John's minor stereo upgrade, pt. 2
Posted: Fri Jun 30, 2023 10:45 am
After receiving a couple Rockford Fosgate PMX-5CAN units in a row that had problems (one was dead, one had a bad USB port), I spoke with both Rockford Fosgate tech support and James Taylor at Creative Audio. Rockford Fosgate let me know that the USB port would only read up to a 32GB flash drive that is formatted FAT32, and only recognize 999 files per drive.
Fusion's product on the other hand reads half a dozen drive formats and doesn't care how big the drive is or how may files you have, so I upgraded to a Fusion RA670 and ERX400 remote. The 670 lacks built-in wifi and the touchscreen of the 770, but is a couple hundred bucks cheaper, so I went with the cheaper one since we will likely mostly use the remote on the dash anyway. Plus, the 670 supports AirPlay (undocumented) if you add external wifi, so I'm not really giving up much.
The RA670 is smaller than a single DIN, so I bought an adapter plate to fill the DIN hole and make the new RA670 look nice. I also bought a riser for the ERX400 remote so that I don't have to drill a bigger hole in my dash for the remote, which is clever of Fusion to offer. I'll update this post over time with photos of the install.
UPDATE PART I:
I unboxed all my goodies, including an MS-RA670 head unit, a bezel adapter for a full DIN cutout, a joint USB - 1/8" phono dash socket from Fusion, and the ERX400 remote. The bezel and head unit installed pretty easily, while the remote won't completely cover the existing 3" hole from my old Sony remote. The hardest part so far was pulling out the split loom that had the old Sony remote cable, inserting the new remote cable into the loom, and reinstalling the loom (behind one front seat, across the front of the ski locker under the floor, and up the hull wall by the driver's side seat). The Fusion stuff is top-notch, except for the bezel - it's a great idea, but the trim pieces that cover the screws pop off so easily that the rubber cover is useless, and the plastic shows scratches with even the lightest touch. Still, way nicer than having to fab up something myself.
I'm going for a relatively seamless pluggable install, much like the original factory unit, so ordered a couple Molex 42021 connectors (one two pin connector for the amp on signal and one four pin connector for power, ground, and accessory power feeds, and some pre-soldered pigtail pins from Digi-Key) and the head unit doesn't yet have permanent power. Note Molex series 42021 are the plugs, 42022 are the sockets, 42023 are the individual pins, and 42024 are the individual pin sockets. I'm also reaching out to tecnografic.com and Cobalt regarding a replacement dash panel to accommodate the new remote, and will report back on what I hear/do.
UPDATE PART II:
Turns out Tecnografic likely made the dash panel with the gauges, but did not make the brown panel onto which the old remote, ignition, etc. were mounted. That came from Laser Engineering, who quoted a fairly high price for making a one-off based on the original Cobalt part but with things shifted slightly to the right to make more room for a custom Fusion remote cutout. The part shown below is on order:
The new panel has arrived, and is loaded up with the new remote, ignition switch from the old panel, and light switch from the old panel. The old panel with the round hole for the Sony remote is shown for comparison. I'll save it should I (or a future owner) ever want to migrate back to a heaad unit that uses a 3" hole cutout remote:
Fusion's product on the other hand reads half a dozen drive formats and doesn't care how big the drive is or how may files you have, so I upgraded to a Fusion RA670 and ERX400 remote. The 670 lacks built-in wifi and the touchscreen of the 770, but is a couple hundred bucks cheaper, so I went with the cheaper one since we will likely mostly use the remote on the dash anyway. Plus, the 670 supports AirPlay (undocumented) if you add external wifi, so I'm not really giving up much.
The RA670 is smaller than a single DIN, so I bought an adapter plate to fill the DIN hole and make the new RA670 look nice. I also bought a riser for the ERX400 remote so that I don't have to drill a bigger hole in my dash for the remote, which is clever of Fusion to offer. I'll update this post over time with photos of the install.
UPDATE PART I:
I unboxed all my goodies, including an MS-RA670 head unit, a bezel adapter for a full DIN cutout, a joint USB - 1/8" phono dash socket from Fusion, and the ERX400 remote. The bezel and head unit installed pretty easily, while the remote won't completely cover the existing 3" hole from my old Sony remote. The hardest part so far was pulling out the split loom that had the old Sony remote cable, inserting the new remote cable into the loom, and reinstalling the loom (behind one front seat, across the front of the ski locker under the floor, and up the hull wall by the driver's side seat). The Fusion stuff is top-notch, except for the bezel - it's a great idea, but the trim pieces that cover the screws pop off so easily that the rubber cover is useless, and the plastic shows scratches with even the lightest touch. Still, way nicer than having to fab up something myself.
I'm going for a relatively seamless pluggable install, much like the original factory unit, so ordered a couple Molex 42021 connectors (one two pin connector for the amp on signal and one four pin connector for power, ground, and accessory power feeds, and some pre-soldered pigtail pins from Digi-Key) and the head unit doesn't yet have permanent power. Note Molex series 42021 are the plugs, 42022 are the sockets, 42023 are the individual pins, and 42024 are the individual pin sockets. I'm also reaching out to tecnografic.com and Cobalt regarding a replacement dash panel to accommodate the new remote, and will report back on what I hear/do.
UPDATE PART II:
Turns out Tecnografic likely made the dash panel with the gauges, but did not make the brown panel onto which the old remote, ignition, etc. were mounted. That came from Laser Engineering, who quoted a fairly high price for making a one-off based on the original Cobalt part but with things shifted slightly to the right to make more room for a custom Fusion remote cutout. The part shown below is on order:
The new panel has arrived, and is loaded up with the new remote, ignition switch from the old panel, and light switch from the old panel. The old panel with the round hole for the Sony remote is shown for comparison. I'll save it should I (or a future owner) ever want to migrate back to a heaad unit that uses a 3" hole cutout remote: