Hi all!

 

Alright, so I've spent a couple of hours trying to get my new radio to work with my new Rapid. It seems impossible right now, and there are just zero information about the Rapid online.

 

Seems like noone has it or posts anything about it, making a guide completely impossible to find. I've been using Skoda Octavia (and others) as guide, but it just doesn't work at all. Switch red and yellow and all that. Just doesn't work. I'm beginning to think that the radio I've bought is just DOA. Or the Quadlock cable I bought might not work with the Rapid.

 

Ok so here's what I have.

 

QuadLock ISO adapter for skoda and others (should fit ALL skoda models)

Pic: http://www.avantix.dk/catalog/images/aa/a/ISO_Adapter_451-1324-46-15.jpg

 

Alpine CDE-111B radio

 

Mounting frame, screws and all that stuff.

 

I just can't get power to the radio AT ALL. I have no idea what cables to connect apart from the obvious ones, that you pretty much just can't screw up, because it won't fit otherwise.

 

Everythings hooked up, but no power in the radio what so ever. Not with the engine on, or just in the ignition state. Nothing. Dead.

 

Can someone tell me which cables to connect to what connectors? I'm talking about all the bullet-head cables (is that the name?) that have these rubber shields on them. I have to connect some of those, to get power to the radio, but I don't know which ones go with which colours.

 

The original radio is the Radio Swing model. It sucks and I hate it. I have a subwoofer box with amp that will go in the trunk. And I really want this working so I can finish this installation.

 

The dealer said, that the QuadLock ISO adapter will work with ALL skoda models, and I opened the little black box to see if it got power. It does. The QuadLock controller or whatever receives power when the engine is on, no problem. There are 2 little lamps that light up when its installed.

 

Please help. This is driving me insane! And I bet there are others out there in the same situation! So be the first to come up with a solution

 

Thanks in advance!

 

Chris

Denmark

What was wrong with the swing radio... You get USB, aux and Bluetooth. If you log in using vagcom you can even turn off the factory eq (giving you a clean signal to sen to your amp) and set it as an active system (so it knows your using and external amp!). You'll be loosing your parking sensor visual if you have them fitted. I understand the desire for better quality sound but the factory unit isn't bad, probably better than the £100 alpine unite your trying to fit! I have an old top of the range alpine hu that I'm not going to fit as the features on the swing are as good if not better but I guess it's your choice. You might want to take a look at the alpine's manual as with my old one there were lots of settings in the radio (turn on the internal amp/activate the sub outputs) but it sounds like it's not even powering up?

What was wrong with the swing radio... You get USB, aux and Bluetooth. If you log in using vagcom you can even turn off the factory eq (giving you a clean signal to sen to your amp) and set it as an active system (so it knows your using and external amp!). You'll be loosing your parking sensor visual if you have them fitted. I understand the desire for better quality sound but the factory unit isn't bad, probably better than the £100 alpine unite your trying to fit! I have an old top of the range alpine hu that I'm not going to fit as the features on the swing are as good if not better but I guess it's your choice. You might want to take a look at the alpine's manual as with my old one there were lots of settings in the radio (turn on the internal amp/activate the sub outputs) but it sounds like it's not even powering up?

 

The quality of the SWING radio is not the problem. And I don't get bluetooth, and it has no USB input. The Swing unit has no output for external amp either. It's just a plain unit made by a company called Delphi.

 

The sound quality in itself isn't the problem either. The radio just sucks in terms of connectivity. The speakers in the car aren't all that great, and as such, I would like to mount a subwoofer in the boot. Which requires an external amp to be connected. And I don't want to cut any existing cables, and I don't want to mess with the factory installed wiring in ANY way.

 

I'd love it if the swing radio had USB connectivity. Right now I'm using the 3,5mm jack plug AUX-input to play music from my phone. Problem is, I have to use my phone when I want to switch to another track. Not really ideal while driving.

 

The Alpine unit is just a temporary solution since I want to mount other speakers in the doors at some point. So a larger, probably 2DIN, HU will be mounted when I can afford it. In Denmark, we have the highest fees/taxes in the world when buying a car. You get one car, but after taxes/fees/registration you've paid for three.

 

The Alpine HU isn't powering up at all. It's just completely dead. I have no idea where the problem is. I don't have a lot of knowledge about the wiring and which cables connect to what, where to get power and so on... So I might have to have a professional install it. But it's gonna cost me, if it's just 2 cables that needs to be switched around. Then I'd feel like i wasted the money on it. Especially when I can ask for advice on this fantastic forum!

