Android Head Unit installation - Intel sc9853i

Maintenance/Repairs
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Hi there,

already a big thanks for reading, bought an Android Head Unit online: Intel Spreadtrum sc9853i, 64GB / 4GB Ram.

Supposed to be specifically for my car, but so far except for turning on nothing works: no sound, no steering wheel control, no AC temp setting on screen visible…

And it doesn’t even fit, it’s too long to the back, the Chinese seller wants me to go to a local shop where they will cut out a part in the back so it would fit…:


the white round discoloration is where the GPS antenna cable is hitting the plastic panel, guess they’ll cut that piece out… suppose no harm in that?

He claims there’s no other way, the slimmer head units are cheaper models, this model needs this size for better heat dissipation. I feel he’ll say anything to make me not return the unit…

Normally there should be a wiring diagram sticker on the unit, this one came with nothing, no instructions, only a few cables are labeled… only 1 cable is still a mystery:

it seems the harness has a male and female connector, so the female is to connect to the car Power+Speaker cable, and the male goes back into the original CD/Radio? so the CD player can still function, it’s audio should go through the Aux cable?
Seems seller may not know his own device, as I deducted the back inputs from this unit with the same specs:


Looks like mine, according to the seller where the CAN input is market mine supposedly has no function.

The antenna cable has no connector on the harness, so I suppose I can keep using the stock radio? there’s a cut blue wire on the harness labeled Auto ANT, so I could connect this one to the car cable, though would need to figure out how, looks like it has 2 wires (below is for the newer version model L33, but Radio ANT connection looks identical):

the seller claims it’s not needed to function…

my original car: Nissan Teana 250XV from 2010 (model J32, matches the Maxima A35 dashboard/equipment)

So the top LCD display shows the CD number / Radio station / dual Aircon temperature setting.

The backside Radio/CD player:

(deducted the connections from a Google image from Nissan Frontier)

the dark gray is the Antenna radio, the small white should be the Steering controls, the bottom big connector should be for the AC (should not touch), and the remaining plug is the power/speakers wire.

The 2 connections that went into the top LCD display:

the black connector fits into the black one of the Android harness, so I’m assuming this one should carry the AC temperature setting, I’ve seen it’s possible from another sellers picture:

Freaking out as have spent 380 USD on it and it took 2 months to deliver (due to Chinese new year / COVID-19)…

Any help much appreciated, thanks a lot in advance!

2

And if you had gone to a local stereo shop you might not be having these problems . That seems to be your best move now.

3

When you buy junk, you usually get what you paid for. The only place to buy a head unit that will fit your car is Crutchfield.com. You’ll pay a bit more, but it’s worth it.

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4

Send it back. Start over. Buy from a source that can actually support your product.

Think about it for a second. If you have to come HERE to solve your installation problems that should tell you to walk away from this head unit.

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5

Agree with others. Send it back. It’s not only an installation issue, but what if you need subsequent support, i.e. warranty.

Crutchfield will send you everything you need to install a unit and provide person to person phone support. They have gone out of their way when my son installed a new head unit in his BMW and ran into (his) problems.

6

Thanks guys, I’ve been living for 6 years in Bangkok, need something local here…

The Chinese seller asked me to go to a shop here, they’ll fix it but need to cut a back part out of my car, so let’s focus on that please?

To cut or not to cut?
No harm ?

Big thanks for any advice, and stay safe in Corona times!
Cheers

7

See what the shop has to say then decide . I can’t see your car or where they will cut so I can’t answer that.

8

Sounds too much like a hack job to me, I wouldn’t cut it.

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9

In that case just let them do it. I don’t see the part supporting anything. People there can fit an 85 in flat screen tv in that space if you insist. :grin:

10

Depends on how much they’re cutting. I had to cut a small notch out of a metal crossbrace to clear the plug for a CB antenna once, but it was a small cut that didn’t compromise anything. If they’re telling you to remove the entire crossbrace, that might be a different story.

At any rate, nothing designed “specifically for this car” should require any sort of cutting tools to install. This guy is full of it. Based on that, I’d return it anyway, because odds are you’ll hack up your car and get it installed, and then the thing won’t work right anyway.

If you do decide to do some cutting, be careful back there. The edges of the metal are often very sharp. It’s easy to cut your hands.

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11

well this is Thailand, English is very limited… and relying on a shop’s advice could be risky… that’s why I resort to any advice I can get from this forum…

If I’d cut it myself, I’d only cut out the plastic blocking it, or maybe just cut bottom and top horizontally so it pushes backwards…
but indeed rather no cutting at all, but if indeed a high spec device needs room for better performance, better heat transfer, it may be a good solution… but what do I know.

so far they thought me how to download right MCU settings (select CAN, then car brand and model, it downloads then the right Canbox settings), but even that has not resulted into anything working, still no sound, no steering wheel control, so looks like I’ll have to try to get a refund…

last attempt will be to remove the harness cable from the original stereo, see if it works then.

Best regards,
Michael

12

It shouldn’t need any more heat dissipation than a normal head unit. Sure, it’s got Android guts for the computing side but… See that thing in your pocket? Smartphones run android too, and they don’t need to be the size of a book to dissipate heat.

14

This is far better posted as a new question not tagged onto a 2 year old thread… But

I have installed an Android head unit in my older vehicle. Pretty simple double DIN unit with a conversion wire harness that makes it Plug and Play. I did have to do some fabrication on the brackets but it fits like factory.

If you want to “study” the issues, head on over to Crutchfield.com and search for units that fit your car. The site also has adaptors you need (if they even exist!) for an easy installation, the post instructions and there is a contact for their experts so you can ask questions.

You don’t have to buy from them… but I have been for years. They know their stuff and this is NOT a an advertisement, just personal experience.

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15

First he says 2009 then 2013 and uses a European designation ( E 60 ) which is a 5 series in the US . Me thinks Spam but someone else might flag it .

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