37 minutes ago, stevejwalford said:

You can get the DAB adapter for the unit I have really cheap, to be honest I am not that fussed about DAB. 

It's just as well we are all different as the ONLY feature I would ever want is DAB+, all the other stuff this unit offers wouldn't interest me at all - but I'm an old f*rt LOL

Well, the GPS antenna is now in. I've decided not to bother with the camera as there's no way I'm making a hole in this car. 

It's way too good for that, it really is like new. 

The instructions for the camera are hilarious 🤣

 

"Used navigation wife receives sufficient power" 

That's a pity, I could have charged her up a bit.

The pumpkin unit was worth it for that alone..... megalols 😁

 

 

On 4/24/2021 at 1:04 PM, Slowly said:

Well, the GPS antenna is now in. I've decided not to bother with the camera as there's no way I'm making a hole in this car. 

It's way too good for that, it really is like new. 

The instructions for the camera are hilarious 🤣

 

"Used navigation wife receives sufficient power" 

That's a pity, I could have charged her up a bit.

The pumpkin unit was worth it for that alone..... megalols 😁

 

 

On my old astra, i fitted a camera that replaced one of the number plate lights, no holes needed.

amazon

 

Matt

1 hour ago, matt77303 said:

On my old astra, i fitted a camera that replaced one of the number plate lights, no holes needed.

amazon

 

Matt

Im thinking I might get an OEM one from a scrappy and fit that, this would probably be part of the boot light housing. Not seen one so not really certain. 

 

8 minutes ago, Slowly said:

Im thinking I might get an OEM one from a scrappy and fit that, this would probably be part of the boot light housing. Not seen one so not really certain. 

 

If you can't find one, this is what you're looking for...

 

2 hours ago, StephenFord said:

If you can't find one, this is what you're looking for...

 

Kwalitee

Cheers Buddy 

 

10 hours ago, StephenFord said:

If you can't find one, this is what you're looking for...

 

I am thinking of getting one of these

Bit of an update then

The unit does indeed start in a second, the longest I've left it so far is 25 hours and it started in a second. 

Ill keep an eye on this and will include in the full review that I will do when ive really had a good test. 

 

Ive had a problem with GPS, the unit would sometimes find many satellites and quickly get a fix on them and sometimes it would find only a handful and fail to get a fix on any of the ones it found. This was totally random and made the unit useless as a sat nav 

 

The unit had the brass post on the back, to which the antenna is connected loose on delivery so I wonder if it was a previous return (not sure)  Anyway, the fix appears to be a replacement GPS antenna. I had a high quality garmin one doing nothing and that seems to have cured the random failure to connect. Presently it is finding up to 19 sats and getting a fix on as many as 18 of those. 

 

Customer service so far is excellent and they responded in about 12 hours when I described the problem and offered to send a new antenna. Ive accepted but will probably throw it in the parts bin as it will probably be just as c r a p p y 

 

Watched a DVD last night on the drive, the quality of the picture is first rate and the sound is great too. Also watched a few you tube vidz via the house wifi and that was seamless and had no processing lag. The Wifi antenna therefore appears to be fine. 

 

so far, so good but I will do a full video review shortly. 

 

Al

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A few pretty pictures, unit now working a treat on GPS with the garmin antenna. 

Looks splendid with the facia back on. 

 

Full review to follow after a good soak test. 

 

They really do modernise the interior, looks like a factory unit too.

If you plan on using DAB, ditch the included DAB+ app or whatever it's called and download DAB-Z (I think it's even on the Google Play Store now too). The stock app cuts out and all sorts, where as DAB-Z runs flawlessly.

How have you gone about sorting the Internet out? Or are you just on your house WiFi whilst you took the pictures of google maps?

1 minute ago, Luke4efc said:

They really do modernise the interior, looks like a factory unit too.

If you plan on using DAB, ditch the included DAB+ app or whatever it's called and download DAB-Z (I think it's even on the Google Play Store now too). The stock app cuts out and all sorts, where as DAB-Z runs flawlessly.

How have you gone about sorting the Internet out? Or are you just on your house WiFi whilst you took the pictures of google maps?

 

Thanks, I agree, it takes 5 or more years off the interior.

