Database Users

FM not working

New to this forum. Hope it is in the right place. I tried to search for anything that matched and did not find anything similar. I have a Tocado 7.1 Android Chinese Headunit I purchased from ebay. My FM stopped working a while back. There is static but no stations attempt to come in. Search just runs through the whole dial and then starts over with no stations found. I have tested the antenna with the OEM radio and it does work correctly. I can get AM but it is not strong. I have tried to change the region to no avail. If anyone has any ideas, I would appreciate it.

Do you have power injector adapter with the chinese head unit?

I’m a noob. Not sure what that is.

I had a similar problem on my Subaru
I didn't realize that there is a small amplifier connected to the antenna (probably very close to the antenna, which in my case is part of the rear window on the tailgate).
This needs to be supplied with 12V otherwise you get hardly any (or no signal at all) down the cable from the antenna.
I bought a Subaru to ISO adapter kit, and one of the wires in the ISO plug is the antenna power. However my Xtrons unit, just has a wire from its ISO socket which doesn't connect to anything.
So no power was going to the antenna amplifier.
The solution is to connect the Accessory power going into the head-unit, to the antenna power wire.
Ideally connect it on the side of the fuse that connects to your head-unit, so that the power is then protected by the fuse.
Warning.
Make sure you are applying the Accessory power to the correct wire, and that your antenna amplifier requires 12V
What I had to do, was to reconnect my old CD / Radio unit, and measure the voltage on the pin for the antenna amplifier.
On my old CD / Radio unit, when I switched to the radio, 12V appeared on one of the pins on the plug into the back of the radio.
I double checked the pin on that Subaru radio plug, against a pinout I found on the internet, to confirm it was what people thought was the antenna power pin.
Once I was fairly certain that I knew which pin it was (and that the wire from the ISO socket on the xtrons ISO socket labeled something like "Auto Radio" was the same connection), I applied 12V to that pin via a amp meter (actually a multimeter on its millamp setting), and I confirmed it wasnt taking loads of current.
As I'm an electronics engineer I have several multimeters including the old style analog meters which have a needle. The analog ones are great for testing this sort of stuff, as you can see by briefly tapping the connection if its taking a lot of current or not.
In my case the meter hardly registered, as the antenna amplifier takes less than 50 milliamps.
Anyway, finally checked that the radio was now working on the new head unit (Xtrons GS PX5 Oreo), and it works working fine both on AM and FM.

Thanks for the reply. I have a 2006 F 150. There is no amplifier on this vehicle. I should have shared that originally the radio worked fine. I usually just use the BT and stream music from Pandora. One day after several months, I decided to turn on the radio because I was in a dead zone. To my surprise, the FM just had static. Seek found no stations and I tried to manually tune to a known station and it did not come in. There is no change in the sound of the static when a station is at the setting. I also reconnected my OEM radio to the antenna to be sure it was not the antenna. It worked just fine.

OK.
I didn't think I my Subaru had antenna amplifier... But I does

What GPS antennas do these units use ?

Does anyone know what type of GPS antenna's these units use?
I have an Xtrons PX5 Oreo head unit, but I'm having difficulty positioning the GPS antenna in a good location, due to lack of space under the dashboard.
I'd like to buy another antenna, to take apart and get rid of the plastic cover, in the hope that it will be a bit smaller and I can squeeze it under the dash
However I'm not sure if all antennas that I can buy are the same.
The socket type on the back of the Xtrons unit appears to be a type called FAKRA, and the antenna that came with the unit has a right angle connector.
I can find loads of similar looking antennas on eBay and AliExpress etc, with FAKRA plugs, but most of them are straight (so I'll need to check if a longer plug would be a problem.)
But apart from that... Does anyone know if there is anything specific I need to look out for when buying another GPS antenna ?
Some antennas say they are "Active" and are powered by between 3 and 5V, but I presume they are all like this ?
Also, I've seen splitter cables, which would suggest that I could install more than one GPS antenna, but I'm not really sure if thats possible either ??
Thanks

