The D2 Forums

Hello

I bought this unit from https://www.iceboxauto.com/audi-a8-s8-i ... stem-au075

This is the same head unit on aliexpress from the manufacturer, Hualingan:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005001 ... ry_from%3A


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( not c!) so no cutting and sanding required! (yeah right)

OK so I ordered it from icebox around 4 weeks agoand 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:





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:


A lot of them fell inside the dvd drive gears etc:





The bag of cables has everything needed to get it to work and Bose system is also supported.


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:



Inside the box itself, it looks good compared to other Android systems I've opened





Amp section:



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.

So there are 2 things to considering before buying this head unit and starting the install:

Do you have bose?
If so, you will need to replace the original amp and wiring. Bose system uses floating ground low level input, and any aftermarket amp or head unit uses common ground RCA connectors. Failure to do so will send you down a downwards spiral of hunting pops, bangs whines and similar.
You might say why not use a 'bose adapter!' A bose 'adapter' is just some resistors and caps on the signal line, introducing those will stop a lot of the interference, but essentially it will cut the bottom and high frequencies out, meaning less bass and less high's in your audio.
Rewiring the car properly will give you the purest signal, as the artist intended.

No bose?
If you don't have bose, you are slightly in luck. Non bose cars have all the speakers driven by the original head unit, so in theory (haven't tried this myself) you should be able just to install the head unit and use it

Installation:

Managed to get the radio in perfectly.

I had to remove the whole stereo cage first:


Then, from that stereo cage i took out the L shaped piece at the back (its rivetted so can be easily removed)



Removed the plastic insert/guide:



Screwed on a 17mm thick piece of skirting board in place where the L shape piece was:



Attached 2x 1mm thick shims with double sided sticky tape at either side of the radio to perfectly center it:




...and job done:




Even the corners fit perfectly:


The next step was to remove all the bose stuff and replace it with phono cables, 7m runs will be plenty.
I also installed some extra sound proofing whilst at it:
Interior out: RCA cables ran the factory way: Extra sound proofing: GPS antenna was de-lidded:

A suitable base 3d printed:

And hidden out of the way under the rear parcel shelf:

The rear boot lid oem GPS location is also a good place, but i plan to have a gps wart-less bootlid in the future for a more clean look.

Once that was done, I chose a 5 channel kenwood amp discovered by MikkiJayne:


Factory look:


I haven't wired in the reverse cam yet but the Radio supports D2's diversity module and 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 don't glitch out.

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

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




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 got the reverse cam to work, in the settings you can even select how much volume is being turned down while reversing like in 'modern' cars.

This head unit will switch to reverse camera even if the car has just started and its still booting, a very nice touch.

A little update for you all
the code for factory settings on this head unit is m123456

It allows you to mess with all kinds of settings like CANBUS options, or teaching the HU your steering wheel buttons. I'll be trying to get a noise cancelling app installed on this radio, to see if it'll make the cabin noise much quieter, it works the same way as those fancy noise cancelling headphones, playing the opposite frequency of the 'noise' to cancel it out.
Attached Thumbnails

Since this unit came without AndroidAuto/Carplay (the latest one now does) i had to use a third party dongle.
Carlinkin CPC200-Autokit seems to be the one to get, with frequent software updates and customer support:


Installed and working:




Carplay:

And yes, it does work with 5 out of 6 buttons of a D2 MFSW
the TMC module behind the cluster has to be removed, and CAN wiring from the MFSW relay to the head unit connector joined together.

Time for an upgrade...

So i upgraded my 2019 Head unit to the 2024 model.
Here's the link for it: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005001 ... ry_from%3A
Primarily because:

• It now has built in android auto and carplay - the dongle on the old HU worked but sometimes disconnected and caused issues

• It has bluetooth 5.0 - much higher quality audio and calls

• 802.11a/b/g/n/ac WiFi - its just much quicker and faster

• 8 core cpu

• 4gb of ram

Hualingan also said the head unit will now display radio station info on the FIS, they didn't have any videos of it working on the car, but sent me this video from the factory:


After purchasing and installing the unit, FIS radio station display didn't work.
When i spoke with their support they said they lied to me..
My take is that they thought D2 cluster is the same as C5, and there's a few head units on the market for C5's which do display to FIS so they thought it will work on a D2..

So now i need to make it work myself.. to complete the project.