P.I.E MAZ/PC-ALP Problems
 

I have installed the AVElectronic Nav multi switcher in my 2005 RX-8. Instead of using the Wireless FM Modulator for audio signal I purchased the P.I.E MAZ/PC-ALP from an distrubtor online. This system came with an RCA bus so that I could feed my audio signal directly into the HU.

HU FIRMWARE is 9.73

I installed the MAZ/PC-ALP into the open 16 pin port on the back of the HU. At first it did nothing when I pressed the CD button mutilpe times. I looked online and found a thread where it talked about doing a battery reset with everything attached. I performed this operation and low and behold the unit worked.

When you press the CD button twice it goes to "EX 1" with the "1" flashing. Ran around town with the system working and it was pretty kewl.

I turned off the car and went to eat...came back out....cranked the car up and now I can not get the HU to switch over to the changer mode "EX 1".

Is there something that is causing the HU or P.I.E to reset? Bad P.I.E? Nature of the beast?

update:

I have tracked this down to the RCA cables being hooked up to the AVElectronic switcher. If I remove the RCA cables from the audio out on the switcher unit, cycle power to the car then the EX 1 will come up on the HU.

Yes, I have tried multiple RCA cables and same results.

I did happen to have my IPOD video cable and pluged it into the P.I.E. unit and then directly into the IPOD and I everything worked fine. It didnt matter how many times I cycled the power to the car I could always get into the EX mode on the HU,

I will be taking some voltage mesurements to see if there is anything out of the ordinary.

Is your AV switcher powered up before your HU?

hmmmmmmmmmm trying to think on this one

sounds like a grounding issue

UPDATE:

This was a real challange, but myself along with AVElectronics and P.I.E. technicians were able to isolate this issue to the "P.I.E. ALP/M-RCA Alpine M-Bus Auxiliary Input Converter".

We ended up grounding the outer shell of the rca cable from the P.I.E Aux Input Converter and we recreated the fault.

I am contacting logjamelectronics today for a replacement converter.

Just thought ya'll might want to know for future reference. Neither company has ever seen this before.

We've never had that problem with the units we ship from Mazdaparts.com and I have the same setup as you in my own car...really weird. We'll watch out to see if any of our new batches exhibit this behavior.

Weird.......I use the Alpine PIE/RCA cable/converter to connect my GMini402 to the MP3 HU in my 8, and I never had any problems....worked like a charm from the word "GO".....

And I also know about 15-20 other fellow 8 owners, who also have had zero problems with this or similar setup (mainly with iPods)....

update
 

JUST AND UPDATE:

Received the NEW P.I.E. ALP/M-RCA Alpine M-Bus Auxiliary Input Converter from the distributor and everything is working fine.