In dash navigation

[TheDude]

I know this isn't for everyone, but when my $14 vintage looking ebay stereo died thought it was finally time to try and get navigation in the car. I don't love having a phone propped up or mounted in this car, so really wanted something permanent. On Black Friday I picked up a little 6.9" Android head unit for about $50 to see if it would fit in the dash and finally got around to trying it out. Pleasantly surprised that if fits perfectly in the single din spot and has just enough screen real-estate to be usable with Android Auto and supposedly works with Carplay. While obviously not stock looking, when off, it's just a black rectangle and sort of disappears into the dash which I like and got me nav and tunes when driving. It'll do a backup camera as well, but I have one on my mirror.

This isn't a recommendation for this particular unit or anything. Just pointing out that these 6.9" single DIN head units can fit in our cars. Like all these cheap, no name Android head units, it's quirky AF so you need to have expectations in check. I've used a bunch of them so knew what I was getting into. There are probably higher end versions that are more fully featured. I didn't really care about that, I just wanted it to fit without looking like a giant tablet and work with Android Auto and the regular radio for baseball season. It does all that without being too obnoxious looking and let's me keep the phone away for pretty cheap, so happy enough with it for now.

 

[RC92234]

Nice!

 

[Steve McMahan]

That looks great. Can you post more info about the actual unit? And showing my cell phone knowledge, will it work with my iPhone?

 

[TheDude]

I hesitate to point to this device specifically as I have a high tolerance for weirdness if the device is cheap enough as this isn't something I care to spend much on for this car and mostly wanted to point out the form factor.

Having said that, this is the device https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0CB5DP1J3 . It was about $50-$55 on black Friday. It actually does work since for what I want but does have a couple notable quirks. Day to day the biggest one is there's no volume knob so controlling the volume is either with the remote or on screen which is a bit of a hassle. I'm OK with that for now and am using the remote but might add a USB volume knob somewhere. And next and probably a bigger one for the installation is the connectors on the back of this thing point up. So if you're trying to install this from the front without pulling off the center dash section, I was unable to find a way to get the radio antenna plugged in. I finally ended up opening the thing up and soldering an antenna plug hanging out of the back of it so I didn't have to take the dash apart to install. Again for the price, I was OK with this 5 minute fix.

Some general thoughts on Android head units. These things are full blown little Android devices and run a bunch of different apps and often can run anything from the Google Play store. Some will allow you to hook up multiple webcams and act as DVR for those cameras etc. That's all well and good, but they are also often pretty under powered and again can be quirky. Most all of them however will connect to your phone via just regular bluetooth to stream audio or do full Apple Car Play or Android Auto so you get your phones car screen sent to the device. I use this almost exclusively on my other cars now so I really don't care about much else as long as I can use the phone's car mode and pretty much don't use any of the other features or apps in the head unit. If that's the main thing, a lot of horse power or storage isn't often as important.

Anyway, that's a long winded way of saying have you expectations in check and might want to test the thing out a bit before doing a full blown install so you can figure out if it looks like it might work for you. There are loads of similar models out there.

Here's one from a slightly less generic brand that I've actually heard of in this space, that has a volume knob and appears to have the cables going the right direction that I would probably try if I was doing this again... and might actually try it anyway.

https://www.amazon.com/Android-Wireless-Carplay-Single-Navigation/dp/B0CNYMJW8G

On the will it work with my phone. Yes, all these should let you at a minimum stream audio via bluetooth. Most of them support wired and wireless Apple Car Play and Android Auto which will give a much better interface and basically just let you use your phone as the stereo. I don't have an iPhone right now so I can't really comment on how well that works. On the Android side, while wireless Android Auto works, using a USB cable is usually a lot faster to connect. Basically I plug in my phone and within a few seconds I have Android Auto on screen.

 

[Steve McMahan]

Thanks, that was a great rundown. So the description of the unit refers to its form factor? What I’m looking for is one that is easy to install, will connect to my iPhone, have Apple CarPlay, have a volume knob, and be reliable. I’ll look at those units you cite. No worries about your recommendations. If we can’t be big boys and be responsible for our actions, well then that’s sad to me.

Great job introducing this; something I wouldn’t have considered otherwise.

 

[TheDude]

Yes, the description was mostly to talk about these single din units with smaller screens. There are other single din head units but until recently they all had very large screens which beside looking more out of place I don't think would work in that stock location.

On the easy to install side, on my car at least these are about as easy as you can get. Not sure if they all do or not, but mine already had the single din frame, so the radio just pulls straight out and the new one just pushes into the same spot. This time I was a bit lazy and just used Wago wire clips to do all the wire connections. So it's literally a 5 minute install and I can pull it out and swap in again in minutes.

Yes these should all work with your phone with Apple CarPlay. After writing that up yesterday I actually went ahead and ordered one of these https://www.amazon.com/Android-Wireless-Carplay-Single-Navigation/dp/B0CNYMJW8G?tag=forumyield-20 which has the volume knob and apparently better connections on the back. So hopefully in a few days I'll know if it's decent unit.

As far as reliable goes, I do use Android head units on my other cars and they've been great. Again I don't use virtually any of the baked in features as all I care about is getting my phone connected for nav and tunes.

 

[Steve McMahan]

Let me know how it goes for you. I’ve got a $100 Amazon gift card burning a hole in my pocket.

 

[Steve McMahan]

Maybe a dumb question, as I cruise the options: would a Double Din also fit in my 73? Just wondering.

 

[TheDude]

Not without really modifying the dash. The "din" thing is referring to the space it takes in the dash. A regular radio like these things have is a single din. A newer car with built in nav and a bigger screen will be double din. I've seen people larger stereos up in the top part of the dash is where the map pocket / AC vent would go. But again that would be some bigger surgery.

This is double on the left and single on the right.



I should add that if you want a bigger screen, there are a bunch of single din units with screens that stick out the front. There's little clearance above the radio slot, so it would need to be a screen that is mostly below the radio or can be slid down to maybe cover the fan controls. There likely are some out there like that, I just didn't want something that big and that far away from stock looking.

 

[Steve McMahan]

Shows my ignorance, I would have thought the one on the right is a single din, and ypthe one on the left is a double din. Is there a maximum dimension that fits in a 73? I wasn’t able to establish that, and now I’m not where my car is.