, probably cause where ever they connected it was farther than the z1 illum wire could go. The wire they added to the z1 illum wire was also a bigger gauge wire than the z1 illum wire. Would that make a difference?[/quote]

Nope the gauge of the wire would make no difference with the amount of current that is flowing though it. You only need a thick wire if you are drawing a ton of current and this is just a sense wire. Very very little current. It's just probably the wire they had laying around.

[quote name="avictahoe"]How would I do your test to test if the bypass unit is working? Where would I get the 12 volts to test it? Do I need to buy some kind of tester? I've been trying to find a good switched 12v in some whire in the car with a volt tester, but I haven't had any success with that either.[/quote]

If you are not getting the parking brake warning any more then just get the 12V from the same place you tied the red wire of my circuit to. It is just to test it.

First lets test that the bypass is working (then we can work on where to hook the white wire for dimming at night). First things first the parking brake warning message needs to be gone. If it's still there then either you didn't hold the reset button long enough or the parking brake is grounded all the time (or it's still hooked to the parking brake and it's on). Either one of this will disable the flashing of the lights.

If the parking brake message is gone and you are sure the parking brake wire is not connected to anything, let it boot up. Take the wite wire of my circuit and connect it to the same place you tied the red wire to. It should be the red wire (12V switched) that is coming out of the radio. Tie the white wire to that. It won't dim with the lights, but it should permanantly dim it and put it into night mode if it's working. If this works but it doesn't bypass anything then I'm really stumped, but this will tell if the circuit is booted up and functioning. Could be your 12V switched wire is not the same as the one for your Z1.

[avictahoe]

Hi Ducatiboy,

The parking brake message still continues to come on, then I hit ok button. First I get the disclaimer message then the p brake message.When I try to play a dvd, it goes to the dvd screen, plays the audio, but it has the warning message on the bottom of the screen saying that you cant watch video while in motion or something like that.

Ok, so the gauge of the wire doesn't matter. I guess thats not the problem then. The Z1 never dims, and when I check the hardware settings, illumination is constantly on off. Correct me if I'm wrong, but per your last post, the illum wire on the white end of the bypass doesn't actually have to be connected in order for your bypass to work right? That really only needs to be connected if I want the Z1 to dim with the lights? I believe I have the bypass connected correctly. Double and triple checked. I have the orange end of the bypass connected to the orange/white illum wire of the Z1, the red bypass wire to the red wire on Z1 and the balck ground of the bypass to the black wire of the Z1. If I don't care/need the Z1 to dim, then there's no need to actually connect the white end of the bypass to any 12v, so the connection of the illum wire to somewhere in my truck is not important. Am I getting that wrong?

How long should I hold the reset button down for?? My process was turn the key to accessory, and I let the Z1 boot up. Then I would tap the reset button, and it would restart the Z1. I didn't hold down the reset button or anything, just tapped so that it would re-boot. Is there a certain time length that I should hold the reset button down for?

I know for sure that the parking break wire is not active. I literally cut it to make sure the connection is gone. I also tested that by, putting the parking break down, and trying to watch a dvd. It no longer even lets me do that, which indicates to me that the parking break wire has been disconnected correctly.could the fact that I used the z1 without the bypass and tried to use it with the parking brake off and getting the pbrake message have affected the bypass from working? Sounds to me that if I have the bypass connected correctly, and also have the pbrake disconnected, that a reset should make it work?

[ducatiboy]

[quote name="avictahoe"]Hi Ducatiboy,

The parking brake message still continues to come on, then I hit ok button. When I try to play a dvd, it goes to the dvd screen, plays the audio, but it has the warning message on the bottom of the screen saying that you cant watch video while in motion or something like that.

Ok, so the gauge of the wire doesn't matter. I guess thats not the problem then.

How long should I hold the reset button down for?? My process was turn the key to accessory, and I let the Z1 boot up. Then I would tap the reset button, and it would restart the Z1. I didn't hold down the reset button or anything, just tapped so that it would re-boot. Is there a certain time length that I should hold the reset button down for?

