LX470 2004 | Need help with Android Screen (10 Viewers)

[dsalni]

From the WhatsApp chat, Teyes is asking whether anyone tried one of these?

“we had a honda with the same issue, it was resolved with a line converter to change the amplified sound to unamplified which then in turn goes to the factory amp which resolved his humming sound”

What do you guys think? I’m car audio illiterate, just trying various suggestions from this thread..

 

[Brett Branch]

OK, found this thread after some searching and following the bigger Tesla screen threads. I like the idea of small screen actually, and also retaining a physical rotary volume knob. Though, noting that the volume knob doesn't work for most?
Any advice for a 2003 LC, with plans to replace factory amp anyway? Lots of posts in this thread on hum/hiss, anyone using an aftermarket amp? Does the Teyes have pre-Amp RCAs?

 

[UncleBanjo]

Not sure if I can contribute anything new, but I've been looking over these screens and reading this thread and finally landed on the Teyes cc3 for my 2004 LX. Got it installed and everything seems to work fine and don't have a hiss (but audio seems very weak and static'y) unless I turn up the volume with the physical volume knob. The steering wheel controls the volume and adjusts the volume bar on the unit with no hiss and the physical volume knob just adjusts the volume but adds hiss at a certain level and gets worse as I increase the "volume". Not sure if this is the same hiss/static everyone is experiencing.

Also, I'd be happy to help with any troubleshooting for anyone else.

Note: if this has been covered in previous pages, sorry. I read through it all but I may have forgot some things since I installed the unit here recently. Lol

 

[cryptyk]

Not sure if I can contribute anything new, but I've been looking over these screens and reading this thread and finally landed on the Teyes cc3 for my 2004 LX. Got it installed and everything seems to work fine and don't have a hiss (but audio seems very weak and static'y) unless I turn up the volume with the physical volume knob. The steering wheel controls the volume and adjusts the volume bar on the unit with no hiss and the physical volume knob just adjusts the volume but adds hiss at a certain level and gets worse as I increase the "volume". Not sure if this is the same hiss/static everyone is experiencing.

Also, I'd be happy to help with any troubleshooting for anyone else.

Note: if this has been covered in previous pages, sorry. I read through it all but I may have forgot some things since I installed the unit here recently. Lol

That describes the LX behavior perfectly. Sounds like it's working as expected!

 

[UncleBanjo]

That describes the LX behavior perfectly. Sounds like it's working as expected!

Thanks, man! Appreciate the info. Glad to hear it's working as expected. Lol

Also, I've got my unit pulled out and still fiddling, and wondering if anyone tested the RCA out or optical audio out straight to speakers to bypass the factory amp? I saw someone mention this awhile back and I'd be happy to test this out.

 

[Asanka]

Thanks, man! Appreciate the info. Glad to hear it's working as expected. Lol

Also, I've got my unit pulled out and still fiddling, and wondering if anyone tested the RCA out or optical audio out straight to speakers to bypass the factory amp? I saw someone mention this awhile back and I'd be happy to test this out.

Tested optical out with a TV sound bar. Minimal volume on it but didn't notice the hiss and noises. Need a AMP with digital signal processing to test it fully, any recommendations?

Btw don't forget to rewire rear speaker outs on Reyes G connector. That's misconfigured from factory to date I've tested it. It's documented few pages down and verified by couple of other members.

05-LC

 

[cryptyk]

Thanks, man! Appreciate the info. Glad to hear it's working as expected. Lol

Also, I've got my unit pulled out and still fiddling, and wondering if anyone tested the RCA out or optical audio out straight to speakers to bypass the factory amp? I saw someone mention this awhile back and I'd be happy to test this out.

I've been meaning to post this but wanted to finish up getting it working first. Here's my findings so far. I'm not sure if this will help the LC guys, but worth reading and maybe trying the headunit-to-amp ground strap described:

Vehicle is a 2007 LX470

Scenario 1: Teyes with Factory Amp and speakers using G-socket speaker outputs:
Exactly as described above. Everything works great. The amp gain is controlled by the volume knob. The headunit volume is controlled with the headunit or steering wheel controls. The headunit emits a very slight hiss, but you can't even hear it until the volume knob is 80%+. The solution is to keep the volume knob around 70% and use the headunit to control the volume. Set the headunit sound conditioning to about 10% for best results. Note that some LXs will require the harness re-wire for rear speakers to work properly.

Scenario 2: Teyes with aftermarket Amp and Speakers:
I tried a couple of different configurations here:

RCA outs
Initial Result
Terrible ground noise. Whine with the ignition on and rpm-dependent alternator whine with the truck running. The gain on the aftermarket amp has to be set to almost zero to avoid the humming.

