Started the tv install today. Ran the "screen interceptor cable" behind the screen but I'm too nervous to cut the original wires yet Also patched the FM modulator in-line and ran the IR eye. Next comes the power and the **four** included diversity antennas!! I figure one on the windshield, one following the hidden sat install procedure, and one each in the side rear glass. Oh and the NAV/aux video source switch. I'm thinking of mounting it near the convenience light under the stereo.. keep it out of view. I also ran the IR eye down there.. didn't want it sticking out by the screen or taped up near the stereo as I've seen elsewhere. I don't expect to use the remote all that much.

Leaving for Cali in 8 days, and I can't work on the kit this Saturday!

 

Take plenty of pictures! I'm definitely interested in seeing the outcome of your project, as I think I'll be following suit shortly...except I'll be using an Xbox...

 

Finished the avelectronic tv kit install today. Terrible timing with generator's wonderful announcement, but I think people want to hear some feedback anyway. Don't buy this unit for the tv reception if you live in the suburbs. I bought the kit because I mainly wanted to provide an a/v input for a multimedia PC that drove video to the nav screen and audio to the stereo (and rarely play xbox). This unit fans 3 inputs (plus tv) across 3 outputs, one output being the nav screen. It does not do dual-zoning. Their next unit up does. The unit requires a connection to the parking brake indicator to meet federal regulations. However, I plan to run XMMS (Linux's answer to Winamp) most of the time and will frequently need the PC display up. Also, having 2 more outputs will let me run the headrests this thread was originally about and run a/v (DashCam!) back to the PC for in-car video conferencing with NetMeeting or GnomeMeeting.

First, I removed the display and the stereo the same way everyone else has. Next, I ran the "video intercept" cable bundle from under my seat up behind the screen, without an inch to spare. Then I ran the "IR eye" and dropped it down all the way at the forward end of the storage tray forward of the shifter. Next, I had my friend dremel a hole on the left side of the "chin trim" under the stereo. This is for the rocker switch that lets the driver select the nav or aux video on the display. The switch had to sit very far forward in order to have sufficient headroom on top.

Today was cutting day. Had my friend perform the "hidden antenna" install (which everyone has seen ) and put together a power bundle. I picked up a cigarette adapter with bare wires on the far end. My friend recommended these little tubes from radio shack that make attaching wires SOO much easier. You know the phrase "measure twice, cut once?" Well, I was so nervous about cutting the wires to the screen that I measured about 10 times and cut once! Trust me, there isn't a whole lot of room behind the screen to cut, strip, twist, solder, and tape wires. Five wires need to be cut and all but one actually intercept the signal going to the screen by routing the signals to the new box and back up to the screen. The fifth wire is just ground and you are basically adding a 2nd leg to the ground.

If you cut all the foam and electrical tape off the screen wiring bundle, you have about 3 1/2 inches of wire to work with and you have to identify, cut, and rebind 5 wires out of about 20. Oh, and four of them are green The stock wires going to the screen are about 22 gauge, and the new wires going to and from the a/v box are about 28 gauge. Talk about tiny! I had too much coffee this morning, so while my friend was too nervous about cutting the wrong wires, I cut 'em, and he had no problems splicing.

For power, we bound the power and "safety lead" together on the hot side and ran ground to ground. We removed the armrest insert, the trim near the armrest lock, and then plugged in the cigarette adatper. We were able to run the power cable up the side of the armrest area in between the outer wall and the inner wall, then drop the cable down near the armrest compartment lock, and it dropped out below the receiver clip for the driver's seatbelt. With the hidden antenna install, my friend was able to run the antenna leads behind the trim until they dropped out under the driver's seat. Very impressive, but short by about 4 inches. Two Radio Shack mono miniplug extenders later, and I had a totally invisble tv antenna.

Here are a couple of pictures. One of the tv reception quality at its absolute best about a mile or two from Philly's tv towers (Roosevelt Blvd), and the other demonstrating where to reach to switch the video between the nav display and aux inputs. Oh, and I have no complaints at all about the sound coming from the FM modulator. I may not need the PAC Audio kit after all. Pictures of the video toggle switch and the "IR eye" to follow.

