[Mason1019]

I have a question. I will admit I am totally cluless on the install part of this but ive read every post on here. Could I buy this unit and take it to a pro installer and them have no issues with it? Is this thread and all the side convo's about this unit just talk or is it literal issues from trying to get everything installed correctly?..... Hopefully that makes sense the way I am asking this lol

 

[james92se]

So it turns out that I needed to use the red "cam-line" on the extra harness that contains the external microphone. Weird spot to put that and I'm not sure why initially I overlooked it but nonetheless that was the ticket.

What I did was de-pinned the white connector I was questioning in the posts above (as I obviously didn't need it since I don't have a factory backup camera). I attempted to then pin the Android HU with that wire to match up with the reverse trigger wire - again, remember my Android HU was not pinned in this spot - but turns out the pin I got from the backup camera connector was too large and would not fit into the factory harness. I figured the Android HU used almost all the same pin sizes, and they looked the same, but the pin I tried to use was just barely too thick and kept getting pushed out when I'd plug the two connectors together.

So what I decided to do was similar to what @Hisma mentioned in one of these threads. I didn't have that fancy push pin deal he used so I just pressed the pin into the back of the reverse trigger wire harness and then used a bullet connector (from one of the extra Android HU wires I wasn't going to use) and taped it securely to the factory loom so that it doesn't move around or pull out.



The backup camera I bought from Alibaba replaces one of my factory license plate lights and I decided to buy a wireless kit. I regretted this after doing some research on wireless backup camera interference. I didn't want to spend more money so I just cut the wireless transmitter off and stripped the sheathing to get to the power and ground. I hardwired these to my reverse light wiring. White/black wire at the reverse light is positive, and black/yellow is ground. Thankfully I had two side taps laying around:



I had a 25 foot set of RCA's and just stripped the yellow one off to run up to the HU. This was kind of a pain, I ran it down along with the factory trunk lid loom, under the driver back seat, across the lower door sills, up through the fuse box area and then above the steering column to the HU area. Surprisingly, with the 25 foot length I really didn't have but maybe a foot or so of extra length I had to tie up. Here's my line after running it to the HU area:



I also installed the external microphone. I dropped the map light assembly and used (what I figure to be - not certain as I don't have factory Bluetooth setup) the stock microphone spot. The mic kind of just tucked right into a little nook by the driver map light that had a grille cutout deal. Then I tucked the wire into the headliner, down the passenger B pillar, behind the glove box, and up to the HU area.

As far as the fit, it looks like I was initially mistaken. My fit is just as bad as @Habaku. That first night in the dark when I was messing with it it seemed like it pushed in better but nope, mine sticks out at the top just like his.

I messed around with it for a long time today trying to get it to fit. I unscrewed the two lower screws on both sides where the screen portion attaches and slightly loosened the uppers. I was hoping for this to allow the upper screws to act as a hinge and allow the rear casing of the Android HU to rest higher inside the dash and thus allow it to sit flush on the outside screen side. This was a no-go.

This current version of the Android HU as it’s being manufactured right now just flat does not fit properly without modification. No bones about it.

I ended up completely removing the six screws that hold the front screen portion to the HU. The front end is just connected via three ribbon cables.



I disconnected the ribble cables so that I could set the HU inside the dash and then also attach the outer screen portion separately. Be very careful doing this as it’s very fiddly trying to hold both together. The outer screen portion DOES fit factory flush into the dash opening and clicks in perfectly when it’s not being impeded by the HU itself.

The fitment issue is definitely due to the angle/positioning of the HU itself with respect to the outer screen portion. I’ll skip the descriptions of all my frustrating fitment trial and error and skip to my final outcome of what I had to do. Unfortunately, this may be a deal breaker for some of you guys that may not be comfortable modifying/fabricating on this unit.

I decided to basically sacrifice my ability to play CD’s and to separately attach the screen and the HU itself. I removed all six screws that hold the screen on. This allows the screen to sit flush in the dash.

As far as the HU side, the back end (firewall side) of my HU needed to sit HIGHER than the mounting bracket allows. I had to take the mounting bracket off and weld on two extensions. Thankfully I had some sheet metal laying around that I cut off a project car just the other day that was almost perfect thickness.

