Stereo Head Unit upgrade

[Jim_R]

Well, first mod to the new to me 2002 2275 RL - replacing the OEM AM/FM CD player. The OEM unit still worked, and didn't sound too bad, but lacked MP3 player inputs, and was not Sirius XM ready. As I already had a Clarion CMD4a laying about, I thought I could do a quick swap. As soon as I pulled the OEM unit I saw it wasn't going to be so easy...

With the weather protector the OEM unit install required a huge cutout. Even the much larger faceplate on the Clarion would not cover the hole. My dreams of a clean looking 'factory-like' install were somewhat dashed, as the only alternative short of sending the boat to a fiberglass guy was to fabricate a mounting panel out of starboard.

Still looks ok I guess.

Next I prewired the Clarion Sirius SIR-CL1 satellite receiver, and Shakespeare Marine SRA-25 satellite antenna to the head unit to check for functionality, and it was a no go. Turns out the CeNET interface cable was bad. <_< Had to order another, so put off installation of the Sat receiver and antenna. Hopefully next weekend - at least I have an MP3 input for now.

More to come.

 

[cwag911]

Nice looking installation.

 

[Mary Lou]

Great job.You may have found a new career.

 

[Smoky Mountain]

Great job.You may have found a new career.

Looks good. That Starboard is handy stuff.

 

[Jim_R]

Looks good. That Starboard is handy stuff.

Very true, I found some deals on the stuff on ebay, and try to keep some white and black around just in case. I'm thinking I may find some more uses for it in this project.

 

[Jim_R]

Found some time to work on the satellite portion of the upgrade. I did a pre-wire test loosely connecting all the equipment, and verifying satellite connectivity. Here's the Sirius satellite receiver model SIR-CL1:

The Shakespeare Galaxy Sirius XM satellite antenna model SRA-25 was tested in the approximate mounting location with the dual-bimini up:

Satellite connectivity was verified, so time to install the satellite antenna, which requires a 5/8" mounting hole. Nothing like drilling holes in an otherwise perfectly good boat.

View of the installed antenna (lower left hand corner of the pic):

I still have to find a suitable mounting spot for the SIR-CL1 under the helm. Still puzzling over this one. I may need to create a backboard for mounting using some starboard.

 

[qapd]

Very nice installation.

 

[Jim_R]

Ok, I was back at it today. Mounting the satellite receiver proved more challenging than I thought. I found no area where I could mount to existing plywood, and no area where I could thru-bolt more plywood without removing pontoon seating first. The solution I came up with was to mount to the metal helm support columns, but as seen in the pic below, they are not plumb to each other.

Starboard to the rescue, I elected to mount the receiver to starboard, then mount the starboard to the columns thinking the starboard should be flexible enough so the varying angles would not be a factor. With this solution in mind it occured to me that I would only want to do this once, so if I was going to add bluetooth, now was the time.

I had already researched and bought a "Logitech Wireless Speaker Adapter for Bluetooth Audio Devices" from Amazon. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004VM1T5S/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00 What I liked was the reviews on the sound quality, and the fact that it was powered by 5V DC.

I dug around at home and found a car power adapter with multiple tips and one matched up perfectly.

I tested the combo using the 12V accessory jack on the helm dash, and was pleased to find great reception through out the boat, even with the bluetooth adapter placed inside the helm storage area. So now I needed a 12V recepticle inside the helm storage area. The local auto parts store had the following:

I figured I could chain it to the wiring for the helm 12V accessory jack, which was on the same accessory switch as the head unit. But the Logitech unit had no provision for mounting. So I had to take it apart and add some brackets:

Here's all 4 items mounted to the starboard.

Note the band clamps in 3 or the four corners, I elected to band clamp to the 1" square metal helm support columns for increased strength, and to avoid drilling into the columns. I actually used SS band clamps in all 4 corners. Here's a shot showing it mounted with most of the wiring squared away.

I still have some more securing and squaring away of wiring to do, but that can wait until after Miller time!

 

[Randy@LKN]

Wow...quite the upgrade and perhaps beyond what most of us are willing to take on, but a very pertinent topic.

I just purchased a 2007 2575GL which came with a Sony CDX CA705M AM/FM CD player.

Trouble is, the unit only works on 3 stations and it didn't include the remote commander which might make reprograming it easier.

