I just got another Z1 installed in my 06 Trailblazer SS and when I turn on my headlights the nav wont dim. Could this be becuz I have daytime running lamps? I also dont have any chime. Could anyone help me with this?

For it to dim, you need to find your car's ILL wire. Or at the very least, find a wire which goed to 12v when you turn on the headlights... I suppose if worse comes to worse, you can tap off the positive lead to the tail lights.

As for the chime, I have heard vehicles like yours need some adapter for the chime:
http://www.crutchfield.com/S-h8lPzMQ9Qq ... =120GMOS04

sorry to hijack a thread, but a stupid question. I definitely do not have the ILL wire hooked up on my N3, but if i go under an underpass or through a tunnel, the lcd does dim and gets brighter as I reemerge from the momentary darkness (without my headlights going on). Does the N3 have some sort of sensor for this as well? It's very strange but cool for when I drive through the tunnels into/out of Manattan :)

The N3 has that feature and the Z1 does not. The only way the Z1 will dim is for the ILL wire to be connected and to turn on the headlights.

Thanks DB! You are the AVIC God!

A friend of mine has a Silverado with the Z1, and his installer told him that the ILL wire cannot be hooked up, as the dimmer for the factory headunit ran off of a CAN Bus system, meaning that it is computer controlled. The AVIC I put in my '07 Sport Trac ILL wire did not work either. I overcame it by tapping into the light under the center console where the shifter is at. I tapped into the light that illuminates the PRND12 on the shifter. Comes on when the auto headlamps come on and off when they go off. Works good.

My installer set it up so that I can dim the screen using the dimmer switch for the inside lights of my TBSS. It works kind of. I seems to dm a bit as i turn the knob. However, the thing that is neat is that the screen reverses colors when I dim it all the way down. ie white goes black. So then the screen is mostly black, with the roads being colored lines etc. Kind of looks like a negative image.


Anyone else done this?

The negative image you're talking about is what the avics do normally when the ill wire is hooked up.

Cool! Thanks alot guys. I'll make sure I'll relay this to my installer. I would LOVE to do this myself. But I just have this luck I'll screw it up. And with me just getting the truck (wednesday), I dont wanna mess with those wires. But basically the best way is to hook it up on the taillights?

Tahde said:

But basically the best way is to hook it up on the taillights?

There is probably a wire in your dash, behind the headlight switch or somewhere in the car that would work. You want 12V when the lights are on and 0v when they are off. I figured that worse comes to worse, you can tap off the tail light bulbs. Most poeple know where they are :) But there is a wire in your car behind the dash somewhere which would work, but I don't know where it is. A good installer will either know or know how to find it.

ducatiboy said:

Tahde said:

But basically the best way is to hook it up on the taillights?

There is probably a wire in your dash, behind the headlight switch or somewhere in the car that would work. You want 12V when the lights are on and 0v when they are off. I figured that worse comes to worse, you can tap off the tail light bulbs. Most poeple know where they are :) But there is a wire in your car behind the dash somewhere which would work, but I don't know where it is. A good installer will either know or know how to find it.

Ok, great. May be a dumb question. But I see that you have a couple mods out for this HU. Do you have one for this problem that I have?

ducatiboy said:

Tahde said:

But basically the best way is to hook it up on the taillights?

There is probably a wire in your dash, behind the headlight switch or somewhere in the car that would work. You want 12V when the lights are on and 0v when they are off. I figured that worse comes to worse, you can tap off the tail light bulbs. Most poeple know where they are :) But there is a wire in your car behind the dash somewhere which would work, but I don't know where it is. A good installer will either know or know how to find it.

The only problem is, there are quite a few that won't make the extra effort to run that wire if it's not right behind the radio. I can admit I've done that in the past when I've been pressed for time.

i have an 04 silverado and i had an illumination issue at first too. You can check out the thread here
http://www.avic411.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1964

the illumination wire is behind the headlight switch. its very aeasy to get to and very easy to tap. you can see the pics on my link. i got alot of help from alot of people on this forum so i hope i can help you now. Thats what makes this forum such a great tool. If you have any other question feel free to ask.

silveradojeff said:

i have an 04 silverado and i had an illumination issue at first too. You can check out the thread here
http://www.avic411.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1964

the illumination wire is behind the headlight switch. its very aeasy to get to and very easy to tap. you can see the pics on my link. i got alot of help from alot of people on this forum so i hope i can help you now. Thats what makes this forum such a great tool. If you have any other question feel free to ask.

My goodness! Thanks so much! And again, thanks to all of you for your intel. I want to go outside right now and fix this. But I just dont have the courage. lol. I"m going to have my installer tap into that reverse wire as well. Its kinda funny, but my camera comes on when its in drive. Doesnt come on at all when its in reverse unless I manually do it. So when I talk to him tmw, I can tell him exactly what to do now.

lol i understand wanting to rush out and fix it .. i am in college and i skipped a day just to fix mine .. lol a man has to have his priorities!!

silveradojeff said:

lol i understand wanting to rush out and fix it .. i am in college and i skipped a day just to fix mine .. lol a man has to have his priorities!!

