I will also answer my other questions... the pink RF connector is for satellite, the black one is the FM antenna, which works great, at least on this model, even in my garage. Still not sure what the 4-pin RF connector is for.

 

This is good info. Thanks for posting it for posterity's sake!

 

Anyone installed a backup camera with one of these? The reverse lead from my head unit goes into the harness and up to the display on mine, there is no loose end.

And vaguely related, it seems as though the cigarette lighter in the hatch is only hot when the engine is running? Is there a 12v source back there anywhere that is live in accessory mode?

 

 

My understanding is that most head units have a reverse trigger wire that is +12v when the car is in reverse which tells it to switch to the rear camera. It would not be an issue if that were the case, I could easily sort that out. My unit DOES have a reverse trigger wire, but for some reason it is bundled into the harness and goes to one of the connectors on the back of the display. The reverse lead is pin-11 (orange/black) in the pluggable harness, which you can see runs up through the harness and to the screen. It is not one of the four un-terminated wires (amp, sw-1, sw-2, gnd). So, is this thing smart enough to detect a video signal and kick over automatically, or is the "screen" somehow figuring out the car is in reverse from CANbus or none of the above and it's all just jacked up and I need to cut that wire?


https://www.erisin.com/images/htmlar...ng-Diagram.jpg

 

After several utterly useless email exchanges, Erisin support is suggesting that yes in fact the reverse camera is activated via canbus. Of course at this point I had already cut the wire and tapped into pin 9(?) on the FRM to get a reverse signal.

 

So I am very thankful to all of you who've posted info on these units!

I am looking a buying the Hui Fei octocore Android 8 version.

What is required to get the HK audio to work with this unit? Is it as simple as providing a service 12v remote to turn the amplifier on as mentioned above?

The MIC mod and rooting + new ROM seem pretty easy, there's been continued and significant development on the XDA boards for the units, in particular, the KGL series seem to be the most advanced, currently.

 

1) Yes, you need to wire the remote lead of the head unit to the harness to turn the amp on.
2) You'll need to either hook up the RCA outputs of the head unit to the inputs of the amp, in which case max volume won't be all that loud, or you'll need a 4-channel line output converter between the speaker-outs and the amp inputs, which is the route I have gone. (If you want some RCA->4mm bullet connector wires let me know, I'll send them to you)
3) I was able to get the factory to confirm that the reverse camera trigger wire is enabled via CAN, so if installing a backup camera, the only think you need to worry about is power for the camera and the video signal.
4) There is a mic+ and mic- in the factory harness. It may be possible to add two more pins to the head unit harness and splice those into a 3.5mm audio plug and use the factory microphone but I have't bothered.

Here is a link to all the wiring info I have used (the second sheet has links to the relevant TIS info pages, at least for my 2013 w/ HK and no Nav)

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...it?usp=sharing

I am also splitting out power, ground and CAN to some extra long wiring that I will use to hook up an LC-BMRC-01 chime module under normal use and I should be able to disconnect that and hook up the factory stereo temporarily if the car needs a software update. Be careful, the instructions for the chime module are poor and there are two connectors on the harness that will plug into the unit, but one of them is the wrong one and will short power and ground. Ask me how I know.

 

Awesome thanks for the info!

 

What's the link for the XDA forum for this unit? Haven't been able to find it

 

This thread has a nice consolidation of info. There's not a mini specific thread I've found, but, it'll all the same. You Lind of have to buy the unit first and then figure out which version you have, unless someone's linked the version type picture from the software and a purchase link (as one poster did in this thread).

​​
https://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2660662

 

I want to buy this model type:




this is my dash:


hello, i want to upgrade my 2014 countryman. But almost all of the aliexpress and ebay say that fits 2006-2013. Somebody know how is the compatibility between mini's nav's? Sorry if my English is crap :(

 

Bartivs, you should open an order enquiry with a couple of the sellers and ask them, also send a pic of your dash as above and they will let you know. Physically yours looks like it would fit. It is the connections you have to be sure about.

 

Ok, then i will ask. Thanks a lot

 

Hello!!
I have a 2009 mcs ac schnitzer. I have the dash with the gray digital hvac, gray cd etc. with the separate volume ****. I want to buy the android unit WITHOUT the speedometer. Will the black cd unit fit, and what will happen to the volume hole, or it does not fit? Must i change the dash with the lci one and is it easy?

Thank you in advance

 

 

from what i read over the year, it seems you may need to buy a LCI faceplate/radio trim to accommodate the newer style shape of the radio unit. Not entirely sure because you have the digital HVAC

 

Hi!

I think that too.

