My experience Eonon GA5166 Android Head Unit install
 

Hi all

New member here. I've been lurking around in E53 forum the last 5-6 weeks. Which is the same time I bought my 2002 3.0I BMW X5 (E53 - Black) here in Norway. My car is an US imported car (arrived here in 2006). More about this car and mods I've done/will might come in a future introduction post from me:-)

Disclaimer: I not native english, so please forgive my writing.

In my car there was a stock Business CD + standard MID (radio + BC and no working pixels in the MID) installed with no DSP amp , no navigation unit and CD changer in the rear boot. The only thing located in the rear is the standard BMW / Alpine AMP, which works fine for me. (I did undertake on the pixel repair fix with ribbon on the MID and got the display back in mint condition).

However beeing a geek and software developer by trade, I wanted something more modern and useful in my dash. After quite some extensive research the last month, I decided that my needs minimum requirement would be something like this:

- A head unit with large touch screen
- support for reverse (backup) camera
- bluetooth support ( music, phone etc )
- navigation
- Not to expensive (as I'm on tight budget with this car)

After some research and learning all about head units possibilties and the fuzz with having DSP amp's and navigation unit's in back (and considered my self lucky for only having the Alpine amp).

My list extended to these requirmenets as well:
- canbus support (ie. support for the steering wheel buttons)
- OEM likness and fit nicely in the E53 interior/dash.
- And finally: support to add more software later as I wish.

The last requirement narrowed it down a system with Android, which in turn is a platform I know well. As I've developed software for phones the last 5-6 years (both Apple and Android).

There is quite a few choices of Head Unit available for the BMW E53, however I decided to avoid all the "no name" units, where I could not find anything about unit or the producer of the unit. In the end I was looking at these units:

- Avin Avant-2
- Dynavin E39 D99 Android unit
- Eonon GA5166

As I'm was (is) on tight budget and is not "afraid" of taking a chance, I went ahead and ordered the cheaper Eonon GA5166 unit with required harness and license plate reverse cam directly from Eonon. Despite the bad reputation the Eonon company have and all the complaints I found about their head units and their support on differents online forums.
However my experience with communication with Eonon before I ordered my unit, was flawless. Eonon always answered my e-mails fast and relevant to my questions. So my personal experience with Eonon is good, the unit however will need to be tested over time before I conclude anything.

So couple days ago the my unit arrived with Fedex from Hong Kong (shipment took 5 days from HK to Norway).

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The unit was well wrapped with a waterproof seal and bubble plastic. Everything was supplied as described on the Eonon site, except for one important thing NO INSTALLATION GUIDE at all. Not a single piece of paper in the box, what a bummer I tought "there goes my Plug and Play install". However as I'm a geek and like to fiddle with things, I decided to give it a try. I looked into my bookmarks about installing a head unit in E53 ( a lot of info found here on xoutpost ). And I made my self a "installation guide" of installing the unit.
Its a lot of info about installing head units to BMW online, however it does take time gather all the bits and pieces. Then to test out and validate the info.

The lack of installation guide in the box, is the reason why I post this post. With this, I would have done the entire installation in 3-5 hours ( including playing :-) ) and not 3-4 days.
However I have admit that this is the first time I've done something like this on a car, but I have been building computers, messing with electronics in my boat and home. So I have some very basic understanding of eletronics and signal wires.


So this is what I did:

Note 1: These steps worked for me, they might not work for you, I did a lot of fiddling/research/testing/learning to get to these steps.

Note 2: I was told by Eonon that I needed a extension cable from rear to dash to use this unit. This is wrong I could use the short default harness supplied with unit, since I have nothing in my rear trunk except from the Alpine amp. (Eonon is reimbursing the extension harness for me, good service there).

