How To: Install a 2018 4C (UAQ/UAS) Radio in 2013 - 2017 RAM

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g00fy

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You are correct. Hvac and heated seats and wheel are two different things. The new hvac module should take care of his hvac controls issue, but what’s strange is his heated seats aren’t working properly even with the hard control buttons. I know infotainment sells a separate module for 2013-2014 trucks to get the soft buttons on the radio to work, BUT, he has a 2015 and none of his heated seat controls seem to be working.

Yeah it didn't make sense to me that the heated seats and rear defroster were controlled by the HVAC module... I'm really at a loss here... I saw earlier in the thread a couple guys said they got the softkeys to work on 2015’s but that's all they said, no details on how, was hoping maybe some of that information could help me with my problem.
 

SitKneelBend

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Sorry, am I wrong here? My understanding of the issues is, that HVAC and heated seats are two different things. I'm testing the retrofit on a testbench and in my car since weeks now, checking CAN messages and CAN message conversion and the heated seats not had been a HVAC problem. If so, I apologize for the wrong information.
Short answer is yes. The Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) Module is the likely culprit and required if your truck is not a 2018 and/or is a RAM without a UAS/UAQ radio from the factory.

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Nobser

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You are correct. Hvac and heated seats and wheel are two different things. The new hvac module should take care of his hvac controls issue, but what’s strange is his heated seats aren’t working properly even with the hard control buttons. I know infotainment sells a separate module for 2013-2014 trucks to get the soft buttons on the radio to work, BUT, he has a 2015 and none of his heated seat controls seem to be working.

Because of that my first idea was thinking about a problem with the connection / CAN-BUS. Also the two dashed in the EVIC normally are based on a problem with the CAN-IHS connection/harness....

I posted my warning to avoid, that he will be disappointed after buying a new HVAC unit and it does not solve that specific problem with the heated/vented seats

But the infotainment harness won't help neither, you are right.
 
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Nobser

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Short answer is yes. The Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) Module is the likely culprit and required if your truck is not a 2018 and/or is a RAM without a UAS/UAQ radio from the factory.

Sent from my HTC U11 using Tapatalk

I have read about the problems here regarding the actuator. The interesting part ist: My 2013 HVAC works fine with the 2018 UAS/UAQ... OK, in return I have some other trouble :D
 

g00fy

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IDK what's going on with this thing, I'm using a Jeep compass hub with adapter harness, Android auto was working fine although it disconnects real easy today it disconnected and would not reconnect. It seems the media hub isn't even putting out power to show it's charging the phone... The screen also went black, I was still getting sound, but none of the physical controls worked... I pulled the dash apart checked all connections, they're tight... I did notice the little round sticker on the top of the unit said 15.5 don't know what that means
 

Lawsuit11

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IDK what's going on with this thing, I'm using a Jeep compass hub with adapter harness, Android auto was working fine although it disconnects real easy today it disconnected and would not reconnect. It seems the media hub isn't even putting out power to show it's charging the phone... The screen also went black, I was still getting sound, but none of the physical controls worked... I pulled the dash apart checked all connections, they're tight... I did notice the little round sticker on the top of the unit said 15.5 don't know what that means

That’s the software version you radio shipped with. That’s all that sticker is for


2018 Black Pearl Ram 1500

LED Tail Lights, Black Quad Halogens with LED conversion, LED Black 3rd Break Light, Blacked Out Emblems, Rims & Grill, 8.4 UAQ conversion!, MTC to ATC Mod, OEM Remote Start
 

g00fy

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Yea I went back reread the first post, seems my software version could be part of my problem, where can I find the files to manually update?

Edit: found the 18.x firmware in a different thread, gonna give that a shot later tonight see if that helps.
 
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g00fy

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I reached out to the seller on Ebay i bought this radio from asking him about firmware and possibly a VIN of the vehicle this came out of. He responded telling me all units are tested before they go out and if its not working to just send it back. He also told me that 2016 and OLDER trucks require the Retrofit Interface Module, which is contrary to what i've read here and what it says on Infotainment.com .

