hey Dave - slightly late to the party and installed a totally different unit but was very grateful for the installation insights you provided in this video. I am not sure I would have got here without it ! Got suckered by the acc and power cable inverse colours , but once I went yellow red and red yellow on the MOST and wire harness connection I had sound. Very appreciated.
Decent review 👍... You really came through in the end. Really looking for more information about upgrades for Glk, C class & ML older models 2010 to 2014
Just to add if your car has a constant on meaning you can turn on the radio with the key out of the ignition while cool and all this can be a problem with the new system because with the factory system out of the car and plug the new one in it will power up why is that well the car doesn't knew the system so it defaults to the power on the only way the deal with this is to bypass the radio acc and run a wire from the rear compartment fuse box (use the cigarette lighter fuse) and run it to the unit i learned a hard 7 hour lesson dealing with this and now I have a great replacement command radio
Right on. This one baffled me for awhile then I realized the same thing. My car will power on the deck for about 30 seconds, then everything shuts down. I just used the original radio wires.
Hi there, you mentioned the backup camera should connect to the green button but the it came in a single wire without any socket to the green, how can you do yours? Please advise, thank you
What would be a good one at this moment? On the other hand; I am a audiophile and have an old Nakamichi headunit that sounds great and of course high end amps. I Was thinking about making 2 seperate setups with the original Mercedes unit in place (for telephone and nav). But the Android system would be better. Could I connect it to a (aux) another head unit, connected to my own amps?
Hi, thank you for sharing this video. Can you share some info on the accessory connection. I have the similar MB HU on a 2009 E350. There is 2 set of bundle wires to the white connector. One is for the built in Mic (6 wires) and other 2 wires i do not have any idea. I have connected the original blue fakra antenna wire to the new FM radio but I do not have any sound from the radio. Could the 2 wires be part of the satellite radio trigger? Thank you in advance.
I really love this stereo, but I have had it a year now and it shuts off randomly. Have you experienced this? Do you have any idea what would cause this after a year?
Great video thank you. I am still having trouble with two things 1) Steering wheel control not working at all. I simp[ly plugged in the Can Bus to the Toopai harness and then plugged it all in. I did not understand what you were doing with the "T" caps and the Ground, B1, and ACC. Do I need to get power to the steering wheel control. Also 2), the rear veiw camera and backup signals are no longer working. Do I need to wire the camera in some way or do I need to get power to the camera somehow?
Thanks for your comment. As far as I recall, it's been awhile, the steering wheel control where pretty straight forward plugging into the harness. As for camera, are you using it with the factory camera or the aftermarket? I use mine with the factory camera with the special harness that is necessary. As for the T-taps, it's just an inline method to tap into an existing wire, not necessary but an easy way.
Hi Dave, this is a beautiful video and it has been 2 years already. I have ML 350 2007 and I need to change it to android, please could you recommend for me the best brand to use and how much it could cost me fully installed with camera and with RAM at least 4GB. Thank you
The stock radio works just fine however upon installing the new MEKEDE M400 Android 10 deck with the fibreoptic box properly connected in my 2007 W164 ML350 I am getting no audio at all. Odd thing is, I do not see any flashing red via the Benz optical cable when disconnected as yours does in the video however the optical conversion box flashes. Any suggestions or did you have any similar issues? Cheers
Hi Dave, this was a great video. Can you tell me how is the radio working after a year and have you had any issues with it since? I have a 2010 ML 350 and I live in South Florida. Thanks.
Still have the car. Still working good. Radio reception sucks a bit but I normally hotspot my phone and use Spotify for music, as well as Waze for navigation. It does update the car to today's standard screen wise. I'm sure if you purchase one today, the updated ones now are even faster and better than mine. If I have time, I would get a front dashcam that incorporates into this deck as well.
Thanks for the video. Does the head unit have its own SIM card? I assume you need to use your phone as a wifi hotspot. How do you get telephone functionality on the head unit? Where did you end up placing your microphone? Did you ever solve the issue for no fade control? Are there any other upgrades you recommend for this vehicle?
