[PaKii94]

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.

Do you have the updated unit or the older unit? I ask because that video is almost a year old now. (Still useful but indicates you might have the older unit). If so, I *think* I read that the cutout problem is fixed in the newer ones (or maybe it was a problem with CCC vs CIC). Either way, i think this shouldn't be an issue now.... I might be wrong

[Emilime75]

Originally Posted by PaKii94

very few have the new unit so far (I think only the one guy above lol). do you mean connecting AHU ->usb-> dac-> aux->car?

No, i should clarify...USB to Digital Audio...signal chain would be AHU>USB>Digital Audio Format Converter>Aftermarket DSP with digital inputs(optical or coax)>aftermarket amplifiers...

I've used this in the past with success with my phone running Android 7.
https://www.amazon.com/Behringer-UCA222-BEHRINGER-U-CONTROL/dp/B0023BYDHK

I've emailed Avin to ask, and this was their reply,

Support
Support (AVINUSA.com)

Jul 31, 1:26 PM PDT

Hi

I have heard of customers doing that with the USB DAC.

I have not personly tried it myself to confirm if it works though.

[PaKii94]

Originally Posted by Emilime75

No, i should clarify...USB to Digital Audio...signal chain would be AHU>USB>Digital Audio Format Converter>Aftermarket DSP with digital inputs(optical or coax)>aftermarket amplifiers...

I've used this in the past with success with my phone running Android 7.
https://www.amazon.com/Behringer-UCA222-BEHRINGER-U-CONTROL/dp/B0023BYDHK

I've emailed Avin to ask, and this was their reply,

Support
Support (AVINUSA.com)

Jul 31, 1:26 PM PDT

Hi

I have heard of customers doing that with the USB DAC.

I have not personly tried it myself to confirm if it works though.

Wouldn't that have to go through the aux anyway?

[e36mcab]

Originally Posted by toddyus

I took a chance and pulled the trigger on this unit:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/New-...ceBeautifyAB=0

It is a 32G ROM, 2GB model running Android 7.1. Otherwise, appears to be similar/same unit AVIN is selling including the BMW ID6 interface. It's a gamble. Don't know how their support will be. I'll report in when I receive it.

I bought the same one that toddyus purchased.

Originally Posted by PaKii94

Do you have the updated unit or the older unit? I ask because that video is almost a year old now. (Still useful but indicates you might have the older unit). If so, I *think* I read that the cutout problem is fixed in the newer ones (or maybe it was a problem with CCC vs CIC). Either way, i think this shouldn't be an issue now.... I might be wrong

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.

[e36mcab]

Originally Posted by PaKii94

Hey toddy. thanks for the indept review and replies. Just wanted to say, I am sure we all appreciate the feedback you gave us! I am very close to pulling the trigger. The price on them has dropped further to approx $360. It's become very enticing. i had a few more questions:

I can try to answer some of your questions:

- What happens if you press any of the other idrive buttons on the android side? (for example, what happens when you press nav or CD?) I would love to remap that for shortcuts to my music player and google maps on the android side. I know you said it's not possible but while browsing these units, I think i saw some pictures that showed you CAN remap them.

I only have the menu button on my i-Drive knob, no other buttons. It's a CCC not a CIC.
I am not aware of being able to remap the buttons.

-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.

-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.

-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.

[Emilime75]

Originally Posted by PaKii94

Wouldn't that have to go through the aux anyway?

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...?

[toddyus]

See answers below:

Originally Posted by PaKii94

Hey toddy. thanks for the indept review and replies. Just wanted to say, I am sure we all appreciate the feedback you gave us! I am very close to pulling the trigger. The price on them has dropped further to approx $360. It's become very enticing. i had a few more questions:

- What happens if you press any of the other idrive buttons on the android side? (for example, what happens when you press nav or CD?) I would love to remap that for shortcuts to my music player and google maps on the android side. I know you said it's not possible but while browsing these units, I think i saw some pictures that showed you CAN remap them.

