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Hi all!

I have a question which been duscussed few times. But due the different harness mfg., different Civic generations, and different headunits, I am still not sure.

I do have Civic 4d, 2006 year. Factory Civic harness have these lines:

#9 / Illumination (Red with silver stripe)
#17 / Illumination + (Gray with silver stripe)

I've purchased DNF 808 harness and it's came w/o pin #9 wired. But pin #17 is orange/white and called DIMMER.

I want to install Alpine CDE Car Stereo and it do have only one line related to this issue - ILLUMINATION, solid orange (manual says: To the instrument cluster illumination lead).

How I can connect wires to get all working and no not smoke instrument cluster (I am very worry about)?

Please suggest!

 
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Just tape off the dimmer wire and don't use it. If you bought an adapter all the wires in the adapter plug should line up correctly with the factory plug.

 
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Your GRY will be +12 volts when parking/head lights are on.
The RED will be the dimming lead controlled by cluster circuit.

The question would be if your new system uses a + or - for it's dimming.

 
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Craig, thanks for reply.

Alpine's manual says about ILLUMINATION: To the instrument cluster illumination lead. Does it mean that I should use ILLUMINATION, but not ILLUMINATION+? Are you sure?

Here is very similar car to mine: http://www.8thcivic.com/forums/diy-h...nstall-ex.html

Same connector, same pinout.

 
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I need auto dim. Can't plug all wires directly, because factory DNF harness have Orange with white stripe, but Alpine offers just Orange. No just Orange on DNF and no Orange with white stripe on Alpine harness.

 
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Cant be of much help really, only ever worked with Pioneer, Did some searching but not much trustworthy info imo.

If you follow the factory RED straight across to your adaptor which wire does it mate up with ?

 
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My car do not have solid red, but red with silver stripe only. It's not used in DNF harness (no pin installed).

 
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Here is quotation from Alpine's manual:

 
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From anoter forum:

Which one is ILLUMINATION, but which one is DIMMER in my Civic???

 
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Found this in METRA manual:

What does mean Negative Illumination? It's Gorund which should be used in pair with Positive Illumination? Or it provides negative voltage or negative voltage with respect to Ground (e.g. -12V)?

 
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Negative is ground.

 
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As with most stuff automotive... the bulb is provided a +12 volts to one side of filament (GRY) and the other side of the filament (the grounding) is controlled through the dimmer circuit.

Positive illumination would be the +12volt side.
Negative would be the controlled/dimming side.

My factory manual shows RED but you may have a silver strip, either way it should be your dimmer lead.

 
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I not think so. Because if it's ground, they can use black wire. Because it's chassis/ground with enough diamter. It's not necessary to increase harness size (and the cost) by including secondary ground with small diameter wire. Civic engineers are not stupid and discarded even Cruise Control wire in harness (in configurations where this function not included).

 
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You mean variable illumination ground! Okay. Sounds resonable. At least it explains the presence of two ILL wires.

In few weeks I will open my Civic with multimeter and document all voltages in different modes! There is only one way to ger accurate information!

Thanks in any case!

 
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You could always bench test it before tapping into your cars illumination circuit.

It pretty much has to be a + or - trigger that it is looking for...but I don't want to say do to lack of info.

Also I read on some Alpine models you have to enable dimming for it to work.

 
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Ho to test auto DIM on Alpine? I know how connect all, but what I need set up in Menu? Maybe some setting?

 
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Called to Alpine Dealer Tech Support and some men told me that I need supply jsut +12V to Apline. Nothing special. Not ground, not some variable voltage, but just +12V.

 
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There you go.

It likely dims a preset amount when lights are turned on, glad you did not try the negative side.

I have seen many, many people frying their 7th gen clusters when they get it wrong.

 
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Ok, guys. Got it working! Here is my bench test of Alpine CDE:

[autostream]http://autostream.com/ibcivicforums/?page_type=firebirdplayerthumbnail&framepage=1422& transactionid=1377278970-18825598210&posted_by=_www.civicforums.com&youtube _video_id=dYEFx6BOCFg[/autostream]
As you can see, Dimmer is very very very minor feature! Intensity changes, but not critically! At the first look there is only one LED dims in SOURCE button (big blue square button).

To enable it you should change setting: DIMMER -> DIM AUTO.

And one more thing! Alpine's manual is wrong!!!

Initial setting is DIM MANUAL, but not DIM AUTO as declared. I've checked right now on brand new never touched CDE-143BT.

 
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Hi all again!

Tried on car, but no luck. Pin #17 (ILL+) at grey connector does not provide any voltage in any position of ignition/key. Checked with Fluke multimeter between pin #17 (directly) and chassis ground in positions I/II and III.

Any ideas?

I do have one... I think that ILL- need to be grounded to close electric circuit. I can try through fuse e.g. on 0.25A. I hope that it will be safe for PANEL/METER PCB.

P.S.
Also my car have different scheme of wire color coding:



But I am pretty sure that pinout is the same to Civic EX '06, because car stereo is working (including all 4 speakers).

 
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ILL+ will only have +12 volts when the parking or headlights are on.

 
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CraigW,

Ohh! Good idea! I will check today!

 
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Craig, you right! Works just fine! Thanks for your help!

Issue solved!

 
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