I discovered some interesting (and alarming) things about the Dashlinq4's power/speaker harness that people need to be aware of. Picture of harness:
(click to see larger version).
A Subaru STi owner purchased a Dashlinq4 and contacted me about harnesses he would need to install it in his car. A Google search for pics of their harness brought me to this thread. After slogging through all 1600+ posts here, I asked him to send better pictures of the Dashlinq4's harnesses so I could see what was going on.
Cutting to the chase: Subaru and FR-S owners need to extract the SWC wire from the Dashlinq4's 6-pin harness connector (see pic above). I think that GT86 models (i.e., outside North America) do not have a factory wire at that pin position, but on any cars that do you would need to extract CA-Fi's wire with those cars too.
Picture of 6-pin harness (with strip of paper between top and bottom rows of wires):
(click to see larger version).
For reasons unknown, CA-Fi decided to run the HU's SWC wire to pin #5 on their 6-pin Toyota connector. On FR-S, BRZ, and all other Subaru models whose OEM HUs use Toyota-style harnesses (Impreza, WRX, STi, Crosstrek, Forester, Legacy, and Outback), that pin is used for illumination(-) (AKA dimmer). This is a problem, since the Dashlinq4 HU supplies +5V on its SWC wire for its steering wheel control function.
I noticed
Narcoden's post saying that his dash and clock illumination were acting strangely. This is the reason why.
The Dashlinq4's harness also sends a Y-branch of their ground lead to pin #4 on that harness. On most cars that pin is a No-Connect (NC), so it shouldn't cause any problems. If there are any car models where that pin is used, you would need to extract this BLACK wire also. Don't confuse that with the BLACK ground wire on the 10-pin harness -- that one needs to stay.
A little more detail about the Dashlinq4's harness:
Quote:
12 of the wires follow the color standard for aftermarket audio gear:
Code:
Color Function
========== ===============
BLACK Ground
YELLOW +12V Battery (constant-on, for main power & memory)
RED +12V Accessory (turns HU on/off with ignition key)
BLUE/WHITE "AMP CON" or "P.CNTR" (+12V remote trigger output for speaker amplifiers)
WHITE Left Front speaker (+)
WHITE/BLACK Left Front speaker (-)
GRAY Right Front speaker (+)
GRAY/BLACK Right Front speaker (-)
GREEN Left Rear speaker (+)
GREEN/BLACK Left Rear speaker (-)
VIOLET Right Rear speaker (+)
VIOLET/BLACK Right Rear speaker (-)
But the remaining 4 colors are non-standard or undefined (no standard for that function):
Code:
BLUE Dimmer (+12V illumination dimming input; normally ORANGE on aftermarket harnesses)
ORANGE/BLACK "ANTENNA" (+12V power to car's antenna booster; normally BLUE on aftermarket harnesses)
BROWN Reverse (+12V Reverse Gear signal input -- for rear camera function)
ORANGE SWC (Audio steering wheel control input)
SWC Lead
As I said, to install the Dashlinq4 in a Subaru (all models), FR-S, or any Toyota that has the illumination(-) signal on the car's 6-pin harness, you must extract the ORANGE SWC wire from CA-Fi's 6-pin connector.
In cars that do have audio steering wheel controls, you'll need to interface that wire to the car's SWC wires (typically on a 28-pin connector, in recent cars that use the 10- and 6-pin style harnesses for power and speakers). I'll save details on that for another thread.
Power Antenna Lead
As mentioned earlier in the thread, CA-Fi's harness correctly pins the Power Antenna lead for Subarus (all models except non-navigation Legacy/Outback). But on FR-S and Toyota models, you'll need to extract their ORANGE/BLACK lead from their 10-pin connector, cut off the pin, and connect the Dashlinq's wire to the BLUE lead on your Toyota/Lexus antenna adapter (see addl. notes in my next post, below). On Subarus, you should remove (or don't use) the BLUE lead on the antenna adapter.
Speaker Amp Trigger Lead
For BRZ, FR-S, and other models with a factory amplifier, you must add a new pin to pin #9 on the 10-pin plug -- the vacant slot between CA-Fi's ORANGE/BLACK (Power Antenna, at pin #8) and BLUE (dimmer, pin #10) leads, and connect that to their "pigtail" BLUE/WHITE wire labeled "AMP CON".
(click to see larger version).
Without this, the BRZ and FR-S door speakers will go silent. You can use the pin from the end of the SWC wire. Or, as someone suggested, steal the BLUE wire from another Toyota harness (Metra 70-1761, Scosche TA02B, or equivalent).
Speaker Outputs
One other odd thing that I noticed: There is an inconsistency with the speaker wires on the Dashlinq4's 16-pin harness. The top row goes - + - +, but the bottom row runs - + + -. That could be correct (in other words, their pin-out sticker may be accurately describing how those wires are connected to the HU's internal amplifier IC), but I recommend that someone check it just to be certain. If the negative sides of their speaker outputs are tied to the HU's chassis ground, you could do that with just an ohmmeter (while the HU is off and disconnected from the car). However, if both the + and - sides of the speaker outputs are floating, you would need an oscilloscope or a speaker phase app on your phone to verify.
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