CarPlay (Wireless) Carplay - aftermarket head unit

[Ankaa]

Hi,

sorry for having been awfully quiet, I'm kinda drowning in work right now. It should get better in March and I will hopefully finally have time to install my HU. I've been meaning to at least wire the microphone, but all I got done was hook up some amp and sub in my husband's car (with pre-existing wiring)

 

[mikecalderone]

Hi all,
I just had an Alpine iLX-107 installed in my Jeep Grand Cherokee, and I love it. CarPlay connect to my iPhone as soon as I start my vehicle. I also have the hookup for rear Camera. I have an iPhone 10 and it works great with the Alpine.

 

[ColoArtist]

Wiring up an amp and woofer? Now I do think you should go for the steering wheel controls and a camera. ;^)

I'm done with my car and will take a bit of a break before tackling my wife's car.

FYI...about how it worked out with the spare tire on the back. Not too bad but there are some compromises. The offset is noticeable. I even made it worse in that I decided the view was more important than having it centered, so I moved the camera even further over to avoid seeing the tire. It is a bit odd backing up into a parking space. but I now do have a good view.

I used the custom grid on the Alpine to move the cones over. The one in the lower right would actually be off screen.


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Hi all,
I just had an Alpine iLX-107 installed in my Jeep Grand Cherokee, and I love it. CarPlay connect to my iPhone as soon as I start my vehicle. I also have the hookup for rear Camera. I have an iPhone 10 and it works great with the Alpine.

Great. Congrats!

I'm curious. What kind of place did you have install the radio? What do you think of the job they did?

Yeah, the unit boots quickly. The camera takes priority and comes on right away when I put it into reverse.

One oddity...when I'm playing the AM/FM radio, there's no Off button. I've been switching modes to turn it off.

One improvement...I'd like the option of the time being displayed when the unit is off...maybe like a standby mode with a screen saver.

 

[mikecalderone]

There was not a lot of space to mount the iLX-107 in a 2001 Jeep Grand Cherokee, so I told the installer to just mount it anyway they could. It does stick out from the dash, but I think they did a great job of installation. You are right, there is no off button for the radio, so the only think you can do is switch to another input, like iTunes to stop the radio. The camera was located in the top middle of the license plate.

 

[ColoArtist]

Very interesting. The back of the iLX-107 is only half height. Very small. I was wondering if it could be mounted in a single DIN, and so it can. I think it looks very cool. Really shows off that screen. Reminds me of the "floating" 9" screen Alpine announced recently.

https://www.macrumors.com/2018/01/09/ces-2018-alpine-electronics/

I think they deserve bonus points for the install.

If the gap bugs you maybe some black foam tape that's sticky on one side would help. I found some 3M 1/2" x 1/8" tape that I used to put around the bezel to fill in a gap at the bottom.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B077DD7TKT/

Did you have them hook up the steering wheel controls? For mine I used an adapter by Axxess. It's fairly simple, but so is my car...only 4 wires to connect and the software recognizes the car and radio and it auto-configures.

However the configured buttons didn't include one for Siri. I checked and found cars with a "voice" button would have it mapped to Siri. I customized the settings and assigned one of the buttons to Push To Talk (PTT) which activates Siri. Although that model radio has a dedicated Siri button, and holding down CarPlay's home button will wake Siri, it's handy to have it on the wheel.

 

[mikecalderone]

Yes the screen is mounted like the iLX-F309. I have already put Black tape on the sides of the unit and it looks fine, like built in look. I did not hook the unit the steering wheel controls to the Alpine, I don't want them. Hitting the Siri button for 2 seconds is very convenient. I did not want the iLX-F309 because it is not a Wireless CarPlay unit, you must connect your phone to the USB port to enable CarPlay.

 

[ColoArtist]

There was not a lot of space to mount the iLX-107 in a 2001 Jeep Grand Cherokee, so I told the installer to just mount it anyway they could. It does stick out from the dash, but I think they did a great job of installation. You are right, there is no off button for the radio, so the only think you can do is switch to another input, like iTunes to stop the radio. The camera was located in the top middle of the license plate.View attachment 753024 View attachment 753023

I was comparing the display for your backup camera and mine. I see yours has an extra set of guidelines. Mine doesn't have the squared off brackets. I'm thinking those are from the camera itself.

If its too many lines for you, I know you can turn off the ones displayed by the iLX. I believe many cameras have a way of turning off the gridlines...usually a matter of changing the way it's wires are connected.

