CANBUS decoder sniffing - Android Head-Units

Recently got myself a CARDA/PENHUI unit for my Volvo C70, unfortunately the unit didn't come with a CANBUS decoder.
Said decoder would have been somewhat pointless for SWC since they're hooked to the factory HU through LIN-Bus instead and Volvos have a genuinely weird canbus setup to start with (shares a lot in common with the Ford C1 platform; 2 separate CAN busses, 1 high-speed and 1 low-speed).
As such, could someone with a logic analyzer, oscilloscope or 'in-the-middle' adapter have a peek at what normally happens on the CAN-RX and CAN-TX lines between the Android unit and its CANBUS decoder (messages, baudrate, voltage levels, etc)? With that information I should be able to make a decoder that would work with my car and other similar ones (C30, S40, V50).
From the findings of @JeeBee87 baudrate seems to be 38400/8/N/2, but finding the voltage levels would also be important.

Related

CANbus decoders - who is manufacturer...?

Most of the Android ChinaRadios come with some sort of CANbus decoder (or so they are labeled) to provide steering wheel controls, backup support, etc... Every single vendor will only sell you a CANbus decoder that they 'manufacture' for their units - claiming that any other combination of decoder/radio will not work.
Aside from this being mostly BS, these vendors are absolutely adamant of not wanting to sell individual of these decoders - which for Chinese vendors is curious, to say the least, to turn down any opportunity to make a buck.
Either way, despite all of them claiming to manufacture their own, we know that is BS -- these vendors buy products from actual manufacturers, repackage them, and sell them.
Try as I might (Alibaba, aliexpress, globalSources) I have not been able to find a manufacturer that produces just these boxes.
Does anyone around here have any leads?
MacConsult said:
Most of the Android ChinaRadios come with some sort of CANbus decoder (or so they are labeled) to provide steering wheel controls, backup support, etc... Every single vendor will only sell you a CANbus decoder that they 'manufacture' for their units - claiming that any other combination of decoder/radio will not work.
Aside from this being mostly BS, these vendors are absolutely adamant of not wanting to sell individual of these decoders - which for Chinese vendors is curious, to say the least, to turn down any opportunity to make a buck.
Either way, despite all of them claiming to manufacture their own, we know that is BS -- these vendors buy products from actual manufacturers, repackage them, and sell them.
Try as I might (Alibaba, aliexpress, globalSources) I have not been able to find a manufacturer that produces just these boxes.
Does anyone around here have any leads?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
To add more to that.
My previous unit an Witson 3066/1Gb ram has an CAN decoder that worked fine for my Ford but the Joying ones work only 85% fine meaning the PREV and NEXT buttons were reversed and that was a pain to use since all my life when I push the NEXT button I expect to hear the next song not the previous one.
Anyway, although I was struggling to correct the Joying CAN mistake I could not because I did not find any way that I could reflash the CAN box. Joying said that the CAN might not be 100% compatible with my car although it should be.
Even if the old CAN box from my former Witson unit was looking exactly the same and the wire socket was exactly the same as the Joying one, the wiring was completely different, different wiring location on the socket, different wire colours. The internals of the CAN boxes looked almost the same but I did not had the courage to test the Witson one on the Joying afraid that I would damage the headunit or more importantly the car...
What I did in the end was to directly connect the resistive buttons of the steering wheel directly to the unit (bypassing the CAN) and program them via the unit software and let the CAN box to decode the other stuff like putting the car in reverse, turning on the lights, feeding +12V to the unit when I start the car.
What I learned is that CAN box is a black box... if it's not working it's almost impossible to find a fix of any kind... or buy a working replacement...