Diagnostic steps I've tried and their results:
1) Hook up an MP3 player to the amp to eliminate the amp as the problem. This results in crystal clear sound with no whine.
2) Hook the headunit up to a 120v AC amp and a set of headphones using the RCA outs to eliminate the headunit as the problem. The result is AGAIN crystal clear sound with no whine.

So the amp works by itself and the headunit works by itself. The problem is the combination of the two.

Ground solution
This is usually a ground level difference between the two components that results in voltage travelling across whatever path connects the two components, which in our case are the RCA cables, and hence the noise. The solution is typically to provide an even better path for the voltage difference so I ran an 8 gauge cable from the Headunit ground (G Socket) to the Amp ground. The whine went WAY down to maybe 30% of what it was before, but it's still loud enough to be annoying with the amp gain at only 30%.

I also ran both the Amp and headunit grounds directly to the battery with no additional difference.

I also grounded the sleeve of the RCA cables with no difference.

12V Noise Filter solution
First I pulled 12V from the Amp's noise filter 12v line. This meant that both the power and ground were shared between the amp and the headunit. The whine didn't decrease anymore than just the shared ground.

Then I ordered 3 12v noise filters from Amazon. The first one arrived same-day and I installed it. No difference. The other two arrived today, but I'm traveling so won't be able to try them for a few days. Will report back.

Speaker Outs
I wired an RCA cable to the end of the G-Socket speaker wires (+ and -). Made no difference.

Optical Outs
I ran an optical to RCA DAC (takes optical cable in and splits into 6 RCAs). That's an AC-powered box so I ran it from my shore power. It worked perfectly. It totally eliminated the whine. I haven't been able to find a 12v version and I'm afraid that even if I did, it would cause the same problem with a power/ground delta between the DAC and the Amp. This is on my list to try, though.

Current Situation
Right now I have the headunit and amp grounds wired togehter and the amp gain set to just below where the whine bothers me with the music off. That's about 30% gain. It's not terrible, but my kids, who have better hearing than me, get driven crazy by the whine. I hooked the amp remote up to the amp wire on the back of the teyes (A socket I think?) and can now turn the amp on and off from the headunit. When I want it REALLY silent, I can go to settings->device->sound->Amp and turn the amp remote off.

List of things to try
I'm not giving up. I want to get this thing working. Here's what's next:
1) Install an amp (or DSP) with an optical in to electrically isolate the headunit from the amp
2) Install the other two noise filters to see if they work better
3) Install chokes on the 12v power line coming into the headunit
4) Install a ground loop isolator on the RCAs, but I really feel like this is a hack and I don't love the idea
5) Do the "big three" upgrade by beefing up the battery-to-chasis strap, engine-to-chasis strap, and alternator-to-battery upgrade wiring
6) Put a Newmar 150 amp noise filter on the alternator to stop the noise at its source


Still a work in progress, but at least it's progress

 

[UncleBanjo]

I've been meaning to post this but wanted to finish up getting it working first. Here's my findings so far. I'm not sure if this will help the LC guys, but worth reading and maybe trying the headunit-to-amp ground strap described:

Vehicle is a 2007 LX470

Scenario 1: Teyes with Factory Amp and speakers using G-socket speaker outputs:
Exactly as described above. Everything works great. The amp gain is controlled by the volume knob. The headunit volume is controlled with the headunit or steering wheel controls. The headunit emits a very slight hiss, but you can't even hear it until the volume knob is 80%+. The solution is to keep the volume knob around 70% and use the headunit to control the volume. Set the headunit sound conditioning to about 10% for best results. Note that some LXs will require the harness re-wire for rear speakers to work properly.

Scenario 2: Teyes with aftermarket Amp and Speakers:
I tried a couple of different configurations here:

RCA outs
Initial Result
Terrible ground noise. Whine with the ignition on and rpm-dependent alternator whine with the truck running. The gain on the aftermarket amp has to be set to almost zero to avoid the humming.

Diagnostic steps I've tried and their results:
1) Hook up an MP3 player to the amp to eliminate the amp as the problem. This results in crystal clear sound with no whine.
2) Hook the headunit up to a 120v AC amp and a set of headphones using the RCA outs to eliminate the headunit as the problem. The result is AGAIN crystal clear sound with no whine.

So the amp works by itself and the headunit works by itself. The problem is the combination of the two.

Ground solution
This is usually a ground level difference between the two components that results in voltage travelling across whatever path connects the two components, which in our case are the RCA cables, and hence the noise. The solution is typically to provide an even better path for the voltage difference so I ran an 8 gauge cable from the Headunit ground (G Socket) to the Amp ground. The whine went WAY down to maybe 30% of what it was before, but it's still loud enough to be annoying with the amp gain at only 30%.

I also ran both the Amp and headunit grounds directly to the battery with no additional difference.

I also grounded the sleeve of the RCA cables with no difference.