To calibrate where the lines appeared I took a bunch of water bottles to a parking lot. A parking lot which has two straight in spaces connected...not ones with angled parking. Lined up the car in one space with the back bumper even with the dividing line.

I think the lines can be anywhere but it'd be good to know what distance corresponds with the lines. A bit of research showed a common setting is 18" for the red line, 3' for the yellow and 6' for the green, although some pushed the grid out to 9' (1, 2, and 3 meter increments). I went with the 6' mark.

Measuring out the distances I set up my water bottles and adjusted the cones to line up with the bottles. Well, as best I could. Since my camera is offset it skewed the display and it wasn't quite possible to get them dead on. Close enough though.

Some camera displays also include a dashed line in the red zone. It represents the car's bumper. No dashed line on the iLX, but I adjusted the camera so the bottom of the display in the middle would line up with my bumper.

Also, moving the cones around wasn't straightforward. There appears to be limits on what the range is for each cone. The bottom cones didn't want to move very far down individually. However I found if I linked the vertical cones and moved them as a group, I could move the bottom cones further down. Then I moved the others individually. Same thing for the centerline indicators.

 

[mikecalderone]

I had installed CrimeStopper LP-Frame-CHR License Plate frame and CrimeStopper CAM-300 Camera system for my rear camera, and it has different configurations for the rear display images.

 

[ColoArtist]

FYI...I ended up mounting the mic up by the rearview mirror by clipping it on the headliner. Pulling the edge of the headliner was simple. The space by the mirror was a little snug so I hooked the clip on over by the visor and then slid it over to the middle.

I tucked the wire up and under the edge of the headliner. Although one could tuck it under the edge of the a-pillar trim and then down and under the dash, I removed the a-pillar trim. That allowed me to zip tie the wire to the existing harness and drop the wire into the top corner of the dash.

 

[Ankaa]

I finally got started on the installation and made some progress, yesterday.

I attached all cables. If anyone reading this who - like me - didn't get Crutchfield's ready-harness, you'll need to cut the existing connectors on some of the cables (which really is a shame, but, oh well) in order to attach them to the harness cables (assuming your car's harness needs them and they're not otherwise connected in your car, obviously). I used Posi connector, which really are nice and easy. The HU cables for the power and ground are bigger, so it was a little hard to get them in the Posi connector when not stripped. I ended up putting electrical tape around it, just in case (exposed wires and such). I will still need to secure all the cables a little, taping them together. I have no picture of the final wiring atm but can post later. Two cables will remain unused, the orange/white cable that goes to reverse (from the HU) and the orange cable from the harness which is for some lighting...
Colors matched perfectly for my car and most cables from the HU are labeled, too, which is really nice.

I also wired the microphone and gps antenna. I ended up putting the microphone by the rear view mirrow and routed it under the A pillar trim. I removed the A pillar to do so and because there were no pre-existing cables, I just taped it in place with some electrical tape. The GPS antenna will sit in the corner by the passenger site - not pretty, but the best/easiest position.

I also started assembling and mounting the HU to the dash kit, but halfway through noticed the kit had one part missing and one part broken. Crutchfield customer service is amazing!!! I wrote them about this yesterday evening and by this morning a replacement kit is already on its way and no need for me to return anything. So, as soon as it arrives I should be good to install the HU in the car.

One question, is the USB cable good for anything other than charging phones? As in, can it be used for wired carplay? Playing music from iPod/Phone/etc. ? Still contemplating what to do with the USB cable/where to put it, as my car doesn't have USB installed.

 

[mikecalderone]

Hi Ankaa, The USB cable can not be used for playing iPhone songs . The USB port is only for first connection to get CarPlay started and Initialized. From then on it's useless. OK maybe you can charge your iPhone with it.

 

[Ankaa]

Hi Ankaa, The USB cable can not be used for playing iPhone songs . The USB port is only for first connection to get CarPlay started and Initialized. From then on it's useless. OK maybe you can charge your iPhone with it.

Thanks! Then, after initial setup, I might just hide it and don't bother with installing any ports or anything. Would be neat if it could be used to charge, though, because then I could use it and in the process hide the cable for my air vent phone charger...

 

[ColoArtist]

Ha. That's quite a coincidence. Just as you posted this I sent you a PM about the USB port and AUX ports.

