Least-obtrusive way to get Android Auto/CarPlay in a GZG50 Century

[pugwonk]

I want Android Auto in my GZG50, but I also don't want it to look like a 1990s car with a 2020s head unit in it. There is quite often a lot of chatter on the Facebook group about the subject but it's hard to search, so I thought I'd start a thread here with my notes.

I think there are three options:

Replace the Tape Deck

The tape deck and heater controls are both single-DIN units, so one very easy way to get AA would be to remove the tape deck and replace it with a slide-out AA unit like the Pioneer AVH-3500NEX (https://www.crutchfield.com/p_130AV3500 ... l?tp=72381). The problem there would be that these units pretty much all slide out upwards, and therefore they'd go straight over the heater controls. I'm also not sure they'd clear the gear shifter if you have a floor shift. Plus the car is going to look a bit like a 1990s car with a 2020s head unit in it, which was what I didn't want.

Feed Android Auto Into The Original Screen

What I'd ideally like to do is to use the original dash screen and leave the car looking as factory as possible. There's a tantalising video on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEomLhrLXGQ) that shows exactly what I want, but this is a system that OZM Group build for customers in Australia and they don't reply to emails asking how they did it (ask me how I know!).

The only way to get touch screen functionality on the OEM screen is to insert a touch panel in front it. I know that people do this but it sounds terribly complicated and I'm not sure I'm brave enough. Android Auto is actually pretty usable without a touch screen, so I was thinking maybe I'd get a Nav-TV SmartLink unit https://navtv.com/products/category/35/smart-link.html, hide the small controller somewhere and try to feed the output of that into the front screen. There's also an item from Cartisan that might work for this https://cartizan-direct.com/products/un ... =39930633f. I've no idea how to do that last part. Does it have video inputs?

Replace the Original Screen With a New Unit

If I can't use the factory screen (or it really is too awful for AA), then I would like to replace that screen with something that looks very like it. Ricky Maratoneta water-jet cut his original dash panel and did an amazing job of fitting a new unit where it had been - there's a great write up of this on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/groups/1547591 ... 089084439/). However I've got no idea how he fixed the unit into the car as I'm sure there's not a normal double-DIN cage back there.

I am by no means an expert on this (I've done three or four AA head units in cars, and they were all much simpler than this), but I thought I'd put down my thoughts just to get the ball rolling.

[chukatsung]

I want to go back to your YouTube link on feeding input to the original screens.

After looking at this video,
https://youtu.be/BpluczmdIi8
I think it might be similar to this product,
https://youtu.be/aNgMVJ8d1cw
Which takes an input from your Android/iPhones, and feed the output via HDMI or RCA. The kit even come with the controller.

For those who have the DVD players in their Century, can't we use the video feed to have Android Auto/Apple Carplay? And of that is already occupied, I am sure there are RCA to TV antenna converters so we can have it feed into the TV function?

Problem is tracking down the kit, I didn't have much luck with major online platforms, the company that still make the product is in China and is listed on Alibaba.

More digging needed to see what else they offer that might work

[pugwonk]

I've been thinking about how to put an external video input into the Century screen... I found these pictures of a Century DVD player. What's interesting about it is that the DVD player has the yellow/red/white photo connections in the front of it; I thought that if I could work out how those phono connections go into the Century's wiring harness then I could just splice another device in there instead of a DVD player.

From the photos you can see a part number on the phono connector (86191-45010). I'm going to see if I can find that part...

[pugwonk]

Did a bit more digging on this... this Toyota Sienna S-video connector looks a lot like it would fit into the Century harness. Part number is 86191-45010. You can get these pretty easily on eBay - e.g. https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R ... 0&_sacat=0

[pugwonk]

I am about to try and remove my center console, using the instructions here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1547591 ... 2135890102

[Eric]

Keep us updated!

[pugwonk]

Will do - I just bought one of those Toyota Siena RCA connectors from eBay; once it gets here I'll see if I can get the console apart and make it connect to anything!

[pugwonk]

Sienna connector is here... next step is to take apart the console and see if the other side of the white plastic connector is in there. I don't think I'll be doing that until next month.

I'm now wondering whether this whole plan is going to work or not, because the manual seems to suggest that you can't play external video on the screen while the car is in motion. But we shall see.

[pugwonk]

Well, I took apart the center console in the hope of finding the white block connector that my Sienna RCA inputs might connect to, but it looks like I'm having no luck. There is a big white block connector that isn't attached to anything, but it certainly isn't the same shape as the Sienna connector.

[pugwonk]

The good news is that I managed to get the center console apart... the bad news is that there don't seem to be any connectors other than those three. This suggests to me that the VCR plugged into one of these, and not into anything like the connector I saw on the DVD player (perhaps this was only on more recent cars)?

Here's the only spare connector that was under the center console (it's sized for 16 pins but only has 14 pins used):

I did a bit of digging around and found an original VCR player for sale on Yahoo Japan (https://buyee.jp/item/yahoo/auction/t1091945045). The connector on that looks like it's 8 pins wide and would fit nicely into the female socket I've got:

Unfortunately there aren't any pics of the end of the connector so that's all a bit of a guess.

The pics for that auction do also show the model name for the VCR - it seems to be a Panasonic AG-101CR.

Further googling that VCR unit seems to suggest that it was available with normal RCA outputs on the back instead:

Continuing my general theme of wild conjecture here, I'm thinking maybe this means that three of the pins in the cable are in fact L/R audio and RCA video. I'm now wondering whether I try to procure a VCR unit and then try to derive what the outputs were. I suspect that there'll be more to it than this, as I bet there's also some sort of trigger for when the video player is actually playing something (to tell the car to put it on the screen).