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61

Omega Electrical and Audio Help / Re:  replace the steering wheel controls

« on: 16 December 2006, 21:04:27 »

hmmm ... noticed that on mine too. The volume up turns it down, the middle button on the right does squat, the bottom one turns it up. I've had the controls out and they basically switch a different value resistance to a common feed depending on which button is pressed. All connections on the board looked OK so I'm thinking perhaps it's the squib that's at fault ... but haven't done anything else about it yet!

It appears that the left side is the same too, again possibly pointing to the squib?

62

Omega Electrical and Audio Help / Re: No sound from replacement Kenwood CD player.

« on: 25 November 2006, 20:21:16 »

if it's the bose system, the amp is fitted to a plastic tray underneath the parcel shelf.

Aha!! It's an estate!! So where do they hide it on the estate?

But if it's to the rear of the car, then what powers the front speakers?

As stated, I believe the amp on the estate is in a compartment in the boot - possibly the nearside

IIRC, the bose "amp" filters the bass from the front and rear speakers, then sends it to the (seperate) woofer(s) - I believe there is only one on the estate. So the connection is head unit to amp to front speaker ... hence why you get squat from all speakers when the amp trips!

63

Omega Electrical and Audio Help / Re: No sound from replacement Kenwood CD player.

« on: 23 November 2006, 18:55:17 »

if it's the bose system, the amp is fitted to a plastic tray underneath the parcel shelf.

Essentially, the "speaker" outputs from the bose badged head unit are line level (0.7 volts or thereabouts) - these connect to the amp which filters and amplifies them, then feeds the amplified signal back to the speakers.

You therefore have three main choices that come to mind:

1) remove the amp, connect input to output for each speaker connection at the plug which connects to the amp - this is what was done on my old miggy - it works but there is then very little signal sent to the woofers on the parcel shelf so the bass is a bit lacking

2) make a wiring loom to feed the pre-out signal from the replacement head unit into the "speaker" connections on the ISO plug, these are generally higher than 0.7V but hopefully will be low enough to not cause the amp to trip out. I proposed this but never implemented it on my old miggy - but the opinion at the time was that this will work OK - and sound significantly better than option 1 !!!

3) as per 1) - but connect an after-market amplifier between input and output ...

64

Omega Electrical and Audio Help / Re: Xenon headlights

« on: 12 November 2006, 12:45:48 »

depends on whether your car is a pre or post-facelift model. I've had the headlights out on a pre-facelift and the ballast packs are fixed to the underside of the headlight unit, I assume that the facelift ones are the same but I haven't had any reason to remove them yet !!

From memory, the ballast packs are sealed units too ... so not a lot you can do with 'em - but it's worth checking their input to ensure the connector's not corroded or anything like that.

Just remember to remove the battery neg lead and leave for a minute or two before touching any of the electrical connections.

65

Omega Electrical and Audio Help / Re: i Pod kits for miggys

« on: 10 November 2006, 00:47:31 »

well if you look in the interior pic :



controller is to the right of gearstick - display in corner of the right-hand 'A' pillar. Control unit is behind passenger footwell kick panel (OK you can't see that bit !)

- those areas may all be free on yours, if not ... erm how about a smart phone so you can run sat nav on that?  

66

Omega Electrical and Audio Help / Re: i Pod kits for miggys

« on: 21 October 2006, 12:44:31 »

better late than never ... the best on I've found is the harman kardon "drive & play" - manufacturer's web site here, for sale on fleabay here for £85 inc. VAT and delivery.

it looks like this:

 

the control unit is about the same size as a mobile phone handsfree unit, so gets tucked out of sight. The controller and screen are sited in the cabin near the driver, the cable to the ipod is fairly long but on mine the ipod sits in the glovebox, locked away. The wired FM modulator (2nd pic) comes with UK versions of the kit as FM transmission isn't allowed here (plus if my experience with a griffin itrip auto is anything to go by, are a waste of time in the miggy anyway)

It connects to the radio by either a supplied 3.5mm plug to twin phono plug (ie, hardwired aux input) which is the preferred option - or via the FM modulator - I had to choose this option as I've got the bose setup in mine. You get a bit of white noise during quiet bits of music if the volume is up - but it's not really a problem and probably what you'll always get with FM anyway?

