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Northstar666
9 posts

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  #1512670 14-Mar-2016 06:43
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Jaxson: Warehouse 20% off car audio this coming week.
May be worth a punt.


Yeah, overall it's a good system for what you pay, the reversing camera is great, I'm really happy with the whole setup ..... Except make sure you plug the power to your media player on the yellow wire (ignition), I had it in the red (memory) and it flatted the dam battery if you don't turn the media player physically off, it stays running all the time!

You won't find better value for money mate!

Cheers



Jaxson
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  #1512896 14-Mar-2016 11:34
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Have changed tact and decided to take a punt on this from Banggood!

 

 

 

Very similar, but includes a DVD player (not sure what zone).  Will hopefully get something suitable out of all of this.  No consumer guarantees act or option to return, but will see how we go frown


andkav
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  #1513179 14-Mar-2016 17:23
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Hi

 

Sorry to open an old thread.

 

 

 

I've just installed this stereo in my wife's car and there seems to be problem with the power.  After the car is turned off, all the settings go back to factory settings.  It appears there is no secondary power getting to the unit.

 

Is anyone else having this issue?

 

I have looked at the wiring harness and there is a wire for B+ power wire, not sure if this is the correct wire but if it is i would have expected it to work seen as its in the harness.

 

 

 

Any solutions would be greatly appreciated.




Andib
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  #1513185 14-Mar-2016 17:38
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andkav:

 

Hi

 

Sorry to open an old thread.

 

 

 

I've just installed this stereo in my wife's car and there seems to be problem with the power.  After the car is turned off, all the settings go back to factory settings.  It appears there is no secondary power getting to the unit.

 

Is anyone else having this issue?

 

I have looked at the wiring harness and there is a wire for B+ power wire, not sure if this is the correct wire but if it is i would have expected it to work seen as its in the harness.

 

 

 

Any solutions would be greatly appreciated.

 

 

 

 

Chances are you have the 12v Accessory and 12v line around the wrong way :). 





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Jaxson
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  #1513231 14-Mar-2016 19:04
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Andib:

 

andkav:

 

Hi

 

Sorry to open an old thread.

 

 

 

I've just installed this stereo in my wife's car and there seems to be problem with the power.  After the car is turned off, all the settings go back to factory settings.  It appears there is no secondary power getting to the unit.

 

Is anyone else having this issue?

 

I have looked at the wiring harness and there is a wire for B+ power wire, not sure if this is the correct wire but if it is i would have expected it to work seen as its in the harness.

 

 

 

Any solutions would be greatly appreciated.

 

 

 

 

Chances are you have the 12v Accessory and 12v line around the wrong way :). 

 

 

 

 

This. 

 

 

 

There are always two 12V power sauces. 

 

One stays on permanently to store things like radio stations etc.

 

The other switches on when you move the key to the Acc Accessory position.

 

 

 

Get these the wrong way around and the unit will usually still go, but it won't retain any settings when the car is switched off.


richms
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  #1513238 14-Mar-2016 19:31
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Not all cars have them the same way around on the iso connector, which is why most head decks with a second loom will allow you to swap them over.





Richard rich.ms

Jaxson
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  #1513291 14-Mar-2016 20:53
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richms:

Not all cars have them the same way around on the iso connector, which is why most head decks with a second loom will allow you to swap them over.



Good thinking my man.

I forget he may not be wiring this by hand.

 
 
 

Trade NZ and US shares and funds with Sharesies (affiliate link).
andkav
3 posts

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  #1513298 14-Mar-2016 21:00
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Thanks for the replies.

I have literally just plugged the harness in. I think I know the two wires that everyone is referring. I'll have loom tomorrow and let you know how I get on.

Thanks again.

Jaxson
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  #1514661 16-Mar-2016 18:36
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andkav
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  #1515118 17-Mar-2016 17:19
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Hi all, thanks for the help. I switched wires and it's all good. Cheers

Jaxson
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  #1522577 30-Mar-2016 08:57
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My banggood stereo arrived on Saturday, but I was out so picked it up yesterday.  Came reasonably quickly really, roughly 2 weeks.

 

I had to pay for shipping on this ($15 extra from memory) but that included a Saturday delivery option.

