Here's Some Help with Navigation Install

[webshot]

Well I just finished my install of the Solara Nav unit. I gave myself about four days to complete it. I first pulled the stock head unit out of the car to switch out the LED's. Well the NAV LED's are extremely hard to get to. I was able to get the face plate broke down with a jewelers screw driver and much patience. The LED's on the NAV unit are HALF the size of those in the stock head unit. To make things even more difficult, the nav LEDs are soldered onto transistor type film (not a typical board). Everything has to be soldered with a soldering iron under a controlled temp. Of course you have to pull the yellow LEDs off the stock unit first and the green LED's off the NAV unit.

"I do not suggest you even attempt this LED mod unless you have a lot of experience with electronics and soldering!!!!!!!"

It occurred to me how easy it would be for a novice solderer to either burn through the transistor film or accidentally touch the screen with a hot soldering iron and there goes your $1600 down the drain!

Mounting and wiring took about an hour. I can

 

[Toy-Man]

webshot,

Glad to hear about your install. Sounds really cool. I am about to venture into it very soon and am interested in how you were able to fashion your own bezel to cover the gap left by the Limited's center console. Would love to see a picture or two of how you did it.

I was hoping to be able to address the colour LED issue when I get my nav system, but from what you have descriped, this will definitely not be a trivial mod. Thanks for the descriptive info on the differences in LED size and the film backing vice circuit board on./around the nav screen. Unfortunately there may not be much that anyone with normal soldering skills can do.

I know someone that is skilled in micro eletronics and SMT/SMC contruction for a local high tech company up here. He does prototyping. He might be able to help out. At least he has all the fancy desoldering/soleding equipment designed for that type of work.

I will keep this board postedon my progress.

I can live with the colour difference ( I.m coloured blind). My passengers will just have to get used to it.

Regards

 

[webshot]

Sorry I don't own a digital camera. The opening for the radio only leaves about 1/2" gap on each side, no gap on the top, and about 1" horizontal/flat gap at the bottom of the radio. I cut the black plastic from a template I made fom cardboard. If you look at the back of the center console peice the radio sticks out of, it is basically flat! I attached a REALLY crude image that will give you the basic idea of what I did.

 

[Toy-Man]

webshot,
Thanks for diagram it will help me a lot. I have not torn the 4runner dash apart yet but this gives me the info I need to replicate your solution. So you just need a decent size piece of plastic (Big enough to fit the hole around the radio) cut and bent as you suggested. That looks easy enough. I will give that a try.

I have been thinking about the voice nav portion. I think I have the wiring diagrams for the solara system and I have the 4Runner electrical wiring supplement. I hope to come up with an intergrated solution before I install my unit.

 

[webshot]

Toy-Man,

I went through several diagrams in regaurds to the voice issue. To help make it simple for you, the 4runner amp does not have a voice signal in and out. The Solara amp does. The 4runner amp does have a mute channel for muting the left speaker, BUT I ran a meter on all the additional pin outs on the nav unit and none were mute signals so the mute on the 4runner amp cannot be used. I did tap the voice out to the left channel to see what it sounded like. The music just drowns it out!

Since the voice out signal is a "Line Level" signal then it needs it's own amp.

Typically the 4runner stock NAV unit has a amp in the disc/brain unit that mounts in the back of the vehicle that amplifies the signal and also sends the mute signal for the left channel to the stock 4runner amp.

The Solara unit sends the signal to amp through special inputs for voice that have mute integreted into the amp.

I have found no simple solution that would integrate both without spending at least $100+ to fix. http://www.rfsystems.com/vi-2.htm
This solution would cause you to cut some wires on the stock harness to convert them to RCA plugs (not desired). The whole point of this project for me was to have the ability to remove the nav unit and make it look as if nothing changed if warranty issues arose.

Hence the reason why I installed the $24.99 aplified speaker from Radio Shack!

Good luck

 

[Toy-Man]

webshot

This is the type of discussion I need in order to learn. You are much further along and have more hands-on with the Nav system than me. I at present only have the documentation to work with.

I have been looking at the wiring diagrams for the Solara 2004 Nav System (7001) and its connections to the Solara Amp. Thanks to the diagrams provided by "gregtay" They are available at:
http://www.toyota-4runner.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=2806

They show a mute line coming out of the nav unit at R7 pin7 (If I understand the diagram correctly) and going to the amp (S11 pin 1)

The solara amp also has additional inputs Int- and Int+ (S11 pin 22 and pin 23 respectively) for the voice nav.

Taking a look at the 4Runner wiring diagram for the 4runner. The display HU shows the left, right and TX line pairs plus a mute signal connected to the amp. The output of the amp is connected to the speakers accordingly except for the front left - DRIVER'S DOOR (FL- and FL+ and a mute line) are shown connected to the Navigation ECU (that's the one in the back right quarter panel - for those that have the stock nav system). The front right speakers - Drivers's Door are connected directly to the Nav ecu.

So somehow the voice and the receiver audio are mixed/or switched in the Nav ECU and the mute signal is fed back up the line to the receiver. or something like that.

Enough of that rambling I may be confused.

