Tesla head unit install (pre2016 LC) - first impressions and a couple bugs to figure out

[linuxgod]

I have some DVD players in the headrest, if there's one on the ceiling I've missed it this entire time. And yes, those screens are very expensive and it's a shame I don't use mine; I plan on repurposing them later/maybe updating to 1080p. If anyone needs them let me know; for cost of ship and maybe a coffee XD.

Looking at that though, it seems very simple; the hard part is finding a buyer for the screen. Even harder would be to find something to put in its place that will repurpose your existing wiring, like a big switchbox? I'm open to ideas, as it seems like potentially useful space; perfect for the right project.

Ah so if your DVD players are in the headrests then they're not original, I suppose.

There's likely not a huge market, but then I was able to sell my running boards from my LC for about $250 and the roof rack and rails for $600, given a couple months of patience. Remember these are global vehicles.

If I was going to fab something to replace this I'd just scan the existing unit, use whatever CAD tool the cool kids use these days to remove all the openings to turn it into a single piece unit (with the light cutouts), and print that. I'm sure to swap it's just a few screws or clips to get it off the roof, and the lights most likely unscrew/unclip and could be reused in a new unit. But I don't have a 3D printer at this point nor do I know how people scan and edit stuff they want to print. One winter when I'm bored I'll read up more and figure it out.

 

[7000ft]

I have some DVD players in the headrest, if there's one on the ceiling I've missed it this entire time. And yes, those screens are very expensive and it's a shame I don't use mine; I plan on repurposing them later/maybe updating to 1080p. If anyone needs them let me know; for cost of ship and maybe a coffee XD.

Looking at that though, it seems very simple; the hard part is finding a buyer for the screen. Even harder would be to find something to put in its place that will repurpose your existing wiring, like a big switchbox? Or maybe a USB charging hub? I'll give it some thought and let me know if anyone has any ideas.

What does this have to do with the Tesla head unit?

 

[linuxgod]

What does this have to do with the Tesla head unit?

In fairness only my willingness to drop $1-2k on one to try it out...

 

[kcjaz]

Just got back home from a 1200 mile round trip to Minnesota. The unit worked pretty well until about half way home when CarPlay wouldn’t stay connected. I noticed that changing tracks in Spotify would take 5 to 8 seconds. Weird as it wasn’t doing that before. I’d have to shut the car off and restart it to get CarPlay going. Eventually I just went Bluetooth. After I got home it really started acting up and Google maps locked up. After shutting the car off and restarting, I connected my phone and heard a “pop” like a loose amp wire or something and the screen went black. AC was still running and I could still control the temp with the hard buttons. Drove home, parked and shut it off. Restarted and it all worked including CarPlay. All I can figure is maybe I have a loose wire after driving 1200 miles.

I also played with the mic location as having it under the speaker grill in the dash doesn’t work. The mic isn’t great no mater where you put it.

 

[kcjaz]

Update: took the cruiser out to run some errands over lunch and the Tesla unit, including CarPlay worked fine. The time to skip to the next track was back to normal (~1 to 2 seconds). I have no idea what yesterday's episode was. loose wire or heat maybe (11 hours of continuous use)?

 

[linuxgod]

No idea what the ventilation requirement is for these but I would guess heat. I've had my iPhone act similar when it's sitting in the cradle on my dashboard and I'm driving into the sun for a while. When the CPU in these devices gets hot the CPU slows down the clock speed. That will make all sorts of stuff feel slow and unresponsive (or very latent, taking 5-10 seconds or more to respond to a touch, and often crashing once the backlog of operations gets too big).

 

[Tommy Dwyer]

Update: took the cruiser out to run some errands over lunch and the Tesla unit, including CarPlay worked fine. The time to skip to the next track was back to normal (~1 to 2 seconds). I have no idea what yesterday's episode was. loose wire or heat maybe (11 hours of continuous use)?

