T-Style Android Head Unit first impressions - 2016+ model

[RidgieWagon]

I'm not sure the official term, but it's the button with the picture of the guy sitting down whose face is about to smash into a brick wall which was just pierced by an arrow (not just the recirc/fresh button)

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It’s not the greatest picture but you can see all the hvac options in the pop up menu.

 

[Cincodemustache]

It’s not the greatest picture but you can see all the hvac options in the pop up menu.

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Great pic. I see the cabin filter HVAC setting and the heated windshield strip as well.

 

[kcjaz]

It’s not the greatest picture but you can see all the hvac options in the pop up menu.

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Here’s pre2016:

 

[greynolds]

Here’s pre2016:
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Based on your other thread, you've got a somewhat different head unit that also has whatever customizations EC Offroad has to the firmware, so it's not surprising that the layout of the HVAC controls is different.

 

[greynolds]

@RidgieWagon are you using the mic that's built into the head unit or did you hookup the included external mic? If using the external mic, where did you end up installing it? Similarly, does the included GPS antenna have a magnet on the bottom or just double sided sticky tape and where did you end up installing that? I'm just trying to plan ahead as much as I can for when my head unit arrives since my timetable is probably going to be a bit tight to get it installed before my upcoming trip.

 

[RidgieWagon]

@RidgieWagon are you using the mic that's built into the head unit or did you hookup the included external mic? If using the external mic, where did you end up installing it? Similarly, does the included GPS antenna have a magnet on the bottom or just double sided sticky tape and where did you end up installing that? I'm just trying to plan ahead as much as I can for when my head unit arrives since my timetable is probably going to be a bit tight to get it installed before my upcoming trip.

I put the mic on top of the air vent but it hasn’t been ideal. I’m going to move it soon. The GPS I put on the passenger side next to the top grill.

 

[kcjaz]

I put the mic on top of the air vent but it hasn’t been ideal. I’m going to move it soon. The GPS I put on the passenger side next to the top grill.

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FWIW, I put both gps and external mic under the OEM speaker screen on the dash. The gps seems to work OK, though on current trip in Minnesota, it is seemingly loosing the Sat when we are in trees and our phones are not. The mic does not work very well under the speaker screen. I am going to move both.

 

[re500]

Time for a group order?

 

[linuxgod]

I take it the connectors for the GPS port and the Toyota GPS antenna are not the same? I wonder if it can be adapted

Should be feasible to reuse the ceiling-mounted Toyota mic, if you don't mind cutting and splicing their mic cable into the OEM plug. If someone wants to try I can pull the wiring diagram from the FSM for your model year.

 

[RidgieWagon]

I take it the connectors for the GPS port and the Toyota GPS antenna are not the same? I wonder if it can be adapted

Should be feasible to reuse the ceiling-mounted Toyota mic, if you don't mind cutting and splicing their mic cable into the OEM plug. If someone wants to try I can pull the wiring diagram from the FSM for your model year.

I had thought about this. There are three antenna connectors that were on the factory HU. There is a connector from the factory radio antenna to the input on the unit which looks like a stereo jack. I would assume one of them is an XM antenna. So the connector needed would need to go from the factory GPS antenna connection to a standard-round GPS connection. I would love to use the factory mic but didn't have a clue where it was.

 

[kcjaz]

I take it the connectors for the GPS port and the Toyota GPS antenna are not the same? I wonder if it can be adapted

Should be feasible to reuse the ceiling-mounted Toyota mic, if you don't mind cutting and splicing their mic cable into the OEM plug. If someone wants to try I can pull the wiring diagram from the FSM for your model year.

I’m game to try the OEM mic idea. As is the OEM mic is worthless unless I revert back to OEM unit.

 

[greynolds]

None of these aftermarket units, including the EC Offroad interface module I'm currently using, Naviplus, Grom, etc. seem to attempt to use the factory GPS antenna, which presumably must plug into the factory head unit on one of the connectors. I've wondered if there's a good reason these always come with a plug in GPS antenna - could be that the factory GPS antenna is difficult to adapt for some reason.

IIRC, at least some of the aftermarket units do make use of the factory mic. The unit being discussed in this thread does have a built-in mic, so I'm wondering if that might work well enough.

I would definitely be interested in using the factory mic and/or GPS, but not if it means making changes (cutting wires) that would prevent reverting to the factory head unit at some point (just in case...).

 

[linuxgod]

None of these aftermarket units, including the EC Offroad interface module I'm currently using, Naviplus, Grom, etc. seem to attempt to use the factory GPS antenna, which presumably must plug into the factory head unit on one of the connectors. I've wondered if there's a good reason these always come with a plug in GPS antenna - could be that the factory GPS antenna is difficult to adapt for some reason.

IIRC, at least some of the aftermarket units do make use of the factory mic. The unit being discussed in this thread does have a built-in mic, so I'm wondering if that might work well enough.

I would definitely be interested in using the factory mic and/or GPS, but not if it means making changes (cutting wires) that would prevent reverting to the factory head unit at some point (just in case...).

Is the GPS antenna they include just a regular 2-wire plug? If it’s just an antenna I see no reason why it wouldn’t work. That said I had a USB GPS antenna years ago which had logic in the little antenna which would basically just output lat/lon cords every few seconds, so if the android unit is actually relying on the GPS antenna to be more than just an antenna it likely wouldn’t.

