Northern Auto Tech - ECU and Blue & Me Repairs

General New radio for 2010 on Doblo

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General New radio for 2010 on Doblo

Doblotastic

Doblotastic

New member
Joined
Jul 17, 2014
Messages
25
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Location
West Wales
Once upon a time if you wanted to change a radio you just pulled out the old one and fitted the new one in its place. I know from experience that these days sometimes things can be different.

The CD/radio in my 2010 Doblo car is on the blink so, I finally have an excuse to buy something better. I fancy a DAB unit but, before I spend my cash, I've got a couple of questions for the knowledgeable folks here. The old unit is a single DIN sized thing in an adapter plate. Probably Bosch/Blaupunkt but I haven't managed to get it out yet - it's tight in there!

1.Can I just do this? On a previous car (Peugeot) fitting an after-market unit imobilised the car as it wasn't coded to the canbus system. That unit couldn't be coded to the ECU and long story short the old one went back in.

2. Is the antenna fitted to the Doblo an "active" one i.e. amplified? If so I can't use an adapter to convert the old aerial for DAB. I could use one of those aerials you stick on the screen but I'm not keen.

What does the team think?
 
I put in a DAB radio in mine.

Almost a straight slot in.
Almost.

You'll probably need an aerial adaptor (a few pence)

The standard sockets are DIN so most will plug straight in.

Big power will show up the shortcomings in the door speakers - I'm no Audiophile so it doesn't worry me.

The wiring may need a little modification depending on your preference.

The standard wiring means that the car won't switch the unit off when you switch off (or Stop/Start activates). The Pioneer that I got has wires you can swap to change this. But then if you want to listen with ignition off, you can't as there's no "ACC" position on the key. I wired a small switch so I could route the power when I wanted to listen in that situation. Can't remember exactly what I did, but it was simple!

DAB: Don't knock the sticky antenna. I had mine wrapped around my sun visor for months, waiting for warm weather because it's best to have a warm screen before sticking the thing on. Got quite a few stations most of the time. I've since stuck it properly and I get loads of stations all the time. Most of the sticky bit is behind the A pillar trim, with just a small block being the main eyesore. Stuck well over the past 6 months or so. Standard antenna isn't active.
My Pioneer is good, but the fancy multi colour display is too dim in the sunlight, then the fancy multi colour lights for the keys are too bright at night. It has a "dim" function, but I haven't wired it in.

Mike
 
Thanks AM.

It’s good to know that I shouldn’t have any canbus problems - my biggest worry. If it was the case, I would probably have run a new fused +ve from the battery via a switch on the dash, avoiding the canbus sytem.

I know the car won’t switch the unit off due to the need to keep it going when the stop-start (which I hate) operates. Also I might need to swap a couple of wires to ensure the radios stored pre-sets are kept with the ignition off. Good idea about fitting a switched supply for listening when parked up. I can easily manage that.

I’ll probably fit an FM/DAB splitter to the original aerial if it’s a passive one although the stick-on type are a lot cheaper.

I was thinking of getting a Pure Highway H260 or 270 although there seem to be Pioneer and Kenwood units in my (about £100) price range as well. There are probably others too.

I’m no audiophile either! I don’t need the 50W per channel the units put out so hopefully the original fitment speakers will suffice. The CD mechanism in the old unit has broken and, although I’m getting on, I’d like to be able to listen to Radio 6-music.

Today I have mainly been trying to get the old unit out!
 
johnhififan said:
Some equivalents,
Mr optician, I'll have the muzzy glasses please as I'm no visualphile,
I don't need 100bhp do you have really crap oil with sand in it.
Click to expand...
What happened to your sensible original post? Not snarky enough? No matter.

Audiophile quality hifi in a diesel-engined van won't be needed, thanks.

Your other "equivalents" just aren't.
 
I thought I'd update you with my experience.

Old unit came out without problems and the replacement, actually a nearly new Pure Highway H260 off eBay, fitted easily after changing the mounting cage.

The wiring set up near-enough mirrors the original unit. I just lost the backlighting when the unit is switched off.

FM antenna connection was ISO as per the original but, I don't think the performance on FM is as good as it was although it's still perfectly good enough. As it happens, a signal amplifier for an active antenna was included in the box of bits as the unit had been mounted in a golf for a short while. I've ordered a Fakra(f) to ISO(f) connector and, for the sake of a fiver, I might as well give it a go.

