I just picked up new Pumpkin stereo and I'm pretty excited as it is my first true Android powered car stereo. I have been looking at them for a long time and the biggest hesitation that I had was the complaints that I had heard of slow start-up times. I have been looking around at stereo options for my 2003 Silverado ECSB recently, and noticed that all of the higher end name brands were just so expensive. And they are only now just starting to get the Android Auto integration. That led me to look and see if there were any new improvements to the true Android stereos. Then I came across this Pumpkin unit that had every option that I was looking for; HD capacitive touch screen, Steering wheel integration, Bluetooth 4.0, phone mirroring or Google Navigation (this has both), and a rear backup camera input.

I really haven't had a lot of time to play around with the head unit, but so far I'm very impressed. One of the things that I was concerned about was having something that wouldn't be easy to navigate for my wife. I installed last night and when she got in my truck this morning, she was very impressed. I really like the UI that it comes with stock. Some of the icons are locked, but I'm ok with that. There are a ton of great pre-loaded apps such as Torque, and the Navigation app that came standard is Google Maps. Once I get to play around with it more I may make a video of the operation to help others make a decision. The unit is just as advertised for the quick boot up times. When I first booted up the unit it took only about 15 seconds and then every time after that it comes on almost instantly playing my music.

I'm hoping to finish up the install this weekend and play around with the placement of the wi-fi and GPS antenna's. I also want to wire up the backup camera and get that functioning. I will keep this updated as I progress through installing the rest of the components.

Unboxing it:





Couple installed pics. I will get some better ones this week.





Anyone that has installed one of these stereos, I would appreciate you chiming in to know more about how you integrated the steering wheel controls.

Thanks,
Ryan

 

I also found out that I can tap into Pin F on BCM C5 connector for the backup camera to turn on. It is a light green wire coming from the BCM. I need to do more testing, but it also looks like the steering wheel illumination wire going to the switches is on Brown/White wire Pin E on the BCM C1 connector. Once I confirm I will update.

 

Is there a bezel to close out the radio from the trim piece?

 

Yes, there is a bezel, but I think it looks better without it. Since the android stereos are just slightly larger than the standard double din, it leaves less space for the bezel.


I finished up the physical install of the radio last night. My factory truck harness to the original stereo didn't have a dimmer light or switched 12v+ so I added those pins to the truck side of my harness so that I didn't have to have any extra wires to unplug if/when I ever need to pull mine out. Might be helpful for anyone installing an aftermarket radio.



Home screen:





Radio:





It's been a few days now and I am very happy with the radio overall. There are two quirks that may just be user error, but sometimes the radio app doesn't want to stay open and will close, but the music still plays? If I open it up and push another button it will stay on though? The other is I have a fairly significant amount of static when making a bluetooth phone call? Maybe I am getting some sort of interference with the radio antenna or something? Otherwise it has been smooth sailing and I'm mad I didn't do this sooner! I'm hoping to get my backup camera hooked up this weekend and then the install is complete.

Also, I did confirm that the steering wheel controls won't work as is and I believe I will need an adapter to get the signals correct. Unless someone knows of a way to get the steering wheel controls down to between 1-5v using a resistor or something?

 

Oh and incase anyone was wondering where to tap into the reverse lights, I looked through a bunch of AllData sheets and finally found that the reverse light output wire from the BCM is on C5 pin F which is a black connector. Wire is a light green.

 

Very informative, thanks for posting. You maybe able to make your own inset trim ring out of some plexi and black spray paint on the backside.

 

I am curious of your review once you have a little more use on the unit. I have been considering an Android unit for the Silverado simply for the easy accessibility to Torque since my Interceptor died.

 

i swapped out the factory nav in my yukon for one a few months ago. mostly used for waze, spotify, torque, watching movies. at the time i bought mine it came with a quad core processor and 1gb of ram- it was horrible, slow, took forever to boot up, any app would bog it way down.
went on xda forums to see if anyone tried rooting one, ended up ordering a different 8-core chip with 2gb of ram and it's a completely different unit now... runs plenty of apps all at the same time. goes into a low power idle state when you turn off truck (much like a tablet sleeps) and turns right back on when you get in. has 3g/4g but i just hotspot from my phone .

 

What model is that? Looks to fit well.

 

Mine is a eonon ga6180f, model has been updated thpugh. The fit it pretty good, it doesn't quite follow the contour of the surrounding trim in the middle (on top and bottom).
They make one with a larger screen and no cd slot I would have gotten if available at the time.