What habitation sound systems / hifi ?

What do you all use for music in the living quarter section? I was thinking
of getting a custom system fitted, perhaps with speakers in the over side
windows 'shelf' areas; but then I thought perhaps just an ipod dock ...

Marc

IMO the simplest solution is to fit rear speakers wired to the cab CD/radio and get a head unit with remote control and USB/aux-in/Ipod-dock.

I've got a Sony CD/radio head unit like that with a remote that allows me to switch it on/off, and change channel/track and volume from the habitation area, so I can wake up in the morning and listen to the news on the radio for half an hour before getting out of bed!

Hi there,

We have never looked back since my good lady treated herself to a pair of Bose ear-phones.

I am partially deaf so a pair of Panasonic ear-phones for myself means that we can both listen to whatever we like (TV, Radio, DVD, iPad, iPod or iPhone) without annoying each other; or anyone in the next van!!

Best regards,

-mojo- wrote:IMO the simplest solution is to fit rear speakers wired to the cab CD/radio and get a head unit with remote control and USB/aux-in/Ipod-dock.

I've got a Sony CD/radio head unit like that with a remote that allows me to switch it on/off, and change channel/track and volume from the habitation area, so I can wake up in the morning and listen to the news on the radio for half an hour before getting out of bed!

Fully agree. I've gone for panacronic, with a remote control. Aso picked up a bluetooth module from eBay to stream music or hands free phone. It also plays MP3 CDs, you can get 5 or 6 albums on one disc at acceptable quality. Fade to front when travelling so daughter can watch / listen to her dvd player or choice of music, while the grown ups have their choice up front. Then switch fader to rear when we land.

I should have said, I only don't want to run anything off the vehicle battery, because
I'd be liable to forget I was doing that! :-) Also, I meant something that we could
both enjoy, at the same time (someone's going mention 2-way headset cables now
... :-)).

Thanks
Marc

Just take a feed from the leisure battery to the radio. The only disadvantage being that the radio won't go on or off with the ignition, which is what you want.

Forgot to mention that my 'Head Unit' is also DAB giving a fantastic range of stations. - When it gets a signal. - Not very good on the road, but superb when parked. An aerial upgrade might help.

matchlessman wrote:Just take a feed from the leisure battery to the radio. The only disadvantage being that the radio won't go on or off with the ignition, which is what you want.

Forgot to mention that my 'Head Unit' is also DAB giving a fantastic range of stations. - When it gets a signal. - Not very good on the road, but superb when parked. An aerial upgrade might help.

A slight variant on this is to have an illuminated override switch on the dash, so that when "off" the radio supply is from the vehicle battery, and when "on" the radio (and satnav if you have one) get their feed from the leisure battery. Obviously this needs to be a changeover switch so that you can't accidentally connect the two batteries together...

Incidentally, if you're looking at an aerial upgrade, the headunit experts on the VW forums seem to rate the ones by Calearo highly.

matchlessman wrote:Just take a feed from the leisure battery to the radio. The only disadvantage being that the radio won't go on or off with the ignition, which is what you want.

Our van is a Euro 5 unit and I believe on this the 20minute turnoff period is controlled by the radio and that it is connected to an always live power lead. I feel sure this mus be the case because when you turn off the ignition then things like the cigar lighter immediately go dead. So the radio cannot be connected to the switched power lead.

Anyone know if this is the case?

btw I plug a USB stick into the TV and then connect the output of the TV to a Bose SoundLink. Bose audio is not as good as their ads claim but it is OK for use in our van. This is also great when viewing TV because the sound on our Avtex TV is absolute rubbish.

mccormw wrote:

matchlessman wrote:Just take a feed from the leisure battery to the radio. The only disadvantage being that the radio won't go on or off with the ignition, which is what you want.

Our van is a Euro 5 unit and I believe on this the 20minute turnoff period is controlled by the radio and that it is connected to an always live power lead. I feel sure this mus be the case because when you turn off the ignition then things like the cigar lighter immediately go dead. So the radio cannot be connected to the switched power lead.

