T-Style Android Head Unit first impressions - 2016+ model (2 Viewers)

[RidgieWagon]

Did the install of a 16" Tesla style HU last weekend and promised a write up. I'm sure I'll leave a ton of info out but will come back as I think of things I missed. I'll start from the beginning of the research and work through my impressions after a week of use.

Initial Research

Started here on MUD searching through the previous threads but found most of them were on MY 2015 or before which is a different HU in terms of shape and installation.

There is a lot of thought that there is only one manufacturer of these head units and multiple resellers such as Phoenix Auto, Rhino Radios, Autostereo on AliExpress, LinksWell, EC Offroad and so on. I truly don't know but they all look exactly the same so it could be a plausible theory.

I joined the FB group "Tesla Style. Firmware and HeadUnits" which is run by Sergey Koslov (more on him later) and also perused the XDA Developers forum for anything I could find on these units. The best bit I got was that the/one of the manufacturers was ZhiFang which was on Alibaba.

From everything I could find online it looked as though installing this HU would get rid of XM radio and limit me to picking up standard radio signal. The benefit would be the addition of Apple CarPlay and ability to play/stream videos on the head unit itself rather than just the rear entertainment screens. While I wasn't too worried about videos in the car I did want better resolution on the HU than the factory screen provided. I watched the videos EC Offroad put on youtube about the screen and what it could do which helped me decide to give it a go.

I was going to pull the trigger on the one EC Offroad offered but at $2000 USD I had to sleep on it. Glad I did sleep on it because I then went onto Alibaba and found the manufacturer ZhiFang which goes by Shenzhen Changheweiye Technology Co., Ltd. On their product page they advertise a 13.6" screen BUT they also offer the 16" screen. (13.6 Inch Android Car Dvd Player Tesla Screen For Toyota Land Cruiser 2016-2020 With Dvd Gps Radio Wifi Carplay Dsp - Buy Car Dvd Player Tesla Screen,13.6 Inch Carplayer For Toyota Land Cruiser,Android Car Dvd Player Product on Alibaba.com - https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/13-6-Inch-Android-Car-DVD_1600435513147.html)

In order to contact them there is a message feature on the product page and I messaged with an individual named Jackie Tang. I'm in the US so there was a definite time difference to keep in mind while messaging.

The Order Process

After messaging back and forth with the manufacturer, I had sent a picture of my current HU and MY of LC200 and they gave me the choices I could pick from. I decided on the 16" screen with a PX6 chip, 4 gb ram and 64 gb flash memory. The price on that was $567 USD. Shipping was another $143 USD and an additional $20 was added for bank transfer on their end. The only way to pay was through bank transfer which is pretty unnerving just sending money to an unknown recipient in hopes of receiving goods! My bank charged me $45 to make the wire transfer which felt like a ripoff but I digress. The transfer is directed to a bank in Hong Kong so it's all made in USD. It took a couple days for them to receive the money but as soon as they did I got a receipt from the company and a day later I got a UPS tracking number.

Installation

I received the HU approximately two weeks after purchase and had watched it's progress the whole way with tracking. It was boxed up nicely and sustained very little shipping damage.

I had to wait a few day to get enough time to install which also helped me look over the installation videos that EC Offroad has posted on youtube. In all honesty, with a few things left out they are very helpful videos. I had also ordered some plastic trim removal tools from Amazon in that time too.

Part 1:
Part 2:
Part 3: head unit to suit 200 Series Sahara setup 2020 Part 3 - https://youtu.be/I_xFdxVCRM4
Part 4: head unit to suit 200 Series Sahara setup 2020 Part 4 - https://youtu.be/s33DJbLt90c

Here are a few photos as I removed the dash and stock HU.

Some tips on removal: The bolts are 10mm, cover anything that could be scratched unless you are absolutely steady handed or don't care, work in a place that isn't 100+ degrees (I had a portable AC in my garage thankfully) and those plastic trim tools came in handy but aren't completely necessary.

