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If you still don’t have instructions, you can find a user guide on iSudar’s website here: https://cdn.shopifycdn.net/s/files/1...f?v=1624432304. These appear to be mostly just pictures with some commentary here and there leaving some things to fill in on your own.
I have everything that I need right now. I'm just not in a position to have time to do the job before next Sunday. I'm anxious to get this installed.
Hopefully it goes well...but for my sanity, future comfort with support issues and my valuable time, the NM Automotive kit sold by Nick will get my vote every time.
I did not have a stock camera, so I had to add one, and honestly, that was the most time consuming part of the install. Other than my own mistake of removing a connector from the harness when I didn't have to. Nick was able to troubleshoot that for me via email...over the weekend....after hours...when I explicitly told him to wait until the next business day.
I plan on buying another kit for my Macan when it comes off of CPO in December.
Exactly! I wasn't going to mess around with a secondary box, but installing a single circuit board and changing out a wiring harness is easy.
The only complication I have is that I already have a backup camera installed, so I'm going to have to figure out the wiring harness piece so that I don't mess up my backup camera, but replacing harnesses is really easy. If you can do the PCM board addition, you can switch out harnesses.
I'll caution, that if the product works, then I'll be happy, but remember my comment that they didn't send instructions and sent the wrong standoffs. I'm still perturbed that I had to go on Amazon to order a standoff kit to get the right height. I would chalk this up to typical Chinese customer service.
You'll see that the standoffs shown by the guy in the first video are around 1.5" long and doubled up. iSudar only sent the single standoff that are shorter, so if you open the box and only see three short standoffs and not 3 long, or 6 short, then don't start the job, just order a standoff kit off Amazon and don't start the job until you have them in hand. The standoffs are the things that allow the board that you're adding to sit above the Sirius XM board. You're stalled without them.
The OEM backup camera will work. No need to connect any additional wiring or messing up with original camera installation. What will happen is that when you put your car in reverse, the system will prioritize the OEM camera, it will take you out to the original PCM to display the camera view. Once you get out of reverse, it will go back to CarPlay or Android.
I used to have Joye installed in my Macan. Yesterday I received this module (from Ebilaen, but is the same thing as Isudar), and installed it. Is working well. Audio is nominally better than Joye, but not as good as OEM USB iPod input. Some quirks, but overall good. Much better, more responsive than Joye.
The OEM backup camera will work. No need to connect any additional wiring or messing up with original camera installation. What will happen is that when you put your car in reverse, the system will prioritize the OEM camera, it will take you out to the original PCM to display the camera view. Once you get out of reverse, it will go back to CarPlay or Android.
I used to have Joye installed in my Macan. Yesterday I received this module (from Ebilaen, but is the same thing as Isudar), and installed it. Is working well. Audio is nominally better than Joye, but not as good as OEM USB iPod input. Some quirks, but overall good. Much better, more responsive than Joye.
991.1 did not have OEM backup camera, your statement does not apply.
Thanks for letting me know. I just realized that this is a 991 thread… yep, does not apply here. Well, it could apply for those of you with 991’s that also have other Porsche models with OEM cameras…. I’ll delete the post.
Thanks for letting me know. I just realized that this is a 991 thread… yep, does not apply here. Well, it could apply for those of you with 991’s that also have other Porsche models with OEM cameras…. I’ll delete the post.
Yeah, the 911 got backup cameras later than other models. Just adds weight and we only care about going forwards fast.
Not complicated, but definitely time consuming. I followed the steps in the video that I posted and there were mostly no surprises. I did this with some help from my wife and I was glad that I had the assistance of a second small pair of hands, as there is definitely some fiddly and tight spaces to navigate.
The biggest issue was reassembling the PCM after the board was installed. After I last posted I bought a standoff kit off Amazon to raise the board height up above the Sirius XM board. iSudar offered to send more standoffs, but in reality they were too slow. It was faster just to buy the standoff kit and build the correct height standoff.
In the end I built a 41.7mm standoff using the original 16.6mm standoff sent with the kit, along with a 20mm standoff and three 1.7mm spacer nuts. It fit well but was very tight inside the PCM when installed. If you try reinstalling the PCM cover the same way that you took it off, then it had a tendency to disconnect the ribbon cable connections, so we maneuvered it into place by gently pushing it down into place. You have to be very careful, otherwise those ribbon cables disconnect. It's very tight. We were worried about the heat sink directly touching the DVD player above it, or damaging the PCM boards when we reattached the covers, but in the end it all appeared to fit.