1. Remove the old head unit + cd player (lots of good info here on xoutpost about this task).

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...resized004.jpg

2. Installation of the Eonon unit:
- wire up the GPS box. I pulled my from drivers side window in between the dash and the door. In the room underneath the steering wheel Up in the dash into head unit.
- connect the large harness to the bmw harness (the white plug from the mid is not used at all, some have reallocated the MID to glove deparment. I skipped this.)
- connect blue AMP-CON to BLUE AMP-CON otherwise you will not get sound in the speakers.
- connect orange REVERSE to orange REVERSE to activate support for reverse cam.
- connect the radio antenna
Here I assume one should connect blue ANT to blue ANT as well to feed a "turn on" and power to antenna. However this doesn't work for me and
I still have poor radio reception. Its working ok, but not perfect. I'm still researching this issue.
- connect the USB cabel (it also have the mic in plug, for a better microphone. I havn't ordered this yet).
I pulled this cable down to astray (I'm not using them yet).
- connect the CAM in for backup cam ( its two cables labeled with this, the backup cam is the one with 1 RCA plug)
(- connect the CAM IN, AUD L + AUD R if you plan to have a dash cam as well)
(- connect the ipod cable if you plan to use ipod)

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Tested the unit

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Here I figured out the "turn on" part of the amp, I used the ANT power here. The blue AMP CON is the one actually to be used.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...resized006.jpg
how I routed the usb cables

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...resized003.jpg
the GPS reciever, has a magnet so it stuck well there. I've aligned it correclty after the picture.


- Cut the cage to fit the head unit, most people cuts out the whole cage. I measured and cutted out only the part I need to, as I want to be able
to reinstall the standard head unit. However I plan to cut out the rest of the cage to get a better and permanent fitment with dash after a couple weeks of testing this unit.

NOTE: this step would have taken me a one hour, if I had known why and howto connect the harness loose wires. Instead I spent quite some time with researching and communicating with Eonon. Which turn always answered my, but since we are in different time zones it took 1 day before I got my answers.

3. Installation of the backup camera

I ordered the license plate with built cam on top (european size).

First I tested the cam by connecting it to TV and powered it up with a 12V battery, just in case.

Wiring from dash to trunk, I choosed this wiring path:
* down from dash to drivers side
* along the center console
* underneath the drivers seat (where the front carpet and backseat carpet meets), towards the door
* underneath the door list (under carpet)
* behind the C-pillar cover (correct name?)
* underneath backseath door list (under carpet)
* up from doorlist to backseat
* trough the cabel gate/opening between backseat and trunk
* into the trunk on left side
* into the cabel gate from trunk to rear latch

To be able to do this wiring I needed to pull out:
* drivers side panel under the steering wheel ( important, otherwise its impossible to get the wire trough. I tried :-) )
* door list (front and back)
* pull out the C-pillar cover (only need 1 cm)
* lift out backseat ( have a vacum cleaner ready:-) )
* take out spare wheel from trunk
* take out the plastic cover from the rear latch, so you can access power cables and drag the wire there.


To connect the power for the backup camera, you need to tap into +/- of the reverse light. I was ready todo this by cutting, however I found that the plug on my rear ligths (i used the right one) has a small lever to clip on/off of the existing +-/ wire to the light bulb frame. So I attached the thin wires from the camera to the existing "plug" (not sure about the name). I going to consult a friend which is a car mechanic about this method, just in case.

Test connect everything and try out the cam with engine on, before you start to tuck the wire and reassemble tge car. I tested it often as I adjusted the wire placement during the reassembly, just to make sure.

Some pictures from this task, I should have taken more of the tucking part of the wire:
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Me and my daughter, she loved to see herself on TV :-)

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Yes, I got a backup cam.
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This how the license plate look like now, I'm still undecided if I like it or not. Yes, I need to wash the car :-)

I spent about 3-4 hours in total on the backup camera installation, however I never taken a car "apart" before, so I learned as I went with this.


After doing this I now have a Eonon GA5166 in my car that:

Good things:

- Uses CoPilot as navigation, works great and is currently my fav nav app (google maps and other android navigation apps probably works good as well).
- Radio is OK, just bad reception.
- Internet works great tethering via my iphone.
- Bluetooth calling works great, including searching in adress book.
I just need to install a better microphone. The one on the unit, is not good enough.
- Playing music from phone to unit with bluetooth works great.
- The unit looks OEM and fits quite well in the design of the interior (ie. same black color as my airwents).
(still need to fit it permanent, by cutting more of the old head unit cage)
- I've tested a few apps from play market, they all works fine. The unit works good as an Android tablet as well.
I test "Ok google", that worked fine and is pretty nice while driving.
- CD/DVD plays fine, however I use the Spotify App for my music.
- Steering wheel buttons works good.