The unit came with a wiring harness which had many, many connectors. Important thing to note is that not all the connectors are used in the wiring harness but there are some additional cables that are included which ARE used such as the usb connector and antenna connector. The EC Offroad videos are pretty good on sorting out which cable does what but there is a bit that is missing which I had to go back and forth to figure out and that includes one of the separate cables that I realized wasn't used on my specific year model. (Wish I could be more specific but I honestly don't remember what it was for)

The method I used for installation was to connect the wiring harness to the car connectors, push all the cables to the top portion of the radio bay and get them ready to connect to the head unit. Admittedly I got a little frustrated at this part and forgot to take photos...my bad. There is an HDMI connection on the back of the unit which you can run the included cord to the rear console and plug in for the rear screens. I ran the cord tucked up into the base of the center console and popped out next to the passenger seat. Admittedly, I have removed a screen so that I can fit a car seat for my 1 yr old and will probably remove the other sometime in the future for the next one coming soon so that HDMI cord may be a moot point for me.

I then attached all the cables that are needed to the HU. There are quite a few connectors on the back of the HU that aren't used which made me recheck that I didn't miss anything. After tucking the cables and mounting the HU it looks like this:

The Fun

I kept everything disassembled to test the HU and amazingly everything worked great! There is a lot to setup and get connected at the beginning. I then put the dash back together happy with my success, put it in reverse to reposition in the garage and NO Cameras came up! Figuring I connected something wrong I pulled the dash back apart, checked all the cables, watched the EC video again and still nothing. This was where I about lost my cool.

On the Tesla Style FB group, the moderator Sergey has made an updated firmware for the Android 9 unit which fixes a lot of the bugs and quirks that the unit has from the manufacturer. I had contacted him via messenger (the preferred method of contact) and sent the required unit information screen plus asked about the cameras. I'll assume he's somewhere in Russia from both his accent in videos and payment in Roubles. Long story short, he walked me through a settings screen to change the rear cameras setting from 2010 to 2016 (the change of LC200 styling) and BOOM they worked!! I had wired correctly. Afterwards, I went through a series of download firmware installers to USB from my computer to installing on the HU. Once installed his firmware made quite a bit of difference from speeding up the applications, giving different styles, and many different settings. He asks that you make a $100 USD in Roubles "donation" to his project on a site called Boosty and you can pay by PayPal. I cannot recommend his firmware enough and he is very responsive...plus a super nice/patient guy!


Overall Impressions

I've been using the unit for over a week now and overall I'm happy. I've mentioned there are quirks but going into this swap I knew there would be things that may not be exactly how I would want...just like any head unit swap I've done in the past.

The good:
Carplay is Awesome! On a 16" (diagonal) screen it is easy to navigate while driving.
The unit automatically connects via Zlink to my phone wirelessly.
The built in equalizer is better than the stock unit and next I'm going to install another equalizer which works even better (there's a video to install that's done by Sergey).
I can play the XM app through Carplay so what I lost natively I have there on my phone.
The left knob on the unit is volume which I liked being able to turn up and down easily.
The air controls are right there and relatively easy to use. Fan speed up and down is a push button next to the volume knob.

The not-so-good:
Lost the really good radio reception I had before. I don't listen to it much but the local sports station "The Ticket" doesn't come through anymore. Makes me think I connected the wrong antenna.
No outside temperature display.
Some of the settings are not intuitive..ie-some are in one menu but other are in a completely different one.
The air settings expand up from the bottom when touched but don't have a button to minimize when done.
The reverse/360 cameras take over the screen when on and I cannot minimize or half size them. When reversing it's fine but I have the auto camera pop up when slow/stopped setting on and that gets annoying at stop lights.
The stock cameras are crap resolution and it is highlighted on this high-resolution screen. I plan to get an aftermarket AHD system in the fall when I can stand to be outside for log periods installing without melting.

Hope this helps! Like I mentioned at the beginning I will have forgotten to include something so please feel free to ask. I'll insert more pictures in the comments below.

 

[RidgieWagon]

A few more pictures of the Head Unit. I'll get some more today of the climate controls and other screens. And yes, I haven't removed the plastic covering since I'm anal about scratching the screen before I get a screen protector on it (still looking for one big enough).

View attachment 3038982

 

[greynolds]

I'm going to use this post to add some items I found during and after my install that aren't covered by the first post.

What Comes With The Head Unit

The primary head unit of discussion in this thread is the ZhiFang ZF-1829G. Here are some additional pictures of the head unit and the cables that are included.