...possible heat build up from the extended drive / usage?
@linuxgod beat me to it

 

[linuxgod]

...possible heat build up from the extended drive / usage?
@linuxgod beat me to it

I'm not an Android expert but they essentially run Linux and I'm pretty sure can tell you the internal temperature of the unit. No idea is that's exposed to the user in the settings/system info menus though.

 

[greynolds]

I'm not an Android expert but they essentially run Linux and I'm pretty sure can tell you the internal temperature of the unit. No idea is that's exposed to the user in the settings/system info menus though.

If not, there's probably an app for that... I'm more of an iOS user, but I do know that the Google Play Store tends to be less restrictive on what apps can do. So availability of an app that will display the internal temp of the device seems reasonably likely.

 

[kcjaz]

If not, there's probably an app for that... I'm more of an iOS user, but I do know that the Google Play Store tends to be less restrictive on what apps can do. So availability of an app that will display the internal temp of the device seems reasonably likely.

Sure enough, looks like many apps that can do this. Here is one: CPU Monitor - temperature - Apps on Google Play - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.glgjing.stark&hl=en_US&gl=US

Could also be something built into the settings. I'll start there.

 

[NKP Garage]

Ive never had any issues with heat, even in texas where we are currently hitting 105 on a regular basis this summer. When it gets below freezing sometimes it will take a little longer than usual to boot up, but heat has never been an issue with mine.

 

[linuxgod]

I could see a memory leak in a crappy app doing this, so if you’ve loaded anything new recently that could be the culprit of the slowness. The power off wouldn’t be directly related since apps run in a different memory space than the Android OS, but if an app is constantly churning the CPU it could cause it to overheat. Totally guessing without any data though

 

[kcjaz]

I could see a memory leak in a crappy app doing this, so if you’ve loaded anything new recently that could be the culprit of the slowness. The power off wouldn’t be directly related since apps run in a different memory space than the Android OS, but if an app is constantly churning the CPU it could cause it to overheat. Totally guessing without any data though

I don't think it is heat. I think its Waze killing CarPlay, or some combination of Waze and Spotify. I need to test this but issues seem to start when I fire up Waze for nav. Last night it took about 40 minutes for Spotify to start acting up after I fired up Waze. It was like it was trying to buffer and got to the point where the play time graphic ( progress bar telling you the time into the song) was ~20 seconds behind the actual sound. The screen would show the next track was playing but the sound of the next track wouldn't start for 20 seconds. Eventfully, CarPlay died and wouldn't reconnect until I force the HU to reboot. Then it seemed to work better but still with some delay. I think Waze is part of the issue because the problem started when I started using Waze on my last trip. I hope that isn't it as I kinda like Waze. I set up Halo's Master Chief as the voice and it makes me laugh every time he says "... heads up, could be a trap." Wife's eye rolls are priceless.

 

[NKP Garage]

I don't think it is heat. I think its Waze killing CarPlay, or some combination of Waze and Spotify. I need to test this but issues seem to start when I fire up Waze for nav. Last night it took about 40 minutes for Spotify to start acting up after I fired up Waze. It was like it was trying to buffer and got to the point where the play time graphic ( progress bar telling you the time into the song) was ~20 seconds behind the actual sound. The screen would show the next track was playing but the sound of the next track wouldn't start for 20 seconds. Eventfully, CarPlay died and wouldn't reconnect until I force the HU to reboot. Then it seemed to work better but still with some delay. I think Waze is part of the issue because the problem started when I started using Waze on my last trip. I hope that isn't it as I kinda like Waze. I set up Halo's Master Chief as the voice and it makes me laugh every time he says "... heads up, could be a trap." Wife's eye rolls are priceless.

good point on the Waze. I have noticed my Waze app crashes sometimes if the distance for the trip entered is a long ways. 100 miles +

 

[Aliyarbey]

Ah so if your DVD players are in the headrests then they're not original, I suppose.

