Database Info

Car Dock disassembly - adding a LINE OUT

So I got my car dock, I knew it didn't come with a line out, but figured I could add one. You all know how aewsome it would be to have a line out jack on this thing rather than the stock "speakers". Well good news, I am going to make myself a line out and will post pictures about how I am doing it.
I have the thing taken apart right now, and just need to go buy a 3.5mm audio jack.
So, my plan will be to still use the cardock for phone and stereo profiles, just using my car stereo's aux in rather than the dock's weak speakers. I'll leave the microphones on the dock intact, just not the speakers. The good news is the speakers are removable, making room for a 3.5mm audio jack. the bad news? the jack will have to be on the dock body, not base. I'm sure if you try hard enough, one of yoiu will find a place in the base for a jack, but for now, I'm going to add one to the body, on the bottom (in portrait mode).
There you have it, I'll be able to make the dock a semi-permanent fixture in my car and never have to plug in an audio cable to get my music through my car speakers.
Pictures to follow soon, I just couldn't wait to start this project, and get some reactions / moral support.

Someone else looked at doing the same thing a while back. I seem to recall they came up against several hurdles. It is not as clear cut as it seems.
On the face of it- it would seem the approach you are taking will necessitate you having your car stereo ON and AUX selected any time you need to take a phone call. Might be a bit of a pain when you are for example, listening to the car radio and your phone rings. Or if the phone rings and your stereo happens to be turned off.
I find the inbuilt speakers totally adequate for Phone Audio. This arrangement has the benefit it being standalone and means N1 Phone Audio works regardless of current car stereo state. I send the Media Audio to my car stereo via BT though, as it sure benefits from the better speakers quality and auto pauses the Media when the phone is in use.
Good luck with it and do a search for the other thread as there is some good info info in there.
PS take a look through this thread http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=6427057&postcount=39
Might save you some heart ache

I only found that thread, after i had my dock quite disassembled and did a google search for the chipset under the RF shield. :/
I don't use my car's head unit for anything but aux audio, radio is dead to me, so I shouldn't have any problems. The hurdle is the audio being fed to the speakers do NOT share a common ground. They utilize an active-balanced system. both leads are hot, common to themselves.
Now it seems as I will have to choose which channel gets full audio and just bum 'common' from the dominant channel. or i come up with some way to convert two independent balanced audio feeds to a common ground.
I have had no luck looking up the NF2301 daughter board. I was hoping to find a schematic detailing the line level outputs, but no go. I did think it was interesting that the car dock and desktop dock share the same PCB, too bad there is no detailed schematic yet...

FAILURE - giving up
So, after creatively placing some resistors and whatnot, I got a decent line level with common ground, that won't blow up the built-in amp. However, as pointed out in that other thread, there is some BS DSP that notches the lower frequencies out of the signal to the speakers. I got it all setup in my car, plugged in to my aux-out, and it sounded like i was using the voice profile. I took the aux cable and plugged into my headphone jack on the phone, and all the bass came through just fine.
So, for now? The audio out on the car dock is meant for the crappy on-board speakers. not real ones. Sad...
Now, it seems the only way to get an aux out of the cardock would be to swap the board with a desktop dock, and cut a hole for the aux jack, or just do some more soldering to not modify the casing of the cardock.
Too bad, I had it working, but the damn DSP chip/amp puts out ****ty audio quality

Alternatively, at the point you have a desktop dock.... Instead of butchering it for the board, Just install it somewhere out of site in your car and connect it to your cars Aux-in with a 3.5mm lead. Thats what I have done. Works well. Only downside is I still have to manually connect the desktop. It does not autoconnect to deskdock when N1 is placed in cardock obviously.
Too bad your set up did not work for now.

kajer said:
So, after creatively placing some resistors and whatnot, I got a decent line level with common ground, that won't blow up the built-in amp. However, as pointed out in that other thread, there is some BS DSP that notches the lower frequencies out of the signal to the speakers. I got it all setup in my car, plugged in to my aux-out, and it sounded like i was using the voice profile. I took the aux cable and plugged into my headphone jack on the phone, and all the bass came through just fine.
So, for now? The audio out on the car dock is meant for the crappy on-board speakers. not real ones. Sad...
Now, it seems the only way to get an aux out of the cardock would be to swap the board with a desktop dock, and cut a hole for the aux jack, or just do some more soldering to not modify the casing of the cardock.
Too bad, I had it working, but the damn DSP chip/amp puts out ****ty audio quality
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maybe it's using a low bitrate A2DP bluetooth transfer. Either way, bluetooth will be lower quality than a direct plug.

khaytsus said:
Either way, bluetooth will be lower quality than a direct plug.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I believe this is the likely reason why Google didn't include an audio out port on the dock. Yes, it's on the desktop dock, but that's really all the desktop dock handles, whereas the car dock has a mic as well, etc.

I would be interested in detailed disassembly instructions if you wouldn't mind.

wonkotron said:
I would be interested in detailed disassembly instructions if you wouldn't mind.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
detail isn't really necessary, it's pretty straightforward.
-get a knife and use it to peel off the black rectangular sticker on the front of the dock. it's right where the battery on the phone is when it's docked.
-undo the 4 screws behind the sticker
-pop the two halves of the phone-holder part of the dock apart. if you can't get them apart with a bit of pulling get your thumb nail or a knife in between the two halves.
that's about as far as you need to go to get to the useful bits.

jamezracer said:
Stuff
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks! I'll see if I can figure anything out.