RogerClark said:
Does anyone know what type of GPS antenna's these units use?
I have an Xtrons PX5 Oreo head unit, but I'm having difficulty positioning the GPS antenna in a good location, due to lack of space under the dashboard.
I'd like to buy another antenna, to take apart and get rid of the plastic cover, in the hope that it will be a bit smaller and I can squeeze it under the dash
However I'm not sure if all antennas that I can buy are the same.
The socket type on the back of the Xtrons unit appears to be a type called FAKRA, and the antenna that came with the unit has a right angle connector.
I can find loads of similar looking antennas on eBay and AliExpress etc, with FAKRA plugs, but most of them are straight (so I'll need to check if a longer plug would be a problem.)
But apart from that... Does anyone know if there is anything specific I need to look out for when buying another GPS antenna ?
Some antennas say they are "Active" and are powered by between 3 and 5V, but I presume they are all like this ?
Also, I've seen splitter cables, which would suggest that I could install more than one GPS antenna, but I'm not really sure if thats possible either ??
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What for a car do you have? (brand & model)

Xtrons TE706PL. It has a FAKRA connector on the back.
Since I posted, I've ordered a generic GPS antenna from AliExpress which has a FAKRA connector on it, (for less than $10)...
So I'll see if that works.
What I don't know however if these antennas are Passive or Active. I presume they are mostly Active, where between 3 and 5 volts is supplied to the antenna, via the same cable (coax) where the signals are sent into the unit (capacitive coupling)
As GPS signals are at 1500Mhz, the loss on thin coax is extreme, so I'd be surprised if any of these antennas, which come with several metres of coax, are passive.
(But I could be wrong.. In which case I'll probably also try to shorten the coax to just the length I need, as that will also improve GPS reception)

RogerClark said:
What I don't know however if these antennas are Passive or Active. I presume they are mostly Active, where between 3 and 5 volts is supplied to the antenna, via the same cable (coax) where the signals are sent into the unit (capacitive coupling)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What was your determination on this. Does the radio use an active antenna or passive?

btw, its an active antenna. I bought a replacement antenna from anywhere they sell active gps antennas.

no AM reception, but good FM reception - wrong radio region?

Apologize if this is the wrong forum to post this in, but I just installed an Android 8.1 head unit in my car in the USA, and I get great FM reception, but I can't get reception for any AM stations. I disconnected the unit and reconnected my old radio to make sure nothing had changed in the car, and I still got good FM and AM with the old radio, so I know the antenna is good.
Is there a setting in the radio for region (USA, Europe, China, etc) that could affect this? When I scan stations, it seems to be in the right range of frequencies, but doesn't stop on any, and I can't manually force it to a station that I know (950). Instead I can make it go to either 945 or 954. I have searched through all of the menus that I can find, and can't find anything that would allow me to see or change the region.
Thanks in advance - Paul

Update on this issue - I was able to get to the menu to change the radio region:
Car Settings:: About the Device (passcode 8888):: Radio
It was defaulted to Europe - I changed it to America 1 and America 2 which at least allowed me to directly tune to a couple of strong AM stations that I know, but I still had no reception. Everything else about the unit works well. I am trying to get them to send me a replacement thinking it is something in the hardware, but please let me know if anyone has any other ideas on things to check.

I have this problem too. Great FM reception, VERY poor AM reception. I've tried all country codes (Australia is not available). I've asked vendor for a solution. Still waiting.
Did you get a solution?

I had this too until I realized that my car has a built in car antenna amplifier (most cars now do) and it needs to be powered. Without power to it, you'll barely get reception. So I connected the antenna amplifier to the powered antenna output from the head unit and that improved it some, but still it wasn't great. Then I checked the voltage from that wire I found that the head unit only puts out 10.6 volts instead of the required 12. So I hooked the power antenna to the same 12V power coming from the car that feeds the head unit and presto, now I get normal radio reception like I used to.

This constantly amazes me, why do so many people not understand about the aerial amplifiers used on most cars now? When you swap out a manufacturer specific unit, make sure all the wires are connected, they're there for a reason!

yes, but most people don't realize that the lead from the head unit that says ANTENNA is not suitable to power the antenna. You must use the 12V power supply coming from the car to power the antenna amp.

