I ended up buying a 2013 Honda CRV and decided to replace the stock radio/CD player with an upgraded unit. This was far easier and cheaper than I imagined, but the hardest part was selecting a unit to buy This article covers how I made my choice.
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| The basic form factor for my CRV head unit |
Selecting a Unit
The Car
The CRV has steering wheel radio controls, and
I wanted to use them. This uses a technology called CAN-Bus, which is kind of like USB for cars. Therefore, a CAN-Bus capability would be able to leverage all these
steering wheel features. In addition, the CRV has a backup camera that would be nice to tie into. And of course I wanted to leverage the existing speakers and USB port.
Form Factor
I wanted a unit that had a big display, and I wanted a unit that was easy to purchase and install. Therefore, I decided to opt for one of the popular units that included the "air vents" built into it. This way I could just pop out the old radio, pop out the center dashboard vents, and pop in the new unit without worrying about buying multiple parts and assembling them, or worrying about how well those parts would fit together. This quickly narrows the market, but it makes both purchase and installation much more simple.
Technology Platform
There are a million different units on the market, but I wanted to keep this inexpensive, so I opted for the mystery-name brands. But still the prices are all over, and most of them tout "Android Auto" with a bunch of different "memory" and "generations". Which one to choose? Do these Android devices even work with Carplay?
It turns out that although many of these units are really devices that run Android as its OS, most (if not all) include software that allows it to function as a full featured CarPlay device.
It also turns out that if you are primarily using your phone with the unit, then the memory and CPU power of the head unit are nearly irrelevant. With a typical phone-linked setup, it is your phone that needs the capabilities, and the car unit is basically just a fairly dumb external touch display that can control the amp.
My Purchase
After all this, I decided to go with something that is nearly identical to this Rimoody CarPlay radio for the CRV. It was about $80 and included the Cambus controller and all the wiring harnesses needed.
Installation
Once I received it, I checked it out. It is a very simple assembly, with what appears to be off-the-shelf Android display married to a custom vent cowling made for the Honda. This way, the makers of the device could be very space efficient, installing the largest panel possible inside that could comfortably fit within the dashboard space.
The unit came with a bunch of cables, but I didn't need them all.
Removal of old radio and vents
The first step is to remove the original radio and vents. My radio actually came with all the tools required to do this, namely a screwdriver and a pry tool! The included pry tool was pretty crummy, so I used the prytool that I already had (vehicle trim pry tools). See this video for the removal process.
Attaching the old parts to the new trim
The hazard switch, the vents, and the snap clips need to be removed from the old and attached to the new trim. This is the hard part, as I found that tightening these things too much would distort the new trim and make it impossible to reinstall. In the end, I used fewer clips, and more importantly, I didn't heavily torque down the screws. This allowed the new trim to fit into the dashboard properly.
Attach the harnesses
This wasn't as easy as it should have been, more soon.