I had this same idea when I first got my car dock, but I couldn't convince myself to hack my new dock. Instead I hacked an old stereo Bluetooth headset with the same mod and it works perfectly.

Don't ignore this post...
Ok So I took a dive in to it. I disassembled my dock (yes even after reading all that I could find on the internet, including this thread), but in disbelief I wanted to find out for my self. I soldered a head phone jack to the speaker wires, and thought I had something good when connected to my computer speakers. (it worked and I was surprised). But after hooking it all up in the car and actually hearing the quality, I was sorrily disappointed.
Major failure, the sound is terrible. Not tolerable at all. Comparable to scratching fingernails across a chalk board and trying to listen to some good tunes at the same time from an FM radio with very poor reception.
Heed my warning, do not attempt to mod the dock for an FM out, it will not work.

[Q] in-dash android tablet?

What tablet do I get?
I was wondering if anyone had any good suggestions for a tablet to install into my dash. The Archos 5 IMT looks like it has almost everything I want, but I would really like a 7".
It needs:
Built-in GPS (or enough ports for a dongle, and support for a dongle. I don't want bluetooth, because I don't want to have to worry about it losing power)
FM receiver (I know there are internet radio apps, but I want to be able to use this offline.. if it's possible)
Capacitive screen (Cause I want it) with a wide viewing angle.
I don't care much about which version of Android it has, it will pretty much just be used for GPS and Music/video.
As a side note, I'm still doing research, but if anyone knows how to, or knows where there's a tutorial, I need to figure out how to hook the tablet to the speakers. I don't really want to have to use a head unit, though that would be the easy way. There must be some kind of small device I can use that has a volume knob and maybe fade/balance controls that I can install anywhere in the truck.
Thanks for reading!

I have installed the archos 5IT in my dash and love it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kUsui3-5Y0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nN-8Hrf0sM
Its not capacitive but it does not suffer from the glare that the glass screens have. As far as touch sensitivity its pretty acurate for a resistive device.
I dont have the gps signal issues most have as i have the flash version and not the hard drive based ones as most say the hdd must be blocking the gps. I paid for the one time map fee from Ndrive but also tether to my phone and use google maps as well.
I have over 100 youtube music video's in mp4 format ripped to the device and use those as my music and have it set to random play and it goes from one file to the next without having to select a new video once one is over.

Thanks!
Some good input there. I'll have to keep that in mind. I just really think a 7" would look a lot better. Especially in my F150 XLT. Seems like the 5" would look dinky, and I have room for a 7".
If archos put the 5's guts into the 7 form factor, I'd buy 2 right now. Rly.
Also, for anyone who stumbled on this, I think it won't be too hard to set this up without using a head unit. (I could be wrong on some of the technical info, but I think I have the right idea here.) Your amplifier has a 'plug' with like 20 wires attached coming out. Normally, your radio has a plug that fits this plug. You plug it in, and now the radio's attached to the amp, which is attached to the speakers. Good to go. So you buy a new plug (called a wire harness), one that fits your amplifier (assuming stock amplifier, I will just look up 2000 F150 wire harness on amazon, and that's it), and wire up your tablet to it instead of your radio.
The wire harness puts out a 12v (ignition on) wire. You can adapt this to a USB and use that to charge the device. Set it to display/wifi/gps/all other battery draining crap off while not charging. When you turn the car on, it's now "Charging" and everything will turn off. I think it should be able to 'sleep' for a few days, so it should be 'always on' as far as you can tell.
The harness also has a wire for each of the 4 speakers, maybe subwoofers too, I forget now. I'm sure someone makes a product that controls these easily, I'm going to have to go to a local car audio shop, and ask some questions. Hopefully I can put the audio out from the tablet into the audio in of this unknown device. Then I should be able to wire the unknown device to the wiring harness. If I can't find something, I think I'll just make my own circuit, 3 Pots for volume, fade and balance, some resistors or something.. we'll see if I can't just buy something. The rest of the EQ can be done on the tablet.
(If I do make my own, I want to use a slide-style pot for volume instead of a rotating one. I think that'd be the nuts.)
Wiring harness: Ignition on wire adapted to USB. Speaker wires wired to volume/fade/bal device.
Tablet: plug in USB, and connect audio out to volume/fade/bal device.
Easy cheesy.
I'll be updating.
This thing is starting to look like it'll be really easy to do.
I can't get started 'til I find my tablet though. I would love to hear some more ideas! THANKS!

they updated the 7" home with newer hardware but it does not have gps. I would look into the upcoming wifi only samsung galaxy tab and see if it will have gps.
your on the right track with the audio wiring however you would better off getting a cheap 4ch amp to do it as you need power to pump the speakers the way you are talking about wiring it up would basically have the android device trying to power door speakers from the headphone output amp. If you got a cheap 4 ch amp and wired it through the stock vehicle harness you would have all the hookups u need just get the headphone to rca cable and a set of splitters to power all 4 channels of the amp volume could be controlled from the android device. If the amp had external volume remote or if you wired one inline with the headphone output you could have better volume control however the turning on and off of the amp might send a pop to the speakers as the amp would always be turned up.

