Hello,
Thought I would share my experiences of replacing head unit to a Chinese Android one from Aliexpress.
I did a fair bit of research to figure out the right option for me. My requirements were ; Screen for CarPlay wired/wireless + Steering wheel control. I primarily wanted to play music from my phone (Blue & Me in my car does play music from my phone's Apple Music app via Bluetooth when wired in) and have the map displayed on a screen rather than on my tiny iPhone SE. Everything else was optional.
1. Single DIN vs Double DIN
Someone who's this on Reddit.
I did not go with Single DIN as I found blocked vents to be a bit of an issue. I also have a head unit installed on a 2008 Prius, which sits somewhat inconveniently lower on the dashboard, so I didn't want something like this either. Although the bloke linked did a fantastic job of making a tutorial style video out of it.
Single DIN head units with screens in general seem to be a on a bit more expensive side too.
2. Double DIN options
Option a) Xtron and other brands that come with same fascia. This man has a helpful tutorial on Youtube.
I did not go with this as I did not like the fact that it goes over the vent trim, and was not sure how it would actually sit on the dash.
Option b) Universal Double Din Fascia like the one shown in the video.
I liked the fact that you can open/close vents quite easily on both sides, but there was no way in hell I am cutting through/modifying internal vent duct as I am NOT a handy person at all.
I went with Option c) ; frame-included units like this
There are numerous brands available online, which I presume more or less about the same.
My only concern with these ones were that vents were going to be useless. I found out that this legend (Alex Richie) and another legend (ModCre8ter from www.fiat500owners.com)
has come up with a genius solution.
I decided this would be the way to go and I went with latter for the air vent duct, as I found being able to 3D print locally a bit more convenient, as Alex Richie appears to be in the UK (my sincere apologies if he is not, English is my second language and I thought he sounded like he's British). I should however note that Alex Richie's design does look like it fits way better (no shade on the other legend), but it's hard for me to tell the difference in airflow would be significant.
I decided on EKIY after watching a BUNCH of videos from this man on Youtube. The reason being that they provide with wire harnesses designed to be plug-in-play, slightly better after-sale support, (insignificant) advantage in pricing.
I ended up ordering a unit with 4G RAM and 32G storage. I was going to be using CarPlay pretty much exclusively, so did not think higher RAM/storage were an advantage.
The kit arrived just over 2 weeks since ordering in 2 different packages (on the same day). The box included
1. Unit assembly already mounted on the frame.
2. CAN BUS decoder box
3. Wiring harness (head unit's 20 pin to car's harness)
4. AHD rear view camera + wiring
5. External mic + wiring for extra speakers (presumably for cars with factory-upgraded sound systems)
6. 2x USB type-A cables, 1x micro-USB (female) cable which can replace one of type-A cables.
7. GPS antenna
8. 4G antenna + SIM tray.
Removing original radio was not too difficult once I had the right tools (keys).
I did run into an issue with the unit NOT turning on at all. EKIY was reasonably responsive in trying to help me out, but at the end I compared the pin-outs of the wiring harness provided to the car's pinout.
Turned out the 12V power supply pin on the wiring harness that they sent me did not match the car's one.
wiring harness from EKIY (Yellow is power)
Car's wiring harness (Red/Green is power)
I found out that speaker positions of the EKIY wiring harness also do not match up correctly with car's wiring harness as well (wrong order), so I re-wired them all on the EKIY harness' side to match with the car's and sealed them up/wrap with electrical tape before I was done.
EKIY was willing to send me the 'correct' wiring harness, but I was not willing to wait it out, so I tested out an option ; splicing 12V power cable from car and connecting it to EKIY's 12V power supply wire.
I was able to turn on the unit, and tested out the sound/CarPlay/Steering wheel control. I had to set the unit's CAN BUS setting to match the car as told by EKIY.
Steering wheel buttons worked, but in kind of a funny way ;
To explain, volume up/down, Forward/Backward, mute buttons work fine.
However, voice control, SRC, call buttons all seem to work as 'source change' button to the unit, and it went through bluetooth, local audio, FM radio.
