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I did the Isudar install and had issues with Entry & Drive and can only attribute it to the installation of the Isudar board as it went away after I pulled it. There were times I needed to use the physical key to unlock the car and then still would have trouble staring, getting the message "Key fob not found", so I'd have to resort to pulling the dummy key and insert the actual fob to start the car. I also had issues with the board hijacking my wifi LAN while at home after parking in the garage. Additionally I continually had problems with sound not being present, which was probably due to some setting in the PCM that would reset, but this was just another annoyance because of the Isudar board.
I installed one of the Android head units and so far it's like a blessing from heaven. The Entry & Drive issues that were troublesome, all went away. I couldn't be more pleased to have an updated system running wireless CarPlay natively and have a screen that looks much better and responds more quickly.
Maybe the Android units do, but Alpine/Pioneer/etc don't. OR didn't when I researched this two years ago.
There's no world where I'm putting an Android head unit in a car I have to live with day to day. Too many poor experiences in the past with them.
Ah, my bad. Since almost all the posts in this thread concern Android HUs, I ***-u-me d that was what you were asking about. I'm kinda on the opposite page to you - to me, nothing screams 'aftermarket' as much as a Pioneer HU in the dash of a Porsche. I like to stay as close to OEM look as possible - the Isudar (and its equivalents) does that of course, but in the end, I tired of the terribly dated PCM screen and its lack of features which I consider essential these days (eg Carplay/Android Auto). The solution I chose for my wife's Cayman comes, to me, as close to OEM-look as you can get while at the same time bringing the car right into the 21st century. As @Live Steam's great photos just above show, it's a superb-looking installation.
Was it some time ago that you had the bad experiences with Android HUs? Or maybe they were 2Gb (RAM) quad core units, which aren't really up to the task of running modern Android? I think they have come a long way in the past couple of years, with terrific octacore processors and plenty of RAM available. There's a lot of us running these HUs now, without any operational issues once they have been installed right and set up right. Might be worth revisiting?
Second, how do you turn off the backup camera? I don't have a camera, the unit goes into a black screen when I put the car in reverse - and for the life of me, I can't find the setting.
It's been a while since I had a working PCM here, so I could be wrong, but can you switch off the backup camera in the PCM's settings? I recall some settings where you could enable the guide lines, turn off camera etc. Might be worth a look.
Did you get the blank screen before you installed the Isudar? If not, then check all the Isudar settings for some way to enable or disable the camera.
Since almost all the posts in this thread concern Android HUs, I ***-u-me d that was what you were asking about.
That's what I get for dropping in to a huge thread without scanning the back posts. My bad.
Originally Posted by ZedZed
Was it some time ago that you had the bad experiences with Android HUs? Or maybe they were 2Gb (RAM) quad core units, which aren't really up to the task of running modern Android? I think they have come a long way in the past couple of years, with terrific octacore processors and plenty of RAM available. There's a lot of us running these HUs now, without any operational issues once they have been installed right and set up right. Might be worth revisiting?
I've had three. One a unit I bought to put into a GMC Acadia, and two for friends. All of them were 2+ years ago. None of them worked well. Lot of features, but poorly executed. Buggy, terrible FM tuners mostly, but just poor integration with the car in general. Extra speakers to emulate car chimes. Extra mics that never worked well. Terrible backup camera functionality. Unstable, rebooting crap. All three of them.
I don't know how a Pioneer with a decent install bezel looks more aftermarket than that Android thing, but taste is certainly subjective.
Last edited by flgfish; 12-04-2023 at 02:45 AM.
Reason: Grammar
It's been a while since I had a working PCM here, so I could be wrong, but can you switch off the backup camera in the PCM's settings? I recall some settings where you could enable the guide lines, turn off camera etc. Might be worth a look.
Did you get the blank screen before you installed the Isudar? If not, then check all the Isudar settings for some way to enable or disable the camera.
That's the thing. I've never had a backup camera in this car, and this never happened before the Isudar install. Weird. I'll dig around in the PCM settings, but I don't remember seeing that in the past & I've spent some quality time digging around in the PCM. It's possible I just skipped it, though.
Anyone know which wire triggers the camera to go on when shifting into reverse? This is for the Chinese HU. I can manually switch the camera on via a button in the sub-menu of the main UI. However it doesn't trigger automatically when shifting into reverse.
I could be wrong. But isn't the Aftermarket/ Original backup camera switch, labeled poorly? Its not really an on/off switch. Slide left = aftermarket, slide right = original. Since you don't have an aftermarket, you need to select original ( slide right). It might be worth trying instead of searching for the discussion on that switch.
That's what I get for dropping in to a huge thread without scanning the back posts. My bad.
No worries. For the record, I wasn't being snarky before - I genuinely assumed you were meaning an Android HU. We're cool.
Originally Posted by flgfish
I've had three. One a unit I bought to put into a GMC Acadia, and two for friends. All of them were 2+ years ago. None of them worked well. Lot of features, but poorly executed. Buggy, terrible FM tuners mostly, but just poor integration with the car in general. Extra speakers to emulate car chimes. Extra mics that never worked well. Terrible backup camera functionality. Unstable, rebooting crap. All three of them.