It varies with the head unit, many do put out the full battery voltage on the antenna feed wire (ours does) but obviously some don't, your fix is correct for those that don't. The issue is that everyone seems to just leave the amplifier wire disconnected and wonder why it doesn't work.

Mr.TT_NZ said:
This constantly amazes me, why do so many people not understand about the aerial amplifiers used on most cars now? When you swap out a manufacturer specific unit, make sure all the wires are connected, they're there for a reason!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know this is an old post but I'm having this issue.
I'm actually little confused as to how to remedy this.
Any help would be appreciated.
Should I splice the blue ant wire into the power wire going to the radio?
I was under the impression the blue ant wire was for people who had a power antenna that raises and lowers when the radio is powered on.
Here's the radio I got for a 2005 Corolla.
US $195.00 20%OFF | For Toyota Corolla E120 E 120 BYD F3 2000 2003 2005 2006 DSP 4GB+64GB Android 2 Din Car Radio Multimedia Carplay GPS Navigation
https://a.aliexpress.com/_mPnUCX6

jnotgsure said:
I know this is an old post but I'm having this issue.
I'm actually little confused as to how to remedy this.
Any help would be appreciated.
Should I splice the blue ant wire into the power wire going to the radio?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The ANT wire of the head unit is intended as power supply for the car antenna. Not only the automatic extending antennas need a power supply, also active antennas.
So it depends on your installed antenna if you need to connect it.
Some active antennas doesn't have a separate wire for power supply. In this case you need a "Phantomeinspeiseadapter" (Google it). Espacially cars from VW group (Skoda, Seat, VW, Audi...) need such an adapter in combination with a 3rd party radio.
The idea is to power the antenna only if it's needed (your listening to radio).
Alternatively the antenna could get its power from the ACC wire. In this case the antenna gets power as soon as you turn on the ignition.
The B+ wire should never be used to power the antenna because this would drain your cars battery 24/7.

Android Head Unit SC9853 - Nissan connections unsure...

SC9853 8-core Intel Airmont with 64GB / 4GB ram... bought it online... supposed to be suitable for my car model, but I'm a bit unsure, and the Chinese seller did not provide much help yet... no instructions nor manual nor wiring diagram...:
my original car: Nissan Teana 250XV from 2010 (model J32, matches the Maxima A35 dashboard/equipment)
So the top LCD display shows the CD number / Radio station / dual Aircon temperature setting.
The backside Radio/CD player:
(deducted the connections from a Google image from Nissan Frontier)
the dark gray is the Antenna radio, the small white should be the Steering controls, the bottom big connector should be for the AC (should not touch), and the remaining plug is the power/speakers wire.
The 2 connections that went into the top LCD display:
I'm assuming the black one goes into the black connector of the Android harness:
I found similar connections on another post, so I deducted:
It came with 2 USB cables, 1 is 4 pin, the other is 6 pin connector... 1st thought they go at bottom in middle, but from the other post it was for MIC-in ?
it should come with instructions and a wiring diagram?!
Can somebody help with explaining what's what?
it seems the harness has a male and female connector, so the female is to connect to the car cable, and the male goes back into the CD/Radio? so the CD player can still function, it's audio should go through an Aux cable?
The antenna cable has not suitable connection, so I suppose I can keep using the stock radio? there's a cut blue wire on the harness labeled Auto ANT, so I could connect this one to the car cable, though would need to figure out how, looks like it has 2 wires (below is for the newer version model L33, but Radio ANT connection looks identical):
Assuming only 1 of the 2 LCD connections need to be used, one of them is black, so I'm assuming this one goes on the black one of the harness...
Sure hope I can sort this out... biggest issue is the head unit seems to be too long to the back, so I have not been able to reinstall, it sticks out... if I install the GPS it sticks out even further, without the GPS this is how far I get....:
the seller claims it can be installed, they did it before with this kind of unit... so shall try again, but to me it looks like I'm hitting the back of the compartment...
Freaking out as have spent 380 USD on it and it took 2 months to deliver (due to Chinese new year / COVID-19)....
Any help much appreciated, thanks a lot in advance!

If the unit has been special been produced for your car, it should be plug´n play.
All connectors are coded. You are not able to misuse any of them.... So what is your problem now???

