How I fitted my Pioneer SPH DA-120

When I fitted my pioneer head unit just before Christmas I did a lot research into what head unit I wanted, what I'd need to fit it, how I was going to do it etc and I've had a few requests for the info so thought I'd put together some ramblings of a mad man.

I have a 2002 996 3.6 C2 with BOSE and prior to the change PCM1.

General thoughts on the Pioneer SPH DA120
Overall I think it's a really good unit and I'm very pleased I bought it. I've 2 irritants with the unit and I've only found two bugs and they both apply to CarPlay.

Irritant 1 – There isn't actually an off button – or at least not one I could find. The only way is to turn the volume off and you can then turn the display off too. Sort of a work around but would have been nice to be able to just switch the device off.

Irritant 2 – I'm not hugely keen on the volume buttons as they're touch and they're on the left of the device. This means you have to stretch over and as they're not proper buttons you have to take your eye off the road to find them.

Bug 1 – When switching from using App Radio Mode to CarPlay you need to restart your phone first otherwise the screen shifts off the display and it becomes unusable.

Bug 2 – On the odd occasion Spotify doesn't seem to display any menus but it will still play music. I think this usually happens if I'm still connected to my WiFi but the signal is really weak and then disconnects as I drive off. Restarting Spotify on the iPhone seems to fix this.

Your phone will connect using Bluetooth and making/receiving calls is very easy. Your address book, recent calls, favorite numbers etc are all displayed and don't need to be synced which is nice. When using CarPlay Siri is the main source for input such as dialing numbers, sending text messages or inputting an address although you can still use a keyboard (apart from sending texts).

You can stream music using Bluetooth from Apple Music or Spotify without having to use CarPlay, although CarPlay does make it a lot easier to navigate your library.

In App Radio Mode you can use map apps like waze if you don't like Apple Maps, you can also use an app called DashCommand – the App is like £7 and an OBD2 reader from eBay is like £10 and together you can view all kinds of data from the car as well as view diagnostic codes etc...cheap, little bit geeky but well worth it.

You can change the colour of the buttons to orange to match the car's interior and you can also display a custom background image e.g. a Porsche logo

Fitting the device
I've never fitted an audio device into a car before so I've had to do as much reading as I could to help with this as I was determined to do it myself. I've listed all the parts I've bought, prices, where I got them from and how I fitted it

My plan was to fit a storage tray in place of the nav drive, fit two usb plugs to the back of it so that devices can be charged, CarPlay can be used and its fitted in a tidy and discreet way. I'll then have a HDMI cable hidden in the drivers foot well so that I can use App Radio Mode as well (this does require the Apple HDMI connector).

If you want to use the original mic I believe it requires some hard wiring and fiddling which I wasn't prepared to do as wasn't 100% sure what I was doing. I fitted the supplied mic under the steering wheel so it's hidden away but I can still be picked up without a problem.

I also haven't fitted the GPS antenna, mainly as I didn't have enough room but as CarPlay uses your iPhone the only purpose I see it serving is to change the date/time but that hasn't been an issue for me yet as you can just about adjust the time on the device.


The Fascia
The Fascia kit I bought from Dynamic Sounds for £29.99 (link below) and although it does say for cars without cup holders, if you fit it upside down it fits perfectly. It doesn't look out of place in the slightest (pictures at the end of the thread). The only problem I found with this was that it didn't come with instructions so I had to figure that out myself but it becomes logical after a bit of faffing.

https://www.dynamicsounds.co.uk/con...uble-din-stereo-fascia-fitting-panel-kit.html

Storage Tray
I bought the tray off eBay for £37.45 – you may be able to get it cheaper and there are a lot of people selling them (link below).

I drilled a 30mm hole in the back of the tray and fitted a dual usb plug (link below). It can be a little tight to get your finger in to plug a cable in.

Storage tray
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/PORSCHE-9...158984?hash=item2a56755ec8:g:f9UAAOSwEK9T32pi

USB plug
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1m-Car-Da...909658?hash=item5d57f93a1a:g:lPgAAOSwv0tVCR4o


Cables
I found a lot of additional junk behind my PCM1 unit but ultimately it is pretty much plug and play with existing cables. You will need a DIN to ISO ariel adapter (couple of £ if that from Halfords).

