Alpine KCA-420i bug list

[bvm23]

I've had the KCA-420i for about 4 months now. I'm still glad I got it (it's pretty convenient for what it does), but its quirks and outright bugs are annoying. I've been scanning thru the postings here, hoping to see how my experience compares with others. Some bugs I've seen mentioned, some not. So here's my list, in the hopes of getting confirmations/workarounds/advice from others.

1. Slow scrolling thru playlists, artists, etc. Everyone knows about this by now, and there are indications elsewhere that it's an iPod limitation. As a practical matter, I just create a few (big) playlists for the pod and stick with them, rather than go searching for anything specific. Besides, you wouldn't want to do all that when you're driving, anyway.

2. After being connected to the KCA-420i, the pod's Repeat mode is set to "All". What's that about?

3. Many people have reported the backlight doesn't work afterwards until you reset the iPod. I haven't noticed this myself, but I don't use the backlight much.

The following bugs/annoyances I haven't seen mentioned before. Comments?

4. With the CDA-9825 head unit, any characters not in the 7-bit ascii set get rendered as "A " (two characters, A, space). This is really annoying. I know the display capability of the 9825 is minimal (upper-case LED segments), but can't the 420i know it's talking to a 9825, and translate characters with diacritical marks into their nearest single-character ascii equivalents? I was listening to Franck's Pièce Héroïque, and it came out “PIA CE HA ROA QUE”.

5. It doesn't reliably pause the iPod when I turn off the ignition. I leave the car, come back a while later, start up, and find it's playing something 20 tracks farther down the playlist, rather than where I left it. This is very intermittent, but darned annoying. I've taken to manually pausing the unit before turning off the ignition.

6. Once in a while, it turns the iPod's alarm clock on. Then later on at home, the alarm goes off, the pod comes on, and next thing I know its battery is dead. I'm not positive this is the Alpine's fault, since I've seen it happen once when I hadn't used the Alpine in days, and other posts about dead batteries suggest that non-Alpine users might be seeing this as well, but it's possible there are multiple ways to have this bugThank you. Please choose the appropriate forum for this topic. triggered.

[TheBum]

I have a second-generation iPod compatible head unit (CDA-9851) and, for the most part, the same behaviors still exist. Here are my comments on the "bugs" you mention with regard to my 3G 15 GB iPod:

1. I do something similar with playlists. I wrote a Mac program that uses iTunes' AppleScript interface to randomly fill playlists of a given maximum size with songs, creating as many playlists as it takes to include all the songs. As I play through the playlists on my iPod, I delete them in iTunes. When I subsequently sync the iPod, they are removed from the iPod. I was doing this before I got the Alpine setup and plan to continue doing it.

2. I agree that it's a tad annoying, but it's consistent with real life usage: when a playlist finishes, it starts over. I'm wondering why Alpine couldn't have made a 3-mode repeat (repeat all, repeat one, no repeat) for the iPod like they have for some of the other sources.

3, 5, & 6. I've had no problems with these so far. If I starting experiencing any of them, I'll post back.

4. The 9851 has dot matrix characters, but the manual still says that characters are limited to ASCII (7-bit). I haven't tried any extended characters, so it'd be interesting to see what's displayed.

[TheBum]

Update: Regarding #4, I took a look at a couple of the artists on my iPod that have diacriticals in their names (André Previn and Blue Öyster Cult). Both showed up correctly on the 9851's display (complete with accent and umlaut, respectively), much to my surprise. The only discrepancy was that the "Ö" showed up in lower case, presumably because there wouldn't be room in the character's dot matrix for an umlaut above a capital "O".

[weezerisrock]

What I have noticed in relation to your complaints.

I have a CDA-9847.

1. Yes the slow scrolling is annoying. And the only thing I use playlists for is my audiobooks. I manually search (usually by artist) for anything I want to listen to. I am just too pickey about what I want to listen to at any given moment and sometimes change my mind in the middle of a song... But I haven't had any major problems with the slow scrolling yet. I just have had to learn some patience.

