Quote:
Originally Posted by e36mcab
I also installed this Android interface.
My thoughts on this:
It really needs to be modified to fit the opening. The bottom right corner of the screen bezel touches the hard molded plastic on my car. See video at the 13:06 mark.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ReDgLYIAsZc
The holes on the top mounting screws do not line up, most likely due to the screen bezel issue.
I managed to squeeze the screen and forced the screen to barely align with the mounting screws.
The bottom part of the screen does not sit flush with the opening, at least its a consistent gap of about 1/16", so it appears normal.
The screen bezel that was provided by this vendor seems to be an older design. The newer Avin units do no have this issue, as they have a different design.
I did not modify the screen, but more than likely I will once my GPS splitter arrives.
The wiring harness is really short. It was a PITA to get it to fit. It was necessary to squeeze the head unit to force it to fit. I managed to barely tuck the large piggy back harness to the bottom right. I'm not a fan of forcing things to fit.
The sound quality via BT streaming is good. I've compared the sound on Spotify to my Tune2Air I used previously and it's very close to the same. This may be due to the fact that both use the AUX connection in the armrest to stream music.
I also installed the Spotify app directly and the sound is also similar.
The back up camera works great and dynamic parking lines work perfect in conjunction with my rear PDC.
Other than the installation challenges, the Android unit is a nice upgrade to the old CCC system. |
Quote:
Originally Posted by e36mcab
I bought the same one that toddyus purchased.
It is the new Android 7.1 interface but I think the company that I purchased from is using an old housing. When I compare the pictures of the old and new housing this one does not have the cut outs.
|
Okay, I also wonder if the difference is CIC vs CCC. Thanks for the question answers! I had some follow up:
Quote:
-With the GPS antenna, why is the splitter necessary? If I don't care for stock navigation, could I just directly connect it to the AHU and just say FU to the stock NAV?
Yes you can do this, but the issue some have been experiencing is it's very slow to get a GPS lock with the aftermarket antenna. The factory one may produce better results as it's mounted under the shark fin.
|
Okay so what I meant was right now our car is stock GPS antenna-> stock GPS . I thought the splitter was meant to split from stock GPS antenna -> AHU GPS + stock GPS. If I never use the stock GPS, could I just do stock GPS antenna -> AHU GPS and not worry about the splitter?
Quote:
-with the grounding wire, where did you attach it to? I know you said it reduced noise a little bit but the location can make a big difference.
I attached my ground wire to one of the screws that attached to my glove box. That mounting point in particular is attached to the metal frame.
|
Hmm how long is the wire? I would have tried grounding near the aux in. Feel like that would have the best results.
Quote:
-If I read your post correctly, if we don't have OEM backup camera right now, we can install directly to the AHU and it'll work? I thought you couldn't get dynamic parking lines with the MT. Guess I was wrong
Yes. I had an aftermarket backup camera module. I removed it and just hooked up my aftermarket camera to this unit. The dynamic parking lines work with my 6 spd manual. I have read elsewhere that another OP could not get the dynamic parking lines to work until he installed the factory rear PDC but this was not with a AHU rather a backup camera module. YMMV.
|
Did you have it with the emulator before installing the AHU (like through the DIY post on this forum)?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Emilime75
Not sure how else to re-word what I'm trying to achieve, but no, it would not go through the AUX at all and that's the point. As most seem to concur that the AUX is of poor quality and in many ways negates any sound quality benefits that an Android head unit might have in our cars.
Using a USB to digital audio converter would maintain a digital signal path all the way to the aftermarket DSP, the DSP would act as the DAC and provide the crossover/EQ/time alignment features which would then go into external, aftermarket amps. The only negative that I can see is that controlling volume would have to be through an additional knob installed in the car...but there are also devices on the market that can convert the factory steering wheel controls to IR, so if the DSP can be controlled via IR remote, we can maintain steering wheel volume controls, at the least. Some of these converters also allow for mapping buttons to do other things so, as an example, my DSP can hold 4 different tunes, and I'd be able to program a long press of any of the steering wheel buttons to load a different tune, or mute/unmute, or...?
|
Ah I think I understand now. I thought you were trying to retain the stock controls. I don't see why doing this stuff wouldn't be possible.
Quote:
Originally Posted by toddyus
See answers below:
|
Did you ever end up getting the CIC idrive controller setup?
Quote:
Originally Posted by ssshake
I created a video where I tear down the wiring harness and I believe it explains (or will lead others to answering) questions about the sometimes optional aux cable as well as what all the wires and connectors labeled "CAN" are about.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1aR38Rnqx-Y
The most confusing thing is the two pairs of white powered speaker wires. What could possibly be using just one of the four car stereo channels? Very weird.
I do wonder if my CIC can be coded to do audio without the aux cable. I do know you can code $601 VO to enable TV which uses RCA on these pins on the back. So not exactly aux audio, but audio + video. To which you could just choose to not use the video input and treat the TV mode as just audio.
Since I know this is possible, by this link below, I am suspicious that there is a way to just code aux in from the back of the CIC and use the on screen input labeled AUX for it. I just can't find any information about that yet.
Link to RCA TV on CIC: https://bmw.***********.com/threads/...eo-input.1550/O |
Could you PM me the link? It's censored lol. It would be sweet if we could bypass the aux. I can try helping you look for more info! Anyway, for the backup camera, are you using the emulator that's linked in the DIY thread? I wonder if I should just forget about it and hook it up to the AHU directly.