Here's the back of the head unit. It's fairly obvious what plugs in where because other than the WiFi and GPS connectors, everything else is keyed so that each connector only fits in one location:

The only included cable I didn't bother taking a picture of is the HDMI cable since there's nothing really special about it.

Cables Part 1 (top left to bottom right):

• GPS antenna
• External mic
• "High Configuration" Amp harness - this gets used if the factory amp connection doesn't fit the amp connector on the main harness (this cable was used on my 2020)
• AV In harness - The yellow RCA 360 output from the main harness connects to the "Camera" input on this
• USB harness

Cables Part 2 (from left to right):

1. This cable is used, at least on some model years (including 2020), for part of the 360 camera system in addition to the RCA connectors
2. An adapter to connect the factory USB port to one of the USB inputs
3. CD-AUX harness (this doesn't get used)
4. Line output harness for using aftermarket amps (this doesn't get used)

Cables Part 3:

This is the main harness with kind of a rats nest of connectors. The connections across the top plug into the new head unit. The connectors across the bottom connect to the factory harness (a few do not get used).

Installation Wiring Diagram

Even though the model number isn't an exact match, the attached ZF-1807XH Installation instrument.pdf file shows all of the factory connectors that are used and where they connect to the supplied harness bundle.

For the yellow RCA cables, the one labeled "360 Camera" must be plugged into the one labeled "Camera" on the AV-IN harness.

The only exception to what the document shows is the little black connectors shown between the connectors labeled 2 and 4 in the right photo on the first page. A matching connector only exists for 1 of those, leaving the other 2 not connected to anything.

Using the Factory GPS Antenna

Since the Land Cruiser has a GPS antenna built into it already, it makes sense to use it rather than using the GPS puck antenna that comes with the head unit. It makes for a cleaner installation and seems to have at least a slightly stronger signal. Discount Car Stereo sells the SUMI-SMA adapter cable, which is compatible with the factory GPS antenna cable, at least in my 2020 Land Cruiser.

Note that the factory harness has 2 nearly identical connectors, shown in the following photos. The white one is the GPS antenna, the black one is the SiriusXM antenna.

I am finding that it takes a few minutes for the head unit to start receiving a GPS signal after a non-fast boot of the head unit. It may be faster when fast boot is working (a firmware update disabled fast boot for me for now).

360 Camera Wiring Note (refer to the attached ZF-1807XH Installation instrument.pdf file)

I ran into an issue getting the 360 / backup camera working, so the place I purchased the unit from sent me an installation wiring diagram (attached) that shows which connectors plug in between the factory harness and the supplied harness pack that comes with the head unit. On my 2020 Land Cruiser, the problem I ran into was that even though my factory wiring matches what is shown on page 2 of the PDF, the connector on the gray cable (labeled as 7 in the left photo) isn't keyed to easily plug into the corresponding blue connector on the harness that comes with the unit (labeled as 7 in the right photo). However, the very similar blue connector from the factory harness (just below 7 in the left photo on page 2) fits perfectly. In the end, the gray cable needs to be plugged in, even if some force is required to override how the connectors are keyed.

Update (8/15/2022): After going on a long vacation trip with the LC (around 3000 miles), I found that the camera connection was extremely sensitive to movement. During the trip, I ran into a few really poorly done repair patches on highways in upstate NY. In one particular case, the patch almost made me lose control of the vehicle, kicked cruise control off, set off the traction control alarm, AND resulted in my 360 camera not working next time I went to use the backup camera. Fortunately, I had brought a few tools with me and I was able to get access to this connector by pulling out the driver side vent rather than having to take the entire head unit out. I found, however, that this harness was very sensitive to being moved. Moving it just a bit in the wrong direction could freeze the camera image or make it go blank.