Not so good things:
- the usb connections provid to little power, so charging my iphone 6 take long time. I reverted my iphone cable back the 12v socket I had,
- screen is a bit weak in sharp sunlight. Might be because I haven't fitted the unit properly yet (the angle of the screen a bit wrong)
- slow boot (but cool BMW logo as default, so looks OEM)


Issues I still needs to resolve:

- poor radio reception
solutions to try:
- get power to the Antenna (blue wire with label ANT)
- replace the Eonon antenna adatper with a better one (Metra 40-EU10)
- replace the Antenna amplifier

- illumination of the head units buttons
solution: power the orange cable on the canbus, with by tapping into power from car
I need to research this a bit more, however I have it confirmed by Eonon and various forum post.

On my wanted list for unit:

- bluetooth ODB2 device, so I can use ie. Torque to check codes etc..
- A good microphone for the bluetooth calling.
- Get my self a 3G/4G modem, so I have permanent internett in the car.


Summary:
If the Eonon had arrived with installation instructions, the installation part would have been a more fun task. The unit performs quite well and works as expected. I have not played to much yet with the software and the android apps on it. The backup cam works good, is not excatly HDTV picture but good enough. The GPS get a fix quite fast (almost instant), so GPS / Navigation works very good. Sound is clear and similar to the standard head unit.

I realize I should have taken more pictures. However I can take more pictures when I will do the final fitment and securing of the unit in dash, if requested.

Long first post from me!

Cheers
FxSlin

Edit: Here is a good reference about installing a head unit that I found online:
http://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/sh...39-e38-and-e53

Dang... I always wanted one.. now want it even more..
Great review!!!

Thanks for sharing.

No pics are showing! Are others seeing any pics? You're right eonon gets a bad rap but my experience with them has been very positive too. I bought a head unit (D5124F) from them 2 years ago for my E39 and it's working great. I suspect the bad rap comes from experiences with the eonon resellers on ebay etc and not directly from the eonon website eonon.com. The resellers tend to provide lousy support and questionable products.

Fix the pics!:D

I see all of the pics.

I've moved the pictures from google to dropbox, should work better now. Please let me know otherwise.

Regarding the Eonon reputation, I think that you might be on to something there. Lets see how the unit perform over time. But first impression of the build quality seems good, buttons are solid, connectors in back are tight, buttons working and seems solid as well.

I can write a proper review of the units with pics and videos, when I have used it for some time.

Pics are broken for me as well.

I got to see the pics by copying the url of one of the pics and opening it in a new browser window (the pic opened fine), closed it, reloaded his post and all the pic links resolved.

Pics are all working for me.

Welcome to the gang! :)

Looks like you're well on the way to modding your truck to your own taste! :thumbup: Good job...

nice write up looks great , and I`m going to book this page just incase I get one of these .:)

Small update from me:

Spent a a few hours in the good weather (starting to become summer here in norway now, nice and warm :-) ) inside my car today.

I wanted to go over my wiring to the head unit, checking every connections and to make sure nothing seemed foobar connected. At the same time I tapped the orange cable from the HU plug into the red power cable from the harness to get illumination on buttons to work (tip: found on internett and confirmed by Eonon). This worked great, the orange cable is a bit short, so I extended the red power wire with a cut of the extra harness I got in the package.

http://test.nilsdahl.net/bmw/mod1.jpg
Testing the solution

http://test.nilsdahl.net/bmw/mod2.jpg
Made it permanent with proper 3 way "wire connectors", finished of with some tape

Fired up by the illumination success I decided to make the installation permanent and went for adapting the cage to the GA5166 unit.
This involved some more cutting, so after some 3x measurments. I cutted out the rest and I went from this:

http://test.nilsdahl.net/bmw/mod3.jpg

to this:

http://test.nilsdahl.net/bmw/mod4.jpg

Test fitted it, now the unit slided straight in to the correct position. And the unit really locked itself solid and tight to the correct position, was difficult to get it out again. Better this way than having a rattling HU in my dash. (FYI: I did not installed the brackets, the unit sits so tight, that I going try with this for sometime.)

http://test.nilsdahl.net/bmw/mod5.jpg

The HU form factor fit almost perfect into the interior, edging nicely with side trims and the top vents. If I would be super critcal, I would say the front curve could have been a few more degrees lesser. However I'm pleased and happy that my "budget" gambled paid of so far.

