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

[bobeast]

They will charge you for the hotspot after the trial, but if you have a hotspot on your phone, that would probably be more cost effective, and you can take it with you when you leave the truck.

 

[SitKneelBend]

I have a 2018 2500 tradesman that I put a 2018 ram 1500 UAQ in it
I have everything set up, got the camera soft buttons to display and work even though I don't have a cargo camera yet(the screen is blank). I have looked for the "trailer hitch camera"setting but could not fine it in alpha obd. Has anybody doen this and can tell me where it is?

Also when I was going through the settings I saw the radio has a WIFI hot spot so I turned it on and it works! Has anybody run across this and do I have to pay for that service eventually?

Sorry I'm not quite sure about the trailer hitch camera stuff...

Trailer hitch camera should be far down on the list, right before cabin-net settings.
I did set up the hot spot for the 3 month/1gb trial. So far, Sirius, travel link, and traffic plus is still active.

I'm still confused as to what the trailer hitch camera is. Is there wiring in the trailer harness for a remote camera or something?

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[Jimmy07]

Sorry I'm not quite sure about the trailer hitch camera stuff...I'm still confused as to what the trailer hitch camera is. Is there wiring in the trailer harness for a remote camera or something?

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My truck was factory equipped with the backup camera, and the trailer hitch camera setting was disabled. The only way for me to get the soft key for the backup camera on demand to show up in the controls screen was to enable that setting.

 

[SitKneelBend]

My truck was factory equipped with the backup camera, and the trailer hitch camera setting was disabled. The only way for me to get the soft key for the backup camera on demand to show up in the controls screen was to enable that setting.

Oh, I was thinking it was yet another camera input and not the backup camera itself. Thank you for clarifying that...

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[firehawk618]

Is yours a UAQ? I just don't want to cause any issues by changing the special package to anything other than Ram trim levels

17' CCSB 4X4 68RFE 2500 6.7 Tradesman DRP EGR delete, CTT tuning w/TCM tuning, UAQ w/7 speed HVAC, 7" premium EVIC, OEM front Parksense, OEM style front camera, aux switches, OEM remote start

Yes UAQ.

Here's my advice.

Make ONE change at a time. Turn the truck off after your change. Leave the truck, shut the door. Come back 1 hr later to check if the changes applied. If no change or undesired change revert back and pick something else to change.

One at a time. Let the truck fully sleep before deciding if it worked or not.

Speaking from recent experience.

Pulling the battery cables off to speed up the sleep does not do the trick.

 

[firehawk618]

So some updates on the mystery UAQ issues.

Got the Jeep Compass USB / Media thing in today + adapter harness (Thank you M2 Mods. VERY nicely made adapter harness). I am 100% equipped and capable of making this harness but the time and effort to source the plug housings and pins just isn't worth the asking price M2 does them for and the workmanship is top notch!

Anyhow, Put the Compass module in. Now when I connect my phone the android auto icon on the radio illuminates and works.

Here's what's odd. With the old module AA was dimmed out but screen mirroring button would bring up AA on the screen and worked fine. So far the only difference I can tell from Compass to old media hub is AA illuminates on the head unit vs greyed out.

Summary: AA worked fine and from all appearances exactly the same with either media module with the only difference being AA isn't greyed out on the head unit with the Compass module.

If after a week or two this is the only difference I will put back the original module so I don't have to modify my console and get rid of the Compass + adapter harness. I don't care if AA illuminates. I only care if AA actually works which it does with both for me.


So I thought, hmmmm....maybe the media module was causing the radio firmware update to fail at 72% so I tried it again with the new module. Nope. Same failure, same spot.

Seller agreed to take back the radio because of the Sirius issue described earlier and I am going to take them up on that.

Other than the Sirius issue, nav stuck in some other state and the fact it won't take updates the unit is good.

Honestly if Sirius weren't a deal breaker for me I'd keep it as AA is worth it 100%.

I have another used 2018 unit that will be here tomorrow and I will post if there's any issues with it once it's installed tomorrow evening.

 

[Brian Lee]

They will charge you for the hotspot after the trial, but if you have a hotspot on your phone, that would probably be more cost effective, and you can take it with you when you leave the truck.

I haven't put in any information to activate the hot spot, I just checked the box to start it and it comes on.

One more thing. I don't see the travel link info on the screen. anybody know how to turn it on or what menu it's located under?

