10.2" Horizontal display Android 4.4.2 touch screen radio

[Roh92cp]

I think this message was for me.

Last night I removed the stock dash panel and head unit. I had to get a Torx 15 driver today in order to remove the circuit board. I will attempt to un-solder the knobs before attaching it to the new panel. I hope to have the Seicane unit installed by the end of the week.

I will definitely post information about my experience with this unit. Like most people I have a lot of other things going on and will work on the install when I get time. Thanks to Shawn for leading the way and showing it in his videos. I think the easiest thing will be plugging in all the harnesses and then turning on the power.

Looking forward to your progress. Just know if the volume and tuner knobs won't desolder you can clip the contact, mine works fine that way.

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[jpr1957]

I'm going to use a solder wick to remove the solder. It's been many years since I've done that but it works well. Here's a video showing the process:

[ame]

I found that dipping the end of the wick in a paste flux really helps to get the solder flowing into the wick.

I want to have the option of being able to put the knobs back on if I have to for whatever reason.

 

[Eleanor15]

OK then, but I'm not sure what that stands for anyway:shrug:

It's the version of the operating system. Just like with apple software version 10.3 or whatever it is now

 

[Roh92cp]

I'm going to use a solder wick to remove the solder. It's been many years since I've done that but it works well. Here's a video showing the process:



I found that dipping the end of the wick in a paste flux really helps to get the solder flowing into the wick.

I want to have the option of being able to put the knobs back on if I have to for whatever reason.

Any progress on your instal?

 

[PatrickHenninger]

Can any of you who buy this unit, contact the seller and ask how to put your unit into recovery mode? I want to know if they will tell you.

 

[Roh92cp]

Can any of you who buy this unit, contact the seller and ask how to put your unit into recovery mode? I want to know if they will tell you.

Patrick at this point for me that would be problematic as I'm still trying to get them to answer some basic help on poor quality blue tooth connection and lack of voice controls. They have been very slow to respond and I fear if I asked that they would think I did something wrong and may confuse my progress I'm trying to make.

 

[PatrickHenninger]

Patrick at this point for me that would be problematic as I'm still trying to get them to answer some basic help on poor quality blue tooth connection and lack of voice controls. They have been very slow to respond and I fear if I asked that they would think I did something wrong and may confuse my progress I'm trying to make.

That makes sense. Is your BT issue a sound quality thing, or is it just poor connection? As for voice controls, I think the only option would be to install "OK Google" and have an icon on your main screen.

 

[Roh92cp]

That makes sense. Is your BT issue a sound quality thing, or is it just poor connection? As for voice controls, I think the only option would be to install "OK Google" and have an icon on your main screen.

Thanks Patrick and I'm sorry I can't help you with that becuase you have help before, I apologize. As far as the blue tooth sound quality I'm not sure if it's connection or sound quality problem, I guess both. The sound has some drop out and stumbles often.

As far as OK Google what Would it control, would it be anything connected to the Andriod devise like my iPhone to make phone calls?

 

[PatrickHenninger]

Thanks Patrick and I'm sorry I can't help you with that becuase you have help before, I apologize. As far as the blue tooth sound quality I'm not sure if it's connection or sound quality problem, I guess both. The sound has some drop out and stumbles often.

As far as OK Google what does that do?

The BT issues could be one of the following issues:

1. Low Quality or possibly damaged BT chip in the unit
2. Distance from connected device too far
3. 3rd device causing interference.

OK Google is an app in the Play Store that connects everything to a voice command. You can have it constantly monitoring, and if you say, "Okay, Google." it will bring up the prompt, then you issue a command. "Call Bob Smith" or "What is the nearest Gas Station?" or even "Text Patrick" then it will prompt, "What do you want to say?" and you say, "You're the best." and it will do it/search it/find it, etc...

To eliminate some troubleshooting steps with your BT, first- try a different app. If the quality sucks in calls, try Spotify/Pandora or other streaming audio. If it's unchanged, try using someone else's phone, and if it still sucks, then chances are, the issue is the BT chip in the unit.

