# DEX-P99RS display remote control - Has anyone done it?



## bjornh (Dec 28, 2011)

Hi,

I'm looking to put my beloved P99RS back in the trunk along with my amps to use solely as a DSP, with only the front display extended to the front of the vehicle for tuning and volume control - Sort of like an Alpine PXA/RUX combination. I need to move my p99rs because I'm building a custom android tablet solution that will occupy both DIN heights in my e46, and I will need a separate DSP unit now more than ever. I'm thinking I could solder onto the pins on the remote display using a flat cable (the ones we used for IDE drives in PCs in the old days) or two CAT5 cables (There's about 14 pins in total I think). Ofcourse this is risky as f*ck and will most likely make resale value of the unit drop to the ocean bottom, which is why I'm after easier/better ways to interconnect the display to the unit over a distance.

I really love the P99RS interface and "way" of doing audio configuration and would like to keep using that. The Alpine PXA/RUX-800 combination does what I need but I absolutely HATE Alpine's tuning menus compared to pioneer's. I would keep the unit in one piece if I only had the space for both tablet + dsp in front.

Is this possible, or pure madness? I have seen it being done on cheaper units but the pins on this unit are hopelessly small making the extension cord hard to make/mount. Has anyone done this before on this unit? Any hints/tips/tricks would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for an awesome forum!


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## flecom (Mar 31, 2008)

possible? sure, anything is possible... question is can you just simply extend those power/data lines that distance... 

it really depends on how the HU is talking to the face, if its something like RS485 or similar then it should work just fine assuming the voltage drop across the CAT5 cables isn't too much for the face to deal with... if its some other type of data signaling that isn't so forgiving then you might need to implement some kind of buffering or worst case conversion...

don't think anyone could tell you for sure short of having a unit in front of them and either:

(1) properly analyzing all the data/voltage pins and the data going from the HU to the face and make an educated judgement on the best way to proceed

(2) trying it and seeing what happens


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## cyrusthevirus23 (Feb 16, 2013)

subed interesting topic


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## kyheng (Jan 31, 2007)

Scooter99 has done this before on his Alpine HU, but with a much shorter lenght..
Anyway, voltage drop won't be that much as long as the lenght does not goes more than 10M....


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## s4k4zulu (Mar 2, 2010)

in!!!


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## JayinMI (Oct 18, 2008)

kyheng said:


> Scooter99 has done this before on his Alpine HU, but with a much shorter lenght..
> Anyway, voltage drop won't be that much as long as the lenght does not goes more than 10M....


He had to go something like 6ft or less or it didn't work. 

Jay


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## Angrywhopper (Jan 20, 2010)

Very interesting! In for the updates. Pics would be nice too as I have an E46 M3.


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## bjornh (Dec 28, 2011)

I ended using two of these boards (and some CAT5 wiring):

h**p://www.newhavendisplay.com/nhdffc181-p-2480.html

I unscrewed the harness that the front panel clips to, from the unit itself. The harness connects to the main unit with an 18 way FFC cable. I connected this FFC cable to one of the boards i the url above, interconnected the two boards with CAT5 wire pairs and used a new FFC cable (also bought on newhaven) to connect the second board to the main unit. 

Been driving around with the unit in the trunk and the display sitting in the ashtray compartment for a few days now. Works surprisingly well! Next up is cleaning up the trunk and making it all permanent.

Forgot to take pics of the install, but I might redo the process with smaller breakout boards and better soldering and cabling for more flexibility, I'll take pics then!


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## 04murdalanche (Nov 22, 2011)

pics please!


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## beef316 (Dec 12, 2006)

04murdalanche said:


> pics please!


X2

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2


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## SkizeR (Apr 19, 2011)

oh my ****.. this is so awesome. why did you not make a mini build log. why!?!?!


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## win1 (Sep 27, 2008)

sub'd


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## ariko81 (Dec 15, 2008)

Me too. I'm in! Pics would be great.


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## mmiller (Mar 7, 2008)

This sounds awesome, I'm very interested in seeing pics as well as the punished install.


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## bjornh (Dec 28, 2011)

Wow. Had NO idea the interest would be this high. Will snap some pics of the current setup shortly.


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## jackies (Jan 14, 2010)

Well, this is an awesome mod, everyone wants to see how it came out!
I also plan to do the same and put the unit in the trunk, but I was thinking just to solder the wires to the pcb. What you described accomplishes the same without soldering, and is also completely reversible, which may be appealing to people that are concerned about the resale value.


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## almatias (Nov 16, 2012)




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## Yawar538 (Aug 28, 2013)

wowww!


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