Hi Guys

Just bought one of those cheap eBay head units and put it in my 2003 KJ Series 2. Thought id just post some pics and my experience.

No idea on the brand, but bought it here:
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/251006281887?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649#ht_9391wt_3872

Comes with Digital TV, Bluetooth, Sat Nav with spoken street names (iGO 8 maps), reversing camera, CD/DVD (and .avi, .mkv), USB, Micro SD, radio, iPod/iPhone connection.

Interface is simple enough to use, you can change track and fast forward while in GPS mode using the right dial (brief rotation to skip track, rotate and hold to fast forward). Rotate other dial for volume or push in for audio settings (i.e. switch equalizer modes, speaker weights).

I have a 32GB micro SD card for my music, not sure if it will take anything bigger. From cold boot, takes about 15 seconds to warm up the sd card, ready to use and browse songs.
BT works well, mic is decent dont need to shout. Only annoying thing is that when on a BT call, you cant look at any other screen except for the BT screen. Bit annoying if you want to use the sat nav... If a call comes though, it pause the music and can auto answer, then when end call it goes back to playing.

It turns the music down when the sat nav says something. Sat nav is actually really good. Knows the speed limits and tells you if you are speeding, and shows the speed limit on screen. Came with 2008 maps but downloaded the 2012 ones and just pasted them onto the gps SD card (has two card, one for gps and one for music).

Digital TV is also good, but the aerial is kinda small so reception around Brisbane on some channels drops in and out as you drive. Also you need to use the small remote to change channel.

Its meant to integrate with steering wheel controls, but we couldn't get that to work... We also didn't know how to wire up the Verada controls so that might have been the problem :P

Reversing camera works well, automatically switched on when in R, and also automatically switched between infrared B/W to colour depending on how bright it is.

http://i1247.photobucket.com/albums/gg638/RobMuggleton/c65b74eb.jpg
http://i1247.photobucket.com/albums/gg638/RobMuggleton/55f2902b.jpg
http://i1247.photobucket.com/albums/gg638/RobMuggleton/533d7001.jpg
http://i1247.photobucket.com/albums/gg638/RobMuggleton/ac195fdd.jpg
http://i1247.photobucket.com/albums/gg638/RobMuggleton/0139fb71.jpg
http://i1247.photobucket.com/albums/gg638/RobMuggleton/d3e08bba.jpg
http://i1247.photobucket.com/albums/gg638/RobMuggleton/cd603892.jpg
http://i1247.photobucket.com/albums/gg638/RobMuggleton/2b9f12a4.jpg
http://i1247.photobucket.com/albums/gg638/RobMuggleton/bdd71651.jpg

Trim:
http://i1247.photobucket.com/albums/gg638/RobMuggleton/56dd2044.jpg

Interface:
http://i1247.photobucket.com/albums/gg638/RobMuggleton/8a0c91dc.jpg
http://i1247.photobucket.com/albums/gg638/RobMuggleton/5bf0bf29.jpg
http://i1247.photobucket.com/albums/gg638/RobMuggleton/7a53c42c.jpg
http://i1247.photobucket.com/albums/gg638/RobMuggleton/f35b50d6.jpg
http://i1247.photobucket.com/albums/gg638/RobMuggleton/b27956f8.jpg
http://i1247.photobucket.com/albums/gg638/RobMuggleton/e0221587.jpg

Screen - screen is good, has a nice picture but if the sun is shinny directly onto it you cant see sh!t.

And this is the wiring stuff you need to know

Correct wiring diagram for 2003 KJ Verada:

Originally Posted by EuRoZac for a TL, but i can confirm its the same for a KJ



16 Pin (numbered looking at the loom, left to right, top row first)
(Primary colour is the fist, the second is the stripe)
Pin #, Loom Colour, Function, Standard Colour
1. White/Red --> Front Right + --> Gray
2. White/Blue --> Front Left + --> White
3. Green/White --> Illumination (Dash lights. Normally used to dim the HU) --> Orange
4. (No connection/pin) i.e. no spot on the plug at all. Makes way for retention clip.
5. (No connection/pin) i.e. no spot on the plug at all. Makes way for retention clip.
6. Pink --> Auto Antenna --> Blue **
7. Yellow/Blue --> Rear Left + --> Green
8. Yellow/Red --> Rear Right + --> Purple
9. Black/Red --> Front Right - --> Gray/Black
10. Black/Blue --> Front Left - --> White/Black
11. Black/Yellow --> Dimmer (Rheostat) --> Orange/White (not all H/U have this)
12. Red/Black --> +12 from battery --> Yellow
13. Blue --> Ignition --> Red
14. (No connection/pin)
15. Gray/Blue --> Rear Left - --> Green/Black
16. Gray/Red --> Rear Right - --> Purple/Black

** Some H/U have Remote On (Blue/White) and Power Ant (Blue). If you connect Blue, the antenna will be up when listening to tuner only. If you connect Blue/White, it will be up when the stereo is on. Don't connect your amp to the Blue on your new H/U, use Blue/White. Otherwise this will turn your amp on only when listening to the tuner!

