987.1 CDR24 to Atoto F7 XE Installation.... Help

I am close to power up this install on my 05 Boxster Base . Factory CDR24 with Bose amp, no CD changer or Nav, or SWC replace with Atoto F7 XE with rear camera have Metra harness kit 70-7087 and Metra 99-9606G mounting kit need to find a +12v switched point from fusebox - any suggestions? (details) need to find a "dimmer" wire from something in the console area - any suggestions? minor re-pinning of the Metra "A" socket to align with the car's "A" plug the Atoto harness has an antenna "power" and amp "wake up" wires - need to be connected somewhere ? Attaching my wiring plan photo. Any advice or suggestions are welcome...... And some revision to the Metra "A" socket pin locations.....

Sort of difficult to help you, I have no clue what a "Atoto F7 XE" - that's not a common US brand.. Found it on Amazon . Looks like a somewhat generic Android headunit. Not specifically made for a 987.. I've just finished 4 days - about 6-7 hours a day - of installing a Chinese Android headunit that was specifically made for the 987 series. Part of the reason for the amount of time is I'm not as fast as I used to be (mentally and physically), and I try to keep things as neat as I can with any modifications I do.. I also had to restore some of the wiring so I could use the pre-made 987 to headunit cabling that came with it (someone installing a Rosen device some years ago hacked the harness up..) There are lots of details on my thread (perhaps way too many details): DIY on installing an inexpensive Android radio/headunit... (same forum I'm going to move this thread to as soon as I'm done answering things you've asked.) If the unit needs a dimmer wire, do you know what it's expecting to see? Switched volts/no-volts? Variable volts? It was much easier with the unit I used - the CanBus interface took care of that and a number of other functions.. and I should add - if your unit doesn't have a CanBus interface - you WILL be getting lots of error messages in lots of modules in the car. I think I had 18 error codes, all caused by the car not seeing a headunit that it could communicate with. Since I put in this headunit -- for the first time in the 3.5 years I've owned the car - there are NO error codes stored away. There is probably an antenna amplifier. Since yours is a Boxster there may be only one, but there is a chance there are two of them (one antenna mounted under the windshield cowling on the starboard side in the US, and one in the center of the windshield vertically.) These are powered by a WHITE/WHITE wire (meaning it's white with a white tracer.. go figure - that's how Porsche describes it..) and need 12V power to the antenna amps. Without the amp powered on - your FM reception will be marginal and AM reception awful. DAMHIK, I just do. Adding a switchable power source is actually pretty easy, but you have to determine which fuse you're going to piggyback off of. You can use a device made specifically for this - Google "Fuse+TAP+12V+Car" - then using your voltmeter (and the fuse diagram) find a fuse that's switched and Bob's your uncle! And yes - I believe looking at the factory wiring diagrams - that the amp requires a turn-on trigger. Probably a 12V signal. Many headunits have this as part of their design. Good luck with it.. BTW - when you have a chance - please visit New Member Introductions and tell us about your Boxster and yourself - I gather you're in Canada.. And hang on - I'm moving this thread to the correct forum..

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Don, thanks for you comments and for moving the thread to electronics. The dimmer function on the new HU is to dim the brightness on the display when the headlights are on, which also turns on the IP lights. Also, if the car has manually IP dimmable control (it does) it tells the HU to dim the screen and its function buttons accordingly. So. tapping into the gray/red wire for any of the IP lights should have variable voltage set by the dimmer knob to the lower left of the speedo, and act as a signal wire to the HU. (This is my assumption) So, still some questions before I try a powered on test. 1) Where to connect the "amplifier turn-on+" wire on the HU, to the Bose amp? 2) Where to connect the "power antenna+" wire on the HU, to the antenna? 3) I have read that the Bose amp looses memory settings from the CDR24 once disconnected. To avoid this, before disconnecting the battery, set base. treble, fade to "0", and vol to max, then disconnect battery, then disconnect CDR24. Can anyone verify this? I'm sure there will be more discussion on this, so chime in anyone who has done a similar HU upgrade on the 987.1 with CDR24 and Bose. Thanks....

Dan - do you have a copy of the wiring diagram for the unit? That might provide info I can use to make a suggestion on where to hook those things up. Both of them generally want 12V switched by the headunit. There is likely a white wire on the factory side of the cars harness - that is the power connection used by the antenna amplifier. It could also be used for trigger voltage for the Bose amp . I'm not certain about 100% on the volume on the Bose amp - but you don't want it too low - you don't want to have to hookup the factory setup just to make that adjustment.

Thanks again. I do have a wiring diagram for the car, but..... After some discussion with a Crutchfield tech, I have decided to change course slightly and "bite the bullet" and buy the Axxess AX-PO90052 Wiring Interface, which is reccommended for this conversion at a steep price ($560CDN after taxes), but it should be straightforward " plug and play" and solve all the issues and questions from my original approach, When it comes in, I will post some update pics and hopefully have a smooth conversion. Dan

My Gawd - $560CDN (almost $300 USD probably.. just sorta kidding... I like that exchange rate when I visit the horth country..) Is this made from gold? OUCH! If the new headunit comes with a pigtail plug -in harness, there are available Chinese adaptor plugs that will directly plug into the Porsche plug going to your old system. That lets you splice the two together on a workbench (I prefer soldering, but Positap makes an in-line connector that's excellent if you don't do soldering) for a tiny fraction of that price. I'm guessing the pig-tail/connector to the stock harness would cost perhaps $10 shipped from AlliExpress. Since you have Bose you'll also need a MOST-fiber to RCA plug adaptor box - those are also inexpensive from China - around $100 IIRC. I can find sources for these if you want to DIY.