 

How does one attach more than one picture here?

The promised pic showing how I switch the video between nav and tv/aux.

 

That's sweet! Now if you can get satellite tv working....

 

Absolutely awesome. So you are going with the screens inside of the headrest? I was thinking about doing that, but think I might miss the ability to tilt the headrest forward...I absolutely love that. What screens are you going with for the rear?

EDIT: Nevermind...I see that they still tilt...I guess my search for rear monitors is over.

 

I've thought about getting the headrests with screens, but we don't have any kids yet. I'm kinda leaning towards getting the headrests, though, just to make sure I get them while they're still being made. I'd hate to go back a year or two from now and they're nowhere to be found, you know?

Oh, I forgot to point out that the avelectronic kit came in a box marked "03-04 Murano" and had a custom supplemental data sheet inside. Even though the supplemental sheet didn't specify it was for a Murano, they had perfect details about the display connector, the purpose of each wire and exactly where to attach their 9 new wires (either to the display controller, to the screen, or in-line between the controller and the screen).

It would be great if someone here could fabricate a Y-adapter that sits between the screen and the cable bundle coming from the display controller. That would be huge seller as more people begin to hack their screens. Disconnect the cable bundle from the screen, connect it to the new Y-adapter, plug the Y-adapter into the screen and start binding the wires from the aux unit to the third leg of the Y-adapter. Heck, I'd buy a new display cable bundle from Nissan and start over if someone developed that Y-adapter here, just to have a reversible process!

When looking at the plug removed from the back of the display, with the clip on top, there are 12 holes across with 2 rows, for 24 holes total (some unoccupied). The top row is 1-12 and the bottom, 13-24. The ones to cut and route out and back in are 6 and 7 on top and 17 and 19 on the bottom. 18 on the bottom needs to be tapped into, not fully rerouted like the others. They are easy to spot because when counting in from the left edge, there are gaps and the wires that need to be rerouted are the first 2 on top after the gap, and the first 3 on the bottom after the gap! The middle of the bottom 3 is the one to be tapped, not rerouted. If anyone wants to fabricate a Y-adapter to make tapping those lines easy, PLEASE let me know. First things first is to determine the make and model of these 24-pin connectors.

Anyone have a Mouser catalog laying around? Mine are pretty old.

 

Here's a shot of the underside of the stereo where you can see the "IR eye" held by a velcro dot and the secret rocker switch used to switch the screen between the nav and tv/aux input. It only switches the video going to the nav screen, not the audio going to the FM modulator, or the video going to any other video outputs (i.e. headrests)

 

Here's a side shot of the rocker, the IR eye, and if you look closely, you'll notice a yellowish-white cable sneaking up behind the trim off to the left side. Those are basically the only 3 things you can see in plain view (besides the remote) that hint to the presence of the aux input kit. Very clean install.

 

And finally, here I demo using the remote. With the IR eye way up underneath the rear of the stereo, its best to just point straight back with my hand leaning on the shifter. Its about the size of a credit card, so it shares the cellular pocket with my Nextel i730 very nicely.

 

Nice job.....did you buy the dvd player that AVelec offers or did you use a 3rd party unit?

 

Sweet Install Steve!

Dude, you really are the King Geek! :18:

It's a real clean installation. It's nice to add aftermarket stuff, but I really only like it when it looks built-in with all the wires and such hidden away. That's one of the reasons I probably wouldn't replace the Bose system. The subwoofer and amp installations posted here probably sound great, but the space they consume in the cargo area kind of defeat the purpose for me. Stereo replacement would also be better if the head unit could be removed w/o messing up other stuff, like the nav, etc. . . .


. . . but I digress. Post the pix when you have the xbox running.

