2006 Landcruiser w/ Nav owner here.
I was in Hawaii a couple of weeks back and rented a Hyundai with CarPlay, got enamored and started looking into all the different ways to bring this tech to my LC.
My requirements were:
- be economical
- have all of the factory controls (dashboard / steering / nav) continue to function
- support wireless carplay
- high resolution / responsive touchscreen
- have something which can be removed and stowed away so as to not be a thieve magnet
After looking at custom rolled Raspberry Pi solutions, Android tablet + dongle type solutions, and single / double DIN CarPlay solutions I settled on the following unit:
Amazon product ASIN B08R5Q28SK
It comes in 2 versions - a wired version and a wireless version. The wired version has a TFT, low resolution display and the wireless version has a sweet IPS, high resolution display and also comes with a backup camera (which is still in the box).
Screen is great, viewing angle is great, color fidelity is excellent. Responsive (although could be faster maybe). And supports wireless CarPlay and Android auto. Doesn't require a ton of software setup. Just kinda works. You get into the car, turn it on and head unit auto detects your phone and then displays a CarPlay front end on the screen.
Couple of things that are not great. No battery pack - when car is off, unit is off. Powered by a 12v car adaptor. The mount that came with it is decent but I have a sweet Ram mount that works even better.
Which brings me to what I think is the biggest issue with the unit. There are 2 ways to pipe audio out of the unit. FM transmitter (sound quality is not really acceptable) and AUX out. No bluetooth transmitter built into the unit!
I have a BT45-TOY installed in my car which works well for bluetooth audio, phone etc. and I was hoping that the unit could just output to that and I'd be all set. Nope. Doesn't work. In wired mode (iPhone plugged into the USB port on device it does work because it's using the bluetooth transmitter on the phone). But wireless, no dice. Thankfully the BT45-TOY has an AUX port which works beautifully with this unit.
Here are some photos of my setup:
I was in Hawaii a couple of weeks back and rented a Hyundai with CarPlay, got enamored and started looking into all the different ways to bring this tech to my LC.
My requirements were:
- be economical
- have all of the factory controls (dashboard / steering / nav) continue to function
- support wireless carplay
- high resolution / responsive touchscreen
- have something which can be removed and stowed away so as to not be a thieve magnet
After looking at custom rolled Raspberry Pi solutions, Android tablet + dongle type solutions, and single / double DIN CarPlay solutions I settled on the following unit:
Amazon product ASIN B08R5Q28SK
It comes in 2 versions - a wired version and a wireless version. The wired version has a TFT, low resolution display and the wireless version has a sweet IPS, high resolution display and also comes with a backup camera (which is still in the box).
Screen is great, viewing angle is great, color fidelity is excellent. Responsive (although could be faster maybe). And supports wireless CarPlay and Android auto. Doesn't require a ton of software setup. Just kinda works. You get into the car, turn it on and head unit auto detects your phone and then displays a CarPlay front end on the screen.
Couple of things that are not great. No battery pack - when car is off, unit is off. Powered by a 12v car adaptor. The mount that came with it is decent but I have a sweet Ram mount that works even better.
Which brings me to what I think is the biggest issue with the unit. There are 2 ways to pipe audio out of the unit. FM transmitter (sound quality is not really acceptable) and AUX out. No bluetooth transmitter built into the unit!
I have a BT45-TOY installed in my car which works well for bluetooth audio, phone etc. and I was hoping that the unit could just output to that and I'd be all set. Nope. Doesn't work. In wired mode (iPhone plugged into the USB port on device it does work because it's using the bluetooth transmitter on the phone). But wireless, no dice. Thankfully the BT45-TOY has an AUX port which works beautifully with this unit.
Here are some photos of my setup: