CoastieRon's Progression of Idiocy journal & BS

Like dry erase markers. Kind of bad, but meetings are boring...

 

Well, after much hand wringing, I've decided to wire the rears direct to the amp, rather than going from the amp back up to the Maestro harness. The speaker wire I'm using is bigger gauge, and if I decide I want to move up in amp output, it'll be easier.....

 

I ended up getting the Morels, Maximo Ultra coax rear and Tempo Ultra 692 fronts. Even though the Maximos are a step below the Ultras they still have decent mid bass. Better than the kickers, even with the highpass set to 100hz. Also, they have a good mild sound very nice so far. Not sure when Ill get the 692s in though.

 

Very nice! I'm just finishing up my wire harnesses now. After that I have some clean up to do (when I put in the 692s I cut wires too long, like way too long). Trying to make it so Saturday doesn't suck lol

 

Audio 30

Here we are, all soldered. Test fitting before bundling up.



Bundled for installation

 

Audio 31

And this came in today!

 

Did some RTA work on mine today and noticed that there is some interference when you turn up the volume with no input. Cant really hear it until about 50% volume, but it's there. Just a heads up, you may want to add another ground wire that you can attach to the body.

 

Good idea. I have some grounding wire I can use. I'll go ahead and make something up tonight.

 

Audio 32

OK, all wrapped up, and with the right dash kit!


A few items of note/first impressions:

1. Holy shit what a difference in sound. The Morels I have in the truck were nice with the OEM head unit, but now they are incredible. The clarity at high volume is astounding.
2. I don't like WebLink. At all.
3. I have a Pixel 2, so my phone hooks up flawlessly to wireless Android Auto. I put my phone on the plug to get the battery charged and to have wired AA.
4. The back up camera resolution is not bad, but not as good as the OEM head unit

5. Pre-Loaded equalizer settings!
6. For some reason on the gauges I get no fuel reading:

7. The Apple Music iPod over airplay is very nice. The sound quality is better than I expected it would be.
8. The iPod and USB are labeled just that, the names don't change based on what the item says it is (my USB came up as "Catalogs" on the OEM head unit, and the iPod as "Moar Muzak")
9. Max volume before distortion was 37 on the Kenwood. That is where I tuned the amp at, 37. I turn it up to 30 and my hair is vibrating. VIBRATING. The clarity is amazing.
10. Turning the volume up, you can press and hold until it gets to 15. After 15 you have to press the up button for every notch higher you want to go. Wonder if there is something in the settings to change that.
11. Do not run Kenwood Link/WebLink at the same time as running AA. Funky shit happens.
12. If running AA, make sure the phone you are using is utilizing the GRAY USB. I know the manual says you can use either, but I call bull shit. I had my phone plugged into the black USB, and the only way it would link up to the head unit was if I downloaded Kenwood link/connect or whatever. I switched USB, and all was right; phone went right to AA.


I tuned the amp using 40hz @-5dB for the sub and 1000khz @-5dB. The Steve Meade Designs DD-1 is the most amazingly simple tuning tool. The last few amps I have set up, I used an oscilloscope, and they can be a pain in the ass. The DD-1 made this the easiest tuning ever, and is dead nuts on.

When I ran the first test song (Umphries McGee's Miami Virtue - lots of bass and full range), I was giddy. Like really giddy. Like way giddier than with the OEM unit's sound.

All in all, so far so good. Audio books have good sound, as well as the USB and iPod. Waze looks great on the screen:



Now for the dash cluster:

When you flip over to Audio you get all these choices:



GPS gives blank


Music



All others remain

Steering controls (what I have tested)

Volume works as normal
the up/down buttons on that same pad do nothing for audio. The up button changes the home screen (there are 5 home screens), and that is it. Nothing from the down button that I have found yet.


I removed screen 1, I won't be using weblink or Waze via weblink. You have to keep the phone on for that (screen stays unlocked on phone)

I have to play with the controls on the right side of the steering wheel (haven't gotten to far into that side yet), what I have found is it will control next/back on audio (up/down) if you have the audio screen up in the dash cluster.

I believe that when I had the vinyl installed on the roof, they forgot to plug the antenna in up there, because I get zero reception. Like legit zero. I'm going to call them tomorrow.

 

Also, did your phone button still function of the steering wheel?

 

Yes. Tested them today

Also

Quirk/feature I just found: holding volume down on the steering wheel you are above level 15 will mute the stereo.

When searching songs/artists in music (USB or iPod), you have to use the folder buttons. Just figured that out LOL.

Also, had the daughter in the truck and she put on Super Bass and we put it on 30. It vibrated one of the screws loos in my dash cam mount, and it dropped down in angle to Max (it was dangling from the rear view mirror). Mission complete.

 

As an aside, I believe the maestro will mute it at any volume level if you hold the Vol-, not just below 15. CNt day I’ve tested it with the maestro and this radio in tandem though

 

If it's after Lent, it'll only cost a beer.

 

Audio quick hits:

Holy crap my system is now dialed in 100% to my ears. I let my daughter pick a song the other day and we cranked it to volume level 30. She picked Super Bass by Nicki Minaj. Now I'm not a fan of hers by any means, but I have a few songs on the iPod that the kids like, and that's one of them. The bass rattled the cab so much that I was afraid the rear view mirror would fall off. Especially after the dash cam's blendview mount's screws came loose, and the camera fell from it's adjusted position.

I had a really good laugh over that.

I changed the listener position to left seat, and it changed the sound stage just a little bit, enough to notice. I'm extremely happy with this set up (right now).....

 

Added this salty ass decal to my back window area. I usually don't subscribe to putting decals on windows anymore (I did it all the time when I was much younger), but I made an exception for this one. Doesn't tell you what affiliations I have, what property I have, doesn't advertise a product, nor does it endorse a candidate, etc.




Unfortunately, it will probably get covered when the bed cover is on there. So I have an extra.....

 

Next, I'd really like to put a front facing camera in. Right here:

 

Ordered a camera yesterday. I have a couple ideas about where it should go, but who knows what will end up happening. I didn't think I was going to do it initially (who the fuck am I kidding?) so I didn't solder in a power or ground pigtail in my head unit harness like it was recommended to me to do, so I either need to:

a. pull my dash apart, take out the wire harness, unwrap tessa tape, clip and resolder in the harness, blah blah NOPE.
b. add a fuse in the engine compartment fuse box and ground in that area.

I'm gonna go with b. But first, I need to figure out how to do what I need to do. Ideally, I would find someone who could 3d print a mount to fit right in here:



I wonder if anyone who 3d prints still has (or ever had) this type of grill (ehem @mesojdm )

This is the camera:

$23 Car Backup Camera, HD Night Vision, 3-in-1 Front/Side/Rear View, Waterproof Universal Fit, Black

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B018800TR2/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

I made some progress yesterday with installing the cam. I used J-B Weld Plastic bonder to attach the camera mount bracket to the grille:



As you can see, when I applied, I put it on the wrong damn section at first.


I ran all the wires through the firewall to hook up to power and the head unit (ran out of time last night)




All in all, the J-B Weld adhered pretty quickly, but I think I got it as centered as I could. Tonight I'll finish this up, run the Vid wire to the head unit, and run the power/ground. I also got a rattle can of satin black to cover up that glob of J-B Weld LOL

 

Today I finished up installing a front view camera.

Now when you hit CAM button on head unit, the front cam comes up



Long press screen and it switches to back up camera





Pretty slick. It also auto turns on forward camera when I'm doing like 1 or 2 mph.

 

Moved my amp fuse block. Was here:



Then I moved it here:



Then I took it off and wrapped it with some vinyl



And now it is done.