 

So in conclusion: The Swing radio needs USB and bluetooth, which it does not have. And although it sucks that the parking sensor display will be missing, it still makes the sound, which is fine. I listen to music for longer periods of time than I spend parking my car. So that's fine. Problem is, it's not powering up.

In the uk, my elegance comes with the swing unit with both Bluetooth and usb/aux - perhaps getting these retro fitted is a better idea? Like you say it could be two wires that need switching round but I'm not a qualified auto electrician! I totally agree with the speakers... Not bad but not good by a long stretch. I'm currently considering an upgrade to the audio but like I said you can program the swing unit to give a flat sound (similar to what the JL AUDIO CleanSweep does http://www.jlaudio.co.uk/cl441dsp-car-audio-oem-integration-98110 ). I'm looking at buying a wiring harness that will plug in the the speaker out puts and attaching a hi-low converter ( www.caraudiodirect.co.uk/phonocar-4-136-high-level-adaptor ) which gives the ability to connect an amp (which I have lying around from an old install - Alpine 4x55w) which I'm thinking of powering a pair of JL Audio C2's ( http://www.jlaudio.co.uk/product/54216.104258.103584.56909.0/99617/_/C2-650 ). This is the point that I get stuck as I could use channel 3&4 of the amp bridged to power a little micro sub (jl audio 6 or 8 inch http://www.jlaudio.co.uk/car-audio-subwoofer-systems-microsub ) or I could buy a pair of jl audio c2's ( http://www.jlaudio.co.uk/product/54216.104258.103584.103571.0/99618/_/C2-650x ) and run a sub out off the amp to a will active sub (alpine 8" http://www.caraudiodirect.co.uk/alpine-swe-815-active ) but I don't want to loose the room in the boot... So then I start thinking of making a fibreglass custom box for the side wheel arch and using another amp I have lying around but then I want to hide that somewhere.

You might find a decent audio installer will tell you which wires you need to do over the phone?

In the uk, my elegance comes with the swing unit with both Bluetooth and usb/aux - perhaps getting these retro fitted is a better idea? Like you say it could be two wires that need switching round but I'm not a qualified auto electrician! I totally agree with the speakers... Not bad but not good by a long stretch. I'm currently considering an upgrade to the audio but like I said you can program the swing unit to give a flat sound (similar to what the JL AUDIO CleanSweep does http://www.jlaudio.co.uk/cl441dsp-car-audio-oem-integration-98110 ). I'm looking at buying a wiring harness that will plug in the the speaker out puts and attaching a hi-low converter ( www.caraudiodirect.co.uk/phonocar-4-136-high-level-adaptor ) which gives the ability to connect an amp (which I have lying around from an old install - Alpine 4x55w) which I'm thinking of powering a pair of JL Audio C2's ( http://www.jlaudio.co.uk/product/54216.104258.103584.56909.0/99617/_/C2-650 ). This is the point that I get stuck as I could use channel 3&4 of the amp bridged to power a little micro sub (jl audio 6 or 8 inch http://www.jlaudio.co.uk/car-audio-subwoofer-systems-microsub ) or I could buy a pair of jl audio c2's ( http://www.jlaudio.co.uk/product/54216.104258.103584.103571.0/99618/_/C2-650x ) and run a sub out off the amp to a will active sub (alpine 8" http://www.caraudiodirect.co.uk/alpine-swe-815-active ) but I don't want to loose the room in the boot... So then I start thinking of making a fibreglass custom box for the side wheel arch and using another amp I have lying around but then I want to hide that somewhere.

You might find a decent audio installer will tell you which wires you need to do over the phone?

 

Interesting stuff!

 

I could get a cable like that, but it's of no particular use for me, since the radio does not have any bluetooth or USB connectivity. That, and the fact that theres no search mode. I can't search for songs as i can with my Alpine HU. Press a button, use the volume knob to roll between folders and press enter when you have the folder with the song you want to hear. The swing radio just can't do that.

 

I have an elegance version of the car as well. Is yours an Octavia? The radio might be different, but I don't know. I only have a 3,5mm Jack plug just below the handbrake. It's wired in, so I can't put it in an aftermarket radio, without cutting some wires or buying an adapter. I was hoping it was just a 3,5mm male jack plug behind the radio, but it's part of the cars wiring and comes with a plug that has 3 small pins in it, that is inserted in the radio along with other connectors. So I have to make some homemade solution for that anyway.

 

But... Going back to the original problem this thread is all about... I can't get the HU to power on. I know the QuadLock gets power. It lights up in the little black box. But I don't know which cables fit together. Which colour wires to connect to eachother.

