I recently purchased an in dash single DIN DVD unit to pair up with my Microvision TFT monitor. My issue involves the emergency brake labelled wire from the back of the unit. I tapped it into the power supply for the stereo itself and the DVD's play fine. But, as soon as I power up my headlamps while driving at night the monitor will go into a safe mode and not allow me to view my movies. Regular daytime driving theres no issues with DVD playback. What would cause this and where should I connect the E-brake wire to? Ground? Any help would be immensley appreciated.

 

Ground that bish.

Which unit?

 

JVC something 6160.

 

try grounding the wire first

 

thanks a lot guys....for some reason I figured the bloody wire needed juice running to it.

 

Why did you figure that? Does your parking brake have power running to it?!?! Perhaps a powered parking brake was featured only in 99.5 4th gens.

 

I recently installed an Alpine IVA-W200 head unit and this also has a parking brake lead for DVD "safety". If you take out the middle armrest console, you'll find a small wire connected to the E-brake, which I tapped into using a simple radio shack pinch connector. You'll notice that the wire makes contact with the metal on the E-brake when the handle is down. When you pull up on the handle, this breaks contact with the wire. Was very easy to install. Unfortunately, my head unit also requires a wire to be connected to the main brake lamp, since there is a "magic handshake" (as I call it) to enable video. I have to push the brake pedal, lift/release/lift the e-brake, then release the brake pedal. Wierd eh? Splicing into the brake lamp switch under the dashboard was a pain. Good thing I had a friend to help.

 

Note that is illegal in all 50(?) states for DVDs to be viewable in eyesight of the driver while driving. =)

 

so i have to connect it to a power supply, for it to work?

 

Should have spent the $15 for a PTR7 bypass modual. Hook up a few wires, turn Apline unit on and you have video everytime. Fark all that brake crap.

 

Ugh, no, ground the parking brake wire. Unless a combination is needed such as with the z1 and some Alpine units.

 

maxbebe, did you figure it out yet? i have the same unit, ground the turqoise wire to the E-brake and that'll fix it.

 

This is way to easy guy. All you have to do is ground the brake wire on this unit.

 

Will that work for most models?

 

Yes but not all but some HUs like Alpines take two wires and one requires a pulse before the video will work but they do make a cool little modual that will do it for you.

98% of the time of there is only one wire that is supposed to go to the brake its a ground input so all you have to do is ground the wire. But please take the time to read the manual just to make sure.

Rick

 

yea mendon...I just grounded it regularly and it works like a champ. My next problem is finding the bass/treble controls on the JVC unit. I played with it for 3 hours and memorized the user guide. Is it possible to buy a headunit nowadays without these features? I found balance, fade, loudness, subwoofer vol, etc....but no basic bass/treble adjustments.

 

theres 3 buttons to the left, at the top.

left top is the eq, press that, then immediately following press the select button, the 3rd one.

this is the eq adjustment. the first should be 60hz, thats your bass, and the LAST, i think is 15k?

to scroll through you have to press the next track button (looks like this: >>, not the other one),

to get to trebel, just press the left (<<) button and that will take you to the end of the list, thats you're highest treble, and yes mine is cranked. it still isnt enough imo.. the rest in between you can set wherever you want. use the volume **** to adjust the settings.

that seemed tough to understand did you get it all? lol good luck..

edit: split up my paragraph for ya

also, just FYI if you hold the select button, a different display will come up. theres a few more options in there, like HPF, and amp gain, and some other stuff..

 

Actuallly I don't want video while I'm driving. I really would get distracted and get in an accident. =)

 

I have the same head unit and I don't use video while driving, but it's annoying to go through that nonsense when safely watching video, or when making sound adjusments. It unlocks a few adjustments, plus I am installing the 701 sound processor which is also locked out (from what i read) until you do the "brake dance"

 

I jsut got a cheap Jensen vm9311 HU, and I have tried grounding, grounding to the parking break and everything else that has been recomended. And it still doesnt work! does anyone have any ideas? What color is the E-brake wire on the 5.5 gen?

 

Is there more than one wire that connects to the hand brake lever? The 4th gen only has 1 wire and it is green. Piece of cake to tap into. Just have to remove the middle armrest/console. Only took me about 15 minutes and I'm no mechanic or professional installer.

 

I got it, it requires a pulse. So I just hooked up a switch to it and have to flick the switch with just the right timing and it works.