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After market Android 4.4.4 Quad Core complete install. Vids and Pics and txt
Chinese Android Stereo Upgrade for W211 E class.
(Can be used for other models around the same era as the W211)
Table of contents:
explaining the concept of upgrading the system
Head unit info
Parts required for installation
Installation info
The COMAND Units in the W211 are ancient now and do not offer much digital essence in the car. (it’s not 2002 anymore) also Navigation portion are beginning to show their age, From DVD drives beginning to fail to CD stacker door motors failing.
The head unit comes with: 1x Canbus box (deals with steering wheel communications with the car, as well as switching of and on the unit and finally lets the unit go into reverse camera mode when you place the shifter in R)
GPS modem with 3M cable (enough to run it under the kick panel and stick it on the passenger side of the windshield.
8GB Micro SD card with IGO MAPS for your country (brilliant OFFLINE navigation software)
1x External microphone, (the unit has a built in mic, but should you want to run a second one closer to you, you can)
**note, no head unit can work well with the built in Optical Fiber amp. Once you go after market, you need to be prepared to remove the optical fiber amp and either run another amp OR power all your speakers from the new head unit**
Extras that you must order (Ask the seller for them)
IF your car has Harman Kardon logic 7 Stereo (COMAND NTG1), OR if you have amp in the boot and insert your navigation CD in the boot
*6M long speaker / power cable (AkA amplifier Bypass cable) (this will bypass your original amplifier, and provide power to the new head unit and power the amplifier for your radio antenna). **note this cable will not power the subwoofer, nor the front centre speaker, nor the 2 parcel shelf speakers, just the 4 door speakers and the small tweeters**
*6M long Antenna cable (because the factory amp had the antenna connected to it, now you must run this connection to the new unit at the front).
in order to remove the stock AMP, you need to remove the cradle for the GPS DVD Player and undo the fuse box mounts. (This will give you bit more room to work with in order to remove the amp.
The amp is held in by 3 10mm bolts, 2 on the side and one between the quarter panel and boot cavity.
Completely unplug the old amp and connect the corresponding plugs from the 6m cables.
Those extras are all plug and play and will have the unit fully operating in your car. END
EXTRAS (options for the unit you can buy)
DVR camera (front facing USB camera that allows you to record as you drive)
3G USB Modem (place a sim card in it and have internet all the time)
Digital / HD TV (for watching digital / HD TV)
OBD2 Bluetooth module (allows the view of car diagnostics /info on the head unit via (app Torque)
Reverse Camera (need I explain?) END
This section here is for the audiophiles / radio heads
The HK stereo has 12 speakers all up.
4 Door speakers, 6.5”
4 Door tweeters 1.5” (They are automatically powered by the 6.5”on the same door)
1 Front centre speaker 4” maybe less?
2 Rear parcel shelf speakers 4”
1 Dual voice coil subwoofer 10”
Running the unit as is (with just the 6m amp bypass cable) will give you adequate sound levels, however because the car had Harman Kardon stereo in it, the speakers require more juice to operate efficiently and give that nice sound you previously had with the original amp, ALSO, there are a few speakers still not being powered by the head unit. Why? Because the unit simply cannot supply that much power, the old AMP’s IC alone was 10 times the size of the new units combined amp + processor IC. (Integrated Circuit)
To resolve this, we need to install a new amp(s) in the boot:
At this point, you have 2 options.
#1 Run 2 AMPS, one for the Subwoofer (mono block AMP), and one for the remaining 7 speakers in the car. (Surround sound)
#2 Run one high powered 4 channel AMP (200+WATTS per channel) and run 2 channels to the subwoofer, 1 channel to power all LEFT speakers of the car and 1 channel to power all RIGHT speakers of the car. (Stereo sound)
**note, unless you’ll be watching DVD movies on your new head unit, you won’t otherwise be experiencing any surround sound from the MP3’s you download / music you stream on Bluetooth, because they are all based on 2 channel Stereo output**
From this point I will be showing / explaining my setup which is based on option #2 as mentioned above.
* AMP: 4 channel, 4x300W = 1200W TOTAL. ~600WRMS
* 2x High to low converters (converting all 4 channels from the unit to RCA outputs)
* 1x Splitter box, (provides signal for tweeters and mid-range speakers) will be used for front centre and rear parcel shelf speakers.
* 1X automotive Amp fuse
* Appropriate gauge wires for powering the AMP etc.
LETS BEGIN:
Since the battery is in the boot, powering the amp will be easy.