 

[chri5k]

The hotspot comes on with my UAQ as well. However, I can't go anywhere on the Internet except the AT&T subscription and FCA pages.

 

[Brian Lee]

Good to know. I haven't tried using it yet

 

[firehawk618]

Update.

Got another UAQ in the mail today. Plugged it in and everything works as it should. That tells my the old HU had some defects and it wasn't coding with modules in my truck.

I then proceeded up update the firmware with the files found on this site and they loaded fine.

The old HU would hang up and fail at 72% every time.

Another oddity. My original media hub works fine with android auto and this head unit....???

Odd!

For reference if this helps failed HU PN: 68331631AE
Good HU PN: 68331631AH

 

[chri5k]

The other one may have been a failing unit or a franken-radio. There are some sellers out there that take parts from different failed radios and try to put them together into a working radio. It seems parts from different PN (last 2 letters) radios may have incompatible revisions.

 

[SitKneelBend]

The other one may have been a failing unit or a franken-radio. There are some sellers out there that take parts from different failed radios and try to put them together into a working radio. It seems parts from different PN (last 2 letters) radios may have incompatible revisions.

I can tell you after close examination of the internals the parts between UAS and UAQ are possibly entirety interchangeable as well but I don't know what that may mean when flashing firmware.

To be honest, it was hard to tell the difference (if any) between models. Almost as if they are the same radio but software locked at the factory.

Here are some PICs...

UAS


UAQ



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[chri5k]

The big silver unit (satellite radio module) has a different part number. The UAS looks newer than the UAQ based on the date code of the satellite radio module. The flashrunner (handles system upgrades, big square black chip) is the same part number. The PCB part number is different. I can't read the part numbers on some of the other larger chips. It would make sense they are the same basic design but the UAQ probably has some different, possibly beefed up CPU, hardware to handle navigation definitely different system software. It is all in the part numbers of the chips and if they exist in both radios. They make look the same physically but different part numbers have different capabilities. Also, some chips allow activation of different features by "wiring" up different pins. To see that in a multi-layer PCB requires X-rays and or CT scans.

 

[SitKneelBend]

The big silver unit (satellite radio module) has a different part number. The UAS looks newer than the UAQ based on the date code of the satellite radio module. The flashrunner (handles system upgrades, big square black chip) is the same part number. The PCB part number is different. I can't read the part numbers on some of the other larger chips. It would make sense they are the same basic design but the UAQ probably has some different, possibly beefed up CPU, hardware to handle navigation definitely different system software. It is all in the part numbers of the chips and if they exist in both radios. They make look the same physically but different part numbers have different capabilities. Also, some chips allow activation of different features by "wiring" up different pins. To see that in a multi-layer PCB requires X-rays and or CT scans.

Makes sense. I believe everything outside of this one board (pictured in last post) in each is entirely interchangeable for repair purposes. But as I said earlier and I believe you alluded to as well, I wouldn't want to flash firmware to one (unless it was already bricked)...

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[firehawk618]

1 trip to work, it did some updates and all is great. There's a few settings in the menu that don't apply to my truck such as honk when lowering suspension etc etc but other than that and the fact the soft buttons for heated seats don't work all is good.

I don't care enough about the soft buttons to pay the price for the module.

I like the fact that the Sirius radio will constantly record all your preset stations in the background and the built in nav sure is snappy and fast.

The only thing that pissed me off is it had active Sirius traffic and info subscriptions good for another year but when I added it to my account to activate the radio part they removed the other 2 trials. ********. Speaking to Sirius customer service is a test in patience. Wow.

 

[firehawk618]

Update 2.

Oddity. I'm reading and am on page 38 of this thread so far and haven't heard of this issue.

I setup my radio / xm presets. I get back in the truck later and they're all gone.

Ok I figured, perhaps I set them to truck memory 2 or something so I reset them all to memory 1 and memory 2.

Day later they're all reset again!

I set them all back up again tonight and will hope this quits resetting......

VERY annoying especially with the Sirius replay feature because from what I can tell it only stores whatever stations are in your presets. I enjoy the replay memory feature and don't want to have to re-set my presets every few days!

 

[SitKneelBend]

Update 2.

Oddity. I'm reading and am on page 38 of this thread so far and haven't heard of this issue.

I setup my radio / xm presets. I get back in the truck later and they're all gone.

Ok I figured, perhaps I set them to truck memory 2 or something so I reset them all to memory 1 and memory 2.

