This GPS looks interesting - made especially for the Prado?

[mav Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close mav]

Re: Booster findings

G'day all,

OK I have done a bit of digging in relation to boosters in an attempt to sort this crappy FM frequency. I purchased a booster from Supercheap auto. Low end brand but I thought I would give it a go. This is simply a 12 volt connection for power and the coaxial cable from the vehicle antenna plugs in one end and the other goes directly to the head unit. This did improve the recieved FM signal however after going for a drive found the signal dropping in and out and very scratchy.

So then did some more digging. The antenna in the Prado is a glass mounted antenna located on the passenger side rear window (we all know this). Apparently, according to my local car stereo suplier, most glass antennas require a booster to work as they only recieve a weak signal. I then pulled off the plastic panel located on the inside of the Prado directly under the antenna glass and I located a factory Toyota booster. This has the two wires going in from the glass mounted antenna and then has a coax cable coming out which leads to the head unit. The booster is powered by a 12 volt positive wire that also went to the factory head unit. Hope you are following.

Anyway traced the coax and single positive wire through the vehicle which then lead me to the plastic panel on the passenger side running down next the the windscreen. I think they call this the A pillar. To remove this you must unscrew the handle and then it will unclip from the pillar. Under this plastic panel you will locate the coax and the single positive wire. This has a joiner plug about half way down the pillar. I checked the voltage at the single wire at this point and came up with something interesting. When the factory Toyota head unit is fitted there is 12 volt positive at this plug obviously to power up the factory booster. When the roadrover is fitted there is no voltage at this wire. Therefore when the roadrover is fitted the booster is not powered which results in a poor FM signal. Makes sense I think.

I then ran out of time and due to work once again interfering in my social life did not have a chance to run a positive to the booster when the roadrover is fitted to see if this would work. I will hopefully give it a go on Saturday. Please don't rush out and rewire your Prado on this advice. Check it all out for yourself first. I did find another strange thing that I discovered with the prado coax. I disconnected the plug at the pillar and tested the coax between this plug and the fitting that goes directly into the head unit. (Coax is two core - braided shielding on the outer and a solid wire on the inside). The braided shielding has a circuit from the plug to the fitting but the wire did not. I dont know if Toyota have manufactured this for a purpose or if it is an open circuit in the coax. It works fine with the factory stereo.

When I get a chance I will run 12 volts to the factory booster and also run a complete new coax from the booster to the Roadrover. This will hopefully work and FM will be clear. I have also sent Maria an email voicing my concerns but as yet have not had a reply.

Will keep you all posted.
Higgsee.

Nice work Higgsee, I have been meaning to try and find the inglass antenna booster as all inglass antennas have them. What we need to do is connect the wire coming out of the back of the roadrover which is marked "ant cont" I think it is a green wire from memory. This needs to be connected to the wire that you traced out from the booster as the roadrover supplies the votlage for the booster.

Do you remember what colour the toyota wire from the booster is?

Toyota may have deliberately not connected the earth shield at both ends in order to stop any ground loops from forming as this would create a hum in the speakers.

Cheers

Mav

[Higgsee Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Higgsee]

Booster

Mav,

The wire is straight black. It is loomed up with the coax. Good work on identifying the wire from the Roadrover. Together we may solve this issue. Then with new Route 66 maps that allows us to drive on the correct side of the road I will be happy.

Higgsee.

[mav Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close mav]

Re: Booster

Mav,

The wire is straight black. It is loomed up with the coax. Good work on identifying the wire from the Roadrover. Together we may solve this issue. Then with new Route 66 maps that allows us to drive on the correct side of the road I will be happy.

Higgsee.

Well it is not loomed with it once it gets to the back of the roadrover so it must branch off into the wire looms for the plugs. Hopefully there is only one black cable going into the plugs, going by the old toyota wiring it will be pin 8 of plug P500 which is Antenna +ve out. But there is also a wire on the same plug which is pin 9 that is shown as Amp +ve out. I think the Ant +ve Out is the wire we need to hook up to the green wire marked Ant Cont coming from the Roadrover. I will have to see what the colour of those two wires are going to the Toyota plug.

