[Android Head-Units] pfdeadpool:
Woohoo, nu5002 arrived yesterday. My experience ordering (I'm in USA):

-Ordered ~Sep 30th on aliexpress, seller ShenZen something or other ~97% rating. I decided to take the risk with the seller because it was ~$350 shipped. I looked into "webmoney" which I guess is like a PayPal competitor(?), but it looked like a credit card would be easier & I'd just keep a close eye on it for a while. Tried paying with a VISA card initially, but it was rejected, the payment wouldn't go through. Tried a Mastercard next & it went through. I called the 1 800 number on the back of the card to confirm that everything was good & there wouldn't be any issues. They told me as long as the payment went through successfully (which it had registered as on their end as well) there wouldn't be any issues. Both cards are long standing accounts without history of problems.

Got the email confirmation. Status on AE became something like 'processing, waiting for shipment info. buyer can request cancellation/extension before shipment info is made. order automatically cancelled if no update in xx days'

I waited, ..and waited. No status update for about a week. I figured they had sent it already, and simply not sent me a tracking number etc. (I seem to remember seeing quite a few instances where that had happened)

~Oct 8th I got an email notification. New message on AE. Went to check it out & saw something like 'this order has been cancelled at buyers request'. I was pretty worried, obviously I didn't request a cancellation (it could have been the time deadline?), so I sent the seller a message asking what was going on.

-Whatever had happened, I was satisfied with the seller's communication. It could have been that they were out of stock, forgot about me, were waiting for a delivery, whatever, etc. Long story short, I got a tracking number within a day or two. The package arrived Oct 12, in great condition, good packaging, tracking info was updated correctly online etc. through DHL.

So there you go if you were concerned about ordering from aliexpress. It's definitely funky, but honestly I wasn't really stressed at any point. I'd recommend you send your seller a message if you haven't received an update or tracking number within 4-6 days. I kept my messages short & simple ex. "where is the package?", "where is the tracking number?". The worst part for me was simply trying to decide what method to pay with, and worry that the order would be cancelled & I'd lose out on getting a good sale price.

I've got my OEM pigtail harness, and double din install kit now too:) I'd like to get a screen protector, and OBDII bluetooth adapter. I've seen some good info on screen protectors in the thread,

but I had some questions about OBDII bluetooth adapters:

-Are there any popular options here that are known to work well <$15-20? The ELM327 style seems very popular. Specifically the small blue unit.

-Battery drain may or may not be a problem. I've seen a couple complaints here; on other forums it doesn't seem like an issue to leave it plugged in (car starts without issue after between 3 days and 2 weeks of sitting depending on the reviewer)

-PIDs (data transfer rate) may or may not be an issue with Torque for cheap adapters

So if you have a cheap bluetooth adapter that you're happy/unhappy with please share. I have two models on Amazon for $10 each that I'm looking at:

Veepeak mini OBDII adapter (the small blue clone)

Excelvan v1.5 mini OBDII adapter (a bit bigger blue one; about half the size of a pack of cigarettes). Both have ~4+ stars for what it's worth

-A good adapter is ScanTool OBDLink MX or OBDLink SX (but they're pricey, and I think they still had some trouble connecting with this head unit?)

-I don't think USB cable OBD adapters are working with this head unit(?)

As for the battery drain: if it was a problem, there are a few proposed ways to fix it:

-ideally with an adapter that automatically turned on/off with the car (I don't think this exists at the moment?)

-there are adapters on the market which have a physical power on/off switch. You just have to remember to turn them on/off

-depinning/repinning the OBD power wire with a 'key on, engine off'/'key on engine on' power wire. Alternatively, using an OBD extension cord to do this if you want to retain stock functionality of the port for your mechanic.

-saw someone post on a subaru forum about possibly doing something similar with a relay

-adding a simple switch to the OBD power wire.