Audio System Upgrade Information

The Do It Yourself section is used provide assistance with mods and fixes. Whenever you are making a change to your car please take pictures and notes. Let others know what to watch out for and any useful tricks you learn. If you are starting a post in this section from scratch please hold it to a higher standard than you would for other forum posts. i.e. technical detail and even grammar.
Please post about issues or problems in the Technical Support & Problem Troubleshooting forum.
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ms_enj
Posts: 14
Joined: Fri Jan 10, 2014 4:01 pm

While I don't dispute David Navone's reputation, I do find it a bit suspect that the 4 channel LOC he sells for $40 US and claims is the best line output converter in the world is also available on eBay from a seller in Hong Kong for $13.66 US.

Unless he's pulling the units apart and replacing components internally, which I doubt, then the only products I'd trust from him would be the higher end units that appear to be hand built from off the shelf parts.

Either way, I'm sure the Scosche unit I've ordered will work fine. :)
sx4rocious
Posts: 485
Joined: Mon Jul 22, 2013 8:31 pm

Well, you may have something there.... LOL I really hope he isn't another one of those that sold his name for use on some crappy companies sweat-shop made excuse for custom hand-built peice of equipment.

Any, can't go wrong with Scosche either!
SamirD
Posts: 3074
Joined: Thu Dec 05, 2013 4:07 pm
Location: HSV and SFO
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He's probably doing what a lot of companies are doing--outsourcing the manufacturing to Asia while keeping quality control in-house. Those Hong Kong units are probably ones that didn't pass QC.
~tc~
Posts: 999
Joined: Tue Mar 29, 2011 3:33 am
Location: Houston, TX USA

Wouldn't surprise me ... I met him back when I was running the IASCA circuit in the southeast ... He was a prick
2011 Sport SLS with nav Black Pearl Metallic
sx4rocious
Posts: 485
Joined: Mon Jul 22, 2013 8:31 pm

~tc~ wrote:He was a prick
Too bad... I always kinda wondered why all the industry mags praised him one minute, then he just vanished the next. Guess I now know why...
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ms_enj
Posts: 14
Joined: Fri Jan 10, 2014 4:01 pm

Ok, my Garmin unit arrived today, and it's already been stripped down, examined, and wired up temporarily on my workbench:

Image

Pretty much everything worked as I'd expected but for the camera, which had me stumped for a bit.

Looking at the wiring diagram, you would assume that these units work just like any other car stereo, where supplying 12V to the reverse pin switches to the camera input.

Not so... After several hours of prodding and tracing things out, it turns out that pin 5 of the reverse camera connector has to be connected to ground when the unit is first connected to the constant and switched 12V supply. The OEM camera connects that pin to ground, which enables the reverse camera functionality. Without that, supplying 12V to the reverse trigger wire does nothing.

Seeing as I'm not forking out the insane amount of money that Suzuki want for the OEM camera, I modified my unit internally to work with pretty much any camera with a composite video output. The blue wire is a permanent ground to the PCB, so the unit always thinks there's a camera attached, and the reverse trigger will then switch to the camera image (it works like any other double-din car stereo):

Image

The other two pins on that connector aren't needed for a non-OEM camera. They supply +6V to the OEM camera and in the case of a normal camera, you can just power it directly from the reverse lights.

By connecting the vehicle speed input on the G243 navigation connector to pin 18 of the G248 main harness internally (where the non-nav units get their speed signal), that means all I needed to add were two extra wires - Black one for the handbrake switch, and green one for the reverse camera. I also fitted an RCA socket on a flylead so the camera plugs straight in, and the unit is now ready to go:

Image

And the proof it works is in this picture. As far as I can tell, I'm the only one yet to do this:

Image

If you've got a Kizashi, SX4, or Grand Vitara with the Garmin unit and no camera, you can use these instructions to easily add a cheap reversing camera now... I'm looking in to sourcing the connectors so I can offer a completed plug and play loom.

Have uploaded an updated version of the guide pdf with info on the reversing camera.
Last edited by ms_enj on Fri Jan 17, 2014 2:40 pm, edited 1 time in total.
bootymac
Posts: 1602
Joined: Fri Jul 19, 2013 1:04 am

Good stuff!
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cocos3
Posts: 122
Joined: Thu Jan 17, 2013 7:11 am
Location: Mid-North Coast, NSW, Australia

ms_enj,
I notice your reverse cam image has the distance guide incorporated...my factory issue 2013 unit does not.
I'm guessing you bought a different camera and it's part of it's workings...
If that's the case, how easy would it be to fit a camera that has that feature???
Think we've already started a chat on this somewhere...
Red 2013 Prestige w/ sat-nav
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ms_enj
Posts: 14
Joined: Fri Jan 10, 2014 4:01 pm

cocos3 wrote:ms_enj,
I notice your reverse cam image has the distance guide incorporated...my factory issue 2013 unit does not.
I'm guessing you bought a different camera and it's part of it's workings...
If that's the case, how easy would it be to fit a camera that has that feature???
Think we've already started a chat on this somewhere...
Yeah, most of the sub $20 cameras that come from eBay have distance guides built in.

Here is the wiring diagram for the factory reverse camera:

Image

If you bought another camera, and supplied it with power directly from the tail light circuits, you could disconnect the OEM camera, splice an RCA connector into the original wiring to give you video from the new camera.

Centre part of the RCA socket (video signal) to the red wire at the camera end, and the shield or outer ring of the socket (video ground) to the brown wire at the camera end.

As long as that black wire from pin 5 of the headunit (on the far right) remains grounded, you'll get your aftermarket camera whenever you shift to reverse.

If it were me though, I wouldn't bother.

The closest distance marker on my cheap camera is cut off by the head unit overscanning the video signal (though, in saying that, I only have a PAL camera, it might not be as bad with an NTSC one), and after installing quite a few of these cameras over the years, it's a lucky dip if you happen to get the guide lines to sit on the proper plane with the ground behind the car once it's aimed correctly anyway... This is made even more difficult considering the Kisashi's factory camera hole is offset to one side to begin with.
SamirD
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Joined: Thu Dec 05, 2013 4:07 pm
Location: HSV and SFO
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Lovely progress!

I wonder how hard it would be to just make a clear sticker that would go over the factory camera iris to give it guide lines?
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