Haha. Right. How long did it take you to make those adjustments for the ILL and the BU camera? Fairly easy for you?

the dash trim just pops right off. you just put your parking brake on, put your shifter into the lowest gear you have, and pull the dash trim off. this takes about 5 seconds. the z1 or stock radio only has 3 screws holding it in and there 7mm heads. to pull the unit out takes about 1 minute. the headlight switch has to be pulled out by pushing in on the tabs on the bottom side of it. This takes about 30 seconds. so now youve been reading this post longer than it would take you to get to the ill wire. lol. its kinda late so i cant remember for certain but i think the ill wire is the bottom left one in that pic of mine. just touch the ill wire from the z1 to the pin and turn your lights on. BTW i had to make an extension for the ill wire. The z1 wire is short, expecting the ill wire to be near the stereo, but thats it i would say if i had to go outside right now and do it. I could do it in about 10 minutes. but i have done it before. i would say for you in less than 30 minutes youd be all set.

silveradojeff said:

the dash trim just pops right off. you just put your parking brake on, put your shifter into the lowest gear you have, and pull the dash trim off. this takes about 5 seconds. the z1 or stock radio only has 3 screws holding it in and there 7mm heads. to pull the unit out takes about 1 minute. the headlight switch has to be pulled out by pushing in on the tabs on the bottom side of it. This takes about 30 seconds. so now youve been reading this post longer than it would take you to get to the ill wire. lol. its kinda late so i cant remember for certain but i think the ill wire is the bottom left one in that pic of mine. just touch the ill wire from the z1 to the pin and turn your lights on. BTW i had to make an extension for the ill wire. The z1 wire is short, expecting the ill wire to be near the stereo, but thats it i would say if i had to go outside right now and do it. I could do it in about 10 minutes. but i have done it before. i would say for you in less than 30 minutes youd be all set.

Ok, cool. I checked out your other thread and have it saved for quick ref. tmw. Since I need some extra wire, I'll wait till tmw to do this. lol. As much as I wanna do it now. I better not bite the bullet on this one. hehehe. I'll let you and the other fellas know what happened. And I'll get some pics as well so others with the Trailblazer SS have something to go off on. Thanks a bunch!

oh and just one more thing. someone pm'ed and said that there is also a reverse wire in the drivers side a pillar. its brown and it goes to the auto dimming mirror if you have one. when you put your truck in reverse it turns that greenish auto dimming off. so thats an option too but i dont have a pic of that .. but that a pillar piece just pops right off too. and it may be easier to get to that than to take off the knee plate.

silveradojeff said:

oh and just one more thing. someone pm'ed and said that there is also a reverse wire in the drivers side a pillar. its brown and it goes to the auto dimming mirror if you have one. when you put your truck in reverse it turns that greenish auto dimming off. so thats an option too but i dont have a pic of that .. but that a pillar piece just pops right off too. and it may be easier to get to that than to take off the knee plate.

Hmmmm. Yeah, I have them. Are you talking about the rearview mirror that goes down in reverse? I think its call the "curb view"?

im not talking about the outside side mirrors i was talking about the inside rear view mirror.

after talking about this now i want to go outside and install the rear view camera... my wife hates this website lol, i think she is jealous.

silveradojeff said:

im not talking about the outside side mirrors i was talking about the inside rear view mirror.

after talking about this now i want to go outside and install the rear view camera... my wife hates this website lol, i think she is jealous.

LOL. Too funny. Your gonna get it now! Yeah, this site gets to me too. Its killing me that I'm not going out there to work on this. I will check in that pillar. Yeah, that should be alot easier to get to.

Just as an fyi the trailblazer dash is completely different than a truck. The drivers underdash must be removed first. Then there's 2 screws by the gauges and another screw by the cig plugs. After that the dash pops out and then some bolts holding the radio in.

cntrylvr79 said:

Just as an fyi the trailblazer dash is completely different than a truck. The drivers underdash must be removed first. Then there's 2 screws by the gauges and another screw by the cig plugs. After that the dash pops out and then some bolts holding the radio in.

Yup, my installer said that. He has one of my others cars up there right now. And when he's done with that he's going to take my truck and hook it up the way that its suppose to be. Once I told him what you said, he totally understood and knew where you were talking about. So I think all will be well.

How did you come out? Did you hook your camera up? I know you said that you wanted to do it the other night. lol

as a matter of fact i did it yesterday. It came out good. ill post some pics soon as i get a chance, i just left the college and now im headed off to the job. no rest for me... but i took pics of where i drilled the hole and how it fit.. it really is pretty un-noticeable. I do think that i may either move it in the future of install a second camera down lower. I wanted the camera just to see right behind the bumber, and it does a great job of that, but now i kinda want to be able to see farther away... but then again, maybe i just want too much.