No Radio Sound after new head unit was installed

[Rysiek]

I have finally decided to replace the Axxera AV614BH radio in 2015 Axis 24.1. After reading a lot of posts here, I purchased new Atoto S8 Ultra Plus Android radio. This device has a lot of neat features. I could not find the wire harness for the factory connector, but after going through bunch of posts here, I have learned that I need to purchase 12 pin Molex connector to make my own harness which would be connected to supplied with Atoto radio wire harness. I just matched the colors of the wires according to old and new wiring diagrams. After all this was done , I discovered that my new Molex connector has 2 extra wires (white & black/white) I am assuming speaker wires. But, my white & black/white wires were already installed in Molex. I decided to ignore this for now and continue installation. I was able to power up the radio, pair my phone with, hook up the existing cameras. And then to my dismay, I discovered that I had no sound. I double-checked everything, contacted technical help, uploaded the video for them to see (excellent service) but none of their suggestion would solve the problem. I have tried switching speaker wires and even used an external speaker to see if this would work. Nothing seems to work. At this point, I have not the slightest idea what is wrong. Where did I make a mistake, and how do I fix this problem? Any suggestion will be greatly appreciated.

[Bob Nodine]

Originally Posted by Rysiek

I have finally decided to replace the Axxera AV614BH radio in 2015 Axis 24.1. After reading a lot of posts here, I purchased new Atoto S8 Ultra Plus Android radio. This device has a lot of neat features. I could not find the wire harness for the factory connector, but after going through bunch of posts here, I have learned that I need to purchase 12 pin Molex connector to make my own harness which would be connected to supplied with Atoto radio wire harness. I just matched the colors of the wires according to old and new wiring diagrams. After all this was done , I discovered that my new Molex connector has 2 extra wires (white & black/white) I am assuming speaker wires. But, my white & black/white wires were already installed in Molex. I decided to ignore this for now and continue installation. I was able to power up the radio, pair my phone with, hook up the existing cameras. And then to my dismay, I discovered that I had no sound. I double-checked everything, contacted technical help, uploaded the video for them to see (excellent service) but none of their suggestion would solve the problem. I have tried switching speaker wires and even used an external speaker to see if this would work. Nothing seems to work. At this point, I have not the slightest idea what is wrong. Where did I make a mistake, and how do I fix this problem? Any suggestion will be greatly appreciated.

Take the unit out and set it up on a bench with a 12 volt battery. Trying to get a head unit that is not an exact replacement to work after it is installed in the dash is a real head banger. Get it to work on the bench before installing it in the RV. If you can't get it to work on the bench you will never get it to work in the RV. If the unit is bad return it.

[dkoldman]

Originally Posted by Rysiek

I have finally decided to replace the Axxera AV614BH radio in 2015 Axis 24.1. After reading a lot of posts here, I purchased new Atoto S8 Ultra Plus Android radio. This device has a lot of neat features. I could not find the wire harness for the factory connector, but after going through bunch of posts here, I have learned that I need to purchase 12 pin Molex connector to make my own harness which would be connected to supplied with Atoto radio wire harness. I just matched the colors of the wires according to old and new wiring diagrams. After all this was done , I discovered that my new Molex connector has 2 extra wires (white & black/white) I am assuming speaker wires. But, my white & black/white wires were already installed in Molex. I decided to ignore this for now and continue installation. I was able to power up the radio, pair my phone with, hook up the existing cameras. And then to my dismay, I discovered that I had no sound. I double-checked everything, contacted technical help, uploaded the video for them to see (excellent service) but none of their suggestion would solve the problem. I have tried switching speaker wires and even used an external speaker to see if this would work. Nothing seems to work. At this point, I have not the slightest idea what is wrong. Where did I make a mistake, and how do I fix this problem? Any suggestion will be greatly appreciated.

I am gonna take your word for it. Sounds like you know what you are doing.

But Tech Support could not explain the wiring for the 12 pin Molex connector, that does not sound like good technical help to me?

