Phoenix Android Radio Walkthrough and settings Pt 1

Kwalsh24

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The company goes by "hot-audio" and googling either hot audio or Dasaita brings up a chunk of info on them. Also hot-audio participates somewhat actively on the forum and theirs accustom rom made for their unit\ along with any other units (like this one) that uses the px3 or px5 chipset.

This would be my 4th Android unit and I've learned from the past to stay away from sellers who aren't active or not realitivly jesrd of on the xda forums. As that's the place to go to get support when needed, or customization

https://www.google.ca/search?q=hot+...nt=ms-unknown&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8


Joying is another known brand, they currently don't list anything for this generation civic. They either use the px3 px5 or intel based units.

There's also ownice however they don't have as large of a backing on xda and from reviews of their unit they aren't the greatest.
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Kwalsh24

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Well my unit is in. And must say not impressed. Horrible FM reception and the units audio cuts out after the power locks activate on the car. The representative has even asked me to contact the American distributor for help as he isnt familiar with the unit. And that would be... Pheonix. Lovely!

I know the px5 unit is new... But yeah insane.

When the unit works it works nice. However, I have lost some of the dash info, the fuel economy, turbo display remains, I do get some phone info on the dash but have lost the maintenance menu, and the mph\kph on the fly switch and the music display. I did gain a current trip display that states how long the current commute has been in minutes & distance.

I'm contemplating taking the unit out and going back factory. Perhaps sending this unit back but likely will cost me a good chunk of change to do so. So yet again, burnt by the Chinese Android radio market
 

amxandy

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Okay, here is my take on getting the Phoenix Android Head Unit (I got the 9" upgraded system from China) installed in my 2018 Civic Si. It is NOT a direct replacement. It is close, but it will cost you more money (cost me $1000+) to get it installed. The factory amp is NOT usable on the Honda "Premium" systems and I had to buy an aftermarket amp and I had it professionally installed. After the installation, the sound was significantly better, but the stock subwoofer was just not cutting it. I replaced the subwoofer as well and now it ROCKS! It is so much better and the music just comes alive now. All in all, it was a nice investment, I just wish I could have NOT been forced to get the Honda version of a premium system. Here are my pros and cons of the system:
Pros:
  • It is much faster and more responsive that the stock unit
  • The sound is amazing since upgrading.
  • The steering wheel controls and cameras all work with little issue. I still haven't figured out how to remap the buttons, but most of them work as I would expect.
  • The video quality is excellent and the backup and side camera's have excellent resolution
  • There is SO much to tweak on this, it will take me days or weeks to get it to my liking.
  • Ktuner works flawlessly with this.
Cons:
  • No good one stop spot to get information on this. The manual and online searches were hit and miss.
  • The FM Tuner is a joke. I can only get a few stations and I am only 15 miles outside of Houston. The Honda radio was MUCH better. This is not really and issue for me as I plan on using my data plan and hotspotting my phone as well as using a flash drive for music.
  • The cost for getting my $380 radio install was significant, but the end result is that it looks factory and it is running Android Oreo.
My conclusion is that I am very happy right now as it sounds and looks great. Hopefully when I am done tweaking it to my liking, it will be that much better. If anyone wants an upgrade, this is good for what it is, but it will cost you!
 

Moopy62

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Here's my walk through of the Phoenix Android Radio Headunit. This is a guide to set the headunit to work properly with the 2017 Honda Civic.

This unit is absolute crap. Stay far far away. I have owned for a couple months. Its functionality is buggy at best or completely worthless at worst. Crashing, non-functioning design, extremely unreliable wifi connectivity.... the list goes on.
 


SCOPESYS

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Legit. Definitely looks more responsive and fluid than the squirrel-powered OEM head unit that comes with the Touring model.
The Honda Head Units have a far better LCD display.
Whites are a bright white, while blacks are really BLACK> ( ie very Hugh Contract ratio)
The Cheap China Units have a totally CRAP display. They are not very bright, so the manufacturer turns the internal brightness way to high, so that the screen washes out.
ie The Blacks become a dark grey.
If only the China units had a decent display, then switching to a non-honda unit would be more attractive.

