DIY on installing an inexpensive Android radio/headunit to replace the standard CD30 radio.. (and probably the PCM3)

Digital Signal Processing (aka Equalizer) ​ DSP seems to be a catch-word. Back when I was younger - all sorts of equalization was done with resistors, capacitors and chokes (discrete electronics) and the occasional transistor or vacuum tube (the good stuff..) Now it's done digitally. I'm not saying it's a bad thing, but it does seem to add a lot of complexity to what might otherwise be a simple thing to do... The default DSP screen - is accessible from several audio apps (and as a stand-alone app). This is the opening screen for it: What do I see - BUTTONS with LABELS! YEA! This entire app must have been written by someone other than the label-less default apps. If it had options for some different colors it would be really attractive. This screen is kind of curious - you can move sections of the display by clicking and dragging them around. I didn't really hear much difference in the audio when doing this, so it's not clear to me what it does. The FC scale at the bottom appears to represent frequency, the scale above that says "Q" - but all the values are 4.0, and don't seem to change with movement of the curve above them. So - I'm puzzled. The left-most-top button opens predefined patterns like "User, Rock, Jazz, Classical, etc..) none of which I found particularly appealing. "LOUD" is a loudness setting, and default sets the curve flat. Happily, my confusion was cleared up when I pressed the "Switch" button: HEY - look at that - an "Equalizer" screen (makes sense - button selected is "EQ". That's pretty understandable. Still has the puzzling Q scale (and no explanation of what it indicates), but it's pretty easy to shape the frequency response using this. I sorted that out to what I liked, and then pressed the "Field" button: OK, that's pretty simple. It adjusts the sound "Field" - ie - volume of each quarter of the car. You can adjust it by draggng the center dot around, or using the << and >> arrows. I left it pretty much centered. And moves on to "surround": Well - here we have a time-delay feature, that I imagine is supposed to correct for the time error if a note was played in all 4 channels at once - to the user/driver's head. Somehow I think this is unnecessary in our cars, and they could likely all be turned off. I've gotta do that sometime - the settings showing are the default settings. It's an interesting idea, and I guess a swell thing to do if you can do it, and if you were in a large van with speakers in all 4 corners it might actually be useful. I pressed onwards to "Stereo Sound Enhancement": No clue. I'm totally unclear on what these are supposed to do. If anyone has any ideas please let me know. I think the setting here are after I played with it (and heard no discernable difference in the sound) - I think "Default" was pretty much all of them at the same low level. Well - since that left me baffled - I moved on to "Bass Enhancement": OK - this one I sort of understand almost. It allows you to change the volume of either the front or rear set of speakers at a certain frequency. So if you had honking big woofers with an amp as the rear speaker set you could jack this up and rattle cars next to you, without overdriving the front speakers. I guess it has a function. I think I left it at "Default".. Sound Filter - sets upper and lower limits for the amplifier. Handy for systems where too low frequencies cause issues.. and it can be used to make the front and rear speakers have different frequencies fed to them. Think of them as high-pass (HP) and low-pass (LP) filters. On a scale of 1-5, I'd rate the DSP as a 4. It has BUTTONS with TEXT. The options it offers have more capabilities than I think I'll need (I'm an old-fashioned tube audiophile, who usually ran my bass/treble controls at zero. Once in a while I'd turn on "Loudness" though.) but for the guy who likes to tinker with the sound, it seems to offer a lot of possibilities.

A general comment - after driving around with it last night.. the light blue background on the default apps is WAY too bright for use at night. It pretty much lights up the interior of the car even when it's set to the dimmer night mode (automatically triggered by the unit based on the GPS position and sunset..) I'll continue looking at alternative interfaces and apps.

Launchers - User Interfaces ​ I haven't been sitting around a lot - I decided to see if I could find a better "Launcher" for use on a "headunit" - and am generally pretty frustrated. I tried installing a number of them on the unit, and as they come out of the box - some have nice features combined with absolutely stupid feature. Some are rather fixed in design, some can be completely configured by the user. None have made the cut as a semi-permanent replacement for the Launchers included with the unit. To help me play with and figure out how to use the Launchers I'm looking at - I installed several Android emulators on my Windows10 PC (which is reasonably powderful). The two I've installed are BlueStacks5, and LDMultiPlayer. Both are pretty much configured to provide an Android environment centered around gaming... so not everything is like on the headunit. They also aren't a specific Android version (the unit is Android-12) so that also makes a difference.. but they are useful enough to allow me to get the Launchers I'm considering on a screen where I can play with them not running the car battery down, and generally more comfortably. The one I'm currently looking at is CarWebGuru. It's specifically made for Cars and Vehicles. Some of their interfaces seem a bit over the top - like.. It seems a bit space-shippy and way too busy to actually use while driving. I suspect this might be more popular with the younger folk driving customized Japanese cars.. I'm very much a function-over-form sort of guy, I think this would appeal to the form-over-function chap. A bit cleaner, but still needing more editing.. More tomorrow.. it's getting late again. Actually - the day after tomorrow - Friday 11:37 PM, 05/05/23 I've been working more with CarWebGuru - using Android emulators (LDPlayer seems to work best, it remains responsive), and think I've come up with a design I want to try setting up on the unit itself. These are screen captures from the emulator on my PC: That's the "Home" page of this Launcher. It's a modified version of one of their themes (I found I'm not good enough yet to start from scratch.. so why bother.. just change an existing one to something I want). Top Left - Porsche Logo, Date, Top Right - Time and An icon to open the full apps listing page. The central circle buttons are for the media player. It's unique since it can control any media player you have installed on the unit.. If you long press the PLAY/STOP button it comes up with a choice of which one you want it to control. Nice since it does away with a lot of busy stuff. The buttons to the left of the center-circle, top to bottom, Info, Google GO (navi), Music Player (the full version opens on a new window), Buttons to the right - phone, web-browser (whatever one you want to call up) and a file manager. Across the bottom - left side is a music display, right side - Instructions, and the WiFi icon, telling you if it's connected and if so - to what network. Clicking on the central display can switch it from the logo: To the music player display (Album Art displayed in the window) To a rather colorful compass (which can be customized for colors) To a map display of your default navigation application.. To a digital speedometer. The speed display can be set to change colors at different speeds.. I doubt if I'd use this if my wife was in the passenger seat. To a clock display, which I believe can be switched to a clock with hands (as in some of the themes I displayed above. And then finally - to the app window: You can further simplify this display by assigning apps to Favorites, Autostart, Popular (I think that may self-populate), and it will display only the apps for each of those catagories. All in all - this might be what I'm looking for.. the Android Auto options is pretty good, and give access to ALL the apps on my phone (which is a bunch, I've gotta clean house..) so that's yet another option. More as I continue exploring..

A quick update - I haven't been sitting on my hands.. but I'm trying to restrict myself from spending more than 3-4 hours a day playing with it. I've been in discussions with Warren, the support chap from the AliExpress store I bought it from, and he's taking a few concerns to the engineers: - My interface complaints. I sent him examples of what they look like and why they aren't very user friendly, along with one I modified (it's in an earlier posting here - the radio one) and he caught on immediately why LABELED buttons are really necessary. I pointed out the equalizer interface as something they should try for, and I suggested the light blue background is WAY too bright for safe use at night, and perhaps either allow the user to change the wallpaper, or background color for these apps, or just make them with a dark background, and buttons that light up when selected. I think he got that. - Over on FB (which I generally detest for tech stuff but spend too much time there) there was a writeup by a chap in the UK about the install he did in his 987. With screenshots. From the same vendor in about the same time period (perhaps a week after I received mine) - and the screenshots showed applications that had dark backgrounds, and what looks like a pretty simple Launcher. I have contacted him and invited him to join the discussion here, I'd love to find out how his interface is different from mine, and ask Warren how I can get that interface to install on my unit. His unit appears configured about like mine (with the SIM card option.) Some of the screens he showed on FB: Are these Apple CarPlay screens? More as I hear more..

Don, that unit sure has a lot of neat features. As a career electronics nerd, it looks like a lot of fun to set up that heregoes unit . I'm back in the market now that I sent my Jensen back. (I updated my previous post with my reasons). While I'd prefer a recognized brand, most (JVC, Kenwood, Pioneer, etc) are way too expensive compared to the no-name products. BTW, I got a chuckle after looking closer at the brand. "Here Goes" is exactly what I'd be thinking after placing the order.

Hi Don - great thread thanks for taking the time. I’m the guy you referred to in your last post who posted on Facebook. Yes, that’s the Apple CarPlay interface, not a different launcher. The black connector block that you cut off the supplied harness is a standard ISO connector, used in Europe……I’ve used it on mine to connect the unit to the car, so the larger one is actually redundant on mine. Couple of questions: Boot screen - have you managed to change this yet, to simply show the Porsche logo, and nothing else? Torque App - have you got this working and talking to the ODBII dongle? I’d be interested to know if there’s a way it could display oil temp in particular. The 981 has it displayed in the binnacle and it’s very useful especially for warm up.

I will speak to the oil temp - this is not part of the standard OBD2 protocol, as Porsche has put it on the CANBUS only. So, you won't get it from Torque, as far as I can see. I've tried with my OBD2 reader , and it's not there. In contrast, the oil temp is seen on my Foxwell reader, but that's because I have the Porsche module loaded and the Foxwell reads the CANBUS to get that (and other things). I'd love to find a Torque (or even just Android) compatible reader that can read CANBUS but I don't believe that exists.

Thanks for the kind words. And I figured out that had to be the CarPlay interface after seeing it on a number of other units where people displayed screen captures. Just curious - what do you think of the stock apps - for phone, audio, and radio? It might be worth letting Warren (the guy from the manufacturer who answers questions) know if you find them lacking. I think I pointed out what I find lacking in them in the posts above. If you know anyone who needs that connector - with reasonable length stubs sticking out - they can have mine for the cost of shipping. It's just sitting in the box right now, one of those "too good to throw out" sort of things. Yes - the photo shows what my boot screen now looks like. I just followed the rather cryptic instructions (in a post above) - where you create a subdirectory off the root of a USB thumb drive, put the logo into the subdirectory, and then go into the settings, I believe advanced/factory - access code 3368, and select it. I'll copy that screen below. For some reason the unit can't see the Bluetooth address of the OBDII dongle I have. My phone can see it just fine, but this unit doesn't. I know there are some advanced options for the Bluetooth settings that I may have to try to see if it can connect. Right now I can't answer the question, but from my phone connection - it doesn't read the oil temperature. Maybe the Torque authors could link into some of the CanBus data that are now flowing into the headunit.. Let me go look for that screen capture for you.. be right back.... The folder/subdirectory name is "mycar", then go to the settings (all button) menu and you'll find the option there somewhere..

In reference to the question about where to route the USB dongle, my head unit has two USB female ports; one for charging devices and the other for Apple CarPlay/Android Auto. I bought the accessory pictured below and mounted it in the kidney-shaped carpet-covered piece on the lower, forward section of the console, on the passenger side, pictured below.

Did this replace the lighter-socket that lives in that spot (at least on the '09 987.2)? I should try hooking a video cam up to one of the USB ports and see if the unit recognizes it.. I have one mounted on the windshield already, with a USB connector on it.

Yes, when I saw the lighter socket there while doing the head unit swap out, it seemed a logical place to mount a fixed location for the USB dongles as an option to having them loose in the glovebox or under the dash. With luck, your head unit will recognize your video cam. In my own case, the two USB inputs were designated with one to charge devices only, and the other for the CarPlay/Android interface. My head unit came with a rear backup cam which is a nice added touch .

Don, thanks for the info about the custom boot screen. In Settings, the 3368 code works to unlock the developer menus but not the Factory menu on mine. Can you post a photo (or ideally a video) of how to do it? And maybe a video of yours starting up so we can see the boot logo? To be clear, this is the startup/boot screen, not just a background?

I think Google Fi Unlimited Plans (based on the T-mobile network) include the option for free data only sims sharing data with the lines you already have. I haven't tried this yet, but I'm looking into it now.

Odd - since there is only one code on my unit (and I can't imagine them changing that..) It's the startup/boot screen. And it's not even a choice as a background (although I suspect if it was copied to the directory that backgrounds are kept in it might be available for background use..) I'll try to remember to step though it later with a sequence of photos.. OK - done. Select Factory from the main menu, enter 3368 and press Confirm: Scroll down a few lines and select "Boot Screen Logo" Select the image you want from this menu (the image must be a minimum of 1280 horizontal pixels, and not over 720 vertical pixels): Pick the one you want (there may be a confirmation message that has to clicked on for it to actually happen) - then restart the unit and you should have the image there. @daveb99 - these are for you..

Keep us up to date on that.. I tried MobileX - and gave up in frustration. They only use an "APP" to setup and manage accounts, and the app is buggy and non-responsive (and tries very hard to be "cute". I have emailed with their support and had no positive results and there is apparently no way to actually talk to someone there. Looking at reviews of the company - the reviews are all either 5 star (with reviews like "It's great!") or 1 star - usually mentioning that if 0 stars were available that's what those reviews would be. And the 1 star reviews reveal the same sort of issues I've had with their app (like going in endless loops or the inability to log in..) They have two sort of choices for service - either an "unlimited" (which means after a certain amount of data is consumed the data rate drops to sludge going down a drain) or a "we'll charge you by what we think you'll consume and if you consume more we'll charge you more.." which certainly is a scheme to help make them more profit. The only reason I considered them was they turned up in a search for "data only" plans, and the search results lead to a page on their website that had a few reasonable choices. That page no longer seems to exist, and there is no way to get a price from them except for the phone/text/data plans. False and misleading advertising IMHO. They really aren't selling what they advertised they were selling.

BTW - it still fails to connect via BlueToof to my OBDII dongle. I believe mine is an elm based dongle. That means "Torque" doesn't work. The dongle connects just fine to my Motorola phone and Torque works fine on it. Has anyone found a dongle that works with the headunit? The issue is - it just isn't seeing it. The only BlueToof device it sees is the Motorola phone. The dongle just doesn't show up at all. I should try my iCarScan dongle and see if that shows up.. (dunno if the software will work, but it's worth a try..) Update - I tried the iCarScan dongle and it didn't seem to see it either. I wonder what's up with that... can it only connect to one BlueToof connection at a time? @daveb99 - took some pics of how you get to the launch screen change option. They'll follow..

Generally, a BT device will only connect to one device at a time. Unless you turn off the BT on the phone (or other devices) it may auto-reconect to that one first, and then refuse to connect elsewhere? Try turning off BT on the phone(s) and see if you can then see the OBD2 dongle...

Pretty much eliminated that as the issue. Had the unit connected to the web via a WiFi connection, and installed another OBD-II program that WAS able to connect to the dongle. So it's not the dongle/headunit at fault - it's something going on with Torque. I think I'll start searching on that.

Don, which 3rd party launcher did you settle on? I haven't tried any of them but it might have some benefit.

Actually - I haven't settled on one. It's a tossup with two of them.. the leading contender is CarWebGuru. It's between his one and another that looks quite similar, but simpler (both to use and setup). There are several issues with both of them: 1 - The audio player controls don't necessarily recognize players you might have installed. They're pretty good on Spotify and PowerAmp - but the built-in Player app that comes on the headunit, they don't see if you go to set the controls to work with that one. It just doesn't exist according to them. 2 - Both are from Russia. And this means you can't actually unlock them or rid them of nag screens since there is no way I could find to pay the authors and get it licensed. You're stuck with the demo versions. They are either limited in ability, or have a nag screen, or have a time-out where they won't work any longer. So I continue looking. Microsoft Launcher is probably worth a look. The nice part about Android is the ease of uninstalling things you don't like, so it's worth trying out a few launchers to see what they do well and where they are lacking.

This is rather impressive and comprehensive as I was considering the same unit (with the BOSE adapter). I was wondering whether the "minimal" spec was sufficient (e.g., screen / touch lags, app boot up time, etc.) but sounds like 2GB / 32GB will suffice - even with our other cars, I don't use many apps (only use Waze extensively even with the car GPS / NAV) However, not sure I can tackle this one as I initially thought this was "almost" plug -and-play Since replacing my CDR24 is like #32 on my to do list, will see ;-)

BTW - highly recommended music player - Muzio Player - reasonably priced ($10/life subscription, also lesser subscriptions are available.) It does the best finding and sorting of music that I've seen, ID'ing the genre of the music and automatically putting the albums/tracks into categories (classical, jazz, rock, etc..) It enables playlists (and I think even suggests content for them based on your playing history..) VERY nice. My only complaint (as with many apps when using 1280x720 resolution) is the inability to change the font size used. It's a bit small, but happily, buttons are labeled. and look pretty intuitive (important in auto use). It did take about 10 minutes to categorize and index 4,000 tracks (on 2 USB thumb drives - it won't find the thumb drives at first scan - but if you tell it to look on SD memory cards - it finds and catalogs them very nicely. It also allows saving the indexing, playlists, settings and such to the Google cloud - easily, I think 2 clicks. It's 4.5 stars for me - - if the text and a few icons size was adjustable it would be a very solid 5. A few quick screen captures: Songs mode Artists mode: Album Mode: Genre Mode: Equalizer (interesting spacial settings): Queue Display - it makes this up if you tell it to do random play. If you don't like one of the songs - use X to remove it from the queue. VERY cool feature! I've written the developer of the app with a few suggestions RE - fonts and icon sizes.. and pointed him to this review, so I hope to hear back from him soon. I did suggest I could talk to the people who make the unit (and lots of other units) and perhaps ditch the miserable excuse for a player (compared to this..) that comes on the unit and replace it with this under license. I think with a few tweeks it's really THAT good! Now if we could convince him to write a radio app... Update - 05/20/23 - I've been working on sorting out how this player catalogs music it finds, and I think I've found an issue - that I might be able to fix finally. I have about 4,300 tracks in about 500 albums as my primary music hoard. These are all rips of CD's I own to my computer, and eventually to USB sticks I can use in the cars. Being a tidy sort of person, I try to organize the music in what seems to me to be a logical way, making it easier to find what I want. The problem is - in so doing that I created an issue when this app goes to scan and catalog the music. The app - as shown above - has several ways to look at the music files - you can search/view by title, by album, by folder (containing the music), and by genre. In my tidying up of things - when I have a number of CDs that are related, I try to group them together so they're obviously related. What I've typically done is create a high-level empty directory (named for what I'm putting in it, ie - "Enya Albums") - then I drag the albums (or cut/paste) them into the group directory. That works fine as long as I remember to make sure the original source directory (album) at the high level is deleted. If it isn't - duplicates show up in the listings. The software does have a switch that avoids playing duplicate files, but I'd rather they simply don't appear that way. So - I went through my source files, cutting/pasting/deleting things until all the albums I wanted to group were in the higher-level directory and NOWHERE else on the USB stick. That worked - except for one group. In that group, instead of moving the entire album into the higher-level folder, I copied the songs from each album into the higher-level folder, without any album containers. There were 3 albums I wanted to be grouped together, and I found the flaw in doing it this way.. Besides information on the author, song title, performers, etc.. it turns out that the song listings also keep track of the track number (track-1, track-2, etc) for each album. By copying the three album contents without the albums to the common directory, I had 3 songs battling for track-1, and all the other tracks. This software logically decided that it should create three copies of the album tracks, all the album tracks, in separate duplicate named directories. That causes confusion. I believe (and will be trying) the fix for this is to create 3 new albums/folders in the high-level group folder and sort out the tracks into the different folders. I'll report back if this works... Having fun in NJ on a rainy day, playing with the Android headunit..

Have you tried the VLC media player (free and open-source). No surprises like Russian spyware. I've used it on my PC for decades and only recently learned there was an Android version. It even runs from my phone over Android Auto . I just installed it on my new ATOTO head unit. Yeah, the font is slightly small but I can read while driving. Being open-source, it has its own support community. You could probably find someone to change the font and take better advantage of the larger screen in landscape mode. BTW, it also plays video in many formats. VLC for Android

I've had VLC on my PC's for years also - sort of bundled in with Irfanview for photo editing, but I tried it on the Android headunit and didn't find it particularly attractive (interface, visual design) or that it has quite as many capabilities as the Muzio player. I've been chatting with the programmers of Muzio (Muzio Team) about some of my issues with font sizes and icon sizes that are used, and requesting a button that will appear on every page to take the user back to the home page (something I've found on all the more advanced players - it's not always obvious is how to get from one place in the app to another - or to home.) I'm hoping to hear they've addressed some of the issues. I do suggest another player that is similar in design (and possibly also from Russia) Pi Music Player . I haven't done it on the headunit yet - I've just played with it on my Android emulator on my PC - but it seems competent and very useable. Pi Music Player | 100Pi Labs - and available on Google Play Pi Music Player - MP3 Player - Apps on Google Play I'd really suggest adding LDMultiPlayer to your Windows PC if you want to explore different apps without the bother of installing them on your headunit until you know you want them there. It's easy to run, install apk files, and size the window to the same size as the one on the headunit (both resolution and size on your screen.) It will give you a real look/feel for what the different apps are about.

What am I up to with it? Still sorting out interfaces, how to do things, that sort of thing. It works fine, but I can't resist fiddling with it.. So - current "Launcher": That's day mode.. Night mode: The camera hides the difference in brightness.. I have day mode displayed at 100% brightness and night mode at 30% brightness. The switchover is automatic.. it can be triggered by the GPS (which apparently knows sunset and sunrise everywhere), or via a CanBus signal that tells it the headlights have been turned on. It also can be switched manually. It's very nice since it can be set dim enough to not be distracting at night, something my old Rosen unit was incapable of (it had two brightness levels, not much different.. and fiddly to use and had to use it manually.) In addition to different front end displays and automatic brightness, pressing the "CAR" button cycles through 3 brightness levels. This is the AGAMA Launcher - very similar to the CarWebGuru one.. I believe they may have common origins. Once they're setup if I decide I want a change, I can just go to APPS and pick the one I want to run for a while. One has to be set as a default (that starts when the unit is powered up), but it's trivial to swap them. Some folks over on FaceBook are getting pretty excited by this unit - thanks to Dave Barthorpe who started a thread there about his experiences installing and using it. Good thread - Porsche 987 Owners Club | Facebook - in the Porsche 97 Owners Club - unusual for FB, it's been continuing to grow and hasn't been disappeared by the FB automatic content hiding robot.. I believe Dave is also here... Dave is using his unit in CarPlay mode, which undoubtedly is smarter than me - since it just works in that mode, fiddling around, and learning things isn't required. It's an Apple mode - so it works without fuss. I can't quite say the Android Auto mode is as simple as CarPlay. I've run it a bit that way, and it works great with Google GO and Google Maps for navigation, there are still lots of options to choose and set. I'll be exploring that a bit more and report back here on how it works (or doesn't.)

Thanks for the mention Don and well done again on the great thread here. You’re right, CarPlay is brilliant and works flawlessly, it’s also very safe to use while driving. I would like to change the Home Screen / launcher though, where did you find the one in your last post above?

