Sony/Idatalink Question

I've had enough of dealing with my kenwood 905S headunit so had it replaced with the Sony AX210. For some reason the camera keeps turning on. I think it is speed related as the camera turns on only at low speed and the pink cable/maestro connection indicates it is a vehicle speed sensor.

I have been through every Sony setting and it does not seem to be related to the headunit. Does anyone know if there is a camera activation/turn off the camera speed setting in Idatalink?

@destin_meeks - I know you mentioned the camera issue in another thread. Did you ever find a fix to it?

 

Did you connect the pink wire to something on the sony harness from the Maestro?

 

I actually don’t know. I had the head unit installed. I’m trying to figure it out before pulling my dash apart. The directions show the pink wire.

 

I did not connect the speed sensor wire (capped it off), because the head unit harness did did not have a corresponding wire. If the pink wire is connected to a wire that doesn't correspond to it, it's going to do whacky shit.

 

Here are the directions I'm referring to:

http://images.idatalink.com/corporate/Content/Manuals/RR-TOY/ADS-RR(SR)-TOY02-AS-IG-EN_20181115.pdf

This is annoying because I paid to have the headunit installed because head unit installed because I had no experience with Idatalink. I only wanted to make sure the steering wheel controls worked,

Do you think I could just cut the wire?

 

This is what I did:



As an explaination:

1. I capped the speaker wires on both harnesses because I am using RCAs
2. I capped off the e-brake on the Maestro side because I put in a bypass
3. I capped off Pink on the Maestro side because there is no corresponding wire on the head unit harness
4. I capped off Yellow/black on the Maestro side because there is no corresponding wire on the head unit harness
5. I capped off Yellow/green on the Maestro side because there is no corresponding wire on the head unit harness

 

and by cap off- I mean ensure there will be no errant connection to said wire(s).

 

Your wire harness has the following wires per manual



There is no pink wire, therefore, the pink wire on the Maestro side should not be connected to anything, and should be "capped off"

 

me and @destin_meeks had many conversations via PM to get my set up correct, and it works great.

 

Nope. Have had various issues with several Sony models, including the USB port failing on lots of them (meaning no CarPlay/AndroidAuto) and the camera randomly turning on. I’ve pretty much quit installing sony’s because I was wasting too much time pulling them out and replacing them.

 

has nothing to do with the maestro harness. I’ve had them do it with no form of smart harness or idata connectivity. It’s something internal. Even with the camera input turned off, it will come on randomly.

 

Yikes. Is that a Sony-centric issue?

 

Yeah, pretty much their entire touch screen lineup has some type of huge issue.

 

@Taco1.1 : what was the issue with the 905S?

 

There are a couple of different problems with Kenwood 905S. The biggest problem and the reason I ended up at the installers was that it would randomly and repetitively activate the voice controls. I first thought this was my phone so switched to a new iphone. It kept happening. I thought it was the head unit so replaced the head unit. It kept happening. Finally I took it back in and they replaced the idatalink which caused it to stop happening...but then the camera started acting up!!!!

Some other thoughts/comparisons -

• I bought it because it had wireless Android Auto. I was used a Pixel 1 and my experience was that wireless Android Auto is cluster and just doesn't work very well. It routinely would drop/have problems disconnecting/lock up both the phone and headunit. No matter how many times I reset the head unit and the phone it kept defaulting to use Android Auto. Once you used it it seemed to always want to use it.
• Non wireless android auto/car play worked fine.
  
• I really like a volume knob...it seems minor but the usability is just so much better. This is a reason I went with the Sony vs a different brand.
  
• The GUI looked like it was designed by a 12 year old boy. There were so many menu related buttons on non-menu screens it made it very cluttered. I would often hit the wrong button trying to change the radio station, etc. If they made only put the basic functions on main screens it would have been great. The Sony is much better in this regard.
• It wasn't all bad - I do think the sound quality was/is better on Kenwood. This was a lot more adjust/tweak ability in this regard.

If it wasn't with the voice control issue I would probably still have the kenwood. I have videos of what was going on.

I am going to try updating the headunit software to see if it helps with the camera issue.

 

Wow, I haven't had those issues (yet)...

 

I will let you know if this works

 

@Taco1.1 , did it work?

 

Well the update worked in that I am not on the latest version. Beyond changing the version number I am not sure that anything else changed. The camera still blinks on and off. I am convinced it is speed related as it appears to happen when I slow down.

Even with this issue, I am overall happier with the Sony headunit.

Two items I forgot to mention comparing the two brands:

• The back up camera picture quality is vastly improved over the kenwood and stock. I’m not sure why (better contrast, color, etc.) but the image is much clearer.
• The FM reception is weaker. There is more static on all channels. This could be an install issue.

 

Are you going to go back to the installer and say "hey, wtf?"