Hmm
I was under the impression that my vehicle came with a stock amp. Everything's stock (as far as I know, got it used and haven't tinkered with it yet.)
Just trying to understand better, as I have never dealt with car stereos before.
So my stereo was supplying power to the speakers before? There's not an amp in my truck right now between the stereo and the speakers?
EDIT:
I'm almost thinking of getting something really cheap, as I plan on permanently mounting it in the dash. Something Chinese maybe?
I'm sure the Galaxy Tab would work really well, but it's a bit expensive for a GPS/radio/computer.. now that I'm typing this out, that's a ****ing deal! Maybe I will get something nice to pop in there.
I found a tutorial online for making the 12v ignition into 2 USBs, so I am now considering a usb-powered bluetooth gps. Too bad it adds $50 to the cost.

Alright
Nope, no amp in the F-150 standard. It's in the head unit. So I will need to get an amp.
I figure I can move this whole system to my next car (Plan on getting a new truck in 3-4 years.. or sooner if this one decides to go on me), so the amp is an investment.
Truck has 4 speakers stock (no subwoofers)
I will hook those 4 speakers to the amp I buy. (I'll have to look up how to install an amp now.. geesh.)
I will put the audio out from my tablet into the amp.
Now I have to figure out how the 12v ignition on is gonna work, since I'm now going through a new amp. I found a tutorial on instructables titled "12v to USB adapter \ 12v to 5v transformer (great for cars)" I'm not allowed to post links yet, but I'm sure you can find it if you want it.

Yeah the amp any small 4ch or 2ch if you dont care about front rear fade will work..
As far as hooking up an amp they are pretty easy just need to run your own main power wire for the 12v constant for the amp. 8-10 gage should be fine for 400-600w 2 or 4 ch amp to power door speakers....
then use your red ignition wire from the harness u get to power the remote to the amp so its only on with the ignition. Extent the speaker wires to reach your amp you can mount under the passenger side dash or behind the center consol as trucks have plenty of room under there.
the wires from the harness you get to plug into your factory radio harness are easy to figure out as the colors have been standard for a while. Black is ground but you will need your own closest to the amp as possible any bare metal spot you can find that has a bolt to the frame or under dash should suffice. The black from the harness will power the usb fine. Yellow is constant + (always on) if you want the usb to always have power if not use the red as its only on with the ignition it will have enogh amps to power the remote for the amp and charge/power the tablet. green and purple are rear speakers, white/gray are front speakers. the remaining wire colors depend on the vehicle if they have them like blue is for power antenna or factory amp turn on. orange is to dim an after market head unit display when the head lights are on.
I was in best buy a few weeks ago and saw the archos 7 home tablet for $129 almost got one just because of the deal but dont need it as the 5it i have is fine and has the built in gps. but if using an external bluetooth gps is the route you go the 7 should be great. You will just need to find your own gps app or use google maps and have to terher to something like a smart phone for data.
http://www.archos.com/products/ta/archos_7/specs.html?country=us&lang=en
they show the gps icon on the home screen however it does not have built in gps. there are a ton of gps solutions you can side load or get from android market.

Damn...
Was just about to order the 7 home. Such a good deal.
No bluetooth...
The search continues.

i was searching ebay for something 7" that had gps or bluetooth and nothing cheap cought my eye so i took the 7" tag out and added 2.2 for froyo and gps...
I came up with this. http://goo.gl/hyNtC
All you would need to look like the soundman from youtube with his f150 ipad 2 install.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jr3_zLHTbY

May have found a contender.
a 10 inch would be nice, but I don't know how to do fiberglass, and for my first car mod, I'd prefer to keep it simple. a 7-inch should just fit in my double din.
Found this little gem.
http://www.dinodirect.com/tablet-pc...camera-android.html?ddse= gps&utm_source= gps
Gonna look at it more when I get home, will probably buy it. Only thing that's funky about it is that it charges with AC. We'll see...

A software to be written to tell it to go to sleep immediately when "ac" power is removed would be nice, also, that app to tell music/radio to resume on "wake" would be nice.
That way it plays the true car infotainment roll.
A device with USB host would almost be required before I dig into android platform for my infotainment system.
I have a custom built net-top based system built in my truck using a 7" touch screen, automatic power supply from mini-box.com, and a USB controller connected to my steering wheel control buttons. USB host is a must for me!

Sounds like a good setup. Honestly i'm fine with the stock radio in my truck, but I like to tinker.
Still haven't found the right device. I'm buying an Arnova 8 when they switch to the new model, and I'll give that a test fit.. see how it goes.
My plan is to set the device to have the display always on when plugged in. It's in settings or something. If it's wired to the ignition, should work right? We'll see.
I think if I get juice defender and set it to aggressive (no gps, no wifi, no bluetooth, no anything), it should stay on for a while in standby.