I have CCC so the iDrive controller just has the Menu button. However, I just ordered a CIC controller. When I get that I'll update you on the controls. I do not remember seeing any menu options to reassign buttons.

-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?

I imagine you could do this. I didn't test, so I don't know if it will cause any issues with the OEM side. With BMWs, you never know what they will do when something is awry. For the $10 or so for the splitter, I would just order one.

-Did you have the cutout problem that e36mcab mentions?

We have the same unit and, he's right, it's an imperfect fit. I played around with it putting it in and the gaps are on the edges and small and even enough, you can't see them.

-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 it behind the screen, but if I did it again, I'd run it into the glovebox area, There's a better ground spot there.

-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, wired the way I described, it works great for me, including dynamic parking lines.

[ssshake]

Hey guys I just got mine in the mail today, not Avin but some producer on aliexpress. Saved a few hundred dollars so it is hopefully worth it.

However, does anyone have the installation instructions, a pdf perhaps?

The wiring harness is actually more complicated than I expected. It's not just a passthrough, the most confusing parts is one pair of wires labels as X1 Key, and then a few wires which all seem to connect to each other call CAN1, CAN2, CAN A, CAN B, and CAN C. One of them plugs into nothing.

I have no idea yet what to do with them. Any help would be appreciated.

[*E92*]

I bought Avin unit last January. So far everything has worked well, but suddenly screen stopped working and unit didn't respond at all. I wrote email to Avin and I got update software for it. After installation unit started again, but touchscreen doesn't work at all and Idrive controller works only for main roots. For example special setups are not working with Idrive. Unit is basically useless at his moment. I have written to Avin, but they have not written back. Any ideas are welcome...

[ssshake]

OK so I installed my unit today and things didnt go well. I don't want to alarm people prematurely, I'm going to take another look at things tomorrow.

So right off the bat I cant launch anything including settings properly because as soon as anything opens it escapes to the homescreen. It's almost like the back or home button is continually pressed but the icons in the top bar dont show them as being pressed.

I'm thinking something screwy is going with the canbus readings of the idrive controller. the idrive system was a retrofit which means there is a canbus emulator for nav and the CID wiring and idrive controller wiring was spliced in by hand. However this has been working fine for a few years.

Second problem, which just happened for no apparent reason is every menu item in any menu in idrive has had the english replaced with things like _23428. So Multimedia would be _2342342. Maybe something glitchy happened and the language files arent being mapped to menu items.

I turned off the car and will see what it's like tomorrow.

Anyway stability wise, off to a bad start. I'm going to remove the retrofit harness (which will disable stock nav and the idrive controller) temporarily and test again.


Lastly, I think the glare on this thing is underplayed. If I can get the unit working I'm going to keep it because I really want the future proofing that it provides. But I think the level of glare is pretty unacceptable. I expect it to be a problem under certain conditions.

[ssshake]

What are people doing about the screw holes not lining up? It's off by quite a bit.

Update on my problems with my activation emulator. Placing the emulator harness between CIC and the "Avin" harness allows me to use all of the stock stuff like normal. Before the connection sequence was CIC -> AVIN harness -> emulation harness. But now idrive controller doesn't do anything in android mode.

The PDC data doesnt show up in android now either. Likely because of the same reason.

But at least the phantom idrive input stopped and I can use the android system.

I might be screwed and unable to use the idrive controller with android which kind of sucks.

[e36mcab]

Originally Posted by ssshake

What are people doing about the screw holes not lining up? It's off by quite a bit.

I needed to press quite hard on the top corners of the plastic bezel to align the holes. I was then just barely able to get the screw to bite. As I mentioned in my previous post, I think the bezel will need to be trimmed for this screen to fit properly.

[ssshake]

User manual is attached if anyone wants it. Not a whole lot of good info in there

BMW User Manual.pdf

[toddyus]

Originally Posted by ssshake

Hey guys I just got mine in the mail today, not Avin but some producer on aliexpress. Saved a few hundred dollars so it is hopefully worth it.

