michaelgates

Please check out the review I did of the Dynavin Clone that I installed in my 2007 c280. I previously had a Pioneer avic-f90bt, I was satisfied with the audio quality but I wanted more of a stock look and feel for my car. On a scale of 1 to 10 this radio is a definite GO!

Pros:

1. Fast boot time
2. Video capabilities
3. Phone quality is excellent
4. Ability to watch TV (Though I don't know when I'm going to do that)
5. Cost is much lower than radios that do less.
6. Status menu information is restored

Cons:

1. Lost Satellite radio
2. Audio controls are not as granular as the pioneer (Bass, Treble, Balance, Fader) is all you get
3. Can't listen to Bluetooth while in Android mode
4. Android audio only comes out of the front speakers


Somethings you will need to do, or at least I did:

1. extend the constant voltage wire (yellow) in order to tuck it below the radio
2. You will need a y adapter for the sub-woofer (Male to 2 female) if you have a stereo wire running to your amp for your sub.
3. You will need a external microphone if you don't want to use the one on the radio. it is a 3.5 mm mini-jack.
4. If you can get a WiFi Dongle RTL8188EUS then you don't need to get the WiFi dongle from your vendor
5. The 3G dongle didn't work for me so save your self the money and just use tethering on your phone.


If i missed anything or you want to see something please let me know. When I get a replacement for my WiFi dongle I will post a review of the Internet.

ncmudbug

Thanks for the reviews. A couple of years ago there was a long thread on the Dynavin but nobody gave an in depth review. I think you mentioned on the first video the website where you bought it, but it might be good to post it on this thread in case anybody is interested (I have an AVIC X940BT so I won't be getting another radio).

michaelgates

The website I ordered the radio from is http://www.seicane.com don't pay for upgraded shipping as they just sent mine via DHL anyway.

C32owner

Hey Michael,

Fantastic review mate! thanks so much for that. I wish someone would do that for the latest Dynavin units!! May I ask why you chose the seicane over the Dynavin? was it purely a cost thing.
I see that the latest Dynavin offerings do not have the android verion available anymore and only the windows CE OS I think. I sux ***** that the android system will only play sound through front speakers, what a load of hogwash! MY main aim was to play satellite radio through some android apps on the android, eg. Pandora or whatever, there are so many, but this will only play through the front speakers. I suppose it is difficult for you to say as you have an amplified system, but replacing just the head unit, is there a boost in overall volume over the OEM unit? I few reviews have said that the sound quality is down quite badly over the OEM speck.
My other more biggest plus factor riht now, is the latest Dynavin offering supposedly supports our MOST system making it fully plug and play finally, and being able to keep the fibre optic loop.

VVF

Where did you get the info about MOST?
On dynavin website I only see an E- and CLS-class MOST-compatible unit, nothing for C-class.

C32owner

Ah shucks mate, quite right, I have the cls so just naturally assumed it was available across the range. My bad

VVF

Yeah, it's quite nasty...
Maybe we can write them and request MOST support for the C

C32owner

Never hurts trying.. As a matter of interest, I contacted a local supplier this side, he claims that you cannot get the MOST version for our cars anymore anyways, as they had issues... Not sure how true that is, but I have emailed Dynavin asking if they still have them or whats the story.. Also I see gone is the Android version, another thing he said no longer available..such a pity.. But am waiting for reply from Dynavin, both UK and China stockists.

michaelgates

Okay so here a couple of updates:

1. The sound quality is not down, the radio sounds quite good. The only complaint that I have with this radio is the controls of the sounds which only give you bass and treble Balance and fader. Because I have a aftermarket amp for my sub I just had to make some adjustments there and the radio sounds sweet!

2. I contacted www.seicane.com and they told me that if you turn the gps off, on the wince side then audio will play through all speakers on android side. I have not confirmed this yet as I'm away on a business trip and will not be home until Friday. I will report back then, but if this is true then it is probably just a setting that we can tweak somewhere to get the audio to play through all speakers.

3. The reason I went to www.seicane.com over dynavin is because I wanted a android version for the internet. As far a price there wasn't much difference. The way I figured it all this stuff is made in china anyway and dynavin probably designed the radio but then contracted a Chinese manufacture into making the unit. I went with http://www.seicane.com because they have a ton of http://www.youtube.com videos so I could judge the quality of their units.

4. I did order and new WiFi dongle and it arrived but since I'm not home I can't check it. They did tell me that if my new dongle works they will credit my paypal account. They have a good track record in this regard with me because when I contacted them about the product shipping via DHL even though I paid for ups they put the difference on my paypal account immediately.

