Son would like to fit an Android compatible head unit to his 2004 Disco ES Premium with the higher spec Harman Kardon system.
I need some recommendations please and also some advice with regards to wiring the original amp and steering wheel controls, he's not bothered about using the cd multiplayer.
Many thanks.

A few months ago I fitted an an XTRONS DQS112L head unit with 10" screen Android operating system & Android Auto / Apple car play, Bluetooth, screen mirroring & reversing camera (camera was extra)
Definitely not as cheap as some Chinese units.
Cost just over £300 in 1 of their relatively frequent 20% off sale via their UK website. Register first & wait for the email offers to arrive !
Unit looks great & seems to work really well.

Its a single DIN unit, so fits into the standard radio slot after changing the metal cage.
Screen is fixed, but can be set at different heights & vertical angles to optimise viewing.
The 10" screen is slightly forward of the dash & partially in front of the centre vents - but not far enough to cause any problems with access or use of the vents.
Android Auto & screen mirroring are via wired connection to the phone which is a slight pain (Apple Carplay is allegedly wireless or wired)
Sound quality is great - even using all the standard D2 Hi Line speakers (& standard Lear Amplifier). Its more than loud enough as well !
You can add a separate USB connected dongle for DAB (or TV if you want) - which I might add now I know it all works well.
I've added a reversing camera too - with separate control switch so I can use it when I want.
Camera image is great (much better than my Range Rover !)

Biggest installation issue (manageable if you're OK with a soldering iron ) was creating a special adapter lead to connect from the Head Units RCA pre-Amp outputs to the Disco's standard ISO 8 pin speaker input connector. If you're willing to cut & solder the Head Unit or Discos wiring loom, this wouldn't have been needed.
I did initially try connecting the Head Units (full power) ISO 8 pin speaker connection directly to the cars ISO connector, but although it worked, the much higher input into the D2s amplifier meant the volume control had to be almost off to get the actual volume down to an acceptable level & much worse was a totally unacceptable "Hissing" sound at all volumes.

I have used My TomTom Go SatNav app from my Android phone via Android Auto & it looks good - although has some bast***dised functionality caused by Google limiting access to my favorite "My Places" (Google won't allow access to more than 5 favorite locations as you'll be too distracted )
Being a full Android based device you can add whatever Apps you like - NOT limited by Android Auto !

PS Should also have added that connecting up to the steering wheel remote controls was easy & has gained more extra functions such as quick access to phone or voice controls without needing to operate the Head Unit itself.

If anyone's interested I can provide more info.

Anaconda said:

Son would like to fit an Android compatible head unit to his 2004 Disco ES Premium with the higher spec Harman Kardon system.
I need some recommendations please and also some advice with regards to wiring the original amp and steering wheel controls, he's not bothered about using the cd multiplayer.
Many thanks.

Click to expand...

Slightly off the point, but does the old unit work? Including the CD player?
and would he be happy to take it all out without busting it and flog it to me?
I'm hoping it'll be a plug and play in my 2000 GS Disco, as neither of my aftermarket head units work properly at the mo!
I apologise for being so cheeky!

You don't know! If you don't ask

Kev

Stanleysteamer said:

Slightly off the point, but does the old unit work? Including the CD player?
and would he be happy to take it all out without busting it and flog it to me?
I'm hoping it'll be a plug and play in my 2000 GS Disco, as neither of my aftermarket head units work properly at the mo!
I apologise for being so cheeky!

Click to expand...

The head unit works, I don't think he has ever tried the cd player.
I would take a guess he will want to keep the old units but I will ask him.

Anaconda said:

The head unit works, I don't think he has ever tried the cd player.
I would take a guess he will want to keep the old units but I will ask him.

Click to expand...

Thanks very much.
I know it was a bit cheeky.
At the moment I can only retrofit a D1 unit, which plays brilliantly, although it isn't as sensitive for picking up radios stations, but the CD player that went with it (it came from an Anniversary model) went fubar.
Or else buy a completely new unit.
I like to keep it original as possible, which porbaly is why your son would want to hang on to the original!