That is a bunch of bad experiences I agree. I think they must have improved recently (with better 8 core processors and more RAM). I have had an Android unit in my Panamera for some months now and it is working flawlessly (so far). My unit is running Android 10 with 6GB of RAM, 128GB of storage and an 8 core processor. In my wife's Cayman we recently installed the unit Live Steam referred to above. It is too early to mention long-term reliability but it is all working exactly as it should so far. Both units are very stable and neither has needed a reboot (other than deliberately when setting up etc). I can understand your reluctance though with those bad experiences behind you. I'd probably be the same.
Originally Posted by flgfish
I don't know how a Pioneer with a decent install bezel looks more aftermarket than that Android thing, but taste is certainly subjective.
It's just the Pioneer logo on it that gives it away for me. One of the things I like about our units is that they have no visible branding (just like the OEM PCM). Other than that, that is a neat installation in the pic you linked to. And there is no doubt that a major brand like Pioneer is probably a better bet than an unknown Chinese brand. But then, the price reflects that too. And the lack of customisation would worry me - the ones I have seen have had fairly horrible interfaces, with no way of changing them. On the Android units, you can use any launcher you want. Then again, if you use Carplay or AA (like me) most of the time, the HU's GUI isn't all that relevant. I think we could both make pretty good cases either way. Most importantly, we agree that the old-fashioned PCM definitely needs to go, in favour of a more up-to-date unit.
I could be wrong. But isn't the Aftermarket/ Original backup camera switch, labeled poorly? Its not really an on/off switch. Slide left = aftermarket, slide right = original. Since you don't have an aftermarket, you need to select original ( slide right). It might be worth trying instead of searching for the discussion on that switch.
You're right! Well done. Flipping that option fixed the backup camera issue. Thank you!
Oddly enough, the screen tearing was NOT happening when I was in the garage playing with the backup camera setting. So I'm becoming more convinced this is a board issue, either hardware or firmware, and not a connection issue.
It's just the Pioneer logo on it that gives it away for me. One of the things I like about our units is that they have no visible branding (just like the OEM PCM). Other than that, that is a neat installation in the pic you linked to. And there is no doubt that a major brand like Pioneer is probably a better bet than an unknown Chinese brand. But then, the price reflects that too. And the lack of customisation would worry me - the ones I have seen have had fairly horrible interfaces, with no way of changing them. On the Android units, you can use any launcher you want. Then again, if you use Carplay or AA (like me) most of the time, the HU's GUI isn't all that relevant. I think we could both make pretty good cases either way. Most importantly, we agree that the old-fashioned PCM definitely needs to go, in favour of a more up-to-date unit.
I'm actually pretty happy with this isudar install for now, if I can sort the screen tearing. If I can't, I'll have to decide if I can live with it. I did some tuning with the DSP in my amp & got the audio to sound pretty much the same as other sources. It is a second tune so I have to switch between tunes if I change sources, so that's a pisser... I may see if I can work with the isudar EQ and find a middle ground tune that I'm happy with on all sources.
The big issue for me is losing steering wheel buttons with an aftermarket radio. Nobody seems to make an adapter that supports Porsche in that world, or at least, I couldn't find it. Another plus would be HD radio - my PCM doesn't have it.
Does the Android radio add HD radio support? That would be a cool feature to have actually. I'd have to balance that vs my innate dubiousness of Android HUs and the loss of the other Porsche integrated features (that I never use, TBH).
There's a menu option on the Chinese HU for learning steering wheel buttons. Has this been discussed? My 911 does not have SW controls, so I can't test it. My Boxster does, but it also has a PCM 4.1. So that doesn't help either.
Does the Android radio add HD radio support? That would be a cool feature to have actually. I'd have to balance that vs my innate dubiousness of Android HUs and the loss of the other Porsche integrated features (that I never use, TBH).
You can add satellite radio quite easily and cheaply - you would need a satellite radio adapter box (Amazon) and an app to use with it (play store/app store). The adapter boxes have a brass connection which is meant to be used with the horrible antenna they provide with the box (meant to be stuck to the windscreen - ugh). But you can buy an adapter (Amazon) where one end goes into the sat radio adapter box and the other end into the OEM FAKRA connector for the OEM sat radio. The adapter box is powered by a USB connection which you can arrange behind the radio using one of the spare USB connectors provided with the HU, so the result is invisible.
Which OEM features do you have in mind when you say you would lose some of the integrated features? Obviously, you would lose anything which is exclusive to the PCM itself, since that will have been discarded and replaced by the new HU - so that would be phone, satellite navigation and the original radio. All three of those will be replaced by the HU. I can't think of any other integrated features that I have lost.
Here is the first sat radio adapter that came up on my search - there are loads of them, and many much cheaper than this. In the UK we have 'DAB' radio (Digital Audio Broadcast) - in the US I believe this is called Sirius or something like that? Your local Amazon should have the correct adapter I would expect.
This is the kind of antenna adapter you would need to make the installation totally invisible:
I don't think any of the HUs have satellite radio built in because the frequency bands vary from country to country.
12-03-2023, 01:12 AM