That appears to mirror my initial impression, albeit I feel that different vendors use different providers for these CANboxes and hence that a different CANbox should be able to do the job another can't.
Example, on my XTRONS unit, the steering wheel controls didn't work at all - albeit reverse detection and lights worked well. Unlike my prior box (from 'alec-power' where everything worked (except the radio didn't produce any sound - a slight issue. They took it back and refunded me). Now, XTRONS had me send back the CANbus box, and promised to send another as soon as they have stock again. (1-2 weeks), but they also confirmed that their e39/e46 (BMW) decoder is the same as the one for e53.
What we really need is to figure out how these CANbus boxes work, and ideally how to program them (if that is possible -- which it ought to be).
That's what I was attempting to kick-start with this thread.
Bummer, so no one has any information on these CANbus decoders?
MacConsult said:
Bummer, so no one has any information on these CANbus decoders?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your best bet is to try a different car in the canbus setting in factory settings. I had that problem on my ford focus I set the canbus for it and it didn't work right with the steering wheel so went through them all to find that the ford Mondeo rise settings worked and fixed that problem for me.
Where can i buy new canbus gor ownice c500? I send mail to manufacturer but no answer
pcmender2005 said:
Your best bet is to try a different car in the canbus setting in factory settings. I had that problem on my ford focus I set the canbus for it and it didn't work right with the steering wheel so went through them all to find that the ford Mondeo rise settings worked and fixed that problem for me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Turned out, in my case, that the proper setting was "NONE" in the CANbus settings, and suddenly everything worked.
Chinese engineering....
If you need a canbus box, your best bet would be to go with a more mainstream manufacturer, like axxess/metra. Their units can tie back into the car radio using the SWI1/2 wires.
Any update on this?
Just reviving an old thread looking for answers
I also think there is a problem with my bmw e39 can-bus box i am using with Xtrons PQ7939BIP. When i connect the can-bus box, the red (terminal R) and the yellow (battery + terminal 30) become "shorted" and they should not "touch" each other. This way, i have to connect the yellow and the red wires from the android unit to the violet/white wire from my car (terminal R - accesory) and leave the terminal 30 (hot all time) wire from the car disconnected so that the xtrons unit shuts down when i put the ignition switch in position 0 or when i pull out the key from the ignition switch.
Is this normal or is my can-bus box bad?
Trimis de pe al meu SM-G950F folosind Tapatalk
bogdan wst said:
I also think there is a problem with my bmw e39 can-bus box i am using with Xtrons PQ7939BIP. When i connect the can-bus box, the red (terminal R) and the yellow (battery + terminal 30) become "shorted" and they should not "touch" each other. This way, i have to connect the yellow and the red wires from the android unit to the violet/white wire from my car (terminal R - accesory) and leave the terminal 30 (hot all time) wire from the car disconnected so that the xtrons unit shuts down when i put the ignition switch in position 0 or when i pull out the key from the ignition switch.
Is this normal or is my can-bus box bad?
Trimis de pe al meu SM-G950F folosind Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can connect the red wire to any wire on your bmw that has 12 volts with the key on RUN or ACCESSORY, but the yellow wire needs to have 12 volts all the time.
MacConsult said:
Most of the Android ChinaRadios come with some sort of CANbus decoder (or so they are labeled) to provide steering wheel controls, backup support, etc... Every single vendor will only sell you a CANbus decoder that they 'manufacture' for their units - claiming that any other combination of decoder/radio will not work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Every PX5 and PX head unit can work with a canbus decoder from different manufacturers. You have to go to Android Settings > Car settings > Factory settings (password: 126) > Canbus tab > Select the manufacturer of your canbus decoder and the car model.