More pictures here for you to enjoy.

http://test.nilsdahl.net/bmw/boot.jpg
Booting up

http://test.nilsdahl.net/bmw/mod6.jpg
Stock radio app

http://test.nilsdahl.net/bmw/mod7.jpg
CoPilot navigation

http://test.nilsdahl.net/bmw/mod8.jpg
Live norwegian kids tv, via Airplay from my iphone

Here is some more picture of how it fits in the car interiorwise (correct word?):
http://test.nilsdahl.net/bmw/mod9.jpg
Drivers view

http://test.nilsdahl.net/bmw/mod10.jpg
Close up

http://test.nilsdahl.net/bmw/mod11.jpg
All 4 corners are nice and tight

http://test.nilsdahl.net/bmw/mod12.jpg
Night view, not is not dark at 17hour here :-) . I parked the car in garage to test the illumination and setup the correct "orange" color on the backlight .

Things left on my todo list now is:

- Improve the radio reception
- Install 3G/4G dongle. Discovered that this is best with a "Rear USB cable" connected (email sent to Eonon), was not in the package.
( this usb cable is not same as the ipod/generic usb cable provided)
- Install bluetooth ODB2 gadet (ordered from ebay, waiting for it...)
- Upgrade to Kitkat 4.4.4 and start tweaking on the OS itself to suit me personal needs.

Cheers
FxSlin

Wow. Thanks for doing all of this. It is nice to see a detailed alternative for an aftermarket player.

Brilliant! Sounds like an Android unit is the ideal one for the IT savvy folks. Might just get the eonon GA5165 (3 series version of your GA5166) for my e92 335i. I'd be keen to hear about your customizations and how that bluetooth OBD2 reader works out.

Thanks for this! I'd love to update my headunit and the idea of a backup cam is awesome because I do a lot of towing.

Small update here regarding the poor radio reception issue on the Eonon GA5166.
After trying all possibilties and solutions I could think of with the provided Fakra radio cable. I decided to go ahead with next option and ordered a Metra 40-EU55 from a local provider.

Once arrieved I replaced the Fakra cable that came along with the unit, with the new one. And YES, now I got crystal clear reception and could recieve all the radio stations I had with stock radio (MID).

So if you strungle with poor radio reception, this could be a possible solution for you. But leave the blue power wire disconnected.

I went from this:

http://www.xoutpost.com/members/fxsl...1-img-3980.jpg

To this:

http://www.xoutpost.com/members/fxsl...2-img-3977.jpg


A side note - looks like Eonon is following this thread:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?...4128701&type=3

thx for all these updates ,you should get some credit from eonon for all your hard work you are doing for them ;)

Thats true!! They should send me the new GA5166F :-) But I can't really take credit for this, since most of the info is found online. It's just scattered around, what I've done is merely to collect the info/solutions to this thread.

However I would expect my challenges/solutions can be applied to many of these cheaper head units. As I have discovered that most of these units is made by same producer (they have same HW parts and configuration).

As I now start to get HW working fine, I'm off to the fun part. To start tweaking the software and play with the unit.

I installed an "Erisin" headunit in my E39 about 3 years ago and installation was plug and play, however it now keeps resetting itself when trying to listen to music via micro sd card or usb (keeps turning off and going back to first song), also every time I turn the car off, it cycles to the next menu item when I turn it back on (e.g - jumps from radio to SD card). When I first installed the Erisin I was impressed by the improvement in sound quality over the stock business radio. I suspect the current problem is a dry solder joint. I will endeavour to fix when I get the E53 next week.

I was looking at putting an Android aftermarket unit in my E53 and looked at the Eonon units. I am impressed that you get delivery to Norway in 5 days. It takes 4-5 weeks to get delivery from Hong Kong to Australia.