When I returned from my vacation, I decided I had to figure out the problem with the connector not fitting well. It was clearly an issue with the connector on the supplied harness being keyed incorrectly for my factory connector. After contacting the vendor, it was clear that he either didn't understand the problem (even with pictures provided) or they simply don't have another harness available with the correct keying on the connector. I didn't want to modify my factory connections, so I ultimately decided to modify the harness that came with the head unit. By removing the plastic circled in red below (all the way to the bottom of the connector) on the 360 adapter harness that came with the head unit, the factory connector now plugs in pretty easily and I can wiggle the harness around as much as I want without causing any issues with the backup camera freezing or going blank. I used a sharp Xacto knife to remove this piece - it's amazing how little plastic there actually was, but it made all the difference. I started a separate post about this issue that includes additional photos. It looks like 2018's have a different connector that may fit without modification. 2020's and most likely 2021's will need this modification done. It's unknown, for now, which version of the connector 2019's will have.

Install Set Settings

Note: it's potentially possible to brick your unit by making invalid choices in this menu, so proceed with caution.

To access the Settings > General > Install Set settings, a password is required. I was provided with 2 possible passwords: 7890 or 8861. 8861 worked for me.

Outside Temperature

Once in the Install Set menu, find the "Display temp" setting, turn it on, and tap the "Save and reboot" bottom to save the setting. Without this enabled, the head unit won't read the outside temperature from the car and will just display a default value all the time. Sergey's custom firmware has an option to retrieve the temperature over the Internet from a weather service, but I would rather use the sensor built into the car.

Other Tips

Selecting the model year for the backup camera
Open the Control Panel app and change the "360 reversing camera year" from 2010 to 2016. If this setting is not changed, the headunit won't switch to camera view when the transmission is shifted into reverse.

Fixing low audio level
Initially, the audio volume level was very low, even with the volume level turned up to max. To fix this, open the Control Panel app and adjust the "Amp" level up. A value of around 35 seems to work well.

Adjusting 360 / backup camera picture quality
See this post for tips on adjusting the brightness and contrast.

By default, there are grid lines from both the car's 360 camera system AND grid lines added by the Android system. Turning off the grid lines that are generated by the Android system makes the cameras a lot more usable. It may be possible to turn off the grid lines provided by the car as the touchscreen does control the settings in the car's 360 camera system and there may be advantages to using the Android system's grid lines instead as they can be adjusted. But using both makes the camera much harder to use.

Screen Protectors / Anti-Glare

• Nushield - select Lenovo and N580, and DayVue for the correct size and type. Here's an Install video for the DayVue protector.
• EC Offroad screen protector

 

[greynolds]

So for the outside temp, I’m pretty sure the EC Off-road unit is supposed to show that. The EC Off-road unit comes with a Canbus box and another box that is a parking assist decoder box. The Canbus box might be what gets access to the outside temp. Does this unit you purchased include either of these? Does everything else, such as the parking sensors that beep when getting close to objects work?

The low resolution cameras issue is unfortunate, but pretty much expected. It would be nice if they can be upgraded without having to run wires as that’s a job I don’t think I would want to tackle on my own.

You definitely saved yourself a big chunk of cash by doing the research.

 

[kcjaz]

Excellent write up! I went the EC Offroad route and have got it all working (including outside air temp) but I can’t say its worth the $2k compared to the price you paid. The FB group has a lot of info but I’m afraid to use Sergey’s firmware as I’m afraid there may be something in EC Offroad firm where that is unique.

Kudos on have the guts to go this route. If my EC Offroad bricks, I’ll probably going with Phoenix and Sergey for replacement. I really like the 2016 version and it’s retention if the volume knob. May sound funny but the lack of that knob is now, after I have got it all working, one of the things I really miss.

 

[kcjaz]

Oh, please post what you find for anti glare screen protectors. I’m on the same mission. I messaged EC Offroad off-road and asked if they have anything and they told me they had a company make protectors for them but that’s all they said. While those guys are helpful that’s kind of how they answer questions, halfway. So I’ve asked if I can buy a protector from them that fits my screen. We’ll see what they say.

 

[RidgieWagon]

So for the outside temp, I’m pretty sure the EC Off-road unit is supposed to show that. The EC Off-road unit comes with a Canbus box and another box that is a parking assist decoder box. The Canbus box might be what gets access to the outside temp. Does this u it you purchased include either of these? Does everything else, such as the parking sensors that beep when getting close to objects work?

The low resolution cameras issue is unfortunate, but pretty much expected. It would be nice if they can be upgraded without having to run wires as that’s a job I don’t think I would want to tackle on my own.

