DAB Radio fitting?

Hi, has anyone had a DAB radio fitted? I want to upgrade our existing radio and like one I've seen in Halfords, but the guy there says we would need a DAB ariel and didn't want to fit the radio it as he said it would involve removing windscreen rubber. I can't believe it is that much of a job and wondered wether he just didn't fancy being out in the cold.
I can do most things but if i'm honest do not like messing with anything electrical, I have replaced a normal radio in a previous car before and this was pretty straightforward but not sure about the DAB ariel. Any advice would be appreciated...have searched forum but nothing here specific to DAB.

Im sure Bumble changed to DAB. They'll let you know how it was done.

Interesting/useful website:

http://www.dabonwheels.co.uk/index.html

I installed one, radio from halfords but I bought the following aerial

http://www.dabonwheels.co.uk/Kinetic_ZY_High_Performance_Internal_Glass_Mount_DAB_car_Aerial.html

Buying a good aerial is critical and you need to make sure it doesn't touch the heated front screen if you have one fitted.

Hi all,

yes I fitted a PURE DAB radio, which I bought from Halfords.

I also talked to the people at dabonwheels and bought an aerial booster for the existing aerial, so I didn't have to mess around either with the windscreen, or with the standard windscreen aerial which was too long for the Brazibay windscreen.

This is the radio I bought:- http://www.halfords.com/technology/car-audio/dab-car-stereos/pure-highway-h260dbi-digital-fm-am-radio-with-bluetooth

(it was a bit cheaper than what's advertised, as I bought an unused one that the box had been opened - worth it for the discount, plus cashback if you buy via Quidco - let me know if you want to be recommended to join, as I get a bonus for that .)

This is the aerial I bought (as far as I can remember) :- http://www.dabonwheels.co.uk/Kinetic_DAA-7001_aerial_converter_-_splitter.html

It's a standard fit aerial booster (not ISO connectors).

P.

Hi all, thanks for all the info. After all this and with great deliberation we decided to replace with a standard but new bluetooth option as we have a DAB radio which we use when on hookup and only really needed a radio that allowed bluetooth streaming. This was all decided on as the previous JVC had been playing up for a while and finally stopped working.
Halfords fitted a new radio but its still not working...checked fuse under dashboard (No 6) and this was OK so was stumped, he didn't and I didn't want him messing about so have just left it with the new radio in place but not working - I am hoping someone might be able to offer an answer and if there is something else I need to check?

Radio powered by the leisure battery circuit? If so, is the leisure battery charged?

TimV wrote:

Radio powered by the leisure battery circuit?  If so, is the leisure battery charged?

That would be my guess too, check the 30/40a fuse next to the main (starter) battery. If it's blown the the leisure battery isn't being charged while driving so will be flat, hence no radio.

How will know if the radio is wired in to the leisure battery? The main 30amp fuse at the starter battery is not blown.

Bileos wrote:

How will know if the radio is wired in to the leisure battery? The main 30amp fuse at the starter battery is not blown.

If it was working I would say disconnect the LB and see if the radio still works, but as its not working to start with it will a bit more of a challenge.

Can you confirm the LB is charged/charging? Do you have a battery indicator in the van? Internal lights working? Water tap working?

Hi Tallulah, checked internal lights - not working, put electric hookup on and all is well - lights on, radio working so must run through the leisure battery. I thought that as I had been using her occasionally to keep things moving through the Winter this would have kept charged, obviously not long enough journeys to recharge leisure battery. I just hope there is no permanent damage to the leisure battery.
Thanks for your advice greatly appreciated

Bileos wrote:

I just hope there is no permanent damage to the leisure battery.

We believe the leisure battery will be OK, our one often goes from fully charged to no charge over time, but we doo charge it every 6 weeks or so (especially in the winter).
For reference, our radio is wired through the ignition/starter battery and not the leisure battery.

Bileos wrote:

Hi Tallulah, checked internal lights - not working, put electric hookup on and all is well - lights on, radio working so must run through the leisure battery. I thought that as I had been using her occasionally to keep things moving through the Winter this would have kept charged, obviously not long enough journeys to recharge leisure battery. I just hope there is no permanent damage to the leisure battery.
Thanks for your advice greatly appreciated

Glad you got the radio sorted. The LB should receive at least some charge from the engine, at the very least I would expect the radio to work while the engine is running even when it is fully flat.

Keep an eye on that 30a fuse near the main battery, if the difference in charge of the two batteries becomes too great there is a greater risk of it blowing.

Tallulah wrote:

Bileos wrote:

Hi Tallulah, checked internal lights - not working, put electric hookup on and all is well - lights on, radio working so must run through the leisure battery. I thought that as I had been using her occasionally to keep things moving through the Winter this would have kept charged, obviously not long enough journeys to recharge leisure battery. I just hope there is no permanent damage to the leisure battery.
Thanks for your advice greatly appreciated

Glad you got the radio sorted. The LB should receive at least some charge from the engine, at the very least I would expect the radio to work while the engine is running even when it is fully flat.