[Higgsee Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Higgsee]

I have taken a picture of the wire coming from the booster. It is located on the left side of the stereo. The black wire from the booster is glued or otherwise attached to the outer insulation of the coax cable until it gets to the rear of the stereo then it splits. As in the photos the black wire (covered with grey foam) goes to a single white plug. As it comes out of the plug it goes directly into the loom. I dont know where this wire picks up the power from but it has something to do with the head unit. Possibly the green wire from the Roadrover head unit could be connected directly to the black wire leading to the booster??? Do you know if this green wire is 12 volt positive when the Roadrover is turned on? If so I think this would work.

[mav Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close mav]

I have taken a picture of the wire coming from the booster. It is located on the left side of the stereo. The black wire from the booster is glued or otherwise attached to the outer insulation of the coax cable until it gets to the rear of the stereo then it splits. As in the photos the black wire (covered with grey foam) goes to a single white plug. As it comes out of the plug it goes directly into the loom. I dont know where this wire picks up the power from but it has something to do with the head unit. Possibly the green wire from the Roadrover head unit could be connected directly to the black wire leading to the booster??? Do you know if this green wire is 12 volt positive when the Roadrover is turned on? If so I think this would work.

I have not measured the voltage on it Higgsee so I cannot say for certain, however on my wire there is an identifying label tht says Ant Amp or words to theat effect. I am pretty sure that that roadrover wire can be connected to the black wire of the booster.

[Higgsee Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Higgsee]

Just had a look at my Roadrover loom. The green wire coming from the head unit is labelled 'Amp-Cont'. I guess this is the wire to try. I will be having another look at the whole thing on Saturday. Has anyone heard from Maria lately? Any news on the firmware upgrade and updated Route 66?

[mav Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close mav]

Just had a look at my Roadrover loom. The green wire coming from the head unit is labelled 'Amp-Cont'. I guess this is the wire to try. I will be having another look at the whole thing on Saturday. Has anyone heard from Maria lately? Any news on the firmware upgrade and updated Route 66?

I had an email from Jessie last Monday saying tha the upgrade is ready but they needed the serial number of my roadrover as it needed to have the firmware upgraded first before the new Route66 could be loaded.

I have given Jessie the needed infromation but have not heard back from her as yet.

[Johnnos Brisbane Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close Johnnos Brisbane]

All,

I've been following various threads on in-dash units for quite awhile now. Given your excellent updates on the progress with RoadRover units I decided to purchase one so here's abit of feedback on my progress:

I emailed Maria at Roadrover but she told me they don't supply direct any more and referred me to Richard at VMS

I then ordered one online from the cool-sale website on Tuesday this week. They advised that there was an upgrade version of Route 66 imminent so would ensure it was loaded with the latest version (yippee I thought)

Today they emailed me advising that the maps are no longer available for Australia. I got the impression that they are working with an alternative mapping provider (Route66 software I assume but possibly Navtek source data). So at present they can only supply the Roadrover if I'm happy to have no GPS maps.

So I share this feedback to see if anyone else is having similar problems. It may be related to Mav's delay on the updated software.

I'll keep you posted with any updates.

Andrew

[mav Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close mav]

All,

I've been following various threads on in-dash units for quite awhile now. Given your excellent updates on the progress with RoadRover units I decided to purchase one so here's abit of feedback on my progress:

I emailed Maria at Roadrover but she told me they don't supply direct any more and referred me to Richard at VMS

I then ordered one online from the cool-sale website on Tuesday this week. They advised that there was an upgrade version of Route 66 imminent so would ensure it was loaded with the latest version (yippee I thought)

Today they emailed me advising that the maps are no longer available for Australia. I got the impression that they are working with an alternative mapping provider (Route66 software I assume but possibly Navtek source data). So at present they can only supply the Roadrover if I'm happy to have no GPS maps.