8 Pin (numbered looking at the loom, left to right, top row first)
(Primary colour is the fist, the second is the stripe)
1. (No connection/pin)
2. Blue --> Radio Mute (Phone Connector)
3. (No connection/pin)
4. (No connection/pin)
5. (No connection/pin)
6. Light Green and Black --> Remote Control ** (Where fitted on Verada XI Steering Wheel)
7. (No connection/pin)
8. (No connection/pin)

Looks great,hope you dont mind that i have taken the liberty of showing it off to all ,without having to click on all the links above.

http://i1247.photobucket.com/albums/gg638/RobMuggleton/533d7001.jpg

Nope, how do you do that though?

Nope, how do you do that though?

on your photobucket page on each photo,there are four codes....copy and past the last one directly to the post.

The second one's you have used above ,you can use ,but you have to click on the photo link icon and paste it to that and click it on.

it looks like the one i got off of ebay. except yours seems to have a nicer interface and the tv actually works.

This is what I've been looking for. Thanks for posting such detailed info about the wiring.

Your unit looks very nice and fits extremely well. I hope mine turns out like that.

Which camera did you get and where did you mount it?

Question from a dumb dumb here, with the reversing camera does it need to be wired into the trans or how does it work?

How many RCA's out does it have for a amplifier

Question from a dumb dumb here, with the reversing camera does it need to be wired into the trans or how does it work?

Yes, I guess, or you can wire into the reversing lights :P

it looks nice :)
i had one in my old 2001 TJ Magna Executive

How many RCA's out does it have for a amplifier

From the ebay link, I think it has 4,

Question from a dumb dumb here, with the reversing camera does it need to be wired into the trans or how does it work?

You just wire the positive and negative from the camera into your reversing lights. Whenever u put your car in R those lights go on, thats how the unit knows when to turn on the camera

Does anyone know the OS used on those?, well not WINCE 6.0 or whatever, but the program it boots into?

Which camera did you get and where did you mount it?

I got camera E102 http://i658.photobucket.com/albums/uu301/gerry0211s2008/U3221.jpg
But i unscrewed those stupid long arms so its just the rectangular block. Ill take a pic of the camera and post it, but its between the reversing lights and the number plate.

http://i1247.photobucket.com/albums/gg638/RobMuggleton/e427c6bc.jpg

looks good to me! how difficult was it to run the wiring for the camera? where did you run it?

looks good to me! how difficult was it to run the wiring for the camera? where did you run it?

Was easy. Ran wire from HU under centre console panels, underneath passengers sear, then door trims just pop off so ran it under those, under back seat and into the boot. Back seat takes about 30 seconds to get out.

For the Verada steering wheel controls with my Kenwood deck, I used a PAC SWI-RC Universal Steering Wheel Control Interface. Works perfect! You more than likely need to use an interfacing unit like this for the controls to work. I picked mine up from eBay for around $60 delivered from the US. Should be a single wire for the controls...

Otherwise, nice unit!

Did the kenwood deck allow for programming of the steering wheel controls? or did it have them permanently set to some kenwood standard that the converter had to match?

The Kenwood deck just had a single wire coming out... the PAC SWI-RC converts the messages from the Verada controls to something the Kenwood deck can understand. You program the keys on the wheel as you want though. Depending on the brand of deck depends on what functions you can program.

Yeah, you do the programming in the PAC SWI-RC unit? Not in the kenwood deck ay?

This particular unit seems to have functionality for programming the buttons within itself, like its as though it has its own converter...

Hopefully the unit came with a list of manufactures and which settings are required for each then... There is no standard from what I've seen, even across cars of the same make (different model) and year!

edit: reading the eBay link, I only saw " Steering wheel control function." That's all most brands will say, even that kenwood and you generally need some sort of converter unit. My double din kenwood just had a single steering wheel control wire which even the manual stated that you need a converter for your specific car.

This is what I have: http://au.kenwood.com/Car_Entertainment/2DIN_Receivers/DPX-U5120
All it states is "OEM Remote Interface"

Thanks for the advice, the unit has one input for the controls, and a special program that listens for a voltage spike. From what i understand, but could be wrong, the steeringwheel controls just send out a different voltage (or resistance) for each button, and the head unit ive got, you can assign a particular voltage to a function like vol up. What did you connect your unit you bought up to? did you connect it to the 8 pin plug that only has two wires going to it?

