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Plugs A and B in your photos both plug into either the first or second harness from the left in your "list of wires" photo. Only one of the harnesses is used, one is for a PCM 2.1, the other is for PCM 3.0. The Canbus adapter (small box) comes pre-connected to one of the harnesses, disconnect it and switch it to the other if it's on the wrong one. Your C connector (orange optical) connects to the MOST adapter box which itself connects to the right front and left front audio RCA connectors from the head unit. Your D connector is the radio antenna which should connect to a mating connector on the new head unit. I don't see one in the photo so hopefully your HU has it. On my unit it had a mating connector where your photo says "radio" but didn't look like that, it was white and stuck out.
UPDATE: just noticed the third harness in the "list of wires" photo looks like it adapts from the "radio" plug shown in the photo to the plug D connector. It also has a wire on it which is probably the blue antenna amp wire I talk about below. This is a little different from the unit I installed but appears to be functionally the same.
You'll need to connect the MOST unit to switched power. You can use the "antenna power" wire on the new head unit's harness for this power.
The two blue "antenna" wires connect between two of the new HU's harnesses, one harness has a blue wire with a plug, the other has a blue wire with a socket. These need to be connected together if your car has an antenna amplifier (997 does, not sure about 987), if you don't you won't get any FM stations. You can splice your MOST red (switched hot) wire into this same wire and it will switch the MOST box on/off with HU power on/off. Splice the MOST black (ground) wire into the main ground wire on the HU harness (it's a big black wire). Splice the MOST hot (yellow) into the big yellow wire on the HU harness.
Since the unit has a built in canbus reader that seems to work quite well your steering wheel switches might work right out of the box. Mine didn't have steering wheel control but the unit clearly read the canbus for power up and power down along with headlight on/off. So i'd just give it a try and see what happens. The canbus wires are on connector A so when you hook it up they will be connected to the HU. If your steering wheel switches have never been activated (i.e. you are changing the steering wheel from factory) you'll likely have to have this activated by a dealer. If the steering wheel switches were working with the existing PCM there is a good change they will work with this HU also.
If the sound isn't very loud or sounds distorted when you first hook it up it means the PCM volume wasn't high enough when you removed it. It needs to be at least half volume or higher before you remove it or Bose amp won't be set to the right levels for the new HU. Good luck.
Last edited by PV997; 11-28-2019 at 12:13 AM.
Reason: updated info
These seem like a really good alternative to doing a regular double DIN head unit. Has anyone with factory steering wheel controls gotten one of these, and verified if the Canbus adapter will transmit steering wheel controls? If so, I might have to switch out my Navtv/Kenwood set up for one of these.
I did front and rear cameras. Rear camera went through the big grommet behind the right (passenger) tail light. Get a long 3/8" auger bit and carefully drill through that grommet and then push a long (36" or longer) zip tie through. From there, tuck wires under trim to center console and then up to the head unit. Front camera was routed up the frunk trim and then through a big blank grommet behind the battery. Front camera was actually much easier to figure out than the rear camera.
I may be ordering one of these Android HUs for my 997.2, I have a Kenwood and NavTV MOST HUR setup right now but think that one of these Android HUs would be a much cleaner look.
Has anyone figured out a good solution for volume control? I have steering wheel controls but really want buttons or ***** on the head unit.
for vol ctrl, (assuming ur getting android headunit w/o physical ctrl), maybe someone can try those circular multimedia bluetooth buttons and connect it via bt to the android head unit?
i do know that usb wireless would have a higher chance of success.
here's a *wired example that i could quickly dig up: (search google for "LITROK One Key Mute USB Volume Controller PC")
edit: i know it would definitely be disadvantages to connect the bluetooth button/ctrl to the phone directly.