Best of luck with it, both you and your son!

Stanleysteamer said:

Thanks very much.
I know it was a bit cheeky.
At the moment I can only retrofit a D1 unit, which plays brilliantly, although it isn't as sensitive for picking up radios stations, but the CD player that went with it (it came from an Anniversary model) went fubar.
Or else buy a completely new unit.
I like to keep it original as possible, which porbaly is why your son would want to hang on to the original!

Best of luck with it, both you and your son!

Click to expand...

Not cheeky at all
His D2 is completely stock, well not quite as previous owner had rear springs fitted.
I have read endless threads where it seems a bit of a nightmare getting the wiring to work out correctly.
It has the highline Becker head unit I do believe.

Most of the wiring is fairly straight forward - just making sure you match the correct wires up - "simples" .

The new head unit wiring is all clearly labelled, so you then have to get the wiring diagram for your car set-up (Harmon Kardon is slightly different to Lear I think) & work out the wires in the car loom for :
- switching the amplifier on,
- powering the aerial amplifiers
- connecting to the steering column volume switches
- Permanent Live &
- ignition controlled Live

The biggest issue is when people with the amplified Harmon Kardon or Lear set-ups by mistake connect the ISO plugs from the new head unit straight to the ISO sockets from the car & wonder why they get incredible amounts of speaker hissing & have to turn the volume right down.
This does not work properly because the Head unit amplified output is being fed via the ISO plugs into the car amplifier & is just to too loud & causes the background hiss at low volumes to be amplified.
To make things work correctly, you have to connect the head unit RCA (Phono) plug outputs (ie the output that isn't amplified) to the cars ISO inputs via a specially made adapter lead OR by cutting into either the car loom OR the head unit loom.
Unfortunately I never found a pre-made loom for this task on-line anywhere, so I made a customer adapter loom - but the extra plugs & wiring make fitting the radio back into the car quite hard (best suited to a hot day - lol).

I've now bought a "spare" head unit loom from XTRONS so that I can cut the RCA / Phono plugs off & solder the wires directly into some spare ISO sockets I have - removing the need for the extra RCA - ISO adapter lead I made. Leaving the car wiring still as factory.
If I have to take the radio out again (maybe to add a DAB radio module) I'll replace the standard head unit loom & "special adapter lead for the modified XTRONS lead - making it easier to re-fit.

I could have cut-up the originally suppled XTRONS lead, but it would make the unit very hard to sell if I ever wanted to get rid of it.

I found a copy of the circuit diagrams. The original head unit has satnav in it, looks a bit rudimentary.
Will have a look at it, see if it makes any sense to me.

H

Pawl said:

A few months ago I fitted an an XTRONS DQS112L head unit with 10" screen Android operating system & Android Auto / Apple car play, Bluetooth, screen mirroring & reversing camera (camera was extra)
Definitely not as cheap as some Chinese units.
Cost just over £300 in 1 of their relatively frequent 20% off sale via their UK website. Register first & wait for the email offers to arrive !
Unit looks great & seems to work really well.
View attachment 300878
Its a single DIN unit, so fits into the standard radio slot after changing the metal cage.
Screen is fixed, but can be set at different heights & vertical angles to optimise viewing.
The 10" screen is slightly forward of the dash & partially in front of the centre vents - but not far enough to cause any problems with access or use of the vents.
Android Auto & screen mirroring are via wired connection to the phone which is a slight pain (Apple Carplay is allegedly wireless or wired)
Sound quality is great - even using all the standard D2 Hi Line speakers (& standard Lear Amplifier). Its more than loud enough as well !
You can add a separate USB connected dongle for DAB (or TV if you want) - which I might add now I know it all works well.
I've added a reversing camera too - with separate control switch so I can use it when I want.
Camera image is great (much better than my Range Rover !)