2. I haven't noticed my iPod staying on repeat after I take it out of my truck. I get annoyed with the fact that it repeats an album after I am done listening to it. I sometimes wish it would just continue thru the artist's albums.

3,4,6. Haven't noticed any of these problems. I haven't had any artists or cd's with anything other than traditional characters yet either though.

5. UPDATE: just had your pausing problem happen to me as well. It was on an audiobook and I left the car for about 45min or so and found that my book was 30min ahead! And rewinding a 9 hour file is near impossible. Its pretty slow. I will have to pause my audiobooks first from now on.

7. One to add to the list! If I am listening to a cd, then decide I would like to listen to another song, I don't like the fact that as soon as I select the artist it starts playing their topmost album before I even select which album I want to listen to! I would much rather it wait until I make my selection of song or album before it started playing that artist.

But all in all I love this adapter! The good definately outweighs the bad.:D

[1Tym]

I'm running the KCA-420i with my Alpine CDA-9087 headunit. There are some things I find annoying too.

-Searching through playlists is annoying. They should let u be able to search with the remote control. (Do any of the alpine headunits allow this?) and it is annoying how u have to start at the beginning of all playlists every time u search, like it doesn't leave off on the last playlist u played.

- i haven't had a problem with the pausing thing...at least i haven't noticed?

I plan on getting the Alpine CDA-9855 when it comes out. The display looks real nice and i'm liking the slide touch strip.

[bighairy]

6: The alarm thing.... my Alpine KCA-420i hooked up to the D310 touch screen is also turning on my alarm. I thought I was going mad but it must be the Alpine. Repeat is also turned on just to make sure the battery runs flat.

Graeme

[force_aware]

I just got my adapter and deck installed last weekend at Best Buy during their free installation special. Prior to that, I was using the iTrip.

Yes, issues 1 and 2 are definitely annoying. In regards to #1, like others, I've cut down the annoyance by using Smart Playlists. But like another user mentioned, I'm just too finicky sometimes, and that's when I find myself scrolling through the artist search.

The one complaint I definitely have with any of the search modes is that you can't jump ahead and back in the alphabet, thereby speeding up your searches. The tuner/track select up/down or the up/down arrows near the Quick Search could have easily been used for that purpose. Perhaps next year's version will have them. I'm surprise that feature hasn't been present since day one. You would think that is a must have user-friendly feature.

I saw one of the posters mention that the remote can't be used to search/scroll your iPod. I almost got one of the units with the remote just so that I could control my iPod more easily...glad I didn't get it.

Again, overall I'm pleased with my purchase.


EDIT: 6/8/2005
I've experienced #3 as well. I didn't notice it because I had my backlight on the 2 seconds setting. However, if you try to turn on your backlight by holding in the menu button, then nothing. It's only annoying when I need to use the backlight real quick. The only time I have my backlight on the 2 second setting is at night, the rest of the time I have it set to off.

[russf]

I find the slow scrolling a pain too, but have not encountered any other problems (9851 headunit).

I've renamed all my favourite 10-15 artists with ' (single quote) at the front of their names. This brings them to the top of the artist search, so the top 10-15 artists are easy to find.

I've then renamed all the other artists that I'm likely to choose via "artistsearch" with a "." at the front of their names. This lists them after those favourites. I tend to use this for artists with full albums, so it gets rid of hundreads of artists that only have a track or two via compilation albums.

It's still slow, but not as bad as with a full list of approx 500 artists. I was trying to find a character that would make some artists appear at the bottom of the list, then i could put artists from N to Z at the bottom and scroll backwards for those. But I cannot find a character that sorts at the end... anyone know one?

Obviously, this isn't ideal! But I find it makes the artists search reasonably usable for most artists.

NB. If you decide to do the same, don't forget to place the "." before the "real" part of the name for artist names that start with "The". e.g. "The .Charlatans" will come under "C" (within the dot artists), whereas ".The Charlatans" will come under "T"!!