The unit's SWC learning function did not seem to be working. EKIY stated that this is due to the buttons work with CAN BUS signals decoded by the box provided.
Also those buttons still work as Blue & Me buttons ; by which I mean I can the buttons working the Blue & Me menu on the speedometer. There were quite a few people complaining about the odometer flashing after installing aftermarket head units, but it hasn't been the case for me. This may have something to do with it (I believe my car thinks Blue & Me is intact, therefore it is not flashing the odometer)
I was just getting a bit fatigued with trying to get it done correctly, and started putting things back together; securing changes I made on wires, pulling through USB cables through the glove box, external mic cable through the A pillar. I left the GPS antenna just on top of the unit, and left 4G antenna unplugged.
I purchased a little antenna adapter like this one
But once this was plugged in with the car's antenna cable, the unit would not fit through the existing DIN cage. The unit has little plastic tabs that secure itself into the car's original metal cage, so I just left the antenna unplugged at this stage. Fitting ALL the wires back in took me a good 5-10 minutes but it was manageable, and the below was the result.
I was a little concerned about the battery drain, as 12V power supply connects directly to the unit + CAN BUS box. I tested out turning the car's key from off to MAR onand the head unit's screen turned itself on and off, but I could tell the unit went to sleep, instead of turning itself off fully. This meant that sleep function worked as intended with CAN BUS codes, but I did not want to risk battery draining with the unit in sleep mode. So I set it to power itself off fully when the car's off, and now it cold boots itself every time I turn the key on MAR or start the car. Haven't had any issues with it so far, about 10 days in. I do drive daily to and from work but it's about 20km return trip max.
Overall pretty happy with the result. The 3D Printed vent duct seems to be working VERY well too (Cheers again for the legends who came up with the idea!!). The screen is quite bright and the audio sounds great. Call quality is okay, with both mic on the screen and the external mic. CarPlay works perfectly as well, both wired and wireless. Steering wheel control is still a bit funny, but I all the buttons I need are working at the moment.
Getting one from AliExpress was definitely a bit of a gamble, but it cost me just a little over $300 Aussie dollars. On my 2008 Prius, I installed a Sony XAV AX 3200, which itself cost me $450 brand new and wiring harness/face plate from Aerpro hit me with another ~$200, bringing the total to around $650 (without the back up camera).
Having said this, the installation on Prius was truly plug-and-play with the pain mostly being the car's design being pain in the A$$ when removing the old radio. I am however MUCH more satisfied with the Chinese unit. Better screen quality+brightness, responsiveness, a TON more features. Sony one doesn't support wireless CarPlay either.
I am not a handy/tradie-like person at all (I am a social worker lol) and had close to zero education when it comes to working with electrical stuffs, so I had to watch tons of videos online to get this (+my previous work on 2008 Prius) done. But it was definitely doable, if you don't mind tinkering/problem solving a little bit.
I am very grateful for ALL the people posting tutorials/guides online, people answering questions on forums. I hope someone might find my post useful if they're considering upgrading their head unit DIY style.
What I might do next
1. Once arrived, test out EKIY's replacement wiring harness and remove splicing of the car's original 12V power.
2. If I can be bothered, test out the supplied camera (Does not need to tap into the reverse light to power it. CAN BUS will detect when the car is in reverse and supply power to the camera apparently. I confirmed that the unit can tell when the car is in reverse without anything connected to reverse light)
3. Move/replace the external microphone as the cable was too short and it's sitting on passenger side currently.
4. I ordered an 90 degrees angle aerial adaptor, to see if that will fit. Not sure if I'll bother with DAB+ adapter since I don't listen to the radio.
5. Add usb tire pressure monitoring system. This seems to be pretty pain free.
6. ???Disconnect Blue & Me unit as this is now redundant. But I am not entirely sure about the changes this might bring, and the job itself seems like a bit of a hassle.
TBF I'm not sure if I can be bothered to do ANY of the above in the near future. Might tackle them when I have some time off work.