It does not have a sim card. I use the bluetooth matching from my phone to make calls. I am using a Franklin mobile hotspot mounted near the top of the windshield next to the rear view mirror mount. Works great. I mounted the microphone the simplest way, just above the steering wheel. As for the fade, didn't really need it as it turned out pretty balanced so I opted to just leave it alone. As for the W164 ML550, I upgraded the mats inside the car. I custom ordered a set which covers both fronts, rears and the trunk. All matching black with diamond shape stitching in Red. Gets compliments whenever someone new ride in the car. Cost was about $120. I also have front and rear dashcam (capacitor ones as the battery version overheated on my before and puffed up). Recently added a roof crossbar too. Low cost and works pretty well. Amazon.
Did you adjust anything with radio or frame? My radio is not tight and moving around in the dashboard.Up/down gap about 5 mm. In/out has gar 2-3 mm. BTW, FAKRA yellow is bluetooth antenna, Green - camera, Blue - GPS antenna. The vehicle with MOSTAR optic doesn't have antenna. It have HD radio under second raw seats with double FAKRA antenna connector.
No movement at all, actually, ever so slightly too large. Wish it was 1mm smaller. Thanks for the update on the fakra wire color, this will help others.
Same answer as the other. Just tap into a remote lead when car turns on. Note though, Mercedes has this weird way of having power on for like 30 seconds after you turn off the car which leads to false positive when you test things out. Threw me off testing for hours thinking something was wrong when in fact, that's the way its setup.
Hello this video is great I have 1 question did you do anything special for the Backup camera to work I'm not getting no video when I put the car in reverse
I just used the fraka adapter with the factory camera connector. I don't recall having to power up the camera but it's been about a year ago so hard to remember now. So an update from last year. It's still functioning good. With the setting for delay shut down, it's wonderful as now, practically no reboot time for short stops at groceries stores and such. Up to 30 minutes stops, no initial reboot sequence. I learned to remove unnecessary apps to give the unit more memory to work with. I'm using an external tmobile hotspot in my car to give it internet and the speed to reasonable enough for streaming RU-vid videos. Wazes works fantastic as navigation and police/accidents alerts. Well worth the cost of the unit.
If I recall, it's just basic power ground power and remote turn on lead. Nothing special. The key was testing out the correct fiber optic connection before you put everything back together. Just test it when everything is out. You may need to swap the fiber optic wire around.
There is a module that can split the balance but after a few months of this, I fell there was no need as it works just fine the way it is. Way louder and more bass than my stock deck.
Hello, good afternoon, can you please tell me on the back of the radio where I have the reverse camera, your video was of great help but I can't see how I connect the rear camera.
Still working pretty good as I've been using Nova Launcher as my front end and it's much more customizable and prettier. However, there is no way to link odb2 to torque app as the Bluetooth is only one way discovery meaning your device has to find it, not the stereo finding your device. Another is that Nova Launcher don't have an interface with the radio control so using it, you cannot get local radio stations but I'm using Amazon music, pandora, spotify and USB stick so my music choices are pretty unlimited but would be of been nice to have it. Going back to the original launcher, everything is back to normal. One last thing bothering me now but getting use to, is the start up time, it seems like it's a cold start everytime. Before I could of swore it was quick. Maybe its me doing some rewiring as I was messing with the looking for the car stock dimmer wire so the stereo unit will dim with the car. Overall, it was worth the time and investment switching out the factory with this. Modernize the car significantly and having Waze on a big screen is beautiful. Many times I would have RU-vid music videos playing as my music source.
@@Wong4u great i m looking to but for my bmw e46 and toopai android 10 ones are around 220$ and there are other brands for 400$.hard to decide when the product description is vague and not honest. AliExpress issues, it's always a gamble
@@takobaba8616 lol, I'm also looking for another unit for my e46 m3 as well. Couldn't find the differences between android 10 vs 9.1. For my e46, same issue as I have factory nav so I need the fiber optic box again. This time I'm looking for either an eonon or avin unit.
