Hi all,
I have completed my install of the Kenwood DNX 690HD with the Idatalink Maestro RR and the Kenwood backup camera. Everything is good. However, I can't seem to turn of that dang voice prompt turn by turn instructions. I like to turn on my nav when on long drives, not because I don't know the way, but because I want to know how long I have left, so prefer to keep the voice prompt silent.
On most NAV or my portable Garmin, there is a set up in the Nav menu, to turn on or off voiceprompt. This 2013 model does not have it. It does have a
"nav muting" on or off in the settings menu under navigation, but it does nothing! I have the mute wires connected, so what am I missing here? Any help would be appreciated since this voice prompts sometime wakes up my sleeping kids when we are on long trips. Thank you, all.

 

Hi,

Not sure about the setting or where it went, but you could contact Kenwood tech support on that and I'm sure they could tell you. For a hack, you can wait until the voice is active and turn the volume down. You will see a little icon on the volume bar that tells you that it is the navigation volume you are adjusting. Turn it all the way down.

You also do not need the brown mute wire connected at all. It never gets used with the Maestro install, however, having it connected will not create any issue.

The mute setting you did find should change what happens to the background audio when the nav talks. You can choose to have it muted or have the nav voice talk over it (mix with it).

Hope this helps,

 

Thank you. I did just that, but the nav mute setting does nothing. So now, the voice prompt is silent, but the background audio still goes down no matter whether I set on lor off.

 

In case you haven't figured this out yet, I'll try to explain what I did to get it to mute the garmin lady. I just got my DNX690HD on Friday and installed it that evening. One of the first things I noticed was that I didn't want Mrs. Garmin nagging me all the time telling me where to go.

After doing a little digging around I found a thread concerning this for an older Kenwood navigation unit and figured I would see if it would work for mine. And it did, perfectly.

While you're on the Where To and View map screen on the main navigation page tap the Settings button. Then when you're in the settings section, tap the Navigation button. Scroll down and you'll see where you can un-check the Voice Prompts. Then you should be good to go. It's a little hidden...why they couldn't have put it under the voices section I have no idea (that's where I first looked).

I created this account here so I could try to give you this info if you still needed it. Just ran across this thread while I was trying to find discussions on this navigation unit....trying to get informed on people's issues and opinions with it. So I'll try to remember to check in to see if the problem is solved for you. Good luck!

 

Hi, thank you for your response, but in Navigation, I only see avoidance, custom avoidance, advanced detour, safe mode, GPS simulator, that's it. Maybe they updated the unit? Can you please let me know what version you have? I have version 1.0.0. It's in menu, software section. Thank you very much.

 

Weird...for me under the navigation settings my voice prompts is between Safe Mode and GPS Simulator.

Under the navigation settings I go to Device>About and it says software version 2.60, audio version 1.40 and text version 2.60.

Under the main head unit settings I go to Setup>Software and it tells me my version is V1.30.

 

Kenwood / firmware updater

I found this earlier. Looks like there's a firmware update that went live this past Friday. I'm willing to bet your navigation software is 2.50 or lower since you got your head unit before I did. If that's the case maybe try updating the firmware. The navigation update for the most recent one is 2.70 and I'm sure it'll have the voice prompts on there. Although since it's so new I would probably wait to see if anyone has any issues/complaints about the update before flashing it. Or try giving Kenwood a call to see what they have to say.

 

thanks a bunch. You are correct. It is version 2.30. I went to the Kenwood site, and believe it or not, NO firmware update available yet! I just emailed them. But thanks for the heads up!
By the way, just so you know, I've been very happy with the unit, WHEN IT IS WORKING. About 3-4 times/week (yes, that is a lot), upon starting up the car, the unit would turn on, but would be frozen. I would not be able to adjust the volume, or navigation or anything. the only way to fix that is to either push the reset button with a pin (top left corner), or put car back to park, turn off engine, and then on again. If this happens to you, you are not the only one then.
In any case, because of this problem, and because of the non-existence of being able to turn voiceprompt off, I will definitely update the firmware when it is available. Again, thanks for the reply!

 

Sorry, actually, I found it in another area of the Kenwood website. I will try to update and let you know soon.

 

Thanks, Largefarva! It's done. No more annoying voice prompt! I know have version 1.4 and will let you know if there are any problems next week when I drive. If you decide to update, here are what you have to do after downloading and extract all files to your usb flash drive:
1. Plug in flash drive
2. When it say, no media, PRESS MENU
3. Touch on STANDBY (if you skip this step, the update will not light up)
4. Then touch setup at the bottom
5. then press update
6. Go inside and eat lunch or dinner or something. I sat there for about 15 minutes and it was only about 1/2 done. I went inside to eat dinner; when I came out, it was done. All of your saved locations on the navigation, as well as all audio tuning will be reset. Again, thanks!

 

Glad it worked out for you. You're a much braver person than I! Please let me know how your head unit performs over the next few days.

The only issue I have so far is that sometimes I'll start up my truck and it won't have any sound playing for the satellite radio (it would show the channel name, artist and song name etc...just no sound).

To fix it I would either have to reboot the head unit or restart the truck....or the easiest fix I found out yesterday is to simply change the channel up or down and then back to the channel I originally had it on to get the sound to start playing again.

 

So...how has the latest flash for the head unit been working for you?

I was wondering if you could check something for me....the next few times you start up your truck could you pay close attention to the sync display (the narrow one above the head unit) and see if it flashes a "check tuner" message? This is a message for the satellite receiver...I'm assuming you have the SXV200 satellite tuner for SiriusXM. If not then I doubt you'll see the message. I just want to see if anyone else's Sync display shows this on start up or not. I might have a faulty satellite tuner and will have to give Crutchfield a call.

Edit: I realized later on last night that you don't have an F-150. So you probably don't have the Sync screen that I'm talking about...so I guess my request was kinda dumb. Sorry about that.

 

Hi Largefarva,
I checked and there was no "check tuner" message. While in the garage, it say "no signal", but then goes blank when I am outside my garage and then there an icon of the antenna tower.
As to the status after the reflash, After about a dozen or more times driving the car in the last week, I am happy to report that it is finally perfect. No more crashes. No more voiceprompt.
The only thing I am still not able to do is the fordsync, except for my steering wheel controls. Maybe I don't understand the fordsync, but I was able to have dual zone audio in the past (my kids can listen to something else on their headphones), but now I cannot do anything. Oh well, not a big deal. What's important to me works fine, so that's enough.