Atoto A6 Pro
I’m not going to write much on the functionality of the head unit itself because there are lots of reviews out there, but will say that if you get it on sale (I paid $239 on Black Friday at Amazon), the head unit, front camera, rear camera, and Atoto OBD2 scan tool come in at about $320 and offers amazing functionality for the price. The factory DVD player in my Titan failed after about 10 years and the factory radio would have cost $1,100 to replace the old school technology that it offers. This radio and its accoutrements are amazing cool for the price, and I would buy it again for sure.
Steering Wheel Controls
A steering wheel control adapter such as Metra AXXESS ASWC-1 is NOT NEEDED and the steering wheel radio WORK BETTER WITHOUT IT despite being on the parts list for the 2004 Nissan Titan on metraonline.com. When I tried the adapter, I could only get half of the functions of the buttons to work, and returned the ASWC-1 for a refund.
The same wires are used for direct connection from the Titan to the head unit as would be used for the ASWC-1. The wire from Pin 14 (blue) must be connected to ground. The wires from Pins 12 (red) and 13 (green) will be connected to SWC + and SWC #+.
The steering wheel radio controls are resistive and use only two vehicle wires to control all functions that they offer. A red striped wire controls one of the push buttons and the up functions of volume and search, and the other controls the other button and the down functions. Test these with an ohm meter for varied resistance by control with the black meter wire to ground. Connect these to the SWC #+ and SWC + wires on the radio harness, and then assign them using SETUP- -STEERING WHEEL CONTROLS. I doubt it matters which way they two wires are connected, because you will be assigning their function in the menu anyways.
The rear seat radio controls will not be functional using the wires described above alone. I suspect that they use other wires in the same connector and could possibly also be connected to the SWC + and/or SWC #+ radio input wires, but did not test this further as I found the rear controls to only be a source of fun for the passengers and annoyance for the driver.
Backup Camera
Instructions for backup cameras typically suggest powering the camera and the red trigger wire that goes into the radio harness with 12V that comes from a backup light from the rear of the vehicle. Any time the trigger wire is powered, the radio automatically switches to backup view. Many vehicles, however, have a reverse wire accessible at one or more places in or near the dash that can be connected to the red wire to power the camera and the trigger wire instead of tapping into a reverse light wire. Google “reverse wire” for your vehicle for a possible description of its location, or just use a test light to search for it when the vehicle is in reverse (key on-engine off). The black camera ground wire must still be connected to a ground, and is probably most conveniently achieved near the rear of the vehicle. In the Titan, the reverse wire is green/white and can found going to a possibly unused connecter in the driver’s kick panel. Test possible reverse wires with a 12V test light or meter.
If you only hook up power for the camera and trigger when the reverse wire is activated, then you will not be able to view from the camera when the vehicle is not in reverse. You could power the camera from the red accessory wire and the trigger from the reverse wire, in which case the camera will be on whenever the accessory wire is powered, but if the camera has supplemental LED backup lights as some do, then they would be on anytime the accessory wire is powered. As an alternative, add an external power switch connected to the red accessory wires into the radio and the reverse/trigger wire connection to be able to selectively turn the camera on at any time. Put a diode inline with the connection to the reverse wire to prevent the backup lights from being operated by this selective mode.
Front Camera
I installed the Atoto AC-44P1 camera and it is easy to install and works fine. I did discover, however, that the DVR app used to run it does not allow you to flip the image, which I found to be a little unfortunate. I stuck the camera to the windshield with the wire emanating from the headliner near the rear-view mirror with the body of the camera extending toward the driver door. This hid the camera the best while avoiding the shade screen dots of the windshield being in the camera view. Unfortunately, this method resulted in an inverted image that I could only correct by peeling the mount back off and turning the camera in the other direction.
You will have a reflection of your dash in your windshield ghosting your video. About the only solution is to buy a very dark dash mat.
Radio Install Kits
I used the Metra 99-7406 for my 2004 Titan. Final fit and appearance is very good, but EVERY part needed to be trimmed to fit the Atoto A6 Pro. The bezel mounting bracket is not large enough to slide onto the radio chassis without being widened by a couple mm in both dimensions. The side brackets needed additional extensive trimming in 3 dimensions to allow them to be installed, as they do not fit between the bezel and the radio chassis, they cannot slide forward on the radio chassis without colliding into side chassis screw heads about midway forward, and they must be grooved to fit over screw heads near the front of the radio. Once you’ve finally accomplished all of that trimming, you find that the bezel that is built onto the radio itself is too deep front to back to allow the final Metra trim bezel piece to latch on, and the locations on the mounting bezel piece that it latches to must be deepened by a couple of mm. Once you’ve spent at least a couple of hours on all of that trimming, you find that the latching tabs on the final bezel trim piece bow the bezel out somewhat on the top and bottom. I ended up ignoring this and it looks OK, but to correct it one would probably have to trim some shallow slots on the bezel of the radio itself. Once trimmed and installed, I was unable to install the final silver painted trim piece because the radio extended a couple mm too far toward the rear of the vehicle. I corrected this by trimming the rear face of the trim piece just surrounding the radio opening until it fit. Much of this trimming was best achieved by scaping with a utility knife held perpendicular to the surface being trimmed.
While the final fit and finish were very good, the frustrations of achieving that lead me to suggest another brand of mounting kit, at least for the Atoto A6 Pro in a Titan. Be careful with the painted finish of the dash piece, as it would be rather easy to scratch the paint off.
Radio Harnesses
Metra offers the 70-7550 and 70-7551 Amp Integration harness options. If your vehicle has a factory external amplifier or you add your own amp, get the 70-7551. Some videos on YouTube incorrectly identified a box under the dash mounted above the gas pedal as an amp, and I bought the 70-7551 thinking I had an amp, despite knowing that my Titan did not have the Premium sound system. If yours does have a factory amp, it is instead under the dash but above and left of the brake pedal a bit near the firewall, and it is has cooling fins on its metal case.