Here it is welded up and ground smooth:



I also had to bend a little bit of an angle into the bracket. Without doing this, it won’t sit flush against the stock mounting point but also more importantly this allows the HU to sit a little deeper into the dash:





Here it is in place. You can see the back of the HU is ABOVE that plastic piece that these units seem to bottom out against. After seeing this picture of it mounted in place, it seems you MIGHT be able to do it without lengthening the bracket and instead merely cutting the bottom of the bracket out (making it a slot, like mine) and then using a very oversized washer to try to grab the bracket:



I managed to drop the stock mounting bolt all the way down inside the dash somewhere. Womp. Thankfully those 10mm bolts that are found all over older Hondas fits perfect. I have a gazillion of those laying around so I used the Honda bolt and added a large washer just to give a larger surface area:



After doing this, you can still somewhat secure the screen and the HU itself together. The “tabs” on the back of the screen that sit into the case itself - the part where the 3 screws per side go in - you can still line those up and it kind of holds it together. Unfortunately you can’t just screw it in because the screw holes don’t line up any longer - not even the top one. If there were space to access the sides somehow while it was all in place you could likely use self tapping screws to screw the screen to the HU casing in its new proper orientation but alas there is no space to do that. If you could somehow hold it all in place and remove it you could do that off the car, but obviously if you remove it then the positioning gets all screwed up and there is zero way to replicate the positioning outside of the car.

Anyway - all this done, it finally fits the dash flush. I would still prefer to have it screwed together but I prefer the flush cosmetic fit more. The sticking out at the top stuff is definitely a no-go for me and this looks great cosmetically. Like I said, I had to sacrifice the use of my CD player though. With this new positioning, the CD player opening and the unit itself don’t line up properly any longer. I don’t actually own any CD’s anymore anyway so this is unimportant to me. The only issue for me going forward would be to make sure somebody doesn’t shove a CD in there. Everything else still works perfectly because again the screen is just connected via flexible ribbon cables. They are very fiddly to get attached again so don’t say I didn’t warn you if you unattach them lol.

Backup cam works perfectly:



Homescreen:



Navigation works (no don't worry about my privacy, this is not my home address - I went out for a drive):



Nice and flush:







I was also able to thankfully make the buttons light up white instead of red. You must go into settings -> general -> extra settings -> 123456 -> panel light color. Color 1 is red, color 2 is white, and color 3 is no light. Very relieved that one of my two color options is white. I would’ve been very annoyed if my only options were red and blue or something like that lol.

So all said and done I’m pleased. I wasn’t anticipating having to do this much work though. I think I might try to open a dispute for a partial refund or something on Alibaba. I’m not sure how feasible that is, but I think it might be worth a try seeing as how this needs to be modified to fit properly and plus you lose the use of the CD player.

Everything else on the unit seems to be working great. Although when I’m playing music via Bluetooth, I seem to have some interference/static/scratchy type sound on the higher notes. Now that I’ve notice it it’s definitely bugging me. I listen to music via Bluetooth probably 95% of the time in the car so this is annoying. I wonder if some of those unused RCA’s on the back end are touching or causing the issue somehow.

After my novel here (sorry), I DO have a couple of questions for any of you guys who own these units.

1) How in the world do I set a radio preset!? I literally cannot figure it out. The manual does not mention it at all. It does tell me how to change the display name of one of the presets but not how to actually create the preset. Intuitively, I just long pressed each preset icon but all this does is lets you change the display text.

2) I hooked up the USB extension to the “DVD USB” dongle and ran the extension into my glove box. It works as a charger, but how do I enable it to “read”? As in, what setting do I need to be in on the HU?

 

[Mason1019]

I have a question. I will admit I am totally cluless on the install part of this but ive read every post on here. Could I buy this unit and take it to a pro installer and them have no issues with it? Is this thread and all the side convo's about this unit just talk or is it literal issues from trying to get everything installed correctly?..... Hopefully that makes sense the way I am asking this lol

ill bump my own post..... anyone????

