When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
Finished installation of Alpine CDA-105 and Pioneer F500BT!!
I didn't want to cut my dash, so I bought the Pioneer F500BT and used the Modifry mount with a custom bracket to mount the Pioneer unit. For those people who do not want to cut their dash, this is a perfectly good solution! I also bought the receiver, Pioneer ND-G500, that matches this unit. I didn't take any pictures of it, but it's under my passenger seat. The unit is small and comes with enough wiring to place it under the passenger seat.
Basically, the Pioneer Unit will override the car receiver when receiving cell phone calls or when the Navi Unit needs to give directions. There was some wire splicing involved, but it was pretty easy. There is a wiring diagram floating around here some where for the stock harness.
Basically, you just cut the speaker wires from the harness and insert the Pioneer ND-G500 between the cuts:
Receiver/Harness-------ND-G500-----Speakers
Hope that makes sense. It's basically a bypass until the Pioneer F500BT needs to send a signal.
Interrupted signals include BT Calling, Navi, you can play movies/music from SD cards, and I also bought the iphone/ipod connection (i use just for charging purposes). Honestly though, the sound quality from this unit is not that great, that's why I bought the Alpine deck. The CDA-105 can play mp3 CDs and has an USB Input which I also routed to the passenger side Net thingy.
The alpine install was easy, just used the Modifry DCI and PnP Harness =)
EVERYTHING works GREAT!!! For those of you who don't want to cut your dash, this is a great alternative. I can also take the Navi unit off when parked, so added "security."
Here are the pics: it's pretty clean, just one wire coming from passenger side.
Start up screen =)
startup finished. main screen.
navi screen
single wire going back
pretty clean
modifry dash with custom bracket, then Pioneer bracket
I like this set up a lot. So basically you spliced in the wires from the alpine along with the audio lead coming from the pioneer nav unit? Before it connects to the 4 channel amp receiver?
nice setup. doesn't look like there's a better way to route that giant wire.
i think now that you can get the f500bt for less than $200, it's a decent solution, but i can't help feel that the avic-f series were all more or less duds.
the Pioneer Head Unit is actually only connected to the ND-G500. There is an accessory and main power wire that I just ran into the fuse box. When the Pioneer Unit needs to output, it just sends signal to the AMP and the AMP overrides car receiver. So only the speaker wires need to be spliced. The stock controls still work!
you need the stock wiring diagram. it's around here somewhere... I don't have the link anymore.
As for a DUD? it's not bad. i mean, it has BT and NAVI. True, the sound quality is not so great, but that's why I got the Alpine unit. If I want to, I can play movies too.
nice setup. doesn't look like there's a better way to route that giant wire.
i think now that you can get the f500bt for less than $200, it's a decent solution, but i can't help feel that the avic-f series were all more or less duds.
The new software took care of a lot of the issues they were having, that's why I'm looking into them more now. Two friends have the f700 without the update and it is slow and un responsive amongst other things.
hmmm... well it's still a little slow, but then again, i'm a person who upgrades his computer every year to keep it FASSSTTTT haha. for my purposes, Navi and BT function, it's fine. only thing about the BT is that the internal mic isn't sensitive enough sometimes when driving on the freeway. As you guys know, the S is pretty loud when driving at high speeds. but nothing like talkin a little louder won't fix =P
I've seen that unit mounted in a visor but i am pretty sure it was stricly for visual appeal. I don't think it would be functional. I think Rick (s4play) is the one that did it.
Alpine CDA-105 + Pioneer F500BT Installed