Since it's a wireless CarPlay unit you don't really need access to it after setup. However, even though it doesn't support playing anything through the USB port, you'll need access for the radio's firmware updates or for loading custom screens...
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/carplay-apple-related-custom-screens-image-heavy.2106805/

I bought a combo USB/AUX dash mount unit and put it in a console storage area. The cables could just lay in there but I kinda liked having a mounted port. The unit could go in or under the dash.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B072KGMJ5N

FYI...the ilX-107 comes with a long USB extension cable, but not one for the AUX jack. For it to go somewhere you'll need an AUX extension cable.

I've also seen where people have routed the USB or AUX cables to glove boxes, ashtrays or console shelves or storage areas.

Congrats on the progress.

 

[Ankaa]

Maybe I could install a port here (where I assume they're supposed to go in non-base models), but I'm not sure where to find a fitting plug-and-play port and also how to run the wires...more googling, I guess ... (not my picture, just googled, was too lazy to go outside )

 

[Ankaa]

Would any of you who already installed the HU mind checking if the USB is data only or does charge? Thanks

 

[ColoArtist]

Actually, after the device is paired, the USB port is only a charger. Even plugged in the phone's data is still transferred via WiFi. When I connect my phone I get the message "device not supported" but the battery icon shows the phone is charging.

So I guess there isn't any real advantage connecting an iPhone up to the radio's USB port since it's using the wireless connection. I'm going to use it for my phone since it's close to where I'd mount the phone.

 

[ColoArtist]

Thought of another reason you'd use the radio's USB port. You need it to pair additional devices.

 

[Ankaa]

I finally managed to install the HU and the final install was easy. There's one connector from the car's side that stays unconnected. I'm not completely sure what it does, there are several cables, but I know that at least one of them is the Aux. So right now I have no Aux connected - but to be honest don't totally care at the moment. I may at some point run an AUX cable from the HU to somewhere or figure out what that third connector does.

The dash kit is a little disappointing, but well, it was cheap and for that is decent enough and does the job. There's a small gap around the HU, but hardly noticeable once everything is installed. Also, the kit is slightly too big for the car... I might look for a better one eventually. I still have to figure out whether or not I want the GPS antenna to stay where it is, though.

I haven't had time for intensive testing, but so far everything seems to work. As a longtime Apple user, many things come natural - others I'll probably have to read up upon (like, how the heck do I save radio stations). The boot time is somewhat slow, but I already knew this from several reviews. I already love navigation with the big screen.

Tomorrow I'll probably install a custom boot screen.

Oh, also, right now the USB cable is somewhat "hiding" by the glove box, somewhat unsightly. I'm not yet sure what I want to do with it eventually. I tried - it does not charge the phone using my charger.

All in all I'm very happy. Install was easy, even without having Crutchfield deal with all the cables - but to be fair, I don't have steering wheel control or backup camera or anything else fancy, so it was really easy and straight-forward. This was my first ever HU installation but I seriously don't see why I would pay someone between 90 to 250 (those were the quotes I got) to install it for me. All in all maybe a couple hours.

 

[ColoArtist]

Congrats!!!

In my 2008 CRV there's one connector on the car side which wasn't used. It's for the factory amp and woofer.

I don't have much use for the AUX but made a place for it just 'cause. If your USB cable is just laying in the glovebox maybe run an extension for the AUX and leave it in there too. Maybe tape 'em together.

I couldn't find the specs on the USB port's output but maybe it doesn't have enough oomph to power your wireless charger. Seems to power my iPhone X okay, but not as fast as the 3rd party USB charger I have in the lighter socket.

My 3rd party dash kit wasn't an exact fit either. I did some filing on it and added some black foam tape along one bottom part to snug things up and fill a gap. It's close enough. Other people checking out the new unit never noticed anything amiss.

In both my 2005 and 2006 CRVs I mounted the GPS antenna towards the front of the dash, but underneath. On both of them there are spots where all that's there is a thinnish plastic cover. They seem to work fine, but I haven't figured out a way to measure the reception strength. In the 2005 I had an XM radio for some time. I was able to measure the reception of its antenna and found it had good reception with the antenna on the car's roof, on the dash, under the dash, and even on top of the radio (its antenna was magnetic). I mounted it under the dash and it as fine.

The interface for the radio is kinda weird. To get to the station presets you slide the bottom row to the left. There's two sets of presets there, one after the other. To set a station, tune to the radio and hold the preset spot for a couple seconds.

The big thing that bugs me about the radio is that there's no Off button. The only way to turn it off is to mute the volume, or power off the unit, or switch to the AUX, or start then stop something with audio on the CarPlay side. My 2008 has XM radio...it doesn't have an off button on the iLX-107 either.