 

[Habaku]

I have a question. I will admit I am totally cluless on the install part of this but ive read every post on here. Could I buy this unit and take it to a pro installer and them have no issues with it? Is this thread and all the side convo's about this unit just talk or is it literal issues from trying to get everything installed correctly?..... Hopefully that makes sense the way I am asking this lol

Several users have had the 9" SmartRover unit professionally installed. You may want to read over that thread here. However, the 8" SmartRover unit (discussed in this thread) requires some physical alterations of the HU itself which a professional installer is not likely going to want to touch for liability, warranty, and functional purposes.

As far as the fit, it looks like I was initially mistaken. My fit is just as bad as @Habaku. That first night in the dark when I was messing with it it seemed like it pushed in better but nope, mine sticks out at the top just like his.

I messed around with it for a long time today trying to get it to fit. I unscrewed the two lower screws on both sides where the screen portion attaches and slightly loosened the uppers. I was hoping for this to allow the upper screws to act as a hinge and allow the rear casing of the Android HU to rest higher inside the dash and thus allow it to sit flush on the outside screen side. This was a no-go.

This current version of the Android HU as it’s being manufactured right now just flat does not fit properly without modification. No bones about it.

I ended up completely removing the six screws that hold the front screen portion to the HU. The front end is just connected via three ribbon cables.

I disconnected the ribble cables so that I could set the HU inside the dash and then also attach the outer screen portion separately. Be very careful doing this as it’s very fiddly trying to hold both together. The outer screen portion DOES fit factory flush into the dash opening and clicks in perfectly when it’s not being impeded by the HU itself.

The fitment issue is definitely due to the angle/positioning of the HU itself with respect to the outer screen portion. I’ll skip the descriptions of all my frustrating fitment trial and error and skip to my final outcome of what I had to do. Unfortunately, this may be a deal breaker for some of you guys that may not be comfortable modifying/fabricating on this unit.

I decided to basically sacrifice my ability to play CD’s and to separately attach the screen and the HU itself. I removed all six screws that hold the screen on. This allows the screen to sit flush in the dash.

As far as the HU side, the back end (firewall side) of my HU needed to sit HIGHER than the mounting bracket allows. I had to take the mounting bracket off and weld on two extensions. Thankfully I had some sheet metal laying around that I cut off a project car just the other day that was almost perfect thickness.

Here it is welded up and ground smooth:

I also had to bend a little bit of an angle into the bracket. Without doing this, it won’t sit flush against the stock mounting point but also more importantly this allows the HU to sit a little deeper into the dash:

Here it is in place. You can see the back of the HU is ABOVE that plastic piece that these units seem to bottom out against. After seeing this picture of it mounted in place, it seems you MIGHT be able to do it without lengthening the bracket and instead merely cutting the bottom of the bracket out (making it a slot, like mine) and then using a very oversized washer to try to grab the bracket:

I managed to drop the stock mounting bolt all the way down inside the dash somewhere. Womp. Thankfully those 10mm bolts that are found all over older Hondas fits perfect. I have a gazillion of those laying around so I used the Honda bolt and added a large washer just to give a larger surface area:

After doing this, you can still somewhat secure the screen and the HU itself together. The “tabs” on the back of the screen that sit into the case itself - the part where the 3 screws per side go in - you can still line those up and it kind of holds it together. Unfortunately you can’t just screw it in because the screw holes don’t line up any longer - not even the top one. If there were space to access the sides somehow while it was all in place you could likely use self tapping screws to screw the screen to the HU casing in its new proper orientation but alas there is no space to do that. If you could somehow hold it all in place and remove it you could do that off the car, but obviously if you remove it then the positioning gets all screwed up and there is zero way to replicate the positioning outside of the car.

Anyway - all this done, it finally fits the dash flush. I would still prefer to have it screwed together but I prefer the flush cosmetic fit more. The sticking out at the top stuff is definitely a no-go for me and this looks great cosmetically. Like I said, I had to sacrifice the use of my CD player though. With this new positioning, the CD player opening and the unit itself don’t line up properly any longer. I don’t actually own any CD’s anymore anyway so this is unimportant to me. The only issue for me going forward would be to make sure somebody doesn’t shove a CD in there. Everything else still works perfectly because again the screen is just connected via flexible ribbon cables. They are very fiddly to get attached again so don’t say I didn’t warn you if you unattach them lol.

