So sounds like there are a few people with these screens now. I really do like it but it's a coin flip whether or not the CarPlay connection works. It connects to the wifi connection but the unit doesn't seem to register it. Also I have it plugged in with a cable and that doesn't seem to do much but charge the phone.

The other issue since the carplay cant be relied on if I don't have a couple mins to fiddle with it before I leave, the Bluetooth audio is MUCH quieter than if its connects via wifi carplay. Any clue how to adjust that volume level for Bluetooth connections?

 

I connect the screen to my phone in one of two ways. Either I set my phone to be a "Mobile hotspot", and then the screen automatically connects to my phone via Wi-Fi. With that setting I can use the Spotify app I have installed on the screen, or Google Maps, etc. Or if I am too lazy to do that, I just let it automatically connect to my phone via Bluetooth, and then I control everything via the phone instead.

When I connect via Bluetooth to my phone, and use Spotify, the volume is great. Much better than the radio app, for example. Is it possible that your Bluetooth output volume is not turned all the way up on your phone?

There is also this setting, after you have entered the 3368 password, under Volume Balance Settings. However, I personally do not hear much of a difference in the Bluetooth volume when I adjust anything here. I do hear a difference in the Radio volume though.

(Oh, and I would perhaps edit the typo in the title, make it more easily searchable... )

P.S. Unfortunately I use Samsung/Android, so I know nothing about Apple CarPlay.

 

I'm a Ben Hur guy, so not of much use, but I do know in both my Bentley (Ben Hur conversion) and new Cadillac, CarPlay has to be plugged in, the wifi-connection doesn't really work. On my Alpine (first Bentley Ben Hur head) it would only work with a cable, on the Kenwood (second head unit), it would sorta but not really work on Wifi, on the Cadillac it is cable only like the Alpine.

I suspect you may need to tie your iPhone into a USB connection for true CarPlay functionality. Or I'm wrong and they've come a long way; but I know the data transfer required is too high for bluetooth, probably too high for wifi and ok for cable.

 

When I first installed mine, CarPlay was hopeless. Sometimes it would connect but mostly it would go into a cycle of recognising the phone, saying it was authorised, saying it was connecting and then starting the process again without connecting. I gave up with the installed system and fitted a separate CarPlay USB dongle, which was much better. A few months ago I changed my phone (now on IPhone 13, was on iPhone 7), and it now works perfectly wireless or wired without the dongle.

It took me a while to realise that wireless CarPlay connects on Bluetooth, but then switches to Wi-Fi where the car unit is effectively the router and the phone connects to it - so you can’t have CarPlay working wirelessly at the same time as the phone hotspot. If I plug the phone in though, I can connect CarPlay and have the unit connected to the web through the phone hotspot simultaneously. Having said that, I haven’t really come across any reason to have them both on together - one or the other is fine, and with CarPlay Siri is really useful and Waze is brilliant compared with maps or Google.

With regard to the volume problem, mine was similar and I eventually gave up trying to make it louder using the provided RCA outputs on the Tesla loom - the voltage out of them was too low for the Bentley amp and as well as crap volume, the rear speakers wouldn’t work properly. In the end I used the line outputs from the Tesla unit, and fed them into a high to low converter with a variable output voltage for the RCA. That improved matters greatly, but I still wasn’t happy with the rear speakers, so I ran the rear speaker line out cables from the Tesla unit all the way to the amp in the boot, disconnected the rear speakers from the amp and fed them with the line outputs. This now works really well. The problem with disconnecting the rears from the amp though, is that the rear parking sensors sound the rear speakers through the amp - now disconnected. So if fitted a small speaker order the rear shelf and wired that to the amp output, which works perfectly well.

The other thing I did which makes a big difference to the appearance of the unit is installed an app called “Car Launcher” and made up a customised homepage. If I get a chance tomorrow I will take some pictures or perhaps try a video.

Installing this thing and getting it to work the way I wanted it to was a huge faff, but now that it works, it transforms the car and makes it much easier to live with.

 

There are still a few things I haven’t gotten around to resolving and if anyone else knows the answers I would be very grateful:

The heater temperature defaults to 22C and every time I turn the car off it resets to 22.

I have set the unit up for RHD (UK uses the correct side of the road) but when the heater controls are sync’s, they sync to the left side not the right side.

TPMS is disabled on my car (no wheel txs fitted, fuse out and re~coded etc), but I can’t un-check the TPMS box on the Tesla unit menu.

There are other minor quirks which, my being a bit obsessive about things working the way they should, tend to wind me up. But having lived with the system for over a year, in reality none of the quirks really detract from the system being brilliant.

 

Wow, great couple of posts! Much thanks for taking the time to write that.

I have noticed that SOMETIMES the unit will remember my last temperature setting, but the memory is not very long.

Do you also have issues with the clock at times? Which causes the Breitling to start spinning around to change itself? Sometimes it makes up its own time, and then the next time I start the car it can be back to normal.

I have the tire sensors, but I also can't uncheck the box.

I will send a few questions to my WhatsApp-contact in China and see if I get a response. I imagine that these issues would demand someone over there to make a new updated version of the software, and we would need to update the screen somehow. I have not yet heard of anyone who has performed any firmware updates?

 

I received a firmware update shortly after I installed the unit, but it didn’t fix any of the snags. They sent it to try and improve the volume and rear speaker situation, but it didn’t fix that either. It would be good to have a contact in China. I bought my system from a company in The Wirral so I have no direct contact with the original vendors.

 

The clock thing is a bit wierd - mine does something similar and wids to a spurious time, but after a minute or so it picks up the right time and winds itself back again.

 

Not sure this is related to the screen or car but I can’t control air suspension anymore. The car doesn’t show a fault but it’s stuck at its setting. Not sure what else to try

 

I managed to take a bit of video today. Using the same phone for the video as the head unit was connecting to proved challenging, so there are 4 videos instead of 1, but you’ll get the idea I’m sure. The videos are on my OneDrive:

Individual links:

https://1drv.ms/v/s!AlkxjpoGP6feh4sJHYCwhTQyUo795A

https://1drv.ms/v/s!AlkxjpoGP6feh4sFzKoowcM3c4gwng

https://1drv.ms/v/s!AlkxjpoGP6feh4sI4W8YW56wXLxYGw

 

Re: suspension level, have you tried rebooting the system?

 

Hi Everyone,

I presume you have had these units for over 1 year. I am looking to purchase one over the next couple of months and thinking of buying one from China via Alibaba.

Do you think the recent versions with all the updated software are gremlin free......?

I am in the UK and thought of getting it installed by someone local to me.

Thanks

Sal

 

I very much doubt it to be honest.

 

I don't really understand what "gremlin free" means, but if you are wondering if the issues we all have posted this past year have been fixed? I doubt that. In fact, you should probably expect the same issues as the rest of us. However, the screen is totally worth these little intimidating bugs to me.

These Android screens are available for many different vehicles, in different shapes and sizes, so you would think that they should be on top of all small bugs that people are reporting, but it is my belief that they sell so many of them, and that there are so many different resellers, they unfortunately don't care about some smaller issues here and there.

 

I agree with Xclens - not perfect but definitely worth installing and is a quantum leap from the ‘as fitted’ system.