Day later they're all reset again!

I set them all back up again tonight and will hope this quits resetting......

VERY annoying especially with the Sirius replay feature because from what I can tell it only stores whatever stations are in your presets. I enjoy the replay memory feature and don't want to have to re-set my presets every few days!

Do you have a USB drive in? I've seen something similar happen but it remembered and restored all of my settings without me prompting it to.

So if you have a USB drive in remove it, set your settings band see if it sticks. If it does, format the USB and put whatever music you had back on it.

In short I "think" it's storing customer settings on the USB...

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[Jimmy07]

Now that I’m on my second 8.4 with nav, I’ve noticed some behaviors that I can rule out a bad radio, since they both behave this way. Just curious if some of these are normal, or if I’m overlooking something on some of these features, and any suggestions.
First off, the factory nav (on both radios) does NOT like on-ramps, especially four leaf clover style interchanges, and subdivisions with roads that curve around. They will lose track of the location in the curves, and end up thinking I’m on the frontage road next to the highway, and start re-routing, which causes the map to start flipping around trying to guess which way the truck is facing.
So, I use maps on CarPlay so I can double check against the factory navigation, and this is when I find out that you can’t actually (practically) switch back and forth between the two nav systems. If I’m running a route to destination on the factory navigation, and I want to switch to the same route I have entered on maps in CarPlay, the factory nav route will be canceled, and vice versa.
Next, no matter how many “voice disable” settings I can find, and voice guidance settings off, I CAN NOT come up with anything to stop the lady from initially saying (screaming, actually) “please proceed to the highlighted route” when starting the route. No other voice guidance after that. Any way to stop this?
I also never hear any kind of alert or indication that I receive texts when connected via Bluetooth (and not plugged into USB port). No noise, no interruption in music, no attenuation of the music or anything. It’s as if I never even receive them, and no, the phone is not on silent. Am I overlooking a setting for this?

 

[rgardjr]

I also never hear any kind of alert or indication that I receive texts when connected via Bluetooth (and not plugged into USB port). No noise, no interruption in music, no attenuation of the music or anything. It’s as if I never even receive them, and no, the phone is not on silent. Am I overlooking a setting for this?

On my iPhone I have to enable Show Notifications in the UConnect Bluetooth settings. The radio announces new text messages and will read them back with the touch of a button.

 

[SitKneelBend]

Now that I’m on my second 8.4 with nav, I’ve noticed some behaviors that I can rule out a bad radio, since they both behave this way. Just curious if some of these are normal, or if I’m overlooking something on some of these features, and any suggestions.
First off, the factory nav (on both radios) does NOT like on-ramps, especially four leaf clover style interchanges, and subdivisions with roads that curve around. They will lose track of the location in the curves, and end up thinking I’m on the frontage road next to the highway, and start re-routing, which causes the map to start flipping around trying to guess which way the truck is facing.
So, I use maps on CarPlay so I can double check against the factory navigation, and this is when I find out that you can’t actually (practically) switch back and forth between the two nav systems. If I’m running a route to destination on the factory navigation, and I want to switch to the same route I have entered on maps in CarPlay, the factory nav route will be canceled, and vice versa.
Next, no matter how many “voice disable” settings I can find, and voice guidance settings off, I CAN NOT come up with anything to stop the lady from initially saying (screaming, actually) “please proceed to the highlighted route” when starting the route. No other voice guidance after that. Any way to stop this?
I also never hear any kind of alert or indication that I receive texts when connected via Bluetooth (and not plugged into USB port). No noise, no interruption in music, no attenuation of the music or anything. It’s as if I never even receive them, and no, the phone is not on silent. Am I overlooking a setting for this?

I believe the NAV guidance is separate from the notification sounds and is also separate from the CarPlay sound.

In other words, you have to adjust the volume of "please proceed to the highlighted route" while she is saying it.

I've also noticed that I get no text notification from UConnect while Android auto is connected/displayed (I assume the same for CarPlay) because the notification comes through those apps instead. Does this happen when you are only connected to Bluetooth and not plugged in to the USB?

As for NAV issues, I've seen the NAV display similar behavior if the compass wasn't set correctly. If your compass heading "looks" ok, try looking at the FCA compass variance map and make sure yours is set to the proper variance zone...


Edit: I see what you said about USB not plugged in while BT is connected. I wonder if NAV prompts and notifications are tied together?

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