Anyone know if this is the case?

I'm not sure that it's in any way related to Euro5, but if it's a CANbus vehicle then you are probably right. The current VW T5 radios are all CANbus controlled, and it's the ECU that tells the radio to turn off - the power feed to it is always live.

There are ways around this, but you may find the simplest solution is to buy and fit an aftermarket (non-CAN) radio.

Yes, but a radio is just a radio, with not great speakers. It's in the wrong position, too. I'd like us to be able to sit on the settee and see a soundstage across the other side of the room (excuse the somewhat ott description of the space / furniture inside a Symphony I have a couple of RVs next to me as I type :-)).

I agree it's a good idea to do what you're suggesting, anyway, again, I've been on site for 2 weeks now, and I've no idea what the vehicle battery will be like (hopefull ok as the lights came on when I tried it just now) and daren't use the radio.

As a tangent - what do think of people running engines for 20 minutes or so on pitches, is it acceptable, or not the done thing?

-mojo- wrote:

matchlessman wrote:Just take a feed from the leisure battery to the radio. The only disadvantage being that the radio won't go on or off with the ignition, which is what you want.

Forgot to mention that my 'Head Unit' is also DAB giving a fantastic range of stations. - When it gets a signal. - Not very good on the road, but superb when parked. An aerial upgrade might help.

A slight variant on this is to have an illuminated override switch on the dash, so that when "off" the radio supply is from the vehicle battery, and when "on" the radio (and satnav if you have one) get their feed from the leisure battery. Obviously this needs to be a changeover switch so that you can't accidentally connect the two batteries together...

Incidentally, if you're looking at an aerial upgrade, the headunit experts on the VW forums seem to rate the ones by Calearo highly.

Thanks for the Bose Soundlink mention. Is the usb stick just to provide wireless?

I don't know whether to go for a mains off the-shelf docking station, a 'music centre' type of thing or a built-in custom system, or a battery ghetto blaster (but a decent one). At the moment, I sit here in perfect silence, apart from fan heater ..

mccormw wrote:
btw I plug a USB stick into the TV and then connect the output of the TV to a Bose SoundLink. Bose audio is not as good as their ads claim but it is OK for use in our van. This is also great when viewing TV because the sound on our Avtex TV is absolute rubbish.

Hi folks,
Not long had the van so an Ipad with all my songs and a set of ear phones will have to do, for Easter anyway.

Best regards Mike

I would have thought on a more modern vehicle like the Symbol you might have an ipod socket on the radio, or was the vehicle a bit early for that?

Flying High wrote:Hi folks,
Not long had the van so an Ipad with all my songs and a set of ear phones will have to do, for Easter anyway.

Best regards Mike

marc4242 wrote:I would have thought on a more modern vehicle like the Symbol you might have an ipod socket on the radio, or was the vehicle a bit early for that?

Flying High wrote:Hi folks,
Not long had the van so an Ipad with all my songs and a set of ear phones will have to do, for Easter anyway.

Best regards Mike

Ye Gods, you are right, just went out in the poring rain and guess what, there it is in the front of the Sony radio.

Also I have rear speakers on the habitation area

Thanks for that, my this forum is GREAT.

Best regards Mike

Result!

Whereabouts in the hab area are your speakers?

Flying High wrote:

marc4242 wrote:I would have thought on a more modern vehicle like the Symbol you might have an ipod socket on the radio, or was the vehicle a bit early for that?

Flying High wrote:Hi folks,
Not long had the van so an Ipad with all my songs and a set of ear phones will have to do, for Easter anyway.

Best regards Mike

Ye Gods, you are right, just went out in the poring rain and guess what, there it is in the front of the Sony radio.

Also I have rear speakers on the habitation area

Thanks for that, my this forum is GREAT.

Best regards Mike

Top left and right above the spot light, in the van looking forward, can take a picture tomorrow if that helps.