Backup cam works perfectly:

Homescreen:

Navigation works (no don't worry about my privacy, this is not my home address - I went out for a drive):

Nice and flush:

After my novel here (sorry), I DO have a couple of questions for any of you guys who own these units.

1) How in the world do I set a radio preset!? I literally cannot figure it out. The manual does not mention it at all. It does tell me how to change the display name of one of the presets but not how to actually create the preset. Intuitively, I just long pressed each preset icon but all this does is lets you change the display text.

2) I hooked up the USB extension to the “DVD USB” dongle and ran the extension into my glove box. It works as a charger, but how do I enable it to “read”? As in, what setting do I need to be in on the HU?

It looks like you reached the exact same outcome I did :laugh2: Reading through your post is like reading through a diary of my efforts. You were able to take it a step further by designing a bottom mount bracket to hold the unit in place. Without the bottom bracket I was only able to temporarily connected my head unit for testing and proof of concept purposes. I'll have to try to rig a bottom bracket like you did. Unfortunately I don't have any way of welding and I'm not sure what tool I could use to cut the current bracket so it can slide in. I'll need to figure out a way to do that because I definitely have to have the HU body secured to the car.

1) To preset the radio, tune in to the station that you want then press and hold the 'button' you want to assign it to.

2) I haven't used the either USB port yet so I can't comment on this.

Everything else on the unit seems to be working great. Although when I’m playing music via Bluetooth, I seem to have some interference/static/scratchy type sound on the higher notes. Now that I’ve notice it it’s definitely bugging me. I listen to music via Bluetooth probably 95% of the time in the car so this is annoying. I wonder if some of those unused RCA’s on the back end are touching or causing the issue somehow.

I do just about all my listening through bluetooth also. I have not experienced any interference or sound quality loss. I suspect you may have a loose connection somewhere.

I think I might try to open a dispute for a partial refund or something on Alibaba. I’m not sure how feasible that is, but I think it might be worth a try seeing as how this needs to be modified to fit properly and plus you lose the use of the CD player.

This is important--I strongly believe in holding people accountable. The unit was sold with a certain expectation. The head unit was advertised as fitting in our year's Mazda 6 and it clearly does not. No matter how much evidence I provided to the seller they kept insisting that all their other customers are satisfied and that I must be installing the unit wrong (even though I created multiple videos for them). I opened a dispute and I suggest you do the same. The seller can get away with this because too many people keep quiet.

 

[james92se]

It looks like you reached the exact same outcome I did :laugh2: Reading through your post is like reading through a diary of my efforts. You were able to take it a step further by designing a bottom mount bracket to hold the unit in place. Without the bottom bracket I was only able to temporarily connected my head unit for testing and proof of concept purposes. I'll have to try to rig a bottom bracket like you did. Unfortunately I don't have any way of welding and I'm not sure what tool I could use to cut the current bracket so it can slide in. I'll need to figure out a way to do that because I definitely have to have the HU body secured to the car.

1) To preset the radio, tune in to the station that you want then press and hold the 'button' you want to assign it to.

If you even have some tin snips I suspect those would probably work. Or a little Dremel type tool with a cut-off wheel. If you Google search one of those Harbor Freight 20% of coupons, you can get a little knock-off Dremel for something like $8 that you could use if need be. I just used an angle grinder with a 4" cut-off wheel because that's what I already had laying around from my auto fabrication stuff.

Funny you mention that about the radio preset. I literally could not figure it out and even had my brother mess with it and he couldn't figure it out either. I asked my girlfriend last night if she could figure it out and of course she almost immediately figured it out.

My unit definitely operates differently than yours it seems. The way you mention it is actually the first thing (and most intuitive thing) that I tried. Tune to 102.9 for example, and then long press the preset "button" I would like to assign it to. Weirdly, all this did on my unit was open a text box to type in text. So I thought okay maybe I have to manually type it in. So I typed in 102.9 in that text box and all that did is change the display text to 102.9 while the actual preset is still the random default station it came with.

