I'm having an issue getting the Apple CarPlay working. The instructions and videos I've found about it are not clear about the actual install/ setup of it. I bought the two cables that i thought I would need but it turns out they're for something else? They're the Lightning to vga adapter and the vga interface cable kit. I'm not entirely sure now what these cables are used for. I would also like to say I'm not the expert on this kind of stuff. So any replies in lamest terms would be great. I have an iPhone 5 and the pioneer 5000 nex. Don't know if that makes a difference. I had this radio professionally installed.

You're grabbing the cables you need to do Appradio mode. Carplay doesn't use the same connection. 

Carplay is actually really easy. The back of your radio has 2 USB ports. Plug a lightning cable into USB 1 and then plug that cable into your phone. That's it. 

Just in case you got worried and played around with settings. Make sure your radio is set to iPhone connecting through USB in the smartphone setup section. On your iPhone make sure your restrictions are set to off. 

After that you should be golden. 

Lightning USB 1

iPhone plugged into lightning

Radio smartphone setup set to iPhone, USB, Carplay on

Oh that's it?! Wow. Would a lightning cable be long enough? And I'm guessing it can't be a sync cable for the iPod with an adapter? Also could i use the usb extension that came with the radio or does the Lightning cable need to be plugged directly into the unit

Yes you can use the USB extension. 

Yay! Thanks so much! This was so much easier than waiting for a reply from pioneer

and actually lol it does work with the 30 pin adaptor. http://imgur.com/UiRwJoh

Lol. Thanks. That's good to know. And it has to be in usb 1?

Yes has to be USB 1