Well for one besides the unit turning on nothing works: no sound, also the old radio not working, only short beeps when pressing load/eject CD.
To the Head unit I only connected the main power cable, this one also holds the speakers? So should have sound?
Tried setting the steering wheel controls... Also no luck..
Will try to also connect the brown-blue/white cable which has pin count matching bottom left socket below the RCA socket.
Issue may be this Thailand Teana, steering wheel at right side, most units sold for left side...
You mean coded as in wire colors should match? (Only a few cables are labeled, the sockets are not)
Thanks

ok the seller now confirms these are the connections:
the not marked left bottom and right top supposedly have no function...
Only thing left to try is to disconnect the original car stereo plug, so the Android head unit is connected directly to the car cable without the car Radio connected... but that means the original car radio/cd player is not usable...
could also try to use the AUX cable from the Head Unit's RCA connections and connect it to the head jack of the Radio, suppose should get audio then?
will check the wire colors, suppose they should match the harness wire colors? if the unit would actually physically fit my car could correct the socket wiring so it may work for my car?
(I'm assuming a left hand drive car may have different wiring vs. right hand drive car? as nothing works, except for the screen getting power (no sound, no steering wheel control))

@GregToR
I wrote:
rigattoni said:
All connectors are coded. You are not able to misuse any of them....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That means that the connectors of the cable tree only match to one single hole in the unit.
That has nothing to do with colors of the cables itself. They most probably don´t match.
Just do it, or drive to someone who is able to help you.

rigattoni said:
@GregToR
I wrote:
That means that the connectors of the cable tree only match to one single hole in the unit.
That has nothing to do with colors of the cables itself. They most probably don´t match.
Just do it, or drive to someone who is able to help you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes, you are right, each cable has a different unique fit, not interchangeable, but for the AC cable there are 2 wires it both sockets going to 2 pins, but only one of them matches with the harness connector (so the other wire has no counterpart = dead end due to on different pins), so possible wrong wiring in the harness?
if it's truly plug and play, I should have at least sound, I have no sound... so something's wrong... or does the software need configuration to enable sound?
for the steering wheel controls there's a menu to configure the buttons, but nothing happens, there is however a setting to change the impedance, maybe should try that next.
what about the Canbox?
its purpose is normally for it to act like it would be the car, what's its role here? why is it needed if it's installed in the car? I read online normally it's used to diagnose without the need of the physical car to be present.

The CAN-Box is most necessary part in the set up.
It provides Ignition, power for the amp and the possibility to use the steering wheel buttons.
I would say that you should drive to a car repair shop to get it built in.

Do you have a link for the unit?

Seems seller may not know his own device:
Looks like mine, so the cable I didn't connect could be the CAN input.
Will try later on
Seller wants me to go to a shop where they'll cut out a part of my car to make it fit... Should I? Rather keep everything original....
Says this TS9 always is bigger size for heat disapation...
This is the link where I bought it:
ลองเข้ามาดูสินค้า เครื่องเสียงรถยนต์ MP5 Player 10.1 นิ้ว Android 9.0 รถยนต์ Nissan Teana 2008 2009 2011 2012 BT วิทยุ GPS DSP Carplay ลดราคา 10% เหลือ ฿3,645 เท่านั้น! ซื้อได้ในแอป Shopee ตอนนี้เลย! https://shopee.co.th/product/214907970/3213687141?v=6f0&smtt=0.0.5

There is too many of these units out there from sellers that don't give enough information with their products. It leaves the end user scratching their head all too often. I purchased a very similar unit to this. Same thing, no support, no instructions, no manual etc etc.
Did you get it to a shop and were they able to sort?

Noobtrube said:
There is too many of these units out there from sellers that don't give enough information with their products. It leaves the end user scratching their head all too often. I purchased a very similar unit to this. Same thing, no support, no instructions, no manual etc etc.
Did you get it to a shop and were they able to sort?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
no, I returned it, as I don't want to cut a piece out of my car, and other sellers say it should not be necessary if the correct unit is installed.
The seller thought me to go to the "Extra Settings" menu to select the right car under "Model", after which it updates the MCU accordingly. After this the only thing I got working was the AC temperature control on the screen, had to set the "left / right Peptide" differently to mirror temp setting so Dual setting matches (left and right is apparently the other way around in a left hand side driving car ("peptide" must be a bad translation as that's part of a protein...).
Is the RCA jack to AUX the only way to get sound through the car speakers? (didn't work either, never got sound... I believe the cable was jamming the original CD/Radio, which didn't function with the head unit in between)
glad I got my money back, and recently found a shop here in Bangkok that can sell and install a proper unit, pheww...

