Hi all,

 

Over the weekend all devices connected to my IP-Bus all of a sudden stopped working.

 

Little bit of history:

 

1) Couple of months ago my 12-disk changer would be seen by my D3 but no matter how many disks were in it it would always say zero disks. This happened 90% of the time. I have read that the changers shoot craps after about a year so I chalked it up to being a POS.

 

2) Couple weeks ago my cell phone would intermittently stop connecting to my Bluetooth unit. My phone's battery was super old so I figured maybe the phone was dropping the connection due to excessively low battery juice. It "seemed" to stop doing this so I figured problem solved. Maybe not.

 

3) Last weekend the phone would not connect at all and when I looked at the D3's screen the 12-disk changer icon, the Bluetooth phone icon and the Bluetooth audio icon were all dimmed and unavailable.

 

The IP-Bus goes from the D3 to the BT module and then goes to the 12-Disk changer.

 

I installed everything myself so I am pretty confident in the install. But, by no means am I an expert or perfect.

 

Would anyone mind helping me troubleshoot this?

 

Pioneer's tech support was useless. They told me maybe the constant power to the BT and the disk changer came loose. Yes, that is obviously possible. But, both at the same time. I don't know. Also, wouldn't the changer still be seen even if power to the BT module was gone? Oddly, Pioneer tech support couldn't answer this.

 

Bad IP-Bus cable? Crimp? Short? Etc?

 

Luckily I got the 3-year warranty on the D3 from Crutchfield and it still has 6 months on it. So, if the D3 is the culprit I can get that fixed relatively cheap.

 

But, I need to troubleshoot the other stuff first to see before I yank it out and send it off for a repair that it may or may not really need.

 

If anybody has any suggestions or have had a similar issue before or has any in-depth knowledge of the IP-Bus, I would greatly apprecaite any advice/support.

 

Thank you very much guys!

 

Mark

It's entirely possible for the loss of power to both units at once, since many installers (including myself) just tap one into the other, then into a 12v source. I know if the BT goes, so does my XM (or vice versa...not sure which one is actually first).

 

(I'm not a pro installer...just saying that I installed it myself that way)

 

Did you install the unit yourself?

 

I don't know much about the IP bus, other than it is easy to come loose...it happened to me the other day.

Hey Buffalo,

 

Thanks for the feedback.

 

Yes, I installed everything myself.

 

Well, when I got home from work I took the dash apart and started playing around; here is what I found:

 

1) Tested the voltage at the BT unit with my multimeter. 12.XX with the car off.

 

2) Tested the voltage at the disk changer with my multimeter. 12.XX with the car off.

 

3) Re-seated all IP-Bus connectors. Still dimmed icons on the D3.

 

4) Removed the BT unit completely and plugged the disk changer directly into the D3. Still dimmed icons on the D3.

 

5) Swapped IP-Bus cables. I used the IP-Bus cable originally from the BT unit to plug disk changer directly into the D3. Still dimmed icons on the D3.

 

6) Removed the disk changer completely and just plugged the BT into the D3. Still dimmed icons on the D3.

 

So, what do you guys think? Any other testing I can do?

 

To me it is looking more and more like a faulty D3.

 

Any other thoughts?

 

Thanks everyone!

 

Mark

After all of that troubleshooting, I would have to agree with your assessment of a faulty D3 (specifically the IP-bus connection). I can't see all of those other units/IP-bus cables failing at the same time.

 

FWIW, Crutchfield is awesome with their service...so they should be able to take care of you quickly. Good luck!

Thanks Buffalo,

 

Glad to hear you agree with my assessments. I might just recheck a few things before contacting Crutchfield again.

 

I wonder if there is some service code or diagnostic screen in the D3 that would confirm a faulty IP-Bus system?

 

I bought the Crutchfield extended warranty on the D3 so that makes me happy.

 

Thanks again for everything!

 

Mark

Yeah, on anything this expensive & complex, some sort of warranty is def. in order. I bought a Squaretrade warranty for mine, even though I got all the pieces at Crutchfield.

 

Good luck, again.