Stupid cheap Chinese radio not working as advertised

[mohammad]

I put in the cheap Chinese radio as any cheap car owner would do. I have a very specific problem:

if the radio screen brightness is set to anything above the minimum, if the car is moving and I hit the brakes the radio screen will lower its brightness to the minimum then will restore the set brightness after about 1 second or less. Its something im unsure how to film as it only occurs when the vehicle is moving and the brakes are applied.

Any thoughts on what could cause this or how to fix it? I assume that maybe our cars are equipped with regen braking and the voltage fluctuation that occurs when braking is what is causing my problem, maybe?

[foama]

Could that be a "feature" purposely built into that radio?
Nowadays many contraptions are designed by young inexperienced folks using computer assistance, and they just don't know better. Some of those youngsters have whacky ideas and then we can buy "full-featured" whacky products that do anything and everything except what they should have been built to do.

[88coltturbo]

I put in the cheap Chinese radio as any cheap car owner would do. I have a very specific problem:

if the radio screen brightness is set to anything above the minimum, if the car is moving and I hit the brakes the radio screen will lower its brightness to the minimum then will restore the set brightness after about 1 second or less. Its something im unsure how to film as it only occurs when the vehicle is moving and the brakes are applied.

Any thoughts on what could cause this or how to fix it? I assume that maybe our cars are equipped with regen braking and the voltage fluctuation that occurs when braking is what is causing my problem, maybe?

Your title explains it all - it's a stupid cheap Chinese radio
Even the entry level Sony/Kenwood/Pioneer/etc. wouldn't do that.
Not every cheap car owner would do that. I certainly didn't!

[mohammad]

Could that be a "feature" purposely built into that radio?
Nowadays many contraptions are designed by young inexperienced folks using computer assistance, and they just don't know better. Some of those youngsters have whacky ideas and then we can buy "full-featured" whacky products that do anything and everything except what they should have been built to do.

No its certainly just a junk design, i think the voltage change during regen messes up the screen brightness, makes it dim for a second then restore itself. Its very distracting when it happens. Its a very hard to reproduce as it appears that it only occurs when screen brightness is set above minimum and maybe the stars have to align.

The other problem is that to get the radio to dim enough to not bother my eyes at night i have to run some stupid android app on the App Store to lower the screen brightness.

the screen auto "dims" when dash lights come on, but its only adjusting between two brightness levels it isnt enough. headlights come on a half hour before sundown. The screen brightness that i want changes a lot between a half hour before sunset and after sunset. They should make this **** work without me having to interact with it. why couldn't they include an ambient light sensor.

This model radio is sold for like a bazillion cars on eBay and the usually china shops. Why couldn't they at least make the minimum brightness not blind me at night.

[inuvik]

This model radio is sold for like a bazillion cars on eBay and the usually china shops. Why couldn't they at least make the minimum brightness not blind me at night.

Because it's a "Stupid cheap Chinese radio"?

[Fummins]

I have no experience with those radio's. My dad bought one of the china ones for his avalanche a couple years ago. Then his battery started dying after sitting a few days. The stock radio is back in and the china one is in the dump.

I considered buying one of the big fancy screen china radio's for my Mirage, then I sobered up.

[7milesout]

Your title explains it all - it's a stupid cheap Chinese radio
Even the entry level Sony/Kenwood/Pioneer/etc. wouldn't do that.
Not every cheap car owner would do that. I certainly didn't!

I'm in agreement with this reply, in its entirety.

[Princess_Bishi]

Wait a second… which Mirages have regen braking?! This is news to me.

[foama]

Wait a second… which Mirages have regen braking?! This is news to me.

All Mirage have that feature, but don't expect it to perform miracles.

When the you take your foot off the gas while the car is moving and the engine revving above 2300rpm or higher, the alternator will put out the strongest current (amps) possible to the battery, regardless of the actual charge state of the battery. This even occurs when the battery is nominally full. The alternator thereby puts its highest possible braking load onto the revving engine, and transfers some of that load into the amperage going in to the battery and thereby charges it. If you re-apply gas, the alternator will resume normal operation.
This feature is really cheap to install in the factory on modern electronically managed engines, costs the maker practically nothing, but does a little bit towards lowering total gas consumption. It is there but not generally advertized, maybe because the benefit is only marginal. None the less, there is some benefit at practically zero extra cost.
This is also the reason why it says "for energy efficient" on the OEM battery. That kind of battery can accept this kind of charging without damage.

If you look at the FSM you can see how the alternator is wired for this feature.

You can watch it operate like this:
Turn the blower on stage 2 or 3 and drive in low gear at constant speed faster than at least 15mph and with more than 2500rpm, and then abruptly take your foot off the gas. After a short pause you can hear the blower speeding up a bit because of the increase in voltage. With a multimeter you can observe the voltage.

[mohammad]

All Mirage have that feature, but don't expect it to perform miracles.

When the you take your foot off the gas while the car is moving and the engine revving above 2300rpm or higher, the alternator will put out the strongest current (amps) possible to the battery, regardless of the actual charge state of the battery. This even occurs when the battery is nominally full. The alternator thereby puts its highest possible braking load onto the revving engine, and transfers some of that load into the amperage going in to the battery and thereby charges it. If you re-apply gas, the alternator will resume normal operation.
This feature is really cheap to install in the factory on modern electronically managed engines, costs the maker practically nothing, but does a little bit towards lowering total gas consumption. It is there but not generally advertized, maybe because the benefit is only marginal. None the less, there is some benefit at practically zero extra cost.
This is also the reason why it says "for energy efficient" on the OEM battery. That kind of battery can accept this kind of charging without damage.

If you look at the FSM you can see how the alternator is wired for this feature.

You can watch it operate like this:
Turn the blower on stage 2 or 3 and drive in low gear at constant speed faster than at least 15mph and with more than 2500rpm, and then abruptly take your foot off the gas. After a short pause you can hear the blower speeding up a bit because of the increase in voltage. With a multimeter you can observe the voltage.

I bought a 12v socket mutimeter online. Very cheap device. I have not noticed voltage increase during braking.

Is it possible you Foama, could buy a "Car Cigarette Socket Voltmeter" Type device from eBay or something and share with us the normal voltage while driving and the voltage shown while braking? and/or during DFCO if thats when you think/know regen is occurring?