Alps F9212B WiFi problem (Carlaoer) - Android 1 Din head unit

I've got one of these Alps F9212B 1 din head units from AliExpress from the seller Carlaoer
Android 9.0 1din Quad-Core Car GPS Navigation Player 7'' Universa Car Radio WiFi Bluetooth MP5 1 DIN Multimedia Player NO DVD
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4001147862560.html?spm=a2g0s.9042311.0.0.1aff4c4dvndEM7
When it's in the car parked outside my house, the WiFi won't connect to my home WiFi, I've also tried tethering via WiFi to my mobile inside the car and that really struggles to connect too.
I took the unit inside the house where the WiFi is obviously stronger and the WiFi will work, but the transfer rate is really slow in comparison to my phone which is connected to the same router in the spot as the head unit.
I've taken the unit apart to have a look inside, there's two very short blue wires (about 1 inch in length) that are used for the bluetooth and wifi.
Some observations and thoughts....
I was going to try tracing the WiFi wire back to the chip on the board and soldering a proper shielded pigtail, but the traces are hidden behind some kind of mod board. I'll post a picture in a moment to see if anyone can tell me what the WiFi chip might be?
I've noticed that the WiFi wire is showing continuity with ground on the board (whereas the bluetooth one doesn't), was wondering if this could be the source of the problem possibly too?
After doing quite a bit of googling, the motherboard appears very similar to this one in this video
Any help much appreciated

Here's some photos I took.
There's the top and bottom of the board. (bottom board shows the mod board that has been attached to underside of the connectors)
Also a close-up of the blue BT and WiFi antennas, they are both 40mm in length from the top of the connector
There's also the pinout diagram shown in the manual and on the device itself.
And also a screenshot of the OS version that the device is using.
Some observations:
On the bottom side of the board under the silver shielding with the 13 sticker on there's MT6627N chip (which google says is an all in-one WIFI, BT and GPS chip. The silver cover just pops off with a screwdriver. Doesn't appear to be any solder points or connections to attach an antenna.
So both the paper manual and device manual confirm that the same pin is used for WiFi. However the device manual has 30mm marked next to it. I measured the wire and it's 40mm, will this extra 10mm make a difference I wonder?

Here's the datasheet for MT6627 - https://datasheetspdf.com/pdf-file/791003/MediaTek/MT6627/1
On page 16 it mentions the RF port and Antenna port can be connected directly with a trace of 50 ohms
Also found a diagram that shows single antenna implementation

I have pretty much the same unit. Been trying to improve the wifi myself. Checking around, I found two possible methods. One, is soldering a RP-SMA pigtail to the wire on the end of the connector, and then screwing an actual antenna onto it. I haven't tried it yet because I am still waiting on the part. The second was cutting the size of the wire to the designated size. The wire on my connector is nearly 3 times the length, but since I have so much extra wire, before I cut it, I want to test the antenna method.
Hope that helps.

DroidX2 said:
I have pretty much the same unit. Been trying to improve the wifi myself. Checking around, I found two possible methods. One, is soldering a RP-SMA pigtail to the wire on the end of the connector, and then screwing an actual antenna onto it. I haven't tried it yet because I am still waiting on the part. The second was cutting the size of the wire to the designated size. The wire on my connector is nearly 3 times the length, but since I have so much extra wire, before I cut it, I want to test the antenna method.
Hope that helps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you have photos of your unit? Is it the same board layout as mine?

While I don't have pics of the board at the moment, here is a link to the Unit I have. https://www.amazon.com/Android-Navigation-Bluetooth-MirrorLink-Subwoofer/dp/B09135FMM1?dchild=1
Have you done any modifications that fixed things?