Thought I would share my experiences of replacing head unit to a Chinese Android one from Aliexpress.
I did a fair bit of research to figure out the right option for me. My requirements were ; Screen for CarPlay wired/wireless + Steering wheel control. I primarily wanted to play music from my phone (Blue & Me in my car does play music from my phone's Apple Music app via Bluetooth when wired in) and have the map displayed on a screen rather than on my tiny iPhone SE. Everything else was optional.
1. Single DIN vs Double DIN
Someone who's this on Reddit.
I did not go with Single DIN as I found blocked vents to be a bit of an issue. I also have a head unit installed on a 2008 Prius, which sits somewhat inconveniently lower on the dashboard, so I didn't want something like this either. Although the bloke linked did a fantastic job of making a tutorial style video out of it.
Single DIN head units with screens in general seem to be a on a bit more expensive side too.
2. Double DIN options
Option a) Xtron and other brands that come with same fascia. This man has a helpful tutorial on Youtube.
I did not go with this as I did not like the fact that it goes over the vent trim, and was not sure how it would actually sit on the dash.
Option b) Universal Double Din Fascia like the one shown in the video.
I liked the fact that you can open/close vents quite easily on both sides, but there was no way in hell I am cutting through/modifying internal vent duct as I am NOT a handy person at all.
I went with Option c) ; frame-included units like this
There are numerous brands available online, which I presume more or less about the same.
My only concern with these ones were that vents were going to be useless. I found out that this legend (Alex Richie) and another legend (ModCre8ter from www.fiat500owners.com)
has come up with a genius solution.I decided this would be the way to go and I went with latter for the air vent duct, as I found being able to 3D print locally a bit more convenient, as Alex Richie appears to be in the UK (my sincere apologies if he is not, English is my second language and I thought he sounded like he's British). I should however note that Alex Richie's design does look like it fits way better (no shade on the other legend), but it's hard for me to tell the difference in airflow would be significant.
I decided on EKIY after watching a BUNCH of videos from this man on Youtube. The reason being that they provide with wire harnesses designed to be plug-in-play, slightly better after-sale support, (insignificant) advantage in pricing.
I ended up ordering a unit with 4G RAM and 32G storage. I was going to be using CarPlay pretty much exclusively, so did not think higher RAM/storage were an advantage.
The kit arrived just over 2 weeks since ordering in 2 different packages (on the same day). The box included
1. Unit assembly already mounted on the frame.
2. CAN BUS decoder box
3. Wiring harness (head unit's 20 pin to car's harness)
4. AHD rear view camera + wiring
5. External mic + wiring for extra speakers (presumably for cars with factory-upgraded sound systems)
6. 2x USB type-A cables, 1x micro-USB (female) cable which can replace one of type-A cables.
7. GPS antenna
8. 4G antenna + SIM tray.
Removing original radio was not too difficult once I had the right tools (keys).
I did run into an issue with the unit NOT turning on at all. EKIY was reasonably responsive in trying to help me out, but at the end I compared the pin-outs of the wiring harness provided to the car's pinout.
Turned out the 12V power supply pin on the wiring harness that they sent me did not match the car's one.
wiring harness from EKIY (Yellow is power)
Car's wiring harness (Red/Green is power)
I found out that speaker positions of the EKIY wiring harness also do not match up correctly with car's wiring harness as well (wrong order), so I re-wired them all on the EKIY harness' side to match with the car's and sealed them up/wrap with electrical tape before I was done.
EKIY was willing to send me the 'correct' wiring harness, but I was not willing to wait it out, so I tested out an option ; splicing 12V power cable from car and connecting it to EKIY's 12V power supply wire.
I was able to turn on the unit, and tested out the sound/CarPlay/Steering wheel control. I had to set the unit's CAN BUS setting to match the car as told by EKIY.
Steering wheel buttons worked, but in kind of a funny way ;
To explain, volume up/down, Forward/Backward, mute buttons work fine.
However, voice control, SRC, call buttons all seem to work as 'source change' button to the unit, and it went through bluetooth, local audio, FM radio.