Hi Dave, sorry for the sort of random dumps I've made in the FB thread.. somehow I couldn't resist. The Launcher can be found at: AGAMA Car Launcher - Apps on Google Play Simply click on install..

Thanks Don, now installed the Agama Launcher and customised, but just one thing I can’t get to work - I want to replace the rather large Porsche logo with my own design, and when I click on the Plus icon to navigate to images on my USB drive, it just says ‘Error’. Have you tried this?

Dave - I tried this with my PC based Android emulator (it's lots easier with a mouse and keyboard, and easier to fix mistakes like setting Agama to vertical format - which required reinstalling it from ground zero on the car unit..) This is what I found: After clicking the + symbol - this appeared: So I clicked OK, and next: I clicked ALLOW - and the directory containing pictures opened up (I didn't have any smaller logo files handy.. so that's as far as I got.) This was on the PC emulator - that uses one PC based directory for transfers between the Android OS and the Windows OS. You can drag/drop/copy to that directory. How this will work on the actual unit in the car - I'll take a look shortly. If you have a smaller logo file you'd like to pass along, I can try using it if I can get to it.

I've been trying to find this shared directory. I couldn't find any way of specifying it. I'd like to keep it on an external drive.

Thanks Don, I was expecting to get a pop up window requesting access to storage, but there’s nothing. Just the small ‘Error’ pop up at the bottom, as per my screenshot. I’ve checked the app settings and there are no Permissions denied at all. And I know the unit can see my USB thumb drive because I can change the boot logo. Any more thoughts on what it could be? Very keen to see what your head unit does when you click on the + sign to add a new custom logo in AGAMA..

Hi Dave, I got to try it on the unit itself.. It does exactly the same as yours. I'll be contacting the programmers with some screen captures.. probably borrow yours. I've already pointed out to them that the application should recognize USB thumb drives as normal... when I installed mine, it only saw them after I had it go look for an SD card.

I've found a few more cool things this Launcher can do.. Cool Thing #1 - Documentation. If you open the settings window, and scroll way down to the bottom of the screen, you'll find: Clicking that - opens a browser window, and if you have WiFi access - opens this webpage: Cool Thing #2: And that's where some very cool stuff is revealed - like: Pressing and holding one of the 6 buttons, then dragging it to the center - gives you 3 more spots to assign apps for quick access. After assigning them, the screen looks like: The first assigned app is the default app, opened by a quick click on the button. If you press and hold the button sliding it to the center again - the center selections open for a total of 4 apps for each of the 6 buttons, 24 pre-assigned quick access buttons. VERY cool! And I'll just add - playing with this on my PC using an Android emulator makes figuring out all this stuff much easier, and much easier to undo mistakes. One mistake not to make.. under Expert Theme Edit Mode - a WARNING! In the section for screen settings: This screen opens: Just don't touch it. It does bad things when the Launcher decides it's running on a vertical (cell phone) screen. VERY BAD THINGS. And that's it for tonight's fun...

You might want to make sure the USB stick is formatted FAT32, and not some other method. Windows loves to make it exFAT, which isn't always compatible. In windows, you can right-click the drive and see Properties. FAT32 should be apparent as "File System":

Thanks, it’s already FAT32.

Hmm, ok... then I'd just try a few other USB sticks. If NONE work, then I'd contact the manufacturer and let them know you may have a defective radio.

The USB sticks work - just can't seem to write to them with this one particular function. The audio files on mine read just fine. And in my case - I have two different USB sticks in the two USB drives, and I still get the same error. I'll have to open up the FILER app and see what I can do with the USB sticks.. like writing a file to them.. it will be an interesting experiment. BTW - a FaceBook RANT. FB people have become addicted to instant gratification. In Dave's thread on FB about these units, I posted a link to this thread when people asked questions that I didn't want to type out on FB (only to have them disappear a few hours later) - so I've posted that link about 6 times, leads them right to the beginning of this thread. I thought that might satisfy some of the people there.. but one chap asked something about the capabilities of the unit that I'd covered here, so I suggested he read this thread. I didn't list the link to the entire thread, I just pointed out that it was on planet-9.com . THAT wasn't good enough. I was asked why I didn't "just post the link.." I tried to be polite in my answer. The guy is a programmer.. he should be able to handle finding a thread on a forum.. SIGH... I fear for people today - it seems that encouraging a short-attention-span mindset is an active goal of Facebook programming. If you look at comments made (and the thread in question is rather long so it's obvious) - things just disappear off the screen. The reason is - FB defaults to showing "Top comments" - it's not at all clear how that criteria is applied, since much of what's shown is simply nonsense of no value at all, or posts that obviously show the person posting hadn't actually reviewed ALL the posts (which is a manual selection you have to make EACH time you open a thread if you truly want to see what's been discussed.) I'm sure there is some marketing reason for this BS.. but it makes me want to simply leave FB and never to darken its environment again, but I have some family that only communicates that way, so... there I am. Pissed off at FB, and somewhat at people too lazy to figure out they should be looking at "All Comments in chronological order".. or at least "Newest Comments". FB sucks eggs. So there..

Thanks Don, I’ll try the Filer app too and see what happens. It’s clearly a software thing - a bug in the AGAMA launcher at a guess, since my head unit also reads audio files fine via USB. Re Facebook - completely agree. I post a fair number of threads on there to help others (as forums seem to be slowly dying) after I’ve done something significant to my cars. I have a Lotus too and there’s always something needs doing to improve it etc. Some people just don’t read things properly and as you say they don’t read all the comments. I’ve given up repeating myself. I often post the same thread on 2 or 3 groups to help as many people as possible and have to answer the same questions. I think I’ll post on one and simply link to it on the other groups - stating that I won’t be answering questions anywhere other than on the original thread. This is where forums are SO much better. Nothing disappears…. Keep up the good work Don - it’s very much appreciated by me.

REVIEW CONTINUED - TORQUE APP... As you may have read above, I had no luck getting Torque to connect to the OBD-II dongle that generally lives in my OBD-II port (it draws 45ma so I'm not really concerned with it running down the battery overnight..) Something I read on Amazon, in the Questions section on the dongle that I bought from Amazon: https://a.co/d/1pacUo2 - the answer made it clear what I was doing wrong, and how to get it to work... The tricky bit was getting it attached to the headunit. To do that, first I made sure the headunit wasn't attached to my phone by turning the Bluetooth off on my phone. Then I went looking for where one might make Bluetooth connections... TADA! In the "Bluetooth" app which is also the phone app, going there to connect up an OBD dongle isn't the most obvious thing, but there it was. I picked the "Link" icon in the BT/Phone app, and it went looking and found the OBD-II dongle immediately. I clicked on it to link, it did, no code input (1234) was needed, it just connected. I then went and installed Torque again - and I set up a profile for the Boxster. When I opened Torque it told me it was attaching itself to the OBD dongle, no action was required on my part. Torque immediately started talking to the car, and gauges and displays started working. Tomorrow I'll do some photos of live displays and post them here. As promised: This video has the output from the MAF in the large display, and one of the other displays shows the Air/Fuel ratio.. I couldn't find a monitor for the O2 sensor outputs, but I'm sure it's there somewhere since I know these are reported on the OBD-II protocol.. but that might make quite an interesting screen, especially if logging were to be turned on. Revs, speed, coolant temp, acceleration (Gs?), throttle position, engine load. Since it was raining I didn't get to see these out on the road, but I suspect they'd also be a bit interesting to watch (as a passenger..)

Happy days Don, that’s great news. Looking forward to seeing the photos, can you share which dongle you are using? Brief update on the AGAMA custom logo issue - I installed the Google Photos app and it now asks me to choose a photo from there, when I click on the ‘+’ in AGAMA as previously posted. But selecting a photo then results in a black screen, rather than it adding the photo as a custom logo! Very frustrating. The only video I’ve found showing it working is this: I’m not sure what the app is that opens when he taps on the ‘+’ but I intend to find out ! If anyone has any ideas please shout up!

Dave, there's a link to the Amazon one I bought in the post above.. I assume it's available in the UK..

Thanks Don, sorry I missed that bit !

I think that's simply part of the Launcher app - but the logos are all located in the downloads directory, which can be found using the File app. Maybe try copying one of your modified logos into the downloads directory using the File app, then see if the Music app can see the downloaded logo.

I have switched from T-mobile to Google Fi (which operates on the T-mobile network anyway) and my data-only sim card has arrived! One wrinkle was that on my unit the Sim card slot was Micro-sim and the Google Fi cards are nano-sim, so I had to buy a cheap sim card adapter. The second wrinkle was that unlike all the other sim-card-using devices I've ever used, the notched corner faces outward on the Erisin unit (and maybe on some of these other android head units as well). However, once I activated the data-only sim, got the adapter, and figured out the right orientation to insert it - everything worked as planned! The head unit now has it's own data. I will probably still use Android Auto most of the time, but it's nice to know I can use the head unit fully independently if I want to. *One note - Google's data only sims say they do not include hot-spot support. However, it seemed like I was able to get the hot spot working at least for a short test, so that might be a bonus. Don't count on it though.

Don, I had been meaning to ask since you solved your Torque problem - will you be able to run Torque at the same time your phone is connected (like for phone calls and messages)? I think that will also require Bluetooth. I looked at the specs and it only mentions one BT receiver.

I suspect Google's hotspot policy is enforced kinda like T-Mobile's. They try to discourage hotspots, but it is hard to prevent someone from running one without a bit of longer term analysis. So you can get away with occasional hotspot usage. If you are doing it a lot, they'll probably intervein somehow.

It's one or the other. The system only supports one BlueToof connection at a time (not sure about that on the phone, I'll have to try it..)

That would be a shame. My ATOTO has dual Bluetooth receivers - BT1 is for the phone and BT2 is for other devices. Come to think of it, I haven't tested it yet. I know wireless AA works, but that just uses wifi. I don't actually use my phone much for talking, but it is important that I receive calls. I guess you can always just use the phone normally without the hands-free benefit. Or maybe you could sign-up for Google Voice, which just needs data support.

I made mention in a thread on FB that I was going to do a bit different mounting of the unit, and promised I'd post about it here. It's not 100% yet, but it's definitely better. As anyone who has gotten one of these knows - there are side brackets screwed into the chassis that are supposed to go into the slots in the Porsche stock mount. There are a few issues: - The ones that come ON the unit when you receive it are simply too shallow. They don't fit into the slots. So - the manufacturer figured that out, and in a tiny little plastic bag, they provide two deeper brackets. You're supposed to remove the shallow ones, mount the deeper ones in the forward set of mounting holes in the sidepanels of the unit. They're held on with tiny little screws - so use a magnitized screwdriver or they'll have you searching your passenger compartment with a magnifying glass and a 100W spotlight.. (DAMHIK..) So I did that - and it does align the height of the front of the unit nicely, but the unit can still tilt a bit, rocking in the slots so to speak. - So I begged the manufacturer's rep to have the factory send me a second set of the deeper brackets, (and a replacement for the SIM socket where the clip inside it had come out..)** They did - gratis ($0.10 charge so it could go through their system and get shipped), and they arrived last Friday. I waited until this morning to tackle the job. - My idea was that if I added a second set of the metal brackets to the rearward set of holes, those should stay in the channel and keep the angle correct so it would be sort of securely held in place, and no rocking up and down could happen. Here are the slots in the factory mounting for their audio offerings: As I've shown with the two green boxes, there are actually two of the mounting slots - one long plastic one, then a gap, then a shorter metal one. These are the two metal brackets.. both of them "deeper" brackets. They almost do what I wanted.. When I went to slide this in - the brackets just caught the slots in the carrier on both sides. Barely. I ended up taking a screwdriver and bending the brackets out just a bit in their centers - which meant they couldn't fall out of the slots. The screws I used for the back one were from my big bin of self-tapping screws, and they were cut off to be about 3/16" long. I didn't want to go too deep into the chassis just in case there was some circuitry behind these holes that could be damaged. I made the threaded part about the same lenght as the factory screws. The other side.. same thing (I removed the rubber pieces before installing it.. they were a stop-gap method I used before I had the 2nd set of brackets.) And finally - it goiing into the mounting cage in the console. So this worked, but it still could be improved on. If someone who hasn't mounted theirs yet would like to take some measurements, the height and width of the metal brackets would be useful. And the distances between the 4 holes. I think a 3D-printed plastic rail, a bit thicker than the height of the brackets provided, with screwholes located to match the ones in the chassis, and perhaps 30mm longer on both ends - would really do the trick. I'm sure someone here has some experience in printing 3D stuff and perhaps could help out on the project. Anyone? PM me and we can discuss it.. That was today's project.. ** = the SIM socket. Design sucks. It's a plastic housing where the cover slides to unlock it and open it, then you're faced with a metal sort of grid thingie that's supposed to hold the SIM in place. That thing slides to unlock it, then pivots out at one end to put the SIM in the exposed socket, finally, the thing gets closed and slid the other way to lock it. Flaws with the design. The socket is likely to end up where mine is - in the passenger's footwell, hanging out from under the carpeted bit way at the back of the console. Not easy to get to (BIG HINT - put the SIM card in before hooking the thing up, it's way easier to do on the bench than with your head in the footwell..) The clip is marked "Open" with an arrow at one end, but that marking is etched into the chrome-plated clip, and about impossible to see without a magnifying glass.. and the clip detaches from the socket assembly way too easily. It also doesn't appear to put enough pressure on the SIM chip for it to make reliable contact with the socket. I fixed that by adding a bit of foam tape on the inside of the housing cover. Then it worked. A design like cell phones use would be most welcome here.

Hmmm... no takers on the 3D printing project.. or no one has read this and everyone got tired of reading due to my verbosity.. (entirely possible, I do sometimes go on a bit..) Next exploration: Android Auto (wirelessly?) Tonight I'll just tease with some photos, and then come back and fill in the blanks. I finally am getting around to looking at Android Auto (which actually no longer exists - it's complicated..) and using it wirelessly with this unit. When I initially tried it - I managed through some combination of button and on-screen presses and incantations to get the phone and the headunit talking together in what Google now calls "Google Assistant". They announced that Android Auto was basically dead starting with Android-10 because they built it into the OS. BUT - their website still has a bunch of references to Android Auto Android Auto | Android . Don't ask me - they did this - not me. Since our headunits are Android-12, this is built in. The headunit came with an app called "CarbitLink" - which is intended to make the connection between the headunit and the phone. There is also an app installed on the headunit by the factory - called "CarLink-2.0" Once it does connect - the unit itself goes black for a moment, then the following sort of screen appears on it: The left screen is Google Maps in navigation mode, and the right screen is SiriusXM - an Android app running on my cell phone (where it's free to me since I have a subscription in my other Porsche.) There are options to switch the screens around, make the map full-screen, make the map smaller and the SiriusXM bigger.. a few captures follow: The "apps" shown in this screen actually exist on the phone (and you can select from your apps which ones will show on this screen). They also run on the phone, so they will use up battery power as does the wireless connecting link. The phone battery gets used fairly rapidly.. and if they need network connectivity it is from the phone link, so an unlimited data plan is possibly a good thing if you're going this route. So - what's the phone side of Android Auto look like? And And finally - the pullout on the side: Hmmm.... hadn't noticed THIS before.. If you choose settings in the screen on the headunit, it allows you to access the settings on the phone and pick what apps you want on the headunit screen, and other advanced stuff. I had been making the connection using CarLink-2.0 - and found that it seems any Bluetooth connection between the phone and headunit can be used for the Android Atto application. Maybe.. interesting discussion on: Carlink 2.0 - there is mention there of using a shared WiFi connection. I'll be exploring the connection options tomorrow (it's close to midnight now..) and following up on what I find. FWIW - my thinking is - if AndroidAuto drains the battery THAT fast on my phone (the battery is 2 years old and has been showing signs of aging..) perhaps the phone will end up plugged in anyway - so plug it into one of the USB ports on the headunit and see how that works with AndroidAuto (Google Assistant..) The big reason I'm interested in it (I can do all of the above and more with the headunit itself and it's apps) is - the SiriusXM subscription. This is a web-enabled SiriusXM - no tuner needed, and a fairly slick Android app. It's FREE, one for each regular radio/Sirius subscription you have. It seems to have registered itself on my phone as being the free one - so this is a way to access it without having to take out a separate web-enabled SiriusXM subscription ($5/month, not awful actually since it seems to open up ALL the Sirius channels.. even the not family-friendly ones..) Plus I can't let the Apple people one-up me.. More tomorrow as I explore more (my wife is used to looking in the garage for me now when I go missing.. wonder why?) A video that makes it ALL seem so easy.. And a video apparently by the developer of the software: More tomorrow..

You should be able to install Sirius xm directly on the head unit from PlayStore and use the same account. I believe the restriction is only one instance of the streaming app can be running at a time. I've installed mine on my phone and my Android powered TV.

I already tried that - the one on the headunit was the demo version and wouldn't upgrade to full access. I'll try it again, but I suspect they're using some means to track where the installations are.

You're saying the head-unit came with SiriusXM app pre-installed? There's no reason for that since there is no embedded tuner (is there?). I'd uninstall the app and then download the official one from Play Store. I'm starting to get paranoid with apps coming from China and Russia. I at least know Play Store does some control over apps regarding privacy and maliciousness.

No - I installed it from Sirius or the PlayStore (forget which one, probably PlayStore..)

You had mentioned it was a "demo" version. I don't know what that means. I just went to Play Store and installed the Sirius XM app. I think when I started it up it asked some registration questions, and I indicated I was already subscribed and gave the info about my car's account. That was a couple years ago, but it was only a couple months ago when I added my smart TV using the same credentials. Again, only one streaming device can rin at a time. I'm not sure if that includes the original physical satellite receiver. BTW, I've heard that with a good internet connection the streaming app has better audio quality than the satellite receivers. Probably has better bandwidth unless your ISP is congested.

The unregistered version of Sirius/XM plays one channel urging you to register with them. That's what I meant by demo version. It was downloaded from the Play Store. The streaming app on my phone was installed some months ago - let me check it and see if there is any registration info.. it seems to be registered to my Sirius account. I'll have to look at the one on the headunit in the car and see how I can get it registered. Meanwhile - after lots of needless complexity - I managed to get Android-Auto to connect wirelessly - no hands - twice in a row (yea!) now we'll see if it still does that tomorrow. Basic technique for a wireless (BlueTooth) connection for AA: - Open your phone BT settings. Make sure the phone is connected to the headunit. If it isn't - connect them. I'd suggest shutting down any other BT devices in the area just to make things simpler (like the OBD-II Bluetooth dongle for Torque - I just unplugged it..) SO - connect phone to the headunit. - On the headunit - open the APPS page - press CarBitLink. A blue screen should show up with "Connecting to phone.." then it connects and it transfers data for a number of seconds (apparently the phone book and calls listings), then the screen goes black, it blinks once - the phone screen goes black - and they both come back to life. The screen on the headunit are the ones for Android-Auto. Shzamm.. I'll fill in with some photos/screen-captures later.

The unregistered version of Sirius/XM plays one channel urging you to register with them. That's what I meant by demo version. It was downloaded from the Play Store. The streaming app on my phone was installed some months ago - let me check it and see if there is any registration info.. it seems to be registered to my Sirius account. I'll have to look at the one on the headunit in the car and see how I can get it registered. UPDATE - looked. Registered it - works fine. I wonder how they're making money with this scheme... Meanwhile - after lots of needless complexity - I managed to get Android-Auto to connect wirelessly - no hands - twice in a row (yea!) now we'll see if it still does that tomorrow. Basic technique for AA - Open your phone BT settings. Make sure the phone is connected to the headunit. If it isn't - connect them. I'd suggest shutting down any other BT devices in the area just to make things simpler (like the OBD-II Bluetooth dongle for Torque - I just unplugged it..) SO - connect phone to the headunit. Just don't count on this being automatic. Sometimes it is - sometimes I have to go break the Bluetooth connection, remake it and then start up Bluetooth, go to the phone/bluetooth app on the headunit, reconnect to the phone, then hit the app on the headunit, and after some data churning - it opens. Sigh - it's not what I'd call immediately "user friendly" - I suspect the apps all are having difficulty with Bluetooth. What's interesting is the AA app mentions using WiFi to connect (set phone as a hotspot then connect with the headunit to the phone..) I'll have to try that. I did try connecting with a straight USB connection, and it didn't work, but I didn't spend much time on it. More as it evolves.. Update - 05/25/23.. on using Android Auto (hereafter "AA").. I've gotten it to work well enough that I'm not really frustrated with it. There are however some issues. To initially get it working, make sure Bluetooth (BT) is turned on in your phone. There should be a menu selection in settings for this, and part of that will also allow you to see what, if anything is connected to the phone. In the headunit - you can name the BlueTooth connection or a default is given for it.. in my case it named itself "SYU-Android" - I have no idea how it came up with the name, but it's unique so that's good enough for me. IF your phone is working through the headunit - you already have a BT connection, but before starting up AA, I'd strongly suggest breaking that connection and remaking it. I've found that easy to do on my phone. Part of the menu for BT will let me disconnect and then quickly reconnect to the headunit. DO THAT before starting up AA on the headunit. At this point - the headunit has been up and running for perhaps 30 seconds or more(*) - you can press the app button that starts AA - CarBitLink 2.0. A blue screen will open up - with a small banner message in the center of it - announcing that it's connecting to the phone. After a few seconds it's found the connection it needed and the banner changes to simply "Connecting".. This page may stay up a bit of time (30 seconds or so) - apparently this indicates the headunit is grabbing info from your phone (phone book, calls, message, etc) and loading the general configuration setup for AA on your phone. When it's done doing that - the screen will go black, and shortly after that your phone screen will also go black. Again - this will take from 5-45 seconds before a second blink and another black screen (short one - maybe 5 seconds) and the magically the AA screen will open on the headunit. And there'ya are. AA working wirelessly on the unnamed headunit. Whod'a thunk it - the Porsche PCCM+ can't do that. Now the glitches: - once or twice the two stopped talking to each other. I'm not certain why - but they did. It did reattach automatically - but the connection still seemed flakey, so without shutting anything down, I went into my phone BlueTooth menu, disconnected and reconnected to the headunit and all was well again. - (*) - from above. t turns out there are too many settings in too many places, some of which try to achieve the same goal, but fight other ones trying to achieve the same goal. And example is the boot loading. There is a place in the Agama Loader menu where you can tell it that it's the Launcher of choice - and loaded on booting up. There is also a place in the factory menu where you can select the Launcher that opens on bootup. And if you select both of these (and I think I'm forgetting a 3rd spot it can be chosen), it will load up, the blink and go away and then load up again when the headunit boots. If - as I did -- you've chosen a music player Agama tries to open it on boot up. There's a setting under Factory settings where you can chose up to 3 apps that will load on bootup. What happens then, CarBitLink on the headunit has a setting for automatically loading it - and 3 choices. None of the choices are don't load it. (1)It's load it automatically, (2)or load it if it ran the last time the headunit was used (3)or load it according to system instructions. Given the choices, there's a fair chance It's going to load pretty much whatever you do. If all the settings for what loads when are wrong - you'll end up with blinking screens - things opening then being switched to something else opening and finally to another thing opening AND THEN it repeats this around 4 times. That's not good. My advice - the Agama loader has the option to set certain apps to load on boot up, with a time delay before they open. Turn any other references to loading the Agama loader OFF. Use that delayed option to load the music player - delayed maybe 10 seconds. Then set the CarBitLink to open after 20 seconds. Life will be much calmer for you..

