Radio replacement cameras and SWC has left us puzzled

pv3

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Joined
Dec 26, 2024
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Location
Maryland
Greetings friends,

Hope you are all enjoying the holiday season! First time poster... We've been working on a radio replacement for our 2022 Thor Windstar motorcoach for about 4 (or more?) weeks now, and after today we're really pulling our hair out. Hoping you more seasoned RV veterans can steer us in the right direction; we need to head out in February for our 6-week trip and we're getting a little nervous :)

The built-in radio screen started flickering and experiencing poor sound quality and other issues, so we purchased a Jensen CAR8000 2DIMM radio unit (certified refurbished from Amazon) as a replacement for the stock Axxera radio. Having done car radios before, swapping the basic audio and power harness was easy and straightforward. However we've been struggling with the cameras and steering-wheel controls.

After reading that the Jensen would need a different SIM box than the Axxera sim box that came with the radio, we purchased a RVS-501N-3. We also have tried 2 different SWC modules (ASWC-1 and an analog version PWC-SWC-1). We haven't had any luck getting the steering wheel controls working nor the cameras to display on the new radio.

Today, we tried backpedaling and putting the old radio back, and much to our despair - it no longer works correctly for steering wheel controls or cameras either!! All we get is basic radio controls (same as with the new radio) and no cameras. We took pictures when we first started and put everything back the way it was but still the cameras and SWC aren't doing anything. I'm worried we may have inadvertently caused another problem with another one of the components involved while we were troubleshooting the new radio.

We are desperately in need of some guidance for troubleshooting steps to identify what issues we are facing so that we can get this sorted out and get back on the road. None of the RV shops in our region have been able to provide much help within the timeframe we need.

Thank you in advance for any suggestions you have!

---Phil V, III
 
Hello & welcome.

I am not an electrical expert. I drive an MG (Lucas electrics) so I subscribe to the Smoke Theory of Auto Electricity. The Smoke Theory posits that electricity travels through the wires as smoke. The proof being that when the smoke escapes things stop working...

Anyway, in my experience, Jensen is a rather low quality unit. And I haven't heard many who love their Axxera units either. I replaced the Jensen in our Thor ACE with a Kenwood. It took some figuring out to rewire things as there are no Plug & Play options or wire harness adapters. Note that our rig does not have steering wheel controls so I didn't have to deal with that (but the instruction manual did have info about it). I did need an adapter for the camera inputs. I don't understand why those are not standardized. Some info about the camera adapter I needed is here: https://www.thorforums.com/forums/f8/kenwood-radio-camera-question-37304.html

Random thought - have you checked all the fuses? I would assume that a blown fuse would mean no radio at all but who knows...
 
Last edited:
Greetings friends,

Hope you are all enjoying the holiday season! First time poster... We've been working on a radio replacement for our 2022 Thor Windstar motorcoach
However we've been struggling with the cameras and steering-wheel controls.

After reading that the Jensen would need a different SIM box than the Axxera sim box that came with the radio,

Windsport, no Thor "Windstar"

And you had functioning steering wheel controls? That's rare.


What's a "SIM" box? Are you talking about the camera multiplexor box? If so, where did you get the information that you needed a new one? You should have had a single RCA camera video lead from the multiplexor box into the radio that would also go into the new radio.

So I agree you have popped a connection or fuse that powers the multiplexor box, cameras, and radio.

Sorry, no experience on the steering wheel controls.

Maybe take a drive down to DSP Audio in Wheaton. Might be worth your time and expense.
 
Last edited:
Greetings friends,

Hope you are all enjoying the holiday season! First time poster... We've been working on a radio replacement for our 2022 Thor Windstar motorcoach for about 4 (or more?) weeks now, and after today we're really pulling our hair out. Hoping you more seasoned RV veterans can steer us in the right direction; we need to head out in February for our 6-week trip and we're getting a little nervous :)

The built-in radio screen started flickering and experiencing poor sound quality and other issues, so we purchased a Jensen CAR8000 2DIMM radio unit (certified refurbished from Amazon) as a replacement for the stock Axxera radio. Having done car radios before, swapping the basic audio and power harness was easy and straightforward. However we've been struggling with the cameras and steering-wheel controls.

After reading that the Jensen would need a different SIM box than the Axxera sim box that came with the radio, we purchased a RVS-501N-3. We also have tried 2 different SWC modules (ASWC-1 and an analog version PWC-SWC-1). We haven't had any luck getting the steering wheel controls working nor the cameras to display on the new radio.

Today, we tried backpedaling and putting the old radio back, and much to our despair - it no longer works correctly for steering wheel controls or cameras either!! All we get is basic radio controls (same as with the new radio) and no cameras. We took pictures when we first started and put everything back the way it was but still the cameras and SWC aren't doing anything. I'm worried we may have inadvertently caused another problem with another one of the components involved while we were troubleshooting the new radio.

We are desperately in need of some guidance for troubleshooting steps to identify what issues we are facing so that we can get this sorted out and get back on the road. None of the RV shops in our region have been able to provide much help within the timeframe we need.

Thank you in advance for any suggestions you have!

---Phil V, III

The steering wheel controls usually use something like CAN bus and different manufactures use different protocols on the CAN bus to operate devices. This can be tricky. You might take a look at this website and see if you can find something to help: https://www.axxessinterfaces.com/
Also check out Crutchfield.

The camera RVS-501 should work just fine. I expect you have a power problem and should make sure 12 VDC is getting to the RVS-501. On ours the video to the head unit is taken from the yellow RCA connector for the DVR and not the video out connection. There are two RCA plugs, one yellow and one white. The white one is not used. You may have to purchase a RCA male to female cable. Your head unit should have a video input for the camera that is an RCA connection. There should be three trigger wires going to the RVS from the chassis, reverse, left turn, and right turn. The RVS integrates these into a single output trigger that should connect to the head unit to trigger the camera display. The camera should come on for left or right turns or reverse.
 

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