12V Noise Filter solution
First I pulled 12V from the Amp's noise filter 12v line. This meant that both the power and ground were shared between the amp and the headunit. The whine didn't decrease anymore than just the shared ground.

Then I ordered 3 12v noise filters from Amazon. The first one arrived same-day and I installed it. No difference. The other two arrived today, but I'm traveling so won't be able to try them for a few days. Will report back.

Speaker Outs
I wired an RCA cable to the end of the G-Socket speaker wires (+ and -). Made no difference.

Optical Outs
I ran an optical to RCA DAC (takes optical cable in and splits into 6 RCAs). That's an AC-powered box so I ran it from my shore power. It worked perfectly. It totally eliminated the whine. I haven't been able to find a 12v version and I'm afraid that even if I did, it would cause the same problem with a power/ground delta between the DAC and the Amp. This is on my list to try, though.

Current Situation
Right now I have the headunit and amp grounds wired togehter and the amp gain set to just below where the whine bothers me with the music off. That's about 30% gain. It's not terrible, but my kids, who have better hearing than me, get driven crazy by the whine. I hooked the amp remote up to the amp wire on the back of the teyes (A socket I think?) and can now turn the amp on and off from the headunit. When I want it REALLY silent, I can go to settings->device->sound->Amp and turn the amp remote off.

List of things to try
I'm not giving up. I want to get this thing working. Here's what's next:
1) Install an amp (or DSP) with an optical in to electrically isolate the headunit from the amp
2) Install the other two noise filters to see if they work better
3) Install chokes on the 12v power line coming into the headunit
4) Install a ground loop isolator on the RCAs, but I really feel like this is a hack and I don't love the idea
5) Do the "big three" upgrade by beefing up the battery-to-chasis strap, engine-to-chasis strap, and alternator-to-battery upgrade wiring
6) Put a Newmar 150 amp noise filter on the alternator to stop the noise at its source


Still a work in progress, but at least it's progress

Dang, you're getting after it! So much info. And there are so many people putting in so much time in to this, so a big thanks to everyone. As that one guy stated, on the shoulders of the OG giants. Lol

So what all does the factory amp control as far as HVAC controls? I ask because it seems like you were saying, once you merge the amp and unit, you get some odd behavior. So if you can remove the factory amp and get the new amp isolated and maybe throw a line output converter like an Lc2i, that would fix it? Maybe fix some voltage irregularities.

 

[cryptyk]

Dang, you're getting after it! So much info. And there are so many people putting in so much time in to this, so a big thanks to everyone. As that one guy stated, on the shoulders of the OG giants. Lol

So what all does the factory amp control as far as HVAC controls? I ask because it seems like you were saying, once you merge the amp and unit, you get some odd behavior. So if you can remove the factory amp and get the new amp isolated and maybe throw a line output converter like an Lc2i, that would fix it? Maybe fix some voltage irregularities.

The factory amp doesn't have anything to do with the HVAC controls. That's all handled with the factory screen sending canbus messages to the climate control computer, which handles them (and sends status messages back, which are shown on the screen).

For example:
Nav Unit: "The user pushed the temp up button"
Climate control unit: <looks at the current temp, sees it's 71F, sets it to 72F>
Climate control unit: "The temperature setting is now 72F"
Nav Unit: <shows 72F on the screen as the new temp setting>

The way the Teyes climate control app works is the same way. I actually didn't love the Teyes app, so I wrote a new one that I think works better. I need to get back to some fixes over there at some point. Here's the climate control app I made: Build: "Moxie" 2007 LX470 Limited - https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/build-moxie-2007-lx470-limited.1299716/post-14825628

---

I've already removed the factory amp and replaced it with an aftermarket amp. All of the problems I mentioned in the aboev post (#567) are with an aftermarket amp. The Line Level converter isn't necessary. The RCA outs on the teyes are already line level (as verified when I hooked up an AC amp and headphones on a long extension cord from my house).
I tried using the Teyes speaker outs, too, with an amp that can take speaker level inputs. Same whine problem :/

We'll get there. Just need to find more time to hack away on it.

 

[UncleBanjo]

The factory amp doesn't have anything to do with the HVAC controls. That's all handled with the factory screen sending canbus messages to the climate control computer, which handles them (and sends status messages back, which are shown on the screen).

For example:
Nav Unit: "The user pushed the temp up button"
Climate control unit: <looks at the current temp, sees it's 71F, sets it to 72F>
Climate control unit: "The temperature setting is now 72F"
Nav Unit: <shows 72F on the screen as the new temp setting>

The way the Teyes climate control app works is the same way. I actually didn't love the Teyes app, so I wrote a new one that I think works better. I need to get back to some fixes over there at some point. Here's the climate control app I made: Build: "Moxie" 2007 LX470 Limited - https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/build-moxie-2007-lx470-limited.1299716/post-14825628

---

I've already removed the factory amp and replaced it with an aftermarket amp. All of the problems I mentioned in the aboev post (#567) are with an aftermarket amp. The Line Level converter isn't necessary. The RCA outs on the teyes are already line level (as verified when I hooked up an AC amp and headphones on a long extension cord from my house).
I tried using the Teyes speaker outs, too, with an amp that can take speaker level inputs. Same whine problem :/

We'll get there. Just need to find more time to hack away on it.