Just a quicky - I've tried to match the night time display to match the dash colors and lighting. I think I've got it pretty darn close: Pretty close.... I'd love to change the hands on the clock to red, but that's not in the settings that I can find. I'll suggest it to the authors of the software..

Don, looks very good. I like that you see both the icon (which isn't always obvious) and a label. I haven't tried and other launchers yet. Q: If you switch among various launchers, do they each retain their individual setups? I'm not talking about individual app settings - just the launcher's display and organization settings. Also, on AGAMA, can you swipe L or R to see additional pages? Seems like you're limited here to just 6 apps on this screen. I see a faint < and > on either side of the song title. The discussion of SiriusXM over AA prompted me to check my phone's SXM app settings. The account I'm piggy-backing on was from my 2021 Jeep. After the initial free period that came with the car (3 or 6 mo, I forget) I was just going to let it expire, but they dangled a promo 1 yr rate at 5.99/mo + tax = $6.47. So I took the bait. Well, that was about 1 yr ago and I just noticed that my next charge will be $24.60 on June 15. So, I'm re-evaluating my relationship with SXM. I just don't use it enough to justify that. Most of the time it's just background noise while I'm driving. For that, I've got 1000's of MP3 files on my phone.

So far it seems each one keeps whatever settings I've made to it intact when switching from one to another. I haven't had any issue with switching launchers. When you call to cancel (the only way to do it except maybe telling your charge card to stop paying them), they'll start coming up with deals. Right now the Cayenne is on a ~$7.25/month deal with them. That's the one I'm piggybacking off. That deal was after I called them to cancel that account. It just takes a phone call and about 15 minutes of BS to get one of the deals. I now have the date as an annual event in my calendar - so I won't get hit with the usual increase after the deal expires. Once in a while, I prefer Sirius - there are one or two jazz channels and a classical music channel that have some interesting listening... but like you - I have about 3500 MP3s on a thumb drive that the new headunit works with just fine so if I had to let them go, it wouldn't bother me a lot.

So, one other trick I'm thinking of, if I ever get an Android HU... can you use an app like Tasker, to automate some things that aren't normally done? For example, at startup you could reduce volume to a "safe" level, so that you don't have it blasting by mistake (BT on my Pioneer , for example, has to be turned up a lot more than radio... so if I don't turn it down before turning off, then the radio blasts the next time I turn on the car). Another annoyance - getting rid of the stupid "safety" message when you power up... it's fine if that's there, in theory, but you can't adjust volume when that message is up... how stupid is that? I'm sure we can come up with other automations... but it's a neat little tool to do things you wouldn't expect. I use it on my phone, but it would be great to use it on the HU as well. Heck, if you are pulling OBD stuff, you may even be able to automate things there... it would be pretty cool, at least. Anyone care to try Tasker and see what you can do?

I'd try it but neither of those requests are necessary on my Android head unit. Already is a setting to set volume level on startup. And there is no annoying lawyer warning message either. So I'm at a loss to figure what I'd do with Tasker. Edit: I just looked at the Tasker features on Tasker for Android It does a lot of stuff but nothing that I want or need. So I'll let someone else who likes to play and waste time to give it a try. (cough cough - Don).

Good to know those are built-in. I would be interested in getting speed-sensitive volume (ie, louder when you're at speed, quieter when not). I'm sure there may be other things I'd enjoy tinkering with, but I agree if these major things are there, then I may not care as much... I'm a tinkerer as well, like Don... I just tend to tinker more on software and computers, hence this HU is interesting to me

Tasker isn't needed for speed-sensitive volume - it's built-in (I think in the factory settings, but it could be in the Launcher.. whatever) - it has different sensitivities - I set it on it's most aggressive mode since top-down is a challenge to hear the radio over 70MPH. I wish it did have a way of detecting top/up-top/down so it could respond to that also. I really think you NEED one of these - at the price I don't see how you can resist it...

You doubt the power of my alligator arms!

Some general Android points from a recently installed Atoto S8 user: Safe volume setting on start-up native option. Speed sensitive volume increase a native option too. Bluetooth calls, in parallel with music and OBD reading supported (as part of BT1 and BT2 channels mentioned above). DAB / Sirius module interfaces available I think (not needed in Japan). Data SIM capable. By paying for the full version of the Agama launcher, some countries might consider this a violation of Russian sanctions by sending money to Russia. Putting aside the moral aspects of supporting cash transfers to Russia (something I did not want my Cayman to do).

Guys, I’m having a bit of difficulty with keeping CarPlay connected via the car link 2.0 app. Any tips?

I thought I’d share this pic, just to show a few things; 1. I can get CarPlay, but I haven’t worked out how to do this reliably…meaning that it happens, but I can’t really understand how. I’ve worked out that Bluetooth should be disabled on the HU when using CarPlay. On my iPhone I’ve got the SY-Android set to CarPlay but even forgetting the device doesn’t always restart CarPlay. Any suggestions? 2. I’ve used a neat little rubber 3mm strip between the AC controller and the HU which gives a better transition between the two.

Did anyone notice this SIM card port? It seems to have the full port inside the HU. Anyone using it yet, or know its purpose? Maps? Phone? I thought the SIM carrier was the one in the Aux/vid/spkr loom?

I’m installing the 360 camera set up too, just the cables for now, so that I can fit the cameras at my leisure. There’s a good amount of space for spare cables beneath the steering wheel / knee panel, so I’ve stashed mine there, along with the GPS and 4G aerials, both of which seem to work fine from there. It seemed to be sensible to label all the cables…and yes…the labels help…I’m colour blind 😄

A couple of tips from me; 1. Use the deeper spacers at the back of the HU (as supplied) because these fill the gap nicely, to make the unit as wide as the tabs on the OEM unit. The front clips give enough security to keep the unit square in place. 2. Don’t do as I did and flare the clips A bit too wide…it secures the unit reeeeally well…and when you’ve connected every cable apart from the power (dumb ***)…it’s tricky to get the unit out. Fortunately I’ve got loads of picks and tools to reach awkward spots. Lesson learned. Anyway…any ideas how to get reliable CarPlay connection? 😄

The one in the loom is for a LTE-4G phone/data SIM card. It works fine on my unit, and I have it just dangling out below the side console panel so it's accessible if needed (like I want to change providers). I nominate you to plug a SIM card into the slot in the rear and see what happens.. As far as reliable car-play? Dunno. It's a puzzle to me too. I can get it - usually after fiddling around with the Bluetooth connection on both the phone and the headunit. I've given thought to trying it with a hard wire connection, but really haven't had time to explore that option. I don't consider it a big concern since I generally am using the native Android apps installed on the unit. Having data available via the 4G-LTE connection makes that possible without burning through data on my actual phone plan.

You might consider adding the shallow spacers to the front holes with some washers under the fastening screws and spacer to move it out the same amount as the deeper ones. That should provide plenty of stability. I talked the vendor out of a second set of deep clips and I now have 4 - all holes filled (see posts above for pics) that makes it quite secure, and no rubber was needed to line up neatly with the HVAC control unit. If one was clever - they might measure the location of the threaded holes, then draft up a long solid spacer with mounting holes in it - that could be plastic 3D printed. I think that would be the best solution. Ahh.. I think the error there was flattening out the bent end. The bend was designed to help it compress and slide out of any hole it might end up in. See my other posting..

Thanks Don, I think I worked out that I was using the wrong USB port… I seem to have found a more stable CarPlay ….yep, just between my posts and now…but thanks so much for your thorough explanations throughout. by the way…I foolishly decided to switch of ‘developer options’ on the toggle switch. Any idea how to regain them?

Don I agree about the 3d printed strip. A printer is in my list of next purchases as I’ve got loads of projects needing one. For now though, the rear spacers work nicely. the clip straightening…I knew there was a risk to it, and all is fine, but the gap between the clip and front face of the original HU is only 9.6mm versus the 14mm on the new HU, so straightening those clips fills the gap perfectly. If I get some spring steel I’ll cut some new ones and counter bend the ends to make it easier to release the HU.

Don, I think it’s a case of using the correct usb port. I swapped my usb stick and phone between the two and then I got reliable CarPlay with lots of switching between android apps etc. it maybe a fluke but it worked. I noticed that no Bluetooth had been established to the HU so that definitely has something to do with it, as does having the ignition ‘on’ rather than simply the key ‘in’ by the way, I’ve ordered a double usb 2.0 panel mount socket to go in the foot well instead of the 12v outlet. I’m toying with the idea of fitting them in the unused space on the dash, but don’t want to do anything irreversible so my swap round will be a good starting point

Just realised, the placement of the SIM slot so near the 4G post suggests it’s the one for the phone/internet etc, so I guess that’s the answer, plus it kind of makes sense if you want to use all The Google functionality of the HU. I might just get a top up SIM as a test…but I don’t fancy doing it now that I’ve got everything looking good

just discovered that ‘lantern settings’ changes the colour of the push buttons. Green on the slider makes the keys green

No idea at all.. but you might try contacting Warren - the rep at AliExpress. I've been meaning to contact him anyway - tell me how you made it disappear (I don't want to try repeating that in case it can't be recovered..) On the Lantern settings - I have settings that accurately mimic the color of the heater controls and display. I'll have to take a picture of the settings next time I'm in the car (it's getting its oil changed tonight so I'm tricking the Cayenne by parking it in the garage - in the hopes it quits breaking..) I know it's next to impossible - but can you get a photo of the inside of the SIM slot on the back of the unit? I realize I was thinking of SD cards - not SIMs in my comment above (I corrected that..) The data/phone SIM card works fine in the dongle sort of holder - I did add a small piece of soft tape around 3/32" thick to the cover of the dongle so when the cover is closed it presses against the metal SIM retainer and keeps the chip firmly in place. I'll have to try AA with a hard connection and the other USB port. It isn't a real downside for me since I can easily run a cable to my phone holder that's mounted on the side of the console, and it would keep the phone charged up as well as provide a reliable connection. From complaints I've read on other forums - reliable and AA wirelessly are still something in development.

Great thread! I currently have a Pioneer DMH-WC5700NEX head unit with the NavTV MOST HUR adapter since I have Bose . I hate the fact it has no knobs or buttons and the Arduino volume knob I built is laggy and I haven't found the correct settings to improve it. The head unit doesn't respond to touch input instantly on occasion and it's annoying being that it's from a well known company. The fact that you don't get any Can-Bus dash info and customization is virtually non-existent, makes me want to "upgrade" to this unit. From what I can tell, it should interface with the MOST HUR adapter I have installed. How is the touchscreen response? Also, I have a 3D printer and would be willing to help. Send me the dimensions and I can see what I can do.

The Touchscreen response is generally quite good. On occasion, if my fingertips are very dry, or have something like a bit of wax on them - it takes several taps to get it to reply. That's the hint I could lick my fingers. I don't have the dimensions - does anyone have one that isn't in the dash yet? What we need are: The distances between the center of the 4 holes on the side of the unit. The dimensions of the bigger of the brackets that mount to those holes. Length isn't important, height and width is. If we get those dimensions I can draw up a cartoon* of what we need and perhaps someone with skills with the 3D printer design tools could do the actual creation file. * = "cartoon", what the precision machine shops at Bell Labs used to call drawings the engineers made for custom parts and apparatus the shop would make. As in "Let's see the cartoon for that and I'll tell'ya what it should cost.."

@deilenberger might be a dumb question, but does this support CarPlay over USB? I prefer wired to wireless.

I believe it claims to.. I don't have an iPhone (maybe I can borrow my wife's and experiment though..) let me see what I can find out.

Appreciate you. I’m pretty close to pulling the trigger, this is my last question. I think doing this headunit, a new shift knob, and newer steering wheel will make the interior feel a lot newer.

Reading through this thread (not every single post!) I am unclear of the brand of this HU but I see some questions about ATOTO S8 and about reliable CarPlay connections. I have an ATOTO S8 Gen 2 Standard installed in another vehicle. The original firmware that came with it had a few bugs but the CarPlay connection was very reliable, both wired and wireless. First connection with USB, after that, it worked wirelessly. However - the AndroidAuto didn't work at all even though that was a feature of the system. And my wife was driving the other vehicle for a bit, and she's Android and she needed it to work. So I got a new firmware from their support and the wireless AndroidAuto worked fantastically - but it has broken the CarPlay now. If Carlink 2.0 fails to connect or freezes I force quit the app and then it will work next time I launch it. But its pretty annoying.

I decided to take the plunge after seeing some videos and other posts. The seller on AliExpress has been very helpful so far, and easy to reach via WhatsApp. If you decide to purchase, I highly suggest getting WhatsApp if you don’t have it already. I decided to with 4GB/64GB, with fiber box and 360 cameras.

Interestingly - the other night it seemed there were updates to some of the firmware.. I was sitting in the garage playing with it and I decided to check out the "app store" that came installed on it (different from the Android AppStore).. I installed all of them except the Canbus update (might do that today) - it didn't take long (4G-LTE link). After I completed the CarLink (which displayed while installing it that it was still Ver. 2) I opened it and it made an immediate connection to my Android phone. I have no idea yet what "service" and "ProtocolUpdate" did - I haven't seen anything different in the units menus or structure or operation. What's interesting here - is look at the temperature display on the status bar. I have it set to display Fahrenheit - which it is, but with the Celcius symbol. It switches between displaying the value in F or C - pretty much randomly. I was hoping that issue was resolved with the update, but so far it's still behaving oddly.

Reliably connecting wirelessly with Android Auto... After a lot of futzing around (tech term) I found a routine that works... I have CarLink 2.0 automatically loading on power on in the headunit. It's setup for Bluetooth connectivity. IF it doesn't connect automatically (and it does about 50% of the time) I go to the phone, settings, Bluetooth connections - and it shows one with the headunit - I disconnect that connection. Then I immediately press the "Connect" button for that connection. It connects in seconds - and about 10 seconds later the screen blinks on my phone, and then on the headunit - and poof! It's connected. Easy. Hopefully a new version of CarLink 2.0 comes along that doesn't require this little trick. I think I'll write the author of the app...

Does your head unit suspend (sleep) when the key is removed, and resume when the key is inserted? Or does it reboot each time? Mine resumes in a couple seconds. I find if I had Android Auto up when I turn it off, it resumes fine next time I turn it on. If I have to reboot the HU I have to manually run Carlink 2.0 Another idea- in your phone settings: Advanced/ Android Auto /Start Android Auto Automatically, there are 3 options. -Always -If used on the last drive -Default (as set by the car) Mine is set to Default, and I haven't tried the others but they likely have an effect on the behavior. I've been meaning to try the other options to see which I prefer.

It always reboots. I believe there is a setting somewhere in the Byzantine menus... (any hints are good..) I seem to recall you can set the sleep time you want, and maybe never and always - but one of them that I changed ended up leaving it sort of running, with sound out of the rear channels, and an MP3 player kept playing. And I've tried all 3 of the settings, but can't say I remember how it changed the behavior. I guess I'll have to look.

I have two android HUs with an always on wire and a switched wire. They sleep but occasionally reboot. Of course on yours it might have a deeply buried menu item for it

I assume these aren't the same HU as this discussion is about? I went searching many menus (system, development, Android setup, etc..) the only selection I found was for a keep on after ignition is off (key removed) time - ranging from 0 minutes to 15 minutes in 4 steps (0, 5, 10, 15) - it was on 0 and I left it there. I've still found that sometimes it immediately reconnects to AndroidAuto on a reboot, sometimes it doesn't and I have to cycle Bluetooth off and back on (I do it on the phone, it's easier). I'll have to see if there is a Bluetooth app of some type that could be programmed to automatically cycle it, then add that to the startup apps (you can have 3 of them with the Launcher I have - and assign each one a delay time after boot for it to activate..)

I was looking at my HU manual for requirements on wireless AA . It said that both HU and phone must have wifi and BT turned on and wifi not connected to a hotspot. Is it possible your wifi (either HU or phone) is connected to your home LAN? Or maybe BT is connected to some other device? I know I've got several smart devices within range of the garage that my phone could connect with if the app is running in the background. Of course lots of the stuff in the manual is B.S. For example, as I mentioned in a recent post, my HU sleeps when the ignition is turned off and the apps are suspended. But the manual says that prior to sleeping it kills all apps. I can easily show that is wrong.

I think the CarLink-2 application takes care of taking over both the BlueToof and WiFi connections. I know if I use the headunit menu to look at what network connections are made - the WiFi one has some odd connection that I never made. And the Bluetooth one always points to my Android phone. What I haven't done is check the status of these when it fails to connect, and then check it again after it connects and breaks and remake the Bluetooth connection on the phone side. Perhaps that might provide a clue as to why sometimes it will auto-connect flawlessly and other times requires the BlueTooth reboot. I checked out several possible Bluetooth tools at the Google App store today, and I can't say I came away impressed. It seems all of them are ad-heavy, and once loaded stay loaded although they might not be needed once the AndroidAuto connects correctly. I have some complaints about AndroidAuto - but I'll save them until I have a better handle on how to reliably (and hopefully automatically) make the connection.

I've now found a routine that connects Google Auto wirelessly 9 out of 10 times with no fuss at all. Make this setting in the Google Auto app: In this case - the car doesn't tell it to connect, so it has to be triggered by the user to connect. This can be set in the CarLink2.0 application on the headunit, or in the AndroidAuto app on your phone. Either place works. You only have to do this once. Turn ignition on (or start the engine). Wait until the headunit boot sequence is complete and the selected Launcher is on the screen - then open the apps page, and click on CarLink2.0 CarLink will go about connecting to the phone. It takes perhaps 10 seconds or so - then both the phone screen and the car screen will blink, and the AndroidAuto interface is shown on the headunit screen. Easy, peasy. I think the difficulty I was happening was I had CarLink set to run automatically when the unit boots up - and for some reason starting as other software was also booting up made it unlikely to connect. To connect - it needed the full attention of the headunit. One comment - if this still causes troubles - I'd suggest going to your BlueTooth settings on the phone and disconnecting and forgetting the link to the headunit. Then set it to discovery mode and reconnect to the headunit. I only had to do this once - and the settings it made that time seem to be working fine repeatedly. Let me know if this works for you! And if there are any different settings you've used.

While I cannot comment on the Apple bit, I can confirm my S8.2 works seemlessly on wireless Android Auto, every time (after software rev update too). I disabled it though, and just use native navi and BT music... So much less annoying...

For anyone wondering, yes this fully supports Apple Carplay . I have a joying head unit in another car I have and I have it set to autoload the car link app so that as soon as I plug in my phone, CarPlay comes up immediately. I have yet to figure out how to do this on this Android unit. @deilenberger : I just got my head unit yesterday (for '11 Cayman 987.2). After accidentally cutting the wrong plug and reconnecting it back on, I wired in a Scosche slc-4 since I had it in my Alpine head unit I just pulled out. I had it to keep the loudness down and take the hiss out of the speakers, since the signal to the Porsche amp is amplified out the radio. For whatever reason I couldn't get the Scosche box to bring the volume down for the Android unit and was using the EQ all the way down on every frequency to make it tolerable... but then I accidentally came across this looking for something else: Go to Device >Sound >Power Conditioning bring it down from 60. Should help with your super loud volume. I'm satisifed with 25 but then again I was playing with it in my driveway at 9:30 PM and not out on the road. However, I still can't rid of the hissing at low volume. Got two questions for the crowd: Has anyone found a way to get any app other than stock ones under the programmable nav button? Or found a way to program any of the buttons? the aliexpress chat said they don't have a way to do it. Am I the only one that doesn't get any functionality out of the canbus? I select audio or nav from the steering column and the speedo display just goes blank and unresponsive other than the speed. 🤷‍♂️ I'm sure I'll have more feedback or questions as I play with it more. I was almost to the point to sending this back since I don't have the same functionality as my Joying HU, and the volume was super loud and hissy at low volume, but now that I can at least manage the volume, I'm probably going to keep it and keep trying to figure out this hiss and other functions.

Great info here.. It's perhaps a bit confusing for AndroidAuto - but it does work wirelessly and can be set up to automatically launch AndroidAuto. The Android application CarLink that comes with the unit now works quite well, following the steps I mentioned in a post above. The Launcher I'm using has the option to start apps with a delay set by the user (number of seconds after the unit finishes booting.) I've gotten AndroidAuto to link up every time now by turning off the option in the system to have CarLink start automatically and letting it be started by the Launcher (in my case 15 seconds after launcher startup is complete - I might lower that delay and see if it still works well.. ) The unit starts, the Launcher displays and counts down the seconds, CarLink starts up, my phone and the unit both go blank screen for a second, and AndriodAuto is up and running. Before I complain about functional things in AndroidAuto - I'll study up a bit and see if there is something I've missed with it. This is really interesting, I've played with that value and didn't hear any change. Does it require a reboot before changes become active (some things do..)? It appears you have a later interface than mine at that level selection - making me think perhaps they addressed some of the concerns I addressed to Warren. I'll have to get ahold of him and ask. I'll be giving it a try - something is different from when I initially set up the unit - volume isn't deafening now as long as I don't turn on the select tone. I see you have Noise Reduction on - any experience with that - what it is actually doing? I don't have a hiss issue since I'm old and partly deaf.. what I do hear if there isn't any sound source going is tiny voices - talking away - one loud woman. They're so soft I can't make out what they're saying but it's a quite animated conversation. I'm guessing it's a quirk of some type - perhaps it's the listening room in China where they keep track of everything we do and where we go... (kidding - sorta..) This mystery talking volume isn't changed by the volume control, so it's something after that section of the amplifier. It might be like I'm describing a bizarre form of tinnitus - but I only hear it in the car with power to the headunit and no sound being served by the unit. 1 - No way I've found or heard of (including on the many multiple Facebook threads on it - they never seem to stop - same questions, same answers.. I hate FB..) to change the actions of the buttons. Which is a bit annoying since the default nav app really sucks. As does the default music app. 2 - The primary things I see on the dash display being brought to the instrument cluster is when I choose the radio (which is so poor it's really rare that I do choose it..) - it displays the radio frequency on the top line of the center dash display. If I'm using a music player or even the Android SiriusXM app - it shows a track number - which sometimes is 000, and sometimes 001. If I used the control stalk and try to get into the audio section via that stalk - it does the same as you had happen - it goes blank and won't return until the ignition is cycled. The biggest plus to me of the CanBus compatibility is the ability for the backup camera input to switch on without the need for a trigger wire from the camera, the fact that the 30 or so CanBus related codes modules used to store as "signal improbable" are no longer there, and control of the screen brightness in relation to the headlights being on or off (it dims a bit with them on.) Just as an aside - I saw a posting on FB this morning that was interesting. Someone wanted it to look more like the $$$$ PCCM+ from Porsche, so they took photos of the icons displayed on-screen on the PCCM, then played with them in MS Paint - and somehow brought them into his launcher and replaced the default buttons with them. It looked nice, but a bit boring, but it seems this sort of thing might be doable on some launchers.

