Dim aftermarket head unit
Dim aftermarket head unit I bought a metra kit to wire up my pioneer head unit the metra kit had a wire labeled "illumination" and the pioneer harness has nothing corresponding to that. I do have the "dimmer" wire attached as both harness have corresponding wires labeled "dimmer" the radio lights up and works fine but I get no change in brightness with headlights on/off. Can anyone help me out. Thanks.
on Pioneers (atleast in my experience) you have to turn the unit off by holding the source button then go into the menu where you set the clock (usually by holding the function button, but I believe some of the newer ones is done by pressing the volume wheel in, see the instructions for your specific model) and scroll to dimmer and turn it ON, it is by default set to OFF.
Joined: Nov 2003
Posts: 11,328
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From: Jacksonville, FL (originally from Toronto Canada)
The problem may be simpler than Daniel suggests... you have the orange/white wire connected incorrectly. Regardless of labeling, always connect the same color wires together (i.e. orange with white from the head unit goes to orange with white in the adapter harness, not to solid orange).
The standards for aftermarket head unit wiring have two colors designated for display illumination... orange and orange with white. Orange is used to connect to the factory dash dimmer circuit for those HUs that dim in sync with the rest of the dash. Orange/white is used to connect to the parking/running light circuit as a simple on/off indicator of when the lights are on. HUs then have a dim setting and a bright setting for their display that they switch between depending on whether the vehicle's lights are on or off. The vast majority of aftermarket HUs (including Pioneer) use the orange/white wire for simplicity.
The standards for aftermarket head unit wiring have two colors designated for display illumination... orange and orange with white. Orange is used to connect to the factory dash dimmer circuit for those HUs that dim in sync with the rest of the dash. Orange/white is used to connect to the parking/running light circuit as a simple on/off indicator of when the lights are on. HUs then have a dim setting and a bright setting for their display that they switch between depending on whether the vehicle's lights are on or off. The vast majority of aftermarket HUs (including Pioneer) use the orange/white wire for simplicity.
I haven't changed the wireing since I posted this but I have found that my problem was the factory setting was the same brightness for day/night. When I changed the night mode to less brightness it dimmed with the headlights. Thanks guys
