SAT NAV unit?

[spursmaddave]

Why use the rear lighter socket and not the front one

 

Personally I wouldn't run anything from the white heater control box, I have seen people try that before and have big problems, not sure the voltage is that well controlled as the ciggy lighter sockets

[ChrisB]

Why use the rear lighter socket and not the front one

 

Errm.. us JDMs dont have a front ciggy lighter socket ..there is only the rear one.

 

edit to add: and in any case the garmin lead needs to be stretched out for best traffic reception.

 

Personally I wouldn't run anything from the white heater control box, I have seen people try that before and have big problems, not sure the voltage is that well controlled as the ciggy lighter sockets

 

Yup - prefer jumping dedicated power connections myself too.

[Mctwist]

One more thing, where did you send the aerial (the provided wire with a sucker pad that plugs into the power cable like a jack lead), because i imagine with the power cable behind the dash it wont get a signal?

For stealthiness i was thinking of sending the aerial up and out thru the top of the center console assembly and stick it down towards the bottom center of the window?

[ChrisB]

In my case I've draped (see above) the whole lot (RF antenna and power) from the cubby down and along the transmission tunnel centre console*, ie from the back of the cubby, past the HU, down past the heater controls, past the gear changer and along the centre console buried behind all plastics - which is how the wire gets stretched out to the back.

 

Its best to spread the aerial around though, keeping as much of it straight as possible. RF can travel through plastic and glass, but the metal body absorbs signal - so as long as light can fall on a radio transparent surface it can potentially receive RF too (radio is a long wavelength version of visible light). I'm not sure where the transmitters are positioned -roadside? (or what their polarization is) - in order to 'shine' the RF, through. I might move my aerial towards the triple gauges direction, when I install my wooferization hardware.

 

Traffic reception can be patchy where I have it - but its often patchy when its suckered to the window too. It usually gets a strong signal when you are already heading for into a jam but relies on the quality of (free) transmission. We've all seen overhead gantries saying completely the opposite of whats going on I bet - same with traffic reception. Good reception on the M25 though.

 

* The electronic service manual page IP-10 calls the big bit of plastic up the middle of the car the centre console. The centre dash is called cluster lid C of all things - what you called the centre console assembly - and what I referred to as dash.

[Mctwist]

In that case ill do the same. ill send the power cable down from the cubby, past the HU, past the heater controls and towards the shifter, from there ill have the antenna lead (the thing connected to the power cable) traveling along the rest of the center console. If that fails ill send the antenna cable back up through the cluster lid and sucker it to the base of the window.

 

You've been a great help chris, many thanks! Although we've totally dominated this thread lol! ah well, its relevant

 

Ill report back with my results May do a thread if its worth it?

[ChrisB]

I think we've got most of a thread here

 

..and its appropriately titled SAT NAV

 

My install parts were an Arkon stick mount (requires a slight sanding down to fit) plus a spare dash sticker disc, a waterproof cig lighter socket, some spade terminals, a short length of wire, PVC tape and cable protector sheath. £10. Everything else was standard garmin sat nav kit. Good luck with yours, mines been great.