Ya I think Carplay can do wireless too, but I prefer to keep my phone charged and it seems to me that the wired works better. I may have skipped over it since I have an iPhone, I'll go check in the morning. No reboot needed, was instantaneous effect for me. No idea. I haven't tested it yet since I was sitting in my drive way. What I did is take a picture of the EQ then turn everything down, and then play music from my phone and turn the volume to 1, I don't hear any music, but I hear a slight faint hiss. I also don't have BOSE. 1- What's strange is that there's an option to select what to launch with the nav button, and I have the same option in my Joying unit. But I can't select the car link on my android unit.... 2- Ah ok, so I it's not me then. And I don't have a backup camera and am now regretting it. So looking for launcher options, I came across some guy on ********.com that claims he's the one that started this android frame and it's been copied. Looks legit as the prices are bit more on his aliexpress page... but seem to be higher quality and have him as a support option and he appears to be in the US. It looks like they even have the harness without an extra connector as well as snapdragon processors and extra usb connections! I'm debating trying to switch to this. Maybe if someone wants to buy mine for discount after I get it all setup correctly. Anyone interested can look on ********. Seach for the thread "Cheap Android Head Unit Review!" under the 997 forum. look for the poster ' myw ' who seems to be the one that spearheaded this. The store on aliexpress is the "Owtosin Official Store"

I won't do a long string of quotes.. just a few quick replies... Power Conditioning: Indeed you're correct - the Power Conditioning control does some overall volume control, I've now got mine set at around 60, and that means I can have finer control over the volume. I'm not exactly certain what this control is meant to do since if set to 0 it doesn't turn the sound off... and you're also correct - the change is made immediately without rebooting. Great find - thanks! ******** Guy: The chap on ******** did seem to have a lot to do with the design of the face of the unit. The one he advocates buying is about twice the price of the ones we're talking about - and I don't see where it provides twice the value. He makes some unsubstantiated claims about the one he works with being better quality because the heat-sink is bare aluminum rather than painted black aluminum (which if you know about black-body-radiation - there is a reason most heatsinks are black..) He never does a side-by-side comparison - as you mentioned he provides some level of support via the web for the device, but I don't believe he's official support for the product in the US. I read most of what he's written and nothing has convinced me to use his one over the one we're using. Ours actually has a newer Android version, and the 8-core processor seems up to the tasks it's charged with. I've never seen mine slow down or hang up - so it seems what I have is adequate to the task at hand. His post sounds good as to why his is better - but he never provided any proof of better. Something we really could use here is someone who can write up and perhaps take a few pictures of the exact steps required to use our devices with the Bose amplified system and fiber interface. This seems to be an issue for a lot of people with Bose, but I know it can be done since people on Facebook have said they got it working. It appears the big issue is sending a trigger signal to the Bose amplifier to turn it on - and using the correct audio connectors when connecting to the MOST bus interface (the orange optical fiber loop) - plus a preset of the Bose amplification before removing the factory system. And one other request - I'd like to see what versions of firmware and even device models people are now receiving. There is a choice in the Device system menu - "About" - that gives this display: If perhaps you can take a few photos of your About screen I'd love to compare some of the version numbers, and see what's changed (and perhaps see if I can shake an update for some of the OS from Kenneth the guy on Alimarket

Finally took the plunge and got the unit installed. It replaced my Pioneer DMX-WC5700NEX and although the sound quality is not quite as good, the extra features and flexibility is worth the trade-off. I still need to fiddle with the settings but overall I like it. I have Bose on my 987.2 and I had planned to re-use the NAV-TV MOST HUR box but it was a no-go. I ended up purchasing a fiber optic box from Amazon because I didn't want to wait the 2 weeks if I had ordered it from the original vendor. The only major issue I had was my backup camera was not triggering when I put it in reverse. I found a post on ******** that happened to be for the same headunit (same wiring harness and labels) and I had to tap into the brown wire going into the CANBUS box from the stereo. I pulled the pin from the CANBUS harness and connected it to the 12v trigger wire from the rear camera. By doing so, I don't get the reverse lines that move in relation to the steering wheel inputs. Maybe it's because I have a manual tranny instead of PDK? No big deal. I sketched up and 3D printed a couple of mounting rails and the unit fits really tight now. The supplied metal clips are undersized and leave a lot of slop. I flattened out the front top and bottom clips and didn't have to use anything else. Here's the file. Porsche 987/997 AliExpress Stereo Mounting Rail Spacers by searocko All info is in the description. Also, I used a flush mount USB adapter in place of the power outlet in the passenger footwell as mentioned earlier in the thread. I was able to use the included bracket to mount the original power outlet. I don't see me using it much but it's nice to have an option. A compact USB power adapter fits nicely. I ran a USB cable under the trim for phone charging. Don, I have a couple of extra rails printed and would be willing to send it off to you for your hard work in starting this thread. Let me know. It's great to have knobs and buttons again and the ability to have Torque display vitals on the headunit is so cool!

Larry - outstanding post and pics. I will be in touch momentarily about the rails. Thanks for posting the link for the side rails - that's amazing! Exactly what I was hoping for.

I got around to installing the headunit and MOST box over the weekend. I will post some pics later. I’m currently in the process of installing the 360 cams, but temps are rising and my garage gets HOT. I will post an update when complete.

Excelente aporte!!!! Muchas gracias Yo tengo instalada mi radio android ya casi tres años....y todo funcionando perfecto... Saludos desde Chile

@deilenberger how would you say the plastics colour matching performs? TIA, Ian

On the .2 cars (2009 and newer) - almost perfect, and I can give you settings that make the illuminated buttons match the factory heat/etc button illumination. The black color match (and surface texture match) are good enough that everyone so far has thought it was factory.

@searocko (Larry).. The rails work WONDERFULLY - the unit slides in and out of the housing just like it was made for it. For anyone who has one of these or is buying one - I'd suggest seeing about getting a set of rails printed. I was doing some modifications on my auxiliary amplifier today and I had the unit out and back in about 3x. It was a joy to do. I only have to remove the driver's side console panel, and I can slide the unit right out. It also aligns correctly with the edges of those panels, now the top of the unit is recessed about 1/16" behind the edge of the panel, where before it was sticking out slightly (tilted a bit forward at the top.) Larry gave a link to the "build" on Thingaverse - so if you have a 3D printer you can make them yourself. I believe you can also have these made at Thingaverse (?) and I know there are other on-line 3D printers, and I think if you talk really nicely to Larry, he might make some for his expenses and time. A BIG thanks to Larry!

Glad it worked out, Don! Here's a list of 3D printing services that can make it for you. Or I could produce a set for $5 US shipped. International TBD based on postage. Not interested in making a profit, just want to help out the community. What are the settings for the buttons? I have mine "close enough" but perfect would be better.

@searocko - Larry, give 255, 150, 60 a try for the "lantern" setting. It's close enough I can't tell the difference.. dunno if that's perfect or not.

@deilenberger Thanks Don, much appreciated - ordering now

Hi Larry, I would like to have a set of these plastic rails. I tried to send you a private message but don’t know how. Anyway let me know if you can make one set for me and we will see from there… Thanks, Camille

Hi Camille, Just sent you a PM. Check your conversations.

I tried those settings and I get green buttons that remind me of an early 80s Blaupunkt. 😂 Our head units must be calibrated differently so I ended up using 255, 75, 55 which is pretty close. Not a big deal as I can only tell a slight difference if I stare at the center stack buttons. Way better than what I had with the Pioneer stereo.

Thanks everyone for the knowledge and field reports. I jumped in on this and bought a set and while I'm happy working with power tools, wiring is not my thing and thus enlisted the help of my usual ICE shop. Here were the issues I had and possible solutions I've gathered (and will try today). Also, some advise needed and would appreciate if I could be pointed in the right direction. 1. Reverse camera not turning on: On my 6MT 987.1 , putting gear into 'R' does not bring the screen/camera up. I was using a Pioneer system previously, and believe the only connection is the yellow (RCA?) connector. Will try and connect it to the brown cable on the harness. 2. Radio fits loose: Will try and open up the prongs near the screen a little, and see if it clips. Will also have a look again at the 2 extra metal brackets that's been included. If still loose, some padding by the sides. 3. The SD button does not click and is not backlit - is this normal? Feels like one button is missing at night when all the other buttons are backlit. 4. (Advise needed) The FM radio reception is very bad. 5. (Advise needed) The headunit only powers on (and shows the 'Powered by Android' screen) about 3 minutes after the engine starts. Not sure why this is happening. 6. (Advise needed) How do I get CarPlay to automatically show up when I start the car? I have to manually connect it on Car Link 2.0 each time (after it powers up). 7. I have noticed a high pitched sound/whine coming from the speakers. I'm thinking it could be an issue with the grounding, so will run a wire to the car's body and see if it helps. Cheers all!

@Allcowsmoo this is way off topic even though there may be some issues that overlap. You should of started a new thread. I bet Don would help moving it BTW it sounds like the are a few installation mistakes but there's a lot of info needed to help.

Hi - found us via a recommendation on FB perhaps? Many of your questions are answered in posts in this thread. But - I'll try and cover a few since you used numbered paragraphs. 1. Yes - it will switch automatically if you have PDK, since you have a stick - that doesn't work for some reason. The harness provided with the unit has a trigger wire (I forget what it's labeled.. but it's pretty obvious - something with reverse in the name). The camera you have - does it have a red wire that runs coaxially with the RCA signal cable? Most do.. usually the camera power is gotten from the backup light power in a taillight. That turns the camera on, and sends 12V down the red wire. The red wire is connected to the reverse-camera wire in the harness for the headunit and that will trigger it to switch to reverse camera. 2. Radio is loose? Yes - it is. There are several posts above about the availability thanks to one of our members to a custom-designed plastic bracket that replaces the stupid steel ones and the plastic brackets hold the unit firmly in the dash. I'd suggest reading those posts, everything you need to know is in them. There are build files for a 3D-printer, or you can ask the member if he could make you a set for a very small fee for shipping/handling. I have them - they work a charm. 3. The SD button is phony. That's just how it is. It is used in much more expensive versions that use the same faceplate. Just ignore it. 4. Yes - the FM isn't particularly good. The FM antenna system on the 987 series varies from Boxsters and Caymans so it might be useful if you told us a bit more about your car. Some of the models have an antenna amplifier which is triggered off the accessory circuit through the original radio. Some have a "diversity" antenna system with it's own amplifier. Some wiring magic has to happen to power it up again if you replace the original radio. That usually involves adding a switched power source from the fusebox to the power lead for the antenna amplifier. Again - I can't advise on this since I have no clue what vehicle you're asking about. 5. That's interesting. Do you have any other anomalies that might involve the ignition switch? The unit is powered on by the solitary wire in the small-pin section of the harness. You want to check if that's receiving voltage or not when the ignition key is inserted. There is a normal boot-up delay of about 15-20 seconds when it starts up unless you have it go into hibernation mode when power is removed from that trigger. Then it will start almost instantly. 6. Read above - a post from me - involving using an auto-start command from the Agama control interface to start CarLink every time the unit is turned on. I use it to connect to Android Auto. Works fine. 7. Whine - did you say whine? Again, without knowing the year/model of the car and the original audio system that came with it this is difficult to answer - and I don't have a positive answer. There's another entire thread about whining.. One thing leads to another.. the unending tale of... - a bit different from your situation, but there are some things you might try there. And it certainly shouldn't hurt to add a ground from the unit to the chassis. AND - finally - who are you and what do you drive? Please visit new member intro - and tell us about you and your Porsche(s)... photos are sort of a requirement (if you don't post them you'll be bugged to..) Meanwhile - Welcome to Planet-9, the Friendly Porsche Forum , and I'm thinking of adding the Thinking Owner's Forum .. since unlike Facebook - everything posted stays posted and is searchable, and we take the time to make reasoned answers to questions if given adequate information. Another suggested reading: Before posting a technical question.. - READ THIS And thanks for numbered paragraphs, it makes it so much easier to answer (when possible..)

My apologies - I mis-read before getting my morning coffee. I was thinking these questions were related to a different headunit.

@deilenberger Hi Dan, which reverse camera do you have installed. All the ones I can see have built-in back-up lines and I guess we don't want that if we want to utilise the built-in dynamic lines in the H/U?? Thanks, Ian

Hi Ian, It's a $12 Amazon camera.. let's see if I can find it. It was $12 when I bought it.. and amazingly - it's still $12: Amazon.com: High Definition Color Wide Viewing Angle License Plate Rear View Camera with 7 Infrared Night Vision LED Waterproof Car Rear View Camera by Marvogo : Electronics Buy High Definition Color Wide Viewing Angle License Plate Rear View Camera with 7 Infrared Night Vision LED Waterproof Car Rear View Camera by Marvogo: Vehicle Backup Cameras - Amazon.com ✓ FREE DELIVERY possible on eligible purchases a.co This camera may have the built-in backup lines (I see them on my headunit), but I don't find them an issue - the moving ones put in the image by the headunit work just fine and are easy to see. You do need to have the CanBus adaptor (standard I believe with the Aliexpress units) for the moving lines to work, they work off the steering angle sensor.

After spending most of yesterday - about 6 hours - working on the installation, I think I can say it's basically done and everything is working as expected and hoped for - with one exception. I added an amplifier for the additional speakers I had added to the rear storage compartment above the engine hatch opening.. these are almost directly behind the headrests. There were interference issues - finally solved after reading an excellent article on this sort of installation in a Porsche . The complete thread can be seen at: One thing leads to another.. the unending tale of... I also replaced the 4G-LTE antenna. I had mounted the one that came with the unit on the passenger side A-pillar, on the interior plastic cover. It never worked very well there. I suspect because one side of the antenna was facing a large metal component (the roll-hoop in the windshield frame). There was also an issue with the length of the wire from the antenna, making it difficult to R&R the headunit. Amazon sells 2 antennas for $12, with a 10' cord. It turns out that's almost exactly the length needed when the antenna is mounted on the windshield, just above/behind the rear-view mirror. The new antenna provides a very solid 4G signal... unlike the original one which cut in and out. I replaced the two USB cables - those had broken at the connectors to the unit due to the R&R of the headunit too many times. Replacements were provided by AliExpress, and are now secured so the junction at the connector won't be pulled on when removing the headunit. And I re-routed the audio cables from the headunit to an amplifier I added for the added speakers. The only remaining issue - which occurred a while ago - the unit doesn't fully shut down until the car's computers shut down. It appears that the CanBus module may be keeping it awake. Why? Dunno. I can switch it off with the volume/power switch, but the basic power on it remains on for about 15 minutes when all the car computers shut down. My WAG is this is a software issue - and I may wipe the unit and reset it to factory configuration and see if that solves it. I also learned during this adventure - the difference between the SSP (Sound System Plus, 2009 on option) and the "ASK" option. Both use an external amplifier to power the factory speakers, with built-in crossovers to split the signal between the different speakers, but - the SSP amp is located under the passenger's seat (and called an "ASK" amp) while the pre-2009 ASK system has an amp located in the frunk. There is an additional difference - in the SSP system ALL the stock speakers are driven by the ASK amp under the seat. On the original ASK system, the woofers (strangely) are not driven by the amplifier - they're directly driven off the headunit.

Mine is all installed - pretty easy apart from the original locking tab at the top on the steering wheel side (right side here in Australia). Someone had previously managed to turn the locking mechanism by 180 degrees so the 90 turn did nothing - just pushed this one in with a finger in the end. Currently experimenting with Vivid launcher but not sure this is where I'll settle. Had a look at a few YouTube videos of Car Web Guru and think that this will be where I end up as it looks like it's infinitely customisable. I have a constant hiss through the speakers but that's only an issue when stationary I'm as never going to hear this when the engine is running and also have the rediculously sensitive volume control - number 4 is the highest I'll need even with 'Power Conditioning' set to <10 And my CanBus does not give readouts on the instrument cluster the same as Eski21 (post #117 - last sentance of post). @deilenberger What CanBus model do you have selected in the super-secret menu? Mine is on BG

Have you tried the Agama launcher? It seems to fit many people's needs - I see it all the time in Facebook posts on installing the units (wonder how that happened? I think I might have been the first posting about it..) It has a few things that are quite useful: The ability for night colors/brightness to closely match the colors of the factory instruments when lit up at night The ability to start another app on a timed basis by turning the headunit on. I use it to start up the link program for Android Auto - at around 15 seconds delay (long enough for the network to get set up and for the unit to find a 4G-LTE connection. it is quite customizable - and you can save the settings so when you screw something up really good - it's easy to get back to the last one you liked. A suggestion - to try out apps, and launchers - if you have a Windows PC - look for LDPlayer-9. It's an Android emulator for Android game playing - but it's easily configured to the same size and resolution as the headunits specifications, and so far every app I'd considered for the headunit has been tried out first on the emulator, and I've used it to determine some settings (like Launcher layout - where each button is capable of controlling 1 primary function and 3 secondary functions.) It's quite useful and easier to sort out these sorts of things using a keyboard rather than on a vertical touchscreen. If you register it with the same Google account as you use on your headunit (and perhaps phone) - any paid apps you purchase can be automatically installed on the emulator and will recognize they're in paid mode. The other trick I found for the ridiculously sensitive volume control is to go into the equalizer and make a custom user profile where ALL frequencies are reduced by 6dB or so.. that lowers the overall volume. You can still shape the frequency response - just shape it so it's all reduced by at least a few dB. Doing that and the "Power Conditioning" I'm now using the middle of the volume control range for normal listening. I'm just guessing you have an SSP (Sound System Plus, aka - ASK system..) On the SSP - the outputs from the unit itself are sent to an ASK amplifier, where they are divided by frequencies to match the SSP speaker configuration (7 or 9/10 speakers depending on Boxster vs Cayman.) So - the amplifier is being fed speaker-level input signals (as it was with the factory unit - but lowered signals) - making the system sound too loud. An in-line attenuator would likely solve the hiss. On mine, I hear voices, very very faintly, can't quite make out what they're talking about, but there is one woman who's louder than the others in the group. ODD.. very odd. Doesn't change with the volume control, so it's somewhere after that stage in the unit. Ghosts in the machine I think. Perhaps they're talking in Chinese - and that's why I can't quite make out what they're talking about. On the 987.1 cars - the ASK amplifier is located in the Frunk - behind the panel that drops for the inflation tools and goop for a flat tire. A more advanced amp was used in the 987.2 (and that may be when the "ASK" system was renamed SSP, despite the amp still being called an ASK amp.) The difference in amps is - the 987.2 one is larger, considerably - making me think it's more powerful, and on the original 987.1 amp - the woofer output on the headunit was not amplified - just all the other speakers. The 987.2 amp amplifies all the channels. From memory, I seem to recall BG, but let me look at my phone (the other day I was playing with the settings and tried every model that mentioned a Porsche, so I photographed the settings before changing them.) All the ones including Porsche mention only Cayenne, making me think the source code is all the same, just modified to suit the CanBus interface.... Using that configuration I only get some functionality - like showing FM frequencies tuned, and Track 000 whenever a music player is working. If I try to get more using the car-info lever on the steering wheel it seems it can get locked into a mode where it stops responding to inputs, requiring shutting it off and restarting it (or rebooting via the pulldown default menu..)

Many thanks Don, as usual your reply is clear and concise

I have found this FM Radio app that is a massive step forwards from the pre-loaded version: NavRadio BASIC - Apps on Google Play Radio Player AM/FM only for compatible Chinese Car Head Units. play.google.com The paid version looks even better but going to see if the free version satisfies my requirements for the time being!

I'm looking at installing one of these head units to replace my Sony . 1. Are there any show stoppers to not purchase? 2. Which model/size is the one to get?

1. No 2. Depends. More money = more memory. If you plan to keep your MP3 music library on the unit instead of on a USB thumb drive - you'll want more memory. I have the 8 core, 2GB RAM, 32GB ROM model with 4G-LTE. It is more than adequate in performance. If you have Bose , you need a fiber-adaptor. The one I have came with a CanBus interface. Cost was a bit over $200. I do keep my MP3's on a few thumb drives, plugged into the USB ports. It does to CarPlay and AndroidAuto wirelessly (a big plus!) And you'll find lots of advice on what to do once it's installed in this thread. Everyone pretty much seems to customize them to their own likes, which is a cool feature, not possible with the Porsche PCCM $1500 unit. So far - my experience with tech support has been excellent. Due to my inquisitive nature, I tend to screw things up a bit - and so far the support has provided me with replacement parts (failure due to me..) for no charge, and has been quite responsive to my messages.

Did you buy your unit from Heregoes on AliExpress? I have been looking at their unit for my 08 Boxster and have been commicating with them but only through Ali Messenger but things seem to be confusing due to translation . How have you been contacting support ? By the way your attention to details in this thread is excellent and a thoroughly enjoyable read

Yes, and yes - the messenger app they use isn't really that good, but Kenneth and I have worked it out so we can communicate. His grasp and use of English is excellent if you actually get to chat with him (and don't get stuck with the robotic replies...) We've done a few real-time chats, at around 12AM Sunday mornings - it seems that's probably Saturday in China - roughly a 24-hour difference - and he's sometimes on. Thanks for the compliment. I write real-time tales of what's happening and what I'm learning. Someday if I have some time, I possibly should write a FAQ on the units.. but mine keeps evolving so... The NavRadio @Drabbs found is a WONDERFUL replacement for the POS software that came with the unit. There are even instructions online on how to remove the factory radio application. I will probably do that after a day or two once I'm really comfortable with the NavRadio app. I have to look into the professional version and see what it adds.. hard to imagine it improving on the basic one, but.. hey, I like to support independent programmers. I'm hoping the author of it comes out with a replacement for the awful music player that comes with the units.

It's absolutely SUPER! The autoscan works (and you can set the sensitivity), the font sizes are big enough to read on the unit's screen, the controls are labeled in English - not icons. A great app done by someone who understands user interfaces. I've got to convince him to work on a replacement for the music player. Have you done the removal of the stock tuner app that he outlines? Just curious... I will see if I can disable it to begin with (I seem to recall in one of the advanced menus that is possible..)

