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Aftermarket Android head unit not switching on sometimes

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  • #16
    Hello CALEB , do you know where you brought the unit from ? Did the can bus decoder come with it ?
    If so contact them fir a replacement.
    As to this issue , what sort if circuit board dose the head unit have ?
    Single or double layer ?
    If it's double layer then there maybe a dry joint or track in between both layers , I which case they cannot be repaired .
    But seeing as crunch has had a similar problem, and if you think it's condensation then try wrapping some foam round the decoder .
    Or if you get a free morning then take the unit out a see if you can spot any traces of condensation.


    .K.M.P.C.U
    YEEEEEEEEHAAAAAAAAA

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    • #17
      Originally posted by lizzard-t View Post
      Hello CALEB , do you know where you brought the unit from ? Did the can bus decoder come with it ?
      If so contact them fir a replacement.
      As to this issue , what sort if circuit board dose the head unit have ?
      Single or double layer ?
      If it's double layer then there maybe a dry joint or track in between both layers , I which case they cannot be repaired .
      But seeing as crunch has had a similar problem, and if you think it's condensation then try wrapping some foam round the decoder .
      Or if you get a free morning then take the unit out a see if you can spot any traces of condensation.

      Hi!

      I bought this unit from China (Aliexpress) years ago. It came with the decoder. I'm not sure I could find the seller after all this time, and even if I could, this unit and it's parts are out of production anyway now.
      The circuit board has one layer, I already re-soldered all the connections I could. (did not help)

      But I did make the canbus decoder hermetical, using silicone and electrical tape. That was two days ago and so far the unit has been working correctly. So - I'll test it for a few more days, and if the unit continues to work without any problems, then I can confirm that my theory about the condensation is correct.

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      • #18
        HI Caleb. Hopefully your problem is fixed but wondering why you would be suffering from condensation! having had alot of cars in the 45 years I generally find condensation inside car is caused with having wet carpets/sound proofing might need to get your hands under carpets as sometimes the soundproofing holds water (don't forget boot area).

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        • #19
          Originally posted by ilunn View Post
          HI Caleb. Hopefully your problem is fixed but wondering why you would be suffering from condensation! having had alot of cars in the 45 years I generally find condensation inside car is caused with having wet carpets/sound proofing might need to get your hands under carpets as sometimes the soundproofing holds water (don't forget boot area).
          Well, today my head unit did not start with the car, but I turned it off and on a couple of times and after about two minutes it started up. So, not sure what to think about it, needs more testing.

          About the condensation in my car - there is no visible condensation, I only mentioned it, because wherever there is no heating, there is some condensation at nights. It may be enough to affect electronics.

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          • #20
            I have to say - I did not solve my problem, but now it is absolutely certain that it's cold-related. I replaced few capacitors (the bigger ones, not the SMD type though), soldered over connections, still the same. If the weather temperature is near freezing, then the unit won't switch on anymore. Sometimes, depending on the temperature, it starts to work after driving a while. (An hour or so...)

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            • #21
              Hello,
              I am new here, and joined becasue the radio cd navi is totally dead (NAVI 600) and I want to replace it with an Android.
              But I want one which replaces the existing large screen at the top of the dash.
              Is this what you have?
              Do the existing radio cd navi buttons work in the middle of the centre console?
              Do the steering wheen controls still work with yours?
              What model is yours? Do you have photo.
              (I hope you get yous sorted by the way!)
              Ian

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              • #22
                If your car has anything else than CD300 or CD400 (If you have factory navi), then the centre console buttons won't work.
                Steering wheel controls work, but audio volume goes 3 steps at one click.
                I have quite old model (with android 4.4), not available anymore. But yes - it's one of these that replaces the large screen and also the entire original navi unit.
                By the way - radio reception of these aftermarket head units is very bad. (like 1/20-th of the original radio's reception)