Biggest installation issue (manageable if you're OK with a soldering iron ) was creating a special adapter lead to connect from the Head Units RCA pre-Amp outputs to the Disco's standard ISO 8 pin speaker input connector. If you're willing to cut & solder the Head Unit or Discos wiring loom, this wouldn't have been needed.
I did initially try connecting the Head Units (full power) ISO 8 pin speaker connection directly to the cars ISO connector, but although it worked, the much higher input into the D2s amplifier meant the volume control had to be almost off to get the actual volume down to an acceptable level & much worse was a totally unacceptable "Hissing" sound at all volumes.

I have used My TomTom Go SatNav app from my Android phone via Android Auto & it looks good - although has some bast***dised functionality caused by Google limiting access to my favorite "My Places" (Google won't allow access to more than 5 favorite locations as you'll be too distracted )
Being a full Android based device you can add whatever Apps you like - NOT limited by Android Auto !

PS Should also have added that connecting up to the steering wheel remote controls was easy & has gained more extra functions such as quick access to phone or voice controls without needing to operate the Head Unit itself.

If anyone's interested I can provide more info.

Click to expand...

I Pawl.

I have just fitted an Xtrons head unit and I have got all working apart from the steering controls.
If you could provide further info on how you did it that would be great.
Thanks.

Marc

Marc, the steering wheel control wires are in the grey big ISO plug on the D2. Pins 2 & 3.
I think all I did was try each of the 2 Xtrons steering wheel control cables, key 1 / no 3 and key 2 / no. 5 with each of the LR cables to see which way round worked.
It was then a matter of using the steering wheel control set up in the xtrons menu to set up the various functions - volume up and down, channel change etc etc.
All worked well !

Still haven't done this yet, although he has just bought a Pioneer unit yesterday.
The correct cables are, he tells me, available from InCarTec so should be plug and play.

Anaconda, when I looked there were no suitable aftermarket cables to connect the pre-amplifier aftermarket radio rca / phono output plugs to the d2s din plugs to the d2s amplifier inputs.
The din - din connectors are only suitable for a D2 base model without the separate amplifier.

Paul

Pawl said:

Anaconda, when I looked there were no suitable aftermarket cables to connect the pre-amplifier aftermarket radio rca / phono output plugs to the d2s din plugs to the d2s amplifier inputs.
The din - din connectors are only suitable for a D2 base model without the separate amplifier.

Paul

Click to expand...

That's what I thought but another D2 owner with exactly the same original system has fitted the same head unit with the cables from InCarTec and works perfectly, including the steering wheel controls.

Pawl said:

Most of the wiring is fairly straight forward - just making sure you match the correct wires up - "simples" .

The new head unit wiring is all clearly labelled, so you then have to get the wiring diagram for your car set-up (Harmon Kardon is slightly different to Lear I think) & work out the wires in the car loom for :
- switching the amplifier on,
- powering the aerial amplifiers
- connecting to the steering column volume switches
- Permanent Live &
- ignition controlled Live

The biggest issue is when people with the amplified Harmon Kardon or Lear set-ups by mistake connect the ISO plugs from the new head unit straight to the ISO sockets from the car & wonder why they get incredible amounts of speaker hissing & have to turn the volume right down.
This does not work properly because the Head unit amplified output is being fed via the ISO plugs into the car amplifier & is just to too loud & causes the background hiss at low volumes to be amplified.
To make things work correctly, you have to connect the head unit RCA (Phono) plug outputs (ie the output that isn't amplified) to the cars ISO inputs via a specially made adapter lead OR by cutting into either the car loom OR the head unit loom.
Unfortunately I never found a pre-made loom for this task on-line anywhere, so I made a customer adapter loom - but the extra plugs & wiring make fitting the radio back into the car quite hard (best suited to a hot day - lol).