I notice the more recent China Units, designed for the Honda, have "copied ? / reverse-engineered" the Honda Software modules, so that their units are now more compatible with the newer Honda car electronics.
 

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There is a new 8.0 version of the android headunit on Amazon. Perhaps better, functionality and fixed bugs
 

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There is a new 8.0 version of the android headunit on Amazon. Perhaps better, functionality and fixed bugs
There are lots, and have been for some time, Some are even some Android 8.1 models now... but most are cheap, dim, unreliable "you get what you pay for" units.

So far, I have not seen an aftermarket China Android Head Unit, that has a display anywhere as good as the OEM Honda units.
 

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There are lots, and have been for some time, Some are even some Android 8.1 models now... but most are cheap, dim, unreliable "you get what you pay for" units.

So far, I have not seen an aftermarket China Android Head Unit, that has a display anywhere as good as the OEM Honda units.
Yeah forsure Honda makes a beautiful image display. Probably in the top 5 of all car manufacturers. I drive a Sport Hatch. Mine head unit a retro 90s look lol. I rather get the aftermarket head units...just waiting on one that is tuner view compatible :(
 

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An "upgrade" without a volume knob isn't an upgrade IMOP. :D
 


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Two questions. Do these have an SD card slot? Also do you need to purchase anything beyond the head unit in order for an install?
 

Moopy62

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No
And yes....youll need extra money for another head unit when ur sick of this.

Seriously I would never recomend the unit

It has 3 usb inputs so u can attach a thumb drive for songs/video. I ve tried this several times with several usb’s but the unit (not the apps) skips/pauses/locks. Gave up.

I bought apple play dongle. Its ok but noticed if i keave it in the car on a cold night it wont connect.

The unit is a shit show
 

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No
And yes....youll need extra money for another head unit when ur sick of this.

Seriously I would never recomend the unit

It has 3 usb inputs so u can attach a thumb drive for songs/video. I ve tried this several times with several usb’s but the unit (not the apps) skips/pauses/locks. Gave up.

I bought apple play dongle. Its ok but noticed if i keave it in the car on a cold night it wont connect.

The unit is a shit show
100% agree.

My personal theory :
What do you do as a cheap Android Head Unit manufacture (with poor Quality Control ?), and you get a lot of units that fail QC and it cost more to repair them than the cost to manufacture one ?
You sell them off to someone else, who re-brands them and sells them on Ebay.

At least this would explain why so may of the Cheap China units on Ebay are reported by their purchasers as Not working correctly.
Some work, some do not .. I guess I was lucky in that I got a working one, after returning the 1st one, that would not even power up. !!
 

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Well, shit. I was dead set on putting my Pioneer in the Civic but this seemed nice just for the face of keeping the reverse camera angles. The SD card is what I use 99% of the time in my Pioneer where have tons of movies and stuff loaded up.
 
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SCOPESYS

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Well, shit. I was dead set on putting my Pioneer in the Civic but this seemed nice just for the face of keeping the reverse camera angles. The SD card is what I use 99% of the time in my Pioneer where have tons of movies and stuff loaded up.
One problem with the SD card :- Android 8 (at least) wants to do a "Check CF card for errors" each time you BOOT the HU or take it out of sleep.
Unless you have ROOT access, you cannot disable this "Chkdsk" function, for a big CF card, it can take quite some time (about 2 minutes for 128Gb, even on a very fast unit).

The way around this is to use a USB Solid state (or mechanical) Hard drive.
SSD is obviously a far better option in car, ESPECIALLY WITH ULTRA LOW PROFILE TIRES !!


When not using a CF card, size is not an issue, and the OS will not do the Chkdsk on a SSD on startup.

I Stopped using a CF card for Music (& videos !), and started using a USB (3.0) SSD.
No delay now, and unit is up and running just as fast it wit did with no additional CF .

A 240GB 3.0 SSD is sub $100.

240GB is a LOT of music and quite a lot of Video as well .. not that you "should" be running Video when Driving !!!
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