You definitely saved yourself a big chunk of cash by doing the research.

There is a way that Sergey has incorporated outside temp from a weather app but I haven't tethered my unit to my phone via wifi since I have limited tethering data. Which is funny since my phone plan has unlimited data.

From everything I've found with this 2016+ unit, the canbus is integrated into the unit itself with no external box. All the parking assist features work normally as do the cameras.

There are a few threads here which talk about the factory cameras are 5v and most aftermarket AHD or high resolution are 12v. I'll have to go digging around to find the one where a guy had made a voltage converter to use an aftermarket camera replacement in the stock setup. I really don't want to rewire the cameras and would love to get away with splicing them in but knowing my luck I'd have a loose connection that I would have to chase down. The aftermarket camera solutions come with their own decoder box and can be synced with your blinkers to show your blind spots when you activate that side.

 

[kcjaz]

Here’s what EC Off-road sent me for anti glare screen. A tad pricey.

Antiglare Screen Protector

Give an even better upgrade to your head unit with our Antiglare Screen ProtectorsTo reduce the glare to head unit screens Sizes Available 9 Inch10 Inch12 Inch13.6 Inch16 Inch *for stock levels, please call our warehouse on 1300 504 060

www.ecvisionsound.com

55 AUD plus 90 AUD for 165 AUD. That’s 115 USD. Shipping cost seems really high. I’ll keep looking.

 

[RidgieWagon]

Here’s what EC Off-road sent me for anti glare screen. A tad pricey.

Antiglare Screen Protector

Give an even better upgrade to your head unit with our Antiglare Screen ProtectorsTo reduce the glare to head unit screens Sizes Available 9 Inch10 Inch12 Inch13.6 Inch16 Inch *for stock levels, please call our warehouse on 1300 504 060

www.ecvisionsound.com

55 AUD plus 90 AUD for 165 AUD. That’s 115 USD. Shipping cost seems really high. I’ll keep looking.

Uf! That's pricey for a screen protector. I have sent a message to a company called NuShield (NuShield DayVue and Anti Glare Screen Protectors - https://www.nushield.com/) looking for a custom sized protector or one they have in stock that'll fit. I'll post up when I hear back.

 

[TeCKis300]

Thanks for the review. I keep looking at these units for the LX570. Threads like this give me more confidence to maybe one day pull the trigger.

 

[greynolds]

There is a way that Sergey has incorporated outside temp from a weather app but I haven't tethered my unit to my phone via wifi since I have limited tethering data. Which is funny since my phone plan has unlimited data.

Getting it through a weather app is certainly a reasonable alternative. If this is the only "major" concession in giving up factory functions, then that's not so bad.

Giving up SiriusXM via satellite was a given, of course.

You mentioned radio reception isn't as good and that you may not have connected the correct antenna - was there more than 1 antenna connector? If so, the LC may have one of those diversity antennas for the radio. I think there are combiner adapters available that may be worth considering.

Otherwise, the not so good stuff you listed doesn't sound all that bad.

From everything I've found with this 2016+ unit, the canbus is integrated into the unit itself with no external box. All the parking assist features work normally as do the cameras.

Excellent, not having to deal with extra external boxes is a big plus IMHO. Good to hear that all the parking assist features work - that's one thing I would prefer not to give up.

There are a few threads here which talk about the factory cameras are 5v and most aftermarket AHD or high resolution are 12v. I'll have to go digging around to find the one where a guy had made a voltage converter to use an aftermarket camera replacement in the stock setup. I really don't want to rewire the cameras and would love to get away with splicing them in but knowing my luck I'd have a loose connection that I would have to chase down. The aftermarket camera solutions come with their own decoder box and can be synced with your blinkers to show your blind spots when you activate that side.

Here's the thread with the discussion of using a voltage converter:

Any good aftermarket options to replace the front camera?

My 16 LC has had a cracked camera lens for as long as I've owned it (I got it used). I didn't really care when I got it, but since then, I've found that the front camera can actually be kind of useful on the trail to see what is directly in front and obstructed by the hood. Have any of you found...

forum.ih8mud.com

I have a trip planned the last 2 weeks in July, so it sounds like I would be ill advised to try to do the swap before then. But based on your feedback so far, I think I'm going to plan to go ahead with the same path you took. I just need to get the full list of possible head units to see if any of them might be a better fit for me, but I really like what I'm reading and seeing about yours.