THe second post here explains it better than i did:
http://www.mobileelectronics.com.au/forums/index.php/topic/557846-aftermarket-head-unit-with-steering-wheel-controls/

Yeah, I think they are like a resistor network. The Verada deck (mine was a KF Xi.. but should be the same or damn close) had, I think, an 8 pin connector which only had 1 green wire, which may have had a white stripe. I wired that to my converter box, then the deck to the converter box.

Since your unit seems to have that converter built in... So you might be able to work out how to program it that way? Maybe youtube might have a demo video?

I couldn't stand having my steering wheel controls not doing anything... To me, if I have buttons on a car, I want them to work damn it!

I couldn't stand having my steering wheel controls not doing anything... To me, if I have buttons on a car, I want them to work damn it!

Well, looking at his other threads, he doesn't have steering wheel controls, well, he has them but cannot find someone to sell him a clock spring to install it :P

Thanks for the info. How did you pry off the existing factory double din head unit? I've got a TL 6 stacker unit.

Thanks for the info. How did you pry off the existing factory double din head unit? I've got a TL 6 stacker unit.

Not sure about a TL, but for a KJ you need to take out the cup holders and coin bit, then the T-bone centre console bit unclips off. The lower surround around the ash tray also unclips if you pull it (gently as there are wires attached to the ciggy lighter and theyre not that long). Then grab the surround around the middle air con vents and gently pull it out, but be careful as the right hand vent wheel thing (the wheel you can turn to blow air-conditioned air through the middle vents while having hot air come out of others) has some really tight wiring behind it. Then there will be 8 screws, two above and two below the double din woodgrain surround that secure a frame to the car, and 4 that secure the woodgrain to the frame. Undo those and the head unit will slide out. Assembly is reverse :P

Cheers
Rob

Hi Guys

Just bought one of those cheap eBay head units and put it in my 2003 KJ Series 2. Thought id just post some pics and my experience.
I like the look of this unit, the knobs look elegant and more usable than the small buttons on other units.
Hows your experience with it so far? Has it been reliable and functional?
How's the performance, especially speed in responding to your selections and performance of the GPS, radio and all? Does it play together well with the phone and camera?

So far i think for the money i paid i am very happy with it. GPS is a little laggy sometimes displaying the maps (definitely when you turn 3d buildings on!), but its ok and i can tolerate it fine. THe actual GPS interface, looking up addresses etc is fine. Everytime you turn the car off tho, and then back on, the unit needs to boot up. It doesn't have a sleep function so a bit annoying waiting for about 30 seconds for your SD card to warm up for your songs. Bluetooth pairs automatically but it wont pull down your phone book, so really just good so you can answer calls. If you want to make a call you can dial the number on the screen, but that kinda defeats the purpose. Response to general things on the unit is fine, i dont notice it laggy. But the reason i chose this unit was because ot was a bit more 'stock' looking with the buttons on the side and a dial for the volume and skip track.

I installed an almost identical unit in my TJ about 3 weeks ago. So far, very happy with it, the wiring wasn't too big a deal, and I now have an excellent reversing camera that works a treat when I pop her in reverse. GPS is great. I don't have steering wheel controls though obviously, but helped a mate with this in his Astra - yes there is just a ground wire and a signal wire, and the signal line is basically variably resistive depending on which button you press.

But the reason i chose this unit was because ot was a bit more 'stock' looking with the buttons on the side and a dial for the volume and skip track.
Yeah, I still think it looks good. What's the response with volume control like when using the dial? Fairly quick? I don't like really laggy volume control.

I installed an almost identical unit in my TJ about 3 weeks ago.
gotta pic?

yes there is just a ground wire and a signal wire, and the signal line is basically variably resistive depending on which button you press.

So one wire to ground and the other went to the headunit? No active anywhere? I still havnt got my controls to work yet... Might be because mine is an EI, which didnt come with them, but i have bought the controls from an Xi model, but cant figure out how to wire it up...

T-Bone, Does your reversing camera have any problem with the resolution when it switches from the gps?

To be honest, I didn't pay a lot of attention to the steering wheel control wires on my own unit, because I don't have them on my car. But on my mate's car we had to do a lot of mucking around to work out which wire on his existing harness was the SWC control/signal wire (using a multimeter, to see which line changed resistance, when grounded, when we hit buttons on the steering wheel). Then it was simply a matter of hooking up the HU's 'SWC ground' to the main ground, and this signal line to the HU's 'SWU control'. Then we could associate buttons to functions (vol up/down etc) on the HU, using the in-built software.
Pretzil - not sure about that, I don't think I've gone from GPS mode to Cam - I will try it out. It certainly works fine going from radio/disc/menu screens to Cam.
I'll also post a pic tomorrow.