I know for sure that the parking break wire is not active. I literally cut it to make sure the connection is gone. I also tested that by, putting the parking break down, and trying to watch a dvd. It no longer even lets me do that, which indicates to me that the parking break wire has been disconnected.[/quote]

If you are getting the parking brake warning message then yes, that's your problem. I noticed on an install recently this person had the same problem and resetting the unit (while my circuit was still installed) fixed the problem. I didn't notice this with mine and I'm not sure exactly what "resets" the unit to get rid of this. I did it with mine a month or so back, but I thought I just pressed the button on the front.

If you just pressed it momentairily, then try holding it in for a couple seconds then releasing it.

If that doesn't work you can try to reset unit with the button in the settings section of the menu.

If that still has the parking brake message come up then you could try turning off the car, and holding that button in and then powering up the car while holding that button in.

Look in pages 175-179ish of the owners manual for resetting instructions. I thought all you needed to do was press the button on the front. Maybe you need to press it for a couple seconds. If that doesn't work, hit MENU - SETTINGS - RESTORE FACTORY SETTINGS. (page 98 of the manual)

But from another person's problems recently, it seems like you have the same problem. Resetting the unit did the trick, but I didn't know how that person did the resetting. If you try different reset procedures, and that message goes away all should work. If so, let us know what resetting procedure worked for you.

[avictahoe]

Ok, I'll try all those resets when I get home. Thanks Ducatiboy. In regards to my question about the illum wire...so technically it does not need to be connected to my truck unless I want the Z1 to dim with the lights correct? So right now, it is connected somewhere in my truck, but not working, but it shouldn't matter or affect the bypass from working, so long as I have the orange bypass wire to the Z1 orange/white illum wire(white end of bypass doesn't need to be connected at all), black bypass to black Z1 wire, and red bypass to red Z1.

basically I dont need to connect the bypass white wire to the other end of the illum wire(the larger guage that they added, connected somewhere in my truck) unless I want the Z1 to dim. Is that correct?

But since it is connected to the larger gauged illum wire that they added, it still wouldn't effect the bypass from working since it doesn't matter if it is connected or not right? Thanks.

[ducatiboy]

[quote name="avictahoe"]Ok, I'll try all those resets when I get home. Thanks Ducatiboy. In regards to my question about the illum wire...so technically it does not need to be connected to my truck unless I want the Z1 to dim with the lights correct? [/quote]

Correct.

[quote name="avictahoe"]So right now, it is connected somewhere in my truck, but not working, but it shouldn't matter or affect the bypass from working, so long as I have the orange bypass wire to the Z1 orange/white illum wire(white end of bypass doesn't need to be connected at all), black bypass to black Z1 wire, and red bypass to red Z1.[/quote]

Sounds right.

[quote name="avictahoe"]basically I dont need to connect the bypass white wire to the other end of the illum wire(the larger guage that they added, connected somewhere in my truck) unless I want the Z1 to dim. Is that correct?[/quote]

Yep, that's correct.

[quote name="avictahoe"]But since it is connected to the larger gauged illum wire that they added, it still wouldn't effect the bypass from working since it doesn't matter if it is connected or not right? Thanks.[/quote]

Unless they connected it to something that produced 50V or something, it shouldn't matter. If it goes to 12V when the lights are on, it should be fine. But it won't effect the bypass, just the screen dimming when the lights are on.

Please post how it goes, I really want to add this kind of thing as an FYI now that you are the second person who had it wired right and I think resetting the unit will make it work.

[avictahoe]

Hey Ducatiboy,

well I came home, and tried all the reset methods with no success. I decided to remove the bypass connections, and I think I may have found the problem.The wire taps I used didn't break through the wire coating on your bypass. They broke through the wires of the z1 harness because it was a bigger gauge, but not through the bypass harness due to it being a smaller gauge.what is the best, most secure method of tapping the bypass wires into the z1 harness?

[joeynym]

I have a 2003 Chevy Avalanche w/ factory bose system, my installer hooked up the Avic-Z1 w/Ducati circuit, the wireharness Metra VT-GMOS-04 with absolutly no problems. There is a orange wire on the harness that connects to the harness on the car, I wasnt sure if it would work, but they didnt run into any problems, I gave them the lil drawing that ducati made & they didnt call to say hey it didnt work or anything. Now when i drive i can watch dvd's, change routes in navi. only pop-up I get is wheneva I start up the unit I get this navigation warning pop-up, click ok & good to go until I turn off the unit.