John's minor stereo upgrade, pt. 2

[jhnmdahl]

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.

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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:

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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:

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[Titaniumboy]

That looks like a really nice remote. Did you install it at the helm?

What does Ethernet in this remote get you? Does the remote allow the use of Bluetooth or USB?

[jhnmdahl]

That looks like a really nice remote. Did you install it at the helm?

What does Ethernet in this remote get you? Does the remote allow the use of Bluetooth or USB?

Yep, the remote will go at the helm (I'm still a part or two short, and don't have the boat at my house right now). Ethernet for the remote feels a bit odd at first, but the idea is that you can put a whole router or switch on board if you want and add several remotes to control different zones, etc.. Also, if you add a router with WiFi, you can use that WiFi connection to the head unit to enable Apple AirPlay (WiFi is built in on the RA770).

[Titaniumboy]

Thanks for the clarification. Do you think you will need a second remote near the transom?

The RA670 is going in the glove compartment? Is Bluetooth available (head unit? remote? both?) for our non-Apple guests?

Looking forward to your install pictures.

[NautiWeasel]

Thanks for the clarification. Do you think you will need a second remote near the transom?

The RA670 is going in the glove compartment? Is Bluetooth available (head unit? remote? both?) for our non-Apple guests?

Looking forward to your install pictures.

I will answer those questions, not to hijack, but because I have that head unit in my boat, installed in May. Yes, the RA670 is bluetooth compatible, and capable of using any of the Fusion remotes as well. I have an Android phone that I can use as an additional remote if I wish. I have the SRX-400, and one of the BT little stick on remotes right now, and they work great. The only thing it doesn't do, that I wish it did, was connect to another boat which has the RA770. If I would have known that to be true before I purchased, I would have spent the extra $$$ to get the RA770.

[jhnmdahl]

Nauti, thanks for the input. Is the wireless connection to another boat part of what they call their PartyBus? A rep at Fusion/Garmin told me that the RA670 can do Apple AirPlay and Fusion PartyBus if you add a WiFi router to the Ethernet port on back. The RA770 is supposedly very similar to the RA670 inside, with the biggest changes being addition of a touchscreen and built-in WiFi.

John

[NautiWeasel]

Yes, PartyBus is what I was after. there is a buddy of mine that has the RA770, but then the same 2 remotes I have. His will do wifi and connect to another stereo over the air, but the RA670 won't, or at least in all of the testing I've done, I can't get it to. Tempted to call Crutchfield or Fusion while I'm actually on the boat, near my friends boat, and see what he says to do.
I can't run a router off the back of my RA670, because I have the ethernet cable running my SRX400 helm remote. The odd thing is, I can make my SRX400 remote control the RA770 on his boat, from my boat, but not the other way around. It has something to do with the RA670 that I have, not allowing that wifi connection.

[jhnmdahl]

Yes, PartyBus is what I was after. there is a buddy of mine that has the RA770, but then the same 2 remotes I have. His will do wifi and connect to another stereo over the air, but the RA670 won't, or at least in all of the testing I've done, I can't get it to. Tempted to call Crutchfield or Fusion while I'm actually on the boat, near my friends boat, and see what he says to do.
I can't run a router off the back of my RA670, because I have the ethernet cable running my SRX400 helm remote. The odd thing is, I can make my SRX400 remote control the RA770 on his boat, from my boat, but not the other way around. It has something to do with the RA670 that I have, not allowing that wifi connection.

There's no WiFi in the RA670, so the wireless remotes won't work with it. As I understand it, you could buy a small WiFi router with a few ports, plug the RA670 into one, and whatever remotes you have into the others, and use WiFi for the CarPlay, PartyBus, etc.. I haven't tested this yet, but the Garmin/Fusion guy said it would work, and I've seen other people mention it works. I don't have much use for PartyBus, but I could see springing $50 for the WiFi router to get AirPlay someday.

[NautiWeasel]

Yes, PartyBus is what I was after. there is a buddy of mine that has the RA770, but then the same 2 remotes I have. His will do wifi and connect to another stereo over the air, but the RA670 won't, or at least in all of the testing I've done, I can't get it to. Tempted to call Crutchfield or Fusion while I'm actually on the boat, near my friends boat, and see what he says to do.
I can't run a router off the back of my RA670, because I have the ethernet cable running my SRX400 helm remote. The odd thing is, I can make my SRX400 remote control the RA770 on his boat, from my boat, but not the other way around. It has something to do with the RA670 that I have, not allowing that wifi connection.

There's no WiFi in the RA670, so the wireless remotes won't work with it. As I understand it, you could buy a small WiFi router with a few ports, plug the RA670 into one, and whatever remotes you have into the others, and use WiFi for the CarPlay, PartyBus, etc.. I haven't tested this yet, but the Garmin/Fusion guy said it would work, and I've seen other people mention it works. I don't have much use for PartyBus, but I could see springing $50 for the WiFi router to get AirPlay someday.

If you do find that to work (and where are you finding a 12v capable wifi router?) then let me know for sure. I went with this stereo combo with 50% of my intention being for Party Bus usage. My buddy (ACNull on here) and I boat together about half of the time, and we'd like to have the same song playing on both boats at the same time when we're anchored. It would be well worth a $50 investment for me to get that to work correctly.

[jhnmdahl]

If you do find that to work (and where are you finding a 12v capable wifi router?) then let me know for sure. I went with this stereo combo with 50% of my intention being for Party Bus usage. My buddy (ACNull on here) and I boat together about half of the time, and we'd like to have the same song playing on both boats at the same time when we're anchored. It would be well worth a $50 investment for me to get that to work correctly.

I still have some work to do to get my system installed, but I was looking at something like these down the road if I needed AirPlay for some reason:

Cheap WiFi router:
https://a.co/d/beHT92C

and 12v to USB-C power adapter:
https://a.co/d/0Tr74UX

Amazon has a pretty open return policy if it didn't work and you wouldn't otherwise use a small router. See this video as well for confirmation straight from Garmin that it should work:

[NautiWeasel]

Hmmm.
Me thinks I might have to give that a shot. Too bad I didn't get this deep into this stuff last weekend. We're headed to Grand Lake O' The Cherokees in OK this weekend (my family, and ACNull's family) and it would be great to have this work for next week when we're together all day on the lake.

Maybe Amazon can deliver to the VRBO house????

Thanks @jhnmdahl... you're making me spend more money.

[jhnmdahl]

Updated top post with (Update Part II) regarding receiving and building the new dash panel for the remote.

[NautiWeasel]

John.
@jhnmdahl
Did you end up getting that wifi router that you linked above? If so, did it work as expected to get a network going on your boat? Anything that didn't work as you expected?

[jhnmdahl]

John.
@jhnmdahl
Did you end up getting that wifi router that you linked above? If so, did it work as expected to get a network going on your boat? Anything that didn't work as you expected?

I didn't install it on my boat since I don't do the party bus thing, but knowing that I could add WiFi for a few bucks down the road if some other feature warranted it was a factor in choosing the head unit I did.

[NautiWeasel]

Okay, gotcha.
I may do this... and if so, I'll come back here and add to your thread if that's cool. I didn't start my own stereo thread. Yours is so similar to mine, there really wouldn't be any reason to add mine.