                I got everything working by modifying this android unit (threw out DVD rom and made the unit smaller), then I also modified my car by throwing out the bluetooth unit (to get additional room inside the dashboard) and then I mounted both units - the original and the aftermarket unit - into the dashboard. Since the android unit has it's own bluetooth, I did not lose anything by throwing out the car's original bluetooth module. (which was huge)
                From the android unit's audio output I connected a wire into the original unit's input inside the armrest. (Did not want to mix the speaker wires.)
                I replaced the original screen with the aftermarket unit's bigger screen.
                Tha last thing I did was mounting my original unit's display (without frame) on top of the dashboard. (It now looks like some stand-alone GPS device there)
                Now I have everything - original radio with good reception, working buttons, picture from reversing camera, large touchscreen, android os with custom navi and all the apps (speeding camera warnings ect.), bluetooth for hands-free phone calls, and the aftermarket unit also shows every parking sensor's information on the screen. No loss of functionality and lots of extras. (only thing that's a bit disturbing, is the original display that is now on top of the dashhboard, but then again - two displays is like a split screen functionality.)

                I will take some pictures soon.


                This all was working just fine this entire year, until now, with cold weathers the android unit has been non-functional most of the time. It,s not the wires - I have checked many times. (also the original unit is working) And if I take out the android unit, warm it up inside my house and then put it back into car, it will work every time. So it's the cold. I'm afraid I have to take the time and replace every capacitor on the circuit board. So far I replaced only the big ones, but there are many small ones also that are hard to replace, because they are the on-board type.
                Buying the new unit would cost me quite a lot - these units are for sale in Aliexpress for about 400-500 dollars, and in my country I would have to pay almost the same sum for customs tariff. So, it would be the absolute last option.

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                • #23
                  Well you have certainly done a lot of work to get a clever combined system!
                  2 screens must look cool.

                  My problem is the radio/CD/Nav is totally dead. Man at garage said it has 12V, but cannot diagnose any further.
                  The NAV600 on ebay do not come with codes, so the units won't work in a different car!

                  So after reading your story I think a good solution for me is a double DIN unit to go in the centre of the console and just have to accept the existing screen is blank.

                  Have you considered your problem with the electronics is due to tin whiskers? Modern soldering is with pure tin (no lead, Pb) and after some time, the pure tin grows whiskers which can cause short circuit. Cold temperatures make things shrink, so small gap between component legs may have tin whiskers and cause intermittent short circuit. Some microcircuits have a very fine pitch spacing beteen the legs. Try cleaning with a very gently with a very soft brush. Why do you think the capacitors are a problem?

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                  • #24
                    If your original unit is dead, I suggest you enter the words "insignia tesla style" into google and search images - you will know what I'm talking about. I have considered this type of unit myself, but since they came out after I had found a solution for me, and I am used to the additional media button on the armrest that needs the centre buttons working (connects to the centre buttons through wire), I'm not very eager to spend more money for now.
                    But if you are willing to give up the centre buttons, then this is the best solution for you (and there will be no blank display)
                    There are also few topics in this forum about this kind of units.

                    About my current android unit - I have cleaned it's circuit board with a special solvent and a brush and I have checked solderings with a magnifying glass and soldered over most of them, just to be sure - so far no luck.
                    So this must be something to do with the capacitors, because they age and most likely the factory uses the cheapest ones to make the most profit. And also there are not many other components that can be so sensitive to the temperatures, because of the electrolyte inside. Microchips can not be faulty, because they either work or not - once they die, they stay that way.

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                    • #25
                      I have seen the Tesla style screens for the insignia, and the look cool, and overcome the problem of dead factory screen or dead switche in the center console.
                      But I also read bad reveiw on here:

                      So I have lost interest in that option until I hear some positive news about it.

                      I am an elecronic engineer and we do a lot of failure analysis on components (mainly for satellite use). You are right that electrolyte in capacitors can dry up, but I think your problem is more likely to be micro cracks in solder joints or terminal in the components. You will never see these, and re soldering may not help if the crack is internal to the component, eg the terminal is breaking away from the metal in the component, eg chip ceramic capacitors.
                      Micro cracks and open and close with temperature changes and distortion of the PCB. Good luck finding the fault, but unfortunately I think you will end up buying a new android unit!