I've now bought a "spare" head unit loom from XTRONS so that I can cut the RCA / Phono plugs off & solder the wires directly into some spare ISO sockets I have - removing the need for the extra RCA - ISO adapter lead I made. Leaving the car wiring still as factory.
If I have to take the radio out again (maybe to add a DAB radio module) I'll replace the standard head unit loom & "special adapter lead for the modified XTRONS lead - making it easier to re-fit.

I could have cut-up the originally suppled XTRONS lead, but it would make the unit very hard to sell if I ever wanted to get rid of it.

Click to expand...

Hi ya, bit of a thread revival going on from me. D2 with Philips HL audio set up, I tried this Kenwood HU & it all works great but as you say volume being amplified twice, it's LOUD but don't get any interference. From the pics could you tell me what I need to cut/splice & where to connect please (pin no's etc)? (don't want to cut the trucks loom) I have a spare loom for the Kenwood so can experiment.
Many thanks in advance.

I don't understand what you're asking ?
You've said you've got it working already and you've got all the wiring diagrams identifying the relevant connections on the D2 and the Kenwood.

Pawl said:

I don't understand what you're asking ?
You've said you've got it working already and you've got all the wiring diagrams identifying the relevant connections on the D2 and the Kenwood.

Click to expand...

Hi, perhaps I misread/understood when you said " the biggest issue is when people with the HK or Lear set-ups plug the iso connectors from the new HU's straight into the trucks loom & wonder why they get incredible volume" + the 'specially' made loom from the non amplified RCA's you mention. On mine the volume is loud (only 3 or 4 is ample). My questions are
1) what wire(s) do I cut on the HU's iso connector to stop HU's amplifier signal being sent to the Lear amp ?
2) once I've plugged an RCA lead in the HU's RCA outs & after cutting the RCA plugs off the others end (which is where I presume the 'special' lead bit comes in) which wire(s)/pins do I connect the other end of the said special lead into (as I'm not sure despite having the diagrams) ?
Hope that's as clear as mud .

Pawl said:

A few months ago I fitted an an XTRONS DQS112L head unit with 10" screen Android operating system & Android Auto / Apple car play, Bluetooth, screen mirroring & reversing camera (camera was extra)
Definitely not as cheap as some Chinese units.
Cost just over £300 in 1 of their relatively frequent 20% off sale via their UK website. Register first & wait for the email offers to arrive !
Unit looks great & seems to work really well.
View attachment 300878
Its a single DIN unit, so fits into the standard radio slot after changing the metal cage.
Screen is fixed, but can be set at different heights & vertical angles to optimise viewing.
The 10" screen is slightly forward of the dash & partially in front of the centre vents - but not far enough to cause any problems with access or use of the vents.
Android Auto & screen mirroring are via wired connection to the phone which is a slight pain (Apple Carplay is allegedly wireless or wired)
Sound quality is great - even using all the standard D2 Hi Line speakers (& standard Lear Amplifier). Its more than loud enough as well !
You can add a separate USB connected dongle for DAB (or TV if you want) - which I might add now I know it all works well.
I've added a reversing camera too - with separate control switch so I can use it when I want.
Camera image is great (much better than my Range Rover !)

Biggest installation issue (manageable if you're OK with a soldering iron ) was creating a special adapter lead to connect from the Head Units RCA pre-Amp outputs to the Disco's standard ISO 8 pin speaker input connector. If you're willing to cut & solder the Head Unit or Discos wiring loom, this wouldn't have been needed.
I did initially try connecting the Head Units (full power) ISO 8 pin speaker connection directly to the cars ISO connector, but although it worked, the much higher input into the D2s amplifier meant the volume control had to be almost off to get the actual volume down to an acceptable level & much worse was a totally unacceptable "Hissing" sound at all volumes.

I have used My TomTom Go SatNav app from my Android phone via Android Auto & it looks good - although has some bast***dised functionality caused by Google limiting access to my favorite "My Places" (Google won't allow access to more than 5 favorite locations as you'll be too distracted )
Being a full Android based device you can add whatever Apps you like - NOT limited by Android Auto !