How do you find the difference in sound quality over the stock system?

weird to me that all the pics on page 2 of the thread show up but not the ones on page 1. hmmm.


lol, but then you gotta wonder if they are taking your comments to heart or just shamelessly ripping the pics for publicity.

oh this guy really wanted instructions? ok, lets make instructions...NOT! hahaha

oh, our factory antenna cable sucks? ok, lets include a better one....NOT! hahaha

oh yeah, did your unit come with gps maps on a memory card? if not, how/where are you going to download them?

Regarding the Erisin, it sounds more like a software issue than hardware issue. Have you Tried to do a factory reset? ( make sure to backup any data u want to keep first )

Australia, nice! I lived and worked in Brisbane for 5 years. Back then my dd was a red soft top Jeep Wrangler TJ. Loved to drive it in the outback, 4WD parks and Moreton island. Simple but tough car :-)

Regarding the sound quality I don't really hear any difference, however I listen mostly on radio. The only thing I noticed is that the volume level increments on the volume knob was smaller on the stocks radio. So that was better on the stock MID, easier to find a decent volume level.


The pics are behaving bad yes. I'll need to look into that once again.

Regarding using the pics from this thread, they can do as they want. As long the credit goes right and they link back to this thread. (So this forum get the credit, after all it was here I found most of the tips&tricks)

But yes, I agree the antenna part was a bit downer. Had to spend time and money to resolve this issue.

I didn't get a memory card with gps software, this I knew wasn't included. However I wanted to use favorite GPS software anyway (from play market), which I had on my previous GPS solution. Google maps was installed tough.

any update on how youve like the headunit? theyve got a new one now and Im trying to choose between the 2.

tia
https://www.eonon.com/Car-GPS/Specif...MW/D5166X.html

Well I like so far, HW wise everything seems to work fine. I've been playing around with modded android roms, causing some issues (but thats is due to my hacking on the software). However with a stock android rom, it runs fine and is stable.

Only once in a while the backup camera doesn't kick in, then I just need to re-enter it into reverse quickly. This could be due the how I wired it up (happens maybe 1 out 20 times).

I can't really give any advices on which unit you should choose. It boils down to what software you want to have on it (I preferer android based system as it easy to install software from android market) and how you want it to "fit" in to your dashboard.

If I would a buy a new unit today. I would go for a another android based system with quad core CPU (RK3188) + at least 1024x600 resolution screen.

Similar to this one:
Joying® Aftermarket Best Android Head Unit, Android Car Stereo, Android Car Radio Audio JOYING® Latest 2015 BMW 5 Series E39 M5 X5 E53 Android 4.4.4 kitkat Single 1 Din In Dash Car Audio Stereo DVD Player Bluetooth Quad Core 1024*600 GPS NAV Multimed

Note:
A lot of this android unit comes from the same manufacturer, where re-seller just slaps on their logo + model name on it. Even the android roms they makes is useable across the devices. Now I run a modded version from joying on my eonon unit.
I've seen these units as unbranded products a lot cheaper on aliexpress and similar sites. However I have no experience with ordering products from these sites.

couple years ago Id be all for an android unit, but I may go with the non-android specifically because I dont want to mess with it

You don't have to mess with it. Unit comes with everything you need preinstalled. That's the beauty of Android. You can add features and programs by accessing Play Store and customise how you like, or leave it alone.

I have a quad core Pumpkin head unit which looks exactly like the Eonon and I am very happy with it so far. It came with preinstalled IGO Primo maps, Torque (For diagnostics - need additional bluetooth obd adapter).

In my E39 I have a head unit running windows CE and after using both, I prefer the Android.

Im not sure I even want the ability for things like play store updates. I may just want it to work correctly out of the box, and have the ability to update nav and nothing else.

havent decided tho

So, first impressions.

Ordered the D5166XU. Is a wince unit.

sounds is great. For installation, even tho they say plug and play, you need to cut out the cage. Im still about 1/2" out, so probably a bit more cutting to do. But unit looks great.

Sound is good. Better than stock HU.