I bought a little mag-mount DAB antenna from Halfords which works really well although the cable's not permanently routed yet. I need an extension cable to get it to exit through the tailgate. I know an antenna is supposed to work best mounted in the middle of its ground plane (from my old CB radio days) to avoid making it directional. However, about a foot forward of the tailgate seems to be OK and reduces the amount of cable outside the car. I altered the unit's "ant" settings as it's a passive job.

The car's stop-start system doesn't switch the radio off but, on restarting, everything is lost for a couple of seconds in the same way as if you started the car in the normal way with the radio already on. My routine is to disable start-stop every time I get in the car anyway!

Oh, and the speakers are fine!

While I had the old unit out and was waiting for the new one, I hard-wired my sat-nav. Having it plugged in the fag lighter in this car is a mess. I dismantled the plug and soldered on new cables to the innards. I spliced supply and ground cables into the cigarette lighter socket wiring, running an in-line fuse back to a new switch in the panel by the handbrake. The power adapter is cable-tied out of sight and the output cable goes up through the dash to exit through a notch filed in the edge of the "pen tray" above the radio. Much neater.
 
Last edited:
Installation is now finished.

I tried the FM antenna signal amplifier and there was no improvement. This was pretty much as expected and confirms once and for all that the original antenna is passive as I had been told here.

The DAB antenna is mounted on the centre line of the roof just ahead of the tailgate. The cable is routed around the tailgate opening and in through the bottom of the rh rear light cluster with a drip loop just in case water runs down it. It doesn't have to cross a door seal anywhere. The cable goes behind the plastic wing panel then under the sill trims before going up under the dash. I used a 3m extension cable for the antenna ( might have just got away with 2m) with the joint wrapped in amalgamating tape and positioned under the rear door sill trim.

Driving around here (mainly up and down the A487 between Cardigan and Aberystwyth) the signal had been mainly at 5/5 with spells at 4/5 showing on the head unit.
 
Doblotastic said:
I thought I'd update you with my experience.

Old unit came out without problems and the replacement, actually a nearly new Pure Highway H260 off eBay, fitted easily after changing the mounting cage.

The wiring set up near-enough mirrors the original unit. I just lost the backlighting when the unit is switched off.

FM antenna connection was ISO as per the original but, I don't think the performance on FM is as good as it was although it's still perfectly good enough. As it happens, a signal amplifier for an active antenna was included in the box of bits as the unit had been mounted in a golf for a short while. I've ordered a Fakra(f) to ISO(f) connector and, for the sake of a fiver, I might as well give it a go.

I bought a little mag-mount DAB antenna from Halfords which works really well although the cable's not permanently routed yet. I need an extension cable to get it to exit through the tailgate. I know an antenna is supposed to work best mounted in the middle of its ground plane (from my old CB radio days) to avoid making it directional. However, about a foot forward of the tailgate seems to be OK and reduces the amount of cable outside the car. I altered the unit's "ant" settings as it's a passive job.

The car's stop-start system doesn't switch the radio off but, on restarting, everything is lost for a couple of seconds in the same way as if you started the car in the normal way with the radio already on. My routine is to disable start-stop every time I get in the car anyway!

Oh, and the speakers are fine!

While I had the old unit out and was waiting for the new one, I hard-wired my sat-nav. Having it plugged in the fag lighter in this car is a mess. I dismantled the plug and soldered on new cables to the innards. I spliced supply and ground cables into the cigarette lighter socket wiring, running an in-line fuse back to a new switch in the panel by the handbrake. The power adapter is cable-tied out of sight and the output cable goes up through the dash to exit through a notch filed in the edge of the "pen tray" above the radio. Much neater.
Click to expand...

Does the radio need a software update from PURE ?

http://support-uk.pure.com/kb/articles/233-upgrading-the-software-on-your-highway-h260dbi

Also check here to see if it needs the DAB+ upgrade:

http://upgrades.pure.com/uk/update
 
Last edited:
On my highway 300 di you can choose which antenna you use from 3 opinions
Cars own
Passive
Active
I've had it in my c1 and qubo both running though cars own and works fine
 
K333fer said:
On my highway 300 di you can choose which antenna you use from 3 opinions
Cars own
Passive
Active
I've had it in my c1 and qubo both running though cars own and works fine
Click to expand...


Zeewulf said:
The Di has an update to version 1.6 for it's software if you haven't already done it ;)
Click to expand...

Thanks but, that's not what I've got. I have an H260DBi which is a radio/CD head unit. I think you are talking about an add-on unit for a FM radio.
 
Yeh I know but just in case your model had a similar menu for antenna setting that was all
 
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