I finally did a car thing today. My daughter's 2011 Civic came with the basic integrated AM/FM with aux input. She has intermittent need for navigation and I wanted to give her a hands-free phone solution as well.
This Atoto F7 XE has popped up on my youtube feed a few times so I pulled the trigger on one from Amazon, as well as a Scosche double din install kit.
I remember we were having a discussion before about wired vs wireless ACP/AA, so I figured for about 210 including the remote, its worth trying this one.
Everything arrived last week, so I got the wiring harness soldered up last weekend. Total cost was just under 300, including a small roll of wiring harness tape. Its a pretty simple install, without a factory amp or steering wheel controls to integrate with.
This video gives a decent overview of installing the fascia: https://youtu.be/SO-d-xzjUDw
Old and new head units on the bench swapping over the HVAC controls and switches:
The Scosche fascia was a close but not perfect color match. Also, it seems that the Atoto head unit is a mm or two bigger than standard double din? Her car didnt come with steering wheel controls, so I also this wireless remote:
It talks via an RF dongle, which I stuck on the inside of the fascia:
Quick test drive before swapping all the stuff over:
I got a $20 'Honda Civic' backup camera off ebay. Basically doesnt look like it will work as it will either catch film of the inside of the license plate surround or the top of the plate/bumper.
This shot is looking up at the license plate lights and the camera/light is supposed to replace one of the two stock lights. Cool idea, not really a good solution for this car. Also, getting the stock light out involves removing the license plate surround, which uses several plastic clips that dont seem accessible from behind. So, I ended up running the wiring to the head unit, and I'll figure out another camera solution for the next weekend she comes home.
So, I put in the phone mic in front of the gauge cluster (quicker and to me it seems that you're basically talking right at it in normal driving position) . For the USB wired AA/ACP cord, I got one of these:
Supposedly it works well for wired ACP, I was looking at reviews and it seems that ACP is kind of sensitive to the USB connection. My wife's iphone will not connect to the head unit in my Saab, which i suspect is due to the USB I put in.
At any rate, this connector is a 'good enough' fit in the hole that until recently held the aux plug for the original stereo. Quick and easy to install rather than cutting a hole elsewhere in the dash. I also got a coiled 'lightning cable' for $10.
So, here's the finalized install:
The remote didnt work out quite as well as I hoped. Due to the spoke design the strap isn't long enough to go around, and not really enough surface are to use trim tape. I guess it goes well with the lobster, so there's that...
Initial impressions: booting up takes about 15 seconds, which seems longer than the JVC in my RSX. That could be aggravating waiting for the backup camera to become available. Using my Android, it connects wirelessly to AA after a couple seconds and seems to work just as well as the wired connection in the other cars.
The remote does have a slight delay, but does work well otherwise. You can configure the button colors to match your car, which is kind of cool. I thought there was an option to change the boot up logo to be marque specific, but cant find it yet. When I wired up the harness, I used the orange and or/blk illumination wires, so it dims when you turn the lights on.
Of course Olivia is out shopping, so I havent gotten to try it with ACP yet.
