Hey Everyone,

I'm very interested in the D3 but couldnt find all the answers here. I did look but definitley didn't read every post.

1. I saw mention of parking brake and VSS hook ups. How much am I actually going to chop up my factory wiring harnesses? is this a typical grab a metra kit and witre up the power and ground? What other non standard connections need to be made. I'm certainly capable I have been doing Alarms and Remote Starts for some time i'm just trying to figure out how much time this will take.

2. Where are you all putting the Blue tooth adapter? In the dash? Under a seat?

3. Does the gps antenna mount in the dash or on the roof?

4. I have onstar and steering wheel controls. Is this going to interfere with that at all? for example I can make a call using my onstar by pushing the phone button on my steering wheel and the radio indicates phone and the dash indicates the number i'm calling. if I replace my factory radio will that functionality be affected?

5. Do you need to touch the ipod for anything? could I mount it hidden in my center console or do you need to mess with it to get it started up.

6. Are there any contact closures on this radio? To control lights or other such cool do-dads.

7. I have read some of you refer to programing this unit. Is that done through a PC or through the front panel.

I have a million more but don't want to impose to much. Thanks for your time. By all means tell me what works for you and what doesn't.

I figure with all the sweet features this thing has it must take a year and a day to install. Hope you all can set me straight.

Thanks

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I'm the guy that does his job....You must be the other one

I did not use the VSS. the built in Gyro seems to be sufficient.

the E-brake is an interlock to prevent watching Movies or entering addresses while driving.

the E-brake can just be tied to ground, look for the bypass threads.

1. I saw mention of parking brake and VSS hook ups. How much am I actually going to chop up my factory wiring harnesses? is this a typical grab a metra kit and witre up the power and ground? What other non standard connections need to be made. I'm certainly capable I have been doing Alarms and Remote Starts for some time i'm just trying to figure out how much time this will take.

It's no different than any other stereo install, really. Just a couple of extra steps, like splicing in a wire on the VSS and reverse signal wires. But with the supplied connectors, you're not even cutting into those, just tapping in to them. And as far as the parking brake wire, it's just going to be grounded to the car, along with one other wire, as described in the bypass topics on the "Hacks/Mods: D-Series" board.

2. Where are you all putting the Blue tooth adapter? In the dash? Under a seat?

In the dash, under the seat, in the glove box, it's all up to where you have room, really.

3. Does the gps antenna mount in the dash or on the roof?

On most cars you can mount it in the dashboard with no problems. Some cars have metal supports inside them, which can interfere with the signal. Just try to steer clear of them. And remember, if you can't get reception in the dash, relocating the antenna is pretty easy. So just give it a shot, if it doesn't work, move it.

4. I have onstar and steering wheel controls. Is this going to interfere with that at all? for example I can make a call using my onstar by pushing the phone button on my steering wheel and the radio indicates phone and the dash indicates the number i'm calling. if I replace my factory radio will that functionality be affected?

I don't recall about the onstar service for sure, but you can retain your factory steering wheel controls. You can get an interface adapter that will let you use them with an aftermarket stereo.

5. Do you need to touch the ipod for anything? could I mount it hidden in my center console or do you need to mess with it to get it started up.

For Music, no, you'll never need to touch it. It's completely controlled through the D3. Power up, charging, song selection, everything. You can even turn off the ipod's backlight since you're not going to need it, just to extend it's lifespan. But if you're going to be using it for videos, you might have to. Do a search. There's a lot of topics dealing with watching videos on the D3 with an ipod.

6. Are there any contact closures on this radio? To control lights or other such cool do-dads.

I have no idea what you're referring to.

7. I have read some of you refer to programing this unit. Is that done through a PC or through the front panel.

I think they're referring to the nav/gps unit programming. But it kind of does that automatically, after you go through the initial setup. It's actually fairly simple. Just do what it asks you to do when you power it up for the first time and you should be fine.

for onstar you can just get an interface adapter form pac, peripheral, axxess, etc......

itll enable to use the onstar with the radio.

i used the axxess gmos-06 for my 02 cadi dts deville and i ty works great.

Wow this is great. thanks to all that took the time. i'm really impressed with the features of the D3 i think i'm gonna start with the D3 and Ipod cable. i'll throw in the bluetooth for round 2. i need to keep the cost low so as not to raise any flags with my in house auditor she notices everything. but i think the cool factor will win her over.

thanks again everyone.

(Contact closures - relays. would be cool to turn on strobes or led lights right from the touch screen instead of mounting additional switches.)

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I'm the guy that does his job....You must be the other one

TB, the wife will like it much better than you do

my wife is on a 3 state trip now, and the D3 is guiding her all over.

she watches it & monitors how it does routing, and she's pretty comfortable following it all over.

The only thing the D3 has the capability of turning on itself would be something hooked up to the amplifier turn-on lead, but it's not switchable. It's on when the unit is on, and off when the unit is off.

As stated above... I'm just confirming that you do not have to touch the Ipod at all when listening to music, but if you change to video then you need to touch it to get the video started. If you put a bunch of videos in a video play list, then you can watch them continuously without touching the Ipod. If they are in the play list you can even use the 'next' and 'previous' buttons on your D3 to select a new video in the play list.

There are other topics on this, but since you asked the question I figured I would put my 2 cents in...

I have my Ipod mounted in my center console and have loved every minute of it (I was never a fan of Ipod until I bought my D3 and added the Ipod and loaded EVERY cd that I own onto it).

No, you wont have to touch the ipod at all. It charges it and you can touch all interface controls, playlists and everything else from the face. it even has a simulated ipod wheel that you can use ot menu, forward back pause etc.

One thing though, not sure if it was a one time thing but my ipod had shut off and couldn't be turned on again until I did a hard reset. You know hold center button + menu for 8 seconds. The player simply said error before and it wouldn't respond to anything. I thought for sure it fried it or something, but after looking on the net, there was a quick fix. Hard reset. I thought it was a dead battery or something at first, but when it didn't turn on even when plugged into my computer I knew something was up.

Anyway, its amazing. Playing with it in the store before I got it didn't do it justice, you have to see it mounted in your own dash, listen to it and play with it and get used to the controls.

Xm radio is great in it as well.