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Navigation & AudioAudio upgrades, bluetooth, and navigation discussions surrounding the Clubman (R55), Cooper and Cooper S (R56), and Cabrio (R57) MINIs.
Did you have the factory Nav system before? I am curious what the LCI is and if that is what i could use to swap out my factory nav for something like this.
The LCI controls differ only in color. Pre-LCI were black and gray and that gray easily gets dirty and doesn’t wear well. The LCI controls are all black. I think it gives the center stack a nice visual upgrade.
I didn’t have factory nav, just the standard Boost system. These android units give an easy(ish) way to upgrade. The systems are pretty plug and play once you get the dash apart.
Carpecervisi, ahh, gotcha. I have the factory nav and it is horrible. Plus there are quite a few dead pixels. Anyone who sells these andriod aftermarkets all show that they are not compatiable with the factory nav but I was wondering if I just did a full swap, maybe with this LCI controls if that would work.It's almost like being punished for the original owner spending the big bucks for all the factory cool toys!
I have a couple of questions for people who have installed this unit.
Are you using the factory ground?
Does the unit use the OEM antenna or an adapter? I wonder if a ground loop isolator would help?
Its been a while since I have been on the car audio game but I remember back in the day when you would get an alternator whine it was usually a ground issue somewhere in the system.
I have reached out to the below to see if their updated system has fixed any of these issues.
I really like mine and think the sound quality is great...with the following caveat. Like others, I get serious feedback whine if my phone connects for a call via Bluetooth. I assume it’s the crap quality mic that is *somewhere*. It could be interfering with a factory mic, but I don’t think so. If my car had hands free prior to my upgrade, I never used it. And I just have the standard Boost stereo, not the HK with A-pillar speakers.
The stock ROM, as mentioned previously, doesn’t have the speedometer in MPH, but you can load other ones that take that negative away. I will post some screenshots later because I really like my current set up.
One ding I’ll give the unit is support. I’ve exchanged several emails with them asking for the factory ROM (I thought I made a backup but damned if I can find it) and they either don’t understand the request or are willfully not giving it to me. I can’t find it anywhere online and don’t want to brick it by loading an incompatible MCU.
A PX5 version of this head unit would be sweet, but I’ve never seen one. It performs very well, IMHO.
Good luck!
These aftermarket units don't use the car's mic, look around and you should see a hole on your unit, probably labeled "mic". To *vastly* improve your call quality, you'll need a secondary mic which can plug in to the back of the headunit. BUT, you also have to remove the built-in mic! Like, take apart the CD changer (in my case) and literally cut the crappy microphone out of it. If you attach a secondary mic, the headunit will still try and use the built-in mic AND the new mic. Have to remove the built-in one.
I am having a 8 Core Andriod unit installed in my r60 Countryman that had factory NAV as I type this.
Installer already called said the FM is ****...
But other stuff seems to work. I will post more when I pick the car up and test some things out.
Edit: Adding more info about the FM on my 8 core android head unit. I picked up the car and the FM works fine. Just as good as the OEM Nav unit was. The installer couldn't pick up stations in the install bay. But outside the building it works great. Also the MIC and bluetooth calling features works pretty darn good as well. There is a background humming when making a bluetooth call though - But nothing deal breaking.
Last edited by Kittz; Oct 30, 2018 at 10:26 AM.
Reason: Added more info
Looks like my posts with the Links are requiring Mod Approval. So head to ali express and search for this text "Octa core 4GB RAM Android 8.0 Car DVD Multimedia Player for BMW Mini Cooper COUNTRYMAN"
It won't let me post a link. It doesn't get mod approval.
But I can tell you it works great. The FM radio has no problems - it is pretty crisp and clear. No complaints so far except I can't get apple car play to work
Also - If anyone is having problem with FM you can try wiring the Antenna's blue wire to the amp CTRL wire in the harness. (Pic Below) Try wiring FM antenna to the harness for FM problems
Last edited by Kittz; Oct 31, 2018 at 08:37 AM.
Reason: Added pic and more info about FM
Kittz, how did you manage to get CarPlay working? Might be worth the trouble if it works well. I dont lie the double DIN approach much.
I bought an in-line apple car play adapter that you plug your iphone into and then the adapter plugs in to the head unit. You install an android APK and then every time you plug your iPhone in, Carplay automatically launches. It works very reliably.
Kittz, how did you manage to get CarPlay working? Might be worth the trouble if it works well. I dont lie the double DIN approach much.
You buy an Apple car play adapter and install an APK on the the android head unit. Then whenever you connect your iphone to the adapter, Carplay automatically launches.
Do any of these units have DAB?
I've had Chinese Android units in other cars and they were ok for what I paid (about £250), but always had one issue or another with each one.
My biggest issue would be if the fuel, EML and Speedo work properly.
The standard stereo is pretty poor, as I've just come from and Bang and Olufsen setup in my previous car.
Great googly moogly what a PITA to get to the stereo on this thing.
Complaining aside, I have my unit "installed" but there is no audio. There is mention previously in this thread about having to do "cut a wire" or something to get it working with the harmon/kardon amp, which I have. Does anyone have any more specific information than that or know where I can find it. The search terms are just coming up with a thousand people with blown H/K amps.
Also, I had two antenna cables into the back of the stock head unit, one with a black connector and one pink. I assume one is AM and one is FM. Anyone know which one is which?
Last edited by jiggersplat; Dec 6, 2018 at 07:03 PM.
Ahh ottomh I think it was a blue wire but it's been ages. I had to cross reference the install instructions from the manufacturers' website against my Bentley service manual wiring diagram. Hopefully someone else can chime in with more recent memory.
I will answer some of my own question... the HK amp will turn on with 12v applied to pin-13 (black wire) of the quad-lock connector. The harness supplied with my kit did not have pin-13 populated so I had to splice it into the car harness (or I'd have to find the pins that fit the quadlock connector and add it). It does not require activation via CANBUS as some threads on this forum have suggested.
BUT, there's a but. It's loud as ****. The lowest setting on the head unit is still super loud. I'm going to try and get an X9331 harness and splice a 4-chan line out converter and see what that does. I was under the impression that the HiFi/HK inputs were speaker-level inputs, but perhaps not. Hopefully it doesn't knock the signal down too much. I'm not sure line out converters are meant to be used like this though. I don't know if there will be any load on the head unit amplifier, which would be bad.
Last edited by jiggersplat; Dec 6, 2018 at 07:03 PM.
