Installation- Kenwood Dnx 5260Bt In 2010 Avensis

[Les.]

Having recently changed my car (from Corolla) rather than having separate components for Sat Nav, CD/Tuner, bluetooth, iPhone mp3 playback etc, I thought I'd go for an integrated approach.

My list of requirements were:

-It had to be double-din to replace the double din unit in place.

-Needed to function with the steering wheel controls.(volume adjust, track change)

-Did not want to cut/splice existing wiring.

-Sat nav

-Iphone mp3 playing+iphone charging.

-Hands free bluetooth with voice recognition.

-Reversing camera (it's a long vehicle)

After many googles, the head unit I decided upon was the Kenwood DNX 5260BT, while it perhaps not having all the bells and whistles of the very high end units, it ticked all the boxes for me.

Fitting.

Once again after lots of research, and reading through this forum for what was required to install the head unit, and this homework paid off, as I managed to source all the bits I needed, and more importantly, they all fit together correctly first time.

-Radio Harness+steering wheel adapter combined

-KCA-IP301V (enables play/charge of Iphone)

-T27 Double din facia adapter

-Rear Camera (an E-bay £30 jobbie, not Kenwoods £200 model)

-CT27AA79 Aerial Adapter

Total cost for above parts -around £130

Fitting the Head Unit was straightforward, although the wiring looked a real spaghetti junction, as each part has it's own unique fit to the Kenwood head unit (via adapters) , this was easy to do.

It's worth pointing out, on the CT27AA79 Aerial Adapter, the second wire (blue) connects to the head unit's Power control/motor antenna control wire (blue white), before I realised this, the tuner reception was poor, not picking up stations, when I found out what the wires were for (it's not clear in Kenwoods fitting instructions), and connected, the tuner reception became very good.

The only adjustment I had to make to the Head Unit, was to bend back the lip of the cage so it would fit snugly against plastic crossbar.

The rear camera took longer (although straightforward), mainly because a cable was routed from the mounted camera to the head unit, which meant removing the trim from the rear door and the kick plate trims. The other connection (from the camera)was to tap into the vehicle reversing light connection (so the rear camera comes on when you select reverse), a couple of issues worth mentioning, you are normally supplied with a 5 metre lead that connects the head unit to the rear camera, in the Avensis Estate, this isn't long enough, therefore had to splice an additional section in, in addition, I had to run an additional wire from the Reverse sensor wire (purple white)on the head unit to the reversing light connection.

Mounted the camera just above the rear number plate, slightly off-centre as there was sufficient space under the lip of the door handle to mount the camera, consequently not needing to drill into metal.

Thanks to this forum, I followed some advice and purchased a plastic trim removal tool, which proved priceless.

[Les.]

What's it like

Very good, I like it a lot, and it covers everything I wanted (and more), the Kenwood Unit feels very well made, although I have nothing similar to compare it with, the sound quality is superb, with seemingly infinite number of tweaks to the sound output. You can even vary the volume level of the sat nav voice instructions independently of the music volume via the steering wheel controls.

Also, the ability to fine tune the display illumination to match the dashboard illumination.

Very easy via the Units touch screen to navigate to the various functions, with most operations being one or two touches.

The hands-free bluetooth is top trumps, so if an incoming call comes in , it overrides all other screens, second priority is the reversing camera, so whenever you select reverse gear, the reversing camera screen overrides any other screen in use.

Obviously, you can play music/listen to the radio while using satnav, and be able to see whats playing across a strip at the bottom of the sat nav screen

Individual functions:-

Sat Nav

Having used Tomtomfor the last ten years, which I liked and was comfortable with, the Kenwood Unit uses Garmin maps, while functioning similarly , and providing similar information to Tomtom, how it does it is slightly different, after using it for a while, I feel Garmin is on par with Tom Tom regarding use, although there are three areas where I think Garmin trumps Tom Tom

-The Kenwood Unit appears significantly faster in calculating/recalculating routes, although I was comparing it with a (relatively) old Tom Tom unit (520), so this could be the reason.

-For live traffic information, you need to pay a subscription to Tom Tom, Kenwood (or Garmin) have a tie-in with TMC (Traffic Management Channel) so you get a free subscription for the life of the unit for live traffic information.

-I find with Tom Tom you have to dig through various layers of screens to get some information/change functions , with the Kenwood, it's one or two screen touches to do similar.

I was able to import speed camera locations/ various POI easily enough.

