Rennlist members,

The forum has been very helpful as I researched and bought a 2008 Cayenne S a month or so back. Thanks for all the help.

Wanted to share my experience with installing a Android Headunit in place of the terribly dated stock PCM 2.1. I know there are other treads on the subject but given the many different units out there I felt a new tread was more appropriate than posting to one of the other ones talking about slightly different units.

Vehicle: 2008 Cayenne S with Bose and Navigation
Headunit: CHSTEK "9" 1024X600 Quad Core 2GB RAM Android 7.1.1 Car DVD Player Radio GPS for Porsche Cayenne 2003-2010 Head Unit Autoradio 4G/WIFI" from Alienexpress at <$300.
MOST adapter: Seicane "Car Stereo radio GPS Optical Fiber Decoder MOST" for ~$100 on Seicane's ebay store
Other: Soldering iron, trim removal plastic lever, T20 Torx bit

Was a bit worried ordering directly from Alienexpress but took a leap. Worked out fine. Unit shipped quick and arrived within 1 week. No installation instructions included and only very generic user guide. MOST adapter likewise arrived without wiring diagram etc. Rennelist was a big help in getting it put together.

Old radio is well documented and went easily. Installation of the new unit was pretty simple after you figure out what to do. The unit comes with two wiring harnesses I guess for two different stock system configurations. The plugs coming out of Porsche unit only fint into one of the harnesses so that piece was self explanatory.


Wiring harness

Connecting wires was less scary than it seems. I was able to complete without having to tap a fuse or splice into any of the existing wires. I powered the MOST adapter from the wiring harness that came with the android unit. Black to black ie GND, Red soldered to the AMP-CON as that one is 12V when unit is on and Yellow spliced into Yellow (always on wire). Works and no humming or noise despite not using a ground loops isolator.


Wiring. MOST adapter off picture to the right.

Couple of notes: I was not able to use the existing GPS antenna as that one was wired to the Nav unit under my seat. I suspect that one would work with a Fakra adapter if I routed it to behind the unit. For now I'm just using the GPS antenna that was included with the android unit. Unit did not come with a microphone so that's work in progress.

Biggest pain was to get the unit back into the space. It's pretty deep and tall so took at look of patience to pull the CAN BUS decoder, MOST adapter and giant wiring harness up above the unit while pushing it in. I ended up tying zip ties to plugs, adapters and wires and pulling them up over the unit while sliding it in. Was not pretty but it made it in. I removed the ashtray and routed USB and AUX cables there - will make that more permanent in the future.



Stock launcher.

From a software side I didn't love the stock launcher so loaded Google Now Launcher from the Google Playstore. I like that one way better.



Google Now Launcher

Most everything worked but as common with these units the next and previous track buttons on the steering wheel don't work with none stock players (like Google Play Music, Spotify etc) but found MtdcTools which allows you to map those buttons. You download the APK to a USB stick and then install it via the APK installer app on the headunit. Was simple and now controls work. Here's a good tutorial on that piece:

https://forum.xda-developers.com/and...tting-t3595793

Going to Settings - Elements allows you to tweak the buttons to match the orange color of rest of the displays in our car - cool


Matching orange.

Under Settings - Factory Settings you'll be able to chose a Porsche logo for startup (most times my unit resumes quickly to where it was rather than a full boot i.e. no boot logo)


P logo on boot.

Overall very impressed with the unit especially for the price. In fact, Pretty amazing what you can get for less than $400 total. Really happy having music, podcasts, bluetooth etc. Still to go is removing the Nav unit under the seat but the fiber loop I got didn't work so that will have to wait.

Wanted to cronical my experience even though I know similar info is alway here scattered over multiple pages and treads.

Thanks to all the contribute on this forum.

.. Oh need a picture of the car even if in haste and pretty poor. This is a car forum after all.


Pig rear

 

This is awesome! I literally ordered a unit from Ali the other day (although they canceled my order and made me verify my identity for some reason) and a MOST box from Seicane off eBay. What a coincidence. Hopefully I will get it in a week or so and I hope my install goes as smoothly as yours. Are you going to try to us a 4G dongle? Are you using an iPhone? Is tethering good enough to stream music through apps rather than bluetooth?

 

Hi Reeddnlsn,

Very cool. I'll admit my install wasn't as smooth as it sounds afterwards. Quiet a bit of scratching head and it was definitely frustrating to physically get everything to fit (just be patient and methodical). I've not done any of this kind of work before so your milage might vary.

