Aftermarket Android stereo install (with photos)

[slow_nick]

This thread is 4 months in the making (because I am exceptionally lazy) but the project is finally complete.

 

Long story short I have a 2010 Octavia Elegance and I wanted to upgrade the standard Bolero headunit to something with bluetooth and DAB. I also wanted to have navigation if possible but this wasn't an absolute requirement. I also wanted to keep the CANBUS functionality of the OEM headunit, mainly the HVAC and parking sensor display.

 

After discovering with absolute disbelief the insane prices that Columbus/Amundsen+ headunits go for and considering they are quite dated now, I settled on a cheap Android headunit from eBay. This is the one I purchased: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/253355453163

For some reason the seller has massive inflated the price of it - it was £199.99 and I submitted an offer for £180 in December 2019 which was accepted. It arrived after about a week (apparently from the UK):

 

 

I pretty quickly got around to fitting it once there was a decent gap in the terrible weather we had over December and early January. One thing I'm glad about with the Octavia is that the headunit is held in with torx bolts, and you don't have to mess around with stupid release keys to get it out. You just need a long enough T20 torx driver which I thankfully had. The plastic trim just pops off with a flat screwdriver.

 

 

 

Out of the box the headunit has FM radio, bluetooth, CD/DVD player, WiFi, CANBUS decoder, two microSD card slots, and an absolute multitude of inputs on the rear:

 

 

As you can see it has the quadlock connector and a double Fakra connector so it truly is plug and play. 

 

 

There is an input on the rear for an external microphone (which is included) but there's also a mic built in to the headunit which I've found out works sufficiently well so I didn't bother with the external mic. I also didn't fit the included GPS antenna which I'll explain further down. The manufacturer makes a load of extras you can add on to this such as tyre pressure monitoring (you have to screw sensor caps onto the valves, which gives you active TPMS), front and rear camera inputs (front can be recorded like a dash cam, rear is just for reversing I think and comes up automatically when  you select reverse), DAB/DAB+ radio, even a 3G/4G dongle so you can keep the headunit connected to the internet at all times.

 

After a couple of weeks of tweaking settings and volume levels etc I was at a point where I was pretty happy. The FM radio app works pretty well, and I also installed Plex from the Google Play store as I run a Plex media server at home which contains a lot of my music. I can tether the headunit to my phone to stream music when I'm out and about, or I can sync music for offline listening while my car is on the driveway and in range of my home WiFi.

 

 

All in all I was happy. I purchased the DAB module (about £30 I think) which arrived fairly quickly. It connects to the headunit via one of the rear USB ports, so I've just stuffed it down the back of the console.

 

I didn't want to use the supplied GPS antenna (the little black box you're supposed to stick on your dashboard somewhere), or the supplied DAB antenna (one of those stupid stick-on things that goes in the top corner of the windscreen). I did want GPS and DAB but without the ugly antennas and after a lot of research I settled on the best (but probably most expensive) option as suggested by @langers2k which was to change the standard roof aerial for one which has GPS and DAB built in. Thankfully VAG make a shark fin aerial with GPS and DAB as they obviously sell cars which can come with those things from the factory.

 

 

There just so happened to be a brand new one of these on eBay for £70 buy it now that someone had bought for a VW Polo and never ended up fitting so I bought it. As you can see there are 4 connectors coming from the aerial, these are FM/DAB (white), DAB (black), GPS (blue), and GSM (violet). The GSM antenna is used in cars with factory telephone preparation, as some headunits have rSAP so when a compatible phone is connected by bluetooth, the stereo can make calls through the SIM card using an external aerial for better reception. The standard aerial on cars without GPS/DAB/etc only have a single connector - the white FM/DAB one.

 

Replacing the aerial is very easy,  you just pull a plastic trim in the boot off by hand and then you can pull down the headliner. The aerial is held in with one massive nut (I think it's 19mm) that you can't really see but it's very easy to feel.

 

 

 

 

 

Obviously my car didn't have the wiring in place for the extra antennas so I had to order a few cables and adapters from chinarf on eBay in order to connect everything. I needed two 5m extension cables (one for DAB and one for GPS) and then a short patch cable for each to convert from Fakra to the appropriate connector. Putting these cables in was very easy, I used some semi-flexible cable fishing rods to push the cables through to the passenger A pillar where I pulled the trim off to receive the cables. It was pretty easy although annoyingly I snapped one of the cables after it got snagged on something and I yanked it, so I had to order another one from chinarf and wait another 3 weeks.

 

 

 

 

 

I ran the cables down the passenger A pillar and behind the dashboard into where the headunit is. This is quite tricky unless you have very small hands!

 

 

 

Connected everything up and it all worked wonderfully

 

 

 

 

 

I am very impressed with the DAB radio, it actually sounds better than FM from this stereo. The reception from the OEM shark fin aerial is excellent. The navigation is flawless and works nicely in Google Maps. I haven't tried any other navigation apps yet.

 

Only thing left to do is add a reversing camera. The headunit has a composite video input on the back so any basic camera should work. My intention was to get one that's built into the boot button like this:

 

 

End.

Edited 10 May, 2020 by slow_nick

[john999boy]

A very well written guide! 👏

Looking forward to seeing the install progress. 

[mac11irl]

its currently out of stock at £502!!!!

thats a serious mark up...

 

but it looks a really decent unit. and proper install done 👍

[J.R.]

I have fitted 2 identical but cheaper WinCE units, the first somewhat problematic, doesn't like multi-tasking & will subsequently reboot, the second does everything that it should and only cost £80 delivered, luck of the draw really.

 

What limits your choice and ups the price is the facia size, yours and mine facia styles need the widest units which are rare and cost more, I used the narrower one and made infill adaptors, a square double DIN unit would be aven cheaper but not look as OE.

 

There is no need to buy a seperate GPS antennae, the one that comes with the system does not need to be stuck on top of the dash but can go anywhere underneath, it has a magnetic rear and will stick to the metal cross brace, easy to place just by squeezing your hand through the radio aperture. The reception is excellent, far better than my previous Tom Tom unit.

 

I also fitted one of those boot handle reversing cameras, very discreet but they do get covered in muck being in a low pressure area, not muck as such just a slight coating of road dust/grime, easily wiped off with a finger.

 

The one on my Yeti is part of the number plate light, even cheaper, doesn't look quite as good but has  LEDS illumination built in, image is better at night but the reversing lights gave enough light for the lock handle camera to operate.