Reversing Camera

As previously mentioned , this screen comes on whenever you select reverse, and while it does not have the functionality of the £200 Kenwood Unit, which has guide overlays etc, this £30 camera works very well, clear and crisp image even in low light, although the angle of view is very wide making distance/perspective exaggerated, it's great for manoeuvring car parking spaces etc, and I have it mounted so I can just see the top of the tow bar at the bottom of the screen, making it easy to gauge how near objects are. It also feels very robust.

iPhone MP3 playback

Has all the functionality as if using iphone/ipod directly, being able to change tracks via steering wheel control or via touch screen, as well as charging the iPhone.

[Les.]

bluetooth Telephone

The integrated parrot bluetooth works very well, pairing phones quickly without fuss, importing contacts, and showing additional information on screen like signal strength and Battery charge. Also the function to 'tag' numbers so voice recognition can be used. There is a SMS function (receive and send) in the unit, but doesn't work with an iPhone although does with (most) other makes of mobiles.

Tuner

Good strong signal, nice to be able to see Artist/song information.

Video

While not on my list of requirements, the ability to watch videos is a real bonus (obviously not while driving), although not upto HD quality, eminently watchable. When SWMBO was trying on the 673rd pair of shoes the other day, I happily sat watching two episodes of 'The Office' :)

What's not to like

Two issues for me, firstly some of the information provided by Kenwood is a bit flaky, perhaps losing something in translation. An example was instructions for updating the Unit's firmware, it mentioned burning the downloaded file to CD, when in fact it was two files (plural instead of single), so wasted a few blank CD's till I sorted out what was what. I also needed to scour different forums to find out some of the more complex functionality/installation of the unit rather than rely on Kenwood's spubik, at times confusing instructions.

Second, is updating firmware/software, perhaps we are spoilt nowadays having a one stop shop for updating software, with the Kenwood unit, you update the Unit's downloaded firmware via CD , Garmin firmware via SD card, the bluetooth firmware via bluetooth (from laptop), map update via SD card or mini USB socket, and changing the boot screen via USB lead. So although doable, not as sleek and easy as updating desktops (or cameras)

Finally, I've put together a youtube clip showing the different functions of the Unit

[sunshineYaris]

Hi,

Did u also connected the purple/white cable?

Or did u only had connected the rear camera to the rear light?

J-sun

[sunshineYaris]

Ow sorry, i already see it on your first post

[jirehn]

This is great,How did you install this components?

[@lpher]

For future reference....

It's way easier if yoiu don't use the Kenwood metalframe. The OEM Toyota (metal) sidebrackets will fit better, and also let you have the headunit a bit more flush/further out :)

[wezaa]

On 7/27/2011 at 10:11 AM, Les. said:

Bluetooth Telephone

The integrated parrot bluetooth works very well, pairing phones quickly without fuss, importing contacts, and showing additional information on screen like signal strength and battery charge. Also the function to 'tag' numbers so voice recognition can be used. There is a SMS function (receive and send) in the unit, but doesn't work with an Iphone although does with (most) other makes of mobiles.

Tuner

Good strong signal, nice to be able to see Artist/song information.

Video

While not on my list of requirements, the ability to watch videos is a real bonus (obviously not while driving), although not upto HD quality, eminently watchable. When SWMBO was trying on the 673rd pair of shoes the other day, I happily sat watching two episodes of 'The Office' :)

What's not to like

Two issues for me, firstly some of the information provided by Kenwood is a bit flaky, perhaps losing something in translation. An example was instructions for updating the Unit's firmware, it mentioned burning the downloaded file to CD, when in fact it was two files (plural instead of single), so wasted a few blank CD's till I sorted out what was what. I also needed to scour different forums to find out some of the more complex functionality/installation of the unit rather than rely on Kenwood's spubik, at times confusing instructions.

Second, is updating firmware/software, perhaps we are spoilt nowadays having a one stop shop for updating software, with the Kenwood unit, you update the Unit's downloaded firmware via CD , Garmin firmware via SD card, the bluetooth firmware via bluetooth (from laptop), map update via SD card or mini USB socket, and changing the boot screen via USB lead. So although doable, not as sleek and easy as updating desktops (or cameras)

Finally, I've put together a youtube clip showing the different functions of the Unit

 

Sorry for resurecting this old thread, but ihave the DNX520BT in my vehicle and i am having the same problem you mentioned here Les.

 

On 7/27/2011 at 10:11 AM, Les. said:

An example was instructions for updating the Unit's firmware, it mentioned burning the downloaded file to CD, when in fact it was two files (plural instead of single), so wasted a few blank CD's till I sorted out what was what.

I am glad to see you found a solution, but you have not written the solution here unfortunately.

Please could you, or anyone else please explain exactly how to burn these files to disk. which type of media, which burning software, which files exactly need to be burnt?