You ask for recommendations. This is where I wish the Duck was here.
This is where he would he would say something like don't waste your time on this any further. Take it to a Car Toys or similar, pay them 1 hour labor, pickup your RV and enjoy the music.



FWIW, I did something similar with a Wireless Steering Wheel remote. It came with a PAC Interface connector for my Pioneer and the Ford chassis. I paid Car Toys $90 to wire and program. Tipped the guy $20 bucks and he showed me how it was done. I made my notes. Twice I have had to reprogram on my own due to the WBGO Dealer turning my Chassis Disconnect switch off over several days when they had the RV

Good luck

[16ACE27]

Originally Posted by Rysiek

I have finally decided to replace the Axxera AV614BH radio in 2015 Axis 24.1. After reading a lot of posts here, I purchased new Atoto S8 Ultra Plus Android radio. This device has a lot of neat features. I could not find the wire harness for the factory connector, but after going through bunch of posts here, I have learned that I need to purchase 12 pin Molex connector to make my own harness which would be connected to supplied with Atoto radio wire harness. I just matched the colors of the wires according to old and new wiring diagrams. After all this was done , I discovered that my new Molex connector has 2 extra wires (white & black/white) I am assuming speaker wires. But, my white & black/white wires were already installed in Molex. I decided to ignore this for now and continue installation. I was able to power up the radio, pair my phone with, hook up the existing cameras. And then to my dismay, I discovered that I had no sound. I double-checked everything, contacted technical help, uploaded the video for them to see (excellent service) but none of their suggestion would solve the problem. I have tried switching speaker wires and even used an external speaker to see if this would work. Nothing seems to work. At this point, I have not the slightest idea what is wrong. Where did I make a mistake, and how do I fix this problem? Any suggestion will be greatly appreciated.

Nobody here knows anything about your specific radio nor do they have the advantage of your eyes on the installation. It sounds like you tried to make your own wiring adapter harness instead of cutting out the old chassis harness and splicing the supplied new pigtail into the chassis wiring.

But, car stereo wiring is not too difficult. Most are broken into two areas:

The power and control area, and
The speaker and input/output area.
There are 8 speaker wires so not having two connected (if the others are connected properly) should not prevent sound to the other speakers.....

UNLESS - you only have two speakers and one wire goes to one speaker and the other wire goes to the other speaker.

You need to figure out what ALL you wires are for, not just go by color code. I have attached a car stereo installation guide which may give you some assistance.

[Dan-sr@perra-us.net]

Originally Posted by 16ACE27

But, car stereo wiring is not too difficult. Most are broken into two areas:

Thanks for the wiring diagram I kind of figured it out for myself form the AXXERA and Kenwood install manuals, but I still had questions about the pin assignments. From what I see in the wiring diagram there is a possibility the connector into the back of the radio might be "standard" If I can verify that I might just be able to just unplug the AXXERA and plug in the Kenwood. OOps never mind. The pin assignments of the Kenwood connector do not match the diagram in your car stereo wiring diagram. It is a 22pin connector.

[Rysiek]

Originally Posted by Bob Nodine

Take the unit out and set it up on a bench with a 12 volt battery. Trying to get a head unit that is not an exact replacement to work after it is installed in the dash is a real head banger. Get it to work on the bench before installing it in the RV. If you can't get it to work on the bench you will never get it to work in the RV. If the unit is bad return it.

Bob,
I took the radio home and set it up with 120V to 12V transformer. To my dismay, the radio was not powering up at all! How did you know Bob?[emoji30]
I contacted the Atoto support again, and they are offering replacement. Before, I will send the head unit back. I am taking my motorhome to an auto shop tomorrow so they can re test the head unit again and possibly install it if I am wrong. Thank you Bob.

[Rysiek]

Originally Posted by dkoldman

I am gonna take your word for it. Sounds like you know what you are doing.

But Tech Support could not explain the wiring for the 12 pin Molex connector, that does not sound like good technical help to me?