Sound quality is actually pretty good, my guess is the fiber optic conversion box is working as it should. My guess is the limitation is from the speakers themselves.
Hi, do you have to use the factory module with your new radio,the radio i want is an alpine it has everything i want so i want to know can i bypass every thing from the old radio
What do you mean factory module? Are you referring to the amplifier? That's what the optical box is for, using it in conjunction with the factory amplifier. Otherwise you can bypass all of that and use an external amp or the alpine built in amp to power the speakers. I think the easiest is to use the optical box as you retain the usage of the Mercedes amp
@@Wong4u Hello. the alpine i want has every thing i just came from a sterio expert? he wont touch it, but you did it can you send me a list of what i need for my 2008 ml550 diagrams anything will hepl you make it seam se easy i could do it with your help.ill pay you something for your help.
This was the one I purchased from amazon as it was the same brand as the stereo www.amazon.com/TOOPAI-Optical-Decoder-Mercedes-Porsche/dp/B07VSXZ3DS/ref=sr_1_7?dchild=1&keywords=w164+fiber+optic+decoder&qid=1604123409&sr=8-7
Unfortunately no, it will not work with the changer. However, with the usage of SD card, it's way better than a changer. You can literally have thousands of songs on it
It should fit all W164 mercedes as the center console is the same. Bought mine from Amazon but this particular model is no longer available but many other similar ones are. For HK, you will need a fiber optic box add on.
What would be a good one at this moment? On the other hand; I am a audiophile and have an old Nakamichi headunit that sounds great and of course high end amps. I Was thinking about making 2 seperate setups with the original Mercedes unit in place (for telephone and nav). But the Android system would be better. Could I connect it to a (aux) another head unit, connected to my own amps?
This was the item from Amazon I bought. Currently no longer available but many other similar ones. www.amazon.com/dp/B07QJCGFG1/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_glt_fabc_AH5VA64NQ06ASH3YMNKN?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1
hi does this work for replcaing the car sterio with this suitable for RClass 350 L Mercedes 2007 model in australia, iam curious to buy asap, how much it costs approximately in Australian dollar
You cannot. You will need a mercedes STAR diagnostic tool or have Mercedes do it for you. It's a setting they can enable where you can adjust the clock via the steering wheel.
I have a 08 Gl with same radio different brand it works great out the box then next day takes 15-20 mins before sounds comes on i cleaned up my wires twice same results. I have the HK with the Decoder Box connected . Any help ?
In the settings, there is a function which you can set the for fast boot. It can be set at 5, 10, 30, and 60 minutes on mine which helps start up time tremendously. If I hope into a grocery store and come out, it resumes my music as well as whatever else I had opened before.
@@Wong4u ok thanks I will try that . I'm confused as to why its such a delay some days its comes on as it should others its a 15 mins before i get sound . I wonder if I'm having can communication issues
No it does not work the XM or factory CD. Figure，there is really no need for CD as you can put all your music on a USB drive, say 32GB will hold thousands of music.
I used the factory backup camera via the Fakra cable that I purchased. Made the installation much quicker. However, the stereo did include an aftermarket camera which I chose not to use as why.
@@Wong4u Oof, that sucks, so basically never let you car battery die? (for me i found out i am running the OG battery for 13 years! but am getting a warning to replace!)
@@TheZenMicro Knock on wood, my dash clock is exactly one hour different than real time because of daylight saving time. I'm waiting for the time to jump back so it matches :)
@@Wong4u im pretty sure you can set the time via this stereo but i dont remember how it works, i will install another one for one of my clients on the next weekend and if i figure out how to do this i will let you know.
Can you do a deep dive on the Music player side of things? Does it support Spotify?, does it support Google voice response? everything you've showed sounds great but you know the DEVIL is in the detail, i need Android Auto and decent music player features and display. I look forward to a new video showing the day to day features.