I have not removed the original app yet, want to see if I can make a copy of the APK file just in case it breaks something once removed

If you read the instructions - they aren't really too clear - the tool he made (a basic Android root tool) does (1)copy the original app to a USB thumb drive (which can be used to easily restore it if for any reason you wanted that awful interface. (2)It then renames the old app on the unit to *.BPK or .BAK, and then it copies the new app over with the APK extension so Android will find it. Sounds pretty bulletproof actually. I haven't started playing with the pro version ($6 - chump change IMHO..) but I'll probably do a review of it as I get it set up. I haven't used the radio feature once (except for looking at it) since I bought the unit - strictly due to the awful interface of the original app. I suspect that will change with this app. I've emailed the author to try to get him to work on a new phone app and a new music-player app. The current phone app suffers from all the same issues as the original tuner app (poorly laid out, icons instead of text, text too small to read from the driver's seat, no explanation of what things do what and why you might want them), and I pointed him to the music app also. It would be great if we can convince him these are opportunities to make a few $$$..

does the trim colour on the Heregoes unit match the 2010 987.2 trim?

Yes, that's covered in photos above rather extensively.

Lookie what I found - Amazon doesn't have it... but Aliexpress does: - AliExpress Hmmmm looks about perfect if I can think of a place to mount it. It's made for units like ours..

And even better - one with a cooling fan... maybe mounted on the top of the radio enclosure? https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256805606206852.html I'm sorta loving this option...

Interesting - so does the head unit not have a USB option included?

Yes but the fly leads end in two female USB sockets. I have just joined mine to this: ICESPRING 2 Ports Dual USB 3.0 Male to USB 3.0 Female AUX Flush Mount Car Mount Extension Cable for Car Truck Boat Motorcycle Dashboard Panel -(3 Feet) : Amazon.com.au: Electronics ICESPRING 2 Ports Dual USB 3.0 Male to USB 3.0 Female AUX Flush Mount Car Mount Extension Cable for Car Truck Boat Motorcycle Dashboard Panel -(3 Feet) : Amazon.com.au: Electronics www.amazon.com.au and replaced the passenger footwell power outlet with it. I am going to see if I can utilise the supplied mounting bracket for the power outlet and have this still usable but tucked behind the trim piece.

I found a great resource for these head units: General - General FYT based Spreadtrum uis7862(s) (unisoc ums512) & uis8581a (sc9863) - Q&A, Mods, tips, firmware | XDA Forums (xda-developers.com) I found the FYT settings explained particularly useful. Also mentioned there is a link to this site for Launchers that match the screen resolution: 7862/8581 FYT Factory by Mario Dantas

Excellent resource - but I just spent about 3 hours chasing a rabbit down a hole.. I'll go back to it when I have time. FWIW - these units are "FYT" based.. BTW - if you go backwards in the second link, you end up at: 7862/8581 FYT Factory by Mario Dantas Which has downloads to update/install updated firmware and do some other things. I AM NOT suggesting anyone should try these - but if you do - please post the results. The interesting thing is there may be a control for font-scaling, which is an issue on a number of APPS in the 1280x768 screen size. This is another rabbit hole I'll resist for a bit (company visiting..)

August 19th, 2023 update. I had been experiencing an issue where the unit wouldn't reliably turn itself off when the key was removed from the ignition. I had believed this to be an issue with my ignition switch, but some troubleshooting (checking voltages for the primary voltage at the headunit, and the switched power circuit at the headunit. They were both doing what I expected (primary was always on, the switched power circuit worked as it should. I finally figured out - the power switching on the unit is being handled by the CanBus interface box. And it wasn't being handled correctly. Why? Dunno. I finally obtained a replacement of the interface box from support at Heregoes , and just for giggles the power harness for the unit. I swapped the CanBus interface, and voila! It's working correctly again. Just thought I'd document it in case anyone else experiences this issue.

Hi Folks, First off, big thanks to everyone who contributed to this post. some superb info here. So after getting the unit and doing my initial instal everything seemed to work fine. then since the unit wasn't really fitting properly i decided to remove to the secondary unused connector. Since doing that my unit wont switch on. I checked all the cables that where cut and they all seem to just be duplicates of the other connector so i can't see how this would be the issue. So i must have broken something else. I replaced the fuse on the unit and also the fuse at D10. This didnt work. I then tried to drop back in the original head unit which also now wont power up. I am now out of ideas as my knowlege is pretty limited on what to try next . any ideas would be much appreciated P.S. I have a 987.2 Boxster S

There shouldn't be an issue removing the second connector - I did that for the same reason - to make more room behind the unit. I did insulate the ends of the cut wires using some small shrink-wrap tubing so they couldn't short against the chassis of the unit or each other. As a WAG - if you didn't shrink wrap them - it's possible one of the ends brushed against the chassis of the unit or the housing causing a short to ground that blew a fuse. The wire would be one that provides power to the unit - and there are at least 2 of them that I know of... Questions: did you insulate the cut ends? do you know how to use a voltmeter? And do you have one handy? (the $3.99 sometimes free one from Harbor Freight is useful for this task, as would be a "test-light" - 12V bulb built into the handle of a sharp probe with a ground lead..) You'll see two markings of "12V" on the diagram above. This diagram is looking at the Quadlock connector that is attached to the cable COMING from the back of the console opening - ie - the one that used to plug into the old unit. You should measure 12V continuously on pin Block-A, Pin-15 - key in or not. You should see 12V on the small pin in Block-B, Pin-4 only if the key is in the ignition (this is the auxiliary circuit that switches the unit on - sort of.) You measure between these pins and ground with your meter set on 20V, or using your test-light-probe. This may be most easily done from the back of the connector - you can poke in alongside the wire from the back, and you have the wire colors as above to make sure you're probing the right places. My WAG is you'll find 12V missing from one of those connections - which means there is a fuse blown. That would also account for putting the original unit back in and it not working. HTH, and let us know how it works out.. BTW - noticed you're new here. Welcome to Planet-9, the Facebook Alternative! When you have a chance, please visit New Member Introductions - check the "sticky posts" at the top of the page, then make a new post introducing yourself and your Porsche. We love pictures.. PS: I think you should be looking at fuse 9.. The connections to 9 and 10 sort of changed around depending on what year and audio system the car was equipped with.

Thanks for the info. I got it working again. It was just a fuse. I had replaced the fuse at d1 for some reason and not d10. I think because the d10 fuse had a 15 in it when I was looking for a 25. All working now though and I have insulated all the wires now. 😅 waiting on the 3d printed parts now to see if I can get it sitting better. I have installed agama launcher and starting to have a play around with that. I’ve tried to get an android emulator running but since I have a Mac I can’t find anything that works yet. Will keep trying. although I think I will mostly use car play . This boots up on start pretty quickly with no issues. I used a gifgaf sim (uk) and getting good signal etc. I still haven’t routed the 4g or gps antennas, still just sitting in my footwell. so far seems to be a really good upgrade… paired with my new sports design wheel it really lifts the interior of the car.

I'd like to buy a set. I have a printer but don't have ABS. I don't have enough posts to PM yet. I'm just a quiet lurker....

Will be happy to send you a set. Check your PMs.

I ordered a unit from HEREGOES . It has been three weeks. After two weeks I finally received a tracking #. A week later that tracking # went dead and was removed from Aliexpress . How long did it take for your units to arrive?

I solved it with less than 50 euros of expense. Cell phone holder attached to the dashboard ventilation and this device that connects simultaneously to the phone and the old radio. You listen to music, make a phone call, and charge your cell phone. A sight that, besides costing nothing, took me about 10 minutes of work.

I finally received the unit. It took three weeks. Initially I was not happy with my purchase. The user experience out of the box is horrific. Nothing works. I felt like I wasted my money. After five days of poking around the unit I have some functionality. Volume is very weak. Sound quality is lacking. I have the ASK amp in the frunk. Does plugging into one of the large connectors still use the ASK amp? My biggest issue is that the unit is very slow. The bluetooth and WiFi connections are not stable. I kept looking if there were some antennas I forgot to install. The WiFi setting is not set to ON by default when the unit powers up. Why? Can I change that? After I clicked on CarBitLink 2.0. to get Android Auto the WiFi connection is automatically set to OFF again. Why? Can I change it so WiFi stays on and is set to ON at start up? With Android Auto many apps don't work because there is no WiFi: browser, maps, PlayStore, Spotify , voice input, etc. CarBitLink 2.0 seems to have a very weak connection and disconnects very often. I get no more than five minutes. Android Auto was the only reason I bought this unit. How do I get a stable connection? How do I set the suggested launcher (Aga something) to automatically start at power on? Here is the biggest question: How do I set the unit to automatically connect to my phone so that it has internet? My phone can share internet via bluetooth. Using bluetooth for internet would also get around the WiFi being turned off issue. There was an app I have used in the past that turns my phone's hotspot on when it sees a specified bluetooth signal. I forgot the name of it. Does anyone know what that app is called? Thank you for your help.

Hi @blackbear1 This will be a quick response since I'm going out to lunch for a bit. A longer response might be made tonight, but just quickly: - Volume settings are discussed in several posts in this thread. There are individual sound source settings, and an overall volume setting - both discussed above - and both found in the advanced configuration menus. - It should work fine with your ASK system. If your system has any issues - like blown woofers (quite common, foam-rot attacks the cone surround on them) - it might well sound worse, mostly because it's providing a better signal to the amp and asking more of it, and with blown speakers the system can't provide more. A case where limited frequency response and dynamic range sounds better than a wider frequency response and wider dynamic range. Odd - but true. - The Agma launcher can be made the default launcher, and can be setup to automatically start up CarBitLink2 and start AndroidAuto. It's ALL in the thread above. - The slowness is perhaps the system trying to connect to other devices. Can't say without a bit more exploring. Speed hasn't been a common complaint about it. What memory and processor did you purchase? - When using AndroidAuto - ALL the applications run on your phone and are just displayed on the screen of the unit. The applications use your phone 4G connection to get their data. If they don't work on AndroidAuto due to a lack of source signals - it's your phone that's the issue, not the headunit. If they run slowly - they're running slowly on your phone. More later perhaps - but I'd suggest really reviewing ALL the posts in this thread, as far as I can see - all your answers are in the thread.

Yes - the large connector still plugs into the ASK amp, and for the ASK amp to turn on it sends 12V to the turn-on trigger for the amp. The actual configuration of the ASK system varied from the 987.1 to the 987.2 (it's considerably better with the 987.2 version) and it varied between the Boxster and Cayman and if it was ordered with a subwoofer option. I should mention there are THREE different places you can set the volume or the headunit. One lets you set it per connection, the are others in the digital signal processor (DSP), and then there is a really hidden one buried in one of the system menus (mislabeled and hard to understand, but it's documented in the thread above.) My issue with the volume was it was too loud by far when I first installed the unit. It took a bit of time to really get that under control. The first place I'd look is the DSP - I can do a screen photo of how mine is setup if you feel that would be useful. The Bluetooth antenna is the two short wires coming out of the connectors on the back of the unit. The WiFi is also just a basic wire antenna out of the connectors. I did make sure these wires aren't bundled in with the other wires which would tend to shield them. These don't seem like much in the way of antennas - but consider the size of the antennas in your cell phone... Mine reliably can find my home WiFi network (better than my phone actually) and has no issue connecting to my phone via Bluetooth with the phone in the car (in my pocket or in the cell-phone holder.) Once connected they seem to stay connected. I've also tried turning my cellphone into a hotspot - and it connects quite reliably to that (not necessary if you have the 4GLTE option on the unit, and have a SIM and an account - the unit can connect to the cellphone 4G networks.) To use CarPlay or AndroidAuto - the most reliable way is using Bluetooth in my experience. On Android to connect the phone must be powered on and the screen active (it can't be locked when connecting, it can lock once you have connected.) I've used the Agama Launcher (which I set as the default Launcher) - which has a nice feature of being able to program buttons to automatically execute any program a set number of seconds after the Launcher starts up. My Bluetooth is set to "Connect if used last time car was used" (an option in the Bluetooth system menu of the headunit). If I did use it last time - it automatically connects as soon as the system boots up. If not - the automatic Launcher routine starts up CarLink and makes the Bluetooth connection. And that's a bit important - CarLink is not used for WiFi. It's for Bluetooth. You always want a Bluetooth connection to your phone - since it's used for the phone function of the headunit, as well as allowing for streaming audio (music, navigation prompts, etc)... DIGRESSION: Bluetooth is still in it's teething stages. It's an almost reliable function, but it can get confused (mine did often when I first setup the system). If it gets confused, I go to the headunit Bluetooth menu and tell it to forget the connection to my phone. Then I restart the Bluetooth on my phone and make a new connection to it. That seems to always solve problems. Just breaking the connection and remaking it often doesn't help. It seems the forget/start-new is the reliable solution. This isn't limited to this system - it happens on motorcycle GPS systems linked to a helmet Bluetooth headset, or linked to a phone. The fix is forget and relearn. WiFi can be enabled to be on at startup as a default from one of the system menus. That's great if you're using your phone as a hotspot and the phone has the hotspot started and running. IF the phone doesn't have the hotspot running - it's not going to connect via WiFi, unless it connects to some public or your own private WiFi network (at your home perhaps.) Its attempts to connect to a non-existent WiFi network (it remembers the network and login credentials) will really slow things down, which may be what you're experiencing. If you just use Android Auto or CarPlay - there is no reason for a WiFi connection since all the web-connected apps and data will be using the phone's WiFi connection or the phone's 4G/5G connection. I think you're confused here. AndroidAuto runs the apps on your phone . These apps use your normal phone connectivity (4G/5G, or WiFi) to get the data they need. The headunit doesn't need a WiFi connection since it is only running the interface app for AndroidAuto, and that connects to the phone via Bluetooth. I have to guess the antenna for the Bluetooth on the rear of the radio is bunded in with other wires causing it to be partially shielded, or that your phone doesn't have a great Bluetooth power. It is possible to run AndroidAuto via a USB connection to the unit. I haven't done this so I can't walk you through it, but I'm sure other people can. The secondary advantage of this is it keeps the phone charged while you're using it to provide the screen interface on the headunit. If you can't get a stable Bluetooth connection between your phone and the headunit - that's the route I'd suggest. First you must download the launcher (I know there is a link in the thread above), or just search using Google Play for Agama. Then go into the system menus (passcode is 3368) and look for the option to select your default launcher. If you've installed Agama - it will appear on the list of available Launchers. I've reviewed the 3 default launchers that come on the headunit in the thread above. I prefer Agama - it's more easily customizable and can be made to look like a Porsche dash display, and to some extent, you can program actions it can take. It is more powerful than it looks just looking at it - spend some time exploring it. I've never heard of an app that does this. If you find one - please do post it here. What I decided to do - a bit different - is I ordered the headunit with the 4GLTE option - where it can make a connection to the cell phone network directly (it has it's own SIM card and it's own phone number.) I then found a deal on access to the cell phone network, where by paying a full year upfront - the connection only costs me $120/year. Whenever I start the headunit - that link is automatically made. Then all the native Android apps have direct access to the data they need without the need to set up the phone as a hotspot. I also have AndroidAuto setup for when I'm feeling lazy (it starts automatically and connects) - it has a navigation app and then a music app that starts by default - and displays those on the screen. Those apps (running on the phone, displayed and controlled by the headunit) use the phone's 4GLTE connection. This setup gives me some redundancy. I selected a different carrier for the 4G/LTE connection on the headunit from my normal cell carrier. If I lose the headunit connection - I can easily move over to the phone connection. And visa-versa. I think the $10/month is reasonable - since I have a very basic Sirius account that's linked to my Cayenne (the PCM has a built-in Sirius interface) - that costs me $8/month (took a bit of bickering, but it's doable.) My total outlay for Sirius - on both cars and my cell phone and my home computers and Roku, including the 4G link is less than I was paying for JUST Sirius on both vehicles when they were using the Sirius hardware interface.

FYI, people may recall when I had asked about an app called Tasker in the past? That app can do automations of all kinds, as desired. For example, I use it on my phone to put it into DND (do not disturb) when I plug it into the charger at night. I made it "smarter" by seeing if I'm in the car (bluetooth) and if that's there, then DON'T go to DND, because I'm still driving somewhere. Tasker can do lots of stuff, but it can be a bit of a learning curve, since it's more of a platform than something plug-and-play. Still, it could probably do what you're looking for. There may be independent apps that do what @blackbear1 suggests as well, but as I am familiar with Tasker, I would do it that way and save myself from yet another app... and because I can still customize behavior from there, too. However, I have never heard of an app that can push internet over BT. I would like to know more about that, as well... because that I've never heard of.

I use Tasker as well to turn on my hotspot when it detects the Bluetooth connection to the head unit. Turns it off when disconnected. Here's an excellent video detailing the steps.

Don, Many thanks for the great write up. On the basis of this I purchased the same unit for my 2008 987.1 S. It is fair to say that I am not the most experience DIY'r but I started installation today to find that despite being non Bose and, having looked but not been able to find an amp, discovered when I removed my old CDR30 to find orange fiber optic cables. So my plug and play installation has gone out of the window!! I can only assume all 2008 Boxter S had SPP. The amp is not in the frunk and is not obvious under the seat. Anyway I have requested a fiber box from Aliexpress . I was wondering if anyone had instructions on wiring in the fiber box ideally without splicing cables?

Did your car come with a multi-disk CD player mounted in the frunk? All of those were connected via fiber. I don't believe they used a fiber-connected amp. The amp on the .1 cars was located behind the fuzzy wall that the tire sealant and air compressor live in. In my car - the space is there - but no amp. They added a bigger amp located under the passenger's seat (and moved the rear control module to - the rear, behind some of the fuzzy trunk lining.) I unfortunately do not have the audio wiring diagrams for .1 cars - the diagrams for the .2 cars I have, but they're not the same. I should also note - on some of the early-mid 2000 era cars (up to at least 2006, and probably later) - the early PCM with navigation had a separate navigation CD or DVD drive (the maps are on CD or DVD disks) - which was connected to the PCM using fiber cable. If your PCM has navigation on it, it wouldn't surprise me to find that's what the orange fibers are there for. If that's the case you can safely ignore the fiber. I'd suggest trying to plug the unit in and see what happens.. it shouldn't blow anything up, the only thing you'll find is if it works or not. If it does work - no need for the fiber adaptor..

No CD player and I have checked original spec and no options added and it only had a CDR 30 radio. I have checked frunk - nothing and under the seat -only the control module as you can see in the attached photos so totally confused. The fiber optic cables are connected to something as light coming through. it was one of the last 987.1s so perhaps they changed something I will try to fit as you suggest and see what happens. Thanks for your help

Sorry correction to above original radio was a CDR24

In my case the Heregoes unit didn't wake up the ASK amplifier automatically in my SPP equipped 987.1 Boxster through the harness supplied. My door woofers were blown but it was quite obvious that they didn't get a signal because the "usual" rattling sound had gone - only the 4" midrange speakers and the tweeters worked. After a quick research I've found that the pink wires are the switched 12V lines, so I've pulled the pink wire pin from the (unused) Quadlock connector and simply pushed it into the connector (pin number 2) that takes the car's black ISO plug. I've also changed the blown speakers and now everything works as expected except sometimes it takes a couple of seconds for the ASK amp to awake after the head unit is turned on.

I'd love to see the wiring diagram for the 987.1 ASK amp.. it is obviously different from the 987.2 amp, which amplifies and filters (low and high-pass) all the SPP speakers. If the ASK amp isn't powered up on a 987.2 you're getting no sound. The 987.2 amp is also considerably larger than the .1 amp, which I assume is why they put it under the passengers seat (that and moving the ECU out from the footwell and into the trunk wall.)

I installed mine over the weekend and I have sound from all speakers without the fibre adaptor so thanks for the recommendation. Looks just like an OEM and by following all the help above even I succeeded. Sound is ok but have to use a relative high volume setting. Still unsure how the previous fibre shown above were utilised. Having a few teething problems like everyone else 1. in connecting phone in a consistent process particularly switching between CarPlay and the android apps. When the launcher starts it does not show the Android start page which I had replaced with a Porsche logo but instead either shows the telephone app or the Carlink2 connection page before connecting to CarPlay. 2. Not sure if Canbus is working as unable to dim CarPlay screens when lights are on. 3 3. The unit boots up on putting the key in and shows a F temperature but changes to C (correctly)when turning ignition on so getting some feedback from the car. I haven’t tried the Agma launcher or updating the Cambus app from the App Store to see if that helps.

1. Connecting the phone can be a bit frustrating, but there is an option in the Bluetooth menu to reconnect IF the phone was connected last time the unit was turned on. That might be helpful. If that doesn't work for you - there is a feature in the Agma launcher to have an application run ## seconds after the launcher boots up. If you put the CarLink app as the executed application - it will run automatically and 90% of the time just connect, and then AndroidAuto kicks in from my phone. Doing it that way you can choose not to have CarLink automatically run if it was used last time. Let Agma handle it. When it doesn't connect correctly - two things: (1) is the phone screen unlocked - it won't connect to a locked phone (2) Try disconnecting the Bluetooth connection to the headunit, and deleting it - then let the phone remake it. It will start just fine on the newly made connection. And will usually continue to start fine for quite a while until I have to remake the connection again. 2. I don't know if CarPlay does dimmed. I use AndroidAuto - and it doesn't do dimmed screens EXCEPT as set in the CarPlay settings (and the GPS app settings). The CanBus interpretation/interaction is a bit limited since the only option to use is for a Porsche Cayenne (the default option.) I don't think they have completed an interpretation specifically for the 987 series. 3. If you change the setting for the displayed temperature (the choice is in a system menu somewhere 3368) - does yours actually display Fahrenheit degrees? Mine only rarely does - it usually shows F next to Centigrade degrees BUT once in a while it will show F next to Fahrenheit degrees. Go figure. I had a talk with the support guy who escalated it to the software guys at the factory who basically said "Yeah that's right, it's a software bug.." but made no commitment to fixing it. It's not a huge deal since the temperature is always displayed in the instrument cluster - set to F and showing F.. As far as your volume issue - there are several locations where you can change the gain of the unit. There is an overall gain setting in one of the menus. There are gain settings for each input in another part of the unit menus (for DVD in, Aux in, radio, music, etc..) these are intended more to balance the sound levels when switching between sources, but also can be used to set overall sound level by simply running them closer to max. And there is one more adjustment - I forget what it's called - it doesn't sound like a volume adjustment, and it's in the factory settings area I believe - but it does change the overall gain of the unit. Next time I'm poking around in there I'll try to remember to make note of it... I went looking in this thread - and found: https://www.planet-9.com/threads/di...eplace-the-standard-cd30-radio-and-probably-the-pcm3.253949/page-6#post-2216675 "Power conditioning" also works as a gain control. I have no idea what conditioning it does, but it works great to increase or decrease the volume. And there is also the DSP - digital signal processor. It has several forms of volume adjustment - not all are obvious. The frequency curve response adjustment is only neutral at 50%. Go above that - the sound gets louder, go below it - the sound gets quieter. Mine is sort of a bathtub curve, high at both extremes and low toward the center.