I'm on the fence whether i should try upgrading the firmware or just send it back and search for something a little more up to date here on the forum.
 

jdip

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See below edits for process/instructions. I need some folks with Alfa obd to test this to make sure I got it right.

It seems that because these settings are taking about a day to activate in the radio menu from reading the bcm so change a setting and wait a day before changing again.


Edit 3: 12/7 PM after this mornings post the menu reverted back to the original one check box and the seats and steering wheel aren't coming on automatically anymore. At this point I'm throwing in the towel for now and focusing on my radio being broken overall and crashing. I'll pick this project back up when I get a replacement. Maybe I steered some folks in the right direction to get this working now.

Edit 2 12/7: my auto on comfort heated seats and steering wheel and now working for both remote start and regular starts despite my head unit randomly crashing and not turning on etc but that's a separate issue. Yesterday I returned the Alfa obd setting back to what it was originally (Option 1-2) back when I installed the 4c. My menu used to be one check box on the option 1-2 setting. Today I looked at the settings menu and the "auto on comfort" sub menu was further down the list then it was originally. I entered the sub menu and it looks the same as the screenshot when I enabled option 2-3. I tried checking the "all starts" box again and it gave me the error tone and reverted back to the "remote start" check box . However when I got in the truck an hour later and started it normal, bam the heaters kicked on as soon as the radio turned on. I doubled checked the remote start when I got home and sure enough they came on with that too.

At this point in time it seems that changing the setting from option 1-2, to absent, waiting a day for that to activate in the system, then switching back to option 1-2 did it .






Edit 12/5: AS OF RIGHT NOW I REMOTE STARTED MY TRUCK AND WENT OUT THERE, NO HEATED SEATS OR STEERING WHEEL WAS ON (it was cold enough to activate automatically) AND THE MENU HAS DISAPPEARED COMPLETELY FROM SETTINGS MENU.
I'll update with any further. I'll try and start the process over from the stock setting and see if the menu comes back, I was definitely on to something


Original Post :
Ladies and gentlemen I believe I have made progress on the auto on comfort homefront for those of us with the infotainment harness.
this is for the folks who attempt to check the auto on comfort box and the check box disappears within a few seconds and gives you an error tone.

In alfa OBD in the customer settings menu there is an option for Auto on comfort.
The three options it gives you are absent, option 1 - 2, or option 2 -3.

For those of us with trucks that came with heated seats stock it is set for "option 1 - 2" by default . (I have no clue what 1-2 mean or what 2-3 means)
I attempted 2-3
low and behold the entire menu has changed. See below.
Ironically enough it won't let me see it "off" or "all starts" and it will give the error tone and switch back to " remote start". I will report back later if this works . (See edit #1 it didn't)




On a negative note my radio did the same thing it did last week (a few pages back) and completely blanked out on me while driving . Instead of only doing it once and lasting 30 seconds, today it came back on within about 15 seconds and then it crashed about 7 more times in a row each time only lasting about 10 seconds. I did notice each time it comes back on it goes right back to the screen where it was when it shut off and it does not give me the uconnect splash screen like it would if I was first starting the radio but every time it crashes it shows the shut off splsh screen with the ram symbol diminishing.

On about the 4th time I got frustrated and smacked the black screen and it came right back on.

Unfortunately I've already sold my old radio and they will only accept a return if I ship them my radio first even though I've already returned one unit to them with the wrong part number issue. The other night I dismantled my dash to check on my connections and I also used some really good mounting tape to mount the infotainment black box for the heated seat harness since it was rattling around in the dash and making me crazy.

The only idea I have left would be to disconnect the infotainment harness to see if that's the culprit but it hasn't happened again since this morning .

20181205_171358.jpg
 
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Nobser

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Hi Guys!

I'm following this thread since weeks now, really great pool of information. I did a retrofit here in Germany with a 2013 RAM 1500 Laramie and an EU-unit, because of DAB, the European Version of digital HD radio...

I'm also using the infotainment harness for the heated/vented seat issue and it works fine.

