DAB+ into a 2013 Corolla ZRE182R?

[SteveAndBelle]

Hi all.

About to take delivery of a very lightly used 2013 ZRE182R to replace my old ZRE152 that was written off a few days ago. Gotta say the '182 is leaps and bounds better than the old '152 so I think I'm going to really like it :)

The '182 has the factory double-din NAV Head Unit and from the brief play I've had it looks to be pretty decent however I really want DAB+ in this car as I bought a decent Pioneer unit for the previous car and now can't go back to FM ;)

Short of replacing the whole Head Unit with the non-NAV Pioneer I pulled out of the old car or blowing $1000+ on a new Pioneer with NAV and DAB+, is there any way of nicely feeding a DAB+ signal into the original? I've had a look at the pinout diagram of the rear connections and it doesn't look as though there's an easy way of injecting a simple Left/Right stereo feed but in saying that I'm now actually sure which model head unit I have so maybe it is possible?!

Any help would be appreciated.

[SteveAndBelle]

UPDATE

I've had the head unit out and have been experimenting with the various concepts as others here have discovered both here and on other Toyota forums and I've managed to get the on-screen 'AUX' button activated and have successfully fed it a headphone-level stereo signal from my phone... and it sounds great! My next mission is to prove 100% that I can also inject a composite video signal and if so I'll look at getting a DVB-T/DAB+ hideaway tuner which will display the DAB+ info on the screen plus of course allow TV viewing to boot (but of course only when stationary).

I'll update this thread with my findings but from what I've seen elsewhere I think this may just work! Fingers crossed....

[SteveAndBelle]

Hi again.

Just dropped a tiny $64 on one of these: http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Car-Mobile-Free-View-DVB-T-Digital-TV-Receiver-Box-MPEG-2-Antenna-USB-SD-Slot-/121121942924?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_15&hash=item1c336e2d8c eBay is currently having a 20% off sale so I couldn't resist :) From what I can tell this is exactly the same as this $715 unit: http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/CAR-MOBILE-Portable-DVB-T-Digital-TV-Receiver-SET-BOX-/130859937059?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_15&hash=item1e77dc2d23 I've already confirmed with the local seller that these will receive DAB+ not just DAB as per the description. DAB is the 'European' Standard and you really have to check to see if the item can do both before making a mistake.

Of course this might be super-crap too but for $64 I thought it was worthwhile, even just as a DAB+ tuner. I will definitely be looking at a proper dual antenna rig to feed it a decent signal but only once I know it works.

Will post more when I know more...

[SteveAndBelle]

Success! Managed to get a video signal to appear when AV is selected using pins 13 & 14 of the 28-pin connector. It was only up there briefly as I'm literally just stuffing wires down into the connector but it did work nevertheless which was enough to prove the concept. I will go get a connector from a wrecker or off another harness so I can solder up some proper pins and retest this soon.

Looks like the AV input is a go-er for stereo Audio and Video. Next thing to experiment with is the Handbrake & Speed sensor cut-outs and hope there isn't also a GPS based speed sensor cut-out too. If there is a GPS cut-out then that will kill all hope of getting this to work nicely.

[SteveAndBelle]

Ha, went to Northfield Nundah today and asked if they had either a genuine Toyota 28-pin plug or just the pins to insert into one or just something else suitable I could use the pins from. No problem about paying for any of it, I just thought they of all people would have something suitable. I was presented with a blank faced member of staff who asked what I was trying to do. I explained and was told "nah, that isn't possible". I thought he may have misunderstood so I explained it again but even before I finished he said "nah, impossible" so I told him I had it working last night, thanked him and walked out. Wow, they really know what they're talking about (not).

All good. I'll probably just try to get an original loom plug from a wrecked car and remove the pins from that or buy a male-female harness adaptor such as the one attached. The harness adaptor cable would be ideal as I could leave the original loom completely untouched and do all my silly mods (inc. handbrake & speed sensor bypass) to the adaptor instead. This would allow me to take everything back to original untouched perfection within a matter of seconds if required. They're about $50 though, blerg.

[SteveAndBelle]

UPDATE: my Xtrons 'Car Digital TV Receiver' (http://go.redirectingat.com/?id=2061X573376&site=au.toyotaownersclub.com&xs=1&isjs=1&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.com.au%2Fitm%2FCar-Mobile-Free-View-DVB-T-Digital-TV-Receiver-Box-MPEG-2-Antenna-USB-SD-Slot-%2F121121942924%3Fpt%3DLH_DefaultDomain_15%26hash%3Ditem1c336e2d8c&xguid=3470d32adc6bc90dc2716c509181582e&xuuid=fd5d86ee53f809af1a4c1752787899fa&xsessid=dfb67205264bd98c753e6ab224e39d6a&xcreo=0&xed=0&sref=http%3A%2F%2Fau.toyotaownersclub.com%2Fforums%2Ftopic%2F51465-dab-into-a-2013-corolla-zre182r%2F&pref=http%3A%2F%2Fau.toyotaownersclub.com%2Fforums%2Findex.php%3Fapp%3Dcore%26module%3Dglobal%26section%3Dlogin&xtz=-600) arrived yesterday. 10 days from China, not too shabby! I ripped it out of its box, connected it to a TV and had a play. Seems to work quite well when on the test bench however I know the supplied magnetic antenna isn't going to hold up receiving DAB+ signals while moving so I've ordered a couple of these stick-on amplified antennas to experiment with: http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/351422658564?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

Still waiting for the harness (pictured above) to arrive before I get back into pulling the dash apart but so far all seems to be looking good.

[SteveAndBelle]

The harness arrived on Friday so I decided to begin the install today... even though the good antennas still a couple of weeks away. I soldered up the Red, White & Yellow AV cable supplied with the Digital Tuner directly to the pins on the harness and grounded the AV detection pin but no matter what I did I couldn't get it working as it was before. Over an hour later I decided to disconnect all plugs from the head unit then reconnect them 20 seconds later just to give it a decent reset. Bingo, the AV input worked again so it must've shut itself down while I was playing around with it. Connected the Digital Tuner and was watching crystal clear Digital TV and listening to DAB+ soon after. I then dealt with the handbrake sensor and speed sensor and took the car for a spin. Apart from the so-so reception from the tiny magnetic antenna supplied with the Tuner it worked perfectly so once the amplifier stick-on antenna arrives it should be as close to perfect as it can be.

I've put it all back to stock (a 5 second job thanks to the harness) while I wait for the antenna to arrive but I've attached a couple of shots of the harness and a shot of the head unit displaying Channel 7 News just to show it working . Any questions please feel free to ask.

[trentmeyer23]

You must really like the news! :P

[SteveAndBelle]

You must really like the news! :P

Ha, it's what it was on at the time :)