Bluetooth Head Unit for Android Phone

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#942217 28-Nov-2013 12:54

The AWSC-1 is separate from the Harness (ISO to Car adaptors). I got those as well.

Mine (Nissan,2001) wired to the plug that went into the old stereo for the steering wheel controls, and into the power somewhere.

To install the stereo in mine was a bit of a mission, as the factory unit was a Bose, and Bose speakers apparently are only 1ohm (so running an aftermarket Head Unit to them will kill the head unit eventually). I had to remove the Bose head deck, and the Bose 'Amp' in the boot and re-route speaker cables. I also had to replace the Bose speakers.

Installing the head deck was pretty simple, I got a Nissan to ISO loom, and a ISO to Pioneer bit, so that was a piece of cake. The AWSC took a little bit of thinking, but we got it first time round following the instructions on their web page (just had to find the correct plug in the car to connect it to, it doesn't go to the stereo wiring loom. We just cut the existing wires, crimped on bullet connectors and put it all back together).

I'd definitely recommend the AWSC-1 (along with the ISO adaptors - they are cheaper online than at Supercheap). The steering wheel controls are pretty much all I use in-car. Best money I spent when putting the new unit in.

gcorgnet

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#942242 28-Nov-2013 13:35

trig42: The AWSC-1 is separate from the Harness (ISO to Car adaptors). I got those as well.

Mine (Nissan,2001) wired to the plug that went into the old stereo for the steering wheel controls, and into the power somewhere.

To install the stereo in mine was a bit of a mission, as the factory unit was a Bose, and Bose speakers apparently are only 1ohm (so running an aftermarket Head Unit to them will kill the head unit eventually). I had to remove the Bose head deck, and the Bose 'Amp' in the boot and re-route speaker cables. I also had to replace the Bose speakers.

Installing the head deck was pretty simple, I got a Nissan to ISO loom, and a ISO to Pioneer bit, so that was a piece of cake. The AWSC took a little bit of thinking, but we got it first time round following the instructions on their web page (just had to find the correct plug in the car to connect it to, it doesn't go to the stereo wiring loom. We just cut the existing wires, crimped on bullet connectors and put it all back together).

I'd definitely recommend the AWSC-1 (along with the ISO adaptors - they are cheaper online than at Supercheap). The steering wheel controls are pretty much all I use in-car. Best money I spent when putting the new unit in.

Hey, thanks for that. Sorry I might be thick but still struggling to understand what wires you hook up the AWSC-1 to? When they say to hook up to 12V and ground, where do you get the wires from? Is it from one of the looms? does it matter which one?

Cheers,

Guillaume

rhysb

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#942245 28-Nov-2013 13:36

Have look at the JVC KD-X250BT. Has an Android app and allows two concurrent BT phone pairings. Replaced a 2yr old Pioneer Unit and the JVC sounds way better. You can pick it up for around $160.

Klipspringer

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#942256 28-Nov-2013 13:46

rhysb: Have look at the JVC KD-X250BT. Has an Android app and allows two concurrent BT phone pairings. Replaced a 2yr old Pioneer Unit and the JVC sounds way better. You can pick it up for around $160.

Some good reviews on Amazon.

On the downside it does not support USB sticks greater than 4GB. But on the plus you can hookup 2 concurrent Bluetooth phones.
JVC is also a pretty decent make

rhysb

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#942261 28-Nov-2013 13:56

Tell that to my 32GB USB Stick then. 32GB Adata UD310 is a perfect match.

Klipspringer

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#942306 28-Nov-2013 14:43

rhysb: Tell that to my 32GB USB Stick then. 32GB Adata UD310 is a perfect match.

Awesome.
Saw somebody moaning about that in a review.

lchiu7

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#942340 28-Nov-2013 15:28

+1 for Google Music.

I have a JVC head unit in my car and regularly play music over BT with it. It pairs automatically when I get in the car and fire up the ignition.

This is with a Galaxy Nexus. I do have one strange behaviour I cannot yet diagnose. When I first fire up GM the sound comes from the phone, not the car. I have place a call from the phone first to get BT audio to pair. As soon as I hear the ringing tone I hang up and then the music plays over the car stereo. I need to solve that one day.

One great thing about Google Music was when I drove from San Francisco to LA on I10 I was listening to my cloud based music (some 50GB of music which I uploaded from my entire CD collection) on my phone through the Kia rental car BT sound system. T-Mobile provided enough coverage for the entire trip with very few if any dropouts. And with random play I re-discovered music I hadn't listened to in years!

Plus I had Google Maps Navigation on all the time also though strictly speaking it was not necessary until I actually got to LA.

Staying in Wellington. Check out my AirBnB in the Wellington CBD. https://www.airbnb.co.nz/h/wellycbd PM me and mention GZ to get a 15% discount and no AirBnB charges.

Wise

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gcorgnet

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#942344 28-Nov-2013 15:31

Thanks for the input guys!

bradstewart

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#942363 28-Nov-2013 16:00

I recently installed a JVC unit in my car which sounds fantastic. No CD player which seems to be fairly standard. I pretty much only stream music from my phone now and very occasionally the radio.

I have an NFC tag that I swipe my phone across when I get into the car, it switches on BT and opens Google Play Music and resumes play.

rhysb

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#942435 28-Nov-2013 18:21

lchiu7: +1 for Google Music.

I have a JVC head unit in my car and regularly play music over BT with it. It pairs automatically when I get in the car and fire up the ignition.