Well...
Seems like Android Tablets haven't matured enough for my project. I don't see a cheap 7" capacitive tablet with GPS coming out anytime soon. I'm going to go ahead and get a stereo with rear usb and aux ports, and make a mount for my phone. Should be fun. I'll make a new post with pictures and instructions, and link it here.
Oh well...

My 2 cents...
I've been looking to do the same thing. I've been digging around for a good table and this is the best I've got. Specs wise, it fits the bill. But I can't find any good reviews.
http://hotmid.com/wits-a81h-tablet-cortex-a8-7-capacitive-touchscreen-android-2-3-gps-wifi.html
Just in case that link doesn't work...
http://mp4nation.net/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=68&products_id=483
The big thing I'm looking for is a parts list. Amp, harnesses, etc. And a how-to would be the coolest as far as basic wiring for power and sound.

The xoom
T-Mobile G2 1.42 GHZ

I recommend the Asus eee pad transformer. 98percent the same as motorola xoom and lighter
Sent from my U20i using XDA Premium App

concept after-market product
What appears to be lacking in the market currently is a ready-to-use 2DIN or double-din head unit that is basically a permanent in-dash universal docking system such that you can simply pop in a 5 or 7 inch tablet (or adaptable for say a minimum 4 inch or greater smartphone?) with the head unit's rear interface designed for plugging into the car's power, sound system, and steering wheel controls just like an aftermarket care stereo. Sorta like the currently available units that utilize removable electronic faceplates-- except here the tablet or smartphone itself is the "removable faceplate".

Spepper, I have seen one on Ebay. Looks a bit dodgy but might be good:
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/ES666MO-...153004?pt=Car_Audio_Video&hash=item336b841f6c
ES666MO Car DVD/GPS/ANDROIT TABLET

http://ca-fi.com/en/ it's not a removable tablet, but it's an all-in-one Android-powered double-din radio, looks awesome, but it comes at a price because it has all the hardware built-in

stevey500 said:
A software to be written to tell it to go to sleep immediately when "ac" power is removed would be nice, also, that app to tell music/radio to resume on "wake" would be nice.
That way it plays the true car infotainment roll.
A device with USB host would almost be required before I dig into android platform for my infotainment system.
I have a custom built net-top based system built in my truck using a 7" touch screen, automatic power supply from mini-box.com, and a USB controller connected to my steering wheel control buttons. USB host is a must for me!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The wake-up is covered using plug in launcher from the market.
I am checking if it can be used for the sleep portion.

Esirin MTCD - external mic connection?

Hallo,
I got my new MTCD head unit. Its this one:
http://www.erisinwholesale.com/special-car-dvd/audi/erisin-es3078a-7-android-51-car-dvd-gps-dab-for-audi-a4-497.html
I have dont done much testing yet, but i want to connect my external mic first.
The HU is delivered with an small additional harness that included a external mic and a 4-pin connector on the other end. (see attached photo - connector E)
I want to cut this harness and solder a standard mic-jack onto it.
(and then desolder the internal mic)
Does anyone know the pin-out of this 4-Pin connector?!
I guess this is standard on many of the newer MTCD units?!

check with ohmeter the ohm value between gnd and signal and use similar specs mic.

Dear OP, Im very interested in you project. I have nearly the same unit but for A3. I also wanted to wait with the mic until i come up with a better solution than using the one which came with it. Do you know how to disable the standard handsfree function of the car? Now the "Mode" button always messes with the Mode of the headunit. Where is the cars' mic plugged into? How can I access this spot?
in some (i think it was russian) forum i came across the ROM wich connects via Bluetooth to the standard handsfree of the car before calling. But with the standard Rom so far i was not able to conect to it.
PS: Does your unit snap into the DIN booth like the original radio? Mine does not snap in and therefore is kinda loose

i am not sure how to measure the correct ohm value of a mic.
If i connect my multimeter to the factory ext. mic, i see 1,325 kOhm
If i connect it to my parrot mic, i see 1,660kOhm (i have attached a photo of this mic)
But anyhow, i am more interessted in the 4-pin plug, this head unit uses for the ext. mic. hook up.
As you can see on the attached photos, the lower two pins are jumpered.
And the upper two pins go to the mic.
I also found, that one of those two lower pins is a 5V supply on the head unit.
So this harness of the factory external mic seems to have some sort of switch function also...
But i am not sure, what it does...

And to answer Mighty_X´s questions:
I have no "mode" button on my head unit. Not sure, what you mean.?!
On my older MTCB unit, i just cutted the wires to the internal mic, and connected my parrot mic to the ext. mic connection.
But here, on this new Erisin MTCD, all connectors at the back of the unit are different...
regarding accuracy of fit:
The head unit didn´t fit in perfectly. Its a little bit wider at the bottom, than the original radio. If you carefully push a little harder you get it into a very good position. The cars dashboard is flexible enough for that. But thats not really a problem and its definitely not loose.

Pedaaa said:
And to answer Mighty_X´s questions:
I have no "mode" button on my head unit. Not sure, what you mean.?!
On my older MTCB unit, i just cutted the wires to the internal mic, and connected my parrot mic to the ext. mic connection.
But here, on this new Erisin MTCD, all connectors at the back of the unit are different...
regarding accuracy of fit:
The head unit didn´t fit in perfectly. Its a little bit wider at the bottom, than the original radio. If you carefully push a little harder you get it into a very good position. The cars dashboard is flexible enough for that. But thats not really a problem and its definitely not loose.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for your answer. I was refering to the Mode Button on the steering wheel.