This is a simplified diagram I've found on another forum which shows how the 987.1 SPP works. If the ASK amplifier isn't powered you still get sound but pretty quiet and no bass at all. The lack of the center dash speaker isn't really noticeable.

Interesting block diagram. It almost appears that the ASK amp in the .1 series cars is only amplifying the bass signals and then combining the left/right signals for the center speaker. The midrange, dash-tweeters and rear speakers (if the car is equipped with them) seem to be directly powered from the head-unit. The ASK amp setup on the .2 cars seems considerably different: Connections 1-9 on the left side are the wires from the headunit. These include various power leads to switch the amp on, and the front (left/right) and rear (left/right) signals. It appears that all the speaker channels are powered from the ASK amp. I'm not sure all are amplified, but since there is no sound if the amp isn't triggered on, I suspect they all are. I'd also hazard a guess that some band-pass filters send the correct frequency range to each channel (highs to the tweeter/dash speakers, combined L/R highs for the center channel dash speaker, then midrange to the small door speakers and bass to the large bass speakers.) There are some advantages to doing it this way - one is - it makes it easy to balance out the system, and each amplifier channel can be designed for optimal power in the frequency range it's assigned to. ALL of this helps explain - at least to me - how the system can sound as good as it does. I've added two independent left/right channels driving small speakers in the storage housing located on top of the engine compartment. Porsche at one time offered this as an option. I've added a 30W amplifier (30-real-RMS-Watts) that is fed an RCA level signal from the two (l/r) RCA level outputs from the headunit. The seperate amplifier allows me to balance these speakers into the system with their output/gain set at the amplifier I added. This setup has two 3.5" coax speakers per side - and they're surprisingly wide range (probably 300Hz-15kHz) The coax setup means there are actually 4 speakers per side (2 widerange, 2 tweeters, high-pass filtered with a capacitor.) The RCA level outputs from the headunit are for the front channels only. By using the Digital Signal Processor (DSP) in the headunit and the discrete amplifier I added, I can now balance how much gain the the dash speakers get vs the bass door speakers, and how much gain the head-level rear speakers get. It actually sounds quite good. I've been accused at times of being an audiophile (going back to when I was a teenager and building my own tube preamps and amps - mostly my design) and I find the system as it's now configured is good enough that sometimes I'll sit in the garage listening to some streaming music. It's not the equal of my office system (full range electrostatics..) but it's damn close to the Burmester in the Cayenne. Both of my bass speakers had rotten foam surrounds. I'd purchased a complete ASK system set of speakers from an inmate here some time ago - and I've replaced both bass speakers with the ones from him (which have good foam).. and they sound surprisingly good. I also ordered via ali-express replacement rubber surrounds for the stock speakers with the intent of rebuilding them during the cold parts of the winter when garage projects tend to fade away. I'll probably document that project.

I too was thinking about getting replacement OEM door woofers for my car or replacing the ripped foam edges but finally decided to replace them to Audison AP8 speakers and mount them on custom made MDF rings. Now I have more than enough bass, at least until I get on the road.

Might you have a pattern for the MDF rings? There is a guy on Facebook (from the UK) who is selling kits to fit speakers to the earlier cars like the 987 - he uses plastic rings (I assume 3-D printed) and aftermarket speakers, but somehow has found a source for the factory connector that the feed for the speaker plugs into, and includes this with his kit. I have no idea of his prices on these kits, or if he will ship to the US... they do look nice from a Plug'N'Play point of view, but your solution also seems simple enough, the only issue is the connection to the factory harness. For anyone curious about the factory "bass" speaker dimensions - it's 7.75" OD, and 2.5" deep. It appeared to me when I had mine out, and the window lowered that there was adequate room behind the speaker opening to use a deeper speaker with perhaps a larger magnet structure. And for anyone looking for replacement foam/or/rubber speaker surrounds for the speaker, the OD is 7.25" (184mm) and ID 5.5" (140mm). I had no success finding any replacement surrounds in that size - so I bought the closest larger one I could find (very slightly larger) - and plan on taking a slice out of the surround and gluing the two ends of the splice together, reducing the diameter to match what's needed for the speaker. That'll be a winter project I think..

Sorry, I don't have a pattern, I just drew around the plastic speaker basket and cut it with a jigsaw. I too saw the plastic rings in the UK webshop but if I remember correctly they don't ship to my country plus those rings are quite expensive. Anyways the Audison speakers are just a little bit deeper than the factory speakers and they have pretty good specs.

Thanks. I like the speakers you picked - they use a multi-fold cloth edge, a rather old-fashioned design (going back over 100 years now) - but it's one that holds up and doesn't rot away as the foam edges do. Certainly for the environment the speakers are used in that's a better design. The foam edge became popular with sealed enclosures that use the air in the enclosure to restore the cone to its resting position (along with the spider.) The folded edge design will restore the cone to its rest position without a sealed enclosure - and that's the case in our door speakers, the door is not a sealed enclosure.

Thank you, it's good to know. So much useful info in this thread. 😊 Keep up the good work!

You might be able to find a 3D printable file. Look on thingiverse.com or similar and you can 3D print whatever piece you need.

Notes Hello, I am expecting my unit to arrive this week and had a few questions: 1- if I intend to use CarPlay only, do I still need to connect the USB cables, GPS Antenna and 4G antenna? 2- it appears that all the cables are plug and play with the exception of the 3 cables coming out of the CanBus box that power the Amp, right? 3- is there anyway to upload images for startup without using USB (maybe BT via phone, or other)? Thanks Hassan

Hi, welcome to Planet-9 - the Porsche Auto Audio Enthusiasts Forum! I love numbered questions.. 1- You probably don't but why not simply install them and hide them somewhere you can find them? If you're certain you'll always have your phone with you I guess you can skip the GPS antenna, but it's not that difficult to install. The 4G antenna - ditto I guess - especially if you intend to use it via a hotspot connection to your phone. The USB wires I'd strongly suggest you install them. You can be certain that you can make a CarPlay connection if you use a solid USB connection to your phone. People have reported issues with Bluetooth connections between the headunit and their phones dropping out. That's not the fault of the unit, it's a weakness of BT-2 (and quite common on all Bluetooth devices.) If you go with a USB connection to your phone - that connection can also keep the phone charged while it's connected. If you expect to use WAZE or run a hotspot - those are really pretty power intensive, and even a phone like mine (Motorola Power - with a 2-day battery) can get depleted running those apps continuously. 2 - I'm not sure what 3 cables you're asking about. Can you show me a reference to this? One wire can be used to switch on an ASK or Bose amp or auxiliary amp - that's the antenna power lead. It works just fine for that. That's 1 connection. I have no idea what the other 2 you're asking about are. Now that you're here - why not visit https://www.planet-9.com/forums/new_members/ - review some of the sticky postings - and then introduce yourself and your Porsche to the forum? We're a friendly group around here, and we have a good core group that knows each other and knows who to refer to for more difficult questions. 3 - Not that I can think of quickly, although I guess it might be possible using Bluetooth file transfer.. It sounds like you're using an iPhone, which I'm entirely ignorant of. I could possibly guide you a bit on an Android phone. it's trivial to do with a thumbdrive if you have the USB port available. Welcome again!

Hi deilenberger, Thanks for the detailed response; appreciate it. 1- since I exclusively use Apple CarPlay, I don’t see the need for the 4G and GPS. Also, it seems like they require some additional work. I would like to have at least one USB cable but have no idea where to place it accessibly without any major work. Would love to hear your suggestions, if you have any. 2- here is a pic of the 3 wires I am referring to: 3- I guess if I can have one accessible USB, then this is a moot point. I most definitely introduce myself and the car on the new members post, thank you 😊

1. Consider just hanging them down alongside like I did (I'll go take a photo..): 2. That's not the CAN-BUS box, that's the MOST* box. Do you have Bose audio? The orange fiber-cables that went to your old PCM? Those are wires to turn on the Bose amp I believe. Perhaps someone here who did that installation can comment. If you don't have Bose that box is unnessary. And the wiring for the Bose system is slightly different.. (see diagram below).. I believe one of the wires is ground, one other is power for the MOST box (hook it to the ANTENNA power lead on the adaptor harness) and the other? Maybe a trigger wire for the Bose amp? * = MOST is a fiber-ring network designed for audio use. Fairly common in high-end German cars.. ​ 3. Yes, and you'll find more uses for that USB eventually. For the GPS antenna - you might consider just tucking it up above the box the headunit lives in. I believe there is no metal structure above that box, so the antenna is likely to work OK. I initially had mine there - but later switched over to the antenna I'd installed for another head-unit I had - in the factory location under the windshield cowl. BOSE Diagram (2009 987.2) The diagram doesn't show an amplifier +12v trigger. Which is surprising since I know people have used one to turn the amp on. Hopefully someone who has done this install can comment. One thing wiht the Bose amp (if that's what you have), you'll want to hook your original system back up (just the basics, you don't need any antennas hooked up), then turn it on and find something with no signal, and turn the volume ALL the way up. The Bose system uses a signal to the amp to set the gain on the amplifier. The gain is not set on the headunit (even though the knob is there). When you shut the system off - whatever the gain on the amp was set to is retained, so if it was being used at a low volume - you'll have little amplification - and a very weak/low output. That's probably the most common issue I've heard about, and in every case it was fixed by hooking the original headunit up, adjusting the volume to max, then shut off and disconnect and connect the new unit. Good luck! Let us know how it goes..

1- That’s a good idea re: USB. I’ll try that. 2- Noted, I do have Bose and will be sure to put the volume up all the way before I disconnect the unit. Would be great to hear from anyone who has Bose on this. 3- I’ve also been reading about the bracket issue with these HUs; seems like Searoko has solved this. I will seek his help on this. Thanks again 😊

I'm kinda late to this, but I've had an Atoto A6 in my Boxster for about two years now. I've been using PowerAmp app for my music and like it. It has a pretty solid set of audio controls beyond the playlist navigation, etc. It's ingested my Apple Music playlists, etc. without issue, as well. I think my only gripe is that it takes seemingly forever to get to being able to play anything while it reads the card I've got it on. I'm going to copy a bunch of files to internal storage and see if that helps. I think it might not see the card as storage its read prior, especially if I haven't driven the car in a week or so. In all honesty, I usually just run Apple Music through CarPlay because it'll feed me lossless music. This thread is fascinating, especially the CanBus integration thing. I think I paid $225 for my Atoto, but I really like the way this unit simulates the factory look and bezel, as well as the handy volume knob, which I prefer over buttons. Back to my popcorn.

Hi Thanks for a great write up. I don't seem to be able to connect to the internet. The car is on my drive & it says connected to my router ok but it won't open anything. I've tried closing & opening again & reset the date & time but just won't connect to anything.

It likely is looking for the password for the WiFi on your router. Until it has that - it won't work. Try disconnecting and then clicking on the router listing from the WiFi sources found again. It should ask for the password. Once it knows the password and has successfully logged in it retains the PW and should be able to connect automatically.

Thanks Don, Yes that sorted it. It confused me because it was saying IP address obtained & connected. But I disconnected & re-connected & it sorted it. Not the fastest of things but at least it's working.

Did you ever get around to installing the 360 cameras? I am contemplating doing it but am doubting whether the cams for the mirrors will fit at all since the mirrors on our cars tend to be quite shallow and cramped. Also how did you feed the cables for the cameras into the mirrors? Drill through the connector? Thx.

I currently have a Sony 5500 HU in my 987.2 . Based on all your experiences would you change it out to one of these units? I do lie the "OEM" look of them but am worried about the quality vs the Sony . If it helps I always run Android Auto as my interface

I took a look at the Sony unit - and it looks competent. It does Android-Auto (I suspect it has to be wired - USB connected?) so from that point of view - the interface for you would be pretty much identical. The audio quality is more than adequate IMHO, and the look and having knobs is to me very attractive.. But - if the Sony is doing what you want it to - the choice based on looks is a personal one. You don't have knobs, but you do have rocker-type controls which are a very close 2nd IMHO. And since I have no idea how your system was wired into the stock part of the system, or even what the stock system had been (basic - no amps at all, SPP - amp/divider/lots more speakers, Bose - amp/fiber/more speakers.)

Hi Don, I finally got my Android Head Unit and installed it (thanks for all your help). It works and sounds great. However, I noticed that the unit doesn't turn on when I unlock the car and start it nor off when I turn off the car and lock it like the OEM used to. I had to use my trickle charger as my battery was completely drained this morning. The only tapping I did was the red, black, and yellow cables from the MOST (to red, black, and yellow cables on the unit harness), but just to test, I disconnected the MOST (and didn't get any sound), but the unit continues to behave the same way. Any ideas? Thanks Hassan

Hassan - I don't think we ever discussed what car you're fitting this to. The control of power on the unit should replicate what the stock unit does. It turns on when the ignition key is inserted, and turns off when the ignition key is removed. At least it's that way on the 987.2 cars (and AFAIK on the 987.1 cars). What car is this in? Your avatar indicates a 911 of some sort. That's controlled by the CANBUS - telling it the car is "alive" when the key is inserted and telling it to shut down when the key is removed. There is also one wire that is used as a "trigger" wire - which is connected to the ignition-on power circuit - I believe that's more or less a backup to the CANBUS control. All of this is done with no external or additional connections needed - ie - plug and play. Some of the behavior can also be modified in some of the device configuration menus (I can't recall which one, but I suspect the factory menu), and indeed, I've gotten mine into a state where it's not behaving as I wanted. I'd suggest going through the factory menu structure (code is 3368 to get into it), taking some photos of the menus, and posting them here. Perhaps if I see them it will jog something in my memory about what you want to do. Or I can compare yours to how mine are set and point out any differences. Right now it's up to you to provide the pics..

Hi Don, Right, it’s a 997.1 2008 911 C4S. I found three relevant settings in Factory: 1- CanBus Type (preset to BG Porsche Cayenne ; can’t find any 911 ) 2- Sleep mode (set to power off with ACC off) 3- Delay power off when ACC off (set to off) This setup along with plug n play connections and fiber optic box tapping into B+, Ground and ACC works but is draining my battery . I pushed the knob last night to turn it off, and I guess it simply went into standby mode. Today morning, I had to connect the trickle charger because my battery was almost dead. Thoughts? Thanks Hassan

Hey Don, I used the multimeter to see if there was any connectivity between 12v and ACC in the harness and there wasn’t, which is great. However, when I connected the CanBus unit, touching the 12v and ACC buzzed. So either it’s a software thing, which needs to be set or the CanBus unit is defective. Does that make sense? Hassan

Hassan, When you say "buzzed" - is that indicating voltage seen or continuity? As far as the CanBus unit being defective, I had curious things with mine not shutting down as it should that was solved by replacing the CanBus box.... so it might be worthwhile contacting the vendor. He sent me one quickly when I had the issue, and he suggested that was the issue, so I'm guessing that wasn't the first time that issue was seen. The CanBus is responsible for telling the unit to turn off (and on). Meanwhile I'm on the way to the garage to see what my settings are..

Thanks Don. Will message the seller. Did you get yours from Heregoes by any chance?

It buzzed indicating continuity.

OK - the screens you posted - 1 slight difference - might just be wording difference in a later OS.... For "Sleep mode Setting" my screen says "Sleep Mode when When ACC Off" - and is set to "Off" which I think means "Go into sleep mode when ACC off" and my setting has this turned off, so when ACC is turned off - the unit does NOT go into sleep mode - it turns off. Your's might have just the opposite meaning.. (does it say "Power off when ACC off"?) so it would go into sleep mode (it's a lower power mode, but it's still basically running) when it sees ACC turned off. You might try changing that. On another note: Please READ https://www.planet-9.com/threads/posting-photos-in-posts-to-planet-9.253974/ - your photos are HUGE - 4032 Horizontal resolution. A standard hi-def (1K) picture is 1024 pixels, and it is quite clear on a 50" monitor. The horizontal resolution of a 4K TV signal is 3,840 pixels - yours is higher. Yours would still be clear on a 6-foot (72") monitor. It probably would be clear on a jumbotron. That resolution means that roughly 35Mb of bandwidth is used to transmit it to our website, and the same again when transmitted to anyone viewing it. In the day of terabyte speeds - it may not seem like much, but the real speed of this displaying on someone's screen is also related to ALL the hardware between the image file and their display, so - when I opened your posting - the two photos took about a minute to display. That's unnecessary for an image that is likely going to be viewed on a 3" phone screen or perhaps as an 8" image on a computer display. Reducing the images from 35MB, 4000+ horizontal resolution to a more reasonable 1024 H resolution reduces the file size to about 2.1MB - making quite a large difference in transmittal and loading speed. The link above explains how to achieve this. Please do it for future posts.

Yes.

Thanks Don. Will try changing the setting on both the car and pics (for future). Thank you Sir 🙏🙏🙏

Hey Don. Changed the setting to on since it did say “Power off with Acc off,” but it still remains on. I shut the door and locked the car. Waited 15-minutes but …. The screen remained on. I reached out to Heregoes and have asked him for a solution, including a new CanBus. Thanks for your help Don; appreciate it 🙏🙏🙏

If i am only running Android Auto is it better to get a 4 Core or 8 Core unit?

I don't know of anyone who bought a 4-core - the 8-core is fairly quick, and not a lot more money. Android Auto does offload some of the processing to your phone obviously, so that will help make up for the lack of computing power. Toss up to me - I went with the 8-core, and I seem to recall 32Gb of memory (adequate for the apps and music I'm storing on the unit.) I've seen some recommendations for going hog wild on memory, but unless you're storing videos on the unit I can't imagine what you'd use all of it for. Mine with about 6,000 MP3 tracks, and maybe 30 apps of various sorts averaged 8GB of free space out of the 32GB that it started with. If I was really running short on space, I'd remove some of the less used apps and figure on just reloading them if I needed them, it's fast enough to reload/install apps over the 4G/LTE connection.

Hi, I've read every single post in this thread and indeed it is a gem. Excuse me though but I can't seem to find any info on if the trip computer data is somehow displayed. Given that there is canbus communication it should be possible, right? I wouldn't want to miss trip info on the main screen of the car.

Hi Stefan - welcome to Planet-9 - the Friendly Forum for Inquiring Porsche Owners! I believe the trip computer data is done by the PCM, using the information it gets via the CanBus from the car, then displayed on the PCM or the dash display. I have never had it - but I have it in my Cayenne, and it is on the PCM. SO - if you swap out a PCM for the Android unit - detailed trip data will be gone. Simple trip info - Average/MPG and Average/MPH are still available in the cluster display - they're calculated in the instrument cluster I believe. Not all is lost, since there are Android apps that provide similar functionality. One I've used is "GeoTracker" - which provides even more functionality than the PCM-based trip computer. Only thing it doesn't do - it has no idea of MPG.. Geo Tracker - GPS tracker - Apps on Google Play - I used it to layout and time routes for a Porsche Club of America "tour" event our local chapter had. It was quite useful. There are several other apps offering the same sort of functionality - but so far this is my favorite. While you're here - how about visiting https://www.planet-9.com/forums/new_members/ and telling us a bit about your Porsche and perhaps yourself. We LOVE pictures - as is obvious when you look over any of the intros.. And welcome once again!

Thank you for welcoming me. Unfortunately, this answer was not what I was hoping for. Not a deal breaker but I will need some time to digest the fact that I will be losing detailed trip info. An alternative android app is some kind of a solution. Not ideal but it is something.

I'm not certain what detailed trip info you'll be losing. On my Cayenne (PCM3.1/Burmester) it records a total trip with info on travel time and distance, and then an individual leg. What else are you seeing on yours? The app I mentioned offers that and much more - like Google Maps recording of your trip (or leg, or whatever..) with all sorts of details (avg speed, peak speed, elevation, and you can plot each of those...)

You're probably right. When I asked the question I didn't have the car in my hands yet. Now after 3 days and 1000km with it, I know for sure that a new infotainment is needed more than anything else. I will address some mechanical issues first (a faulty catalyst or Lambda probe, we'll see) and then the Ali screen is next in line so I will be sticking around this thread.

Thinking about... ClearCal Custom Size Anti-Glare Films Custom-sized optically-correct anti-glare (non-reflective) and transparent protective display and TV films - Enter the desired length and width www.radtech.com Just have to go measure the screen...

I got my unit and went to fit it but the previous owner had cut off the factory PCM connector. Does anyone have the wiring color codes for this unit so i can splice it in?

I had the same issue. If you go back to the beginning of the thread you'll see how I solved it. I would be hesitant to suggest cutting off the connectors on the harness Heregoes provided with the unit. I think reinstalling a factory connector is a much better solution.

I agree but i am finding it impossible to find one

I got the wiring from HereGoes if anyone needs it

I searched for a junkyard with a wreck, then went and took it off the wreck myself. The guy at the junkyard seemed to feel it wasn't worth their effort to remove it to sell it to me. Any junkyards with Porsches in them nearby? You can consider getting the connector from the 997 series cars too - they used the same PCM setup.

Not sure Don if this one from Aliexpress is not the same as Porsches connector. I don’t have my car nearby to verify.

Without having it in my hands and seeing it firsthand - I can't say. That IS a quadlock connector (which Porsche used with the PCM models) - the question is, are all the required leads there? Looking at that image I can see what appears to be several blank spaces in the middle large connector.. This is the stock connector - the one that had been hacked off my car by a past-owner (with wires too short to splice) - the small pin connector (which is colored blue) isn't in the photo, it was dangling by a wire on the original harness (I guess it wasn't needed with the earlier installation). I wonder if it is what Porsche might sell as a repair part (they often offer connectors with a short length of wire for repair work... not easy to find in the parts catalog though, I think there may be a separate catalog for those..) EDIT - after looking at my image, and the image from AliExpress - that one won't work. They can't mate - the layout of the small connectors is entirely different and physically they won't mate. Bummer....

how do you connect an external microphone and external aftermarket reverse camera? FIXED

Also anyone had issues with the instrument cluster stopping working after install? I have checked all fuses and had the battery disconnected but the cluster is dead. Im wondering if these issues have something to do with the CANBUS box connections? My car plugs were cut off so I am trial and error with the wiring. 1. Does anyone know which car side wires the CANBUS orange and Orange/Blk connect to? 2. Maybe someone has a picture/diagrams of all the colors and connections?

Hello, Here are a couple of pics from my car (stock). Do these help? I will be reaccessing the internals tomorrow so if you have any specific pics that you would like, please let me know ASAP and I'll be happy to post. Thanks Hassan

Thanks for those. I'm looking to see which wires on the new unit connect to which wires on the car.

I will take a pic after connecting my unit, hopefully tomorrow

So an update - Everything is back working on the cluster. Also I think everything is working on the HU except the reverse camera. I ended up connecting the single green wire to the red/wht to power the amp up. The camera wont turn on - I have tried connecting the power to 12V and switched 12V. Is there a particular wire on the HU for reverse?

