Android Radio Installed. Working, AC, Steering Controls, everything.

[RealFloopyGuy]

I put it in my wife's 2017 today.  The radio was $230 for a 4g 8core android 13 one.  They are universal android radios with canbus functions built in.  They are not specifically for a particular car but they put them in specific dash kits to fit a variety of vehicles. So you have to dig into settings that aren't obvious to figure out how to get things like the AC and the controls to work.  I made a video of it.  Ignore my shakiness and nasally voice. lol.  I lost my nostrils fighting as a kid. 

 

I'd assume most of the ones on Amazon would be the same but I wanted the one I found on eBay to get a newer android version.  In my experience they don't ever get updated so getting 13 over say 10 is a big deal.

 

I have a older one, 8 or so, in my Challenger SRT8.  It is good and has worked perfect.  However, this one I installed in the wife's car makes me a bit jealous.  I'm definitely going to have to upgrade my F150 now to keep up.

AC controls work 100%.  Heated seats and all that too if you have it.  Lots of things you can activate and deactivate outside of what the factory radio had I think.  It came with adapters for everything like the factory backup camera and stuff if you have that.  Mine was a stripped down version.  It came with a backup camera.  It retains the factory USB.  You have to use the plugs on the CD player and the Radio - I didn't realize this initially and didn't get why I didn't have power til I realized that the the plug with all the black wires was canbus only and not radio wires per say.

 

It came with the canbus box and all of that.  Everything was included.  The only wires that don't get used in the dash are the HSD cable(white with purple on it) that runs between the CD player and Radio in the factory setup.  It isn't necessary as it only runs between them though.

 

Well, here is the video.  I have to pop it back off to install the backup camera(she had to go somewhere) in the next couple days so I could take pictures of whatever if anyone is interested or needs help on what is going on behind the scenes.

 

This is one of the first videos I've ever made and it broke up in the middle.  I had to splice it together, so it is the first video I've ever edited too.  I'm not a professional, go easy. lol.

 

Here is the video.  I'd appreciate a like, comment, or whatever if you watch it.  I had a real tough time finding information on switching the radio out and I found little in the way of information.  Let me know if you decide to install one based on my experience.
 

If there is interest I'll do a walkthrough of the entire install when I pop it off to install the backup camera.  Using a tripod or anti-shake filtering and a better view of the screen to not make it so shaky and not zoomed in.

 

I had to put it on Youtube because it was more than 10mb. 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjrhdv75w5I&feature=youtu.be

 

[RealFloopyGuy]

Occurs to me someone might actually want to know which radio I bought.

https://ebay.us/cZeQt7

[vivrance]

I wish I'd held off on my plans until I'd seen this! Great video and review.

I just received my module today that allows me to inject android auto/car play into the OEM screen feed. And I upgraded to the bigger 8.4 OEM screen the other day from a junkyard pull.
I went that route because I (apparently incorrectly) assumed you couldn't do the integrated climate controls on these cheaper android units.
The unit you got looks great. I truly wish I had just gone that route now! I suppose it's not too late but I'll probably just go ahead and try this one out and review it as well.

[John/Horace]

They supplied the bezel to fit the new screen . It a 9” versus 8.4 “ and shape looks a little different.

How large is the canbus box that came with this unit. There was no factory back up cam and it was added by the canbus box configuration? So new wiring to tail gate was also added for this purpose? Thx.

[RealFloopyGuy]

I ended up becoming an eBay partner, so I have to add a disclaimer to the link.  “As an eBay Partner, I may be compensated if you make a purchase”.  It isn't letting me edit it, if a mod could help me out there?

[RealFloopyGuy]

On 4/18/2024 at 9:12 AM, John/Horace said:

They supplied the bezel to fit the new screen . It a 9” versus 8.4 “ and shape looks a little different.

How large is the canbus box that came with this unit. There was no factory back up cam and it was added by the canbus box configuration? So new wiring to tail gate was also added for this purpose? Thx.

The canbus is the size of a deck of cards. 

It came with wiring to run to the tailgate.  The canbus just lets the radio deal with the AC and all of that in the car.  The canbus tells the radio it is in reverse and that prompts the camera to display on the screen. 

[Farson01]

I got the same radio that you did, but either they sent me a different one or the UI has changed because it does not match the video. Did you do a system update on your radio when you got it? 

[Farson01]

Update: the user interface of the radio that I got is different from the one that you mentioned. There are no specific CAN settings. After working with the seller for about two weeks, and tons of trial and error, I finally got everything working. To change the vehicle settings, I had to do the following:
Connect the radio to a wireless network->Settings-> Factory Settings-> Code 8888 for my radio -> Vehicle-> Vehicle Settings-> Let the system "Detect" any needed updates (mine had a 30mb update), reboot, enter the menu again-> Do the following settings: Manufacturer= Raise, Category= Dodge, Model= Coolway 2014, Configuration= High version->Reboot. I gained control of the AC controls finally and some of my SWC. If anyone else runs into the same issue that I did, I hope this helps out. 

[Which]

Thanks for the review. I'd been looking for anything that would work over the last couple of months and your review is what made me finally bite the bullet. I have everything working now except the SWC. If you have any advice on how to hook that up (key 1 & key 2 wires) I'd appreciate it.

 

Thank you!