There's likely not a huge market, but then I was able to sell my running boards from my LC for about $250 and the roof rack and rails for $600, given a couple months of patience. Remember these are global vehicles.

If I was going to fab something to replace this I'd just scan the existing unit, use whatever CAD tool the cool kids use these days to remove all the openings to turn it into a single piece unit (subwoolfer melocoton), and print that. I'm sure to swap it's just a few screws or clips to get it off the roof, and the lights most likely unscrew/unclip and could be reused in a new unit. But I don't have a 3D printer at this point nor do I know how people scan and edit stuff they want to print. One winter when I'm bored I'll read up more and figure it out.

i dont get this "if your DVD players are in the headrests then they're not original"

 

[kcjaz]

i dont get this "if your DVD players are in the headrests then they're not original"

At some MY, I believe the rear DVDs are in the head rests. This thread started without stating the MY. I changed it later as there is a post 2016 thread going too.

 

[linuxgod]

i dont get this "if your DVD players are in the headrests then they're not original"

I don't believe Toyota ever put the DVD screens *in* the back of the headrests. That's aftermarket. Also @SharpeCat has a 2008 and Toyota/Lexus did put screens on the back of the seats behind the headrests but not until later (2016 for the LC... I think 2013 for the LX)

 

[SharpeCat]

I don't believe Toyota ever put the DVD screens *in* the back of the headrests. That's aftermarket. Also @SharpeCat has a 2008 and Toyota/Lexus did put screens on the back of the seats behind the headrests but not until later (2016 for the LC... I think 2013 for the LX)

Yeah mine is definitely aftermarket; definitely not done by Toyota.

 

[kcjaz]

Been playing with the HU, using it in different ways while in route to LCDC. CarPlay is buggy. After 3 or 4 hours, it crashes. I thought it was Waze so I used Google but it still crashed meaning it just disconnected and would not reconnect. I had to reboot the unit to get it to connect it again. We were using Audible (audio book app) so maybe that was it.

What seems to work best is Wi-Fi using a dedicated (not iPhone) hot spot with phone connected via Bluetooth. Everything works like I think it should this way. Phone auto connects to Bluetooth and Wi-Fi auto connects too. Spotify, Google maps, OnX all just work on the android unit. One add thing is that Audible didn’twork directly on the android unit for whatever reason. A bit frustrating.

OnX on the “big screen” was awesome. I had it showing the whole whole trail (north up) and my phone in zoomed in “left right” mode. At a glance I could know where I was geographically and see the zoomed in view on my phone. While the CarPlay crashing is frustrating, the reason I did this was for Nav on trails. That part is awesome.

 

[greynolds]

Been playing with the HU, using it in different ways while in route to LCDC. CarPlay is buggy. After 3 or 4 hours, it crashes. I thought it was Waze so I used Google but it still crashed meaning it just disconnected and would not reconnect. I had to reboot the unit to get it to connect it again. We were using Audible (audio book app) so maybe that was it.

I’m finding similar issues with CarPlay (on my similar unit for my 2020). CarPlay either crashes or the Bluetooth disconnects at least a few times a day if I’m driving for a good chunk of the day. I’ve also had the unit itself reboot at least once every day of the trip so far. I should probably try the native Android Google Maps and SiriusXM apps and see if they’ll behave all day long. These disconnects really stink if the next turn is soon or if driving at highway speeds.

What seems to work best is Wi-Fi using a dedicated (not iPhone) hot spot with phone connected via Bluetooth. Everything works like I think it should this way. Phone auto connects to Bluetooth and Wi-Fi auto connects too. Spotify, Google maps, OnX all just work on the android unit. One add thing is that Audible didn’twork directly on the android unit for whatever reason. A bit frustrating.

The only issue with this approach for me is that my hotspot takes more than a minute (closer to 2) to boot (it’s hard wired for power and switched with the ignition) so entering my destination in Google Maps will be delayed if Internet access is needed at the time.

Similarly though, I’m really happy with the switch as the big screen is a HUGE improvement.