 

I haven't put a DVD player in yet. I'm driving to Cali on Saturday so it was most important to get MP3s playing from my laptop. When I get back, I'm planning to start building a PC based on Mini-ITX running Linux, and probably install it in the armrest. My goal is to run a bunch of things on the PC.

a) 802.11 with Kismet network detection
b) gpsdrive for live location plotting with wardriving logos
c) XMMS for MP3 playback
d) mplayer for playback of tv shows and DVDs captured and ripped by MythTV running in the house
e) GnomeMeeting for video conferencing (after vpn'ing into my friends' firewalls)

MythTV splits the tv capture and dvd/mp3 ripping functions off of the display function. I'll have a PC running MythTV inside the house, capturing tv shows, HBO movies, and ripping DVD directly to DiVX or similar. Then I'll build a replication feature to select previously recorded tv shows to pull down to the car over wireless before heading off to work, or copy some ripped DVDs to my laptop and then replicate the various movie files up to the car pc before a long drive. My wife and I live in a condo, so I can't run an ethernet line directly to the car until we move into a house.

In other words, I may never put a DVD player in, only because I plan instead to play MPEG4 dvd and tv show captures directly from the hard drive. Oh and Mike, I have 3 sets of RCA L/R/V inputs, so all I need to do to run xbox in the car is carry it outside! The new unit cycles between two sets of regular tv channels, two sets of cable tv channels (??), and three A/V inputs. Put the PC on one set of inputs, xbox on another, and leave the 3rd open for the optional backup camera that kicks in automatically when I put the car in reverse.

 

i like the idea of the pc....how will you get the pc to ouput a composite signal. Are you going to use a ATI type video card? I got the ALL-IN-WONDER PRO radeon with composite tv output and it works great with dvd's but the resolution is not good enough for high res text or windows aps. I hope you have a good converter/card.

i wish i knew you were doing all of this just for a pc. you could have skipped buying the AVElectonic unit and went right from the laptop to the nav screen with a simple circuit (different than my than my x-box circuit though). The basic signals are already sitting on the laptop VGA port.

im not knockin your installation though...i like it. i have the highest respect for anyone who is willing to take their brand new baby and cut up harnesses to get cutting edge technology into the car. i felt so bad when I took an exacto blade to my harness. i just closed my eyes and didn't look back!

 

Thanks, generator. I'll be staying in midtown Manhattan through most of July and August, we definitely need to get together at some point.

You know, the more I think about it, the happier I get that I went with the unit. I was really under a time crunch here to get audio directly fed (4 more days!) and I think I like being able to switch between tv and 3 a/v inputs. As n2muranos said, even if the video reception isn't in, its nice to be able to listen to the tv sound while the news is on. And now that I'm plug n play with 3 inputs and 2 amplified outputs for headrests, all the hard work is done. Its is slowly becoming worth it

If the PAC Audio kit had been ready in April as promised, I probably would have gone with that and then would have seen your success *before* buying any video kits instead of after. In the meantime, to answer your question, check out mini-itx.com. Its a fansite of sorts for a micro form factor motherboard with all the multimedia features built-in, including vga, s-video, and composite out right on the mainboard! The thing is about 1.5x the size of a paperback book, so its intended to be embedded in small places. There's a nice pocket of space behind the stereo on the firewall that would be a perfect place to mount such a PC, if I didn't want to give up the armrest compartment.

 

NEARLY FRIED THE TV KIT!!

Ever since I put the tv kit in, the tv reception has mostly been a blue screen. I figured the reception was just so poor that the unit went to the default blue screen like most new tv sets -- after all, I only installed one out of *four* included antennas. This theory was bolstered by a test of driving into Center City Philadelphia and getting the video to kick in, producing the pictures presented here. The vast majority of the time, however, especially when closer to home in the suburbs, the video would just blue screen.

Today, I went to go out to take pictures of the X-Box running per msfiveiron's request. I have a great custom-made padded backpack with the XBox logo. Took everything to the car, heard the powerup sounds, but.... blue screen!

Went back inside and called avelectronic to ask WTFIU and Sam knew right away.. I connected the safety override to the wrong polarity!

