Deepbluegxp installed my Kenwood head unit with blue tooth, sirius radio almost (thats another story,as they sent a wrong part and waiting for the correct one), navigation system and backup camera. We learned a lot of tips and tricks and had to call crutchfield on problems with making the steering wheel controls work. This turned out to be a missing step in the instructions so if anyone else is having problems I suggest you post or PM Deepbluegxp as he now is pretty much an expert on this system. Do not ask him to install it because I do not think he ever wants to see another Kenwood again. I will wait for him to post, but I know he found the pioneer much much easier. This may have been do to the poor instructions on setup. Need to find lots of screens that are not obvious at first glance. The garmin works great and I really like the unit. In some ways it is superiour to the pioneer. It is just the instalation is a monster.

Chuck

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I'll post some photos and info, on the problems we had to overcome, later today.

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Your welcome. I thought it would take 10 minutes to completely prep the inside of the car for the install. I was wrong. It took less than 6 and I took my time.

What I removed in under 6 min.
Center Console
Left and right door sills
Left and right rear speaker pilars
Water fall/Back panel
Center console grip
Auto shift chrome ring
Chrome Gauge ring.
Black gauge tunnels
wrap around console

All of this was removed to prep for the install

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That's pretty amazing. I took all those same parts out at various times and it took me forever (mainly because I didn't know what I was doing and didn't want to break anything). Now thinking back on it, if I did it again, yes I could probably do those first 8 items in a few minutes now that I know where to yank. But if by "wrap around console" you mean the boomerang, then that is truly incredible!

dude. you are the single most helpful person on the entire east coast. Props to you!

Chuck.. sounds like a super nice setup... can't wait to see it all looks. I've actually been thinkin of installing some backup cameras because i can't feel this thing situated in my parking space (I always back in). It's just so high in the back and sides but it doesn't help our curb is on a slant

Yes the boomerang. I would have finished around 4 minutes but one clip didn't want to release. This was the first time I did an auto so I had to insert the keys to move the stick back. Later I found the solenoid under the shift indicator, push in the button and you can more the stick without inserting the key and stepping on the brake.

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ChuckDoc's Material List - Upgrade for a Stock Monsoon without OnStar

Kenwood DNX5120 Garmin GPS Touch Screen Head Unit
Kenwood KCS-BT200 Blue
PAC SWI-JACK Steering Wheel Interface
PAC C2R-GM11 GM Door and Chimes
Boyo VLT400 Chrome License Plate Rear View Camera

There were other components that screwed up by CrutchField, but they redeemed their selves by refunding Chuck and sending him a new correct component free. BTW CrutchField tech support is awsome.

All of the wiring for the radio (any one for the Solstice) can be done this way. The GM harness, what ever style you get can also be wired this way.

For this example, I used the PAC C2R GM11


I probed the stock harness for +12 hot and switched and ground. In this image the double yellows are the +12 hot and beneath that there is the ground.

I took the radio harness and connected the wires to match the instructions here. http://akamaipix.crutchfield.com/Man...127C2RGM11.PDF

PAC SWI-JACK - This is the second PAC SWI device I have installed and there is only one difference with the Kenwood version. There is a Blue/Yellow wire that comes out the opposite end that has to be connected to the radio harness Blue/Yellow.
The only other wires required for the Solstice/Sky are the +12 Acc (Red), Ground (Black) and Green (Steering Wheel Interface) (SWC)
You don't have to follow the instructions for tapping the Stock Harness as the PAC C2R GM11 adapter provides power cross over and a green lead for the SWC connection. (Connect the light green to the light green of the two PAC interfaces)

The Kenwood Parking Brake wire (light green) connected to the ground wire on the PAC C2R GM11.

Illumination connects to the orange/white and the rest of the radio harness connects to their corresponding colors on the adapter.

The Boyo backup camera requires a +12V Acc and Ground. I hooked this into the harness also.

The ONLY 2 wires I had to hook up separately on the Solstice was the Reverse signal (purple/white) and tapped the light green wire under neath the passenger door sill. There are 2 of these wires so you need a 12v tester to see which one comes on when the car is put in reverse. The other connection I had to make was to install a fuse tap in the passenger foot well area #18 (+12V acc).

I installed the GPS antenna, BT-200 module in the same location of mine and routed the back up camera the same way also. You can click my mod page and AVIC-D3 install to see photos.

After soldering all the wiring and using heat shrink to cover the joints, I used electrical tape to wrap all the wiring together. Installed the radio and was a much cleaner install than mine.

Issues - resolved.

PAC-SWI-JACK
Tech Support call was required because we couldn't get the SWI to work. The adapter has a dial on the side with an arrow. This dial was pointing to 1. This device supports several Manufactures and there isn't any instructions that tell you to turn the dial to #3 for Kenwood.

Backup camera. The Kenwood defaults to off on initial startup and the configuration arrows are small so we didn't know there was multiple pages for setup. Tech Support call was placed and they guided us through the menus and the camera was turned on.

BT-200
Unlike the Pioneer version, this one needs 3 dip switches put in the appropriate position to have the unit operate with the radio. Found this in the manual.

Issues - new / unresolved.
MP3 Playback. ChuckDoc called me tonight to tell me that he has a replacement head unit coming from CrutchField as the unit reboots (cold and looses mem) when playing MP3s. Chuch confirmed this to be a hardware issue when he discovered other forums discussing the same issue. I hope the new unit won't have the issue. His firmware is one version behind Kenwood on the web site. We'll try that when he comes back to my place.

We are still waiting for the correct Sirius hardware so hopefully that will come in at the same time of the head unit. I also have to pickup an adapter cable that CrutchField didn't have in stock for connecting the Sirius to the Kenwood. (CA-SR20V)

Pics of partial install.

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DBG

You are the man. Now I wonder if we can get a similar rig to work with the PAL????

See you on the 12th................

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OK, now I know how you did it. Sure, I too could have finished a little sooner if I didn't take a beer break after removing each component!

You have a gift my friend. And it's great how you use it to help your fellow Sol owners. Sure wish you were a little closer to Cincy!

BTW, thanks for the PM!

Nice job I need to get reassigned to DC nice teamwork

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Thanks deep. I think we should try the firmware upgrade on the unit we have before we remove it. I also think we should check with crutchfield and make sure it is ok and does not void the return. This way, if the new unit does the same thing, we will know if the firmware upgrade worked.

The head unit did come with an upgrade disk, but it was the old version. Also the problems did not start till I upgraded the navigation mapware with the disk that came with the unit. This may also be related.

So when the new unit comes, I will use it for a while and if it is good to go, then I will upgrade the navigation disk. If it does the cold reboot cycle, then I will upgrade to the new firmware. (that is if it solves the problem on the old one).

Anyone else with any experience with this unit and playing mp3, please chime in. It does not do it with CDs. Also tried three different mp3 disks that work in other units with not problem.

I love the unit and the Garmin is great. Bluetooth is also really neat. When we get this problem solved, I would not hesitate to buy this unit.

Chuck

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Chuck, I have a feeling that you have visited this link. But in case you have not...take a look.

YouTube - Kenwood DDX512 Review (Part 1 of 2)

I also found this...

"Had the same problem. Your CD Read option is probably set to type 2--This forcibly reads inserted cd-r disks as music cds. Change it to type 1.

From the main home screen--touch SETUP-then SYSTEM SETUP--then change option CD Read to type 1. The disk drive will then autodetect the data cd-r disk type format correctly. "

Hope it helps!