This is with a Galaxy Nexus. I do have one strange behaviour I cannot yet diagnose. When I first fire up GM the sound comes from the phone, not the car. I have place a call from the phone first to get BT audio to pair. As soon as I hear the ringing tone I hang up and then the music plays over the car stereo. I need to solve that one day.

One great thing about Google Music was when I drove from San Francisco to LA on I10 I was listening to my cloud based music (some 50GB of music which I uploaded from my entire CD collection) on my phone through the Kia rental car BT sound system. T-Mobile provided enough coverage for the entire trip with very few if any dropouts. And with random play I re-discovered music I hadn't listened to in years!

Plus I had Google Maps Navigation on all the time also though strictly speaking it was not necessary until I actually got to LA.

JVC provide firmware updates for some of their Head Units. Mine had a BT update that improved in-call audio, went from ver 0101 to 0300.
http://www3.jvckenwood.com/english/car/support/navi/

Trunks2

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#942553 28-Nov-2013 22:39

Anyone use an android app to control their headunit? I have a tablet permanently installed in my dash with the head unit tucked away behind the tablet so it would be handy if I could control all the head unit functions through an android app (I listen to alot of FM radio which the tablet does not support).

The closest I can find is sony's app remote which seems would let me control everything I want including volume, but only on certain models I think and it's unclear which models are supported.

I was looking at this one at repco http://catalogues.repco.co.nz/Christmas_Gift_Ideas_/5414/Sony_Bluetooth_CD_Tuner/535211

trig42

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#942720 29-Nov-2013 10:07

gcorgnet:
trig42: The AWSC-1 is separate from the Harness (ISO to Car adaptors). I got those as well.

Mine (Nissan,2001) wired to the plug that went into the old stereo for the steering wheel controls, and into the power somewhere.

To install the stereo in mine was a bit of a mission, as the factory unit was a Bose, and Bose speakers apparently are only 1ohm (so running an aftermarket Head Unit to them will kill the head unit eventually). I had to remove the Bose head deck, and the Bose 'Amp' in the boot and re-route speaker cables. I also had to replace the Bose speakers.

Installing the head deck was pretty simple, I got a Nissan to ISO loom, and a ISO to Pioneer bit, so that was a piece of cake. The AWSC took a little bit of thinking, but we got it first time round following the instructions on their web page (just had to find the correct plug in the car to connect it to, it doesn't go to the stereo wiring loom. We just cut the existing wires, crimped on bullet connectors and put it all back together).

I'd definitely recommend the AWSC-1 (along with the ISO adaptors - they are cheaper online than at Supercheap). The steering wheel controls are pretty much all I use in-car. Best money I spent when putting the new unit in.

Hey, thanks for that. Sorry I might be thick but still struggling to understand what wires you hook up the AWSC-1 to? When they say to hook up to 12V and ground, where do you get the wires from? Is it from one of the looms? does it matter which one?

Cheers,

Guillaume

12v and Ground, it doesn't matter (ground we just attached it to an existing lug that was grounded).
The other coloured wires it wants you to connect, your have to find the plug they are referring to (mine was pretty easy to find, just matched the shape and number of connections in the plug, and it worked fine). Mine was originally connected to the Bose headunit, but wasn't required for the new headunit (had no speaker cables in it), so if I hadn't used the AWSC-1, I would not have needed that plug for anything. I could have just cut it off and terminated the cables (to save space) but I just spliced the cables I needed into the AWSC-1 (only about 2 or 3 if I recall correctly) with bullet connectors.

What car do you have? Their website is really good with instructions (I had to use Infiniti ones for my Nissan Skyline)

mclean

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#942761 29-Nov-2013 10:42

I have a Sony Xplod MEX-BT unit which does all the Bluetooth things beautifully. Especially nice is voice-prompted reading of text messages with hands-free call back to the sender (that's with a Windows phone - Android should be the same if the phone can do it). The built-in mic simplifies the install and works just fine, even though it's not the quietest car. All it needed was a standard Nissan adaptor from Supercheap.

A couple of things that are no so good: The panel illumination doesn't dim when the car lights go on, so I often have to turn it off on the open road at night. Also it drives the antenna up for everything, even for playing a CD or streaming from the phone/ipod. Flaws which you can't pick up from reading the sales blurb. Mine's about 2 years old - maybe the newer ones have fixed this.

stevenz

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#942762 29-Nov-2013 10:42

"CarHome Ultra" is a very good customisable car-dock app. I've got it set to auto-start when BT connects to my headunit, and the home screen is basically just big media buttons (play/pause, previous track, next track).

FWIW I'm using an Alpine CDE-134BT headunit. Parrot hands-free, BT-Audio streaming, Front-USB, Front-Aux, CD-Player, configurable button colours, analog-style volume knob, iDevice compatible (control playback from iDevice or headunit). Great little unit.

I think it cost me in the ballpark of $300 including shipping from the UK though as they don't sell this particular model here, and I wanted a very particular set of features & ISO connectors for the steering-wheel controls.

@KnightNZ

rhysb

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#942852 29-Nov-2013 11:41

Trunks2: Anyone use an android app to control their headunit? I have a tablet permanently installed in my dash with the head unit tucked away behind the tablet so it would be handy if I could control all the head unit functions through an android app (I listen to alot of FM radio which the tablet does not support).

The closest I can find is sony's app remote which seems would let me control everything I want including volume, but only on certain models I think and it's unclear which models are supported.

I was looking at this one at repco http://catalogues.repco.co.nz/Christmas_Gift_Ideas_/5414/Sony_Bluetooth_CD_Tuner/535211

You can use the JVC app to control a hidden head unit.

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