Dend said:
Next topic, the placement of the antenna/s is crucial to the overall performance of your new navigation or satalite radio. the suggested places are on the front of the vehicle at the top of the windshield, or at the rear of the vehicle at the top of the rear window, or if on a car with a trunk you can place them on the trunk lid.
Yes, that is the recommendation from Pioneer. It's also a very good idea.
Dend said:
If you place the antenna on your hood, dash or anywhere inside the vehicle you could lose reception when you turn. This is because your vehicle now blocks the line of site to the satilites and you cannot recieve a signal.
Speaking for someone who installed thier antenna UNDER the dash inside my Lincoln Aviator, I would say you won't have a problem putting it almost anywhere. True, you will get better reception on the roof. But if you are going to put a camper over it, that won't be very good to have it under the camper on the roof. And in the dash might not work if the metal camper will extened foward of the top of the windshield. You might get away with it on your dash as far forward as possible, but you would have to see how far the camper extends. Or just try it, you can just throw it on your dash and then put the camper on, I'll bet it would work better than you think.
As for putting it on the hood, I would think you would be fine too. The big part of the problem with the antenna, you want it to "stick" (with the built in magnet) to something metal. You will get worse reception by using tape and sticking it to plastic. But if you stuck it on your hood, other than the automatic car wash hitting it when you go though the car wash, I think your GPS reception would be fine.
Dend said:
As far as the Pbrake wire goes you just hook it to a good ground.
Oh NO, you do NOT want to do that. Either connect it normally (find your parking brake, either foot or hand switch) and up by the hinge or pivot point you will find a switch with a wire going to it, if it's one wire just tap off it. Or just don't connect it at all. If you plan on flashing your headlights, DO NOT connect the parking brake wire to anything. If you plan on flashing your lights or installing a circuit to do it for you, you can hook the pbrake sense wire to a toggle switch and then that to ground.
Dend said:
Make sure that your Illumination wire is connected to the AVIC-Z1.
Yes you will want to do this.
Dend said:
Then to watch the DVD or access your Navi Features just cycle your parking light as follows, on, off, on, off, on do this before the AVIC-Z1 stops displaying the black screen at start up.
Actually the official procedure is (and you have 2 choices as to what to do):
1.
Turn on the car,
Wait till you see "Starting Pioneer Navigation" test screen
Turn on the headlights (or just the parking lights)
Leave them on for a couple seconds (2 or 3)
Turn the lights off.
OR
2.
Turn on the car,
IMMEDIATELY turn on your lights (parking or head)
Wait till you see "Starting Pioneer Navigation" test screen
Turn your lights off.
Leave them off for a couple seconds.
You need to have your ILLUMINATION wire change (by a change in the state of your headlights) when you see the text screen "Starting Pioneer Navigation". Anything else is just extra movements of your hands and is not necessary.
But for this to work, you can not have your parking brake grounded (either all the time or by engaging the parking brake when the sense wire is connected correctly).
Dend said:
Then you can access all the features on your HU. Oh and dont forget to turn your parking lights off after the unit has fully loaded.
Hope this helped and enjoy your new Pioneer Indash.
Or you can get one of my circuits
www.sminntech.com and not have to flash your lights manually.