Hi All,

I thought some of you might be interested in fitting an Android double din sound system to your B5.

Most of you probably already have a symphony double din system in your B5's, but I didn't. Before I could even think of doing this, I had to convert my single din center console to a double din center console. Basically, I had to replace the following:

- Center Console
- Radio Cage
- Cage to hold radio cage, ash tray and climate control
- Ash Tray for double din console with wood trip cover
- Climate control
- Gearshift surround wood trim

It wasn't a pretty sight, but I had to strip the center arm rest with handbrake console out, then remove the radio, then the climate control and then unscrew my old ash tray (in that order). Then I could remove the old center console.

After all was said and done, the rest was pretty easy. I'd bought a double din DVD android sound system on a website called AliExpress.com - Online Shopping for Electronics, Fashion, Home & Garden, Toys & Sports, Automobiles from China. - they are based in China, but use DHL to get the unit to you and it only takes 3 days. use China post or mail and you will wait more than two months - trust me, China's mail system is more corrupt than Africa!

To fit the radio, I first had to buy the following on eBay;
- antenna adaptor for aftermarket radio (for boosted antenna)
- adaptor plug for non-bose system
- Metra dash kit to fit the radio in the stock radio cage with dash surround

I connected the adaptor plug's wires to the new Android's wires (all the wires are labelled properly, so you can't go wrong). After doing some research for my system, I found I had amplified speakers at the rear, so I had to wire the rear wires up to the RCA plugs that come from the radio. The fronts speakers just wired up as per normal to the center plug.

I then fitted a backup camera, hooked the live wire to the backup light on the right hand side (driver's side for me), and ran the video cable through the trunk, via the rear seat and under the sill cover to under the dash where my foot pedals where and zip tied the cable to mounting points to stay out of the way.

Then I stuck the GPS antenna (supplied with my radio) on the center of my dash and ran it's cable round the far front of the dash and in by the fuse panel to join the video cable under the dash by the foot pedals to the center console and plugged it into the radio (I'd suggest plugging the radio and GPS and camera in before mounting everything to ensure everything works).

And then all I had to do was push the Metra kit to which my radio was already attached into the dash and when I heard it clip in, it was the best moment of my life - my DVD system was finally in.

These radios are excellent, because there are no laws about driving and watching DVD's, so you can go into the sub menu and set it to play DVD's even though the e-brake isn't engaged. Personally, I din't care for that and hooked my e-brake wire up to the "ground" black wires from the radio to the adaptor plug which connected to my car's OE wiring harness.

I was happy not to have to cut any wires because I didn't want to spoil my car's original wiring.

What I wanted from my replacement system was the following:
- Backup Camera
- MP3 music playback via mini SD card
- Navigation
- DVD playback
- Bluetooth to connect to my phone

The backup camera works a treat and each time I put the car in R, the camera automatically comes on (whether the headunit is on or not).

MP3 music is great. I have all my music on a 32gig mini sd card slotted into the headunit and it plays faultlessly.

Navigation works 100% - however, the unit comes with IGO Gps, and it didn't have maps for South Africa where I live, so I downloaded and bought maps for Sygic which is actually the best SatNav app you'll find on Google Play store because it uses the latest Tom Tom maps with traffic reports and the app is actually designed for car navigation and not phone navigation.

DVD works great too, the sound plays in 5.1 surround, even though I only have 6 speakers in my car, the sound blasts all around the car - picture quality is brilliant too and the menu lets you choose everything a DVD player would. You can't play BluRay on it though.

Bluetooth works well - in fact, the bluetooth can be used for streaming music from your android phone (be it an iPod or Samsung) directly to the unit. Or you can plug the mini USB cable and connect your phone to the unit to transfer pictures etc - my unit came with a WiFI dongle, which allows me to connect to my home WiFI while in the garage and update all my apps - or you can teather your phone as a Wifi hotspot and have the headunit use your phones 4G connection while your passenger surfs the web or Play Store or plays a game. The Bluetooth must be switched on the headunit to communicate with your phone as a wifi hotspot.

In addition, I have a 3G dongle in the glove box as well to connect a dongle if I want. I didn't connect my iPhone cable because I don't have an iPod - my phone is a 6 inch Android phone I bought on Aliexpress for real cheap and it works better than an iPhone.

Drop me a line if you want any more info on the Android system - but I can honestly say it's awesome. I did a YouTube video on it
cheers,

 

What radio model is it? Looks Amazing! well done

 

Nice work Hilton! Very nice detail, you don't always see that on all the mods that get posted.

 

Nice work and nice write up!

Weill done.

 

Thanks Guys,

@ smittylube - I'm really not sure what make of radio it is. When you shop on Aliexpress.com, you will notice that most of their products don't have brand names. I think most of the electronic products are made by the same suppliers using similar components.

You will also notice several DVD Android players that look like mine, but look closer and you will see the buttons vary with their functions and names.

The buttons name doesn't really matter though, because you can customize the buttons to do whatever you want them to

My unit is a 16 gig ROM with 2gig RAM. And it's pretty fast as you can see from the video.

If you have a later model Audi, they even sell Android DVD players for the latest A5's, A4's and A3's and even Q7's. The screen gets replaced and the unit itself is separate which gets installed in the glove box.

Glad you guys are enjoying this - I'd love to see more guys fitting these to their B5's because it really changes the whole feel of the car bringing it right up to date with technology at a fraction of the cost of an OEM system that can't do half the stuff this unit can do.

I have pictures of my car just after installing my double din center console and it was not pretty with the guts hanging out Unfortunately I've used up all my picture space on the site and can't upload any more. Thanks again for the nice words

 

I took a quick look on aliexpress but couldn't find the exact one you got, maybe I was looking in the wrong place but it seemed like there weren't any regular double din units, just model-specific stuff. They looked pretty nice though, they're finally coming out with units that have decent specs instead of the 700mhz single core processor with 256mb of RAM that I've seen before. I might just grab one of these instead of building my own Android-based setup now that they're actually decent.

 

I don't mean to hijack but I recently did a similar conversion.

 

@ OldAudiA4B5 - you got a nice setup there in your car. Follow this link and you're bound to find mine amongst these Shop double din android dvd online - Buy double din android dvd for unbeatable low prices on AliExpress.com

There are some nicer larger screen units now for sale (up to 7"). I was really tempted to buy one, but then when I think of what I have and it doesn't give me any hassles, why try fix something that ain't broke

 

Here's my Double din setup in my 01 A4 B5

 

Thanks!