I wonder if there's anyway to reverse the dial wiring? I'd prefer volume on the rhs.
I still like ths unit and want to get one. I checked out a few of the $1000 ones and I think the main advantage of those is that they have faster processors, but otherwise I hate the little fiddly buttons on them and they all look cheap.

Newbie questions: what's the wiring termination like on the Verada end (L/W's) is there a socket? Or just a loom of loose wires? And if there is a socket is it a standard? Can it just plug into these newer units? Or is it all manual wiring and soldering like the old days?

not sure about L/W but KJ it was not the same clip so had to cut the wires and join them to the wires that came with the new HU

not sure about L/W but KJ it was not the same clip so had to cut the wires and join them to the wires that came with the new HU

I gotta feeling there will ba an adapter we could use. I'll have a hunt around.

I do the Aeropro adapters, they run from the car to an ISO and then ISO to what ever brand unit you have

I do the Aeropro adapters, they run from the car to an ISO and then ISO to what ever brand unit you have

That's awesome, please put one aside for me. I'm going to do this little project once the car is repaired.

Some pics as promised:

http://www.criticalmasscreations.com.au/TB/20121001_155946_1306x979.jpg
http://www.criticalmasscreations.com.au/TB/20121001_160057_1306x979.jpg

Looks pretty good. How are you finding the function of it? Is it responsive?

Yeah I find it perfectly responsive. It locked up once, and I had to turn off and back on, but other than that it's been bulletproof (in the few weeks I've had it).

I wonder how these units will handle our hot summers?

Hmm, odd, looks so similar to Rastons, but there are some differences...
Yours doesn't have the lines on the reversing camera
Some buttons are different
The gps and data sd slots are swapped around


I wonder how different the system is, does your radio cut out when you start reversing too?

i have heard that these can be terribly slow and it gets worse the older the unit is. i have also heard that the mapping and navigation software can be innacurate. i have also heard that the sound quality you get from music is terrible and even if you use the RCA's to amplifiers it is still really bad.
i have always looked at these and loved them for all of their features and quite liked alot of the designs but basically i have been too wary to try one qiven all the bnegative reviews i have read. i have heard they are very good for about 6 months to 1 year and then carp. mind you most of what i have heard is from people who just discount stuff that is cheap and chinese. can anyone offer any input?

Pretzil - mine didn't come with a reversing camera. I originally bought a cheap camera from eBay (it had those lines you're referring to) but the picture was completely sh!t. So I paid $100 for one at Jaycar and the picture is great as you can see. And yes whatever you were doing (listening to radio/CD/whatever) gets paused and muted when it switches to CAM mode, which is the way I want it.

Maat (Matt?) - I can't say yet how my unit will fare in the heat of summer. I can say that the GPS function/software is excellent, better than my recently-purchased TomTom. (I bought a TomTom because I couldn't bring myself to fork out the $900 extra that Holden wanted for the GPS functionality to be enabled in my new Commodore's touchscreen system..) And I can say that the sound out of my unit, and a similarly-priced unit my mate put in his Astra is actually very good. At least as good as the stock radios, which no doubt according to audiophiles is not saying much, but I'm perfectly happy with it.

can anyone offer any input?

I do get alternator noise on mine, but thats most likely something to do with the wiring. Its not that bad, and the unit is sitting in so well in the trim i dont want to take it out to have a go at fixing it.

Hey T-Bone, what gps software is that running? Did it come with that or did you acquire it yourself?

It's running 'iGo Primo' software.. which it came with (on an included 2Gb card).

Ah, I've got iGo8, how do you find the primo interface? Certainly looks cleaner than the iGo8 one, closer to the layout on the navmans.

Maat (Matt?) - I can't say yet how my unit will fare in the heat of summer. I can say that the GPS function/software is excellent, better than my recently-purchased TomTom. (I bought a TomTom because I couldn't bring myself to fork out the $900 extra that Holden wanted for the GPS functionality to be enabled in my new Commodore's touchscreen system..) And I can say that the sound out of my unit, and a similarly-priced unit my mate put in his Astra is actually very good. At least as good as the stock radios, which no doubt according to audiophiles is not saying much, but I'm perfectly happy with it.
it is Matt. Long story behind Maat. anyways would definately would be interested to see how it goes a bit more in the long term. and i need to get the chance to hear one when hooked up to a sound sstem similar to mine. aftermarket but not expensive speakers hooked up to head unit and a top quality sub hooked up to top quality amp. i have been looking at these for ages and never had the balls to try it after hearing bad things bout them.

Guys, how are these units holding up? For those of you who have had them in a while; any issues?

Guys, how are these units holding up? For those of you who have had them in a while; any issues?

After some years I thought I'd have a look at my old thread. I sold the car Dec 2014, but up until that point it worked fine.