Ahh, OK sorry
I only have the standard steering wheel without any buttons, so i can't comment on this

dont worry about 4pin conn, just check that the mic you want to use in head unit support that ohm input, otherwise the sound quality wont be good, just make "test-fail" until you get good result. just connect to 2 wires mic the mic you want to test...

But i do worry about this 4-Pin connector
If you connect the original ext.mic, the lower 2 pins are jumpered.
What internal effect would this have?
Is it just an input, that an ext. mic is connected?!
But why? Would the singals of the mic wont work without this input?
Or will this input maybe disable the internal mic?!
Then we wouldnt need to do the mod, by desolder or cut the internal mic on such units.
Thats just my thoughts, but i haven't done testing yet. Also i am not sure how i could figure it out exactly...

Pedaaa said:
But i do worry about this 4-Pin connector
If you connect the original ext.mic, the lower 2 pins are jumpered.
What internal effect would this have?
[..]
Thats just my thoughts[...]
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, on my unit (Erisin 3047A) the ONLY reason why the lower 2 pins are "jumpered" is purely a mechanical issue: By having 4 wires and tied them together using a cable tie the two upper (small) cables are fixed in place. So: No actual use, just for mechanical reasons.
Did you have a cable tie on your 4 wires? From your pictures I cannot see it, perhaps you removed it?
Well, I just used my external micro from the installation before, and it works great.
Kind regards,
hardcoded74

Hi,
Ok, there were no reasons for my concerns.
I unsoldered the interal mic.
And then i soldered a headphone jack to the two wires of the original ext. mic harness.
The didnt touch the lower jumper wire.
And now:
It works great with my parrot mic! No echo, and really good quality in general! I am very happy now.
I also now installed a time-delay-relay for my rear view cam. Now the cam keeps going for apprx. 8 seconds, if i change to forward gears. Thats a great improvement also, that i can recommend

Pic of the modified harness

please poiint out, what headphone you used for this and the cables (by color) you connected to. (red to white for example)
thanks

Hello,
I use a PR2627 Parrot Twin Mic.
I cutted the standard ext mic and soldered a 2,5mm female jack instead of it. The white lead from the original cable goes to the "left" connection on the jack.
So the tip of the male 2,5mm pin will contact the white cable.
The black lead goes to the ground connection of the jack.
Thats it.
So, i use this Stereo mic only as a mono mic.
But it works great.
But i have to say also the original ext. mic. isnt that bad, if you disconnect the internal one.

I want to try to use the original Audi microphone. The ohmmeter says the Audi is 7,9kOhm and the mic wich came with the Erisin is 0.9kOhm. Is it possible to get good results here? What do you guys think?
I ll have to search were the wire goes wich is not to easy in Audi A3 (at least for me)
Edit: Like I thought the quality of the original mic used with the new head unit is pretty poor. dumb and very quiet. Not sure now if i get another mic, use the erisin one or maybe try a mic amplifier..

So if I understand this correct, the headunit keeps using the signal from the internal mic, even if there is an external mic connected? In essence, it gets mixed? No wonder everybody on the other end of the line is complaining that they don't understand a word I'm saying.
Is it easy to unsolder the internal mic?

HVB83 said:
So if I understand this correct, the headunit keeps using the signal from the internal mic, even if there is an external mic connected? In essence, it gets mixed? No wonder everybody on the other end of the line is complaining that they don't understand a word I'm saying.
Is it easy to unsolder the internal mic?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can someone confirm this or disagree?

Mighty_X said:
Can someone confirm this or disagree?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You couldnt find the answer in the entire thread devoted to this issue Yes; if an an external mic input is factory, it is in parallel with the internal mic. This is a rookie design mistake.

Is there a way to change sensitivity of the external mic input? Did not find an option in the factory settings..

I unsoldered the internal mic now too. After first tests I can say say that doing that had no effect on the input sound quality or anything at all. And i found out that the internal and external mic wich came with it arethe same piece of hardware. I still wonder if there is a way to increase intensity of the mic without going over hardware amplifier. Have a kinda newer Ersisin model I guess

Enabling RCA Audio outputs?

Hello everyone
I tried to use the RCA Line-Level audio outputs of my Dasaita MTCD-PX5 unit to connect an external amplifier, but discovered that there's no signal coming out of them.
Do I need to enable them somewhere on the SW?
Thanks in advance
Max

Hi Max,
I am having the same issue, with Seicane PX30. I have temporarily spliced into the speaker wires since my amp can take high voltage input, however I have static/ clipping noise with high volume.
Please let me know if you figure this out!