You ask for recommendations. This is where I wish the Duck was here.
This is where he would he would say something like don't waste your time on this any further. Take it to a Car Toys or similar, pay them 1 hour labor, pickup your RV and enjoy the music.

Attachment 40554

FWIW, I did something similar with a Wireless Steering Wheel remote. It came with a PAC Interface connector for my Pioneer and the Ford chassis. I paid Car Toys $90 to wire and program. Tipped the guy $20 bucks and he showed me how it was done. I made my notes. Twice I have had to reprogram on my own due to the WBGO Dealer turning my Chassis Disconnect switch off over several days when they had the RV

Good luck

You are right. In all of this, I completely forgot that Atoto support did not address the issue of having 2 extra wires at Molex connector. We exchanged quite a few emails, and that part was forgotten altough, I had this on my mind from day one.

At this point, I am not certain about your first statement about me knowing what I am doing, dkgoldman, but I agree with your second one so, even without Duck being involved here, I decided to take my motorhome to a shop for evaluation and hopefully nstallation. Thank you both[emoji1787].

[Rysiek]

Originally Posted by 16ACE27

Nobody here knows anything about your specific radio nor do they have the advantage of your eyes on the installation. It sounds like you tried to make your own wiring adapter harness instead of cutting out the old chassis harness and splicing the supplied new pigtail into the chassis wiring.

But, car stereo wiring is not too difficult. Most are broken into two areas:

The power and control area, and
The speaker and input/output area.
There are 8 speaker wires so not having two connected (if the others are connected properly) should not prevent sound to the other speakers.....

UNLESS - you only have two speakers and one wire goes to one speaker and the other wire goes to the other speaker.

You need to figure out what ALL you wires are for, not just go by color code. I have attached a car stereo installation guide which may give you some assistance.

That is right, ACE, radio installation is supposed to be not that difficult, and that is why I have decided to do that myself. I have found a post where someone used the Molex, and I thought that by going that route, the installation would be easier and the final product cleaner looking. But, even if I did cut the wires at chassis connector I would still end up with these 2 extra wires. I thought that. If they are speaker wires, I will figure out this later, but some of my 4 speakers would produce sound anyway.

Yes, radio harness has a bunch of wires, and the pigtail to the new radio had them all labeled. The eight speaker wires were easy to identify. The Red (power), Black (chassis ground), Yellow (battery), Orange (accessories/dimmer), Brown(brake), Pink(camera output).
The other wires were not used, since I do not have an amplifier (blue/white striped), power antenna (blue), and 4 more wires for steering wheel control. What is interesting here that I saw a few YouTube videos suggesting connecting the unused blue/white striped wire (amplifier) to red (power) wire. I did that as well, but this did not help getting the sound back.

And, I agree with you that at this point, I would have to figure out what the wires are for. But enough is enough. As I mentioned before, I am taking my Axis to the shop tomorrow. I will learn quickly, either I did not know what I was doing, or the head unit is faulty. Thank you ACE for the installation guide and thank you ALL guys for trying to help me. I will let you know tomorrow what the results are.

[Bob Nodine]

Originally Posted by Rysiek

Bob,
I took the radio home and set it up with 120V to 12V transformer. To my dismay, the radio was not powering up at all! How did you know Bob?[emoji30]
I contacted the Atoto support again, and they are offering replacement. Before, I will send the head unit back. I am taking my motorhome to an auto shop tomorrow so they can re test the head unit again and possibly install it if I am wrong. Thank you Bob.

I have been working with electronics since I was 11 years old. I am 76 now. Doing something that long you tend to develop troubleshooting techniques. That combined with my knowledge of how difficult it is to work under the dash motivates pre-installing testing.

Glad I was able to help you.