I have a PX5 head unit with a canbus decoder from "Simple", and when it broke, I replaced it with "Raise" and it works.
I recommend to review the list of supported canbus decoders in your head unit in the Factory settings, before purchasing a new one. You may need also to buy a new wire harness if you don't have a plug for the canbus decoder.
piotrmocko said:
Every PX5 and PX head unit can work with a canbus decoder from different manufacturers. You have to go to Android Settings > Car settings > Factory settings (password: 126) > Canbus tab > Select the manufacturer of your canbus decoder and the car model.
I have a PX5 head unit with a canbus decoder from "Simple", and when it broke, I replaced it with "Raise" and it works.
I recommend to review the list of supported canbus decoders in your head unit in the Factory settings, before purchasing a new one. You may need also to buy a new wire harness if you don't have a plug for the canbus decoder.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi,
I also have PX unit (PX6) with Simple soft CANBUS and I get more options when I chose raise like air-conditioning info on my PX6 unit. I have Honda civic 2016 and the only thing that is not working is the car clock not syncing through the CANBUS from my Dasaita PX6 unit. which is a bummer.
I am very curious about the Can Box options as when looking to buy a unit for my '18 WRX with HK Audio I found the IDoing selling them with support for the HK and was surprised as Crutchfield and Meastro just added support for this setup and I was about to order their harness and box to wire in a Kenwood unit I have in my old car.
When I found the IDoing(FYT) I figured all the other better know sellers should have had same option so I emailed Joying as I couldn't find option from them and they responded that they didn't have a solution. SYGAV does claim to have one but but it's nearly double cost and all the WRX reviews said it was hit or miss if it worked.
I bought the IDoing unit and it was plug and play and works great(with one exception)
If these are all the same HU and CanBus hardware, why the variances? Just programming by the seller or are they all buying from different MFR?
Before ordering I tried to order a harness and canbus from IDoing and the unit from Joying, Joying wouldn't sell me the HU because I had mentioned I had HK Audio and IDoing Flat out refused to sell me a canbus and harness without proof I had bought a HU from them.
That said the Unit works very well and the only issue with the Canbus is that it can't control the rear speaker separate from the front(no fade).
Someone earlier mentioned buying a maestro, has anyone ever connected one of these chinese units to a maestro box?
Just so everyone knows
I managed to add canbus functionality to my xtrons unit even though they said it’s not compatible
I bought a harness for my car with the correct decoder and chopped it to fit the pin outs of my head unit.
works like a dream.
If anyone needs advice I am always available
what car and what harness? You bought a canbus and harness from another "seller" and made it fit? Or you bought something aftermarket like Maestro?
gottahavit said:
what car and what harness? You bought a canbus and harness from another "seller" and made it fit? Or you bought something aftermarket like Maestro?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Peugeot 207.
bought harness with decoder from feedo seller.
chopped off the connector and soldered it to my hu connector
are you looking to do same?
Sdpuk2020 said:
Peugeot 207.
bought harness with decoder from feedo seller.
chopped off the connector and soldered it to my hu connector
are you looking to do same?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is the harness I bought
Sdpuk2020 said:
Peugeot 207.
bought harness with decoder from feedo seller.
chopped off the connector and soldered it to my hu connector
are you looking to do same?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What are you looking to do?
Sorry I was hoping you had found a way to make a maestro or other idatalink module work.