However, there is a 'Car Set' button that acts as the mid, and it is not functioning. I have the Canbus plugged in, and the steering wheel controls function, but no car information, so not sure what I've done wrong or if there is a problem.
The USB connection also overheats, and music skips after about 5 minutes. This is likely the cord extension I used, but will recheck this weekend.

The nav, um, sucks. Looks cartoonish. Will be switching to iGO ASAP.

More to follow

so, the stock maps for the non-Android (and possibly android version?) is a bit cartoonish.

So I put iGo Primo 2.4 on mine. After following the directions in another forum, never got it to work. Then I realized I wasn't using the right version (and neither are they)

So if you want iGo, heres the correct steps.
igoprimocomplete9.6.13 youll know you have the write download if it is over a gb in size.
then you need maps.
do a search for "North America (United States, Canada & Mexico) HERE (Navteq) 2015.Q2"




follow the instructions in the download. Need a formatted micro SD card. I used a 16gb, but a 4gb may work.

works a treat

Also, to get my AM radio, I've had to keep the blue wire disconnected that is attached to the included antenna adapter. I'll have to play around with it a bit to see if theres a way to get the absolute best FM reception

I discovered on mine that if you join the two blue wires from the back of the unit the radio works fine. On is labelled "amp" or similar. The other is "ant". One has a male connector, the other a female connector. I am guessing the one labelled amp is actually an inbuilt antenna amp. Disregard the blue wire on the antenna adapter. (although the seller advised me to connect that to power (12V+)).

In regards to the radio reception, make sure you go into the factory settings part (you need a code to get in, found in the manual on the website) and set the region you are in.

Sometimes they are not set right from the factory and even though the band range appears to be correct, reception is just fuzzy.

Setting the right region may make a big difference.

Subscribing as I'm interested in doing this on our X5 3.0.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

i'm gonna do this as well... plan on using WAZE so i'll need a wifi hotspot.

So is Joying the company that makes it? seems like this model has a higher screen resolution but the Eonon is selling that screen from only 275$.

Eonon Model D5166X 275$

joying model

in my experience the e53's always had bad reception, but i do listen to the radio so i will have to re-read this thread to see what is best.

Hello all,
I just picked up a 2006 X5 3.0, non DSP, no nav vehicle for my wife.
1 owner car with 189,000 miles on her. Seems to run well and first thing I did was replace the coolant tank and radiator along with associated hoses.
Now I am looking to upgrade her stereo and install a remote starter.
I am reading thru this thread, which seems to me to be the best I've seen for my situation.
I now find myself torn be eonon 5166x or the Joying and probably leaning more toward the Joying due to it having higher screen resolution.
The only way I'll do any upgrade is if I am able to retain all original functions while adding addition ones like the backup camera and touch screen.
I see on the eonon web site that all functions will remain however I do not see that on the Joying site. Does anyone know if all features are retained?
Thoughts on what's the better unit?
Thanks

I have not been following the latest development on these products, I would make sure to pick the unit with highest screen resolution + latest CPU (quad core).

You should not have any issues with keeping the all features retained with any of these android unit, as long you wired things correctly up (you should get the correct cables from the unit provider, when you order them).
Since you have a non-DSP system like I have in my E53, the unit should be plug'n play install.

Probably no Joying
 

I emailed Joying to ask about retaining the on board computer (obc) features and they tell me I will not retain them.
Do you have any of the obc features with the unit you installed? And if so which ones?
Thanks

Hi - I just installed my Eonon GA5166F head unit on my 2000 X5 w/factory nav and Alpine non-DSP amp. I have everything working except the amp won't turn on. If I plug the original board monitor on it will turn even if I unplug the unit but then it turns off after a couple minutes.

What did you connect the blue & white AMP-CON wire from the Eonon harness to?? You said you used this to "turn on" the amp right?

Can't recall re a blue and white wire, but there is a blue wire which says amp and another blue wire which says ant. Connect these two together to get good radio reception. As far as your third party amp goes, connect to the acc power wire (usually yellow)

The blue/white wire labeled 'AMP-CON' should be the 12V switched power remote wire for an external AMP I think this is a pretty standard color but sometimes is brown on stereo head unit wiring harnesses.