[Rysiek]

Well, the problem has been solved. The 12 pin Molex connector needs only to have 10 wires from new radio harness connected. And the yellow (constant battery) chassis wire needs to be hooked up to orange (dimmer/illumination) wire of the new radio harnes. And of course black ground goes to black and red power hoes to red. That was it. I never thought I need to connect yellow & orange together but that is how Molex on mine Axis was setup. I just hooked up one speaker and the radio sound was on.
Tomorrow I will solder all wires , organize the other wires which run all over the places. Label some of them. And, because part of the dashboard was removed I will soundproof that area as well as build some type of framing, which will make the top of the dashboard stop moving and squeaking so mach. Now I know why. The entire driver side top part of the dashboard was not attached to anything! I had a floating dashboard!!! But you will hear about that project in another post. I will post the new radio install photos when I am done.
Thank you all for taking the time trying to help me.[emoji3]

[simidrm]

I don’t know specifically about your radio but some high end radios only have a preamp and won’t work without a external amp, my Searay boat is that way,

[gnach]

Originally Posted by Rysiek

...snip... And, because part of the dashboard was removed I will soundproof that area as well as build some type of framing, which will make the top of the dashboard stop moving and squeaking so mach. Now I know why. The entire driver side top part of the dashboard was not attached to anything! I had a floating dashboard!!! But you will hear about that project in another post. I will post the new radio install photos when I am done.
Thank you all for taking the time trying to help me.[emoji3]

NOW YOU'VE GOT MY ATTENTION!
We've just started a 3 week trip and crickets have colonized my Axis dash!!! I'm guessing a hi-tek 1x2 structural support member has failed from one too many staples. Any clues you could provide for disassembling the dash would be a huge help!
Damn, I just remembered, I forgot my hot glue gun...[emoji27]

[Rysiek]

Originally Posted by gnach

NOW YOU'VE GOT MY ATTENTION!
We've just started a 3 week trip and crickets have colonized my Axis dash!!! I'm guessing a hi-tek 1x2 structural support member has failed from one too many staples. Any clues you could provide for disassembling the dash would be a huge help!
Damn, I just remembered, I forgot my hot glue gun...[emoji27]

Hello Gnach,
I like your "crickets noise" description. I was amazed how bad the front dashboard was mounted or I should rather say unattached but simply floating there. When I finished the radio installation I had to do something about it. And this was easier than I thought.These are the things I have done.
I have purchased at Home Depot Camper Seal Tape (self-adhesive). I placed that tape everywhere I could, Both front top dashboard openings where radio and video multiplexer is. Since the top dashboard was not attached to anything I was able to pull it back as much as I could and placed the tape underneath along the edges starting from driver side window all the way to the middle of the dashboard. The tape is about 1" wide, so I used a utility knife to trim the sticking out part.
I did the same thing to the instrument cluster and radio trim. While working on the radio , I noticed that 3 out of 4 screw nuts holding the instrument cluster trim were missing, and 4 holding the center radio/controls trim were loose. I replaced all of them with wing nuts. I also used a rubber washer to eliminate any squeaks there. Note:
Radio trim has 4 bolts. At the bottom, 2 horizontal machine screws #8-32 and at the top 2 vertical machine screws #6-32. I have no idea why Thor used 2 different sizes?
The instrument cluster trim uses #6-32 machine screws. The access to them is not super easy but it is not bad at all.
When this was done, I concentrated on reattaching the top dashboard to the imside frame, which is there, and you can clearly see it. They used plywood to frame the dashboard. For the driver side top dashboard, I used 3"x 8" x 3/4" piece of wood and glue that (wood glue) to the existing plywood. For the center part of dashboard where the radio is I slided in little shorter piece and glued that as well. Then I drilled thru the dashbord's plastic 2 holes on driver sider and 1 hole where the radio is. I used 11/2" wood screws and tan hinged screw covers (ACE Hardware) to fasten the entire top dashboard. I have not driven my motorhome yet, but I can clearly see how solid/stiff everything is. I can hardly hear any squeeks now. Here are some photos.Attachment 1

[gnach]

Thanks for the details. Others have added sound deadening tiles/sheet under there.
I like the judicious use of the tan screws. -Note to self: find some tan nail polish