I got my z1 installed last week into my 06 Mustang, and I love it, but it doesnt go into night mode when I turn on my lights. I called Pioneer and they told me it was a problem with the installation. My installer will do what needs to be done for free, so I was just wondering what I should tell him needs to be done so that it will dim. Thanks

i have the same problem. the installer forgot to hook it up, so i did, but still nothing. do i have to reset? i know that when the headlights are on, roughly 1.3 volts comes through. how many volts is it looking for?

try unpluggin the main wire harness (power, acc, ground. etc.) then pluggin it back in. or hold the reset button down for 30 seconds. and make sure in the map menu, that itz on automatic illumination mode instead of day mode.

tried it; tried it. could it be a defect?
btw, my ill input is 1.3 volts.
any other thoughts?

correction; it cycles between 1.375 volts and .75 volts. is this normal?

Sounds like a dimmer wire not the illumination wire you're looking for. The wire you want will go to 12v when the headlights are turned on.

You don't need to unplug any wires or reset anything. It doesn't matter.

If you want to make sure your Z1 is functioning, take the ILL wire from it and connect it to 12V (through a switch if you like) and when you put 12V on that line, the nav will go into night mode and the screen will dim.

And, I don't think that 1.3v is actually DC, try putting you meter on AC V and see if it registers a voltage... if so, then it's a 12V pulsed signal which is probably at 12V for 10% of the time and 0V for the last 90%. With the car voltage at 12.5ish (or a little higher if the car is on) about 10% of the car's voltage is about 1.3V and your meter is just averaging the measurement.

The Z1 can take a pulsed input like that but I don't think it can handle such a short "on time".

It can also take a 12V with the lights on and 0V with the lights off. I tried to make my circuit work with more of a pulsed signal than the Z1 but I don't remember if it would take a 10% duty cycle, I would have to check the code.

Just find a wire that comes to at least 4-5V when the car's lights is on, I think that's more of a standard ILL wire (or at least it stays at 12V for a longer period of time). Or a wire that is solid 12V when the lights are on. I think that worse comes to worse, the positive terminal on the parking lights would work.

cntrylvr79 said:

Sounds like a dimmer wire not the illumination wire you're looking for. The wire you want will go to 12v when the headlights are turned on.

Yes it does, but the Z1 can work off of a dimmer wire as long as the duty cycle is at least around 40% to 50% 12V, that's what I have mine hooked to in my truck and it works (my "ILL" wire varies between 4V to 8V on a DC meter). But it's a pulsed 12V signal and the Z1 works off of that. But 1.3V is way to small of a duty cycle to turn on the night mode in a Z1 I guess.

Wow didn't know that. I've never had luck hooking aftermarket radios pioneer specifically to the dimmer wires in cars. I guess they changed the setup for the z1.

Soooooooooooo, fellas what should I tell my installer to do for my 06 stang??????? I doubt he's gonna want to fool around with wires all day, it would be great if I could tell him what he did/didnt do in making sure all features are a go. Me, I'm good with engines and stuff, all this electronics talk is like greek to me. So tell me in English if you can.

if your installer doesn't know what to do with it, you should take it to a different shop.
i just bypassed my ILL/DIM wire all together and wired it to a 12V coming off an interior back-light that comes on with the headlights. that combined with some sminntech action and i'm all set to go. this was my 2nd time around after my first one was stolen. thanks ducatiboy/sminntech for the help.

jay0heavenly said:

Soooooooooooo, fellas what should I tell my installer to do for my 06 stang??????? I doubt he's gonna want to fool around with wires all day, it would be great if I could tell him what he did/didnt do in making sure all features are a go. Me, I'm good with engines and stuff, all this electronics talk is like greek to me. So tell me in English if you can.

Unfortunately I don't have a 06 Stang so I can't tell you exactly where to hook this wire, but I agree with bassplay13, a good installer would be able to hunt down a wire.

He needs to find a wire which goes to 12V when the car's lights are on and 0V when they are off.

Depending on the car, this location can change (dpending on the wiring and where lights and switches are).

There is a wire behind every dash which should do this, if I knew exactly where it was, I would tell you. So who ever is working on your car would either know where it is cause they worked on another one like it, or they would have to hunt it down based on what you have.

Worse comes to worse, you can tap off the positive lead of a parking light.

I did a quick search of this forum and found this:
http://www.avic411.com/forum/viewtopic. ... ht=mustang
http://www.avic411.com/forum/viewtopic. ... ht=mustang

And you could also try to contact:
http://www.avic411.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1057
http://www.avic411.com/forum/profile.ph ... file&u=747

thanks ducatiboy, I'll take it in this week and let everybody know how it turns out, as far as what needed to be done.