[track 1]

how much lag is there really? is it big time when your scrolling through?

[force_aware]

it's about a second...maybe a little less. plus if you turn the wheel multiple times within that second, you will only get one "turn". so in other words, you can turn the knob all you want in the hopes that there is a buffer that will remember the number of revolutions turned on the knob...there isn't. therefore, start coming up with some creative smart playlists if you haven't already.

from reading through the forums, it looks like there is a lag with interface and headunits supplied by Kenwood and Pioneer.

[track 1]

Originally posted by force_aware
it's about a second...maybe a little less. plus if you turn the wheel multiple times within that second, you will only get one "turn". so in other words, you can turn the knob all you want in the hopes that there is a buffer that will remember the number of revolutions turned on the knob...there isn't. therefore, start coming up with some creative smart playlists if you haven't already.

from reading through the forums, it looks like there is a lag with interface and headunits supplied by Kenwood and Pioneer.

with all the bugs............is it worth it? should i buy it? is it easy to install?

[bvm23]

Just an update on my original post...

My 9825 was stolen (sigh, the one time I forgot to remove the faceplate), and replaced it with a 9847, the 9825 being no longer available. I've noticed a slight improvement. In particular, problem #4 is no longer in issue -- it seems to render the European characters as the underlying character sans diacritical mark.

I also haven't had problem #5 with the unreliable pausing, but that might be coincidental, since it's a very intermittent problem.

However, I still did at least once find my alarm set behind my back. I can't positively tie it to the KCA-420i, though it's possible it is managing to tickle some underlying iPod bug, as I mention in another thread. (threadid=77913; apparently I can't tell you the whole url because "Only established members are allowed to post URLs on this site" -- what's that all about?).

[force_aware]

Originally posted by track 1
with all the bugs............is it worth it? should i buy it? is it easy to install?


i suggest you make a list of what you feel are pros and cons based off of the infomation not only in this thread or forum, but any additional research that you feel is necessary. the reason why i say that is because a "bug" to one person may be considered a lack of adding functionality to someone else. for example, i don't consider the slow scroll a bug per se but rather a limitation of the ipod api (application programmer's interface) that is handed to developers. so to combat that, alpine could have included the quick jump through the alphabet feature in their adapter's firmware that i described in an earlier post.

for me personally, the pros outweighed the cons. i get excellent sound quality (using iTrip previously), recharges my ipod, displays id3 tag info, control basic ipod functions, and search functionality (could be better) by playlist, artist, album, or song. also, if i get another vehicle, i can hook up the head unit and adapter in there as oppose to having a solution, such as icelink, that is specially designed for the make and model of your vehicle.

the only con that really sticks out for me is the search issue, and as i have said in a previous post i've added additional smart playlists to my ipod to help eliviate the amount of time to scroll.

so again, don't take anyone's word as gold...just use the information and make an informed choice.


EDIT:
i had mine installed at best buy (free installation deal), and it took them about 30 to 45 minutes. i didn't watch them the whole time during the installation, but from looking at the owner's manual it's pretty straight forward if you're accustomed to installing car audio equipment.

[mikenam]

anybody ever have problems with the ipod freezing when connected to the alpine kca420i? I get that problem all the time. I would be listening to the music and then all of a sudden the ipod freezes. It never freezes until i connect it to the alpine adapter.

[force_aware]

Originally posted by mikenam
anybody ever have problems with the ipod freezing when connected to the alpine kca420i? I get that problem all the time. I would be listening to the music and then all of a sudden the ipod freezes. It never freezes until i connect it to the alpine adapter.

i haven't had that issue. what gen is your ipod? maybe it has something to do with that. i have a 4G.

[mikenam]

i have the 4th gen also.