I'll go to a friends house, whos got a lot of knowledge about this sort of thing. I think he'll use a multimeter to actually measure where the cables are supposed to be mounted. I can't just go red-to-red and yellow-to-yellow, since the cables have all weird colours. Some are yellow with red stripes, some are blue with white stripes. Some black/orange/pink... It's VERY confusing.

It works! Finally. The swing radio has none of the connections that I want apart from the jack connection. So I fitted the Alpine unit mentioned above.

The wiring was hell but figured it out in the end. For future reference here's what cables connect to which colours and such.

Assuming you have the quad lock is adapter fitted already:

Red to red.

Yellow to yellow.

Blue with white stripe not in use

Pink with black stripe not in use

2x yellow with red stripe both from the quad lock adapter go together. They do not connect to any wires in the head unit.

2x white cables same as above.

With this fitted the radio will work perfectly and parking sensor will work. Note that the parking sensor will beep but not from the main speakers.

This HU is way better than the swing radio in terms of sounds had to go +6 on the swing radio and -2 on treble just to make the sound somewhat enjoyable. It plays perfectly even with this cheap Alpine unit.

Nice.

Glad you got it sorted when are you upgrading the speakers?

Did you happen to take any photos... It would make a great guide for anyone else thinking of changing the head unit...

I'm glad that you figure it right.

I have just changed my swing to Alpine IVE-W585BT and In must say that is a big difference in sound.

Dont get me wrong swing is ok radio with exellent tuner and it probably covers needs of ordinary people but when you by your first Alpine it won't be your last.

This is mine 6 or 7 in 20 years.

By the way I was surprised by the speakers I will still change them for some JBL-s or something, but this will be my first car without woofer because I'm hitting 40 soon.

@beatdirector: do you have this http://www.alpine.co.uk/p/Products/other-accessories2792/apf-v100gm fitted as well?

You linked wrong one This is for vw and skoda http://www.alpine.co.uk/your-car/interfaces/interfaces-apf-v100vw.html

I have fitted it and works. But to make settings you need telephone functions on steering wheel.

Otherwise it dosen't show park sensors, heating and other CAN info on radio.

If you don't want that info on radio you can have it on MAXI-DOT with this

http://www.alpine.co.uk/your-car/interfaces/interfaces-apf-d200vw.html

I completely forgot about this thread.

 

I don't know if I'm gonna change the original speakers. They're not THAT bad. They are bad, but not as bad as they could have been. They do a decent job. I just bought the alpine too cheap.

 

My old Alpine and my current alpine suffer from the exact same problem. When it's been playing for a while, could be 10 minutes, could be 10 hours, when i switch it off, and then on again, either when shutting off the car or just manually turn it on, no sound comes out. This happens 9 out of 10 shutdowns.

 

It doesn't output to any speakers other than the rear Phono-out connectors. So all that is playing is the subwoofer in the boot. This happens on my old and my new Alpine unit. And it happens a lot.

 

Solution:

I have to remove the radio from the mount, to remove the power COMPLETELY, for a good 20 seconds, thus totally resetting the radio to factory settings. Then it will play again. But i have to adjust the levels, radio stations and so on. Which is annoying. But there are no fixes available. I've tried updating firmware. Doesn't work. I built in a kill-switch in my old alpine unit. I installed a small switch on one of the power cables. So I can kill the unit without unmounting everything. But instead of doing that, with the current unit, I will just replace it with something thats not alpine. It really sucks to be honest. I love the simple layout of the Alpine radios. They're sooo easy to navigate when using USB with tons of folders on it.

 

But god damn it grinds my gears soooo badly when I have to unmount the radio from its frame, to get to the coloured cables in the back of the unit. And remove them. Sitting with my radio in my hands, waiting until it can be plugged back in, and mounted once again...... I think I'm done with alpine...
 

 

As for photos. I didn't take any photos, as I assumed I was the only one too stupid to not figure out how to do this, since there was no info around.

Edited 16 August, 201411 yr by theGADE

That's very odd. Do you think it's a slow booting up unit?

That's very odd. Do you think it's a slow booting up unit?

 

No, it boots up just fine. It's just that its bugged somehow. And I burned my fingers today, when doing the usual reset. The unit gets insanely hot. Even after just 45 minutes of playing. My right hand is burnt bretty bad...

 

Anyway this cant be a fluke with just the unit, as i have had this problem with 2 different Alpine HU's. One with updated firmware.

 

I might have to go for an expensive HU as the music i listen to requires a LOT of accuracy and the cheap HUs just dont have the necessary sound adjustment settings available.

 

One of my favorite tracks from one of my favorite bands:

 

As you can tell, its quite demanding of any system to play flawlessly and loud.