BUT.. I still have some issues I would like to post here. If there already is a solution somewhere in the 585 messages here, I'm sorry. I really tried to read as much as possible to find a way to solve the issues... OK, here we go:

Most issues are in the settings menu, because lot of stuff is missing or empty ("empty" means: item is there, but when clicking on it, there are no options to set in the screen following):

- Settings / Mirrors & Wipers is empty
- Settings / Lights is empty
- Settings / Doors & locks is empty

- Settings / Auto-On-comfort is missing
- Settings / Safety & Driving Assistance is missing
- Settings / Suspension is missing (which really sucks)

I also cannot switch between metric and US units. In the old Harman unit it was under "display", in the Panasonic unit there is a separate setting called "units". But whatever I select (UK/US, metric or custom) it jumps back within a second or two...

Doors & Locks old

View attachment 148020

Doors & Locks new:

View attachment 148021

Suspension Menu in old unit

View attachment 148019

New menu (part of it, on second page also no suspension)
View attachment 148022

Does anybody have the same / similar problems? Or even better: a solution? ;-)

Regards,
Norbert

I also solved nearly all of my problems. It is all about programming. As some of you already stated, taking a unit out of another car can make some problems. While the old Harman unit was able to regenerate from a factory reset getting all the information it needs out of the BCM, the Panasonic unit is not that clever... So you have to program all your desired (and of course supported) menu setting BEFORE installing the unit to the car. At least if you own a 2013 RAM, as I do. The "Units" settings not working are not supported by the 2013 RAM. The BCM does not have the ability to store so much information, it does only accept "Metric" or "US". Not "Custom, UK, mph, bar, kpa"... etc.). There is just 1 bit reserved for the unit information...

So for an used Panasonic you might need, depending on you MY, some kind of pre-configuration process to let the radio match the configuration list of your car. Pretty annoying...
 

jdip

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Please see my post edit. Think I jumped the gun on the "absent" selection part. I just got in the truck and the menu was gone so I think the setting from 2-3 took after I changed it and I didn't wait enough key cycles
 

g00fy

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I think I'm gonna return this radio, I called infotainment.com, they said my truck, a 2015, shouldn't need the adapter harness, they told me to try resetting the canbus again, tried it a few times, even let it sit for about 3 hours, no joy...

I did scroll through the menus on the radio and found a reset to default settings, didn't seem to help, oddly enough though, doing that reset caused a navigation icon to appear along the bottom of the screen with the main icons, not sure what that's all about.

I'm gonna keep an eye out on the forums here for a UAS or uaq with a later firmware version and if I still have problems with that I'll just bite the bullet and get the $179 for adapter harness.

I still don't understand why the physical hard keys don't work either, I push the buttons, the light comes on, the radio even displays the seat is turned on and then it just shuts off... Is this what happens on the MY 13-14 trucks ?
 

Mpgrimm2

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I think I'm gonna return this radio, I called infotainment.com, they said my truck, a 2015, shouldn't need the adapter harness, they told me to try resetting the canbus again, tried it a few times, even let it sit for about 3 hours, no joy...

I did scroll through the menus on the radio and found a reset to default settings, didn't seem to help, oddly enough though, doing that reset caused a navigation icon to appear along the bottom of the screen with the main icons, not sure what that's all about.

I'm gonna keep an eye out on the forums here for a UAS or uaq with a later firmware version and if I still have problems with that I'll just bite the bullet and get the $179 for adapter harness.

I still don't understand why the physical hard keys don't work either, I push the buttons, the light comes on, the radio even displays the seat is turned on and then it just shuts off... Is this what happens on the MY 13-14 trucks ?
@STecoD has a 2015 with the UAQ upgrade and may be able to comment on whether or not the Infotainment heated seat interface is needed on the 15 trucks like it is on the 13 - 14's. (I believe it is, as well as the 18 HVAC module, and v18 & up fw/application version on the radio)

M² Mods.
 
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DeereGuy

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So i went outside i checked out my software version and whatnot, I'll attach the photo of this info. Playing with the radio some more found that NONE of the on screen climate control buttons work, i can only adjust temperature, fan speed, Auto mode with the physical buttons, I also found my rear defroster doesn't work. I push the physical button and it blinks a few times then shuts off much like the heated seats.