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                      • #26
                        Have you read this entire thread about Tesla style units ? And other threads as well ? There are many of these on the market from different manufacturers. If I remember correctly, there were some of these units that are quite ok.
                        Anyways - it's worth to investigate more thoroughly.



                        About my unit...
                        More reasons I suspect capacitors: I had a computer monitor, that was faulty - it took about an hour (slowly warming up) after switching on to start showing a picture. After replacing the capacitors, the problem disappeared. My current problem looks similar - after warming up the unit starts to work. But I understand that this can be a coincidence.
                        Other example: I also had a faulty computer power supply. This one worked the other way - if everything was warmed up and I switched off the computer, then I could not switch it back on before the power supply cooled down (about 20 min.) But I found a way - since the power supply had detachable cables, all I had to do to start the computer without waiting to cool down, was to unplug the motherboard cable from the power supply and then plug it back. (It caused some kind of instant reset in the power supply - later it was diagnosed with faulty capacitors) Now, something similar happens with my android unit - sometimes it helps if I unplug the cable that goes from the circuit board to the display, and then plug it back in. Then sometimes the unit starts right away. This should exclude bad soldering ? But this kind of thing does not work always, so there can be more than one failure. But I am not sure how probable it is that multiple failures are all appearing at the same time when temperature drops.

                        One other thing - the unit itself powers up half-way - I can hear a crack from speakers when switching it on. (I installed separate switch to it) Just the screen remains blank. So I thought that maybe it's the screen that's faulty, because unplugging and re-plugging the connecting cable sometimes switched the unit on. But when the sceen came on, the unit was just starting to boot, so it was not the screen itself, more likely detaching and reattaching the screen had similar effect that my computers power supply. Also when I warmed up just the screen inside my house, it did not help - I have to warm up the main unit.

                        But as I am willing to check anything, can you explain more about cracks that are internal to the components? And how to diagnose these.

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                        • #27
                          I Think by now I would be considering creating small amount of heat on or inside the unit (room permitting) maybe something like this https://media.rs-online.com/t_medium/R1311257-01.jpg but you would need to consult some boffin as to what wattage and resistance to buy. Make sure its not near wiring or plastic parts when installed. it does not need to be really hot just enough to keep temp above cold. also consider some form of switching off if car not going to be used for week or two such as when parked at airport.

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                          • #28
                            Originally posted by ilunn View Post
                            I Think by now I would be considering creating small amount of heat on or inside the unit (room permitting) maybe something like this https://media.rs-online.com/t_medium/R1311257-01.jpg but you would need to consult some boffin as to what wattage and resistance to buy. Make sure its not near wiring or plastic parts when installed. it does not need to be really hot just enough to keep temp above cold. also consider some form of switching off if car not going to be used for week or two such as when parked at airport.
                            I have thought about something like this, just not sure how fast this solution would be, because the colder the temperature, the more time to heat the unit into the working condition. The ambient temperature, where the unit starts to work itself is around 10 degrees celsius. (So diagnosis and repairing is only possible when cold outside)
                            In the past I have repaired faulty solderings by baking electronics in the oven. (specifics can be found online). In most cases this method works, but the effect can be temporary. And does not help in case of faulty capacitors.

                            The most irritating thing about all this is that probably there is just one little failure on the circuit board, and I can't find it.
                            Based on what I have described, can someone help me to pin it down to the most probable location on the circuit board. (near the plugs, near the power input, etc.)


                            The main unit (made smaller):



                            Placement inside the dashboard (under the original factory unit):



                            And how this all looks:

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                            • #29
                              I was thinking more like its "always on" so the temperature around the unit never drops.

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                              • #30
                                Must say your ingenuity on install is impressive, haw do you get the MOT tester to pass it as surly its obstructing view of sweep of wipers. have you considered connecting it up on bench and spraing various parts with this kind of stuff https://media.rs-online.com/t_medium/F1681648-01.jpg should pinpoint an area to concentrate on. and you not out in cold while doing it.

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