Hi

My previous Alpine headunit would retract the electric aerial when you changed the source on the headunit to either CD or Minidisc. If you then changed it to to tuner, the aerial came up again.

 

I have had a new Alpine headunit fitted and this functionality now does not happen. The aerial is always up when the headunit is on.

 

Is this the same for everybody? Would love to get it back how it was, as I very rarely have the radio on so would be great if the aerial was down when the CD's are on.

 

Thanks to anyone who can advise.

i had the same problem, i just unplugged the aerial or you can wire a switch to the aerial

 

Nick

Have you got traffic announcements (TA or TP) switched on?

Thanks for your reply. Have just gone and checked and TA is not on. I guess it must be a wiring problem somewhere. Have ordered the ISO adapter from Autoleads. Should tidy up the wiring a bit, even if it doesn't fix the problem. Also have no sound from the driver side speaker, so something definitely not quite right :confused:

Mine does the same mate. JVC head unit. Ariel always up.

 

Fill

I used to have the same problem then realised a couple of days later that the TA/TP was on by factory default.

i just put in a discrete ally push switch.

Yep, may have to do the same, just wire in a switch to put the aerial up when needed. However, there must be a reason why it doesn't work with the new headunit, unless it is a headunit thing and was just lucky with the previous one.

You have to make sure all the radio functions are turned off when playing cds.

 

This includes TA/TP, AF and EON, once all the radio data ststems are inactive the aerial should retract.

a very good question and another anooying little thing about my zed... il check the headunit settings!

Anybody had any luck with this. Have made sure all the settings I could find are turned off but still no luck. Looks like I'll have to wire in a switch then. Very annoying :(

There is a post about wiring a switch to operate the aerial somewhere on the forum with a wiring diagram.

My ariel used to go up and down with the cd/radio but now it doesnt go up or down AT ALL when the engines on?

My ariel used to go up and down with the cd/radio but now it doesnt go up or down AT ALL when the engines on?

change the engine?

my radio doesnt work now its been fitted then i put a cd in and the arial goes up and the radio goes on??????

if any one saw the laurel and hardy were they moved into the house and when they turned the tap on the lights would come on.... very similar lol

Just to give an update. Have received a response from Alpine and basically none of their UK headunits have the functionality of retracting the aerial when not listening to the radio. This was only available on Jap spec headunits.

 

So does anybody have a link to the post mentioned above that has a wiring diagram for adding in a switch for controlling the aerial?

 

Thanks

Anyone got a wiring diagram for this?

 

Is it just a case of connecting 2 new cables, one onto the blue cable (aerial) and one on to the red cable (12v power) and then connecting them to a switch? Do I need to put any inline fuses, and if so on which cable going to the switch?

 

Thanks to anyone who can advise

Colin

All you need is a switch to break the connection in the antenna control wire off the back of the head unit :)

They are usually labelled up.

Cheers Chris. I have got the switch working now, however, with a bit of a problem. Basically I don't think I should have used the red wire on the back of the headunit as the positive feed to the switch. Because now if I have the switch to on, when I turn off the ignition, the headunit stays on, as does the interior lights on the dash etc. :o Pressing the switch to off then turns the headunit off and the lights.

 

Can anyone advise on where I should get the positive feed to the switch from?

 

Thanks

Back of ignition, or find a permanent live from a fuse in the fuse box.

Should be a feed to the stereo.

Eh? Why do you need a positive feed?

The aerial has it's own power and all you need to switch is the antenna on/off line out of the stereo that tells the aerial to go up and down.

Should just need a single pole switch connecting into the antenna wire out the back of the head unit and leave the rest as it was.

 

To clarify, the antenna wire on the head unit doesn't power the aerial as such, it just sends 12v to the relay to tell it to go up. The aerial itself has it's own power feed.

 

This way the aerial works as it used to when the switch is on and if you turn it off the aerial stays down as it's not been sent 12v to trigger it to go up.

lol whats the point in having antenna control output if it doesn't actually do anything :confused:

lol whats the point in having antenna control output if it doesn't actually do anything :confused:

 

Well it does work but a certain person is fussy about it staying up when his CD is on LOL

lol whats the point in having antenna control output if it doesn't actually do anything :confused:

What :confused:

 

Thanks for replying Chris. The switch I have is one of these:

http://www.vehicle-wiring-products.eu/VWP-onlinestore/switches/photo/e471.jpg which has 3 connections on it, positive, accessory and earth. So you are saying that I only need to connect a wire to the accessory connector for it to work? I think I tried that earlier and it didn't work at all. Will disconnect the red wire from the switch tomorrow and see what happens.

 

And I want the aerial to stay down, not go up when listening to CD. ;) Since I only listen to CD's in the car, what's the point in having the aerial go up and down everytime I have the headunit on.

Aaah right it might be a bit more fiddly with that type of switch as it needs power for the light on it.

I would think if you cut into the head unit antenna wire and connect the head unit side to the switch positive and the other side to accessory, then earth to earth, it should work.

You shouldn't need a power feed as such.

 

When the switch is ON your head unit will control the aerial as it does now and the switch light will be on.

Switch OFF and the switch light goes off, the aerial goes down and stays down in CD or radio mode.