PS Should also have added that connecting up to the steering wheel remote controls was easy & has gained more extra functions such as quick access to phone or voice controls without needing to operate the Head Unit itself.

If anyone's interested I can provide more info.

Click to expand...

This is a great review and one that helped my purchase my xtrons unit. My one issue though is I can't seem to get the steering wheel controls to work.
I have tested to make sure they are sending signals via the multimeter but when connecting up the wires it doesn't give me the option to store in the different functions.
Any help you can provide on this would be awesome.
Cheers.
Marc.

An update to my original post :
- DAB radio module
- RCA to ISO connection adapter
- Google Maps "Offline"
DAB Radio :
I've now added a DAB / DAB+ Dongle (aka USB stick) & associated windscreen aerial :
After I recently sorted a problem with the sound on the left hand side of the car being really low (caused by corrosion in 1 of the speaker wiring connectors) I was reminded how good the system sound quality is and decided it was worth trying the DAB module XTRONS sell - as there was another 20% discount offer on (XTRONS USBDAB001)

Installing the aerial was pretty easy after removing the driver side internal windscreen trim & scraping some paint off the inside of the windscreen surround metalwork (critical to get good earth connection). I then ran the cable down the inside of the pillar and under the dash & through to the head unit area.
(It could be fitted on the LHS, but would need to be installed upside down due to how the earth connection is positioned)
To couple up the DAB module I had to get to the wiring at the back of the Head Unit.
I'd forgotten how tight it was all wedged in due to lack of space behind it and that I had to remove the Heating Control Panel to manoeuvre the wiring and locate the DAB module. Sorted after a bit of effort.
Once the head unit was back in place I started the pre-installed "DAB-Z" App and the App appeared to start searching fr radio stations- but didn't shown any progress after a few minutes, so I updated the App via the Google Play Store App already on the Head Unit. After updating & re-starting the App, it asked a few self explanatory questions about set-up and started searching for radio stations again - this time with a "Progress Bar" that moved round as many stations were found (more than a hundred ). The App then gave the option to search for and download individual station logos .
The head unit was already connected to our house WiFi network while on the drive, so I'm not sure if that was required for the logo downloads or whether it would happen "Over The Air" anyway.
After another couple of minutes, I had a large list of stations - many of them showing almost max signal strength and providing great sound quality.

Driving around, the sound quality for stations with strong signal is good with only very minor oddities occasionaly, but stations with medium to poor signal strength are not great at all and "stutter" and break-up.
Once working OK, I swopped the module into other USB connectors and after the DAB-Z App re-started, it worked OK with each of the connections.
Overall, I'm impressed it works OK and adds a lot of radio station choice.
FM sound quality maybe very slightly inferior . However FM reception is better because its nowhere near as sensitive to obstructions such as buildings etc. (despite the BS about DAB / DAB+ both are actually digital - so no surprise they're not that different sound quality)
RCA to ISO cable adapter :
I mentioned in my original post I'd made a cable adapter to connect the Head Unit non amplified RCA (phono plug) outputs to the D2s ISO connector used connect to the cars standard amplifier (High Line or Harmon Kardan radios).
At the time I forgot to take a photo, but here's one now.


Google Maps "Off-line" :
This might be known by many of you, but a problem that's bugged me since I installed the Head Unit was that Google Maps would only show a map on the head unit if connected to my home WifI (not good for travelling - lol) or my mobile was connected via USB - which I'd often forget to do when starting off.
The solution is surprisingly simple & common to mobile phones. While connected to the internet, use Google Maps to identify an area of your map that you want to use "off-line" and then download it onto the Head Unit - which will then use it when there is no internet connection.
The "catch" is that the off-line map can be quite a large file (many hundred MB) and the Head Unit internet download speed on the drive wasn't great (18MB/s !).
The alternative to the above is to connect your phone and use Apple Carplay / Android Auto and your phones SatNav.