Good to hear and thank you for the update....Looks like a no go for me then right now. Will just focus on a Bluetooth interface.
GROM VLine - Google apps/Android&iPhone integration (6 Viewers)
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Good to hear and thank you for the update....Looks like a no go for me then right now. Will just focus on a Bluetooth interface.
I'm pretty sure I'm going to be returning mine as well, The only thing is they said there's an update that will help fix minor bugs and glitches end of this week. If I'm not satisfied it's going back. I rather put the cash towards something else.
Got the replacement cable. Came with prepaid envelope to mail back the wrong one. Got it installed last night. Had a Vais SL3 which was small enough to tuck behind the left vent. The VLine unit is too big and like everyone else stuck it in the glove box. Easy to run the wires to the glove box. Everything worked once installed. Followed instructions to connect to wifi and then apply OTA update. Uh oh. After update, the VLine doesn't work. Pushing DISC twice no longer shows the VLine on the screen, just the disc changer. Contacted support, at least they're fairly responsive.
Have to say I applaud the effort on this. A true example of determination!
What did support say to do to fix this?
They said to try disconnecting the DVD changer. Will try it tomorrow.
The same thing happened to me last night while updating it. I tried the changer disconnect with no joy. The display puts up a message saying no external sources detected. Hopefully I hear back from them with something. My troubleshooting is being put on hold by Christmas. Maybe Monday I can start tinkering again.
Thanks for the update.
Ok, update to the blank screen. I unhooked the battery for a little over an hour while I was cleaning up some other stuff in the Lexus. After hooking the battery back up, the the unit has booted up and seems to be working pretty good. I am on the house Wifi and Bluetooth linked to my iPhone. The A2DP streaming is working well. I am installing Gapps now to mess around with that.
What I do not have working is any sort of map application.
I really hope they get CarPlay certified. I think that interface will be much more responsive to my '05 MFD.
What I do not have working is any sort of map application.
I really hope they get CarPlay certified. I think that interface will be much more responsive to my '05 MFD.
Tried disconnecting the battery, but didn't help. Decided to try unplugging the cd interface and power from the vline and replug them. Worked! A2DP streaming wirks, but I need the volume turned up much higher which is a problem if I switch to FM it's too loud. Haven't found a way to adjust the relative volume. Need CarPlay which is the primary reason I bought this as I don't have tethering on my phone so I can't use Google Maps or Waze.
I finally got to unwrap mine.
I seem to have received a different (smaller connectors) "MCFTOY" cable than in this picture
GROM VLine - Google apps/Android&iPhone integration
So maybe I got lucky, and have the correct cable for a 06 LX...
I plan to install mine in the morning. I expect that that the install shouldn't be too different from the SL3B install, that I did a while back. Any hints/tips/pitfalls from those that have already installed theirs? Any difficulty identifying the "VTOYA" (video) connection?
I seem to have received a different (smaller connectors) "MCFTOY" cable than in this picture
GROM VLine - Google apps/Android&iPhone integration
So maybe I got lucky, and have the correct cable for a 06 LX...
I plan to install mine in the morning. I expect that that the install shouldn't be too different from the SL3B install, that I did a while back. Any hints/tips/pitfalls from those that have already installed theirs? Any difficulty identifying the "VTOYA" (video) connection?
Since you've installed SL3B previously, this install should be pretty straight forward. Only "diffucult" part is where to install the VLine and most obvious place is glove box. Running the wires to the glove box is pretty easy, just take the glove box off via two screws on the exterior bottom of the glove box.
Yesterday while running errands I updated my Vline Firmware and OS to the latest per e-mail from grom 12/23/2016. Tested the GPS with Waze and it worked well just like it would in a phone. Google maps also was ok.
There is a few glitches but I can live with. For example: When you go into reverse and then in drive, the screen goes into factory GPS. The audio does not stop, so you tap climate and it blinks into climate then back into the grom. If you tap DISC instead then the audio will stop.
Overall I've Google Play Music and Google Maps as I use them a lot and I'm happy with. Next I will try my OBD2 reader for fun.
Note:
After the OS update. Google Play services stopped working and I had to uninstall and install again. PITA as it takes a long time to redo. I will be doing a 3 hour drive next week, then I will know for sure how it behaves.
There is a few glitches but I can live with. For example: When you go into reverse and then in drive, the screen goes into factory GPS. The audio does not stop, so you tap climate and it blinks into climate then back into the grom. If you tap DISC instead then the audio will stop.
Overall I've Google Play Music and Google Maps as I use them a lot and I'm happy with. Next I will try my OBD2 reader for fun.
Note:
After the OS update. Google Play services stopped working and I had to uninstall and install again. PITA as it takes a long time to redo. I will be doing a 3 hour drive next week, then I will know for sure how it behaves.
The basic install wasn't too bad, and the provided cables worked just fine. (The GPS antenna is just temporarily installed, and I haven't bothered with the microphone yet.) The OTA update was a little scary, I got the black screen after the update was complete, but disconnected/reconnected the vline and the screen came back. The user interface seems a little clunky, but I like the added features so far.
Got my volume issue fixed, apparently the volume on my phone wasn't at max which is odd considering for our other cars and the SL3B it was always defaulting to max when connected via bluetooth I didn't even bother looking. Until I can get CarPlay, it's currently an expensive way to play A2DP music which I already had previously.
Does anyone know how the VLINE plays with the rear seat entertainment drop down screen, if at all? I'm guessing the video is only sent to the console NAV screen and is not distributed to the rear screen? Hope I'm wrong.