 

No plans fo DAB at the moment but maybe in the near future ill modernise. I wonder if they have heard of DAB at radio 3 LOL 

 

When I took those pics just a few mins ago I was connected to my phone with the phone set as a WIFI Hotspot. Phone was indoors and the wifi signal was still nearly full-berries so the antenna is good. 

The map scrolling is smooth as silk and zooming is likewise. 

When I do the review, I'll do a new thread so it doesn't end up lost in this one. 

 

Is there anything anyone wants me to cover in detail? 

Al

 

 

 

 

1 hour ago, Slowly said:

I wonder if they have heard of DAB at radio 3 LOL 

Yes, the BBC are one of the only providers using 128kbit/s mp3 instead of 64kbit/s mp2 in mono.

Installed tomtom onto the units internal memory.  Works perfectly and was child's play to assign the NAVI quick key to launch Tomtom instead of Google maps. 

Avoided all the free apps, im not one for ads and bugs, would much rather pay for quality. 

 

 

 

 

 

1 hour ago, Slowly said:

Installed tomtom onto the units internal memory.  Works perfectly and was child's play to assign the NAVI quick key to launch Tomtom instead of Google maps. 

 

Now you're just showing off LOL

Looking at getting a new unit for my Smax, the pumpkin one looks great but is a fair chunk of cash, been looking at the ones on AliExpress that come with the trim built in - risk is always that it ends up being a pile of junk and still costs a fair bit and takes a month to arrive!

1 hour ago, StephenFord said:

Now you're just showing off LOL

Megalols, 

I'm going to be a power-user. 

Nearly there already 

😁

3 hours ago, V0NST3V3 said:

Looking at getting a new unit for my Smax, the pumpkin one looks great but is a fair chunk of cash, been looking at the ones on AliExpress that come with the trim built in - risk is always that it ends up being a pile of junk and still costs a fair bit and takes a month to arrive!

Indeed, I took the view that whilst Chinese, it was at least,  more expensive Chinese. 

I shall save any surgery for the review but for now I can tell you that the build quality is reasonably OK.  I'm fortunate that I can improve it if necessary as I'm a ham radio bod with the tools and knowledge to improve commercial radio kit. There are issues as I expected.  Example, there is what I suspect to be stray RF energy from the active GPS that is audible through the cars speakers. This is either being picked up as direct RFI on the speaker cables and driving the speakers or, more likely is mixing internally inside the unit with the amplfier stage for the intended audio output. I can fix this if it irritates me but ill wait and see what else needs sorting out first. The CAN Bus module is i suspect also discharging a capacitor to the exterior lighting when locking the car which again, can be fixed. That could be as simple as incorrectly specified and biased semiconductors or even a failed semiconductor. It could also be the cars own system not playing nicely with the 🎃.  These are minor issues and to be expected in cheapish sophisticated electronics regardless of origin.. please don't let that put you off. 

Everything for the consumer market is built to a price but I wanted to lower the risk of an utter lemon 🍋 by spending a bit more. In any case, I wanted the CD so pretty much had to go this way or build my own!!! 

If I burst it open to improve it, the warranty is gone but I wouldn't need the warranty so it doesn't really concern me

🎃

Did you ever consider getting a "name brand" double din unit instead, I think you can get a trim piece to cover the gaps where the standard unit fills the bigger space. 

You would hope that a Pioneer unit for example, wouldn't have the issues you have described as they might have spent a bit more time on the R&D.

49 minutes ago, V0NST3V3 said:

Did you ever consider getting a "name brand" double din unit instead, I think you can get a trim piece to cover the gaps where the standard unit fills the bigger space. 

You would hope that a Pioneer unit for example, wouldn't have the issues you have described as they might have spent a bit more time on the R&D.

Hi, thanks for that. 

I did, I even stood before them in Halfords for a look but they don't offer the features of this one. I was after phone and sat nav with CD so was pretty limited therefore. If there was a Kenwood or other premium brand that does what this one does, and fitted the space aesthetically, I would have bought it for sure. There are enough, oddly shaped 6000 CD units out there for someone to make a high-end slot in product viable I would suggest. 

I believe I made the right choice based on what I needed it to do and what was is currently available. I was after the factory look as well because the double din patch-up trim kits don't appeal. 