The blue wire labeled 'ANT' should the 12V switched power remote wire for an external antenna

I don't think connecting them sounds advisable. I think either one should switch on the radio control unit or the amp when connected to the appropriate pin.

I suppose i could just try to wire the Radio Control Unit / AMP to a 12V ACC source in the rear but ideally they should turn on and off with the Eonon head unit.

First things first I'll just connect them to a 12V source with the head unit powered on to make sure they stay on.

Like I said previously, not sure about blue and white. On mine there were two blue wires coming out of the back. There was also a blue wire on the antenna adapter. All three of these blue wires had a bullet type connector on them. The two from the back of the unit were a male and female connector. The supplier said to connect the blue one on the antenna adapter to the blue one from the unit which said ant. This didn't work for the radio and I found another post which said the other blue wire was for antenna amp so connecting the two coming out of the back of the unit together made the radio work as it amplified the antenna signal.

I don't have an external amp, so I can't really comment on power for that, but if it was me I would use a multi meter and see what wire becomes 12V+ after the unit is powered up and use that for an amp trigger wire (via a relay).

Yep - I think I figured it out. Check out the last post on my other thread here which contains the wiring diagram of the Top Hi-Fi Alpine amp.

I will cross the bridge of FM reception when I get there. I am planning on using an external hidden antenna ($3 on eBay) mounted under the dash instead of running an extension all the way to the rear of the vehicle. If the reception is poor I will try connect the blue/white AMP-CON, ANT to both the external antenna and the AMP switched 12V ACC remote lead.

Does this have a direct Ipod connection you can use or is it all BT? Could you get screen shots of the Ipod connected direct if you can? I'm a little confused about the wifi, does it connect to the internet on its own picking up open wifi signals, or does it pull from your phone? Between the android unit and the wince unit, it seems the android one is a more powerful unit, is the navigation permanently installed on the unit, or again does it pull from the phone? Can you install google maps on the unit for example?

Also, does this unit, or anything they have work with cars with DSP sound?

Comes with an iPod 4/4S connector but imagine you can use a converter for the lightning plug for new models.

I have not tried it yet and since you can supposedly AirPlay your iPhone screen to the tablet I'm not sure how much I care since I just stream spotify over bluetooth anyway...

I have tried to follow what you did but for some reason when i put the truck in reverse nothing happens. I did use 12v battery source to make sure everything works and it does, but the canbus for some reason is not triggering the radio to go in reverse mode

I'm really close to pulling the trigger on the GA5166X for my E53 with nav and no dsp. I really just have one question that I haven't seen addressed. I made a post in the mobile electronics area, but have got no replies.

Can you play a DVD and have the video routed to rear, headrest mounted monitors and continue to use navigation, music, etc. on the main screen? I see that the feature is listed on the previous windows iteration. The D5166X but I don't see that on here.
This is a feature I NEED to have. We do road trips fairly regularly and recently bought and returned a 2 screen headrest DVD player for the kids. It sucked having to be driving and have my wife climb over the seat to get the DVD in, press play on the menu to start the thing, etc. It isn't safe and it was a major PITA. I need to be able to do that from the head unit, but still be able to have my music playing off of bluetooth or USB and my navigation up at the same time the DVD is going in the back.

EDIT: Finally got an email back from Eonon. It does not allow music playback at the same time you have DVD playback in the rear screens. It allows nav, but no music. Any other head units to look at that are similar, but will allow this?

Alternative suggestion: Buy your kids a tablet each load up what ever movies you want on the tablet and the kids are entertained for hours on the road. Plus tablets are far more flexible and versatile over the DVD in-vehicle headrests. DVD head rests are passe and have more expensive moving parts that are prone to break. Then you can get whatever head unit suits you best in the X. This is the route that I took in accommodating my kids on the 16 hr journey from Texas to Florida to visit my parents. Just a thought. Good luck:cool:

After looking pretty extensively for other head unit options, I think that your solution is probably best.

For anyone that is interested, here is my experience installing the recent Eonon GA6166 unit:

https://xoutpost.com/1100216-post170.html

and a video of some of the aesthetics and capabilities

https://youtu.be/RAv0qZusgBQ



Mike