FYI...the online manual has more info than the printed one that comes with. 40 pages vs. 11...
http://assets.sonicelectronix.com/manuals/alpine/ilx107.pdf

Although the 2005 and 2008 CRVs are only one generation apart, the newer one has much more complex electronics. I had Crutchfield build both harnesses. For the 2005 I'd say it was a convenience. The 2008, it was a necessity for my skill level especially since the steering wheel controls adapter was lots more complicated too. Its a iDataLink Maestro Rr.

The big thing with the Maestro is that it adapts more than just the buttons on the steering wheel, it attempts to add as much of the factory gear as possible. For the 2008 that means the XM radio is there, gauges for RPM and temps and such..tire pressures too..which are even better than the CRV's in that the CRV just has a light that comes on when one or more tires are low...it doesn't say which one. The Maestro brings over the air pressure and temp for each tire. Ooop, looks like the right front is low.

Another nice thing is that the Maestro brings with it wires for both the parking brake and reverse lights.

Did a screen for my wife's car, a pic of our cat. ;^)

 

[Ankaa]

Wow, that certainly looks much more complicated, but it also illustrated the capacities of the HU which often aren't talked about in reviews. I didn't even know it was able to provide all those additional information, so that is plenty cool.

So, I had some more opportunities to test during today's commute. Man do I miss the volume knob. And apparently muscle memory is indeed a real thing. I'll have to come up with something because those tiny touch volume buttons just aren't good, especially when driving. I'll probably end up getting a wireless steering wheel remote or something.

"Hey Siri" is somewhat slow and it takes just a tat too long until you can actually make your input, but otherwise doing what she's supposed to do, so that's nice.

In the dark, the screen is pretty bright, almost too bright. But I do like the simplicity of the UI.

I love the wireless carplay. Get in the car, start, it starts playing automatically. Awesome. What I do not like is that you can't turn the unit off. And that you can't turn it on when the car is off. You have to at least turn the ignition. Also, if you don't start the motor right away, it re-boots once you start the motor, which is slightly annoying. I get it, it has to do with where the power comes from - still annoying given the long boot time.

But all in all I'm very happy. However, it certainly is not worth the original $999 when it was introduced and there is quite some room for improvement, which I hope will come with firmware and Carplay updates. (on my wishlist: automatically detect music style based on the music - AI should be able to do that - and automatically adjust the equalizer)

 

[ColoArtist]

The vehicle controls and info screens are from the Maestro adapter. Its claim to fame is adapting the car's factory accessories to the radio. Some cars/trucks could have lots of original equipment controlled via a touchscreen HU...think heat/AC controls, lighting, even a winch. To display them it kinda adds them as apps, but on the Alpine radio side, in the Alpine home screen. The Maestro doesn't really interact with CarPlay, just the radio.

The Maestro is complex. Lots of wires and the unit has to be flashed for the settings. The flashing is very Mac-unfriendly. Only Windows and Explorer are supported. When I mentioned it before I believed I could use my MacBook Pro running Parallels and Windows 10 for it. That was almost true. Parallels worked, but Windows 10 didn't. Windows 10 looked like it was going to work, but the flashing failed with a "READ DEVICE EEPROM FAILED". Windows 7 worked just fine.

On the other hand, the Axxess ASWC-1 steering wheel adapter was very simple. The unit has a bunch of wires, but for my 2005 CRV only 3 wires were needed plus a 3.5 jack needs to be plugged in. Two of the wires connect to the harness and one goes over to the cars side of the harness connector. I used a Posi-Tap for that one so I could still take the harness out. The unit is designed to recognize the vehicle and HU and auto configure...which it did for my car. The buttons can be customized, which I did, making MODE a Siri button.

Yeah, the little buttons on the iLX-107 are really hard to hit. Makes the Sony's volume knob look really tempting. But the wheel controls are even better. Might check out what it would take to hook up an Axxess to your RAV.

To me the boot time seems quick. If my car is in reverse, the camera comes on after 5 seconds, at 10 seconds the start screen is gone and the home page of the Alpine is up, and at 20 seconds CarPlay is up and running. The second boot if I'm going from ACC to starting the car is kind of a bother though.

FYI...also about that Sony, it has a warning screen, just like every Navi unit I've encountered. The Alpine doesn't. I find that very endearing.