 

[linuxgod]

There are a few threads here which talk about the factory cameras are 5v and most aftermarket AHD or high resolution are 12v. I'll have to go digging around to find the one where a guy had made a voltage converter to use an aftermarket camera replacement in the stock setup. I really don't want to rewire the cameras and would love to get away with splicing them in but knowing my luck I'd have a loose connection that I would have to chase down. The aftermarket camera solutions come with their own decoder box and can be synced with your blinkers to show your blind spots when you activate that side.

I have a 2013 and I (temporarily) swapped the camera. Mine seemed to have a bit of noise in the video, and eventually I just relented and relocated my factory camera rather than monkey with it right now. The new camera wasn't really any better quality than the OEM one, at least in daylight, probably due to the crappy 2008-2015 screen resolution.

To put in a 12V camera using the existing wiring the parts you need are here:

RLC rear tire carrier / swing out / jerry can / custom fab bumper

I assume that's what's happening here. Or at least the backup warning on the nav system shows this area as the red/white stripe pattern, which means "imminent impact". Since the basket is so high on the left, I'm guessing it's catching the bottom of the tire. BTW I was planning to move my...

forum.ih8mud.com

In the above you'll need to wire the 6V-to-12V converter inline. Alternately you can try to find a circuit in the trunk which has 12V switched power and just tap that for the 12V you need for the camera (which will leave it powered on all the time, but you really shouldn't care).

Pretty much any 12V camera should work, though if you're trying to keep your camera in the factory location you should take good measurements and then try to find a square camera that you can retrofit into the existing mount.

Wiring info is below from my RLC bumper installation notes, note that the pin-outs changed in 2016, and that the ground wire in 2008-2015 is tied to the shield but in 2016 the shield is separate.

 

[kcjaz]

Uf! That's pricey for a screen protector. I have sent a message to a company called NuShield (NuShield DayVue and Anti Glare Screen Protectors - https://www.nushield.com/) looking for a custom sized protector or one they have in stock that'll fit. I'll post up when I hear back.

I IM in a chat with Nushield. They were supposed to have someone email me. They wanted more personal info from me besides my email that I wasn’t willing to provide to a chat bot. I haven’t got any email.

I think their product may be OK I just can’t figure out exactly which one to order. I believe they have a cut to dimension version but it’s not clear on the order form.

 

[RidgieWagon]

I IM in a chat with Nushield. They were supposed to have someone email me. They wanted more personal info from me besides my email that I wasn’t willing to provide to a chat bot. I haven’t got any email.

I think their product may be OK I just can’t figure out exactly which one to order. I believe they have a cut to dimension version but it’s not clear on the order form.

I heard back from them and the measurements I gave them for the 16" screen (345mm L x 195mm W) was an exact match to a Lenovo N580 which they have on their product page. Cost for the DayVue (which works with polarized sunglasses) is $29.70 before shipping and tax. USPS shipping to my location is $6.25. So roughly $35 for a screen protector from them. Is it any good? Dunno but we're going to find out!

 

[RidgieWagon]

I have a 2013 and I (temporarily) swapped the camera. Mine seemed to have a bit of noise in the video, and eventually I just relented and relocated my factory camera rather than monkey with it right now. The new camera wasn't really any better quality than the OEM one, at least in daylight, probably due to the crappy 2008-2015 screen resolution.

To put in a 12V camera using the existing wiring the parts you need are here:

RLC rear tire carrier / swing out / jerry can / custom fab bumper

I assume that's what's happening here. Or at least the backup warning on the nav system shows this area as the red/white stripe pattern, which means "imminent impact". Since the basket is so high on the left, I'm guessing it's catching the bottom of the tire. BTW I was planning to move my...

forum.ih8mud.com

In the above you'll need to wire the 6V-to-12V converter inline. Alternately you can try to find a circuit in the trunk which has 12V switched power and just tap that for the 12V you need for the camera (which will leave it powered on all the time, but you really shouldn't care).