SoakedCardinal said:
Hi Max,
I am having the same issue, with Seicane PX30. I have temporarily spliced into the speaker wires since my amp can take high voltage input, however I have static/ clipping noise with high volume.
Please let me know if you figure this out!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What did the reseller suggest.

currently in communication with support, sent them this:
I have purchased 2014 2015 2016 Subaru WRX Forester 9 inch Android 10.0 Head Unit.
There is no signal coming from the following RCA jacks:
• SUBWOOFER
• FL OUT
• FR OUT
• RL OUT
• RR OUT
They all register 0 volts using 40hz 0db test tone ¾ volume from bluetooth or auxiliary input.
Connecting AUX IN L/R to FL/FR OUT makes the cars 3.5mm aux jack work but there is still no output from the RCA jacks.
My unit has the DSP Sound System. I have seated the connector properly. All other functions are working normally.
How can I make it work?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
they completely misunderstood my issue first go round . . will report back

SoakedCardinal said:
currently in communication with support, sent them this:
they completely misunderstood my issue first go round . . will report back
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
On my side, I never found a solution. Played around with several settings, but nothing...
Could this be a ROM issue?
Let me know if they ever reply back

marchnz said:
What did the reseller suggest.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
maxiauer said:
On my side, I never found a solution. Played around with several settings, but nothing...
Could this be a ROM issue?
Let me know if they ever reply back
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
so . . they basically tried to bribe me $50 to stop bothering them.
I think I might be able to fix the crackliing by using my amp to sum the L + R speaker outputs instead of my homade y splitter from the stock speaker cables at the headunit . .

Sorry for the resurrection, but I just fixed this issue on my PX5 for anyone else running into this problem. TL;DR is that the harness does not have the RCA for Rear speaker outputs wired in but the PX5 DOES have the pins for it. The solution is to wire them into the harness.
SOLVED: Rear RCA Outputs for MTCE PX5
Edit: TL;DR The wiring harness does not have Rear RCA outputs (only front and subwoofer). I had to splice in the RCA for the rear because there are pins outputting signal. (See solution below for details) I'm running Hal9K Mod with Android 10...
forum.xda-developers.com

Hey guys!
I've just bought a PX5 Android head unit to Skoda Octavia 3, instead of MIB1 Bolero. Everything works fine, it's fast, but I have 2x2ch amps in car.
RCAs don't give any signal at all..... Nor rear or front, neither sub RCA-s. Wiring is perfect.
In Factory menu i could find a Power Amplifier Settings menu, but it's gray, can't be opened.
In the scroll down menu, no possibility to activate AMP.
Remote switches both amps, connecting a phone via 3,5mm jack to amplifiers, it works fine. When I connect back to the head unit, it stops working. I can only hear it working like 5% of the sound it should...
We measured if there is rupture with multimeter, we measured 0... no beep. Moreover we tried to measure the outcoming signal, but nothing. it's 0,00. On every RCA. Anyone any tips?

kukoladam said:
Hey guys!
I've just bought a PX5 Android head unit to Skoda Octavia 3, instead of MIB1 Bolero. Everything works fine, it's fast, but I have 2x2ch amps in car.
RCAs don't give any signal at all..... Nor rear or front, neither sub RCA-s. Wiring is perfect.
In Factory menu i could find a Power Amplifier Settings menu, but it's gray, can't be opened.
In the scroll down menu, no possibility to activate AMP.
Remote switches both amps, connecting a phone via 3,5mm jack to amplifiers, it works fine. When I connect back to the head unit, it stops working. I can only hear it working like 5% of the sound it should...
We measured if there is rupture with multimeter, we measured 0... no beep. Moreover we tried to measure the outcoming signal, but nothing. it's 0,00. On every RCA. Anyone any tips?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Send it back under warranty.

marchnz said:
Send it back under warranty.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The problem is, that is another week of waiting. I am in connection with the supplier, he asks the manufacturer about the problem. The way is good, since when I plug Front left to the Front left of the amplifier, I head very very weak sound from the front left speakers. But the outcoming signal is unmeasurable. In addition, in the Factory menu there is an option "Power Amplifier Settings", which is gray. Can't be reached..
Maybe somehow it is disabled in the menu, but I could not find in 3 hrs where.

kukoladam said:
Hey guys!
I've just bought a PX5 Android head unit to Skoda Octavia 3, instead of MIB1 Bolero. Everything works fine, it's fast, but I have 2x2ch amps in car.
RCAs don't give any signal at all..... Nor rear or front, neither sub RCA-s. Wiring is perfect.
In Factory menu i could find a Power Amplifier Settings menu, but it's gray, can't be opened.
In the scroll down menu, no possibility to activate AMP.
Remote switches both amps, connecting a phone via 3,5mm jack to amplifiers, it works fine. When I connect back to the head unit, it stops working. I can only hear it working like 5% of the sound it should...
We measured if there is rupture with multimeter, we measured 0... no beep. Moreover we tried to measure the outcoming signal, but nothing. it's 0,00. On every RCA. Anyone any tips?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As @marchnz .... send it back under warranty.
Every head unit I have ever had, there is no turn-on for the RCA's because they are already on. That includes my old px5 and new px6.... and I have been using RCA outs only for probably the last 40 years
What you could do is check the pins directly on the head unit plug to see if there is anything there. When you probe it with the multimeter try using a ground inside the machine instead of the ground on the plug.