Installing the wiring was easy, once I had removed the hardware for my existing aftermarket rear view camera.
I did find some significant gaps in the iSudar instructions.
1) They did not make it clear with the USB connector was for (it's a connection for your phone, so I threaded it to underneath the steering column, along with the microphone supplied.
2) There's a connector labelled "speaker" that was not referenced anywhere in the instructions. I ended up proceeding without using the connector and all appears to work well. I assume the connector was for the previous version of the kit.
I will have to admit that my comments here are going to be incomplete, as the usage instructions are weak and I'm still figuring out how to use it. I'll update more as I figure it out.
Place the PCM in AUX mode, then connect your phone using the USB connector. It will then open the CarPlay mode and you can pair your phone by wifi or bluetooth. You can customize the settings as you please.
All works as advertised, but with a couple of things I've not figured out.
1) I've not figured out how to auto connect the CarPlay by bluetooth. Hit and miss on that. I'm assuming I need to be in aux mode when the car is switched on and it activates, but more playing to figure that out.
2) I've not figured out how to reactivate CarPlay if I exit to use PCM.
3) The car and board recognizes my existing (aftermarket) rear view camera and the settings to use are there, but I've not year figured out how to get it working. (yes, the connector is plugged in, I disassembled and checked)
4) Annoyance that as this operates through the AUX setting I now can't play music through the PCM and use CarPlay.
All in all, it seems to work as advertised. Using this purely in CarPlay mode I think it's a great product (so far). If you would like to switch between PCM and CarPlay as you would with the OEM version, then I see it being "different" and a little disappointing. I'll reserve full judgement until I get the rear view camera working. If I've lost that functionality and can't get it working, then I'm going to be a little annoyed.
Watch this space over the next few days as I figure this out.
Last edited by Wellardmac; 08-03-2021 at 09:49 PM.
Update. Rear view camera is working today and I'm able to switch CarPlay on and off using the Info button. All seems to be working as designed.
I haven't yet got the unit automatically connecting to the car when I get in, but I'm sure I'll figure that out eventually. End review is that the module seems to work as advertised - once you have the right size standoffs it's a lot easier than cable fishing to install a secondary box.
I will compliment them on the rear view camera implementation, as the reversing lines are now dynamic, versus the static lines that were on my previous rear view camera set-up. Overall, Im happy and look forward to figuring this out over the next few days.
Last edited by Wellardmac; 08-02-2021 at 05:18 PM.
Only thing I don't have working at this point is wireless CarPlay... working fine wired, but not yet working wireless. Eventually I'll figure it out.
Thanks so much for all your work with this! You seem to have almost limitless patience. :-) When you finally get CarPlay to work wirelessly (assuming you do), would you be willing to provide a post including a concise (all in one place) explanation of how to use the system? I'm considering buying the kit because of the absence of the extra box, but the seller seems to leave much to the imagination in terms of how to use it.
Thanks so much for all your work with this! You seem to have almost limitless patience. :-) When you finally get CarPlay to work wirelessly (assuming you do), would you be willing to provide a post including a concise (all in one place) explanation of how to use the system? I'm considering buying the kit because of the absence of the extra box, but the seller seems to leave much to the imagination in terms of how to use it.
You're welcome. I like solving puzzles which is good, because there are no instructions anywhere on how to use the system. If you use the combination of the videos I posted above it's actually a pretty easy install. It takes time, as this is something that you don't want to rush and mess up. We were very slow, methodical and cautious, as I didn't want to mess something up and have to pull everything apart to fix. Better to be slow and accurate, than rush and have to do things over. In the end I only had one goof, which was that the connection from the PCM box to the screen wasn't done correctly, so I got PCM in and no screen, but that was easily fixed by pulling it out again and reconnecting the screen.
I think I am close to having most of it sorted out at this point. I got wireless connected today, although, I've not yet proven if it auto connects. More to come. I'll post my thoughts on everything then.
Okay - I now have everything sorted and working! Let's see if I can write this up in a coherent way and without too many typos. I'm writing this up, as most install reviews I've seen detail the installs of the other brands of aftermarket CarPlay unit and I can't find anyone that has posted a detailed the install of the iSudar Wireless CarPlay unit.
My comments in original install post deal with the install and I don't think I neglected to mention anything significant there, other than to go slowly and check all your connections multiple times before you put the PCM back together. If you go slowly it's not so difficult. I have big fingers, so having my wife's small fingers for assistance was a huge help and made the job go a lot more quickly and smoothly.