Yeah, volume is a problem, I describe that in one of my posts above. You can get access to the volume by touching the Android status bar at the top of the screen but it's almost impossible, and frankly dangerous, to do while driving. Launchers such as as AGAMA have nice big built-in volume controls on the screen but they don't work with this HU (a common complaint with launchers). So you can use the steering wheel controls if you have them or you can add on a remote volume control from China. Something like this:
It has a two disc shaped wireless controls that you can put wherever you want along with a receiver box that connects to the HU and gets stashed behind it. I only used the volume disc and put in on the center console. I was skeptical but it worked right out of the box after programming it on the HU. They are cheap at only $25 but it took about two weeks to get them. There is also one that straps to the steering wheel but I thought it looked out of place and wanted one I could place in a location that wasn't prominent.
The "antenna" wire is very easy to use for switched power. There are two blue wires in two different harnesses that came with the HU, both should be labeled antenna. These need to connect together, splice your MOST box red wire into it to turn it on an off with the HU. The HU itself does not need switched power as it powers up and down by reading the canbus command just like the PCM does (there is no switched power to the PCM because it doesn't need it). So the HU switches the blue wire on and off along with the HU power status.
If you do go with the China remote control it wires up its power (red, black, yellow) exactly the same as the MOST box.
edited: thanks for the info pv997. for switched power, ill try to find the antenna power. i have a feeling its the brown in connector B.
Brown wire in connector B is ground, the red/green one is hot at all times. As I mention above these units don't need or use switched power as they read the canbus lines (on connector A) for on/off commands. The MOST unit needs switched power which is why you connect it to the blue antenna wire. The blue wire is switched by the HU to control the antenna amp but you can piggyback off it for MOST also.
The documentation provided with the units is terrible. Despite that I was impressed that someone had done a lot of work to get the canbus working correctly right out of the box. The radio station even reads out on the tach display so the canbus interface has good two-way communication.
Pretty cool. I’m intrigued but am not sure I want to deal with all of the compromises. The main reason I’m considering this HU is that it’s such a good looking replacement in the dash as opposed to a double DIN with a trim kit.
There are definitely compromises, not only with the volume but a few others. The FM tuner works well but the app looks a little cheesy and it has no settings to reconfigure it. The GPS looks great but it's a little slow to update though that may have been from poor antenna placement on my part (under the dash).
I used the Android HU on a 997.1 because the PCM 2.1 is a piece of junk and frankly intolerable on a long drive (no touchscreen, hard to use when driving, no bluetooth, no XM, etc.). Since then I sold that car and now have a 997.2 TT with PCM 3.0. It's light years ahead of the 2.1 and I'm happy with it. I won't be changing the PCM 3.0 out for an Android in this car.
Just re read this entire thread again. Wanted to throw out this idea.. as some of you know I have the macan wheel with Multifunction ctrls...
they typically connect to the 987/996 steering ctrl unit with this adapter harness inbetween:
would be interested to hardwire the steering wheel wires to this “china universal steering adapter": https://www.ebay.com/itm/Multifuncti...kAAOSw9nJca3TO
edit: i just realized this box is only proprietary to the remotes theyre selling
Interesting idea. I already have a multi function wheel on my 997 so I wouldn’t need to go through the effort to add this, but a steering wheel upgrade would be nice since you’re interacting with it literally every moment you’re driving the car. I’ve swapped steering wheels before on other cars. Will the Macan multi function controls plug into the OEM 997 clockspring?
in part2, he mentions that he bought the adapter and coded MF to work.
i personally do NOT want to rely on dealer coding or pay for an overpriced $300 adapter. hoping this forum can share light on how to hard-wire the buttons, when the white wires are available and the android tablet is not even from porsche.
Hey PV, my pkg came in and wanted to lean on your knowledge before I mess up any wiring or short anything. Three wiring questions (I'm assuming this is everything that's needed to be wired as audio plugs into Left and Right and the rest is plug and play).
You got it, yes to all three. Good luck and let us know how it goes. Remember to have the PCM volume turned up to at least half way before you remove it. I forgot to do this and had to reinstall it to make the change.
11-27-2019, 11:31 PM