Ahh, copy that! Thanks for the clarification.

And I've been looking up balanced vs unblanced audio, and it seems that rca is unblanced and is prone to the interference. Wonder if there is a way to get balanced (xlr style inputs) to the speakers to mitigate the interference/whine.

And that is an awesome climate control app you've got. I'm a graphic designer and web programmer, so maybe I can help you build that out and design it. I'll DM you.

 

[SandSandwhich]

The factory amp doesn't have anything to do with the HVAC controls. That's all handled with the factory screen sending canbus messages to the climate control computer, which handles them (and sends status messages back, which are shown on the screen).

For example:
Nav Unit: "The user pushed the temp up button"
Climate control unit: <looks at the current temp, sees it's 71F, sets it to 72F>
Climate control unit: "The temperature setting is now 72F"
Nav Unit: <shows 72F on the screen as the new temp setting>

The way the Teyes climate control app works is the same way. I actually didn't love the Teyes app, so I wrote a new one that I think works better. I need to get back to some fixes over there at some point. Here's the climate control app I made: Build: "Moxie" 2007 LX470 Limited - https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/build-moxie-2007-lx470-limited.1299716/post-14825628

---

I've already removed the factory amp and replaced it with an aftermarket amp. All of the problems I mentioned in the aboev post (#567) are with an aftermarket amp. The Line Level converter isn't necessary. The RCA outs on the teyes are already line level (as verified when I hooked up an AC amp and headphones on a long extension cord from my house).
I tried using the Teyes speaker outs, too, with an amp that can take speaker level inputs. Same whine problem :/

We'll get there. Just need to find more time to hack away on it.

I bought a 12V to 6V voltage converter. Do you think this would work? that way the factory amp isn't receiving too much voltage?
I would love to test it, but idk where to connect it. I don't want to fry anything.

 

[cryptyk]

I bought a 12V to 6V voltage converter. Do you think this would work? that way the factory amp isn't receiving too much voltage?
I would love to test it, but idk where to connect it. I don't want to fry anything.

Definitely do not do that. A 12v amp requires 12v to operate.

 

[SandSandwhich]

Definitely do not do that. A 12v amp requires 12v to operate.

I thought the stock amp is 6v

 

[cryptyk]

I thought the stock amp is 6v

It's definitely 12v. You can see there's a 30a fuse between the battery and the amp in the diagram in this post:

LX470 2004 | Need help with Android Screen

Thats bizarre on my end it's not there. But if I click the link posted in the thread it comes up. EDIT: I am indeed a moron. It's listed under toyota and after the 200 series. I just didn't scroll far enough.

forum.ih8mud.com

The amp has two 12v B+ pins coming in.
Maybe you're thinking of the Acc line that acts as a remote for the amp? I think that's less sensitive and can take 5 volts or more because it's used as a switch rather than for power.

 

[shimian]

I’ve read at least 40% of the 29 pages here. Looking at possibly picking up an 03 LC this weekend. Safe to say that I should still 100% stay away from this Teyes unit for now?

 

[cryptyk]

I’ve read at least 40% of the 29 pages here. Looking at possibly picking up an 03 LC this weekend. Safe to say that I should still 100% stay away from this Teyes unit for now?

Correct, unless you're an electronics and audio expert who wants to be the hero the LC crew needs!

 

[shimian]

Correct, unless you're an electronics and audio expert who wants to be the hero the LC crew needs!

What a bummer. It looks so good!

I’ll have to go back and study the pages that are specific to the LC issues and maybe I’ll experiment with it too. Join the party.

 

[cryptyk]

What a bummer. It looks so good!

I’ll have to go back and study the pages that are specific to the LC issues and maybe I’ll experiment with it too. Join the party.

The other option is to get the teyes and plan to replace the factory amp and speakers

 

[shimian]

The other option is to get the teyes and plan to replace the factory amp and speakers

This truck does have blown original speakers…

without rehashing too many pages, I assume you just use the line out to an amp and the wire the speakers into the amp? Class D amps are pretty small these days. What’s the catch?

 

[cryptyk]

This truck does have blown original speakers…

without rehashing too many pages, I assume you just use the line out to an amp and the wire the speakers into the amp? Class D amps are pretty small these days. What’s the catch?

No catch. Just more money than most people want to spend, but if you already have blown speakers, then go for it.

I have an LX without the hiss and went ahead and replaced the amp and speakers anyway, but for me it's a fun project truck and I'm happy to spend the money on it