Don, if you go back to my first post, and look at the diagram I have there, you will see that's what I had originally planned - a Metra wiring adapter about $14, a MOST adapter about $105, and plugging into the factory wiring. The ATOTO F7 comes with it's wiring plug which attaches to the Metra wiring adapter and MOST adapter. However, this method does not have a connection to the Canbus system, whereas the Ax-PO90052 wiring comes with 3 decoder boxes and the wiring adapters, which talks to the Canbus and allows a switched +12v, the amp power up, the antenna power and the illumination wire, and is supposedly " plug and play" as well as having tech support from Crutchfield . So, that's the justification. By the way, yes the exchange rate is either ugly or pretty, depending which side of the border you are on, about $1US =$1.36CDN plus 13% tax to pay for our free health care and other services.

Dan, I actually did see what the $560CDN was in USD - and it was a bit over $300, so if it includes everything you need to perform the job, with no splicing required, it's not an awful deal. Please do let us know how it works out - especially in regard to the kit. If you google the kit model number there are a few places that advertise it for ~$100 less than Crutchfield , but you'd be giving up Crutchfield 's support of course. It's interesting that the actual headunit costs less than the interfaces needed to hook it up..

@danengelbreth - That bit about you having Bose told me you were going down the wrong path. I see that Axxess kit has most things covered. I'm not sure if Canbus has signals for Reverse, it probably does. In looking at that Axxess kit, it doesn't seem to have an antenna adapter. Metra Electronics 40-EU10 These are needed for most German cars, so I'm surprised I didn't see it in the kit. I just ordered a ATOTO A6PF as a replacement to my 13 yr old Pioneer Z110-BT (which replaced the stock CDR30 during my 2nd week of ownership back in 2010). Since my Cayman has no Bose, SPP or steering wheel controls, it was a much simpler conversion, And I expect the wiring to be fairly straightforward (or even simpler) since most of the harness functionality transfers one-for-one to the new head-unit. However I don't have any Canbus interface - which wasn't absolutely necessary but would make things easier. BTW, I chose the A6PF over the F7XE because I wanted the host OS to be Android (can install 1000's of apps from Google Play Store). The F7XE runs Linux. Basically Android is just Google's version of Linux, but apps aren't directly compatible. Good luck with the install - I'm sure you'll enjoy it once your through.

I'll just comment that CanBus does have steering wheel angle, hand brake, time/date, and reverse. The Chinese unit I've written up in another thread uses all of these at some point. Also - the CanBus decoder (their name for it) that they provided with it is bi-directional, it provides signals to the instrument cluster for the center display (the current function of the Android unit primarily.. phone number, station frequency/type, streaming #, etc.) The REALLY cool thing about it - all those communications errors I used to have in other car modules due to the lack of PCM CanBus signals - are GONE. Everything seems happy communicating with the new headunit.

"I actually did see what the $560CDN was in USD - and it was a bit over $300," Well Don, its not quite that bad...... 560/1.355 = 413.31. So, waiting on the Crutchfield kit to be shipped, and the Boxster is in the paint shop getting a doors to front bumper refinishing anyway. Will update my progress when there is some movement. Dan

I just installed an Atoto S8 Ultra in my 987.2 and everything the Android unit needed was in the OEM harness. Including the permanent, switched, reverse, and illumination triggers. Details here . You should be able to meter out all the necessary status, by cycling reverse, lights, and ignition on and off regardless. There should be (not 100% on ex-Japan stuff) no need to run any extra wires. It might not help directly, but the kit I used is here . Interested in your final result, and if you use any launcher or OBD interfaces too...

Looking at your linked thread, unless Porsches destined for the Asian market are equipped with Clarion head-units (instead of the CDR30), your car already had an aftermarket unit. So most of the added work was already done. That would make your upgrade easier, but it doesn't apply to danengelbreth's situation. He is coming from an OEM quadlock harness - which I don't see in either your pictures or the kit you used. I'd be interested in finding out the brand & model of the Canbus interface that appears to be included in that kit. That is where the "magic" happens to better integration with the Porsche electronics. I have found several Canbus products that work with a 987.1, but so far, none that say they work on a 987.2. It might just be the harness pinout on the Canbus interface doesn't match, but I'm not willing to gamble $100+ just to see.

Further, I realize my S8 comes with the wiring details for the S7 in the same manual. Yours should be the same? Regardless, to assist on the above: The 'accessory' connection is the 12V switched circuit. The 'dimmer' wire can be found on the Sport Chrono, and I made a pig-tail to install a VDO clock in my wart accordingly. You can look for such on Duck Duck Go I am sure. But, I would have thought in native loom. Only if you have a power antenna module, or external amp. As I was on a non-Bose, with an external converter, I used the Atoto amp wake-up to power that.