Dedicated Android SatNav from Icebox Audio
 

Hello

I bought this unit from https://www.iceboxauto.com/audi-a8-1...d-51-hl-8818gb

https://www.iceboxauto.com/content/i...818gb_550.jpeg

Once I receive it i will write a little install guide and a review so others can see if they like it etc.

I'm not affiliated with the above company and there's nothing about these android radios online so this should help a lot of people.

It's made to be a direct replacement for rns-d so no cutting and sanding requried!

Nice find! It has a kind of Audi look to it (not the screen) and if it’s a straight swap, that would be great. I’d love to hear id the DIS display works on satnav as that’s the only reason that I’ve not upgraded my RNS-D

Am very interested in this, keep us updated please.

Frank

I wonder if it would take a reversing camera input? Could be a good little upgrade if you fancy all that stuff.

As for sat nav, I don't think there's a car in the world with a better one than what Waze can offer

I'm interested in what the sound quality is like, especially since it seems to support FLAC. I wouldn't expect audiophile quality for something of that price, but if its got pre-outs and the reproduction is at least reasonable it could be a good solution for a daily driver +++

That looks interesting. :cool:

Looking at the spec it does take a reversing camera feed and also can be upgraded (£39 optional extra) to DAB.
Very interesting esp as it seems to come with the double Din surround to fit A/S8. Other things I've been contemplating need a separate trim component which doesn't appear to exist.

That's interesting. I wonder where you could attach the antenna, I'm assuming it's not magnetic if it's supposed to attach to an aluminium car??

There's a (Russian) YouTube video of the unit here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2Am4ozFUPg

The SATNAV/DAB unit i fitted to my motorhome used a self adhesive DAB aerial on the windscreen. Reasonably discrete and I ran the cable up the pillar. Only trouble with A8/S8 heated windscreens (where fitted) is that they effectively screen the aerial. A standalone satnav just wont pick up the (weak) GPS signal inside the car but DAB signal strength may be sufficient. I might try out a portable dab radio in the car to see if it works.

OK so I ordered it from icebox on 04/01/2020 and received it today. I didn't get a tracking number until day before the arrival which is odd, its probably drop shipped or something.

Upon opening the box I've noticed that the silica gel bag has opened in transit and lots of tiny balls fell inside the unit itself:
https://i.ibb.co/tmWXnJ8/IMG-20200116-125443.jpg
https://i.ibb.co/238wTK0/IMG-20200116-125458.jpg
https://i.ibb.co/N7hPCnz/IMG-20200116-130033.jpg
https://i.ibb.co/ScgnW7w/IMG-20200116-125559.jpg

I probably could have gotten this RMA'd but it would take ages so i just took them all out myself.

I've reported this to Rob from Icebox who allowed me to open up the unit to get rid of all the silica balls from inside so I thought I may as well take a look at whats inside the unit in general.

It was a tough job getting it all out:
https://i.ibb.co/VMdZhHM/IMG-20200116-125703.jpg

A lot of them fell inside the dvd drive gears etc:
https://i.ibb.co/KsLkJCz/IMG-20200116-133735.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/qXeQoVu.png
https://i.imgur.com/AeYNRTR.png


The bag of cables has everything needed to get it to work and Bose system is also supported.
https://i.ibb.co/LYVS2Y0/IMG-20200116-130050.jpg

Components wise:

All caps are cheap Chenxing capacitors

Amplification:
No-name TDA738 Amplifier - On the icebox website it says its a Toshiba 7851 which now we know it isn't

I/O:
Geniune Realtek RTL8188ETV is the WLAN/USB comms chip

Audio:
ROHM BD37033FV-M DAC:
Current upon no signal: 31mA
Total harmonic distortion: 0.002%
Maximum input voltage: 2.1Vrms
Cross-talk between selectors: 100dB
Ripple rejection -65dB
Output noise voltage: 5.5µVrms
Residual output noise voltage: 3.5µVrms
Operating Range of Temperature: -40 to +85

A few pics from inside:
Decent amount of lube on DVD drive:
https://i.imgur.com/KQxse5M.jpg


Inside the box itself, it looks good compared to other Android systems I've opened
https://i.ibb.co/ryrKXSc/IMG-20200116-133403.jpg
https://i.ibb.co/s2p58ny/IMG-20200116-133413.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/jf53B0q/IMG-20200116-133710.jpg

Amp section:
https://i.ibb.co/fFWJjB2/IMG-20200116-142704.jpg


Next will be installing this in the car which i don't have access to until late next week as its getting its timing belt done and a few other things.

Thanks for going in to that much detail +++ Kinda handy you had to open it up really!