 

[greynolds]

I joined the Tesla Style FB group to try to get caught up on there while I wait for my head unit to ship. After looking into the level of support Sergey provides and the transformation his custom firmware seems to make, that's a really good reason to stick with the T-Style PX6 units for now. Some of the features he has added are interesting from a technical perspective, and while I wouldn't use some of them it provides a glimpse into what is possible. One example is that he has a setting that allows the steering wheel controls to operate a bunch of the heater controls (temp up/down, AC on/off, fan speed up/down), but this is at the expense of losing the steering wheel volume control because those buttons are now used for HVAC. But that suggests that it might be possible to provide an option for the left and right knobs on the unit to control driver and passenger temp. That means volume would probably only be adjusted on the steering wheel, but I think that's a compromise I could live with.

Once the newer G6 head units start shipping and start to get support like this, it will probably make sense to go with them, if only for the increased RAM and ROM, but for now, I think the custom firmware that Sergey provides outweighs the extra RAM and ROM.

 

[greynolds]

Is the GPS antenna they include just a regular 2-wire plug? If it’s just an antenna I see no reason why it wouldn’t work. That said I had a USB GPS antenna years ago which had logic in the little antenna which would basically just output lat/lon cords every few seconds, so if the android unit is actually relying on the GPS antenna to be more than just an antenna it likely wouldn’t.

The one that EC Offroad uses on their interface module uses a standard SMA connector (which looks a lot like a much smaller version of an RG-6 connector like home TV antennas and cable TV use), so it's just an antenna AFAIK. From what I have seen the head unit that is the topic of this thread uses that same. What I don't know is what sort of GPS antenna comes in our Land Cruiser from the factory or which connector it might be in the factory harness.

I don't think this specific product will work (at least not without a 2nd adapter cable) as the none of the connectors look like SMA to go into the new head unit and it's unknown exactly what connector is needed to plug into the LC harness, but something like this is what would likely be needed:

Amazon product ASIN B01K03PORU

 

[RidgieWagon]

The one that EC Offroad uses on their interface module uses a standard SMA connector (which looks a lot like a much smaller version of an RG-6 connector like home TV antennas and cable TV use), so it's just an antenna AFAIK. From what I have seen the head unit that is the topic of this thread uses that same. What I don't know is what sort of GPS antenna comes in our Land Cruiser from the factory or which connector it might be in the factory harness.

I don't think this specific product will work (at least not without a 2nd adapter cable) as the none of the connectors look like SMA to go into the new head unit and it's unknown exactly what connector is needed to plug into the LC harness, but something like this is what would likely be needed:

Amazon product ASIN B01K03PORU

So that adapter looks like it might work. The antenna connectors are rectangular but have the circular male plug on them. It may work...won't know till someone tries. The supplied GPS antenna looks like ones we use on add-on components we make for our company drones so it's nothing special and one would suspect the stock antenna does the same thing.

In the picture I've circled the antenna leads (as far as I can remember)

 

[kcjaz]

It

Is the GPS antenna they include just a regular 2-wire plug? If it’s just an antenna I see no reason why it wouldn’t work. That said I had a USB GPS antenna years ago which had logic in the little antenna which would basically just output lat/lon cords every few seconds, so if the android unit is actually relying on the GPS antenna to be more than just an antenna it likely wouldn’t.

Its like a coax cable connector in the back of the unit.

It’s the shiny brass think next to Wi-Fi antenna.

 

[greynolds]

I have ordered a couple of options from Discount Car Stereo, SUMI-SMA and HFC-SMA. They have an old and new Toyota versions, so I ordered both. The more square shaped connector in the above photo is the more likely one to be the GPS connector and the SUMI-SMA, which is the newer type looks like it may be a match. I’ll post an update once I’ve had a chance to check. The connector on the back of the head unit is almost definitely SMA - it would look like a smaller version of a cable TV / TV antenna cable.

Edit: Here's a link to the SUMI-SMA GPS antenna adapter, which I think is the more likely one we need (there's a link on that page to the HFC-SMA):

SUMI-SMA Toyota & Lexus GPS antenna conversion cable

Use Toyota & Lexus factory antenna with many aftermarket GPS radios. Restrictions apply. Please read entire description, warnings etc. prior to ordering.

www.discountcarstereo.com

 

[greynolds]

I've looked into the possibility of using the factory microphone a bit. I haven't found anything definitive for the Land Cruiser, but given that Toyota uses a lot of components across multiple models, just as any manufacturer does, it doesn't look promising. The following post on the Tundras forum says it can't be done because the factory mic has a preamp inline while the aftermarket head units need an unamplified mic signal. Assuming the same applies to our Land Cruisers, then we're stuck using the mic built into the head unit or a separate external mic, as supplied with the head unit, unless one is willing to modify the factory wiring to bypass the inline amplifier (I'm not interested in doing that).

Factory Mic w/Aftermarket Head unit?

According to Crutchfield, there is no way to use the factory (built-in) microphone with an after market head unit. Is this true? How come?

www.tundras.com

 

[kcjaz]

On the topic of anti glare screen protectors, I have order one from NuShield but as I’m waiting for it to arrive, I noticed there is a protection film already on it. You can see the edge around the perimeter. I’m not talking about the one they put on for shipping, I’ve already removed that.

I’m wondering if this is unique to EC Offroad or if they all come with this. Also, should it be removed to install the NuShield one?