 

[jpr1957]

Any progress on your instal?

I only had an hour and a half today to work on removing the first volume/tune controls off the circuit board. I had to use a Weller 140w soldering gun to get enough heat through the soldering wick. The wick absorbs a very small amount before I have to cut the end of it off and try again. It is slow. The solder is on both sides of the board. I'm exploring the internet and You Tube for other devices and techniques to speed it up.

After I get the knobs off, I just need to attach the board to the back of the panel and install it in the car. Like you, I only got three 2.5mm x 4mm screws to attach the board to the brass stand offs. I did have one in my stock of small screws from working on imported HO model railroad locomotive models. The picture on the Seicane web site of the package contents shows only three screws. I'm going to put a fourth one in if I can.

 

[Roh92cp]

I only had an hour and a half today to work on removing the first volume/tune controls off the circuit board. I had to use a Weller 140w soldering gun to get enough heat through the soldering wick. The wick absorbs a very small amount before I have to cut the end of it off and try again. It is slow. The solder is on both sides of the board. I'm exploring the internet and You Tube for other devices and techniques to speed it up.

After I get the knobs off, I just need to attach the board to the back of the panel and install it in the car. Like you, I only got three 2.5mm x 4mm screws to attach the board to the brass stand offs. I did have one in my stock of small screws from working on imported HO model railroad locomotive models. The picture on the Seicane web site of the package contents shows only three screws. I'm going to put a fourth one in if I can.

You up and running yet? I'm curious to see if your voice command controls from the steering wheel work.

 

[jpr1957]

You up and running yet? I'm curious to see if your voice command controls from the steering wheel work.

I should have it installed and running by tomorrow evening. I will then see how everything works.

I'm hoping the Bluetooth works without problems. I have a Samsung J3 phone which runs the Android 6.0 Marshmallow. I want to be streaming SiriusXM internet radio most of the time.

I will try the voice commands for you but I have a hard time making myself talk to my car or phone. It feels kind unnatural to talk to a machine.

 

[Roh92cp]

Looking forward to your experience and thoughts with it. Yeah voice commands are kinda clunky at times, but it's nice to have everything working as advertised. I could live without it since I've been using OK google for voice control. The only problem is I can't get OK google to work from anyscreen it just doesn't show up as an option in setting?

 

[Roh92cp]

I should have it installed and running by tomorrow evening. I will then see how everything works.

I'm hoping the Bluetooth works without problems. I have a Samsung J3 phone which runs the Android 6.0 Marshmallow. I want to be streaming SiriusXM internet radio most of the time.

I will try the voice commands for you but I have a hard time making myself talk to my car or phone. It feels kind unnatural to talk to a machine.

How did your instal go, any snags?

 

[jpr1957]

How did your instal go, any snags?

I got it installed late last night. I took some extra time to wrap all the wire bundles in plastic split loom tubing. There are some sharp metal edges on the dash support brackets and I didn't want to risk cutting a wire and having a short circuit. There are a lot of wires and jacks which was driving me crazy. Figuring out where to stuff them took some time as well.

I also taped the ends of the RCA jacks for the same reason. I have access to plastic thread protectors and will eventually put those on the RCA jacks. I forgot to get some before I did the install. I don't like using tape. It gets gooey after awhile.

The unit started right up after I re-connected the battery. Everything I tried seems work fine. I didn't have time to do much with the phone such as voice commands from the steering wheel controls. The volume, skip and mode buttons on the steering wheel work great. The Mode button cycles through just about everything.

Bluetoothing music from my Samsung J3 Android 6.0 phone works perfectly.

I played a couple DVD's. Anything in the 16:9 format looks like it should. A super wide screen gets compressed horizontally. A 4:3 format gets stretched horizontally. I couldn't find any settings to change the screen aspect ratio. Having a DVD player in the Seicane unit was a big reason I bought it. I don't like to play DVDs when I'm driving but it is a nice option to have when parked.