However, does anyone have the installation instructions, a pdf perhaps?

The wiring harness is actually more complicated than I expected. It's not just a passthrough, the most confusing parts is one pair of wires labels as X1 Key, and then a few wires which all seem to connect to each other call CAN1, CAN2, CAN A, CAN B, and CAN C. One of them plugs into nothing.

I have no idea yet what to do with them. Any help would be appreciated.

If I remember correctly, you can ignore the x1 and CAN wires.

[toddyus]

Originally Posted by e36mcab

I needed to press quite hard on the top corners of the plastic bezel to align the holes. I was then just barely able to get the screw to bite. As I mentioned in my previous post, I think the bezel will need to be trimmed for this screen to fit properly.

e36mcab is dead on. Exactly what I did.

[toddyus]

Did you go into the factory Android settings (password: 1314) and change the idrive type? It didn’t work at all for me until I switched to the other setting. There are two options.
But at least the phantom idrive input stopped and I can use the android system.

I might be screwed and unable to use the idrive controller with android which kind of sucks.[/QUOTE]

[ssshake]

Originally Posted by toddyus

• Carplay dongle:
In my other cars, I have been using Carplay for a couple years. Whatever you may feel about Apple and iPhones, I find it to be a convenient, user-friendly system. The CarPlay dongle I’m using is:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

This works remarkably well with the Android unit. Note, it is supposed to also be compatible with Android Auto, but I don’t have an Android phone to test that.

How did you get carplay to work. What app do you need to install on the head unit? I plugged in my carplay module today and I didnt see any new icon or anything show up.

Also has anyone been able to connect bluetooth devices.

And does anyone know how to enable PPP, I bought a usb sim card modem but it seems like ppp is disabled on this unit.

[Cchristianh20]

I have the new 7.1 and I'm having problems with the sound not working when I play spotify or anything on the android side can any one help I have the 8.8 in my e93

[Emilime75]

Originally Posted by Cchristianh20

I have the new 7.1 and I'm having problems with the sound not working when I play spotify or anything on the android side can any one help I have the 8.8 in my e93

Did you run the audio cable into the car's AUX jack?

[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/

As an update to my problems using the bimmertech emulator with this system (causes weird phantom behavior from idrive controller). It seems like I cannot have the emulator before the android unit.

This emulator does nav activation, back up camera, dynamic lines and apparently does PDC even though my car already had it before the idrive retrofit. But this module causes the phantom controller issues.

So I moved the emulator after the android harness, which means I unfortunately don't get the PDC input on the android side (radar is all red all the time). I'll just use the OEM backup instead of the android backup system which is OK. The android one just had higher resolution lines and the newer interface.

Then I have to move the idrive controller input (as explained in the video) from the emulator's harness to the android harness. Having the mysterious X1KEY connector there actually saved me a lot of trouble. I would have had to splice into this harness to reconnect my idrive controller, but now I don't have to do that.

So the sequence is: CIC -> Emulator Harness -> Android Harness -> CIC Controller via X1KEY connector.

Unrelated to all this but just to document it. I will be installing a gps fakra splitter so I can use the OEM antenna with both the CIC and android. I think this is a must. Many people have complained about the several minute lock times and from my experience with these kind of gps antennas I'm not surprised at all. I have used them in a number of applications before and they suck.

Lastly for easy reference and to avoid any more guessing on my part, here is the full pinout of the CIC.

[toddyus]

Originally Posted by ssshake

How did you get carplay to work. What app do you need to install on the head unit?

The provider of the carplay dongle should provide a link to download the APK. There are a couple different dongles floating around and you need the correct one for yours.

The one I'm using is called AutoPlay.

[Cchristianh20]

Originally Posted by Emilime75

Did you run the audio cable into the car's AUX jack?

I did now lol thanks