The DAC specs seem pretty good which bodes well for sound quality and if you've got Bose then the built in amp IC doesn't really matter.

I wonder how noisy that fan will be - not much in there to cool really, but cheap chinese fans never seem to last very long. That might be something to upgrade later on. I keep wondering about taking a cold air feed from the hvac to cool the stereo down. B5 Passats actually had a pipe from after the evaporator which fed cold air in to the glovebox which was a great idea. Never seen it on anything else though.

Its a shame they put the optical drive in there really - it could have been 2" deep without it, instead of a big empty box.

The fan itself does seem cheap but its standard size and can be easily replaced with a quality fan if needed. I will probably make a video showing how loud the fan is with volume off.

Looking at the way the box is built they have one "can" andnjust screw on the required fascias as needed.

I agree about the dvd drive but i guess they have to cater to all age groups and most A8 owners are from the CD-era so to speak so it won't hurt having it there.

Once i get this installed I'll take apart my rns-d and at least compare its DAC to the Android one on paper :)

There's quite a wide range of boxes appearing with OEM style fascias on them. Looked at a few for SWMBO's X5, but also considering an android auto/carplay unit as it's a bit more future proofed and the youngest gets discount at halfrauds

I've got one in bits on the healing bench but would it even have an audio DAC? Afaik the internal drive is just for nav isn't it? The only digital audio source (apart from the nav processor) is the CD changer and that's got the DAC on-board so sends analog audio to the head unit.

The nav board is mostly Bosch ICs with a 4mb Intel flash. The main board is a Blaupunkt CPU / ASIC (its a Blaupunkt chassis) and then an assortment of other ICs. The amp is an ST TDA7376.

The internal drive is indeed just a component of the NAV unit, which is the top half, connected by a ribbon cable to the main (lower) part.
You can actually swap the Nav unit over between RNS's, there's no component protection or security coding in it.

All the external connections on the main/lower section are analogue, except possibly commands/status to/from the CD changer (and the NAV unit cable).

This is one of 2 i found that are made for the d2 and fit it oem style with no cutting or sanding etc. The other one was from a company called seicane (some ali express brand)

Have you found any other ones?

A few years back when I looked around there were several Android head units for retrofit into the A8.

Two of them looked like the RNS-E (ie: the unit being discussed here), the difference being the location of the micro-SD card slots.
One of those even purported to support the DIS screen, though I've since never been able to find this claim.

The other type I found looked sort of like a cross between an RNS-D and the VW RNS-510, with blue button backlighting/surround.

I have no idea on the manufacturers, though I have heard of Seicane before via the Tavarish YouTube channel (he put one of these in his Gallardo).
My looking online would have been AliExpress, Banggood, HCSale, and general Google searches.


The only issue with the Android units from 3 or 4 years ago (or whenever I last looked) was the state of Android being used outside of phones or tablets, especially modified versions in media players and the like. Plus the quality of the Chinese components (which do seem to be getting better).
I've used two Android based media players in the last few years, and have been singularly unimpressed. One was a Minix Neo, the other some generic box. Slow, difficult to use, would 'hang' after a while, would randomly cut out during playback of video files (using several programs including Kodi/XBMC and including updating software and firmware).
I ended up back on the good old WDTV!
Now moving to a Roku and Plex...

Maybe with a dedicated Android Auto setup, these units may work quite well now?

Additionally I will be trying to make this unit work with FIS, there's already people over on android programming forums that managed to get it to work on the newer models so as least I can establish its not impossible.

https://forum.xda-developers.com/and...s-mfa-t3803020

Sorry for the slow progress i started a new job and all that

The radio is now in. It fits and looks OEM

https://i.imgur.com/Gef7qaY.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/B9qkUl3.jpg

Even the corners fit perfectly:

https://i.imgur.com/R53Z89v.jpg

I haven't wired in the reverse cam yet but the Radio sounds as good if not better as RNS-D and so do CD's, DVD's and high quality spotify streams.

The menus are fluid and dont glitch out.

Only down side i've noticed so far is a slightly longer boot time (kind of like on an android phone) but this shouldn't matter much unless you're a parcelforce driver..

I will be posting more info as soon as I get some time.

I've been sitting here twitching waiting for this :ROFL:

How long is startup? I'm used to aftermarket units reading from USB stick for a few seconds so that wouldn't bother me.

FWIW if start up time if your main concern, I got a Sony unit in my RS4, they don't have the custom/OEM look face plate, but they make noise in a couple of seconds and screen is responsive very shortly after from cold boot.....

https://www.sony.co.uk/electronics/i...s/xav-ax3005db

I installed an Android based unit in my TT a few years back and within a few seconds that too was/is playing tunes and also fully responsive.