I'm planning to try a dongle. I think officially my unit only supports 3G but doesn't really make sense that it wouldn't work with a 4G dongle too. I'll post if I make any headway but will likely be a few weeks.

I know there are a ton of different units on Ali(en)Express so yours might be a little different. I suspect most of them are the same on the inside.

I'm using an android phone and it seems to work well both for bluetooth music streaming (have only tested it briefly but was happy to see controls for pause, skip and previous come up on the screen). There is also an application for mirroring your phone to the unit. Seems to work well with mine but again only tested briefly. It's of course a little obsolete if you can run your applications directly on the unit. There might be times where it will come in handy though and I would have killed for the feature if it wasn't for this thing running full android. Let me know if I can help when your get yours.

Good luck. It's a fun project.

 

XCM,

How's the sound with the new system?

 

tjrob2000,

Sound quality is overall good. To my ears the fidelity is as good as stock. I don't love that it's only 2 channels and that you therefore can't fade forward or rear but that's the limitation of the MOST adapter. Two other small things not to say they are problems but just in the interest of full disclosure:

#1 There is sometimes a crack or a pop from the speakers as the system turns on and off (maybe as the MOST adapter turns on and off) but it's just one and not too loud.
#2 When you turn the system on without the engine running you can hear a low static. It's low so with the engine running you don't hear it. I'm honestly not sure if PCM had the same as I wasn't really inclined to play with that system with the car off. As mentioned about I did not put a ground loop isolator on there but maybe I just got lucky with how my wires ended up running and the quality of the ground.

Overall, I'm very happy with the quality.

 

I may have to give this a try. I'll wait a little bit longer to see how I feel about it. Did you make sure the unit doesn't get too hot when powered on? I know in the other thread that was an issue.

 

killer2001,

When playing with the unit before sliding it back in it did the warm but not hot. Seems this case has a lot more volume than some of the ones on "the other thread". Probably helps with the heat but does make sliding the unit in harder as per my earlier post.

I'll report if I have any heat issues.

 

I believe that was an issue with a single user. No other reports of overheating have been reported on this forum, that I recall.

I installed my unit over the weekend, and I actually made it more difficult than it should have been. The biggest issue is the lack of installation instructions, but once sorted out, everything went well. The MOST module needs to be wired up - power all the time, power on key and ground. I found the easiest place to wire this in was to the same wires on the harness between the CanBus module and the head unit. Red to Red, Yellow to Yellow and Black to Black. Snip, strip, solder and shrink wrap and all ready to go.

As stated above the sound is good, but the lack of true balance and fad is "interesting" I have not listened to songs with distinct left / right channel sounds to know how they come out. (eg "Should I stay, or should I go" by The Clash)

I like the radio interface much better than the OEM unit, so that alone makes it worth it. I have not used any of the apps yet. Waiting on my Torque interface and GPS adapter.

Fit is nearly perfect and it looks great. Very happy with the result, and looking forward to using more of its features.

 

Avec, what are you doing for "GPS adapter"? Asking as I'm tempted to try to use the car's GPS antenna vs the one that came with the unit. One that came with the unit works OK but takes a while to lock on to satellites as I have it buried in the dash. Thanks.

 

Something like this

 

Avec,

I got the same adapter but complication for me is that I had the stock setup with the nav unit under the passanger front seat. Therefore the stock antenna coax is only routed to that location. I would have to re-route to the center console. Not sure how easy or painful that is.

 

You could run it from under the seat straight to the center console, then to head unit. The whole top of the center console comes off pretty easily. Remove the two screws at the ashtray and it pops off all the way to the ash tray.

 

Avec,

Yes, I guess that's an option. If I get brave I might try to undo the factory routing far enough back to route it forward along the ceiling and down the A-pillar. Guess if I'm doing that I might as well add a backup camera. Hmm.

 

Right there, with you. I ordered mine the other day. Opted for a wired unit, as I always seem to get poor video with the wireless. My head unit already switches to the backup camera feed, even though there isnt one. I also noticed that the unit has direction assist, or whatever the function is called that indicates where the vehicle will go through a backwards turn.

 

Avec,

Well you go first then and let me know how it works out :-). Mine too goes to AV input when I put it in reverse. Guess that's picked up from the CANBUS. At least then we won't have to tap the reverse light to get camera to work. Keep us posted please.