On my unit, it turns out the only way to do the preset (and this is what my GF figured out) is to tune to the station you want, and then drag/drop the main center display to the preset button you want it to go to. This then changes that "button" to the preset station.

BUT even this is annoying because it then makes the display text for that "button" whatever was showing on the main radio display the second you happened to drag it. This means that the display text on my preset buttons are a weird combination of random song titles or artist names. To get it to display the actual radio station number, you have to watch closely and "catch" the main display at the exact moment it happens to only be showing the number designation. I have still been unable to accomplish number-only preset text on all my presets.

Even weirder than that! Now that I have changed my preset stations away from the default ones the unit came with, I can NO LONGER long-press the button and change the display text like I was initially able to lol.

I do just about all my listening through bluetooth also. I have not experienced any interference or sound quality loss. I suspect you may have a loose connection somewhere.

I suspect you're right. I distinctly remember testing the Bluetooth audio quality first thing as I knew that would be important for me and it had no issues at all.

I think I will try to reach up through the glovebox and wiggle the stuff around some and see if I can alleviate the problem.

This is important--I strongly believe in holding people accountable. The unit was sold with a certain expectation. The head unit was advertised as fitting in our year's Mazda 6 and it clearly does not. No matter how much evidence I provided to the seller they kept insisting that all their other customers are satisfied and that I must be installing the unit wrong (even though I created multiple videos for them). I opened a dispute and I suggest you do the same. The seller can get away with this because too many people keep quiet.

Well this sucks. I guess I wasn't paying enough attention - but apparently my ability to open a dispute automatically "timed out" on December 8th. I didn't realize this was the case as everytime I log into AliExpress I still have (even as of this moment) the ability to click the "open dispute" link.

That's pretty aggravating. I didn't even receive my order until the 6th, and then two days later my ability to open a dispute times out. My fault for not paying enough attention I guess, but dang, that just doesn't seem right. Two days is not enough time for people to get something non-trivial like this installed and tested. I wasn't even off work to really mess with the darn thing until the weekend which would have been the 10th - two days after my ability to open the dispute ended.

Seems to be a pretty serious loophole (for lack of a better word) here with Ali's buyer protection thing as apparently the clock starts the second the order is initiated when in reality it should start when the product is DELIVERED. I mean, Smart Rover just sat on my order for weeks before even shipping it, which just chewed through nearly the entirety of my protection time. I guess at least I know for next time.

How did your dispute turn out? Did you get a partial refund? How much, if you don't mind me asking?

 

[Habaku]

If you even have some tin snips I suspect those would probably work. Or a little Dremel type tool with a cut-off wheel. If you Google search one of those Harbor Freight 20% of coupons, you can get a little knock-off Dremel for something like $8 that you could use if need be. I just used an angle grinder with a 4" cut-off wheel because that's what I already had laying around from my auto fabrication stuff.

I do have a Dremel but I don't know if I have the right cut-off wheel. I'll have to take a look when I get home. I could purchase some tin snips too.

My unit definitely operates differently than yours it seems. The way you mention it is actually the first thing (and most intuitive thing) that I tried. Tune to 102.9 for example, and then long press the preset "button" I would like to assign it to. Weirdly, all this did on my unit was open a text box to type in text. So I thought okay maybe I have to manually type it in. So I typed in 102.9 in that text box and all that did is change the display text to 102.9 while the actual preset is still the random default station it came with.

On my unit, it turns out the only way to do the preset (and this is what my GF figured out) is to tune to the station you want, and then drag/drop the main center display to the preset button you want it to go to. This then changes that "button" to the preset station.

Nope you're right. I just re-checked my unit and it's touch-then-drag. Sorry about that, it's been a while since I did the presets.

That backup camera feed looks sharp! Can you take a close up picture? For us guys with the stock back up camera the already low res feed looks even more pixelated on an 8 inch screen. What's the link to the camera you bought? I may consider upgrading my camera.

 

[james92se]

That backup camera feed looks sharp! Can you take a close up picture? For us guys with the stock back up camera the already low res feed looks even more pixelated on an 8 inch screen. What's the link to the camera you bought? I may consider upgrading my camera.