Only Key 1 on my HU

I bought a unit recently identified as Android 8802 https://www.ebay.com/itm/7-2-Din-Qu...e=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2648 . It only has a Key 1 wire. My car, '03 Volvo XC70, has 2 CANBUS wires in the harness, CanL, CanH. I did some reading and found that sometimes you can ground 1 of the wires and just use the other. I tried this both ways, ground L and connect H to Key 1 and, ground H and connect L to Key 1.
One of those combinations was BAD, no lights on dash and major oh sh!# moment. One of the combinations let me set the buttons for vol up/down and track forward/back BUT, after setting the last button and exiting the setup software whatever was the last function I setup would act like I was pressing the button continuously. Like if it was vol up it would just keep going up, up, up, up, up etc.
Has anyone else dealt with a HU that just had Key 1 and 2 BUS lines?
I think you would want/need a canbus adapter. I found this: https://volvoforums.com/forum/audio...ermarket-steering-wheel-radio-controls-57081/
Thanks for the link/info. I'm seeing a lot of "if" and "maybe" and the like. Nothing that is identified as The solution. I'd much rather try to understand how my unit, which has only 1 SWC wire (Key 1) is meant to be connected to cars to make it work.
I was thinking about joining both CanL and CanH to the Key 1 wire. I'm no EE but my assumption is that if they are both putting out variable voltages and resistances (one "low" and one "high") that combining them would just be sending the entire range of signals through the Key 1 wire to my HU for decoding by the on board s/w. Anyone see a red flag on that?
treojoew said:
Thanks for the link/info. I'm seeing a lot of "if" and "maybe" and the like. Nothing that is identified as The solution. I'd much rather try to understand how my unit, which has only 1 SWC wire (Key 1) is meant to be connected to cars to make it work.
I was thinking about joining both CanL and CanH to the Key 1 wire. I'm no EE but my assumption is that if they are both putting out variable voltages and resistances (one "low" and one "high") that combining them would just be sending the entire range of signals through the Key 1 wire to my HU for decoding by the on board s/w. Anyone see a red flag on that?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Generally canbus is sending out a digital signal. Headunits are expecting an analogue voltage or resistance between key1 and ground. A key2 wire just allows a second analogue signal to be used in addition (I use a key1 +ground and key2+ground in our mazda5 as it has *resistive* steering wheel controls with two different paths - one for most controls and one for just the "phone" button which in the oem set-up only routes to the bluetooth box). I am surprised that canbus signals on their own can ever function on a headnit that is expecting resistive/analogue voltage inputs. I would never attempt to hook it up, but instead would source a canbus adapter that will convert the digital signal to an analogue output. This is exactly what I have on our Saab 9-3: canbus to Connects2 adapter to chinese head unit, where the connects2 box output is connected to the headunit key1 and ground. It is to note that some chinese headunits come with a canbus box built-in, but for a specific vehicle, and in that case the canbus wires would be hooked up directly.
Ahh. That is a huge distinction that I had not heard anywhere else. The fact that the CanBus is digital and the HU is analog. Had you not stated that you also have a Chinese HU (assuming Android) I would have thought you were referring a traditional HU. Why is the Android unit not designed for the digital signal?
Are you certain about all of this? Is this a true statement, "The Chinese Android HU's are designed only to connect to SWC that are analog, NOT the digital CanBus lines"?
treojoew said:
Ahh. That is a huge distinction that I had not heard anywhere else. The fact that the CanBus is digital and the HU is analog. Had you not stated that you also have a Chinese HU (assuming Android) I would have thought you were referring a traditional HU. Why is the Android unit not designed for the digital signal?
Are you certain about all of this? Is this a true statement, "The Chinese Android HU's are designed only to connect to SWC that are analog, NOT the digital CanBus lines"?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As I stated above vehicle specific Chinese Android headunits will come with a canbus adapter (if required). All universal head units that I have seen (meaning Android Chinese head units) are expecting analog inputs. If you look at the advertising for joying or others on aliexpress it explicitly states that you need a canbus adpater if your vehicle outputs (in the harness for the radio) canbus signals. Be aware that the canbus signals that transmit steering wheel control information are not standard, each vehicle manufacturer is free to use whatever signal chain they want for the controls as they are also the "supplier" of the radio. That is why they have vehicle specific canbus adpaters (where the aftermarket canbus adpater manufacturer has "sniffed" that vehicles canbus lines to learn the codes), or universal ones that either learn thru button presses and/or are coded with multiple vehicles. I advise you to contact axxess (if you are in N/A) or connects2 (if you are in the EU) and talk to them about what you need. I have been in contact with both those companies over the years and both should be quite helpful. PAC is another option, but I have no experience with them.
---edit---
All that being said I did a little more googling on your vehicle and it seems it is a problematic one - connects2 shows using the axxess adapter, but only for later years than yours and axxess states that they have no info on your model year. All the more reason to contact axxess, but in the link in my first response didn't someone get your it working with your vehicle and year?
---more edit---
Reading thru that linked page it is definitely a problematic vehicle - it seems like this may be your best bet but more research is definitely required: https://www.crutchfield.com/p_249SWRVL54/CRUX-SWRVL-54-Wiring-Interface.html
Great info. Thanks for your time and your advice.

