[RedDR]

Ok, so I was thrilled with my Pioneer head unit. Looks good and sounds great. But, I found out today that the sound for phone calls only comes out of the phone; called Crutchfield, and apparently I need to open the damned dashboard up again to connect the parking brake wire, just to be able to reset the sound to something called "speaker mode". Even though I have no intention of ever playing a DVD while driving, the stupid thing won't allow me to set the audio for the Bluetooth phone to go through the truck's speakers. Unbelievable.

So how do I hook up to the parking brake wire; is this just a crimp-on parallel connector?

 

[Mike50Design]

Just wire it to ground. It's supposed to keep you from playing dvd's and making calls when the parking brake is disengaged, but you can just keep it constantly fooled by grounding it.

 

[RedDR]

Thanks.

Actually from the reading I did on Pioneer's website and other places, grounding is what the older units looked for but the new ones need to be hooked up to the 12v positive to the warning light.

Hopefully it's an easily-accessible single wire but many things on these trucks are not easily accessible!

 

[phatB]

you just need a bypass, something like this depending on the model

[video link no longer valid]

 

[Rickd123]

I ran mine directly to ground. Occasionally I get a warning message saying my connection is not correct but I just say ok and all is well. My Pioneer head unit is 2 years old so if your model is in that time frame grounding should work.

 

[thenzero]

Which unit do you have?

 

[RedDR]

AVH-201EX.

They apparently caught onto the fact that people were just grounding the wire, and changed how it works.

Not going to install a bypass; since I have to open it up anyway I'll wire it the way they want it.

What torques me is that you should not have to do this simply to set the unit to play phone audio via Bluetooth through the speakers. That's BS.

 

[phatB]

I guess it's so you theoretically can't be moving while messing with the phone. "safety feature" I suppose. I got a bypass for $7 on ebay... just waiting on a head unit. funny thing is our parking brake has so much SLOP in it that we can pull it half way up before it even starts to grab (mine does anyway anyway), so it's easily "bypassed" anyway! but i don't know if that's all you have to do to 'activate' the feature. i remember on my wife's old alpine it was some combo of parking brake, press something, release parking brake, hold your breath, and something else before the desired feature would become available... huge PITA. what's $7 for a bypass to avoid that BS when you drop a couple hundred on a HU anyway, not to mention $50 in other needed stuff like steering wheel controls, bluetooth bypass, usb adapter, etc...

 

[Mfed]

That doesn't sound right. The BT connection should be providing you all the audio outlet functions (phone, music, any other BT audio...) through the truck's speakers without the 'media/DVD bypass' or ground - that's only for playing video, not audio. That's the whole reason behind the BT connection, to make/take handsfree calls and/or listen to music over BT instead of a wired connection.

Are you sure it paired with your phone correctly? Does your phone need to give special permissions to the HU to function correctly over BT? Does it only have trouble with phone calls or does it also not play BT music through the speakers? Can you hit the 'phone' button on the HU and bring up your contacts and/or make a call? Something's not hooked up or paired correctly but it just sounds like it has nothing to do with your parking brake wire or ground. I'd call Pioneer tech support directly if you keep having trouble with it - Crutchfield is good and all but I think they made the wrong call on this one...I can see how leaving something like the parking brake wire unconnected would be an 'incomplete installation' and might cause trouble, but it's just hard to believe it's interfering with the BT. I've got a Pioneer HU as well and I've run it fine without the parking brake wire hooked up as well (have since connected it, but it never messed with the BT).

 

[RedDR]

No, pretty sure I'm right on with this. The phone is paired properly and I even unpaired and redid it.

It does everything right including allowing me to both initiate and answer calls on either the head unit or the phone. The truck sees all my contacts, etc.

The manual states that all DVD functionality and BT detailed setup requires that wire to be hooked up to a pulsed 12v.

The problem is the radio defaults to network mode instead of speaker mode. That is what is preventing the sound to come through the speakers - I need to switch it to speaker mode, which I cannot do until I hook up that wire.

 

[phatB]

ah, i think during initial setup you need to choose which mode you want, then it saves it...
maybe it defaulted to network. maybe try unhooking 12v to reset it

 

[RedDR]

Ok. First, killing power does not reset it, tried that.

I went ahead and hooked up the green wire to the parking brake switch wire. I know it's connected right, because now I am able to do a factory reset on the radio. I did so, but the problem is still there.

The problem remains, and is isolated to, sound coming through the truck's speakers only when using the phone.

The radio reads all of my contacts, recent calls, etc. I can initiate and answer calls on it just fine. If I turn the radio volume ALL the way up, I can just slightly hear the phone conversation through the speakers. And that is with the phone call volume turned all the way up on the phone.

Streaming music from Amazon Music on my phone to the truck works fine. So does the audio from the phone if I'm watching a YouTube video on the phone.

This same phone (LG G6) sends phone call audio to my car just fine.

Any ideas?

 

[sckc]

Is your truck a king cab? Do you have oem rear speakers?

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

 

[RedDR]

Yeah, it's a KC. There really are no 'rear' speakers. The head unit sees the A-pillar speakers as Front and the door speakers as Rear.

 

[thenzero]

I apologize in advance if this is stupidly obvious, you already tried it etc, but...

On my set up, this setting is up to the phone and not the radio. When I make a call, there's a little button on my iPhone that says Audio, you press it and then choose how you will be taking the call. My wife's Odyssey and my parents' cars both allow you to change it from either the phone or the radio.

If you have Android, I'm sure there's something similar.

On the radio itself, going by the manual of the model number you provided, there is a "private mode" on or off which controls exactly this. It's the second item on page 19 of the manual.

Again, sorry if these are ridiculously obvious things to say, but want to make sure we're covering all the bases here.

 

[RedDR]

Yes I know exactly what you are referring to. Radio is not on Private mode, and the phones (both that Ive tried) have Bluetooth audio turned on.

Those phones work fine when using them in my other vehicle.

 

[thenzero]

OK, so to recap the symptoms, your radio works fine, bluetooth music from the phone plays normally, but when you try to make a call, the audio plays on the phone (you've actually had a conversation on the phone this way? or are you just assuming this since you don't hear from the radio?) and not the radio. However, when you turn the volume way way up you are able to hear the sound from the phone coming through the speakers? This happened with two different phones which also both work in another vehicle or similar set up. Sound about right?

 

[thenzero]

Did you watch this already?

https://www.pioneerelectronics.com/PUSA/Car/CD-Receivers/Understanding+Standard+Mode+2-Way+Output+or+Network+Mode+3-Way+Output

Have you tried using a paperclip to reset your unit by pushing it into that little hole on the front, bottom left side? See if that gets you back to that initial settings screen.

 

[thenzero]

Here's another post about this issue, and someone claims the same as your tech support person, once parking brake input is hooked up correctly, it should be resettable:

https://www.reddit.com/r/CarAV/comments/3mpn8u/help_pioneer_head_unit_stuck_in_network_mode/

Althought it's hard to see how this could be, since the parking brake hook up is presumably not functional when power is disconnected...

 

[RedDR]

Did you watch this already?

https://www.pioneerelectronics.com/...ode+2-Way+Output+or+Network+Mode+3-Way+Output

Have you tried using a paperclip to reset your unit by pushing it into that little hole on the front, bottom left side? See if that gets you back to that initial settings screen.

That doesn't apply yo the radio I have.

Crutchfield is sending me a replacement unit. Hopefully that's the resolution.