So I share this feedback to see if anyone else is having similar problems. It may be related to Mav's delay on the updated software.

I'll keep you posted with any updates.

Andrew

I knew VMS were kicking up a fuss at Roadrover selling direct, at the time they were not importing the version we have but I am guessing that they have now licensed our model as well as the older version.

Interseting about the map situation, I willl have to drop Jessie an email to see what is occuring. The unit is not much good without a satnav function for Australia. I am not totally surprised tough if Navteq have dropped support for Australia as they are seriously behind the eight ball when it comes to their Australia maps.

[mav Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close mav]

Well, I have just performed my first update on the Roadrover OS and shell. It all went very smoothly, the changes are that it has added a Roadrover logo to the opening display. The other big change as far as I can see is the radio display looks entirely different. There are now 4 FM pages with six station memory allocation per each page and on AM page.

I am about to do the Route66 upgrade tonight and I will checkout how this goes tomorrow.

[mav Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close mav]

I decided to do the new Route66 update tonight instead of tomorrow and it all went worked like a charm. So now I have a completely updated system with the latest Route66 Australia map. I have re-integrated the speed and red light camera files that I handed out to everyone and they still work with the new version of Route66, so all is good.

Whether or not the new Route66 will perform any better than the old one is yet to be determined, I know for sure it will not match the likes of Tom Tom but at least it is the latest that we can get.

[Higgsee Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Higgsee]

Roadrover Update

Mav,

That's good to here that your unit has been upgraded sucessfully. I tried the connection with the radio wire as previously discussed but it did not improve the radio signal. Interestingly enough the FM stations improved when I moved the GPS cable around so there seems to be interference from this. I contacted Jessie and recieved a reply. She stated that improvements have been made since I purchased my unit in January enabling the FM signal to be recieved clearer. In order for this improvement to be made I will have to forward the unit back to Roadrover. When I do this they will look at the mapping problems.

Question time:
How did they forward the Roadrover updated OS to you?
Did this improve the FM radio quality?

regards, Higgsee

[mav Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close mav]

Re: Roadrover Update

Mav,

That's good to here that your unit has been upgraded sucessfully. I tried the connection with the radio wire as previously discussed but it did not improve the radio signal. Interestingly enough the FM stations improved when I moved the GPS cable around so there seems to be interference from this. I contacted Jessie and recieved a reply. She stated that improvements have been made since I purchased my unit in January enabling the FM signal to be recieved clearer. In order for this improvement to be made I will have to forward the unit back to Roadrover. When I do this they will look at the mapping problems.

Question time:
How did they forward the Roadrover updated OS to you?
Did this improve the FM radio quality?

regards, Higgsee

Hard to say about the FM quality as it is very good here in Alice but then the transmitter is just above the town so it is going to be good. The AM is terrible though.

Jessie forwarded the OS, Shell, and Route66 update to me via Pando. Pando is a real PITA to use imo.

I would forward this on to people but it would be better to get it from Jessie as the OS and Shell update software are dependant on what your current system is at. I had to supply the serial number of my unt so they could send me the correct update files.

I am guessing that the reason for them to need to have your Roadrover would be to put a new tuning and pre-amp in it.

The thing I noticed about the update with the radio is it lets you select which country you are in for frequency stepping on the tuning band. However it only allows 3 selections which are Europe, USA, and Asia. I left mine selected to Asia and I was able to tune in my local stations no problem.

Cheers

Mav

[bitdist Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close bitdist]

Hi Mav
I got my update last night, so I will try mine today. Pando is a pain !!

cheers

Tim

[joeg Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close joeg]

Guys,

I have ordered a GXL D4D Prado - hopefully to arrive in June, and I have been reading a lot here about the integrated sat nav units available at present. Just wondering if any of these units have any built-in trip computer capability like the scangauge that can show average fuel consumption etc..?

BTW, this site is fantastic for newbie Prado owners like me...so thanks heaps.