I installed one of the GROM Vline boxes on 12/25, and thought I’d share my experiences so far.
The install was about the same as the other aftermarket audio inputs. Pull the stereo, insert the cables and route them to the glovebox, where the box is installed. (I also installed a ZTE mobley in the OBD2 port for Internet access.)
User interface seems a little clunky, but that might be me. While I do have some android devices around the house, my phone(s) and tablet(s) are IOS based.
Some of the Android apps are expecting “portrait” mode instead of “landscape” mode which can be a pain (for example Waze on 1st run)
I was pretty pleased with how everything was working in the driveway, and decided to take it out for a drive. As soon as I started moving, I had issues with no device, black screens, continuous reboots and/or gibberish on the screen at this point. I rechecked all of the connections (which seemed good) and poked around in this thread:
Which led me to this firmware upgrade:
The next morning, I walk out to a dead battery. Happy coincidence with 5+ year old DHP? Too much time in the driveway fiddling with the Vline? A new battery and/or the updated firmware seems to have fixed the issues that I was having the previous night.
So far it seems to accomplish most of the VAIS SL3B features that it replaced. I already miss the “I agree” bypass, so I have reconnected the SL3B just for this feature (they do seem to coexist just fine). The Vline isn’t tied to “playlists as discs” like the SL3B is. The song data and cover art seems to be displayed better on the Vline. The auto reconnect of the phone to the Vline via Bluetooth doesn’t seem as reliable as the SL3B.
I'm enjoying the "web radio" after I discovered a long dead radio station that I enjoyed exists on the web.
I'm enjoying having Waze displayed on the nav screen.
I like the weather display.
I haven't played with Spotify, GMusic or local music on a SD card yet.
CarPlay, it seems that if you do this:
I'm curious to see torque up and running on the device. I have an ELM327 Bluetooth module ordered, along with an OBD2 splitter cable (since my Internet connection also uses the OBD2 port).
I wouldn't call it a major change as most of these features could already be done on my phone, but limiting the apps to ones that I am interested in while in the car, and presenting them on the nav screen and not having to fight with a "lock screen" is pretty nice.
The clunky UI, and stability issues might just go with being an early adopter… My only real complaint at the moment, is that the (factory) reverse camera is now unavailable until the Vline boots and I see the “Vline” logo when I’d really prefer to see what is behind me. This problem seems to go away after the Vline has booted.
What apps have others found useful (on the Vline) from Google Play?
The install was about the same as the other aftermarket audio inputs. Pull the stereo, insert the cables and route them to the glovebox, where the box is installed. (I also installed a ZTE mobley in the OBD2 port for Internet access.)
User interface seems a little clunky, but that might be me. While I do have some android devices around the house, my phone(s) and tablet(s) are IOS based.
Some of the Android apps are expecting “portrait” mode instead of “landscape” mode which can be a pain (for example Waze on 1st run)
I was pretty pleased with how everything was working in the driveway, and decided to take it out for a drive. As soon as I started moving, I had issues with no device, black screens, continuous reboots and/or gibberish on the screen at this point. I rechecked all of the connections (which seemed good) and poked around in this thread:
Which led me to this firmware upgrade:
The next morning, I walk out to a dead battery. Happy coincidence with 5+ year old DHP? Too much time in the driveway fiddling with the Vline? A new battery and/or the updated firmware seems to have fixed the issues that I was having the previous night.
So far it seems to accomplish most of the VAIS SL3B features that it replaced. I already miss the “I agree” bypass, so I have reconnected the SL3B just for this feature (they do seem to coexist just fine). The Vline isn’t tied to “playlists as discs” like the SL3B is. The song data and cover art seems to be displayed better on the Vline. The auto reconnect of the phone to the Vline via Bluetooth doesn’t seem as reliable as the SL3B.
I'm enjoying the "web radio" after I discovered a long dead radio station that I enjoyed exists on the web.
I'm enjoying having Waze displayed on the nav screen.
I like the weather display.
I haven't played with Spotify, GMusic or local music on a SD card yet.
CarPlay, it seems that if you do this:
Then plug your iPhone via lightning cable into USB1 of the Vline, you get this:
(Oops, I'm probably not supposed to do that...) It does seem to work better for me if I have the Vline CarPlay set to manual and wait for the system to boot up before I connect the phone.
(Oops, I'm probably not supposed to do that...) It does seem to work better for me if I have the Vline CarPlay set to manual and wait for the system to boot up before I connect the phone.
I'm curious to see torque up and running on the device. I have an ELM327 Bluetooth module ordered, along with an OBD2 splitter cable (since my Internet connection also uses the OBD2 port).
I wouldn't call it a major change as most of these features could already be done on my phone, but limiting the apps to ones that I am interested in while in the car, and presenting them on the nav screen and not having to fight with a "lock screen" is pretty nice.
The clunky UI, and stability issues might just go with being an early adopter… My only real complaint at the moment, is that the (factory) reverse camera is now unavailable until the Vline boots and I see the “Vline” logo when I’d really prefer to see what is behind me. This problem seems to go away after the Vline has booted.
What apps have others found useful (on the Vline) from Google Play?
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I appreciate you guys volunteering to guinea-pig this thing - I suspect they'll get it all ironed out and when they do, I'll likely jump on board. I'm a tech geek but find buggy / unfinished releases incredibly frustrating, so again, I appreciate all you guy diving in. Please keep us updated.
You might be able to install it under the glove box or in the center console