Make sure you use an inline fuse for the + and DO NOT connect the ground to the battery! Follow the lead from the negative terminal and you will see a black box! That box filters out electrical noise, so make sure you connect the ground for the amp on the part of the black box that is connected to the body.
If you look at the 6M speaker / power cable. You will see a black 4 pin plug with thick RED, BROWN and a thin blue wire. (That blue wire is a positive remote trigger for the antenna amp. Splice into that to trigger the new amplifier into powering on. OR run a 5m long trigger cable from the new head unit as it has an amp trigger output.
Connect all 4 channels to the Converters so you have 4 RCA outputs in total, 2 for the FRONT, and 2 for the REAR. (Make sure you adjust the gain on the converters) (Don’t set them too high or else you will experience signal clipping which sounds like distortion)
Connect them to the AMP accordingly.
Connect the 2 REAR outputs of your AMP to the 2 inputs of your subwoofer (adjust the amp accordingly (set it to Low pass filter and set the Hz limit at 80-100Hz) anything higher and this will cause the subwoofer to play vocals (BIG no no!)
Connect the 2 FRONT outputs to the corresponding side of the car.
Front right channel connected to all the right speakers of the car (excluding the parcel shelf and front centre).
Front LEFT channel connected to all the LEFT speakers of the car.
from the LEFT output, run a new wire to the splitter box, and from the splitter box distribute the power to the FRONT centre speaker on the (Tweeter output) and REAR parcel shelf speakers on the (woofer output). (FYI, woofer on the splitter box just means mid range/ vocals and not thumping bass)
the reason why I set the front centre speaker to tweeter and not woofer is because I began to hear it crackling. And I have a feeling it’s smaller than the back 2.
That’s it!,
Set the gain and bass on the subwoofer high on the amp. Then go on the head unit and adjust the FADE effect so you have most of the sound FRONT bias, this means the sub won’t be as loud. If you wish to increase the sub level, change the FADE so it’s more REAR bias.
Extras#2 this is if you wish to retain your factory GPS module. This will result in a cleaner looking interior as you won’t have an ugly black GPS antenna stuck to your front windshield.
You need the following 3 cables to make the appropriate cable which will run from the boot to the new head unit. It’s self-explanatory as the plugs require simple common scenes.
This one connects to the original GPS connector in the boot and connects to the 5m long cable http://www.ebay.com/itm/291315614952?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&rmvSB=true
Something like this would be good at driving the HK speakers and sub. **note this example is just for the sake of power level and specs so you get an idea of what to shop for**
I never heard of that brand but you guys in USA seem to have ALLOT of other brands haha.
If you find something with similar specs but by a from branded breed then jump all over it. cheap powerfull amps is the last thing you want to invest money in.
I'm sure this one will be good as they have to meet standards and all the power rating is claimed in RMS .
I was talking non RMS in the thread, so really with the above AMP you just double that and now you find yourself close to the level of power i was recommending in the thread.
5 Channel Alpine amp. not as powerfull but should get you moving and this will allow you to retain Surround sound.
How is the sound quality now? Is it possible to keep the Sirius/XM with this upgrade?
Sound quality is spot on, having an amp really brings this unit to life with the HK speakers.
You have a 10 channel equalizer so you can fine tune your sound system to your liking. Power amp also provides you with another 12 channels so you can do even more fine tuning.
To honest i am still trying to find my happy medium with how much to crank up the stock sub and how much bass to push through the door speakers.
After all we are playing MP3's and each song is different. (HK system has a DSP which normalizes all the audio and then amplifies it. so you don't find yourself adjusting BASS or Treble per song as much.
But so far i have had it loud enough for me to not hear anything around me and its sounding very nice and crisp. if i want more bass i just crank fade more to the back as atm when you hear music in the car its 70% speakers and 30% subwoofer
As for satellite radio etc. our cars don't come equipped with those, so i'm not sure. however having internet connection now, i am sure you can stream some? =)
the other night i was driving around streaming Music one ( i believe its an american online dance station)
- unit supports 3g wi-fi usb stick, or just 3g speeds via it's wi-fi receptor? I have a 4G phone plan with unlimited data, and would tether to the unit, would 4g speeds be recognizable?
- I would love to see more videos, specifically using Waze/Google Maps via your wi-fi tether.
- I've read with some units, storage capacity is an issue and that the SD card slot is for media files only. Is this true with this one?
- When connected to wi-fi, are you allowed to download new apps via the Google Play store?