I used spotify on a daily basis as well as Waze. Google voice works but in the noisy car environment, it often mishear what ask. Instead of the factory OS, I installed Nova Launcher on top of it. This give me cell phone like capability with both look and feel as well as functionality. What I do loose is the Radio station as Nova Launcher does not support grabbing the code from the original OS and passing the radio through. Since I listen to Spotify (and Pandora), no loss for me. I also loaded VLC to launch music from the USB drive. I have a 128GB drive which is loaded with 40,000+ songs I collected over the years along with dozens of movies. Most of these are just for backup as I can just launch youtube and search for pretty much any music there. The sound quality on my unit is pretty good. Better and louder than the factory Bose it replaces, surprising enough. What I am beginning to hate is that it does not remember where I left off once you turn off the car. You basically have to start all over again, launching Spotify or whatever you where doing before you turn off the car, even for a short few seconds. Annoying as hell but its something you will have to get used to. At least that's with the Nova launcher.
@@Wong4u you can set the sleep mode for this stereo from 10 minutes to 1 or 2 hours if you like (stereo will stay in standby mode after the car is turned off)
@@Wong4u usually it is under settings car settings or general settings, if you can not find it go to settings about tablet hit the gear icon password 0000 or 8888 then you will have several options there, just be careful you can mess things up in there if you don't know what are you doing.
How long does it take for the unit to boot up once you turn the car on? It looked like it took around 10 to 15 seconds when you first powered it up. Thanks.
There is a setting where you can choose standby time. First boot is up to a minute depending on which skin you use. However, if you set say 15min standby, anytime within 15min, it will immediately boots up and goes back to where you left off.
@@malcolmmack3108 I found a solution after deep researching with trial and error, locate the back up camera wire, use any rca cable and splice them and tap them into the oem wire and then the male into the reverse rca female on the aftermarket hard drive.
KingVDT519 any pics or how do I trace the reverse camera wire to the head unit? I just got my sound to work today but camera still not working getting a no signal message on screen
You must of connected to constant 12v instead of ignition 12v, that's the only thing I can think of. Even after 3 years of my install, my car still starts as normal. Even though the unit is aging against newer units, it still functions pretty well when I hotspot my phone and using the Waze app for mapping and traffic and bluetooth for music streaming. No regret installing it for what it's worth.
@@Wong4u user error, sorry! I have android 11, little different setup. My backup camera worked after I switched it to NTSC mode, but backup camera light does not work. Can you help ?
Hey man, I’ve heard T tapping into the ACC cable will drain your battery. Is that true? From a different RU-vidr he said to just tap in the b++ cable. I have a ML550 and the guy has a 63. Let me know
@@Wong4u thanks man, also I installed mine and my speakers have a loud thump every minute if the car is unlocked and one loud thump when I start it up and then it’s normal. When it’s locked no loud thump. Is it possibly my fibre optic? I have it currently wired ACC and B to the cable on the right of the ACC and the negative to the one on top. I’ll probably have to get a multi meter to test since I got a 11 ml550 and you have a 09.
@@Wong4u hey man I just bought a whole new unit. I installed everything fine and the problem I have only is there is no audio at all. I have switched the fiber optic red and white cables to the other red and white on the navigation but still no audio.
Are you using a fiber optic converter box? Its an optional unit and all the pretty much do is take the factory fiber optic output and convert it to analog rca.
D W yes I am, what I find weird is how your fiber optic cable is connected to nothing but remains turned on. On my end nothing is turned on, the fiber optic box and the cable are both turned off and nothing is happening. Is there a power for the amp or something I’m missing the connection for?
@@andorexurix2491 I have the same problem like you. the fiber optic cable turns red only if I connect the factory head unit. Did you find a solution for that?
I have this same head unit or at least very similar I have 2 issues If anyone could please help? 1- the units stays on whether ignition is on or not 2- the rear camera works for a few days and then looses signal it will only come back on if I disconnect the main harness but will loose signal again after a few days Thanks in advance!
