P38A Adding DAB to Factory Alpine Head Unit (should work for Clarion too)

I just fitted a Kinetic Digitizor (http://www.dabonwheels.co.uk/Kinetic_digitizor_DAB_DAB_plus_DMB-A_car_radio.html) to my P38 with the later Alpine Radio.

Works a treat and very simple. It has a radio credit-card remote (Not Infra Red) so the box can be hidden away out of sight.

I put the whole thing in the boot behind the RH side panel. Pinched power from the existing antenna amplifier (using a Lucar piggy back connector) so it switches on and off with the radio. DAB Antenna was a stick-on passive winsdcreen type which went in the rear window at the back adjacent the D pillar (this one AFAR-P - http://www.dabonwheels.co.uk/AFAR-P_internal_glass_mount_DAB_car_aerial_.html - which is available for £99 in a bundle - I have no conneection with any of these people BTW). It won't fit quite vertically but works fine at the same angle as the rearmost pillar.

I chose not to wire the FM in directly - it works fine broadcasting to the existing antenna in the rear glass window. It has various auto re-tune modes which works with the head unit AF function well-enough to find clear channels, but I just have it set fixed high up around 107MHz which works well for me.

Reception and sound quality is excellent. No problems around Hertfordshire or Cumbria and also works (better than FM) 2 floors down in an underground car-park!

It was so quick to fit I didn't take any installation pics - not much to see anyway. Can take one of the DAB antenna if needs be - but it is practically invisible. Remote lives in the central armrest and operates the DAB box in the back with no problems. Tune to an FM preset as normal and then choose DAB settings and stations with the remote. It remembers the last DAB station you were on between power-downs. RDS text on head unit does DAB menus and DAB channel names etc. CD, tape, FM/AM radio etc. all works as normal.

Oh yes, and it will take an AUX in - but I haven't used that.

Simples

Do you lose the CD changer ?

ukadamwest said:

Do you lose the CD changer ?

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Said it went in the RHS. Think he has wired the output to the existing aerial and tuned the output signal up beyond most stations at 107MHz (digital can send many channels down the same frequency although not sure what the limit is for radio.)

No change to CD or any other operations (have edited original post to clarify that). You just have to use one FM preset on the radio. I found it worked best with an FM frequency set well away from any other stations in the area - which for me was at the top end - it seems to interfere on adjacent channels to some extent and I turned off all the clever autotune stuff.

It receives the full range of DAB signals and re-transmits what you select using the credit-card remote, onto a chosen FM frequency.

Can be wired to the aerial directly but I didn't do this and didn't find it necessary. I used the option just to transmit a low-level FM signal which is picked up perfectly by the existing glass antenna - the way I've installed it, the original FM antenna is is only inches away after all!

Mounting the DAB aerial is the most difficult part. Otherwise all you need is power and to hide the box (about fag packet sized).

I used to work on ICE at Jaguar and have been fiddling with HiFi and car audio since my teens so I'm quite fussy - yes this setup has many theoretical compromises - but actually works very well indeed. I've been running it for a couple of months and wanted to be sure it worked well before posting here.

I'm happy to demo it to any local LZ members.

Some photos below (I also have a non-standard GPS antenna and backup bleeper in the back so ignore those)

Very nice. Some big f*ck off labels in crayon would help me know what I am looking at!

Let me see if I can still edit it and oblige. As you'll know from my broken engine thread I don't have the car to photograph at the moment

albany said:

Let me see if I can still edit it and oblige. As you'll know from my broken engine thread I don't have the car to photograph at the moment

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I can work out the digitizer one. That seems to be some box of electrickery that decodes the DAB signal. The blue box is a mystery. The rounded square thingy is the DAB aerial? Then what's that round thing next to the RF receiver?

This any better?

Grrrrrr said:

The blue box is a mystery

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That's the standard amplifier for the glass FM/AM radio antenna. Might look different on earlier Clarion cars or for different markets ("Diversity Aerial" is deleted in some markets etc.).

Grrrrrr said:

The rounded square thingy is the DAB aerial?

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My dealer fit GPS antenna. As factory standard it is in the moulded mound below the windscreen, under the wipers. (No mound on very early cars)

Grrrrrr said:

Then what's that round thing next to the RF receiver

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Sounder for my aftermarket parking sensors. The taped down reams of wire is also for that.

Everything becomes clear. So for a DAB radio you need a separate DAB antenna.

You do indeed. And if I were doing it again I'd use one of these amplified antennas which work slightly better and are much smaller - one came bundled with a Kenwood head unit I subsequently put in my little Z3 and it works very well.

Like most DAB things these days the Kinetic Digitizer can put 12V DC up the aerial coax to power the amp (there's a menu setting to turn it on) so no extra wiring is required for an amplified antenna.

Thanks, that's helpful. Will have a think!