There is a blue cable on the pioneer device which you need to connect to the cars amp on/off and in the thread below you'll find details of this and how to do it.

http://911uk.com/viewtopic.php?t=107958&highlight=

You should also ground the green handbrake wire as then it doesn't require the car to be stationary to use certain features.

I originally thought I could use one cable for CarPlay and App Radio Mode but it turns out you don't need a cable for App Radio Mode as it works off Bluetooth, but you do need to connect the HDMI cable and Apple AV adapter. On the unit in the settings you have to choose either CarPlay or App Radio Mode which means when you want to switch between them you have to change the settings each time. Also restart your iPhone otherwise the display goes funny.

Here's some pictures on what it looks like (sorry for the finger prints). If you've any questions just let me know.

I like the way you've put the USB in the chubby hole. Mine is in the glovebox.

Do you have a problem with fingerprints on your screen?

Good review mate, your lucky you didn't heed to spend £300 on a MOST optical interface like I did in the 997 I am just looking at a generic mirroring module to get my iphone screen mirrored on my Alpine head unit so I can use Waze , spotlfy etc. and get myself into the 21st century as you can with carplay. :thumb: :grin:

Yeah was lucky with most - that was quite a confusing read to start with and actually knowing when that came in to play.

Can you get a CarPlay unit to fit the 997 then?

PeterS said:

I like the way you've put the USB in the chubby hole. Mine is in the glovebox.

Do you have a problem with fingerprints on your screen?

Click to expand...

I toyed with the idea of the glovebox but found it was more useful to store 3 sheets of paper...that is about all it holds.

How are you finding the shoes? Weathers not been great so haven't been able to "let my feet and shoes get accustom to each other" yet

I put my connector in the armrest (not being blessed with a glove box)

Excellent write up mate. Been thinking about one of these for a while for the daily. You've helped convince me!

:worship: and making me wonder about doing my own.

Mind if I link this to the 'What did you buy your 996.....?' thread? Many more people need to see this fine work!?! :thumbs:

Leon1davies said:

Yeah was lucky with most - that was quite a confusing read to start with and actually knowing when that came in to play.

Can you get a CarPlay unit to fit the 997 then?

Click to expand...

Yes it seems so mate but a bit more faff with optical interfaces etc .But as I have already done all those bits to fit the alpine head unit it seemed logical to get a mirror link module connected to the alpine, so I can also get Waze and stuff.
My spotify and itunes will bluetooth over already but no visual stuff, although it does seem things like youtube won't work with mirrorlink not sure why as you can watch movies and soundbytes on your pc and iphone with youtube anyway, so why you can't mirror it to the head unit is odd. :?: :dont know:

This is the type of thing I was looking at some are more expensive but appear the same, do you think it will do what I want it to.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/201501286898?_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT

New996buyer said:

:worship: and making me wonder about doing my own.

Mind if I link this to the 'What did you buy your 996.....?' thread? Many more people need to see this fine work!?! :thumbs:

Click to expand...

Thanks, glad it helped! Yeah sure link away :thumb:

Phil 997 said:

This is the type of thing I was looking at some are more expensive but appear the same, do you think it will do what I want it to.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/201501286898?_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT

Click to expand...

There doesn't seem to be enough info to know on something like that. Whst model alpine unit do you have? I'll see what I can dig up

Leon1davies said:

Phil 997 said:

This is the type of thing I was looking at some are more expensive but appear the same, do you think it will do what I want it to.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/201501286898?_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT

Click to expand...

There doesn't seem to be enough info to know on something like that. Whst model alpine unit do you have? I'll see what I can dig up

Click to expand...

Leon mate it's this unit
Alpine INE-W925R DAB

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VcV5HY6FmWY

thanks for any thoughts on it. :thumb:

I bought a DA120 but returned it as it has no DAB. Now have the X3800 and fascia kit but the stereo is too wide and tall for the fascia by a couple of mm. There's no other version of the surround and making sense of dimensions online is a nightmare. The DA120 spec says it's 16.3cm high, the chaps at Dynamic sounds say the fascia takes a stereo up to 98mm :wall:

i had the same issue in my old car, but a mate with a table router thing soon fixed that problem!
shave a bit off the adaptor and the HU's fascia should hide the rough edge nicely enough