Need help with canbus issues on my 2005 SLK R171 running Erisin PX5

Hi professionals. Thanks for reading my plea for help. I have a 2005 SLK 200 R171. I recently decided to change my player from the usual audio 20 with cd changer to this Erisin Android PX5 head unit i got off aliexpress. When i received it, i noticed that the harness supplied with the player did not fit my car. Hence i opted to buy a Dynavin harness which by pictures the harness fitted my original plug but the cable attaching to my headunit did not. So i did my rewiring myself. Followed the usual colour and power and got the headunit powered up. However i noticed the can bus is fed with one constant wire, one ground wire, and both the can high and can low cables from the car. And there are 3 cables that goes from the canbus unit to the headunit i.e. brown for reverse, red for acc, orange for illumination. I have 2 more wires with a small harness (White and white/black stripe wire) that does not have an input to anywhere (I believe that Is the canbus high and low to the headunit) and a blue wire. On my headunit harness, according to the wiring diagram attached with the player, there is only one wire going to the can low socket and the can high is empty. Hence i attached my can low from the headunit to a blue wire from the canbus and noticed my steering wheel controls work (volume buttons and +/- track). However, the display on my dash says audio off. Also my rear view camera goes on and off (I looped the trigger wire to the reverse brown wire that exits the canbus and goes to the headunit reverse). I will try an attach a video. Does anyone know if i have made a mistake in the wiring? And does anyone have a wiring diagram for the can bus decoder (brown semi transparent box)?
Any help is very very much appreciated. Thanks tonnes.
My issue link
vimeo dot com slash 462084336
( sorry wasnt allowed to post a link)
Hello Haven,
Did you ever receive an answer? I am having a similar issue. I bought an android head unit with can bus decoder. Almost all the wiring harnesses were wrong and I had to rewire myself. the chinese supplier did not provide any wiring diagrams or pinouts, (claims they do not have any). I finally got my reverse camera, sound, and steering wheel controls working. (all come directly into head unit. The can bus decoder does not seem to be connected to the can H and Can L from the vehicle. I have the same 3 wires from can bus decoder box to android head unit. I am certain based on the other wire harnesses received that the wiring from car to can bus decoder is wrong. Can you tell me what two pins the Can H and Can L are fed to on your decoder box?

Different canbus adapter boxes

I noticed that there are different manufacturers of the canbus adapter boxes. For example, for my Renault Duster 2021 there is a box from SimpleSoft (XP) and Hiworld (HW). Are there big differences between the manufacturers?
I ask because I have a few small problems with my box from SimpleSoft and thought I could try the adapter from Hiworld.
Or is that a waste of money, since the boxes are all the same anyway?
Thanks a lot.
May help:
CANbus decoders - who is manufacturer...?
Most of the Android ChinaRadios come with some sort of CANbus decoder (or so they are labeled) to provide steering wheel controls, backup support, etc... Every single vendor will only sell you a CANbus decoder that they 'manufacture' for their...
forum.xda-developers.com

Hiworld FD01.11 ford mondeo canbus problem

Hello,
some days ago i did a terrible mistake and i joined the can-rx cable(which connects the canbus decoder with the head-unit) with the swc controls cable (from the head-unit side, NOT from the car side.) After that the head-unit never powers off. It stays always on and also all the canbus commands dont work at all, like the ILL command or the reverse camera mode which was automatic.
In ford mondeo there are no ILL or ACC cables coming to the ford quadlock connector.The reverse camera image activates though canbus command as the reverse activation cable connects to the canbus decoder. All these commands come through canbus communications.
So my assumption is that either i made damage to the head-unit can-rx input or to the canbus decoder.
I have noticed three things:
1) All the head-unit functions including flashing the mcu and flashing the system-rom work ok! I read that can-rx and can-tx connect directly to the mcu so with no fried mcu on the head-unit i think that the damaged canbus scenario is more possible.
2)The canbus decoder outputs constanlty 12-14 volts on ACC cable even when the car ignition is off. That is why the head-unit never powers off. Also when i enable the headlights the ILL cable has 0 volts which is sadly expected as the ILL (dimmind of the screen and leds illumination on the head-unit) does not work.
I also gave 12 volts from my power supply to the canbus decoder with nothing connected on it and i checked the ACC cable with multimeter. The voltage was 12 volts as with my previous tests at the car where everything were connected together.
3)And one last thing i want to mention is that after all these i checked with my original sony radio that came with the car and everything is working fine including ACC and ILL so for sure there is no damage to the car side.
So i want your knowledge please.
Do you think that is it a faulty canbus decoder? Is it normal for the ACC pin on the canbus decoder to be 12 volts when there is nothing connected to it?
Does the canbus send commands to the canbus decoder through CanH and CanL for the ACC pin to be 0 volts so that is why it is always 12 volts in the first place when disconnected from the head-unit?
And if the ACC should be 0 volts where should i check for damage on the canbus decoder? Because i checked the capacitors and all seem ok. Also i cant find any obvious short on the circuit. Maybe it is the Nation N32L406 that got damaged?
Thanks in advance!

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