Upgraded to a Kenwood 893s and added front Cam

Just swapped out the Factory Non Nav head unit on my 17, to this Kenwood 893s, added the maestro unit to keep the steering wheel controls, and get the gauge info, this is pretty cool. The Garmin Nav is quick, definitely an upgrade over Factory as far as usefulness, and sound quality, as well as adding the front cam capability. I wired one of my lighter plugs permanently "hot" as well while I was in there, as I like to have the phone charging even if the engine is off. Used the lighter wire that is switched on with the key to power the front cam. Pretty easy Upgrade but cost was around a grand.

 

Looks great! I was eyeing that unit. Few questions.

1. What trim/bezel did you use and does the silver match perfectly? Debating on getting the silver or black trim.
2. How is it to access the front camera? What button do you have to press? Can you program it to automatically turn on at certain speeds?
3. How does it tie into the odb port? Is it plug and play or do you have to tap the wires?
4. Do you use Apple CarPlay? If so how is it on the Kenwood?

Sorry for all the questions but there’s not much info on these out there.

 

Looks clean man! Love it!

 

This was Metra trim, not a perfect match, and if you look the trim has a bit of a “grain” to it. Don’t know if they make a “touch up” paint for interior trim, but that would probably be the closest match. For me it’s not too far off, so I’ll live with it for now. Easy enough to change later.
The cam can be turned on at any time by pressing the menu button and holding for a second, it has a small camera lettering above it, and wil automatically switch back and forth at low speed. Just touch the screen to turn it off. (Full disclosure I haven’t played with all the stuff so still learning the tricks)
The bod is plug and play really just one sensor wire in a molex plug, so if you wanted to keep the plug clear it would only be one wire to tap
I don’t use CarPlay, but it comes right up when I scroll through the menus, and there may actually be some more features that can be accessed through it ie the garmin does fine Nav as far as that Goes, but there is a kenwood app that adds traffic,red light cams etc
More stuff to play with.
The initial reviews on this unit were not particularly good at first but it seems they got the bugs out in the firmware, so far so good steps above factory

 

sweet.. thanks! looking forward to getting one, one day...

 

Looks good! Getting a 994s installed on Tuesday.....can’t wait!