I'm new to car audio tech but wanted to get CarPlay in an older van that I have, so I installed a DMH-WT8600NEX unit with a Crutchfield wiring harness and am having a few issues:

The biggest issue is that the screen flickers every 4 or 5 seconds, but the audio doesn't cut out. This feels like it could be a hardware issue, like a bad panel. The flickering does not seem to be connected to any movement/jostling of the unit, and I've checked the connector of the screen to the unit itself, everything seems right.

The other thing, which might be a firmware issue or oversight, is that I can't seem to get the CarPlay screen to dim at night. The screen outside of CarPlay (the NEX stock screen) does seem to dim, though it's unclear if it's timer based or is picking up the illumination wire. But either way, I can't figure out any to get a different brightness in CarPlay itself, making those midnight rides of mine a bit less enchanting.

Any thoughts? I'm thinking of following up with Crutchfield about the first issue but wanted to know if I should try anything in particular before I do

Need to know more about the car.. year make model and sub model

5 hours ago, mutable said:

I'm new to car audio tech but wanted to get CarPlay in an older van that I have, so I installed a DMH-WT8600NEX unit with a Crutchfield wiring harness and am having a few issues:

The biggest issue is that the screen flickers every 4 or 5 seconds, but the audio doesn't cut out. This feels like it could be a hardware issue, like a bad panel. The flickering does not seem to be connected to any movement/jostling of the unit, and I've checked the connector of the screen to the unit itself, everything seems right.

The other thing, which might be a firmware issue or oversight, is that I can't seem to get the CarPlay screen to dim at night. The screen outside of CarPlay (the NEX stock screen) does seem to dim, though it's unclear if it's timer based or is picking up the illumination wire. But either way, I can't figure out any to get a different brightness in CarPlay itself, making those midnight rides of mine a bit less enchanting.

Any thoughts? I'm thinking of following up with Crutchfield about the first issue but wanted to know if I should try anything in particular before I do

A few of us have had that issue. I had it develop after a couple days with my first unit , but I had it replaced, and the second unit was fine. I’m thinking Pioneer did a crap job of connecting the display cable to the main unit board. 
 

I haven’t had any problems with dimming since getting it set up. You have set the dimmer all the way down while the unit is in night mode, haven’t you?

I just installed mine yesterday, I was having that exact flickering issue. Solved my issue, my unit was trying to auto connect to WiFi, once I either got it to connect to my phones hotspot or turned WiFi of the flickering stopped. Hope this helps, I was losing my mind over it!