Bob_Sanders said:
As @marchnz .... send it back under warranty.
Every head unit I have ever had, there is no turn-on for the RCA's because they are already on. That includes my old px5 and new px6.... and I have been using RCA outs only for probably the last 40 years
What you could do is check the pins directly on the head unit plug to see if there is anything there. When you probe it with the multimeter try using a ground inside the machine instead of the ground on the plug.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Optical toslink between audio equipment is highly preferred.
Even with a common grounding point for -all- connected equipment the chance of an unsnubbed high frequency feedback loop is real.
If so it will likely blow all your twitters and possibly the power amp in seconds*.
If the amp's big enough you'll see smoke and fire
At the very least use a common grounding point for all pieces of equipment. Use heavy gauge wire and keep the wire length as short as possible.
*A high frequency typically 40hz or higher feedback loop when fed into and/or through a power amp will result in a huge wattage output at that frequency. It will cause the speaker bypass to shunt all of it through your tweeters and effectively short out the power amp

You probably know much more about this than I do, but a few things don't make sense to me. You said high frequency feedback loop, but then referenced 40hz. Did you mean 40khz? 40hz is a pretty low frequency and I would think would be cut out by both integrated HPFs and amp level HPFs. I am very familiar with toslink as I use them between my PC and home audio amplifier, but I've never heard of them used between a head unit and amp. Every head unit and amp I've ever owned have used RCA outputs. I'm not saying the risk isn't there but why would both head unit and amp manufacturers not use them if RCA is so dangerous? It really is an honest question, so please don't take offense.

blackhawk said:
Optical toslink between audio equipment is highly preferred.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well... toslink is preferred in high end equipment (bandwidth suffers in the cheap stuff).... and I would not describe these head units as "high end"
blackhawk said:
Even with a common grounding point for -all- connected equipment the chance of an unsnubbed high frequency feedback loop is real.
If so it will likely blow all your twitters and possibly the power amp in seconds*.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think you misunderstand. I'm asking OP to look for a common ground FOR TESTING with his multimeter. If all the rca's are not working then there is a chance that something common (like the ground on the rca jacks) is broken.

objecttothis said:
You probably know much more about this than I do, but a few things don't make sense to me. You said high frequency feedback loop, but then referenced 40hz. Did you mean 40khz? 40hz is a pretty low frequency and I would think would be cut out by both integrated HPFs and amp level HPFs. I am very familiar with toslink as I use them between my PC and home audio amplifier, but I've never heard of them used between a head unit and amp. Every head unit and amp I've ever owned have used RCA outputs. I'm not saying the risk isn't there but why would both head unit and amp manufacturers not use them if RCA is so dangerous? It really is an honest question, so please don't take offense.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
RCA's are mostly used on automotive head units. They have been around for decades. toslink is the new kid on the block and there are a lot of problems with it... frequency issues, sample matching issues, select few apps to use toslink with... yadda yadda. Personally speaking, I wouldn't use toslink instead of rca in a million years. Now it does have the advantage of less noise pickup on long runs of cable, but manucacturers like pioneer, alpine, kenwood... etc have combatted the noise issues with high voltage output from the rca's (pioneers are now 4 volts peak to peak on the rca's while android is still something like 1.4 volt PtoP). Then on the other hand with toslink you need HIGH QUALITY dac's to avoid sample and frequncy issues... and these android head units are NOT what I would describe as anywhere NEAR "high end"+
toslink.... not me thank you... not at this low price level anyway.
As for blowing tweets with stray "40hz" signals.... hasn't happened to me in 40 years of using rca's

Bob_Sanders said:
Well... toslink is preferred in high end equipment (bandwidth suffers in the cheap stuff).... and I would not describe these head units as "high end"
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just a friendly old school warning so peeps never learn what driver coils smell like...
Cheap stuff will likely have less design fedback safeguards than high end equipment.
Regardless of the amp's frequency response the fed back will be on the high end. 10khz would still behave like 60khz as far as the crossover is concerned.
Regardless its best to wire/ground it proper for best performance and minimal voltage drops... wire is cheap.
I have a friend that saw this happen on a high end system. All they heard was a static like noise and in less than a second the tweeters were smoking. A couple hundred down the drain. It can get real expensive fast and by the time you realize it's happening, it's already done.

Yeah, I don't think anyone sees these as high end in the audio production department. I think they have become somewhat popular because a lot of the main players in audio head units have been a little slow in the freedoms that Android provides in terms of apps, navigation, etc. They are too busy pushing their proprietary interface crap.

blackhawk said:
Just a friendly old school warning so peeps never learn what driver coils smell like...
Cheap stuff will likely have less design fedback safeguards than high end equipment.
Regardless of the amp's frequency response the fed back will be on the high end. 10khz would still behave like 60khz as far as the crossover is concerned.
Regardless its best to wire/ground it proper for best performance and minimal voltage drops... wire is cheap.
I have a friend that saw this happen on a high end system. All they heard was a static like noise and in less than a second the tweeters were smoking. A couple hundred down the drain. It can get real expensive fast and by the time you realize it's happening, it's already done.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can blow a simple ic chip with static so we shouldn't use them? Freak things happen. That's life.