Keep an eye on that 30a fuse near the main battery, if the difference in charge of the two batteries becomes too great there is a greater risk of it blowing.

On a trip last year our LB went flat , the radio would not work even with the engine running

Hi Bumble,
I'm following your advice regarding the Pure DAB radio and aerial booster connecting to the existing aerial. We're buying the Pure DAB Highway H260DBi radio. Which Kinetic DAA-7001 booster aerial did you go for? The one that's £18.99, not the ISO or Fakra connectors?

Thanks,
Tim

BigDubblya wrote:

Hi Bumble,
I'm following your advice regarding the Pure DAB radio and aerial booster connecting to the existing aerial. We're buying the Pure DAB Highway H260DBi radio. Which Kinetic DAA-7001 booster aerial did you go for? The one that's £18.99, not the ISO or Fakra connectors?

Thanks,
Tim

Hi Tim,

Halfords are doing the 260Dbi for £89.99 as a 'refurbished' product (compared with £129.99) . This is what I did and my 'refurbished' product meant the box had been opened; just that! I checked it all in the shop, when I collected and it was all in there.

http://www.halfords.com/technology/car-audio/dab-car-stereos/refurbished-pure-highway-h260dbi-digital-radio

Remember Quidco as well (3% cashback!)

The aerial is the £18.99 one, with what I think are called DIN connectors (not ISO or Fakra). I did check with Dabonwheels, via email, who were very helpful. It's just connected in line, into the original aerial socket and aerial cable.

Both aerial and radio need a 12v live feed, always on (to save memory settings). This should really link to the leisure battery (not starter) and I took a separate live feed from the spare fuse on the box of four fuses just behind the passenger seat (and can be routed up over the passenger door via the roof lining - I just took off the two clips - and down the side of the windscreen, tucking the single cable into the windscreen rubber and into the dashboard).

My youngest son has just told be there might be a software update to allow DAB plus and access to more stations; I'll investigate this and post on this thread when I find out (as I need the serial number of the radio and it's on the bottom/back of the radio and that's in Bumble!)

Paul

Hi Paul,
Thanks for the info, I'll go for the £18.99 aerial DIN booster. We're upgrading to DAB so all the wiring to fuses and leisure battery feeds exit. Thanks again for the tips.

Tim

Hi i have just followed your lead and bought the pure radio from Halfords and the Daa-7001 from Dabonwheels. Just looking at the aerial side i assume that i have to switch this to passive in the Pure set up menu so that it gets the feed from the 12v as the Pure default is to put 12v on the dab aerial socket.
Can anyone confirm that my thinking is correct. Thank you

Sorry should have said 12v from the seperate supply on the red lead

Razorbaz wrote:

Hi i have just followed your lead and bought the pure radio from Halfords and the Daa-7001 from Dabonwheels. Just looking at the aerial side i assume that i have to switch this to passive in the Pure set up menu so that it gets the feed from the 12v as the Pure default is to put 12v on the dab aerial socket.
Can anyone confirm that my thinking is correct. Thank you

Razorbaz wrote:

Sorry should have said 12v from the separate supply on the red lead

Hi Razorbaz,

I haven't changed anything in the Pure set-up menu, but (if I remember correctly!) have used the 12v red lead on the DAB aerial adaptor taking power from the same source as the permanent live going to the radio.

P.

Hi Bumble thank you for the response, in parallel with my post i emailed dabonwheels and they agreed that the setting needed to be in passive before i connected. I followed the instructions going into Disp to get the menu up but alas no mention of DAB Ant active. I played around and then doh you need to select dab then Disp and scroll through. The Ant active comes on screen for only a split second so you need to be poised ready to turn the volume control to passive then press disp again to store the setting.

Having done this i plugged in the dab part of the aerial and let it scan, what a difference........Glad i spent some hours today changing all the wiring as the sound quality is much better than the JVC radio that previously lived in the dash. The refurbed unit cost just £71:99 with me trading in the JVC for an extra 20% discount. As my son would say....winner.

Hi Razorbaz,

what was the difference? Before you changed from active to passive, could you only get certain channels, or none at all?

Does that mean you haven't got the 12v live feed on the DAB aerial adaptor connected?

P.

Hi Bumble I used a permanenant 12volt feed to the aerial via the red lead. I read the manual for the Pure and it said that the radio puts out 12v on the dab socket. I didn't therefore try the aerial but contacted Dabonwheels and they agreed i should set the radio to passive.

I followed the procedure previously mentioned and then plugged in the aerial. It says that the radio warranty is void if the radio is damaged so i thought i better air on the cautious side.