Woohoo! I finally got my Z2 (soon to be upgraded to Z3) today! I also got the bluetooth adapter, ipod interface, XM and sirius.... I hadn't quite realized how many seperate hardware units there would be to install, haha. I have no idea where I am going to find room for all this stuff! Maybe I will get rid of my passenger seat.

It will be a couple of weeks at least before I can get the unit installed in my car (having to convert the dash from 1din to 2din). Does anyone know if it is possible to power this guy up and try it out before installing it? I know obviously there is because they do it for display units at A/V shops, but is it as simple as hooking up 12v power to the power wires, or will I get all kinds of errors because the other wires aren't connected to anything?

Thoughts?

12V+ to the red and yellow, 12V- to the black, and it will boot up.

Do the # of amps matter? I have a 12VDC x 500mA adapter i could use.

Hmm no luck with that adapter... The unit tried to power up but couldnt. sounded like it wasnt getting enough juice (fan noise was pulsating and front button flashed occasionally). I wonder if it does need more amperage than that.

Definately not enough. That would only give it 1/2 amp. I can't find the specs off hand, but I am sure it will require a couple of amps. It has to power the display and power up the HDD.

ok. I will see if I can find some kind of 12v AC adapter that has a few amps. I found that the max amperage consumption is 10amps, but no minimum listed.

Thanks Garret!

You'll probably need a pretty beefy PSU. I used to use an old mainframe PSU, but since that fried, I now use a portable jumpstarter.

My guess is it'll need at least 3A.

A lot of people use a computer power supply because they've got beefy 12V outputs. If you short the correct pins (see ATX PSU spec via Google), the PSU will power up.

I actually got it to power up w/ 12v 2amps, using an old LG AC adapter from an external dvd burner. now I am just trying to do the bypass so I can actually try the whole thing out. Most of the buttons are greyed out still.

During my install, to test GPS wire runs (before i started closing things up) I ran a length of 2-conductor wire from my battery to the AVIC.

Red & Yellow to +12v

Black + Green parking break wire to Ground.

Good to go!

-Matt