The connection of the wiring harnesses is as shown in the video that I posted and the online instructions found here:
Once you have the wiring harness connected, you should be able to turn the ignition key to power the system and check that everything is connected okay. I got a (figurative) shock when I plugged in the power on the back wiring harness and the radio came on after I accidentally pressed a button on the front of the unit. Power to the unit and normal PCM function is a good sign, because if you didn't connect anything correctly, none of it would work. As I said, I was not careful the first time I connected the main PCM unit back to the screen, so I had music and no screen, but this was encouraging, as I then knew that it was either the ribbon connection inside or outside the box. I tackled the outer connection first and got lucky that was the issue and it all worked well on the second attempt. It's best not to reassemble the PCM and trim back in place before testing, as you'll just have to remove it all if there's a problem. Once you have the harnesses installed and the unit powered, you can test it with the PCM sitting on your knee before you put it back in place and screw the unit into position. The main thing is to power and check the you have PCM function. You can worry about CarPlay afterwards.
Okay, let's talk about how to use this thing. There are a couple of ways into the system settings. Place the system in AUX mode (not sure how important this is for reasons I'll explain later, but do it the first time) before doing anything.
1) First time using it I would connect by USB cable. CarPlay should activate when you do so. You can navigate the icons using the right hand **** on PCM - pushing the button selects the highlighted option. All should work as regular CarPlay. If you select the Porsche Icon it will take you to the CarPlay Module interface - you'll see a number of options you can select - scroll right until you get to settings. Select that - go in, scroll through them and you can pair your phone to the CarPlay module for the first time in wifi and bluetooth setting options. I discovered for wireless CarPlay to work, both connections need to be active. Once you have them active you should be able to disconnect the cable and maintain the connection wirelessly.
2) Instead of connecting with a cable, you can go to the module settings and connect to your phone by pairing inside the settings menu. When you first start up the car it should open the PCM in the CarPlay module settings - scroll as I described above to connect to your phone. If the CarPlay module interface doesn't activate, then hold the Info button until it comes up. Pressing and holding the Info button allows you to switch between regular PCM and the CarPlay module functions.
I found that once you have connected to the car the first time using wireless it should auto connect the second time.
When I first installed the unit it did not connect to my backup camera when in reverse gear. I did a PCM reset and on the first day was unable to get a connection. I found that when I started the car the following morning that it automatically activated the backup camera when I reversed. I'm guessing it needed some time to recognize the camera, so if you don't get the camera on the first day, just reset PCM, walk away and try again the following morning. I found the new backup camera module in the iSudar unit to be superior to the one I had originally, as this one has dynamic lines for reversing, versus static. I was very happy with that.
One thing I was concerned about when I first activated the unit was the ability to play music through PCM and use CarPlay. I later discovered that I can activate music through any source in PCM (I mostly use my USB flash drive in the glovebox), then press the Info button to go back to CarPlay and the music will continue to play. BUT, if you want to advance a track or change radio stations, you need to exit CarPlay by pushing the Info button, advance the track/change station, then go back to CarPlay, as the advance buttons don't seem to be active when CarPlay is in use. I'm gathering that you can use CarPlay module, or PCM controls, but not both at the same time.
Overall, I'm very happy with the unit. It wasn't so difficult to install if you follow the videos that I posted, even if it was time consuming. Usability is good. The unit is fast, audio quality is good and no issues with phone use, day/night mode, or any of the other CarPlay functions that you would expect. I really like that I didn't have to unstall a secondary box, or fish cable around the car. As far as I can tell, this is the easiest aftermarket CarPlay unit I've seen for install or usage. I'd give it a 9 out of 10 for install ease and usage. I'd give iSudar 3 out of 10 for customer service and quality of instructions. If I had the instructions alone and not the videos that I posted, I'm not sure that I could have figured out how to do the install. I would recommend this option to anyone looking to install an aftermarket CarPlay Unit.
Thanks for putting in the work on the review and instructions.
Still, other than the external box, which wasn't a big deal to deal with since you have to take the PCM out anyways, I'm not seeing any other advantage over the NM unit. ESPECIALLY when it comes to support. And, they include the standoffs needed and tell you which ones to use depending on your configuration. Nick at NM provides a PDF with *mostly* good instructions and he has videos posted to walk you through each of the usability problems you encountered (How do I switch sources...how to I switch back to CarPlay..etc). And he's super responsive, even though he's in the UK and a lot of his customers are in the US.
07-25-2021, 02:22 PM