Did you have to modify the original wiring harness at all or did everything just plug straight in. Sorry if this seems a dumb question but I have actually zero knowledge of Ice systems.

So far everything connected up without any modification. There are some extra connections that don't go anywhere like 'key 1' and 'key 2' or 'sub out' and there is no instruction manual or installation manual in the box.

@Mikki I will make a video of how it boots up & shuts down and also take some pics of it at night with lights on to see how closely matched the leds on the unit and dash are

I've also been keen to see the results of this. That looks OEM and probably the most 'stock' looking until I've seen.

Good stuff, especially with a reversing cam too. Looking forward to the boot-up vid. God, how boring am i?!?

Thanks for sharing this Ronin, good stuff.

That does look rather good, my only issue would be how reflective the screen is, how easy would it be to see on a sunny day for instance (not that we have many!). Perhaps a matt screen protector would work well?

Are these units touch screen or is it all on the buttons?

This is a full touch screen system. Good point on the visibility during sunny days i will try to capture it as well. Ive also noticed that if i put the lights on the screen dims like on oem units which is a nice touch.

I'm very keen to see a video of this operating too.
Subscribed 👍

I'm now desperate to see this. I keep checking daily to see a video+++

I noticed that a video earlier on in the thread showed the unit demonstrated by a Russian blogger. But then I saw a Seicane unit on two other videos dating back to 2014 showing the same design of unit with an older interface and older Android versions. So I'm guessing that these are white-labelled from one factory and resold by different brands.

On a 2017 video of a different Seicane unit, I saw an almost instant boot-up with the ability to use your own car brand logo as the boot-up screen.

All in all, it looks like a nice solution that will enable it to be swapped back to the RNS-D rather quickly for when the stock look is desired.

I'm interested to know how it works with Spotify streaming and also Bluetooth call quality.

In the meantime I will reset myself into "wait mode" :)

I haven't forgotten about the video I've been away from home this whole week I may be able to do something on Sunday or Monday depending on the wheather

Just to keep the thread going, here's a pic of how the LEDS and Android unit match audi leds:

https://i.imgur.com/mQpigjw.jpg

i still havent hooked up the reverse cam as the cable was short by about 1m and had to get another lenght of RCA cable and a coupler.

One issue i found so far is that when you turn the volume all the way down to zero and then more than 0 you will hear a loud pop in the speakers, same when you start the car up you will hear a loud pop i think this is because of having the bose amplifier so I will also have to have a think how to address it.

The video is coming I just have to get the reverse cam working and a few other things

I've had a lot of trouble with aftermarket head units doing that with the Bose system. Never did work it out unfortunately. I tried a ground loop isolator which did nothing. Tried various earthing schemes, also nothing. In the end I threw the Bose amp away and put an aftermarket amp in so I'm interested to see if you can figure it out :)

You'd probably need to find a way to control the power to the Bose amp, such that it automatically powers up after the audio output becomes active (or above a certain threshold) and powers down as soon as it becomes inactive/silent.

Not sure if something like this might help:
https://catalog.pac-audio.com/catalo...lty-items/tr-4

Or you could build something from scratch.
I'd probably start by building something to 'sense' audio -- a simple Darlington Pair circuit might be sufficient, driving an LED so that you can visually check and adjust the sensitivity. Then you just need to use that to control a relay circuit, one with a delayed/adjustable on-delay.

Don't have this with my unit and the TT has the Bose amps.

I installed an Xtrons Windows based unit in my VW Crafter camper when I first purchased it.
Total lack of instructions meant I was very much fitting by trial and error.

Serious issues with Bluetooth volume and crappy pre packaged sat nav at the start, emailed Xtrons with little or no success.

Was about to rip it all out and dump the Xtrons unit when I decided to try emailing them again.
Totally different response with solution to the issue (even gave me the password and hidden boot menu access to change settings)
Totally different unit after that - all works well.

Changed the navi SD card to an Ebay £10 special and even that works better now.

...following this thread with interest....

Exactly what I'm after! How is the bluetooth phone connection. Are calls OK?

yes calls are fine through the built in mic ive had no complaints over 20 calls made. there's also a second mic input if you want to route a mic to the roof mic slot.

Another update:

The reverse cam function does not get triggered when car is put into reverse.
The supplied can bus decoder is for an 2002 era audi TT (thats what it says on it)...

I will try and make it work with the 'non can bus' method of having 3rd +12v wire going to a trigger input on the radio itself so that the reverse light triggers the switch to camera view and not the gearbox being put into R can bus signal.