Bob_Sanders said:
You can blow a simple ic chip with static so we shouldn't use them? Freak things happen. That's life.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No that's ignorance and ineptitude.
I handled thousands of IC's and flat packs without damaging them by heat or ESD.
On a high end system with 7 mains blowing them out alone would be over $2G in replacement parts.
Anything worth doing is worth doing right.

objecttothis said:
Yeah, I don't think anyone sees these as high end in the audio production department. I think they have become somewhat popular because a lot of the main players in audio head units have been a little slow in the freedoms that Android provides in terms of apps, navigation, etc. They are too busy pushing their proprietary interface crap.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well... as far as I know the higher end units are still going RCA..... and if there is ever a change I suspect toslink will be passed over in favor of the MUCH BETTER hdmi standard anyway.

PX5 Audio problems: Schreeching sound!

Hi,
I have the Seicane PX5 MTCE HF and it was working fine until 2 months ago, a screeching sound happen and then no more sound!
I have contacted the sales person and I was trying to get it fix, with the support.
They never heard that sound before.
in any case, they can't help.
I would like to know if anyone can identify the sound and if it is possible to fix.
I'm ready to use a USB DAC if nothing else work.
The sound happear every time I start the car, about 1 to 2 mins after it started, then nothing... until the car cool again.
Before the screaching sound happen, the unit work normaly, the sound is normal.
Even if there is no music, the sound happen.
Any input is the same results.
The rest of the unit work the same, just no more sounds.

*** Results ***
I want to thank you all for your tips and things to look for.
I did find that the amplifier IC is way too hot and did crack the PCB on the edje and few coposants have crack too.
I tried to replace them, but still the amplifier is still too hot after I fill out the gaps beteen the IC and the cassing.
In any case I decided to replace the unit.
I bought a YT9213A_00009_v001_20200806
8227L v 3.4
MCU 3.1 (?)
... and I regret it, no output for the back speakers, no base sound at all!
I bought an external amplifier 4x50w and 600w subwoofer and the RCA plugs have no output on the back two speakers and no subwoofer output!
So, it is slower than the PX5, the radio is only FM and loose the signals all the time, sometime it switch the station by itself!
I'm not happy with the unit, difficult to do setup as of now, the buttons on the side are no longer working.
Like I said, not happy.
If you know a way to reset ALL options to get back the buttons, that would be a step in the correct direction.
Thank you again for all of your tips to fix the PX5.
Richard.

When I took my HU apart I found there was a load of heatsink compound between the amp IC and the case indicating there's a large gap between the 2. I used thermal epoxy to shim the case and close the gap but there's a good chance simply re-mounting the board would have been enough.
All you need to do is undo all the board mounting screws except the ones for the amp. Tighten the amp screws but don't go crazy they're fairly small screws and won't take too much torque then put the board screws back in with a small screwdriver so not to over torque them.

nic2k said:
When I took my HU apart I found there was a load of heatsink compound between the amp IC and the case indicating there's a large gap between the 2. I used thermal epoxy to shim the case and close the gap but there's a good chance simply re-mounting the board would have been enough.
All you need to do is undo all the board mounting screws except the ones for the amp. Tighten the amp screws but don't go crazy they're fairly small screws and won't take too much torque then put the board screws back in with a small screwdriver so not to over torque them.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi nic2k,
Thank you for your suggestion, I'll have to wait until the weather is a bit warmer.
Thank you for looking into this bizarre sound.
Have a great one!
Richard.

VE2HRJ said:
I have the Seicane PX5 MTCE HF
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You could try to upgrade the MCU to this one if your version is lower and your head unit doesn't have a dedicated DSP chip:
latest MCU HF available on the net: V3.30 sound patched for better audio
dmcu(MTCE-HF-3.30sp+by+cs-x).7z
https://mega.nz/#F!T1FgjA7A!wc9p40bocqCiBX8XPR50ig?jhUEmAYD

Hi themissionimpossible,
Thank you for the MTCE file, I already update to v3.30.​You mentioned: “... your head unit doesn't have a dedicated DSP chip”, how can I know?
There another effect from the new version of the MTCE: the Wifi selection under [Setup], [Car], [Factory Setup]: the Wifi module name is not there anymore, nor the Bluetooth!
So even if I tried each one, reboot, test… still no Wifi or Bluetooth for now, but that’s another story.​
I’ll try nic2k's suggestion when the weather cooperates.
Thank you again for your suggestion, much appreciated.
Richard.

VE2HRJ said:
You mentioned: “... your head unit doesn't have a dedicated DSP chip”, how can I know?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Besides looking inside the HU for the DSP board, you might find from the specs if your unit has this option included (indeed not very common...)

Hi,
what upgrade to MCU: M32L0_ZIQI-PUBLIC-W-S16_20190801_HB1_6686_N_IF_8A ?
MediaTek MT8321M 4xARM Cortex-A7 1300MHz 32-bit
Thank you
Jan

jan1994 said:
what upgrade to MCU: M32L0_ZIQI-PUBLIC-W-S16_20190801_HB1_6686_N_IF_8A ?
MediaTek MT8321M 4xARM Cortex-A7 1300MHz 32-bit
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unfortunately you don't look to have a MTCB or MTCD/E head unit, so you'd better ask in the general section:
https://forum.xda-developers.com/android-auto/android-head-units