Both harness options use two connectors, but your factory radio used at least five. It will be obvious which two to use, and one of the two goes to the two front door speakers and the various power wires and the other goes to the two rear door speakers. The other three connectors are for the steering wheel and rear seat controls, auxiliary input, and display and will not be connected to your aftermarket radio, except that you must tap into three of the steering wheel control connector wires to connect to the two SWC wires on the harness that you purchase, and to ground the third wire.
I was happy enough with the Metra harnesses and the wires are properly color coded.
Radio Accessory (Red) Wire
The 2004 Titan has three interior 12V outlets which is great, but two are switched by the accessory circuit, as is the radio. This wiring is pretty standard, but has been quite annoying for years when I am charging lots of various devices in hunting camp such as my phone, GPS, radios, headlamps, etc. At that time, it would be nice to have all three outlets powered without the key in the accessory mode. Moreover, when I wanted to listen to the radio with the engine off, the key must again be in the accessory position. Both situations increase the possibility of locking your keys in the truck, and the extremely annoying beep that that warns you of the key in the ignition is constantly going off anytime the driver door is open.
Installing the radio proved to be an excellent time to solve both problems by installing an accessory switch into an unused location in the dash next to the VDC off switch. Amazon and numerous other outlets sell endless variations of switches that will mount right in after your remove the blank. I bought a SPDT lighted switch and wired the yellow (full-time hot) wire to the center, the red (accessory) wires from the truck radio connector to the top, and the trigger wire to the rear camera to the bottom. You will need to ground a fourth connector for the LEDs on the switch. This setup allows me to flip the switch up and power the radio and outlets without a key in the ignition or the annoying warning beep, or to flip the switch down to power the rear camera and trigger wire while driving to take a look behind the truck. Remember that a diode MUST be used inline with the reverse wire or your backup lights will be powered while not in reverse. If the camera has LEDs, they will still be lit, but that should not be a problem. The LED lights on the rocker switch will remind you if one of these modes is left on.
Read the section on Bluetooth pairing and connection for considerations when using such a switch.
Bluetooth Pairing and Connection
Bluetooth Pairing is a one-time initial handshake between the radio and a Bluetooth device such as your phone so they get to know one another. A Bluetooth connection is what must be renewed anytime you disconnect by turning one or more of the devices off, of walk away too far with one of the devices such as your phone while they are connected.
Once paired, the phone and the radio should connect anytime the radio is turned on when the phone is in range and both have Bluetooth enabled. This works great for usual use patterns, and your radio can (and should) have a locking password but can be set to automatically unlock when it is connected to your phone. So, when setup, every time you get in or near the truck and turn the key to ACC or ON, or you power on the external accessory rocker switch I described above, the two will connect and life is good.
Bluetooth devices search for something to connect to when initially powered on, but if that connection is somehow broken without powering down one or more or the devices, such as by walking too far away with your phone, they will not automatically reconnect when you get back in range. Now, you must reconnect them by turning your phone off, by turning Bluetooth off and then on for one or more of the devices, by manually connecting them on one or more of the devices, or by shutting off the accessory wire to the radio and then turning it back on. The final method becomes relevant if you have an external accessory power switch turned on even the key is off. Even if the radio is powered off using its own power switch, it will remain Bluetooth connected to your phone until something happens to break that connection.
Microphone Gain
Whether you use the internal or external microphone with the Atoto A6 Pro, the microphone gain setting is too low, but you will not find this setting anywhere in any menu because it is a hidden OEM setting. As a result, you must speak quite loudly to be heard well on the phone or in using voice commands such as with Google Assistant.
A guy in a YouTube review of the A6 Pro and another in an XDA forum (who might be the same guy) provided an easy but obscure way to adjust the mic gain. They might be the same guy, and I wish I am giving them credit for this because the info is gold, but I don’t remember where I got it from. But regardless, do this:
On the Atoto A6 Pro, go to Settings-About, then tap on the Model Number (A6 Pro) four times, then enter the password 1,2,3,8 to access the microphone gain slider. The default is 4, but 6 or 7 works much better and will stay in place once entered. I haven’t tried it yet, but the XDA author also state that a password of 1,6,1,7 will bring up a menu with other hidden setting, such as touch calibration, parking guidelines for the reverse camera, etc.
Car Web Guru
It was a little confusing to me at first what this is, but experience revealed that it is nothing more than an app that provides a more appealing skin for the display. I recommend installing and using it after you have spent a bit of time with the head unit’s default user interface and setup. Then, setting up Car Web Guru will be rather obvious and easy. It doesn’t seem to add any new functionality, but it sure looks nice, can be easily customized, and is easier to access functions and apps that you regularly use.
Micro SD Card
The radio documentation says that it will work with up to a 256 gig Micro SD card, but I bought a Samsung 512 gig card for about $65 and it works fine. Prior to it working correctly though, I had to use the radio to format the card (takes seconds) from radio’s Settings-Storage menu as Portable storage. I then put the card in my laptop and copied about 60 gigs of MP3’s to it which were immediately recognized and properly organized by Atoto’s media player. If you format the card as Internal storage, the DVR Application for a front camera will not record video or stills. Likewise, I could not get the DVR app to record to a jump drive plugged into the radio’s external USB port. So far, only the DVR app seems to be finicky about only accessing a micro SC card inserted into the head unit, and only doing so if it is formatted as portable.
I have serious doubts of ever coming close to filling the card, but it is certainly never something to worry about and it is reasonably priced.