It's not HD by any means but much better than the stock camera in my mom's Nissan.

Here's a link to the camera I bought. I bought the wireless kit, which was like $38. Like I said earlier on, in the middle of my job I decided against the wireless and ran a cable all the way up to my dash. So in hindsight I just wasted that extra money for the wireless version.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/For-Mazda-6-M6-Atenza-2013-2014-2015-wireless-Backup-Rear-View-Reversing-HD-CCD-Night/32393431668.html?spm=2114.13010608.0.0.i0Xjrg

You can see they have 9 different kits. I bought the one that has the 4 little LED lights on it. I'm not sure how much the 4 little LED's really help at night - and I do already have LED reverse bulbs - but the visibility in the dark is very good.

If you hover your mouse over the different kits you'll see they have each kit labeled a color (as opposed to a part number, it appears). I bought the "pink" (wireless, with LED's) one but if I had to do it again I would get the "orange" (hardwired, with LED's) one.

Having said all that - the grid lines are NOT removable and they are not oriented properly for depth or width and are actually more disorienting than helpful as a result.

You can have the Android HU superimpose its own grid lines which seem to be more accurate than the ones sent from the camera. I enabled the Android grid lines and this resulted in two sets of gridlines -one from the Android and the other from the camera. The Android HU even has the trajectory option that moves as you turn but I'm not sure what all it needs in order to get that function to work properly.

I took the camera apart yesterday to try to desolder/re-wire it to remove the superimposed image and it's not possible because the entire camera unit/board is encased in a plastic glob like you see in relays. Although that's also probably what gives it its waterproof-ness.

I asked the seller about it and while it's no help to me at this point, he said that they CAN sell ones without grid lines. When you order, just include a message that "no need to reverse line" (verbatim from what he said lol). Basically, when you order, just tell them that you don't want the grid lines.

So anyway, the way to go is to definitely NOT use a camera with gridlines and to use the Android HU to superimpose the gridlines instead. This way, you can even make your own custom/exact gridlines in Paint.net and load them to the Android (sounds like the unit needs to be "rooted" for this from what Google tells me).

Last night, I bought a US stock eBay camera with the option to disable the gridlines. However it's just a universal one and I would prefer the kind like I linked above that is M6-specific and uses the existing license plate light instead. I just don't feel like waiting another month though. If the eBay one isn't as clear a picture, I'll probably just order another one from Alibaba from the link above and get them to disable the gridlines.

I'll get better up-close pictures later on of the image quality.

 

[Habaku]

You can have the Android HU superimpose its own grid lines which seem to be more accurate than the ones sent from the camera. I enabled the Android grid lines and this resulted in two sets of gridlines -one from the Android and the other from the camera. The Android HU even has the trajectory option that moves as you turn but I'm not sure what all it needs in order to get that function to work properly.

Are you running the SmartRover HU with the stock firmware? If so, where's the option to superimpose its own gridlines?

 

[james92se]

Are you running the SmartRover HU with the stock firmware? If so, where's the option to superimpose its own gridlines?

Yep, just the stock firmware.

I can't remember off the top of my head the actual menu titles but it's in the 'extra settings' menu. The one where you have to put in the 123456 'admin' password. There's a big list of features and in that list is the gridlines and the trajectory features. To turn them on and off you need to set them to "open" or "close".

Getting the trajectory to work somehow would be really cool.

 

[james92se]

Here's a closer rear camera photo I took tonight after work:

 

[Mason Dixon]

Just to make sure, the 9" unit everybody is using is model KR-9016?

 

[hussamga]

BTW i upgraded the stock mic that came with unit with Sony one from best buy in stock locally,
search for Sony ECMCS3
$22 and made a world of difference. I mounted it coming down to my rearview mirror. Massive improvement, its stereo mic pretty neat.
I tried some cheaper lapel ones but they wouldnt work. Used an extension cable to hot swap mics until i found one that was good.

 

[james92se]

Sooooo - my iGo maps will all of a sudden no longer load at all as of about a month ago. All I get is a black screen for about 30 seconds and then eventually a message that says "Application is unable to start, please check other applications."

Anybody ever get this and if so what is the fix?