The unit's SWC learning function did not seem to be working. EKIY stated that this is due to the buttons work with CAN BUS signals decoded by the box provided.
Also those buttons still work as Blue & Me buttons ; by which I mean I can the buttons working the Blue & Me menu on the speedometer. There were quite a few people complaining about the odometer flashing after installing aftermarket head units, but it hasn't been the case for me. This may have something to do with it (I believe my car thinks Blue & Me is intact, therefore it is not flashing the odometer)
I was just getting a bit fatigued with trying to get it done correctly, and started putting things back together; securing changes I made on wires, pulling through USB cables through the glove box, external mic cable through the A pillar. I left the GPS antenna just on top of the unit, and left 4G antenna unplugged.
I purchased a little antenna adapter like this one
But once this was plugged in with the car's antenna cable, the unit would not fit through the existing DIN cage. The unit has little plastic tabs that secure itself into the car's original metal cage, so I just left the antenna unplugged at this stage. Fitting ALL the wires back in took me a good 5-10 minutes but it was manageable, and the below was the result.
I was a little concerned about the battery drain, as 12V power supply connects directly to the unit + CAN BUS box. I tested out turning the car's key from off to MAR onand the head unit's screen turned itself on and off, but I could tell the unit went to sleep, instead of turning itself off fully. This meant that sleep function worked as intended with CAN BUS codes, but I did not want to risk battery draining with the unit in sleep mode. So I set it to power itself off fully when the car's off, and now it cold boots itself every time I turn the key on MAR or start the car. Haven't had any issues with it so far, about 10 days in. I do drive daily to and from work but it's about 20km return trip max.
Overall pretty happy with the result. The 3D Printed vent duct seems to be working VERY well too (Cheers again for the legends who came up with the idea!!). The screen is quite bright and the audio sounds great. Call quality is okay, with both mic on the screen and the external mic. CarPlay works perfectly as well, both wired and wireless. Steering wheel control is still a bit funny, but I all the buttons I need are working at the moment.
Getting one from AliExpress was definitely a bit of a gamble, but it cost me just a little over $300 Aussie dollars. On my 2008 Prius, I installed a Sony XAV AX 3200, which itself cost me $450 brand new and wiring harness/face plate from Aerpro hit me with another ~$200, bringing the total to around $650 (without the back up camera).
Having said this, the installation on Prius was truly plug-and-play with the pain mostly being the car's design being pain in the A$$ when removing the old radio. I am however MUCH more satisfied with the Chinese unit. Better screen quality+brightness, responsiveness, a TON more features. Sony one doesn't support wireless CarPlay either.
I am not a handy/tradie-like person at all (I am a social worker lol) and had close to zero education when it comes to working with electrical stuffs, so I had to watch tons of videos online to get this (+my previous work on 2008 Prius) done. But it was definitely doable, if you don't mind tinkering/problem solving a little bit.
I am very grateful for ALL the people posting tutorials/guides online, people answering questions on forums. I hope someone might find my post useful if they're considering upgrading their head unit DIY style.
What I might do next
1. Once arrived, test out EKIY's replacement wiring harness and remove splicing of the car's original 12V power.
2. If I can be bothered, test out the supplied camera (Does not need to tap into the reverse light to power it. CAN BUS will detect when the car is in reverse and supply power to the camera apparently. I confirmed that the unit can tell when the car is in reverse without anything connected to reverse light)
3. Move/replace the external microphone as the cable was too short and it's sitting on passenger side currently.
4. I ordered an 90 degrees angle aerial adaptor, to see if that will fit. Not sure if I'll bother with DAB+ adapter since I don't listen to the radio.
5. Add usb tire pressure monitoring system. This seems to be pretty pain free.
6. ???Disconnect Blue & Me unit as this is now redundant. But I am not entirely sure about the changes this might bring, and the job itself seems like a bit of a hassle.
TBF I'm not sure if I can be bothered to do ANY of the above in the near future. Might tackle them when I have some time off work.
- Model
- 500 POP 1.2L
- Year
- 2014
- Mileage
- 78000
