HU Backlight Dimming

[johnie72]

I've recently upgraded my HU to an Alpine one. Only comlaint is that the backlighting is VERY bright. There is an orange wire in the ISO loom on the HU which connects to the cars loom to dim the backlights when the cars lights are on. Although when you set up the HU to operate this way nothing happens. Although this feature worked fine on the standard HU.

Does anyone know which wire I should connect to on the cars loom for it to work on the Alpine?

I have an A4 B5...........

 

[karl7900]

Hi Johnie.

No after market head unit will dim along with the rest of the car. I have fitted after market stereos to all my cars (Pioneer) and they dont dim.

However there may be a facility in the setup menu of your head unit to dim the display to a preset level when you turn the lights on.

Hope this helps, Karl.

 

[johnie72]

I have to correct you there Karl. I fitted a kenwood HU to my other halfs' Peugeout recently and it has retained the facility via the cars ISO loom. With no mods or adjustments. Simply put, when the cars headlights are switched on the HU backlighting dims just as the original.

This is a feature with the factory fitted Audi HU and there is (as I said before) a wire on the back of the Alpine which can be connected to the cars' loom to retain the feature. I just need to know which wire to attach to on the cars loom.

 

[dualmono21]

there are lots of after market manufacturers units which provide this facility
alpine,kenwood,becker,nakamichi to name but a few they are not on every model but if the feature is important enough to you it can be had

 

[AndyMac]

The illumination wire is the one on the Audi loom designated with a little "sun" symbol. The one below is bottom right i.e. the wire on the big red connector that has very little else attached to it (normally phone kit)

 

[karl7900]

I have to correct you there Karl. I fitted a kenwood HU to my other halfs' Peugeout recently and it has retained the facility via the cars ISO loom. With no mods or adjustments. Simply put, when the cars headlights are switched on the HU backlighting dims just as the original.

This is a feature with the factory fitted Audi HU and there is (as I said before) a wire on the back of the Alpine which can be connected to the cars' loom to retain the feature. I just need to know which wire to attach to on the cars loom.

My aplologies for that. Ive always used Pioneer on my own cars and they have never dimmed with the dash panel.

Hope you find what your looking for anyway. Karl.

 

[johnie72]

Well, I got it sorted. The wire to connect to is actually the one on the ISO loom next to the brown earth lead, grey with blue stripe iirc. Confusing really since there where 2 marked with a sun symbol but a quick voltage check to them both and I am happy that I have attached the right one.

Just need to wait for darkness now to see how effective it is.

 

[AndyMac]

Yes that's the other one, but it's not usually wired up on the Audi loom.