recieved alpine PMD b200 navigation finally

[Axel Deneselya]

finally recieved it, installed the antenna and mic. now the radio doesnt stay on when I take the key out anymore.



after the first day, I get a windows CE error when I try to change the state I am searching.



If I had known it ran windows, I never would have gone through all this trouble. I miss my tom tom and my old alpine head unit. :wacko:

 

[CobraXP]

I put my 205 in last weekend and got the Blackbird Tuesday. Haven't had any problems as of yet. Reception has been good with the external gps antenna and the mike seems to do pretty good also. I put the antenna on the center dash between the two upper center vents. Ran the mike up the pillar and have it clipped at the top by the headliner. Still thinking about it as I don't want to just peel and stick somewhere...



I didn't know it ran Windows either. When I first saw it on the box, I thought it might have a way to access the address book from the computer, but found out that was wrong. I hope I don't start getting errors on it... :huh:

 

[Axel Deneselya]

Crutchfield is sending me a new unit, basicly when I go to enter POI or address for a destination, if I hit the change button on the state, I immediatly get an error box that looks like an old windows 95 error. it says seek value not found, and at that point it is hung. the only thing to do is to hit the reset button and restart it.



spoke with alpine support, they did not even begin to troubleshoot, they just said send it back to whoever I bought it. so much for their tech support. Crutchfield was nice, they are mailing me a new unit so I can just swap out the blackbird and I dont have to mail deinstall the mic and gps antenna.



The problem with the radio not staying on is especially frustrating because after getting all those wires in, I was not ever planning to take it out again.



I have the mic down in front of the instruments, I was trying to loop it all the way around to the mirror but I ran out of wire, I am going to experiment a bit before I decide on a final resting place. the mic is extremely directional.



oh well, tommorrow I get to take it out one more time to fix that power problem, hopefully that is the last time.

 

[Steve Krusich]

I am thinking of the same and would appreciate any pics to help in my decisionmaking.



steve

 

[Axel Deneselya]

Here are some photos from the summer,



http://axxman.com/coppermine/thumbnails.php?album=27&page=5



not much has changed, everything is hidden.



if I had to do it all over again, I would probably have just bought the pioneeravic d3 and bought a tom tom portable separate.



while this setup is cool, the bluetooth is via the portable unit which means I have to have it with me all the time if I want hands free calling. also, so far alpines customer service and support have not impressed me. I havent been able to find many online user group support sites for alpine either, but there is avic411.com for the pioneer.

the other thing about the pioneer is taht it is dvd based so if you need to upgrade you only need to buy the disc. with the alpine, I dont think they bother comming out with new maps for the portable.



now that I finally have everything installed, I am pretty satisfied, but after thinking about it, I probably would have done things different if I had to do it over again.



good luck.

 

[CobraXP]

I'll get some pics of mine in a minute...



Axel, if you decide to pull it for a Avic, let me know. Now that my wife sees it in the truck and my IVA-W200 in the Explorer - and understands how I am going to use it in both vehicles - she wants one in her Escape...



I can't say much for the Alpine tech line as I've never really had to call them. I've talked to them before when I had 5 AI-Net items and had to make sure I plugged them in the right order, but other than that, I haven't had any contact with them... Guess I've been lucky I've never had a problem (knocks on wood now...)

 

[CobraXP]

Resized them to fit so its a little harder to tell, but the microphone is just clipped on the top of the driver's pillar. HU tucks in pretty well, but when on and at Tilt 2, it lines up pretty well with the outer facing on the bezel.



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Full size are huge, but here:

http://www.cobraxp.com/PagePics/2007SportTrac/HU%20Install%2001.JPG



http://www.cobraxp.com/PagePics/2007SportTrac/HU%20Install%2002.JPG

 

[CobraXP]

Forgot about the GPS antenna. I put it on the center dash console between the vents. First time I have ever used velcro to install something (hate it), but I didn't want it outside and have a wire showing on the outside and wanted to make it easy to remove if I needed to take the console apart again. It looks good and blends in - doesn't really stand out.



[Broken External Image]:



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[Axel Deneselya]

I took dingo's advice and put my XM radio and gps antennas right under where the sunglasses in your photo are.



I will know in about a week if I am going the AVIC route or not. was out today testing the Alpine, it works pretty good, another thing I found is that it does not display current speed, there is a separate screen down in the menu.



I have the mic down by the instruments, so far nobody has complained it is difficult to hear.

 

[Axel Deneselya]

Update,



thought things through and I ordered a D3 today. I am going on vacation for a week so it should be waiting for me when I return.



The alpine gps is nice but compared to a tom tom 920, it is not even close, I travel to europe and I want to have the european maps. As far as I can tell, the alpine is not possible to update.



I also need to have the bluetooth all the time, with the alpine, that means I have to have the portable unit with me all the time.



Plus the avic has a hard drive and the ability to make my own wallpaper.



I will be putting up my ivaw205 + accessories for sale when I get back since I wont have an opportunity to take it out before then.

 

[Dan Long]

There is a site I found where you can get your own wallpaper made for the w200 and w205. You submit a picture based on the site specs and the guy who runs it will convert it and post it on the site, although its available to anyone who wants it. The link is below.