When my unit arrives I will need to check if the HU's L+ and L- are muted or reduced when the voice Nav is active (IVO+ and IVO-) Also does anything happen at the mute line when the voice nav is active.

This may tell me where I need to insert the voice signal into the existing amp config.

What if anything is at connector S23 pins 22 and 23 on the 4runner amp? Can this be used as input for the voice nav?

Thanks to all who have been pioneers at making Camry/Solara navigation units work in the 4Runner. Your hard work and persistence will make it much easer for us coming behind you.

 

[webshot]

The left channel is NOT reduced when the voice sounds. I know this for sure. As far as the aditional pins on the stock amp that you mentioned, I did not look at the stock amp. You may be on to something there!

You do have to check it out of course so we know! LOL! trying to figure this crap out gives me a headache after a while.

 

[webshot]

Well driving with the new NAV system for a couple of days now has been great! What a great system!

I noticed something VERY interesting last night. I put the NAV into diagnostic mode and noticed an option to test "Microphone" !!!!!

So now I'm wondering if some of the extra pins on the NAV unit are to plug in a mic and have voice activated commands like some of the Lexus systems. I would imagine you would need different software though.

 

[j0mama]

You mean this mike?

 

[webshot]

Well Hello! What and where did you get that?

 

[j0mama]

Japan...

I havent tested it yet, but it should work. Ill let you know as soon as I do.


j0.

 

[webshot]

Oh Jo!

Don't keep me in suspense too long! What other goodies did you get while in Japan?

 

[SiennaSaurus]

I tried to connect the voice to the Sienna amp at pins 22/23 with no success. However, I used headphones to make sure that the voice was leaving the solara and was able to hear it. I did.

Somehow I don't think the 4Runner and Sienna amp will play the voice correctly. I'm still working on this and hopefully it will work the same for the 4Runner.

Also, I was able to install the XM kit along with RSA and it worked great.

 

[jkm2730]

More details please webshot

I wired in an amplified speaker from Radio Shack for the voice. To tap the two pins for the voice I released the stock plug lock (underneath the plug) to release all the pins and used a CD-ROM audio cable I had laying around. I pulled the pins out of the CD-ROM cable plug and they fit perfect in the plug for the voice. Pushed the lock back in place to hold them and it's done!

:50cal:

I have been working with SiennaSaurus and we found that those AMP connectors have plastics blocks in them and appear to be very difficult to take apart. Jack ended up drilling out the unused areas in the plug that we need to use to get to the voice out IV0+ and IVO-. It sounds like you took the connector apart-more details please. I also have some spare CD Rom cables so I could use those if I better understood how you went about it.

It also appears that routing the voice out to the JBL amp at pins 22 and 23 didn't work for Jack even with the TX+ TX- connected as his RSA and XM were working well. He wired them both to share the same TX+ TX- lines. I really want to find a way to avoid putting in an additional amp/speaker.

Thanx in advance,

 

[webshot]

I tried to connect the voice to the Sienna amp at pins 22/23 with no success. However, I used headphones to make sure that the voice was leaving the solara and was able to hear it. I did.

Somehow I don't think the 4Runner and Sienna amp will play the voice correctly. I'm still working on this and hopefully it will work the same for the 4Runner.

Also, I was able to install the XM kit along with RSA and it worked great.

Hey! Glad to hear about the XM radio! I would be very interested in how you did this! For the voice I bought this: http://www.radioshack.com/product.asp?catalog_name=CTLG&product_id=21-541

I mounted it up under the dash on the drivers side and it works pretty good provided you point it towards the floor so the sound bouces up towards you. I had to fabricate a mounting bracket for it though.

 

[webshot]

Re: More details please webshot

I have been working with SiennaSaurus and we found that those AMP connectors have plastics blocks in them and appear to be very difficult to take apart. Jack ended up drilling out the unused areas in the plug that we need to use to get to the voice out IV0+ and IVO-. It sounds like you took the connector apart-more details please. I also have some spare CD Rom cables so I could use those if I better understood how you went about it.

It also appears that routing the voice out to the JBL amp at pins 22 and 23 didn't work for Jack even with the TX+ TX- connected as his RSA and XM were working well. He wired them both to share the same TX+ TX- lines. I really want to find a way to avoid putting in an additional amp/speaker.

Thanx in advance,

On my 4runner the bottom piece on the plug pops out! I had to use a small jewelers type screwdriver. I inserted it in the back of the plug (where the wires come out) in a bottom hole, and pushed down on the plastic piece to pop it loose. I did this on each side of the plug to get it loose. It does not require a lot of force and you will here it click loose.

 

[webshot]

I used the pins out of the black plug on the far right of this picture: http://store3.yimg.com/I/trianglecables-site_1787_36926348

 

[jkm2730]

webshot,

Did the connector go back together without any issues or did you have to increase the size of the holes/area around where you inserted the new pins?

 

[webshot]

After you insert the pins all the way in the plug you just simply "Snap" the lock back in place. Tug in the wires a bit to make sure they hold and thats it.

When you intially unlock the plug like I mentioned above, The locking piece of plastic does NOT come completly out of the plug it just slides out about 3-4mm from the bottom and thats it (so dont force it out).

 

[webshot]

Oh and no I did not enlarge te holes at all.