It genuinely is not bad at all when you consider the relatively low cost for what it does. It just could be tweaked to make it better but that would increase the cost and would reduce the appeal to many buyers. 

I don't regret it at all and so far I would recommend it, but I would advise to throw the GPS antenna in the bin and install a better one. 

Cheers

Al

 

 

 

 

2 hours ago, Slowly said:

I don't regret it at all and so far I would recommend it, but I would advise to throw the GPS antenna in the bin and install a better one. 

 

When I 1st got my Mk2 I had fully intended to upgrade the square 6000 unit, but the only feature I was desperate for was DAB+. Internet, SatNav, MP3 etc etc didn't interest me at all. After some research at the time, I could not find anything that offered this feature out of the box. My skill level is reached by being able to remove old unit, and installing new unit with the attached QuadLock connector!

After buying my DAB+ converter, and 'upgrading' my 6000 to allow an AUX connection (the FM adapter was appalling!), installing a standalone DAB aerial (a cheap MagMount) I was done. I admire the amount of work you have put into your conversion, interesting thread...

21 hours ago, StephenFord said:

When I 1st got my Mk2 I had fully intended to upgrade the square 6000 unit, but the only feature I was desperate for was DAB+. Internet, SatNav, MP3 etc etc didn't interest me at all. After some research at the time, I could not find anything that offered this feature out of the box. My skill level is reached by being able to remove old unit, and installing new unit with the attached QuadLock connector!

After buying my DAB+ converter, and 'upgrading' my 6000 to allow an AUX connection (the FM adapter was appalling!), installing a standalone DAB aerial (a cheap MagMount) I was done. I admire the amount of work you have put into your conversion, interesting thread...

Cheers buddy, good of you to say so.  I do hope this can become a useful thread for those considering options for stepping up the capabilities of their ICE. I was disappointed by the lack of detailed info out there when considering the options which prompted me to document the process. Good for you on the mag mount, please share the detail, if I fit the DAB in due course I’ll need a decent antenna .

Nothing  to do with the car now but a bit about digital formats...... 

Digital radio is awesome, it’s uses are vast. The DAB broadcast radio in the UK I’ve always found to be a bit poor for radio reception in mobile use but that’s because of the way it works. It’s great for fixed station reception and I dare say, great for mobile in areas of good coverage. I do use digital modes such as C4FM and data packet radio for transmission and reception of comms all around the world 🌎 on amateur radio so I know how useful it can be. We also use digital radio data for weak signal propagation research. I transmit a digital signal on very low power, much less than an instrument cluster bulb 💡 for example, that could pop up anywhere like the Cayman Islands and the receiving station will then return a signal received report so we know the path is open. When that happens, we  can turn a beam antenna in that direction and try to make a contact. That contact would then take place using old fashioned radio, either by voice or morse code. 
 

Pic of one of my vast collection of home-made mobile antennas, capable of quite literally kilowatts  of targeted digital or analogue  transmission......the mast is pneumatic and pumps up by a compressor in the van to 12M high. 

I do like playing radio LOL 

On 5/1/2021 at 7:28 PM, V0NST3V3 said:

Looking at getting a new unit for my Smax, the pumpkin one looks great but is a fair chunk of cash, been looking at the ones on AliExpress that come with the trim built in - risk is always that it ends up being a pile of junk and still costs a fair bit and takes a month to arrive!

I would recommend one of these:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/174750627305?hash=item28aff2f5e9:g:BjkAAOSwXxJgioqk

Octacore CPU, 4gb of ram and 64gb of inbuilt storage. 

I am tempted to got the android route on a new head unit, till i read about needing a data sim for them to operate at 100%. i thought i could link it to my phone and hotspot it.

 

hmmmmmmm , second thought city lol

4 hours ago, stevejwalford said:

I would recommend one of these:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/174750627305?hash=item28aff2f5e9:g:BjkAAOSwXxJgioqk

Octacore CPU, 4gb of ram and 64gb of inbuilt storage. 

Looks awesome to me that buddy, certainly seems good value if it is recommended, this is what forums are for so thanks for adding to the discussion 👍

Al

 

not a bad spec or price, would prefer if it had a USB front port, the pics leave a lot to be desired.