- I know you went ahead with a custom 4.4.4 ROM, are there any customization limitations with it? Using Nova Launcher like you are is a huge plus, does the ROM limit you at all? Custom icons, etc?
Thank you for all your efforts here, like I've said before, this is a breath of fresh air for the platform. Videos!!
- unit supports 3g wi-fi usb stick, or just 3g speeds via it's wi-fi receptor? I have a 4G phone plan with unlimited data, and would tether to the unit, would 4g speeds be recognizable?
- I would love to see more videos, specifically using Waze/Google Maps via your wi-fi tether.
- I've read with some units, storage capacity is an issue and that the SD card slot is for media files only. Is this true with this one?
- When connected to wi-fi, are you allowed to download new apps via the Google Play store?
- I know you went ahead with a custom 4.4.4 ROM, are there any customization limitations with it? Using Nova Launcher like you are is a huge plus, does the ROM limit you at all? Custom icons, etc?
Thank you for all your efforts here, like I've said before, this is a breath of fresh air for the platform. Videos!!
das eighty,
*I have a 4G modem here and the unit didn't recognize it with the original ROM. however i never tried it with this new ROM.
*As for tethering. the unit has built in Wifi N, and i believe the adapter is 150mbps, so roughly a transfer speed of 15MB/sec so with tethering 4G you should be able to utilize a good portion of its speed via tethering to the unit.
*I will try and get some navigation videos for you, however i am still waiting for the 5m long GPS cable to arrive first. slow Chinese post when i get the cable i will make an IGO maps as well as google maps demo. sorry i don't use waze.
*the units installation partition for applications is increased to 2GB with the ROM I talked about in the video. initially it was 1GB and the unit has a TOTAL of 16GB memory
*You can install the applications on either the memory card or the built in memory if you wish because the ROM has been rooted (jail breaked)
*When connected via Wifi or 3G modem its still classed as "internet connection" so all internet applications will work. i.e Play store, Spotify, Youtube, Facebook, etc etc
*With the STOCK ROM, i did not find any customizing limitation, just the tweaks and advanced user controls are limited / hidden and anything that changes the behavior of the unit. You should be able to get the UI looking as custom as you like with the stock ROM.
P.S wow i would love to have unlimited data 4G
I will try and put up more videos, just request and you shall receive
i got it from the supplier of the head unit, i believe he charged me $15USD.
As mentioned in my first post. you need to speak with the supplier and inform them that your stereo requires a 6M cable for radio reception. save the photo of the antenna picture i have above and attach it to them with the message.
IF you buy the unit from the link i mentioned above , the seller should know that you need it. make sure you tell him you spoke to Michael from Entity Electronics.
Great news. my items have arrived.
Only waiting for 2nd order for GPS extension cable.
Also considering a microphone extension to use Merc build in microphone (where that maybe lol).
That's cool congrats I'm jealous! Of the 9 items I ordered, one arrived today, and the rest are either "awaiting delivery" or "awaiting shipment" status.
Tubaprde, sometimes they are slack and forget to change the status to shipped and tracking number. i believe mine arrived and it was still not declared as "shipped"
!!!!
MAKE SURE NOT TO CONFIRM SHIPMENT UNTIL YOU ARE 100% satisfied with the product. Purchase protection will end the second you declare goods are received etc.
If you are running out of time , request to extend the purchase protection at least 5 days prior to it ending. !!!!!!
Hi,
Tonight is not the night, but tomorrow is the day when I install the new HU in my c219.
HU,
Reverse cam,
Dash cam,
External Microphone,
New GPS antenna,
FM Antenna cable,
Power/speaker cable,
Bluetooth ODBII need to see if it draws current when not in use.
What I leave until another day (when I get the remaining cable):
Hook up OEM mic in cabin and remove extra mic
Hook up Car GPS antenna instead of after market GPS antenna.
Also wonder if I can use the existing Fakra cables for anything (OEM Mic?)
Maybe much later:
Add better Amp
Add sub woofer
Wonder of TPMS works.
Headrest screens (too cheesy?)
James Bond, eat your heart out LOL.
Will take pics and a few videos.
My plan for tomorrow:
Hook up everything directly in boot first to make sure all works.
Lay cables and install reverse cam, mic and dash cam, GPS Antenna
Install HU
After a few days, get better firmware on it. Just love Android, easy to get some after market version installed hehe.
08-05-2015, 04:42 PM
After market Android 4.4.4 Quad Core complete install. Vids and Pics and txt
when i get the cable i will make an IGO maps as well as google maps demo. sorry i don't use waze. 