I've tried wiping the unit clean with the reset button, taking power away from the unit, but still can't clear the presets and the unit won't search for signals beyond the 3 saved stations. The CD player can eject a CD, but won't play the CD. I'm about to look for another unit, particualarly one that might match up with the pigtail connection (another Sony?) but thought I would reach out to the BP club first.

Thanks

Randy

07 2575GL w 150hp Yamaha and power steering

 

[cwag911]

Wow...quite the upgrade and perhaps beyond what most of us are willing to take on, but a very pertinent topic.

I just purchased a 2007 2575GL which came with a Sony CDX CA705M AM/FM CD player.

Trouble is, the unit only works on 3 stations and it didn't include the remote commander which might make reprograming it easier.

I've tried wiping the unit clean with the reset button, taking power away from the unit, but still can't clear the presets and the unit won't search for signals beyond the 3 saved stations. The CD player can eject a CD, but won't play the CD. I'm about to look for another unit, particualarly one that might match up with the pigtail connection (another Sony?) but thought I would reach out to the BP club first.

Thanks

Randy

07 2575GL w 150hp Yamaha and power steering

Randy, where are you located on Lake Norman? We're down by Westport Marina in Lucky Cove on the Denver side. I could give you a hand with the radio install.

 

[Jim_R]

Wow...quite the upgrade and perhaps beyond what most of us are willing to take on, but a very pertinent topic.

I just purchased a 2007 2575GL which came with a Sony CDX CA705M AM/FM CD player.

Trouble is, the unit only works on 3 stations and it didn't include the remote commander which might make reprograming it easier.

I've tried wiping the unit clean with the reset button, taking power away from the unit, but still can't clear the presets and the unit won't search for signals beyond the 3 saved stations. The CD player can eject a CD, but won't play the CD. I'm about to look for another unit, particualarly one that might match up with the pigtail connection (another Sony?) but thought I would reach out to the BP club first.

Thanks

Randy

07 2575GL w 150hp Yamaha and power steering

Part of the problem with only getting three stations might be the placement of the OEM radio antenna. Others have moved the antenna, or re-routed the antenna wiring and had much better reception as a result. As far as clearing settings and presets, many headunits have a second power connection, most often colored yellow, as a keep alive power source for presets. You might need to remove both the red main power connection and the yellow keep alive power connection to clear the memory. Both should have fuses and could be temporarily disconnected at the fuses under the helm, but the simplest method is probably pulling the ground wires at the battery.

 

[Randy@LKN]

Jim-makes sense. Didn't realize there was a 2nd power feed (yellow line), but I like your idea of going to the source (battery) to see if I can clear the presets and start over.

thx

R

 

[Randy@LKN]

Randy, where are you located on Lake Norman? We're down by Westport Marina in Lucky Cove on the Denver side. I could give you a hand with the radio install.

Hi

I am also on the West side of the lake (Denver) and am just west of marker #11. If you head north from Westport look to your left (West) as you approach the marker and you'll see my dock and Bennie (with an ugly green cover). We're toward the end of McConnell Road. Thanks for the offer.

Randy

 

[dufunnel]

I see a number of head unit upgrade topics, but none referring to wiring them. There was a Pioneer unit in my 2001 2575FS that didn't work, and it was a very amateur installation, so I can't match up the boat wiring with the head unit wiring (mainly the speaker connections, I got the power and amp remote working fine). Does anyone have wiring diagrams, or are they not standard?

Thanks.

 

[Jim_R]

I see a number of head unit upgrade topics, but none referring to wiring them. There was a Pioneer unit in my 2001 2575FS that didn't work, and it was a very amateur installation, so I can't match up the boat wiring with the head unit wiring (mainly the speaker connections, I got the power and amp remote working fine). Does anyone have wiring diagrams, or are they not standard?

Thanks.

Electrical diagrams are available here: http://club.benningtonmarine.com/index.php?/topic/1604-electrical-specs/ Don't worry too much about model or year, the color scheme for speaker wiring usually does not vary much.

Mine were white,white/black for front left, grey, grey black for front right, green, green/black for rear left, purple, purple black for front right.

Of course there's also the old installers trick, take a 9V "smoke alarm" battery and connect the speaker wires you can not identify to it, the speaker will put out a nice buzz tone allowing identification.