Can't get head unit to dim with instruments

Guard Dad

My newly installed Pioneer AVH-P4300DVD head unit works great but I'm still trying to get the illumination correct, it's full bright all of the time. I'm using the Orange/White wire (this is labeled as "illumination") on the Pioneer's receiver cable which is connected to the Orange/White wire on the Scosche connector which in turn connects to a red wire on the factory connector.

What am I doing wrong?

The car is a 2010 base model/sport package/ AT7 and all the speakers have been replaced and all of the speaker wires have been replaced.

Guard Dad

What is the color code of the "illumination" wire in the OEM connectoe?

Guard Dad

Additionally noted: when installing my steering wheel adapter kit my wire color codes on the OEM connector matched the vendors color codes for the 2009 Z not a 2010 Z even though the factory radio was date marked as April 2010. So perhaps I've got a 2009 harness.

kenchan

you sure it's suppose to wire up to the RED wire? that's usually either a constant 12v or switched.

check with Big. i dont remember the harness colors off the top of my head but on both the 3100 and 4100 i have, they both dim when the headlights are on.

Guard Dad

Well, at this point I'd have to say that you're right about the red wire, so I guess the question is, what is the correct wire on the OEM connector?

Ron

Does this help? Pins 8 and 9, white and red. They're labeled for ill - and +... I just connected my ILL cable from my HU to the ILL cable on the metra harness and it works just fine.

bigaudiofanat

Make sure that in options dimming is turned on. I think there is auto, and manual.

If you have it hooked up to the orange wire of the wiring harness it should be right. I know some have both a orange and a orange and black wire.

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kenchan

^^ big's the man.

Guard Dad

[QUOTE=Ron;1325466]Does this help? Pins 8 and 9, white and red. They're labeled for ill - and +... I just connected my ILL cable from my HU to the ILL cable on the metra harness and it works just fine.



[/QUO

I'm tied into the red wire (pin 9), but I get a constant +12v so I'm still struggling with it.

Guard Dad

Well, I'm at an impasse, I've talked to Pioneer and they say it should work as is, but it doesn't, apparently because the red wire has a constant +12v. I asked them if any variable +0-12v source would work and the tech say 'should work' so I'm thinking about tapping into the shift quadrant lighting and using that as a variable source.

Any thoughts?

Guard Dad

I only saw manual dimming. According to Pioneer there's no command to enable dimming.

Ron

connect the ILL wire from the HU to both the white and red cable, pins 8 and 9? What voltage if any, are you getting from the white cable, pin 8?

Romulus1

on my newly installed pioneer in my 2011 Z in order to get it to dim when i turned on the lights, i had to first, turn on the lights, bring up the brightness adjustment and dim it down with the lights on, its saved that setting.

now when the lights are off it stays at full brightness and when the lights go on, it dims to the lower setting i selected. I had to hold the MODE button for 3 seconds to bring up that "picture" adjustment menu. perhaps you have it hooked up right but need to adjust the brightness?

did you already do this step?

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Guard Dad

[QUOTE=Ron;1325676]connect the ILL wire from the HU to both the white and red cable, pins 8 and 9? What voltage if any, are you getting from the white cable, pin 8?[/QUOTE

THIS IS GETTING INTERESTING. The red is constant hot (the red wire becomes orange/white in the Scosche connector) the white is INVERSELY variable with the Instrument Panel dimmer setting! When the IP is full bright the voltage is zero but when the IP is on full dim the voltage is +12v! And to complicate matters the Scosche connector doesn't provide a wire that connects to the OEM white wire.

Guard Dad

YEE HA, it works! I installed a jumper from the OEM connector white wire (pin 8) direct to the Pioneer orange/white illumination wire and the sucker is now dimable! It might be a good idea keep track of this little bit of information.

Thanks to all of you that took the time to post on this issue. It really made a difference. Every time I was about to throw in the towel someone posted another helpful suggestion.

Thanks to Ron for suggesting that I check out the white wire a second time, I really wasn't expecting a inverse voltage variation as the control signal.