[Nockie]

I have been experiencing a problem now that I hope someone can figure out. Almost everyday I will use the ipod on my way into work then when i come out 8 hours later the ipod is completly dead. I first thouhght it was turning on becasue the alarm was set (it turned it on for some reason) that didnt solve the problem. I also thought it was not turning it off which makes the ipod play for 8 hours and killing it. I try to check if its paused and it always is, but sure enough when i dont check the ipod is dead. Not only does the battery die but it is so dead that i have to hold the power and menu button jsut to get it to turn on so i can charge it. I had the 420i since the day it came out and it was fine up until a month ago. Any ideas???

[TheBum]

Originally posted by Nockie
I have been experiencing a problem now that I hope someone can figure out. Almost everyday I will use the ipod on my way into work then when i come out 8 hours later the ipod is completly dead. I first thouhght it was turning on becasue the alarm was set (it turned it on for some reason) that didnt solve the problem. I also thought it was not turning it off which makes the ipod play for 8 hours and killing it. I try to check if its paused and it always is, but sure enough when i dont check the ipod is dead. Not only does the battery die but it is so dead that i have to hold the power and menu button jsut to get it to turn on so i can charge it. I had the 420i since the day it came out and it was fine up until a month ago. Any ideas???

First of all, if your car is not in covered parking, it's a very bad idea to leave your iPod in the car. The heat may be a factor in the battery drain.

There's also a known issue where the battery will drain if left connected to the KCA-420i without 12V power to the box. If you must leave your iPod in the car, the solution is to disconnect the iPod from the 420i.

Maybe it worked up until a month ago because the battery capacity was still high enough to survive the drain. Li-ion batteries are notorious for losing a minute amount of capacity each time they have to go through a recharge cycle. If the drain was happening all along, you were probably fully recharging it every time you went home from work and all of those minute capacity losses were adding up to a substantial loss.

[force_aware]

Originally posted by Nockie
I have been experiencing a problem now that I hope someone can figure out. Almost everyday I will use the ipod on my way into work then when i come out 8 hours later the ipod is completly dead. I first thouhght it was turning on becasue the alarm was set (it turned it on for some reason) that didnt solve the problem. I also thought it was not turning it off which makes the ipod play for 8 hours and killing it. I try to check if its paused and it always is, but sure enough when i dont check the ipod is dead. Not only does the battery die but it is so dead that i have to hold the power and menu button jsut to get it to turn on so i can charge it. I had the 420i since the day it came out and it was fine up until a month ago. Any ideas???

sounds like your iPod's battery is being drained by leaving it in the car all day. it's akin to leaving your cell phone or anyother battery powered device in the car all day. batteries aren't suited for hot storage and will quickly deplete your battery's life cycle.

i've only experienced one problem w/ my 420i, and that occurred 2 days ago. i was playing a song, then i skipped to the next song but the song wouldn't play. it froze at 2 seconds into the song (according to the head unit) and it wouldn't let me use any of the iPod's controls. i unplugged it and it was frozen with the "Alpine" logo and the battery charging icon. i had to manually reset my iPod to unlock it.

[storagebox]

Can you help with this? Got the 420 connected to the Alpine HU. Every time I disconnect the ipod it forgets where it is on the track and returns me to the main menu.

[TheBum]

Originally posted by storagebox
Can you help with this? Got the 420 connected to the Alpine HU. Every time I disconnect the ipod it forgets where it is on the track and returns me to the main menu.

The iPod will always go back to the main menu but you shouldn't lose your place in the song unless you go into the menu system and re-select it. What happens if you just hit the Play button after disconnecting? It should start playing the song where it left off before you disconnected. Also, you should be able to go down to the Now Playing selection at the bottom of the main menu to bring up the normal playback screen.

[rocinante]

Originally posted by force_aware
sounds like your iPod's battery is being drained by leaving it in the car all day. it's akin to leaving your cell phone or anyother battery powered device in the car all day. batteries aren't suited for hot storage and will quickly deplete your battery's life cycle.


I don't think this is the problem people are having. Mine runs down when left in my car, even if it is left in the garage.