Best regards Mike

A Roberts DAB portable radio with built in battery charger. When hooked up charge the batteries for when we are not.

Plus a JVC Head unit in the cab coupled up to two speakers in the back

mccormw wrote:

matchlessman wrote:Just take a feed from the leisure battery to the radio. The only disadvantage being that the radio won't go on or off with the ignition, which is what you want.

Our van is a Euro 5 unit and I believe on this the 20minute turnoff period is controlled by the radio and that it is connected to an always live power lead. I feel sure this mus be the case because when you turn off the ignition then things like the cigar lighter immediately go dead. So the radio cannot be connected to the switched power lead.

Anyone know if this is the case?

Hi

It doesn't appear that the radio fitted on the new Peugeot Boxer vans fitted with the Euro 5 engines
can be re-wired to eliminate it turning off after 20 mins. I was told by a auto electrician that it could be done but after having the work done it still switched off after 20 mins, apparently it could be done on the older model but on the newer model the cut off is built into the radio itself and not in the way that it has been wired in, the only gain was that he had put a separate switch on the dash to switch off the radio so that there is no drain on the battery when the radio is turned off .

Batch

btw I plug a USB stick into the TV and then connect the output of the TV to a Bose SoundLink. Bose audio is not as good as their ads claim but it is OK for use in our van. This is also great when viewing TV because the sound on our Avtex TV is absolute rubbish.

matchlessman wrote:I'm not sure that it's in any way related to Euro5, but if it's a CANbus vehicle then you are probably right. The current VW T5 radios are all CANbus controlled, and it's the ECU that tells the radio to turn off - the power feed to it is always live.

There are ways around this, but you may find the simplest solution is to buy and fit an aftermarket (non-CAN) radio.

Yup Match that is what I thought, wasn't aware that it was controlled by the Canbus system but it seemed obvious to me that the Radio power feed must be live always or it wouldn't play for 20 minutes after you switch the ignition off.
If it is Canbus controlled then surely if I changed the radio in the cab then it would still turn off after 20 minutes, unless the canbus system signals the radio to turn off and the radio complies. This a non-compliant radio might not turn off.

If you have seen a Euro V cab then you would see that changing the radio is not an easy thing, look at the following link - scroll down a bit and you will see a picture of the radio. Note that it covers quite a bit of a curved plastic fascia. [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

What makes this doubly annoying is that AS have installed a couple of reasonable speakers into the back doors and listening to the radio through these is OK. In addition the CD player in the radio can play MP3 recorded CDs, so a few CDs could contain some of my Bob Dylan, Grateful Dead, Floyd (Pink not Keith), Doors etc and a little bit of my classical collection. This is annoying because this setup would meet our requirements for when we are away somewhere - APART from the 20 minute malarky.

Marc the USB stick contains some mp3 files and our Avtex TV can play these files - albeit with rubbish quality from the tinny little speakers it has. The Bose Soundlink is just used for the sound output. It is not very big but sounds pretty good for its size, in fact for its size it is unbelievable. I bought a 12v charger unit for it too, so this makes it very useful. Its drawback is its price ~£200.

mccormw wrote:
If it is Canbus controlled then surely if I changed the radio in the cab then it would still turn off after 20 minutes, unless the canbus system signals the radio to turn off and the radio complies. This a non-compliant radio might not turn off.

If it is CANbus controlled then that is exactly how it works - the ECU (or a linked control module) sends commands to the radio controlling how it behaves. I believe that the feature in some vans that increases volume as road speed increases is also now done by commands from the ECU over the CANbus.

However, one thing you might like to investigate: assuming it is CAN controlled, there will almost certainly be a setting in the ECU that determines how long it will leave the radio on for - in which case the value can almost certainly be changed. With VAG manufactured vehicles there is a diagnostic tool (VCDS) that will let you do that - not sure how readily available an equivalent is for your vehicle though.

mccormw wrote:
If you have seen a Euro V cab then you would see that changing the radio is not an easy thing, look at the following link - scroll down a bit and you will see a picture of the radio. Note that it covers quite a bit of a curved plastic fascia. [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Looks to be double-DIN in size. An aftermarket double-DIN unit will probably fit OK, but it won't look so nice...