Normal retail price is about £130-ish, I took the easy route and got it installed whilst I was on holiday though - cost me £200 (supplied and fitted) all in, the sharp eyed may have spotted it in the recent pics of my miggy

67

Omega Electrical and Audio Help / Re: volume control

« on: 28 October 2006, 15:15:52 »

nope but I've developed the same problem on mine :-(

from the wiring diagram, it appears that all the controls use a single wire back to the radio. What happens is that when you press a button, it connects a different resistance between ground and this wire.

I've already taken the controls out of the wheel and re-made the connections to the flyleads, which worked great ... until I drove the car again. Therefore, I'm thinking that the contact between the wheel and steering column might be the culprit, trouble is that'll probably require a steering wheel puller which I don't have ...

68

Omega Electrical and Audio Help / Re: BOSE CD PLAYER Flaking out.

« on: 21 October 2006, 12:26:04 »

bear in mind though, if you swap the head unit for a different one (ie, non-bose) then you will have to make some modifications as the "speaker" outputs are actually line level and passed through to the amp under the parcel shelf, amplified there and then passed back to the speakers.

It's been done before though ...

69

Omega Electrical and Audio Help / Re: BOSE CD PLAYER Flaking out.

« on: 18 October 2006, 20:39:19 »

been through this before, I think it was with a user of the yahoo groups omega forum ... basically the player is bloody picky about what CDR's it will work with. I use black-bottomed discs, burnt at 16X and they are OK if burnt on a Plextor drive ... burn the same discs at the same speed on a lite-on drive and it starts having trouble again ...  

However if it's giving this sort of error on an original CD that has no scratches, then it might be dying ...

70

Omega Electrical and Audio Help / Re: radio mute

« on: 16 September 2006, 18:05:22 »

there may be a label on the top of your head unit, there was on mine. Pics are here - when the phone is in use the GID shows "external audio". I believe there is a connector behind the glove box which is pre-wired for car kits and allows use of the front speakers and microphone in the courtesy light - although I didn't use that myself as I didn't know about it!!

71

Omega Electrical and Audio Help / Re: radio removal

« on: 02 September 2006, 12:24:21 »

remove the 4 grubs screws with an allen key and said tools (hunts round for them)

- "Vauxhall double DIN radio removal keys" - £3.99 retail from Halfrauds, Autoleads box, item code 254565

72

Omega Electrical and Audio Help / Re: Facelift ICE options

« on: 11 August 2006, 22:59:07 »

... does the Bose amp deal with all the speakers or just the back ones?

all of 'em ... it had been ripped out on my old miggy, I traced the wiring to where the amp should have been and there were feeds and returns for front and rear speakers - each feed connected to its' respective return.

73

Omega Electrical and Audio Help / Re: Facelift ICE options

« on: 11 August 2006, 19:21:57 »

in the absence of someone with more knowledge -  haven't actually tried this yet!

hopefully the sub will have a gain control so you can adjust its' volume relative to the remaining speakers, in addition it'd also need to have a low-pass filter so that it only "hears" the bass part of the signal, but again I'd have thought this would be part of the sub's amplifier anyway. I'd expect the "remote" connector is a remote power switch-on signal which allows the amp to be switched on and off with the head unit. Basically although you connect big fat power cables to the amp, they should only be passing significant current when a voltage is present on the "remote" lead. Most after-market head units have this, not sure about the factory fit one though - there is a powered antenna output (see pics of the connector on my NCDC2013 here) - however I have a nasty feeling that on some radios this is only live when the radio is selected - so if you switch to the CD player the voltage on the antenna power lead disappears?

You'll need to check the instructions that came with the amp for the correct fuse rating, it may also give recommendations on the correct gauge wire to use too.

74

Omega Electrical and Audio Help / Re: Facelift ICE options

« on: 09 August 2006, 23:53:31 »

but the Alpine amp doesn't have speaker in connetors, only RCA's

... a trip to maplin's and some soldering would be required ... just get a phono lead, cut it in the middle and solder onto the bose amp's wiring loom ... should be fairly straight forward?

75

Omega Electrical and Audio Help / Re: Facelift ICE options

« on: 07 August 2006, 21:17:35 »

shouldn't need a converter. The bose system effectively has two "speaker" wiring looms. The head unit "speaker" wires from the head unit are driven at line voltage level, routed to the bose amp on the parcel shelf - which then outputs to the actual speakers (and bass drivers on the parcel shelf). In theory it should be possible to tap into the head-unit (ie, line level outputs) before they connect to the bose amp ...