About Siri. If you say "Hey Siri" your phone picks it up, not the radio. How well it gets it depends on where your phone is. If it's say, in your glove box or something, it may not pick it up at all. For the radio Siri is quick to respond if you hit the Siri button on the Alpine, or hold down the home button in CarPlay, (or hit the "Siri" button on the steering wheel...hint, hint). Also Siri's response time is dependent on your phone's cellular reception. Bad reception and Siri is slow to respond if she can respond at all.

Yeah, the screen is bright at night. Fortunately you can turn it down. Settings/General, scroll down to Screen/Lighting. I had Auto dimming and and the brightness set to -6.

Oh, and you can turn the HU off. Hold down the Alpine's physical Home button until the unit shuts off, about 5 seconds or so. If you shut it off, the next time you start your car the radio will stay off. Tap on the home button to start.

 

[Ankaa]

About Siri. If you say "Hey Siri" your phone picks it up, not the radio. How well it gets it depends on where your phone is. If it's say, in your glove box or something, it may not pick it up at all. For the radio Siri is quick to respond if you hit the Siri button on the Alpine, or hold down the home button in CarPlay, (or hit the "Siri" button on the steering wheel...hint, hint). Also Siri's response time is dependent on your phone's cellular reception. Bad reception and Siri is slow to respond if she can respond at all.

When I say "Hey Siri" - something happens immediately - the screen on the unit changes (to black, I think), but it takes a while until the actual Siri prompt pops up. It's ok, I'm not gonna use Siri THAT often. I just noticed it and thought I'd give some feedback.

Yes, I'll still need to play with setting.

And while the volume knob of the Sony seems tempting, for nothing in the world do I want to miss that wireless carplay anymore. I'll look into something like this:

https://www.amazon.com/VOKUA-Univer...1567922&sr=8-4&keywords=steering+wheel+remote

https://www.amazon.com/XISEDO-Steer...1567922&sr=8-8&keywords=steering+wheel+remote

https://www.amazon.com/KKmoon-Steer...1567922&sr=8-5&keywords=steering+wheel+remote

They look hideous, but will probably do the job. Unfortunately, I find myself adjusting the volume quite often. Also unfortunately, it's not as easy to install actual proper steering wheel controls in my car - I already researched that. Your steering wheel controls you need the connections on the spiral and it's not easy (as in: as good as impossible) to attach them - you would need a new spiral or rather a new steering wheel and it's hard and expensive to come by one - probably not worth the effort.

 

[ColoArtist]

Ah...finally the little light comes on for me...no buttons on your RAV's wheel.

I did a little search to understand what the spiral is and found these posts in the RAV4 owners forum. Yikes! Replacing the steering wheel. Looks hard core.
http://www.rav4world.com/forums/98-4-3-interior/90787-diy-adding-steering-wheel-buttons.html
http://www.rav4world.com/forums/98-...steering-wheel-audio-buttons-2006-2008-a.html

Those universal wheel mounted remotes do look kinda odd. Maybe the button shaped one looks okay.

But how about the one Crutchfield sells? One by Axxess. Doesn't look half bad...
https://www.crutchfield.com/p_120RF...-Steering-Wheel-Controls-Package.html?tp=3405



I noticed this promo for it by the manufacturer. Looks interesting...

It linked to another of their products, one doesn't mount on the wheel, it's a stalk that mounts on the column. I like the looks of that one. Plus, it never would need batteries...

 

[Ankaa]

The Axxess one looks much much better indeed - but yikes the price point. I'll have to ponder this whole idea for a little bit. For now I'll manage. But thanks for looking this up (and yes, I did quite some intensive reading in the Rav4 world forum and slowly backtracked from the idea of installing proper steering wheel controls)

 

[ColoArtist]

Yesterday I finished up installing the Alpine iLX-107 and Alpine HCE-C1100 camera in my 2008 CRV.

Doing the camera was about 80 percent of the work. When I ran the cable for the camera in my 2005 CRV I tucked it up under the edge of the headliner. The headliner in the 2008 was not only stiffer, but it locked into a channel at the top of the pillar trim pieces. So instead of up I went down and followed the main wiring harness which went under the doorsills. Which meant I had to remove trim panels. They seem much bigger outside of the car than when they're inside. ;^) At one point I had more interior panels outside of the car than in. Fortunately they are designed to pop in and out so it wasn't too bad.

Mounted the mic by the rearview mirror and ran the wire down the a-pillar after removing the trim piece. Bought a panel mount USB port and installed it in the upper glovebox. For the camera mount I used Alpine's license plate frame kit, KTX-C10LP.

Whew!