In other words i want to take this

android WITHOUT ugly bezel

NOT this

android WITH ugly bezel

and put it in my 2009 mini with that interior


mini cooper s 2009

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

My question is, can i replace my fascia

silver instruments fascia

with the fascia for the black instruments

fascia for black instruments

and use my silver digital hvac controls and switches?
Also will the black ones retrofit my mini in worst case scenario?


From the photos it seems the same below the cd unit, but, even the smallest differences matter.

 

 

 

I talk about the second one. can you send me info about it? eshop, price etc. I see that it supports lte and i found only with 3g

Thank you!

( i ordered from ebay the black fascia to try if it fits, i have found black hvac control too, im gonna order it too propably)

 

I just wanted to see how you are enjoying the unit now and if you had any feedback or suggestions for a fellow CM (2012) owner that is considering a head unit upgrade?

also I am curious what you did with the factory dial in the center rail area and the two action buttons.

thanks for all the info and suggestions so far.

Eli

 

@howiestt , I'm thinking of picking up one of these android units. Which have you liked the most and where did you find these units. I am currently looking into the Seicane android 8.0 unit but I'd love to hear your thoughts.

 

I started a thread elsewhere that might not get the attention that it will here instead; I wish I would have found this awesome thread earlier. Coming here with my successes of installation and some concerns needing resolved.

I have installed this model HERE (link) with the 4gb ram 32gb rom option in an r60 2013 Countryman S All4 US model. I was impressed to find that the unit has all of the bmw/mini factory harness connections on the back of the disc drive and lcd display unit the same as the factory big ben speedo and disc drive including 6 pin the ibus/can port on the back of the LCD unit that runs the tach/main cluster. The installation went well, only time consuming part was getting that dash to come apart with a lack of good information online amongst the different years/models of how to do it without breaking something, lol. Photos:






I was surprised to find that the gas gauge and other indicators worked well and retained the power on/off pattern/dance that the gas gauge does.

RETAINING FACTORY USB PORT FUNCTION: I did cut and splice into the factory circular 4-pin USB connector that used to plug into the factory unit. I continuity tested the correct wires for D+ D- P+ P- in the photo above if any other want to retain their factory USB port functionality. The Auxiliary audio jack was already wired in the included harness wiring.

A few unresolved issues found since installation: Blinker tick sounds are terrible and laggy, no other door chimes or vehicle notification sounds exist.
The speed display on the steering column tach cluster isn't working exactly as it was before after installing this system. The "refresh rate" of which the digital speed indicator has slowed down, the factory mph display screen doesn't react as fast as it used to, just behaving differently. The unit is properly showing MPH unit and it is set that way in the settings menu of the tach cluster BUT when setting cruise-control while driving, the cruise speed shows as Kph, after cruise is set, it returns to show Mph traveling speed. Increasing or decreasing cruise speed shows as kph: confusing! It did not behave this way before installation of the android head unit system.

Possible plans to resolve:

As far as chimes, blinker ticks, and notification noises, the unit's speaker it came with only produces cornering blinker noises which are slow to react and sound absolutely silly. I am guessing this is part of the MCU firmware and likely tough to modify and customize back to working like the factory sounds, might be worth hitting up xda to see if people there have an idea. This device here (link) seems to do the trick for others. I am hoping that I can just parallel connect the CAN-bus wires that this module reads from the quad-lock connector into the harness that is already there and ignore/remove the rest of the un-needed wires of the axcess adapter and have my noises back. Can I parallel connect that unit to the CAN high/low wires WITH the stereo?

To get the tach gauge cluster working as factory again, I am at a bit of a loss of knowing how it works in the first place. The video posted above of the guy that installed a double-din unit in an 07 Mini, the big speedo separated from the stereo unit proved that the stereo has no responsibility of the gauges functionality. The speedo/info lights/gas gauge is a separate component that is powered by and communicating with the main steering column tach cluster via the 6 pin connector. When this connector is disconnected, the steering column tach gauge does not power up at all. So, that means that something inside the android head unit was reverse engineered to keep the tach cluster happy. I'm wondering if removing the circuit board out of the factory speedometer unit, hiding it away inside the dash and going about things that way will provide true factory function and performance of the tachometer cluster.

Silly extras: For this unit, the "factory menu" is accessed via password m123456 if that wasn't already mentioned previously. ​​​​​​

While I was in the factory menu, I adjusted FM receiver volume down a bit to match the system software audio and auxiliary input audio, etc. After saving and rebooting, reverse camera input switching started working via Can-bus. I did not hook up the reverse-sense 12v input wire at all. I ran an RCA video signal wire down the side of the car for reverse camera installation later.

Overall I really am happy with this unit and understand that I can do some software tweaking to make it the way I like but I would love for the other "little things" to work as it did factory as close as I can.

 

I tried this. See my previous comment about which of the connectors on the chime module harness to use No reason why it shouldn't work. I will try again in the next month or so when I have some free time.