5. They also gave me instructions on how to change the Logo when booting to get the Mercedes-Benz logo which I will attempt to put below:


1. Turn to AUX mode


2. Adjust volume to 2


3. Long press eject button


4. select the logo you want

C32owner

Wow Michael, that's a HUGE update for me thanks brother!! Having all sound coming through without GPS is way more important, so nice to know.. Keep them updates coming.. Subscribed! And yeah, Dynavin, have stopped the Android unit, so its only Seicane now for me... I want the android apps, for internet radio etc.. Forgot to ask.. I don't suppose this unit has the 3g sim card input, like Dynavin ? so don't need the wifi?

michaelgates

I bought the 3G modem but I was unable to get it to work so I just tethered to my cell phone via WiFi and save a few bucks every month.

C32owner

Thanks, there is a 12mins or so youtube video from an aussie bloke that also recently installed this unit into a W211 I think, and he complained of the same issue of only front speakers when in android mode, so if you don't mind updating the turning off GPS trick to see if that works for us, when you get back after your trip today. Also he complained about during the silence between tracks he can hear hissing and shows it to us, do you suffer that with your unit? or is his wiring not doe proper and needs a noise attenuator or something? thanks mate. I will see if I can find the video and post it.

Here you go Quite a few negatives ? Ok the video is Dynavin with MOST, which is now, but I believe no longer available. But I guess internals are the same

michaelgates

Update 2:

I got my new WiFi module and installed it and now the internet works again. I did have a really long extension wire (5ft) on the back of my radio and I took that out of the mix and just connected my USB hub to radio's USB and now everything works well. This might have been causing my issues with the 3G modem as well. So I can confirm that RTL8188CUS chipsets work with this android radio.


I can confirm that if you turn off the GPS on the radio side, all the speakers on the Android side will work. And as far as I can tell GPS still works too. I have not had the opportunity to try it out yet. I will use it later on today and report back. The android side of the radio has priority over the WinCE side so if audio on the Android side is being played it will mute the Windows CE side of the house.

You can change the boot logo by using the instructions above and that works great too.

So the only negatives I have is that I can't listen to Bluetooth while on the Andriod side of the radio. The screen is really hard to see in direct sun light but my pioneer was not better in this department. Hell what LCD isn't hard to see in direct sunlight. Probably nothing that a little tinted windows can't fix.

C32owner

Hey thanks again for feeding us info. I just got non idea how a gps signal just shuts down the rear speakers outputs... So weird but anyway at least there's a fix for all the sound on Android... I think the gps giving your position after selecting the gps off is from your wifi location and that's where it appears as if your gps is still working, but I doubt it.. Think it's your wifi signal location that it's getting a fix on.

Yeah lcd does suck ***** for sunlight. Main thing is the sun doesn't affect the music output haha.
I take it you don't experience the hiss noise from the video I posted earlier during song changes or quiet spots. Glad your wifi is now working. On a side note, I think something is wrong with the bluetooth setup. On the Android side the bluetooth has to work surely!

michaelgates

Thanks,

Could be the WiFi but I doubt it. As far as I know, WiFi will help get a GPS lock faster but will not help you navigate. I did take a trip and the GPS did work. I believe the GPS antenna is connected to the Android side of the radio so the option on the WinCE side must only be used to keep the audio playing in the rear speakers when a direction is given by the Android System. When I tested the GPS everything worked and when I switched to the radio side (WinCE) I did get the turn by turn directions too, and the Directions came out of all the speakers which made the directions a lot easier to understand. The Only complaint I have now is that the music pauses are too long. I did find this forum http://dynavin.freeforums.org/igo8-s...tion-t188.html and will try this optimization out and report back.

freedml

I bought a Seicane head unit for my S500 2000. After a lot of back and forth with pictures and all, supposedly to get everything right, it arrived. My professional car stereo installers looked at the kit -- it didn't have the right connectors. Some more back and forth with Seicane and they agreed it had the wrong connectors. The kit came with NO INSTRUCTIONS so then they sent us a page of 'suggestions' which included CUTTING THE STOCK WIRE HARNESSES and 3 possible methods of hooking up the power. "Try this" then "try that" then "if that doesn't work try this other one" is scary as hell when working on a Mercedes computer system. NO WAY!!! I returned the unit at my expense and they only gave me a partial refund. SEICANE IS UNETHICAL -- DON'T BUY FROM THEM.