New Radio

A few weeks ago, I ran into a bit of trouble with my car radio. Seems it had somehow managed to install an updated copy of Memory-Map that wasn't compatible with the device, so the app would crash as soon as I tried to open it.

I opened a support ticket with the app's publisher and found out that, yes, there had been an update, and they sent me a link to download an older version of the app. It worked, but I was a bit concerned with not being able to update any more, and considering the overall sluggish performance and difficulty installing updates to other apps, I decided now was a pretty good time to replace the unit with a newer model.

After doing a bit of searching on the Internet, I discovered (much to my surprise) that the Parrot units had some pretty annoying problems, and it seemed that Pumpkin still made the best ones, so I went back and found out they now sell directly from their website (when I bought the first unit, they only sold through an eBay store).


The new unit (apologies if the link disappears... they go through models fairly quickly) has a dual-core 1.6GHz processor, 1GB RAM, and built-in WiFi. I'd have preferred the option of a tilt screen, as the GQ Patrol's factory stereo was mounted practically on the floorboard, but I'd run the old unit with the tilt completely flat enough to decide it wasn't a deal-breaker. It also runs 100% Android 4.4 (KitKat), whereas the Knight Rider unit ran Android on top of Windows CE.

The new unit arrived while I was in Sydney on business, and I wasn't able to install it in time for last Sunday's 4WD trip through Yarra State Forest. So, it wasn't until yesterday that I was able to give it a shot.

My first challenge was finding an auto parts store that was open. Having been stymied by confusing/nonstandard wiring, I'd had the previous head unit installed by an auto electrician who thought it'd be a great idea to tap the new wiring off of the old wiring - it worked, but it left the wiring a complete mess of unused connectors and electrical tape.

It turns out that the Repco I'd found on Google Maps as well as the official website's store locator in Brunswick (which was on the way to the place where I was to attempt the installation) was not a retail store but a service center which was closed on Saturday. So I walked over to a nearby restaurant, had a nice cheeseburger and a coke, and found a proper retail store that was not too far out of the way.

I found the wire harness I needed, and picked up a UHF (CB) radio as well as an antenna and mounting kit, and made it to my buddy Craig's house, a couple hours later than I'd planned. He and Andrew (also from the 4WD group) were busy repairing Craig's Pathfinder, but they were happy to let me borrow an extension cord and park my car in the driveway to work on the stereo installation.

The first step was to fix up the wiring. I could have gone about this any number of ways, but I decided the best thing would be to remove the funky tap splices, along with the old connectors, and splice in a proper ISO connector, for whenever I decide to replace the new unit.

The wiring was an absolute mess, as the colors on the original wiring didn't match up to anything I'd seen written down anywhere. I can't tell if Nissan used a different set of colors back in 1988, or if someone else had come in afterwards and replaced the wiring with something non-standard. Thankfully the auto electrician had done the hard work of figuring out how the colors were supposed to line up, so all I had to do was replace the taps, one at a time, with in-line splices. It looked something like this:

Red to Blue. Yellow to Red. Solid gray to blue-and-white-striped. Sounds easy, right?

With about two wires to go, my soldering iron decided to stop working, and I had to finish the last bits with a butane torch. I was a little nervous about the end result, but I was pleased to find the unit worked properly when I hooked it up and tested it.

Success is 1% inspiration, 49% perspiration, and 50% non-stop swearing

Somewhere during all of this, Andrew and Craig finished up with the Pathfinder and helped me out by running the antenna wire for my new UHF radio through the firewall and mounting the antenna on the bull bar. They also highly recommended I go ahead and wire up the power and ground leads for the UHF while I had the dash open. It meant cutting and re-splicing one of the leads I'd already done, but there's no denying it was the right thing to do.

Andrew gave me a couple self-tapping screws for mounting the UHF on the dash as well, and we got that all wired up and tested, and after a nice kangaroo burger and sausage dinner with Andrew, Craig, Sam, and Olivia, I headed home, exhausted but quite content.

Arriving home, I discovered I wasn't able to turn on the car's immobilizer. I was a bit nervous about leaving it parked outside overnight, but when I came outside to finish setting it up this afternoon I was happy to find everything intact, the doors still locked and the windows unbroken.

Getting the maps set up was a bit of a hassle. I've got too many to put on the internal storage of the device, and Memory-Map have changed the FAQ page I used before to set it up. The current instructions don't work, since they require using a third-party app that has since removed a required feature. Thankfully, I was able to dig up an old copy of the FAQ page on the Internet Archive, and somewhere between moving the maps to the GPS SD card, creating the text file referenced in the old version of the FAQ page, and removing and reinstalling the app, I was finally able to get it to find the map files.

The new unit sounds much better than the old one, and it's much more responsive. Also, the capacitive touch screen works much better for gestures (which are essential to using Android) than the old unit's resistive touch screen. Here are some pictures of the finished product:

Australian Screen Legends

Stymie approves

P.S. I fiddled with the immobilizer some more and got it working again. I haven't gotten the USB working yet, but between SD cards and wireless options, I don't really need it - I've already got plugs for USB charging.