 

Installed quickly last night.  So far everything seems to work:

 

 

 

Plays NZ DVD's and there is an option to set a region code if you want.  It's presently region 0, so multizone.  The video out works for DVD's to the rear screen, but I'm yet to try a decoded video, as I know the Warehouse one couldn't do that.  I think it will be fine, as the output to the rear screen just looks to mimic what ever is on the front screen, even when listening to the radio etc.

 

Plays CD's.  Lol I had to hunt to find one to test...

 

Rear view camera trigger works.  Kit included a rear view camera, which I'll look to setup at some stage.  Menu options offer the ability to flip this horizontally which I was hoping for but not expecting.  Means you can make the rear view camera display the same as the traditional rear view mirror, so the driver is familiar with what they're seeing. Without this the image would be reversed (lol pun) to the mnirror and potentially confusing.  I paid $17 for some wireless transmitters to save laying a cable from rear to front.  My car is a people mover, so bloody long and I don't fancy fishing that cable length, but at the same time I'll revert to that manual approach if the wireless doesn't work.  There's effort required whichever way I go unfortunately.  The camera looks good though, and is normally $20 - $28 by the looks of it.

 

Bluetooth handsfree mic is rubbish.  A bit gutted about that as the phone side of things works well otherwise.  There is no external mic in on this unit either, so no option to use something else, unless I want to bust it open and try to surface mount the lead of something else.  I did find a setup menu with a volume control on the mic, but it didn't make much of a difference.

 

Steering wheel buttons work, nice and easy.  Such a simple thing but seems really well integrated now because of it.  Surprised other manufacturers aren't offering this.  JVC makes mention of it on their products, but digging requires you to purchase a separate converter interface unit for example.

FM Radio works well.

Has a bunch of manufacturer logos installed, so it now says Mazda when you start it up.  It's got that OEM replacement feel about it, that most any other stereo always lack.  The steering wheel integration helps with this vibe also.  You can change the rear wallpaper logo and I've picked one from those supplied.  Not sure if you can add your own yet, will look into that, but not too fussed as I don't mind the one I've picked.

 

Haven't tried playing a video file/music from SD card yet.  There is a mini USB input but I don't look to have received the brake out cable to traditional full size USB plug.  Given the Micro SD card input slot, I'm not too worried as I'll just copy stuff into there for now, or stream from phone spotify etc.

 

All in all I'm quite happy.  For the price this has satisfied my quite bizarre list of requirements so far with the only downside being the hands free mic quality (Very quiet and muffled on the other end of the phone).  I've got some loud background buzzing going on when the volume is right down, so I need to revisit the grounding (installed in a rush last night) and maybe add a choke magnet ring to the power supply.  If that doesn't fix it then we're a bit stuffed.  No going back to china for after sales support.

The screen is about 4mm wider than the last one?!  So I'll need to cut down the car surround, and probably drill the brackets so it sits exactly where it needs to for all that trim to go back in place properly.

Oh and the screen itself is awesome.  It's one of the best I've seen for this cheaper (non capacitive) tech.  800x480 I think it was, and looks much clearer than the budget looking rear ceiling flip down monitor. 

The graphics on mine don't match the Banggood pictures, which is a good thing as those ones looked pretty yuck.

 

Mine look like this:



Instructions are close to useless.  Even the wiring diagram on top was hard to follow with ridiculously small font size at times and dodgy English descriptions.  You will have to be able to find your way around the wires in your car to install one of these, it's not a plug and play situation.  Needing to find a front sauce for a reversing trigger is an example (though if you were bringing the source from the rear all the way via a cable then this wouldn't apply, but it's worth mentioning).  I choose to solder and heat shrink the connections and did buy one of those cheap car harness adapters from Supercheap, as this meant I could do a lot of the work on the kitchen bench rather than in the car dash.  Watch that these rarely include all the connectors you'd need.  The steering wheel button wires for example weren't included in there, and neither was a reversing trigger signal, but that last one is to be expected.

The unit does dim with the lights, but not by much.  I expect it will be too bright at night.

Also there are times when it's probably safer to have a video showing only in the rear screen, so as not to distract the driver.  There is a handbrake brake connection option to disable the video, and a setup menu option to toggle this on and off.  May need to investigate that if this becomes a WOF issue.  In hindsight a separate player feeding video direct to the ceiling screen, and only audio to the headunit may be a safer setup.

