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Today at Atelier Kaz - Private NSX Enthusiast, ex-Honda R&D engineer with F1, Indy/CART background

Annual Service, Health Check, iPod adaptor, etc 05

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Now the fun begins.



The owner bought the USA Spec PA11-HON iPod adaptor over amazon (US) from one of the authorised dealer.
I checked the phone no. on the amazon shop front and it was the same as the one on their own website so it looked to be genuine.


However, when I looked at the actual product received from the owner, I was bit curious because compared to all other PA11-HON units that I dealt with including mine, there were several differences.
Please note that my PA11-HON was purchased long-long time ago so the outer case design is different (like heatsink) and the position of the sticker was at the bottom as it was impossible to attach anything on the side.



The biggest concern was that there was no serial no. or Lot no. on the box.



Nothing on the side of the unit purchased by the owner.





These two boxes were purchased awhile ago for ohter owners and all of the units had white sticker at the side of the case for later design case (smooth finish) or at the bottom like mine (with heatsink like case design) showing the serial no., date and lot no. together with possibly the software version.





On the owner's box, there was also distinctive square hole covered by the tamper proof label and as far as I know, this kind of hole was not there on all of the units I dealt with.





This is the unit that I installed for another owner recently and as you can see, there was no hole next to the dip switch.

Of course, the owner may have received the newly designed case and my experience is simply old info but as far as I know, PA11-HON is not that popular and probably no further development so even it was sharing the case with other USA Spec products, bit strange to use different case all of a sudden.







The lot/date/serial no. on the Apple cable looked to be really old compared to the one I recently purchased.
It could be hard to see in the above photo but it's shown as 100317H2 for the one came with the owner's unit.

The 2nd photo is the one that I installed recently for another owner.
If it is the seial no. in series increment or possibly the date Lot no., then the one came with the owner's unit seemed to be really old???.




And my concern was right.......
When I connected the unit on the bench, although the iPod Mini was being charged, the head unit didn't recognise it and simply couldn't go into the CD mode.






I tried my ancient PA11-HON under same condition using the cable came in the same box and it worked perfectly so it's not a cable issue.

The owner's box at the top and my ancient unit with heatsink like case design at the bottom.
You can see the CD mode in operation on the display in the back ground.



To be 100% sure, I took the owner's unit and installed it on my NSX and it didn't work.
There is no need to do so but to double check, I even tried all combination of dip switch position after power cycling the unit each time changing the switch and still the same issue.
Interesting thing is that the iPod mini was being charged even through the faulty unit so at least, something was working.


It was just simply not recognised as CD changer.



So based on these, I came to a conclusion that the supplied cables are fine but the unit/box is faulty because
a) simply due to hardware failure
b) although it says PA11-HON on the plate, it's a wrong model as it has extra square hole on the case
c) wrong software used but no way to confirm due to lack of sticker on anywhere
d) something not quite right as there was no sticker showing the date/lot/etc info


Since the owner purchased it through amazon and the vendor being as the authorised dealer, I hope the owner can get the replacement very soon.


Will put everything back on the car today.


Kaz

Comments

  1. Kaz-kzukNA1's Avatar
    Finally, the owner managed to get the replacement PA11-HON and installed it successfully recently so just a folow up of this issue for the record.

    Initially, I thought the owner bought it from one of the USA Spec authorised dealer 'Car Toys' on Amazon US due to the way the product was displayed when the owner sent me the purchase history link.
    However, it was just showing the product with specific ASIN no. with one of the seller dealing with it so depending on the timing of search, it will display any sellers randomly.
    After further communication with the owner, finally I found out that it was purchased through 'Car Audio Dealers' on amazon.
    Also, 'Car Toys' won't deliver outside of US through amazon so that confirms that they were not the seller from the beginning.



    Thank you to the owner for sending me several photos of the replacement unit.

    It came with some sort of serial no. on the side and also there is no more small extra window (hole) next to the dip sw.
    Looks like the original one was of wrong version/spec.


    Amazon US sells the unit directly from their shopfront instead of other sellers and although it's about US$10 more, I think I'll try buying it from them next time as I always had good customer support from them when something went wrong.

    Kaz



    Updated 13-01-2015 at 02:08 PM by Kaz-kzukNA1 (Extra info)