:32:

He quickly reminded me that its against federal law to watch tv or movies while driving :14: :blahblah: and I accepted that responsibility. He said that the safety cable needs to be connected to the emergency brake safety. Then he explained that the safety actually gets grounded when the emergency brake gets applied -- it doesn't go hot. The instructions definitely say negative (well, they show "-12v" in one place and "-" in another), but the :11: lawyers wanted him to make it a little vague so that only professional installers would know how to read it properly. He went on to warn me that since I intentionally miswired it, and accidentally miswired it to the wrong polarity, any damage to the unit wouldn't be covered.

I switched the safety line from positive to negative and it still works!! :2: The tv stays on all the time now, even with the crappiest, snowiest signal you've ever seen on a tv. I should get XBox pix tomorrow. It is kindof neat seeing tv reception coming in and out as I move along, as it reminds me of the radio theory I learned with my amateur radio hobby.

If anyone buys the avelectronic tv tuner, the safety wire can be wired to ground, federal laws notwithstanding.

 

Oh No! Another Amateur Radio Operator!

I've created many of them in my life.... (as well as being one) as I used to be an Inspector with the Canadian DOC. (Translated, FCC Engineer...)

 

Yes sir, "ham I am". I was just sitting here wiring up a 2m mobile for the xcountry trip (3 days!) I told my wife last night, "I can't believe I'm planning to go across the country without ham radio" and she replied, "how stupid are you?" So I dug out a Yaesu FT-1500M I bought last year "just for the price" and I'm wiring it up now with my 5/8-wave 2m magmount. I wish I could find an SWR meter to tune it before heading out. I think last I looked, the whip was centered somewhere around 152MHz, just a wee bit high.

Paired up with the tv kit (NTSC CATV Channels 57-60 are 70cm ham freqs), and I will have quite a mobile station for something I didn't intend to do until today. I'll probably just leave it on 146.52 as I make my way across. Thank God my AIM id reminds me what my callsign is

 

Excuse the totally off topic direction, we'll have to start a new thread if it gets too far, but at least you're active! My rigs are sitting around, it's terrible... Moved 6 years ago and haven't done anything with it since.

Hmmm... now it's got me thinking about where to put a radio.

 

xbox on avelectronic

Its my favorite time of year in Liberty City. Nothing warms my heart like watching people flee in terror as I push the charred shell of a pickup truck up the street with my tank. :2: (B-B-B-B-B-B-right trigger-white-left trigger-Y-B-Y, btw)

 

and here's the kit with the driver's seat pulled all the way forward.. look for the antenna cable coming from the b-pillar on the left. You can also see how I zip tied the bundle at the 11 o'clock and 4 o'clock positions to clean it up. Near the top zip tie, look for two red "crimp tubes". They make attaching two stripped wires so easy. The loose cable exiting downward connects to my laptop for mp3 music.

 

and finally, with the driver's seat in the normal driving position.. just the cable out for the laptop is visible, and that will go away once I install a PC in the armrest compartment or behind the stereo against the firewall.

 

Simply awesome. What a install. I am definitely impressed even more than I was before.

Thanks for all of the pictures. It definitely helps to pave the way for the rest of us! :29: :29: :29: :29:

 

Thanks. It really wasn't that big of a deal. I'm more upset that my bud didn't take pictures while he was running the antenna cable. I didn't even see it happen -- he just said "done!" I think patience was definitely key. I did it over several days -- as you've read -- instead of trying to tackle the whole thing at once. I wanted a very clear head on "cutting day".

Snow, you're in Pittsburgh, right? I can talk to my bud about taking a ride out to help you out if you're interested. Also, you know about my big xcountry trip starting tomorrow. Well, we're expecting to stay in Pitt on Tuesday June 15th on the return leg after dinner with some friends. If you swing by pretty early on Wednesday, I'll gladly give you a demo. Keep in mind after 2 1/2 weeks, we WILL be chomping at the bit to get home, of course, so it won't take THAT long!

 

Ah! That's awesome that you will be in town...unfortunately I'm going to be on vacation in Florida from the 11th to the 19th. I would defniitely be more than willing to meet up sometime down the road, but it doesn't look like its going to work out this time.