No that is the thing, the current setup looks really good in the Euro V model, but apart from that.....

I have found a company in Car Emporium who do a replacement plate for the Euro V cab. I wonder, however, what it will look like and will it turn off after 20 minutes. Hpefully it will ignore Canbus commands.

There are 2 negative power feeds to the radio. One is permanently on, to maintain the memory etc and allow running with the ignition off, and the other is switched by the ignition. When the ignition is turned off, off goes the radio. You can turn the radio back on for 20 minutes or so, which uses the permanent feed.

All you need to do is disconnect the switched feed, and connect the radio end of the wire into the permanently on feed. Hey presto! on and off with the radio button, not the ignition and stays on as long as you like (Battery permitting).

You can also go the extra mile and connect a negative feed from the leisure battery to the two negative radio wires (permanently on and switched on) so there is no more worry about flattening the vehicle battery.

Match is that the situation for Euro V?

My van is on a 61 plate. It doesn't have a double DIN radio setup. I have changed the original radio for a DAB unit.

I think you'll find all aftermarket radios have a permanent feed and a switched feed so the radio goes on and off with the ignition.

All aftermarket radios now come with DIN connectors (Lego Brick) to connect to your vehicle, sometimes an additional harness is required if your vehicle is a bit weird. My Boxer has DIN connectors, but so far I have been unable to get the steering wheel controls to talk to the radio (have to use Mrs Matchlessman if I can't be bothered to lean over....) everything else is fine.

The DIN sockets on the vehicle end include the permanent negative feed and a switched negative, so that must be what they use to control the on / off of the radio with the ignition. As soon as the switched negative is connected to the permanently on negative feed the radio thinks the ignition is on and away you go.

I can't see any benefit in switching back and forth from the vehicle battery to the leisure battery. Currently mine runs off the vehicle battery, but in due course I will take a wire from the leisure battery and disconnect the vehicle feed altogether. The radio in my previous van was permanently connected to just the leisure battery and worked brilliantly.

Haaaaa, look what I found then

Unlike previous seasons, this radio links to the CANBUS system and is supplied with a timer to automatically shutdown to conserve battery power. The radio has two modes, one for when the vehicle is used as commercial vehicle (NORMAL) and one for use as a Motorhome (CAMPER).
If a customer wishes to change the amount of time the radio will stay on, please follow the instructions below:
* Turn radio on using central power button
* Within 15 seconds, simultaneously press FM AS and preset button 2. Each time this pair of buttons are pressed, the display will alternate between
NORMAL POWER MODE and CAMPER POWER MODE
* Ensure that CAMPER POWER MODE is displayed, then press MENU
* Using the UP and DOWN button now changes the display to show various adjustable items. Cycle through the options until RADIO OFF and a number of minutes is shown on the display. This will take approx. two presses of the UP button or seven presses of the DOWN button.
* With RADIO OFF shown on the display press the LEFT or RIGHT button. Each press of either button will alternate the number of minutes shown between 180 and 0
* With 180 showing on the display the setting is complete and three hours of radio operation should be possible. Press the POWER button to exit the menu and return the display to its usual view.

Please note that in NORMAL POWER MODE the same subsequent steps detailed above can be followed, to choose between 20 mins and 0 mins of radio operation.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Don't really know what the ? signifies, I would guess it would be to make the surrounded text bold or italic. In fact I have gone through and converted them to bold - so ignore this point.

I have just popped out and carried this out on our Sussex Duo (Marigold) and with some messing about I think it might have worked.

(i) You have to be pretty quick to press the two buttons FM AS and 2,
(ii) I also could only get to work if I pressed 2 first, and
(iii) The only choice was 0 or 180, nothing in between.

OK, I have left the radio on in Marigold (~15:30) and I will post an update in a couple of hours on here. Fingers crossed.