I've seen mentions in other threads about the alarm being set. My 3G has run down on 3 separate occasions, and all three times, the alarm was set when I recharged it. In one case, I verified the alarm was off, left it in the car until I experienced a "iPod not found" event, and checked afterwards. Sure enough, the alarm was turned back on.

So, I believe we have a KCA-420i bug that turns the alarm on from time to time. Considering my main use of the iPod is in the car, this is going to be a real pain without a fix. Is this thing field upgradable?

[rocinante]

Originally posted by rocinante
I've seen mentions in other threads about the alarm being set.

Oops, sorry, that was in the original post on _this_ thread.

[maxtd5def]

I 've got a 9851 with an ipod mini.

I can get around the scrolling problem for most use with a "recently added" playlist. With podcasts, most trips over before I need to find some music.

Anyway, it sometimes hangs when starting up the car. If the big tick is on the ipod display, the 9851 just won't find the ipod. Disconnecting & reconnecting, turning ignition off and on, nothing seems to easily work.

If the Alpine logos come up, I'm usually OK. It'll pick up where it left off.

Doesn't seem to matter whether its a 5 min stop or overnight.

The workaround seems to be updating the ipod with itunes. Then the 9851 finds it every time. It must have something to do with how the Alpine reads the ipod database.

I',m still working on an "in-car" solution to this. Very annoying when you're miles from home.

Regards
Max P

[Lowky]

Originally posted by rocinante
I don't think this is the problem people are having. Mine runs down when left in my car, even if it is left in the garage.

I've seen mentions in other threads about the alarm being set. My 3G has run down on 3 separate occasions, and all three times, the alarm was set when I recharged it. In one case, I verified the alarm was off, left it in the car until I experienced a "iPod not found" event, and checked afterwards. Sure enough, the alarm was turned back on.

So, I believe we have a KCA-420i bug that turns the alarm on from time to time. Considering my main use of the iPod is in the car, this is going to be a real pain without a fix. Is this thing field upgradable?

I am having the same problem with the battery being drained. Since it's been cold all week I know its not a hot storage issue. I have noticed that when the car is off, the battery does not have the charge indicator on, like it does when the car is running.

*edit* just checked and the alarm was on */edit*

Lately I have been listening to audio books, so it's not a big deal for me to unplug and take ipod inside (which I know is better for it anyway) when i am at work for 8-9 hours a day.

Have also noted a bug where if you were on shuffle (I think my 9825 calls it M.I.X.) and you shut the car off it doesn't remember when you restart the car.

Otherwise I must say I do love my KCA420i/9825 have had the HU for about a year now, and just got the 420i about 2 weeks ago.

[kircough]

I have a problem that I haven't seen reported anywhere else yet.

I am using the alpine ipod interface with an alpine cda 9847r head unit.

I cannot get the head unit to play any of the albums on my ipod in the correct order.

Shuffle on the ipod is set to OFF.
M.I.X. on the head unit is set to OFF.

Anyone else seen this / have a solution?? Surely I'm not alone!

Driving me nuts......Alpine tech support said maybe Apple will bring out firmware to fix this, but surely this has got to be an Alpine issue??

[rocinante]

I think it is well known that the shuffle (or M.I.X) settings are forgotten if you turn off the head unit. But I am having a slightly different problem. After a while, album shuffle quits working entirely. Turning it on or off at the head unit has no effect. The only way I can get it back is to reset the iPod (3rd gen) itself. Has anyone else run into this one?

[DopeD0024]

i have all the aforementioned issues, and the most annoying thing is the freezing issue. i'd be playing a song on an album, and want to skip a few tracks ahead, and it would just freeze and say NO DATA on the alpine hu, then finally go to the track after 5 min. i'd take the ipod out shortly afterwards, and the hard drive would start clicking for a few cycles. this has happened twice, only when it was connected to the kca-420i....if anyone has had this problem, please let me know



btw...i have a 4G ipod and run it on a alpine cda-9853