If you mean a reverse signal in the factory car harness - I would have to refer to the diagrams I've already posted here a number of times. To make the camera work: - You have to power on the camera. It needs 12V to work. Typically there is a red and black wire coming from the junction of the camera and the wiring provided to run to the headunit. That's at the end back in the trunk area. You have to ground the black wire and provide switched power to the red camera - by tapping into the backup light hot side. I'd strongly suggest the use of some of the extra Positaps you already purchased to tap into that wire. That same connection is connected to a red wire embedded in the coax cable going up front - and it comes out as a red wire up front with +12V on it when the reverse lights light up. That red wire could be used to provide a reverse signal to the headunit if it was needed - but in my experience - it ain't needed. The unit receives a reverse signal via the CanBus and automatically switches into the reverse image when it sees that signal. The coax from the camera terminates in a male RCA connector that gets plugged into the yellow female RCA connector marked "Reverse" - once that's done you should have a reverse camera. IF for some reason your unit isn't switching to reverse using the CanBus signal (and that would make it the first one that didn't) - you could use the red reverse signal that travels up to the headunit in the coax cable - connected to the yellow wire that's on the same plug as the reverse female connector. BTW - tracked down the diagrams of the QualLock connector: https://www.planet-9.com/threads/di...headunit-to-replace-the-standard-cd30-radio-and-probably-the-pcm3.253949/page-9 And the answer is - no reverse signal coming from the harness. It's all done magically with the CanBus.

cheers for that. 1. I am using the camera ive used before so I know the rear is wired correctly as you stated 2. The yellow connectors are connected and I have the red wire free - i have tried to connect that to 12V and switched 12V 3. I'm starting to think that the Canbus is not working as I get nothing on my dash to indicate that it is transmitting anything. 4. Because my original plugs were cut off im not sure the 2 orange wires coming from the Canbus go anywhere. Could that be the issue

#3 is the clue. Also - the CanBus has a high leg and a low leg.. reversed won't work.

Thanks - This is clearly what I am not understanding. the canbus plugs into the HU with the white plug. It then has multiple wires coming out of it to the plug that connects to the car. My issue is the corresponding car plug has been cut off, so I dont know it the wires from the canbus are connecting to the right wires from the car. Another thought - would it make a difference to which HU plug I used to wire up with? My car origionally came with a PCM 3 and Im using the smaller one that I think you cut off 2. Also a very dumb question - how do i get the Agama launcher to launch by default?

So you didn't restore the original connector? If not - you can see in photos I posted the wires going into the Quadlock connector from the factory radio. There are also several diagrams of the Quadlock connector indicating what pin does what.... Using both of those you should be able to figure out what has to be connected to what on the radio from the car harness. Seems pretty simple to me.. one gives you the color wire coming from what location, the other tells you what each pin in the connector does. Between the two you should be able to ID all of the wires. 2. There is an option in the radio I believe under factory settings where you can set the default launcher. I think that's how I set it up.. I think it's somewhere in the photos above.

thanks - playing with the wiring now. I found the place in factory setting to select the launcher but the only choices i get are the default ones - no mention of Agama

I forget how I got it to appear there (and it just appeared using the same sort of syntax the built-in ones use) but I'm fairly sure if you wade back through the 12 pages of this thread - I recall posting how to do it somewhere, probably here.

Ive installed Agama and Carwebguru but neither show up in the launcher list

It's being shipped tomorrow. It will be replacing a Rosen headunit that replaced another Rosen headunit that replaced the CD30 radio. I realized I never use CD's in the car so having that was a waste of time, and I can save money and still have SiriusXM by using the Android Sirius app (which is free to use if you have another car subscription, which I do) and either getting another 4G/LTE data connection from Verizon ($10/month) or just using my Android phone as a hotspot and since it will be connected to the unit for Android-Auto anyway - just streaming the data through the "Ethernet" USB connection (they call it that, I didn't..) from the phone. Plus I'll have Torque, so I can make up a nice instrument panel.. lots of real-estate to play with. More info when it arrives.. they did do an almost perfect job of matching the styling and knobs that Porsche used for the console components. Plus I insist on buttons and knobs - way less distracting than doing all the good stuff via a touchscreen. Cost is less than $300 - a bit more affordable than the very nice but horribly costly Porsche Classic replacement (also Android..): Porsche PCCM Plus: Nice - but not available in black yet (was supposed to be available 2/23) and $1,300-1,500. Update: 04/15/23 - received notification it's been shipped (via DHL) - expected before 4/21/23. Also have had excellent communications with the factory representative in China. Questions have been answered within 12 hours - or usually if I wait until 9PM - instantly.

It arrived and was unpacked today. Photos to come. Spent several hours going to a foreign car junkyard and obtaining a part I was missing... more on this later. Right now - off to the gym.

OK - a bit of info: https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256804900236833.html - the 2nd one, 2GB/32GB 8-core, 4G-LTE, Bluetooth, Wifi, Android-12. $225 + shipping and tax = around $255 total. The trip to the junkyard was a quest to find a factory PCM connector for the car. Whoever installed the first aftermarket radio in it hacked up the harness, leaving that connector behind with about 1" of wire sticking out of it. This headunit was supposed to come with a plug-and-play harness that connected directly to the factory radio harness and transitioned to the connections on the headunit. I waited until it arrived to make certain it DID come that way, and I happily found it did. If my harness hadn't been hacked, I would have possibly installed it today.. Anyway - I wanted the connector with a longer length of wire on it so I could stagger the splices back into the harness and avoid having a very thick difficult spot in the repaired harness (I'm debating soldering it, or using Positap Connectors (I have skills dating back 70 years with soldering, but I also have a small pile of Positap connectors.. depends on how flexible I feel tomorrow.) The connectors: The source of the new connector: That's a rather sad story -but I'm not superstitious (one Volvo I bought many years ago had a murder committed in it..) and this one was the easiest to get to. A pair of tin-snips got me the connector and 6" of harness to splice into. So - what'd the radio look like? And what came with it? It was manufacturered last Friday and arrived on my doorstep exactly a week later, on the predicted delivery date. Not bad! The dealer on AliExpress claimed to be the manufacturer for it and said they supplied the other sellers selling basically the same thing for the same price. I can't say if that's true - but they were quite responsive with information and responding to questions I had. I had specified the radio connector I wanted to hookup with, and that the faceplate had to be black (it's also available for 987.1 and 997.1 cars in the silver color.) That wasn't an issue. Opened the box: Yes - they even provided a trim removal pry bar. I was impressed. And LOTS of cables/connectors. That's the primary harness - with a Can-Bus decoder, two connectors to the headunit, and one to the existing harness (once I splice the replacement connector in.) It seems well labeled - especially for the wires that aren't part of the connectors. A bonus in the box - a dashcam/dvr, controlled by the headunit. Since I already have a small dashcam I'm not sure if I'll bother with this one, but I might try it just to see if it provides better night vision. The headunit has three video inputs, one for the rear and then two auxilary video inputs. A BIG bag of connectors and stuff. Connectors, antennas, antenna cable adaptors. Lots of "stuff" that isn't so much plug and play.. have to find a place for it. Some of the stuff.. labeled. That should be WiFi, not WiWi.. Connectors for external amps, subwoofer amp, two auxiliary camera inputs, and the SIM card. Rear of the unit. And the side of the unit. This was interesting since the carrier for the stock PCM in the center console uses a lug at the rear of the PCM to support the rear (the purpose of the top mounting clip in the photo) and has two cutouts in the cage the PCM fits into for locking it in place (the bottom clips.) It appears it should be quite easy to mount the actual unit, and since the unit is about 3" shallower than the unit it's replacing, there should be adequate room behind it for the various cables, boxes, and connectors. A front view. Hopefully tomorrow we'll get to see it installed and working. Later..

VOLUME KNOB! Love it... How deep is this HU? Looks like there are a lot of wires and cables, so having more space back there would be great. The other Erisin unit looked a lot shallower, while this one seems deep... so I'm wondering if you still have space behind it. Of course, you may not know how much space you have "left" as you haven't installed it yet... but I would like to know...

Working on it now.. it's not as shallow as I'd hoped, but I will be removing things like the Sirius /XM receiver wiring which takes up some room, and generally tidying up there. It's perhaps 1-1.5" less deep. I'll try for a side-by-side shot. What is frustrating is wiring the replacement radio connector back in.. it's impossible to crimp in-line splice connectors in that space if I try to do it with my professional tool.. not enough room. The handyman versions of these tools produce real iffy junctions, so.. I'm now soldering them. I thought I had PosiTap in-line connectors, but all I can find that I have is actual PosiTaps.. in various sizes. Not so useful. So far - I started around 11AM, it's now 3PM and I'm just at the stage of connecting wiring. Sigh. Eilenberger Law #10 on Time.. Laws - this one-hour job might be finished sometime tonight - or not.

I'm still at it. It took about 6-7 hours to restore the connector to the wiring on the car. I ended up soldering the splices, and using shrinkwrap on them. It was the only way to make reliable connections. I then sat the unit in my lap and plugged the wiring together. First puzzling thing - the adaptor harness from the Porsche connector to the radio was fine, and the Can-Bus was fine (it uses Can-Bus for various things like the reverse camera) BUT - for some reason known only to them - there is an extra, big, black, UNUSED connector attached to that harness. The thing on the green circle - has no function except making it harder to install the unit. Am I happy - not yet - at the moment I'm regretting I even started this job. I've got to find some way to secure the thing in the dash so it doesn't slide out if I accelerate hard. BTW - I just sent the following to their support, we'll see how quick they reply now that the item was delivered... Back out to the garage - I see this finishing up sometime tomorrow morning.

I've got it pretty much secured. Some 3/16" foam tape on both sides keeps it in place. I tiewrapped all the wiring up which made it slightly neater. And I explored it a bit so see what works, how it works and what I think of it. The tuner function sucks eggs. It's sensitive enough, but the user interface sucks. No dial showing or displayed, just frequencies. The right knob which one might hope could be used to tune it instead mutes it. It has a scan feature, but it's not clear how it actually works. I can get it to scan, but it doesn't save the results of the scan, and it's difficult to get it to stop on one station so it can be stored. I've seen screen captures from Android devices like this that have a nice-looking tuner screen. I'll have to see if I can figure out how to add one. Android Auto is WIRELESS - which apparently is rather rare on the current generation of radios. Despite telling it to auto-connect, I do have to go to AA on the phone and tell it to connect.. but once connected it does what people seem to expect to see AA do. The Android screens look just like what you might expect, but I haven't figured out how to remove some things (a few EURO-only apps) I'd rather get rid of. I have successfully added Torque to the device. I'll see tomorrow about linking it to the OBD -II dongle that lives on my OBD -II port. I think I can amuse myself by laying out some neat screens... (like real water temperature! Yea!) One really annoying thing - most of the time when a keyboard on it is active, it's overlaid by a semi-transparent green color overlay. That makes it hard to read the keys. While I don't need to see a keyboard if it's a real keyboard, I do need to see one if it's a virtual on-screen one. I haven't found how to turn that off or at least down. The code for the extended user menu and developer's menu is 3386.... and it lets you into lots of more advanced stuff, not a lot useful particularly in the developer's menu. As I mentioned to them in my complaints - the volume is just TOO DAMN LOUD. The volume goes from 0-10, at 3 it's way too loud. There are key/screen-touch noises made to help the user, but if I turn these on, there is no volume control for them and I think they're at 10 by default. I fear for my speakers. One menu (maybe advanced users) has a page for default volume settings for different apps and functions. I've tried changing them, and while it helps when you first open an app - it still has no effect on the warning tones. Major flaw IMHO. Google Maps works - nicely with a WiFi connection (I haven't activated 4G-LTE yet) - and if you plot a route on it, it offers to download the maps needed to travel the route when you don't have connectivity. It also has iGo navigation. I was familiar with iGo (European I believe, or maybe Israeli) since the old unit used it. It looks a bit the same, and a bit different. One flaw with both - this has a 1280x720 screen resolution and I think both interfaces for both nav apps were designed with lower resolution in mind. The writing and buttons are all rather small, not good for car use where you don't want to be transfixed by the technology. I hoped to put the GPS antenna in the center-dash-speaker hole since I thought I didn't have a center speaker. I took off the grille and it sure looks like I do have one, so more thinking about this. The antenna I used with the old system used a Euro antenna connector, not an SMA. So I may have to use the antenna that came with it. I've got to download and load SiriusXM and remember to call them and cancel the account for this vehicle. I'm also looking for a cheap monthly data-only 4G-LTE plan - apparently, these do exist, so I might want to give one a try. If anyone has experience with this - let me know. Oh well - I'm REALLY tired - so the car is almost back together, but there are tools, wire clippings, all sorts of stuff that has to be put away - something to do tomorrow. I'll report some more tomorrow, and I have more pics to share - screenshots, some mounting, and tidying up of the wiring. See'ya all tomorrow.

More to come later tonight. But a FWIW - I received answers for most of my questions of the vendor, the only ones I need specific answers to are how to control the overall gain (volume) for the unit, and how to change screen resolutions for iGo and Google Maps. Oh - and the green keyboard overlay (I can't imagine thinking this was a good idea.. but there it is.) It's pretty solidly mounted (they shipped a different size side clip for the unit - protrudes more from the case, this makes it fit more snuggly in the carrier in the console. I also left in place about 3/16" thick x 1"x2" pieces of foam rubber on each side of the unit case, and some very small strips of 1/8" thick rubber on either side of the bezel where the side panels of the console are. These snug it up quite nicely and center it in the opening. Future (undone at the moment.. but.. planning..) stuff.. I ordered a male faraka to male SMA connector from Amazon . Be here tomorrow. It's to try the original GPS antenna with the unit, that one is mounted under the starboard side of the windshield cowl. If that works I won't have to mount the one that came with the unit. Canceled my SiriusXM subscription for this car. Keeping the subscription for the Cayenne and have a streaming account to use for this unit. Thinking about the installation of the 4G-LTE antenna. It's about 3.5" long by 5/8" wide by 1/8" thick. I'm thinking perhaps on the windshield behind the black surround painted on the glass. I imagine orienting it vertically should work OK. And it wouldn't be really obvious there. Anyway - lots more pics to follow once I download them and process them.. probably later tonight.

This post is mostly photos with a few comments along the way. I basically was finishing up the installation today (total time - probably about 12 hours, going slowly and learning as I went along, plus I'm old and arthritic so I don't do things as quickly as I used to..) I managed to get an installation I'm almost happy with. There will be some more changes by the time I'm done with it. And I need some help doing Android troubleshooting - if anyone is REALLY familiar with Android-12 and willing to swap some messages, please hit me up... the documentation that the vendor supplied is a classic example of a manual translated by Google Translate from a bad Chinese source file, and no one even coming close to proof-reading it. I add it here as an attachment (in PDF format) for anyone who likes to be amused by an absolutely unusable instruction manual... So I'm back (it's 4/24/23) with some comments on the photos: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------​ It's when I'm facing this sort of horror that I start to regret starting the job, but I forged ahead. This is about midway in disconnecting and connecting things. Arggg!! The horror, the horror! It did actually come to life, after a lot of sorting out of the wiring. Luckily I have a few bags with hundreds of the tiny tie-wraps used for cable-bundling kicking around the garage. These were my father's and I have no idea why he had so many, but they're very handy for bundling wires since I didn't want to use the very special cloth sticky tape German wiring harnesses use. There is one remaining issue with this harness - it has an extra connector... The connector with the RED X isn't needed, never will be needed, and just gets in the way of things. In discussions with the vendor, they agreed that cutting it out of the harness wouldn't do anything bad - and might do something good. Right at the moment it's still in there - but not for long. That should make fitting the unit into the dash considerably easier. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------​ Finally, it came to life... sitting on my knee. It made a noise when I found the tuner.. so it was working. So I next went exploring Android-12. The system came with a choice of 4 different "Home Launcher" selections. It's possible to download and install more, but the 4 it has seemed OK to me. (I'll take photos of the ones it came with for a later posting..) And I discovered the on-board " General Instruction manual - For Reference Only" which means it's missing a lot and some of it doesn't apply to Android 12: Some examples of the Instructions: Ones like "The default volume setting is valid" for the Default Volume Switch totally baffle me. This one seems like it might be useful - on setting the car logo so it displays when the unit boots up - if it had been understandable. There are somewhere somewhat conflicting instructions on how to do this.. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------​ Stuff that happens (photo above) - this green overlay started randomly appearing on various screens of different apps. The reverse image was one of the ones it really liked to happen in, and any screen with an onboard keyboard seemed to trigger it. What was it? The vendor had no idea. It isn't caused by hardware since the image of the car (in this photo) that's used for backup sensors (which I don't have) is clear and in black and white with no overlay. I tried looking at every setting on the unit (was in the garage from 9-12 PM checking settings) and NOTHING changed the behavior. I went out to it this morning, thinking I'd go nuclear on it and do an entire reset.. losing all the settings and links I'd made to it. Instead - no green this morning, or during the 3 hours or so I was installing things like WAZE and Amazon Video. A total mystery, but I realized one thing. The thing goes into a standby mode (user time settable) when power is turned off - all the settings and running apps are saved so they appear immediately without waiting for the system to reboot when you start the car again. I think that means some setting changes that might cause system changes don't actually take effect until the system powers down and then powers back up. I think I'm going to set that boot-down time to 15 minutes, then do a manual reboot (so that takes effect..) Further update on the Green Screen'o'crap.. it turns out there is a setting in the advanced custom super-secret factory development settings to "flash the screen when the unit has high CPU activity" (or something to that effect..) Somehow that got turned on. Then it apparently turned itself off. It hasn't done this again - so forgeddaboutit.. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ​ The photo below shows one of the means I tried (and did partly use) to mount the headunit securely in the radio-frame in the console. Two things specifically: - The use of some fairly high-density foam, approximately 3/16" thick total on each side of the headunit helps secure it in place. - The rear mounting "lug" (labeled "Guide" below) - it turns out the radio comes with another pair of these mounting lugs that are slightly taller than the ones shown in this photo. Installing those mounting lugs in place of the ones that came on the radio moved them more securely into the slots in the radio frame. And it turns out - the vendor told me that installing them in a second set of holes that are much closer to the front display makes them even more effective. DO use a magnetic screwdriver, the screws ARE tiny, and if they drop (very likely) it will be quite difficult to locate them. "Experience teaches us things we don't want to know.." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------​ That's it for the moment - more to come. I'll be reviewing what I think works well, what I think could use improvement and what I think is useless or unusable. For fun reading:

A quick update - came out the next day and the green issue was gone and hasn't reappeared. I finally finished up the installation today. It took from around 11AM-6:30PM (30 minutes off for lunch) to do the "final" installation (final is always tentative - sooner or later I'll think of some reason I want to change something or redo something requiring R&R of the headunit. It's inevitable - but today was finish up some items, do some items, and make things as tidy as I could. So - I found my old original GPS antenna works just fine with this unit after I bought a male/male Farka to SMA adaptor ($6 Amazon , next day free delivery) - it seems even more sensitive (it saw about 15 or more satellites IN my garage, with the metal door up over the rear of the car..) than when it was used with the Rosen headunit. I did move the mounting lugs on it as suggested by the vendor, and it does sit a bit better in the opening. It still needs some foam in spots to center and keep it from sliding out, but less than before and it fits well. The two pork chops that are on the sides of the center console - I took pliers and bent the top retaining clip flat. That one has always been troublesome to get loose when removing the panels. They come out easily now. I feel that was overkill on Porsches side - there's no way those are going anywhere with two remaining clips AND the T20 torx screws at the rear of the panel. So - what'd I do today..? I clipped out (and insulated the wires) the extra connector in the harness. It might seem like a small thing, but it actually was a major roadblock to comfortably fitting all the wiring that goes to the unit back into the hole it mounds in. I left enough on the stubs so it would be easy to reaffix it in the absolutely impossible chance that it needed reattachment. I then used some magic tape that a member here gave me and fastened the CanBus decoder box to the back of the unit. The fins are deep enough that air should still circulate and keep things from overheating. Finished ready to install. The wires in the circle are the clipped ends left from removing the useless connector. The CanBus interface can be seen attached to the rear of the radio. I also mounted and routed the wiring for the new 4G-LTE antenna (routing the wiring is a royal PITA, as was removing the old Sirius/XM antenna from the same area.) That alone took several hours of taking parts of the interior apart to try to find a reasonable path from the passenger's side A-pillar to the radio location. Next I add the final harness to the back of the radio (which now was fairly tidy - as seen in the photo) which gave lots of inputs/outputs (unused for now) and the SIM card holder, again had to route it to where it could be accessed in the footwell. A few USB cables got routed and everything finally got buttoned up. What did I end up with? A few things I really liked - and was surprised at one of them. The CanBus interface. I figured it was just some sort of adaptor - that caught data off the CanBus and used it for features in the headunit - like the moving/curved lines when backing up (uses the steering angle sensor).. but it does quite a bit more than that. Imagine my surprise - when I noticed on the dash: What was this? I'd never seen this before on the display. It was telling me I was listening to USB-2 using the music player. What else could it do? Well: And similar displays for other functions.... It was telling the car what it was doing and the car understood what it was saying. What also was interesting - this car - like the majority of this era Porsches ends up with errors in a bunch of modules that talked to the PCM after replacing the PCM. I think there were 18 errors in all when I scanned it, all communications errors. I hooked up my Foxwell, did a scan - lots of leftover errors. I cleared them - and ALL the errors disappeared and didn't reappear. That was very pleasing to me. The CanBus connection, besides feeding the headunit outside temperature (which it insists on displaying in C despite me telling it to use F) and the turning action on the steering wheel, also tells the headunit when you turn on the headlights, automatically switching the brightness down (and the night level can be set..) It can display vehicle speed (in km/h for some reason despite me telling it to use MPH). Overall - the CanBus implimentation seems really good, and I haven't seen any reports on other units having this ability. The CanBus decoder was included in the price... I decided just for the heck of it to try out streaming video (no - it won't get used when I'm driving, but if I'm sitting in it waiting for SWMBO it might well get used.) I installed Amazon Prime's video app - and it's super. Designed for this environment, well laid out, logical buttons/controls, and best of all - a great display in high-def (I was connected to the web via WiFi on a 2Gb connection in my garage.) So - what do I wish they did better? Some of the gripes are with application implementations, others are software that came on the unit and can't be removed.. Google Maps (downloaded app) as a navigation tool is almost worthless. The writing on the screen it so small I need reading glasses to see it and have to be about 18" from the front of the unit. Unusable. Waze on the other hand (aren't they owned by Google now) has an excellent interface with print for the most part that's readable, and a layout that must have been designed for the horizontal display. iGo -- a European GPS application (delivered on the unit and not removable, but it can be disabled) I had this on the Rosen head units I used to have, and it was quite usable and rather clever in some ways. On this device, it pretty much isn't usable. The maps included with it just have info on roads/streets, no info on items of interest or businesses. On the Rosen implementation, it had all that info. The maps were also from 2016.. already 7 years old right out of the box. I will be looking to see if the maps can be updated from NaviExtras - who provided the maps for the Rosen implementation, and those were quite good. The Radio application (part of the native apps) sucks big time. A confusing interface, unlabeled buttons marked only by icons that really aren't understandable. An earlier radio implementation shown in the useless operations manual (in a post above) had an example of a very useable and well-laid-out radio interface. Radio: Does anyone want to guess what each of those icons does? There is no explanation, one has to start pressing on them to see what they do to figure it out. Sucks, and is ugly. Music - their streaming music app (part of the delivered apps, not removable) - uses a similar and similarly ugly unintuitive interface to the radio app. It also had issues with an iPod, and it doesn't work well with folders - which every other streaming music app seems to handle quite well. It will default to playing all the songs in ONE folder, even if set to randomize the playlist. Other applications include ALL the music in ALL the folders in their random selections. Phone: Same designer - same issues. Why the icons? Is there something wrong with buttons with text on them? I guess it adds a bit more complexity due to needing to work in multiple languages - but other people have done it... This interface is ugly and unintuitive. More to come...