And this included an 8GB micro SD card in the GPS slot, but nothing on it.  I had a dodgy copy of iGO GPS which sort of tried to load, but didn't, so I'll need to investigate options around that.  I'm hardly like to ever use it, but did route the GPS receiver to the dash, so kind of keen to see it work regardless of use.  Google maps seems to be the way for me.  The unit got the right time and date from somewhere, so I'm hoping the GPS does actually work.  A blank SD card is better than nothing, but you're left up to your own devices to get that working, and with no guidance around what it even runs.  I believe it's Win CE but don't have confirmation of that that.  It's certainly not Android (cost more $) and the Win CE part is only when you go into the GPS function. 

The factory Settings page refers to this as an ARM A11 platform, and the Mcu version of Nov 20 2015, so I assume that means it was made fairly recently.  The screens/radio tuning etc are all very responsive, which is something the earlier versions of these stereos get hammered for.

Added a silver cigarette socket USB charger and some grey charging leads it's all looking pretty good up front.

Think that's enough feedback, but happy to answer any questions.


Jaxson
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  #1523553 31-Mar-2016 20:52
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Just to complete this, the reversing camera works and the GPS fired up once I had acquired a suitable program and set of NZ maps.

 

 

 

So basically the only thing not to work well is the mic for hands free, and there is some hum left on the radio, despite grounding the unit.  Need to check if it's there on the other sources or not.

 

Haven't tried music or video off the micro SD card yet, and confirmed they route ok to the rear screen.

 

And I didn't get the mini usb to large female usb adapter, so could chase banggood up over that.

 

 

 

Very satisfied though.  Just need to cut into the original plastic surround to complete this, as the new unit is a bit larger than the old factory one! :(


SepticSceptic
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  #1530092 11-Apr-2016 14:58
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Jaxson:

 

My banggood stereo arrived on Saturday, but I was out so picked it up yesterday.  Came reasonably quickly really, roughly 2 weeks.

 

I had to pay for shipping on this ($15 extra from memory) but that included a Saturday delivery option.

 

Installed quickly last night.  So far everything seems to work:

 

 ---

 

Think that's enough feedback, but happy to answer any questions.

 

 

 

 

Thanks for the comprehensive review  .. looking at replacing a "fancy" 2-DIN head unit on the wife's 2006 Honda CRV.

 

AS long as I can get the reversing camera, and steering wheel controls working, I'd think the SWMBO will be happy. Mostly. All the other features are just a bonus, for the price :-)

 

 


Jaxson
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  #1530098 11-Apr-2016 15:17
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SepticSceptic:

 

 

 

Thanks for the comprehensive review  .. looking at replacing a "fancy" 2-DIN head unit on the wife's 2006 Honda CRV.

 

AS long as I can get the reversing camera, and steering wheel controls working, I'd think the SWMBO will be happy. Mostly. All the other features are just a bonus, for the price :-)

 

 

 

 

 

 

No worries.

 

 

 

Each users will have different requirements, depending on what gear they're trying to configure.

 

 

 

You get steering wheel controls and reversing camera via the warehouse one, currently on a combo deal for $199

 

http://www.thewarehouse.co.nz/red/catalog/product/American-Hi-Fi-Car-Stereo-Double-Din-Bluetooth-AHF930-4-x-50W?SKU=1962455

 

 

 

I picked up GPS capabilities via my banggood variant.  Came only with a blank micro SD card though, and I had to trawl through the mud that is the internet to find a working solution to this, but glad I did, as have a 2015 NZ version working well. 

 

 

 

I didn't get a normal USB socket though, only mini usb, and I didn't get the adaptor cable.  I figure that would look ugly anyway, so I didn't bother pursuing that with banggod and just use the micro SD card slot where I used USB in the past.

 

 

 

Steering wheel controls seem to be one of two flavours, either varying resitance values across one wire and ground, or via a cars bus system, which is where it gets really messy.

 

I'm really surprised more basic stereos by the big brand names don't include the steering wheel learn function.  It's extremely basic in practise, so it's a surprising omission.

 

 

 

 


tazdevil113
1 post

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  #1535472 19-Apr-2016 11:35
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Hi I'm new to this so don't know if I'm doing this right

Ok my son bought a AHF touch screen AHF-930 head unit
So he installed the unit and got it all going but there is a problem the head unit beeps, every couple of seconds it beeps
Does anyone know what may cause this?

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