I have the solution for issue No.1 In the adapter harness that came with the unit there is a red and a orange wire with a connector from unit side and from adapter side labeled something like Batt+ or similar, disconnect that connector and isolate it with electrical tape and it will work. About issue No.2 depends if its the factory camera or the aftermarket one that came with the unit there are different solutions for each one.
Hello Sir. Can you say something about how music sounds. Because I had In my gl Harman cardon and when I changed the original radio to android quality of audio is mach poorer. Have a nice day
@@Jagogjk1 I bought the fiber optic box from amazon as it was the same brand as the deck. www.amazon.com/TOOPAI-Optical-Decoder-Mercedes-Porsche/dp/B07VSXZ3DS/ref=sr_1_7?dchild=1&keywords=w164+fiber+optic+decoder&qid=1604123409&sr=8-7
I wish you would show the important things like which wire goes where instead saying you did it . I think we all know how to play with Android device and set it up . your video was more confusing than helping.
The wiring is pretty straight forward if you follow the labeled wiring that comes with the unit. The only gotch was not knowing one of the wires because of the color coding.
Hello Dave, any idea who is manufacturer company of this unit, or what brand is it? Or what is the modell number of this unit so i can try to find brand name?
It's a Toopai brand which they do not sell this particular model any longer. But just do an Amazon search for W164 Stereo and you should be able to find various other ones similar to this model. Just look for the fastest processor you are willing to pay.
I just checked, this particular sku is no longer available on amazon but there is others basically the same from this brand as well as others. The key is get the most amount of RAM as possible to avoid slowdown. At least 3gb, 4gb would be ideal.
Not exactly the same unit as it's discontinued because its older with android 9. The new version from the same company is this one www.amazon.com/dp/B0827R4DZJ/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_glt_fabc_FQVV4KTVC19SDE6XK435 This one is Android 10.
uzoma Prosper I just installed the same head unit branded as Hizpo in my 2010 W164 ML350. I’d suggest checking the antenna output on your current unit as mine has a dual FAKRA output plug and the adapter supplied with the Hizpo unit is a single male FAKRA. I have found an adapter on EBay to solve this issue but right now I am only getting FM band radio. Not a big problem but I want everything to work! Definitely worth getting the Microphone too as the one on the head unit is pretty useless unless you are shouting at it. There is a way to tap into the car’s inbuilt mic but that is beyond my electronics skills. Note that the antenna connection shown intel video is incorrect. He has connected it to the Bluetooth antenna FAKRA connection I think rather that the radio connection.
Unrelated question, currently saving to buy my first suv - was thinking ‘08 ML350 CDI with 100k miles, how would you rate your reliability/ownership? Absolutely love the W164, thank you in advance
@@bradsnell7676 Sigh... The plot thickens with this unit (and likely other Chinese head units), hard to get a straight answer about everything working with these units as there are so many aspects to consider
How is the FM reception? I've heard of problems with other units and the MB not playing nice with the antenna. PS Thanks for this great install video. I ordered the Android 10 Version with 4GB ram
No FM issue. Signal as before. I wished I waited to get the Android 10. The 4gb ram is nice. Maybe I'll upgrade next year to something else as there is always something new. Good luck with your install.
MB has a powered antenna module in the trunk door and some people (like me in the past) don't connect the antenna power wire and then you get a terrible FM reception, even if the antenna power is not a plug and play wire you have to connect it with a same matching color (on the android stereo adapter)
@@Jagogjk1 I have a bad reception on fm what cables should be connected to where to resolve problem oh and an you change the screen tabs in size .happy with unit and should i get a internet dongle
Yes there are well known brand like Kenwood,JVC, Alpine, etc. Except they are about double or triple in price as well as not offering full "Android" features but skinned in their own flavor. The name brand does have better touch screen sensitivity and speed, but again the cost. I was just weighing in cost and benefits and choose this for the features.