I now have written Best-Buy off as a sell-now if you own their stock. The "Geeks" in the store are pretty much useless (I can remember when they were actually helpful..) I asked about a "data-only" wireless plan, and was given the fish-eye.. the particular geek I was talking to mumbled something when I showed him my phone with the Best Buy website open which claimed they had one in stock, but even with the stock number, he remained clueless. The other thing was - I was possibly the only actual customer in the store. Remember when there were lines at the Bestbuy checkout? There was no one on the register (and this was about 6PM, when commuters might decide to stop in to buy something. Most of the staff seemed to be hanging around the main door, chatting and looking out. If you have the stock - ditch it. They're the next electronics chain store to go belly up. The Amazonation of American Retailing has taken another victim. Ditto on Target, although the young man at the phone/electronics counter tried to be helpful, and was civil, he had a basic lack of knowledge of the product they are selling. And the "1 in stock" on their website for this store was a lie. So - I went to the gym and went home and Amazon 'd one. $0.99 - a week-long trial one. Free shipping and it arrives tomorrow. If it works, I'll report back here. What I can report worked just fine was setting my phone as a hot-spot, and then connecting the headunit to it with WiFi. I tried out Wase a bit - on the way down with no network access, and when I got about 4 miles from my house I drove into Neverland - nothing there. Totally blank canvas with the lonely arrow chugging along through it. So on the way back - I tried it with the hotspot. It made me an immediate fan of online GPS . It was quite good, knew how to get out the back way from the Target parking lot, gave simple adequate instructions, and pronounced the street names correctly. It seemed far superior to the built-in nav of my Cayenne and better than the iGo that was on the Rosen unit. I haven't tried Google Maps yet with the hot-spot, but I will.

I'm pretty much finished (except playing around with some launchers and apps..) and everything is working. The SIM 4G-LTE connection started up - with excellent speed and connection strength. (I'm using a MintMobile trial account... It's carried on the T-Mobile network.. who apparently own it) Somehow the music player decided it could do actual random selections from my 700 album thumbdrive (3800 songs)... It's ugly but it works. Luckily once it's in auto-random mode I have no need to display it and the Launcher home skin has a nice display with next/previous/stop-start buttons, so I don't have to look at it. AM radio does work, I'd just forgotten how bad and barren the AM landscape is. FM is fine - although this interface is lacking in the interface useability and beauty department. The Google "Assistant" (replacement for Android Auto) connects quite nicely over Bluetooth and is fairly easy to customize. Google Maps works well in that mode, but now that it has a data signal it works really well in the native mode outside Assistant. In each mode the instructions are given clearly and in ample time to prepare to do what they're asking. In native mode you can run the navigation part of it on a split screen. One side shows the map and turns and route, the other side shows a Google Streets image of every "action" you have to take (like turning at a light..) This looks like it might be quite useful. I'll add a photo or two of it.. It loaded maps from NJ to Yellowstone in about 10 seconds, and took 150k of data doing it. Waze works great in native Android mode. Much less detailed maps than Google Maps - but in lots of cases that might be an advantage, easier to glance at and understand that way. The provided GPS application - iGo - is pretty much useless - but I'll leave it on just because it uses internal maps, so it would be available if I was out of cell data for any reason. Sirius/XM works fine via Assistant - and is free (they give one streaming account free for every paid account you have. If you have none - you can buy into the streaming world for $5/month + fees/taxes.) Sirius-XM also works fine via the SIM/4G data link - but only in demo mode at the moment since I only have one paid subscription. It has quite a useable interface. Android 12 can load different user interfaces (called "Loaders") - a shell that operates the stuff behind the scenes that controls the hardware. That lets you really customize it. It also connects nicely to my cell phone via WiFi with the cell set as a "hotspot" - which may be how I'll use it - I have to check my plan with Verizon, I seem to recall "unlimited" data (but I'm sure after a certain amount they start throttling it.) The headunit can also function as a hotspot in the car when it's connected to the web via the SIM 4G-LTE connection. The CanBus integration with the car is a nice feature - the moving backup lines (which can be modified, although it took me hours to find the menu to do it that I know I'd seen) are a really nice addition and brings it up to the last decade in capability. Oh - how do you access that menu - tap the screen when the backup camera is displayed on the screen and a balloon type menu will popup, letting you change things. Other CanBus stuff like displaying the info from the headunit in the dash display is kinda cool, and controlling the headunit screen intensity and button illumination when you turn on the car's lights is very cool. It also will pop-up service reminders - but nothing to write home about. What I can't get it to do is actually change the temperature display on the top line of the screen (where on an Android cell you will see network, battery, etc sort of info..) from Centigrade to Fahrenheit. Streaming video is nice - for parking lot sits while the wife shops. Quality is great and the sound is outstanding, better than my home theater 5.1 Dolby setup. I have Netflix, Amazon Prime, and HBO setup so far. Google Assistant can read texts out loud to the driver, and then the driver (or passenger) can respond audibly and Google does talk to text. I listened to a rather long text from a friend about his health, but that may well be the only time I'll ever use that feature. It does look great in the dash, like it was made by Porsche and makes the entire interior somehow look more modern. Dunno how it does that, but it does. I'm sure I'll think of some other things.. and I'll be back later with pics.. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ​ Back with some more pictures later..

Don, maybe I missed it somewhere in this thread - where/how did you mount the usb plug ? I didn't see a USB female jack on the radio's face, so it must be plugged-in the back. I'm just about to deal with this since I'm replacing my 13 yr old Pioneer head-unit tomorrow. It had ancient firmware and maps no longer updateable. I went with a JENSEN J1CA7 from Amazon for around $206 (including rear camera). It too only has a rear USB plug. My old Pioneer had a combo USB/iPod cable which I routed into the glove box. For all these years I left my old iPod connected and unseen in the glovebox. I could control it through the head-unit. But now I need to connect my phone via cable for non-wireless AA/Carplay, so I need the USB port more accessible. At leasst I will be eliminate a stand-alone charger. I decided I didn't need wifi support or wireless smart-phone interface - which is available on a nearly identical model for $100 more. None of my other vehicles (which I drive 10x more) had wireless so I know I can live without it. Anyway, back to my question - where did you route the cable? I'm thinking of dropping it down into that cubby storage at the bottom of the stack. I have a small sub-woofer volume control in there. Another possibility is just running it out into the footwell. In either case I would run an extension up to my phone mount on the dash. Update: I received the Jensen today and unpacked it just enough to do a trial fit in the dash. I could immediately see a problem with pushing the hard buttons at the bottom of the screen. They are slightly recessed and they are partially blocked by the bezel and slightly curved HVAC below. My old Pioneer Z110-BT had hard buttons on the bottom but they stuck out from the display and were easily accessed. I think the low seating position and relatively high radio mounting position in the 987 contributed to the awkward reach. Your hand would be coming up at a slight angle and these buttons would be hard to reach. Oh well, good old Amazon and it's hassle-free return policy. Otherwise, it seemed like a nice unit if you don't need built-in gps/maps or wireless AA/CP. BTW, I didn't notice until after I ordered - this unit doesn't itself run Android OS. So you can't install other apps. Stuck with built-ins and whatever runs on your phone. Oh Well, the hunt is on again.

If you want it near to your phone - that sort of directs where you'd mount it. In my case, since I can go wireless from the phone to the headunit that wasn't a concern, but I did run one out the side of the console, tucked it up between the console and the removable side piece joint - it just gets pushed in there (and it seems to stay fine) and then routed around the corner into the little cubby at the bottom of the console. The other USB I ran out behind the carpeted piece you remove to get to things (that screw holding that in is a PITA, I've replaced both with 10mm bolts since the Torx recess in both of them eventually stripped out..) and into the glove box. Like you did - I've had an old 30Gb iPod in there forever - which worked great with the old Rosen headunit that had an iPod interface. I've replaced the iPod with a 32Gb thumb drive with the exact same music files on it - and that one lives in the glove box. So - 1 to cubby, 1 to glovebox. And none to the phone.

Oh - today's project - sit in the garage with it and try to take a logical sequence of photos of the capabilities of the unit. Back later hopefully with the photos.

A "REVIEW" of this unit ​ A general comment: this is by no means "Plug and Play" - some smarts are needed to get it setup so it's useable, but for a bang per $$ basis - it's hard to beat. (Cliff-Notes Version) I'll comment specifically on installing, support, using it, and some other things that may be of interest: Mounting: It has an issue with mounting. I'm thinking of making some rail sliders I can fasten to the side of it that will provide secure mounting. Most people are doing what I've done - relocate the sliders they provided and add foam around the outside of the case. I think this can be done better. (UPDATE) - In thinking about this - the metal pieces they use to fit it to the slide recesses in the radio bay - if the taller ones were 4 instead of 2 - a pair in the rear and a pair near the front of the unit - this would provide the stability needed. I've sent them a message asking if I can get another pair of the metal pieces - if I do - I'll report back on using them. Otherwise, I'm thinking the removed shallow ones with spacers under them might do exactly the same thing. More on this as it develops. More on this - just heard back from the vendor - he's asking the factory about additional mounting plates. Documentation: There is no manual. No operations manual, and no installation manual. The manual they sent me is for an earlier unit running an earlier version of everything and appears to have been translated from Chinese perhaps to Russian then to English using Google Translate. There's a copy of it up in one of the posts above - read it and laugh. The lack of documentation, and the distorted translations in some of the on-system setting descriptions and prompts don't make it feel like a complete ready for market product. The capabilities are there - the implementation needs some attention. Built-in-Documentation: There is a built-in "Function" guide - sadly lacking in details and accuracy and again broken translations from whatever the original source was. This could be made very useable if a native English speaker took the time to rewrite it. Plug and Play Installation: The wiring harness ended up being almost Plug 'n Play, after I removed the unneeded connector on it. I found out that this connector was used on the 2 series PCMs, so the cable was made to be used with either. CDR3, PCM2 or PCM3. The problem was the unused connector took up too much room behind the unit, so I removed it. It would be simpler for the installer if the unit was provided with two connecting harnesses - and the user picks the matching one. Or if the user was prompted when ordering with photos of the connectors as to what one they'd need. I can understand the thinking behind creating a universal one from a logistics point of view... On-Line support: So far the vendor has been quite responsive to requests for info that I've made. Their understanding of English is excellent, and I have done "real-time" discussions/chats with them, provided it's after Midnight on the east coast (that's apparently the start of their working day in China.. there is a 12 hour difference.) General Install Notes and Issues: There's a lot of wiring to run. ^^^ The items that need to be installed ^^^ ​ The GPS antenna should be mounted under the black plastic cowling at the base of the windshield (above the cabin filter.) That requires fishing the wire through the firewall in the frunk to and then into the cabin (the rubber grommet behind the battery, brings the cable into the cabin near the accelerator pedal.) Or I guess you could also mount it directly on the dash under the windshield too, but to me - that looks hokey. Happily, I found out that the GPS antenna from my last headunit works just fine, and only needed a GPS Faraka male to SMA male adaptor cable to use it ($6.99 Amazon). But if this is the first GPS for your car - you're going to have to install the new GPS antenna, and that requires some routing of the wiring. It's claimed the factory antenna from the PCM30 will work with the unit, but will also require the male-Faraka to male SMA adaptor. The WiFi antenna: sticks out the back on one of the connectors to the headunit, so nothing to do there. The 4G-LTE antenna: is a different story. It's about 3" long x 7/8" wide, and 1/8" thick. Has a longish wire going to it. I mounted it on the inside of the "A Pillar" on the passenger's side which meant fishing it through the area behind the glovebox and into the console. PITA, but it works well there. The AM/FM antenna: uses the existing one in the car. On a Cayman with diversity antenna system, a dual Faraka to SAE antenna adaptor may be useful. On a Boxster it appears the antenna system only has one output - so the included Faraka-Antenna adaptor works fine. The BlueTooth antenna: I think that's just one of the wires that aren't terminated in the wiring harness. Nothing needs to be installed there. For short distances BlueTooth is likely to be used with - it seems to work fine. USB cables: Two connect to the rear of the unit. Depending on your intended use of them - you may want them in different locations. I ran one to the glovebox (for use with a USB thumbdrive with audio files on it) and one to the cubby in the center console (also for use for audio files.) Some people may want to use one to charge their cellphone depending on how they mount their cell to the car. The CanBus Decoder: It connects the main harness that plugs into the rear of the unit, and then has two wires that go to a different two-wire connector on the unit. It also causes some issues with fitting everything behind the unit if it's just stuffed into the housing. I found it could be gotten more or less out of the way by using some high-bonding 2-sided tape to mount it to the rear of the unit (on the heat-exchanger fins, which have flat ends.) The tape spaces it out a bit from the heat exchanger so airflow should be possible behind it. Connectivity: 2 USB ports. No flash-drive port : That's OK, but just OK since I don't have to connect my phone to it via USB. If I did, I'd not be happy. One USB port is occupied by the aforementioned thumbdrive with ~3900 songs on it, the other USB port has a thumbdrive with 15 years of recordings of Jean Shepard's WOR-NY humor/solo-talk show from 1956-1971. WiFi - works fine if you have a WiFi source to hook up to. It's actually quite sensitive, more sensitive than my phone (despite the tiny internal antennas). 4G-LTE - I can only speak to the MintMobile (T-Mobile really) connection. It seems strong and stable, but I haven't taken it on a long road trip. I imagine it's pretty decent, I think they're second behind Verizon in coverage, and less BS fees than Verizon. BlueTooth - seems to work fine. I can connect my phone via BlueTooth for wireless Android Assistant+ wirelessly, which very few other headunits can do. ---------------------------------------------------------------- ​ Comparisons: There are other "high-end" versions of this design. More memory, faster processors, and according to a chap in a thread on that forum I used to be active on - who claims to have designed the face of it - claims they work better and use better components. I haven't seen any side-by-side comparisons of the more expensive and the less expensive (this one) products. So the validity of that claim has to be judged on the evidence - so far haven't seen any supporting the claim (it does appear he may have an interest of some type in the sale of these..) Will it last? Dunno - that remains to be seen. I haven't seen any posts or facts about accelerated aging tests, and no photos or descriptions of the components used in them. I think it's doubtful that a company producing basically the same units at different price points are going to save money by putting inferior capacitors in one line, and I've seen NOTHING indicating that happens. Just inuendos ("costs more must be better" sometimes true, sometimes not.) Performance: I'm not sure how they'd work better with a different processor, or if it needs to run faster - this one is very responsive (too responsive for some people) and so far I haven't run out of memory. All for $235. Audio-Quality: Actually quite good overall, with the stock speakers of the non-Bose Boxster system (2 dash tweeters, 2 midrange door, 2 woofer door). I may have one speaker with the foam going, so I can't use the "Loudness" feature. It does have extensive audio shaping capabilities, including time-delay to location for spacial imaging (with absolutely no documentation on how this works.) Ordering: What I might consider spending more money on is more memory. So far it hasn't been an issue, and it seems pretty good about cleaning out its caches when you exit a program (plus there is an easy manual way to accomplish that). I do uninstall anything I can that I know I'm not going to use, and so far that's kept most of the memory that I have clear for use of the programs. Vendor Support: The vendor has been VERY responsive to anything I've asked about and didn't ghost me after I approved AlliExpress releasing payment to him. His written English is excellent. The only issue is the time difference. General Impression: With some work on documentation and the user interface for a few built-in features (radio and streaming audio and phone), it could be a winner. As it is - it seems a bit unfinished. Useable once sorted out - but a bit unfinished. Is it worth it? That's the bottom line. I think compared to the Porsche offering - yes. The Porsche offering is also Chinese-made, but apparently, Porsche had a hand in some of the software and physical design. It's limited as to customization, it's a much older version of Android (Android-6) which some current applications won't work with. The PRICE, and the cost dealers are charging raping people to install it means it is not on my Father's Day list. I'm certain the Porsche documentation is excellent, unfortunately as we know, most Porsche owners won't read it anyway. ​

Some images captured via cell-camera (I think there is a screen capture option on the headunit, but I didn't want to bother having to capture then save and transfer them, cell phone camera was simple.. but the quality and exposure aren't great..) Startup screen - can be replaced with a custom file - like the Porsche logo: One of the provided "Launchers" main menu: I really like this launcher - the buttons look like buttons, and everything is labeled. That makes it way easier to use. I think interface designers might learn something from this. Sort of like how I like real knobs for certain functions. And this one allows for changing the background image (or eliminating it entirely.) And if you hit the "Apps" button on the screen above - you get to: That's a 4 page - scrolling horizontally - selection. Any application added to the system can be displayed there, they default to alphabetical order on this Launcher. Some Launchers allow you to rearrange the order. All of them allow the user to turn most applications off - in which case they won't appear on this screen. I selected the "Gallery" app from the menu above: You can select one of these by touching it, and see: That's album art from one of the files on my USB Thumbdrive. You can click on it again, and just the artwork will show. Or you can click on the play button - and it will start going through all the artwork it found changing them about every 5 seconds. ----------------------------------------------------- ​ An example of another Launcher. Some of them allow you to select what displays on the main page of the launcher, but others what displays is fixed. The three icons on the left are (top to bottom) Navigation, Equalizer, Settings. The other click-buttons are pretty obvious. Most Launchers don't allow the user to change the background, but a few I saw do. The next page of "Apps" - gotten to by sweeping left on the main screen: This one is favorable - it has TEXT on each button! No guessing what you have to click! ----------------------------------------------------- ​ And yet another Launcher: This one was particularly frustrating since I liked the functionality of it - but I could not figure out how to get the speed display to read out in MPH. It is set on the headunit as default - but this Launcher seems to ignore that. And no text on the buttons It has the Clock, Streaming Player, Speed Display and Radio Tuner. The bottom buttons are Navigation, Phone, Apps, Bluetooth, and Settings. Personally - I'd like them as text labels on buttons myself. But I'm old-fashioned that way. If you hit the Apps icon, a screen opens up with a grid of applications. I don't have a photo of that, but I'll try to take one. -----------------------------------------------------​ And a final browser example: Nice design. The background can be changed, and has buttons with text under them. Very useable and simple. To be continued in the next message....

The Phone Application ​ Boring? I think we can say that.. no labels on the buttons except the number buttons. that's a fail. And there are some buttons that make very little sense. The ones in the column to the right of the screen are: Some "link" function? Then answer the phone. Hang up the phone Maybe mute the phone? It would be a bunch easier if they had labels. The bottom row: (1) shows this dialing screen (2) shows the music player screen - why? (3) Phonebook (4) Recent calls (4) Dunno - it's very odd (5) Settings. This screen seems to be dedicated to calling over Bluetooth and the user's cellphone. The issue is if you have a SIM 4G-LTE connection why do you need to use the person's cellphone account? I didn't recall seeing any way to change this, but I'll have to look again. If it can't be changed, obviously a different dialer is needed - that can be attached to the 4G connection. More research on this. The phonebook (boring!) And more unlabeled buttons on the left side. And previous incoming calls (do I need to say it - I will - boring..) Again - more unlabeled buttons on the left side. What do you think a receiver with an X next to it means? I'll have to try it. This is what pops up if you click on the Music Clef in the bottom row of the dialer screen. It appears to be a way to stop or start (restart possibly) music being playing on the streaming music player. There is a default option to turn off any audio when the phone is in use, so I'm not quite clear on what the actual purpose of this was. Perhaps just to restart the music after you hang up? Dunno - will have to experiment with this a bit. My overall rating of this - Parrot's interface which was used on the Rosen headunit, as simple and somewhat crude as it is - is a world better than this. It uses color and labels and understandable buttons to make itself user-friendly. This interface needs a serious redesign. Or replacement. On a scale of 1-5, it's about a 2.

Music Streamer ​ When you start the music streaming app, it might open on this screen.. This screen has 4 choices in the left column, which depict where it's finding the music. In this case - it's looking at music on USB#1. And on the right, it's showing some of what it found. What it found was over 3800 songs in about 350 albums (folders, directories - whatever you care to call the containers.) I ripped my entire CD collection to digital and formatted the file layout to be Artist, Album, Song Title, Date. That works if you want to look up a particular artist's work, and a particular recording of a particular song by an artist. That works great in any Windows-based music streaming program, and it worked great on Rosen's music streamer, but it didn't initially work great on this unit. The reason it didn't was it took it some time to build out its index of that many recordings (MP3s) Once it did index everyone, it actually works fairly well. Or on this one. It depends on which one was last used. This window is more useful IMHO - it shows the selected album in the left-right slider, and on the right side it shows the different albums in the slider. In the bottom row it opens the equalizer app which will be reviewed shortly. Tap on an album in this window, and see: There are other options - a bit confusing - but it does work and is useable, if ugly despite being unattractive. They could use a lesson from Spotify.. On a scale of 1-5, a 3.5. It has possibilities if it wasn't so ugly and if it was a bit simpler.

AM/FM Radio ​ As with the other default included apps - I find the radio one not particularly user friendly, especially in a mobile environment where you don't want to have to study the screen to figure out what you want it to do. So - unlabeled icons are not a favorite with me. The radio interface.. cryptic icons across the bottom of the screen. No explanation of what PTY, TA, AF mean on the buttons at the top... User friendly? Well, no. Imagine if it had this: What a difference labels make. It almost makes it seem like the icons are unnecessary. And I have no idea what happened to the PTY, TA, AF buttons - but since I had no idea what they were for - no loss there. The settings screen: I suppose I should turn RDS on (it transmits the info about the genre of the stations content, ie - classical, rock, whatchamacallit..) And for the US - one of the US settings should be picked, since other countries use smaller FM station frequency intervals, meaning there would be a lot of blank stations between active ones. I don't think I've tried USA2, I'll have to see if it does anything. Both sensitivity settings are maxed out. On a usability scale of 1-5, perhaps a 2.5. It's ugly and uses unlabeled buttons. Both of those could be fixed.