I don't think I've played a music CD in any of my vehicles since 2009 so I probably won't play them in this car. I installed digital media players in those and ripped my CDs to MP3 or WMA. Back then I found that a 2gb USB will hold 32 hours of MP3 music. I was so glad not have to lug around a bunch of discs when all I needed was a little thumb drive.

I ran the two long USB cables into the glove box. I have done this on other installs. It works great. I played MP3 music files off one. The player works well. Off the other cable, I played You Tube videos that I downloaded and put on a USB drive. They look great! Along with the two factory USB outlets we now have four.

When I was playing MP3 music I opened up the sound equalizer. When I selected the Rock setting the stock speakers came alive! A lot of bass and some punch to the kick drum. I think it is kind of amazing. The stock radio/CD player didn't sound this good. The Jazz setting is even stronger. You can manually adjust the equalizer but I kind of like the presets for now.

After I enter the key for my home wi-fi I will be able to surf the internet and download apps in the garage.

I couldn't get the GPS to work because the car is still in the garage on the lift that I used to install the fog light kit. The fog lights work awesome as well.

I think I found a design flaw in these Mustangs. When I was unhooking the battery cables I laid a nut driver down between the battery and the fender. There is an opening there and it rolled inside the fender. I could hear it fall down to the bottom rear corner of the fender. I went under the car and pulled back the inner fender where it meets the bottom side trim. The nut driver is inside sill that runs along the bottom of the body! I'm going to have to loosen the inner fender to get it out. I might have to remove the front wheel. Grrrrr! I want to get that out before I move the car outside and drive it to try the GPS. When I installed a Kenwood stereo in my F150 the GPS didn't work in the garage either.

Overall, I'm liking this Secaine unit. It looks awesome in the car. It makes me laugh every time I look at it. I love that big screen. I think it sounds great through the stock speakers. I can't wait to get it out on the road.

The one thing I don't like is that it displays the outside temperature in Celsius. I read there may not be way to change that. I couldn't find a way in the settings. That and not being able to adjust the DVD screen aspect ratio are my only two complaints so far. The backup camera works but it is zoomed in so I guess that makes three until I figure out how to un-zoom it. I think I read something about that somewhere.

I still have a lot of experimenting to do. Without an owner's manual we just have keep pushing buttons to find out what they do. I've been building my own PC computers for over 17 years and haven't broken one yet.

I've also been working on electronics occasionally for over 40 years and I must say that un-soldering those knobs was a pain. I'll be honest and say that the first one took about 3 hours! I'm very patient. I had never done this before.

There are two large slots that hold a lot of solder. I think the two tabs that go in these are for securing the control to the board. The two medium sized ones don't hold much solder but there is solder on both side of the board on all these connections and I had to keep flipping the board over to wick the solder away. The three tiny connections are the worst to get the solder out with the wick.

I removed the solder off the biggest lugs, then the medium and finally the smallest ones. When the controller is only held on by one small lug I rocked the controller carefully with heat on the joint to free it. There always seemed to be on little one that I had to do that with.

I used the solder pump that came with the unit on the second control and got it off the board in just over an hour. It really helped! I had never used one of those before. I had to look at some You Tube videos to see how it was used. It got about half of the solder out of the big lugs. It took all the solder out out of the two medium lugs and one of the little lugs. The rest I removed with the wick.

If I did another one I might be able to do if even faster but I'm not planning on doing another one. It would be way quicker to cut the controls off like you did but there is no going back. I'm sure a replacement board from Ford would cost hundreds of dollars. They could be found cheaper on eBay or an auto recycler.

I now have no plans on going back. I like the Seicane unit so maybe I should have cut the pins. If this doesn't work (out although I think it will) I would probably go with the Scosche or Metra kits and a Kenwood head unit even though I don't like the look of either of those at this point. I could put the controls back on the board and go with the TomTop 8-inch screen.

I really like being able to still have the factory HVAC controls. They look great in the Seicane dash panel. When I use them a window pops up on the screen showing what I'm doing. Again, this thing makes me smile.

I must now go and get that nut driver out of the frame of my Mustang.

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