Pretty much any 12V camera should work, though if you're trying to keep your camera in the factory location you should take good measurements and then try to find a square camera that you can retrofit into the existing mount.

Wiring info is below from my RLC bumper installation notes, note that the pin-outs changed in 2016, and that the ground wire in 2008-2015 is tied to the shield but in 2016 the shield is separate.

View attachment 3039610

That's some good info there, thanks! I do wonder where you were getting noise in the line from?

I had seen an aftermarket 360 camera wiring diagram on Alibaba and there was only one note of tying into 12v from the tail light and turn signals on the mirrors for power. I'm going to mull over the whole camera switch until this Fall or when it's not so uncomfortable outside to do the work.

 

[greynolds]

I'm really debating about whether to go all in NOW and hope to have the unit installed before my trip or play it safe and hold off. I know how to take the dash apart having done it a few times already and as long as I don't run into any defective parts, installing the new head unit shouldn't really take all that long. It looks like there would probably just be trial and error with 1 or 2 harnesses and everything else can only connect to 1 place. It sure would be nice to have the bigger display for the trip as I'll be driving 2K+ miles (heading out to Michigan for car museums, lighthouses, etc.; no Upper Peninsula, unfortunately, as it's just too much additional time and driving for a solo trip that's already going to be 10 days). I could even bring the original head unit and the small assortment of tools that would be needed just in case I need to swap it back for some reason. Time would be tight though as I leave on July 21st.

 

[kcjaz]

I'm really debating about whether to go all in NOW and hope to have the unit installed before my trip or play it safe and hold off. I know how to take the dash apart having done it a few times already and as long as I don't run into any defective parts, installing the new head unit shouldn't really take all that long. It looks like there would probably just be trial and error with 1 or 2 harnesses and everything else can only connect to 1 place. It sure would be nice to have the bigger display for the trip as I'll be driving 2K+ miles (heading out to Michigan for car museums, lighthouses, etc.; no Upper Peninsula, unfortunately, as it's just too much additional time and driving for a solo trip that's already going to be 10 days). I could even bring the original head unit and the small assortment of tools that would be needed just in case I need to swap it back for some reason. Time would be tight though as I leave on July 21st.

Go for it. Worst case is it doesn’t work after 4 or 5 days of messing around and you decide to ping and reinstall the OEM unit.

I am heading out on a 1200 mile trip tomorrow with my newly installed unit. I may take the OEM parts with me as loading HVAC would be pretty bad right now. But it’s been all working for a couple weeks now.

 

[linuxgod]

That's some good info there, thanks! I do wonder where you were getting noise in the line from?

I had seen an aftermarket 360 camera wiring diagram on Alibaba and there was only one note of tying into 12v from the tail light and turn signals on the mirrors for power. I'm going to mull over the whole camera switch until this Fall or when it's not so uncomfortable outside to do the work.

Could be the 6V-to-12V converter, or it could be the camera. I wired all 4 pins and the video was there but scrambled. I bound the V- to the ground sheath on the factory harness and that "fixed" it. However the video still had a bit of a barbershop-pole swirl effect going on in the background. My suspicion is it was noise from the converter and some sort of noise filter would've fixed it, but I just needed a functional camera so I chose to relocate my Toyota one for now. I may or may not try again in the future (and TBH I'd be very inclined to be the forum guinea pig to make this work if someone could find me a male version of the 4-pin camera connector so I wouldn't have to hack my setup apart to try it)

 

[greynolds]

Go for it. Worst case is it doesn’t work after 4 or 5 days of messing around and you decide to ping and reinstall the OEM unit.

I am heading out on a 1200 mile trip tomorrow with my newly installed unit. I may take the OEM parts with me as loading HVAC would be pretty bad right now. But it’s been all working for a couple weeks now.

Yeah, losing HVAC would be really inconvenient this time of year on a long trip. I'll start by initiating contact and go from there. If they get back to me fairly quickly, I'll proceed. If there's a delay of a few days or so, I'll wait till I get back home.

 

[greynolds]

I initiated contact and mentioned that I had been told that my understanding was that payment was via bank transfer. The very brief response from Jackie Tang was that they don’t accept payment that way. Sigh…. I sent another reply, but this doesn’t seem to be going well so far LOL. Hopefully we’ll get things sorted out.