I understood going into this that certain buttons might not work on the radio, but the physical buttons should still work. That's not the case for me right now and i'm not sure how to fix this.

All these features all came stock with the truck, I used alfaOBD to double check, all these items are turned on in the BCM.

o3WIUmOnwQ4DEl-4h34ZlfUNROM5Lt1ZhYClEjfMB5IQ=w2400.jpg

Your running 16.8 firmware. Did you try to update it? I tested several radios with older firmware and experienced all sort of issues. No radios ever shipped on production trucks with less that 18.7.

@STecoD did not need the infotainment adapter in his 15 to make the buttons work. However in my 16 CTD I did.


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g00fy

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Your running 16.8 firmware. Did you try to update it? I tested several radios with older firmware and experienced all sort of issues. No radios ever shipped on production trucks with less that 18.7.

@STDeco did not need the infotainment adapter in his 15 to make the buttons work. However in my 16 CTD I did.


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I had a feeling this thing has super old firmware, and I bet that's the main problem, I've been searching everywhere to try and find the update files, but I can't find any UAS firmware anywhere, do you know where or how I can get an update? I considered going to a dealer but even if they could help I doubt they would.

Also, if no production trucks came out with less than version 18.7, where the hell did this eBay seller get these radios?
 

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I had a feeling this thing has super old firmware, and I bet that's the main problem, I've been searching everywhere to try and find the update files, but I can't find any UAS firmware anywhere, do you know where or how I can get an update? I considered going to a dealer but even if they could help I doubt they would.
Did you get it from Infotainment? If so have them update it to v18.14 or 19.9 (not 21.9).

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DeereGuy

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I had a feeling this thing has super old firmware, and I bet that's the main problem, I've been searching everywhere to try and find the update files, but I can't find any UAS firmware anywhere, do you know where or how I can get an update? I considered going to a dealer but even if they could help I doubt they would.

Also, if no production trucks came out with less than version 18.7, where the hell did this eBay seller get these radios?

It was probably a test unit. I had found a couple early ones with firmware back to 15.5 on them.


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likes2build

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I had a feeling this thing has super old firmware, and I bet that's the main problem, I've been searching everywhere to try and find the update files, but I can't find any UAS firmware anywhere, do you know where or how I can get an update? I considered going to a dealer but even if they could help I doubt they would.

Also, if no production trucks came out with less than version 18.7, where the hell did this eBay seller get these radios?

I also would like to know how to get an update for a radio out of a donor (I have the vin) if the Uconnect website says it's up to date and there's nothing available for this radio. I reconfirmed it on the phone with Uconnect today. I have the same hardly any rear speaker volume with this UAQ that I had with the UAS. I currently have a UAQ with;
17.43.44
19.9.0 20171026-107G
17.35

When the UAS forced an update to
18.20
21.9.0-20180516-109V
18.10.1
The rears came to life and I loved the sound.

I really want to keep this radio and just want the rears to work. I's like to try an update unless someone has a suggestion. Where should I try? Can I (ugh) pay the dealer to load it, a radio repairer to install it? Suggestions please
 

g00fy

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So I went to update to 18.14, and I got an error saying update not compatible with vehicle ???
 

Mpgrimm2

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I also would like to know how to get an update for a radio out of a donor (I have the vin) if the Uconnect website says it's up to date and there's nothing available for this radio. I reconfirmed it on the phone with Uconnect today. I have the same hardly any rear speaker volume with this UAQ that I had with the UAS. I currently have a UAQ with;
17.43.44
19.9.0 20171026-107G
17.35

When the UAS forced an update to
18.20
21.9.0-20180516-109V
18.10.1
The rears came to life and I loved the sound.

I really want to keep this radio and just want the rears to work. I's like to try an update unless someone has a suggestion. Where should I try? Can I (ugh) pay the dealer to load it, a radio repairer to install it? Suggestions please
If you have the AlfaOBD, have to tried checking the current Cabin EQ Curve settings and seeing what the options are?

M² Mods.
 
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