[Armando G]

Wish I had a good experience. I bought an android 'upgrade' radio and just Uninstalled it. After 4 weeks of working with the seller and trying to get it to work properly, I decided to return it. They admitted that the operation system had an issue but would not exchange it. They did agreed to a full refund, which works out to be a complete waste of time for me. Oh well. 

[John/Horace]

I assume SWC is steering wheel controls. Was that one of your non working problems as well?  Heated steering wheel control is another feature my wife would not want to lose. It's a shame there doesn't seem to be a decent plug and play option from a very big seller with hundreds of happy customers around. Or at least I haven't seen one yet. But I think this is a problem swapping OEM displays on lots of current vehicles. 

[Which]

On 12/27/2024 at 5:19 AM, John/Horace said:

I assume SWC is steering wheel controls. Was that one of your non working problems as well?  Heated steering wheel control is another feature my wife would not want to lose. It's a shame there doesn't seem to be a decent plug and play option from a very big seller with hundreds of happy customers around. Or at least I haven't seen one yet. But I think this is a problem swapping OEM displays on lots of current vehicles. 

I managed to get the steering wheel controls working after going back and forth with the seller for a while. The only outstanding issue I have with my unit is Metric vs. Imperial units on the main display. I was able to change it once but then it reverted to metric—no update on a fix for that issue yet. Other than that, my unit from the eBay seller had a misreported Android version, different screen resolution, and less cores than advertised. I'm not unhappy with it. This is apparently pretty common for these things and it's snappier than uConnect at any rate.

 

I did some digging over at the XDA forum about these Android head units and they have some good info there. I ended up purchasing another unit and will make my own post sharing what I've found. 😄

[diymirage]

i love those things, i got one in my '17 2500 

 

prolly put one in my boys '15 charger soon too, but the journey, it just doesnt need it 

 

[Jimmy8881]

On 12/28/2024 at 7:35 PM, Which said:

I managed to get the steering wheel controls working after going back and forth with the seller for a while. The only outstanding issue I have with my unit is Metric vs. Imperial units on the main display. I was able to change it once but then it reverted to metric—no update on a fix for that issue yet. Other than that, my unit from the eBay seller had a misreported Android version, different screen resolution, and less cores than advertised. I'm not unhappy with it. This is apparently pretty common for these things and it's snappier than uConnect at any rate.

 

I did some digging over at the XDA forum about these Android head units and they have some good info there. I ended up purchasing another unit and will make my own post sharing what I've found. 😄

I'm currently having the same problem with a unit I bought from temu, everything works using the Raise protocol for the canbus but cannot change metric to imperial on the display above the steering wheel. Do you remember how exactly you got your to change to imperial ? There should be a way to make imperial the default mode.

[Which]

12 hours ago, Jimmy8881 said:

Do you remember how exactly you got your to change to imperial ?

At first I just went through every single option turning things on and off. I was also using the OuDi protocol at first and not Raise. I honestly couldn't tell you if something I did actually changed it or not or if it decided to itself, because the next time I started my car after it "worked" it was back to metric.

 

In general I made sure to set everything in the unit from time to region but it doesn't seem to make a difference anymore. I'm going to see if it's possible to change through some other methods like AlfaOBD.

 

NOTE: At first I had a Unit Setting option under both protocols that I tried changing but it didn't seem to do anything. After updating the software I no longer have the unit setting option under Raise, so maybe it's not supported? Might be worth trying it after selecting another vehicle with that same feature.

Edited Friday at 04:44 PM by Which

[Jimmy8881]

1 hour ago, Which said:

At first I just went through every single option turning things on and off. I was also using the OuDi protocol at first and not Raise. I honestly couldn't tell you if something I did actually changed it or not or if it decided to itself, because the next time I started my car after it "worked" it was back to metric.

 

In general I made sure to set everything in the unit from time to region but it doesn't seem to make a difference anymore. I'm going to see if it's possible to change through some other methods like AlfaOBD.

 

NOTE: At first I had a Unit Setting option under both protocols that I tried changing but it didn't seem to do anything. After updating the software I no longer have the unit setting option under Raise, so maybe it's not supported? Might be worth trying it after selecting another vehicle with that same feature.

I've been researching this for a while, I did find in another forum that someone else had the same problem with a different vehicle and the problem was that the canbus unit doesn't save the settings when it's powered off, the user fixed the problem by supplying a constant 12v to the canbus so it would stay powered while the vehicle is off, not sure how that would affect the battery though. It would be nice though if we could just set imperial to the default somehow, maybe alfaobd would let us override the default configuration somehow. If you do find anything let us know.

[Which]

5 hours ago, Jimmy8881 said:

problem was that the canbus unit doesn't save the settings when it's powered of

This seems to be part of the problem I'm having. The same issue occurs when I use the temperature switch for the AC display, but every other setting is retained. Happy to say that I managed to change the display since I have time to play with it now, but it comes with caveats.

 

The fix: Raise > Dodge Challenger > 2019-Now > Low

 

You have to switch back to the proper protocol and vehicle after you do this. The canbus decoder isn't going to listen for rear climate changes from the switches and you won't have on screen options for it or other vehicle specific options.

 

Changing back to the right protocol and vehicle while running seems to retain the setting. We'll see if it reverts back later. I'll hit up the vendor again and see if they have other files, but this recent one doesn't even show Unit Setting when I have the right vehicle and protocol selected (probably because they know it doesn't work right).