So after playing around with the settings, I noticed that simplesoft works better than Raise. Using it, all my parking sensors issues are gone.

 

Next thing to settle will be the mic. The inbuilt one is sooooo crappy. I will try a' external one.

 

Are they any settings for an external mic or just plugging one is enought?

 

 

1 hour ago, nickytheshaft said:

So after playing around with the settings, I noticed that simplesoft works better than Raise. Using it, all my parking sensors issues are gone.

 

Next thing to settle will be the mic. The inbuilt one is sooooo crappy. I will try a' external one.

 

Are they any settings for an external mic or just plugging one is enought?

 

 

Just plugging a mic in should work as the system should automatically detect it disable the inbuilt mic.

 

If you install a basic mic test app, I used one called Mic Test by Laureano from Google Play store that allows you to record a message and then listen to it to see how you sound,  just record a message with the inbuilt mic then plug in an external mic and record another message then listen to both the recordings to see the difference.

 

Glad you have sorted the sensor issues, I have tried a few of the different canbus versions but didn't seem to notice any difference but did read somewhere that using simplesoft doesn't give a many settings options as Raise does. 

2 hours ago, wagster said:

Just plugging a mic in should work as the system should automatically detect it disable the inbuilt mic.

 

If you install a basic mic test app, I used one called Mic Test by Laureano from Google Play store that allows you to record a message and then listen to it to see how you sound,  just record a message with the inbuilt mic then plug in an external mic and record another message then listen to both the recordings to see the difference.

 

Glad you have sorted the sensor issues, I have tried a few of the different canbus versions but didn't seem to notice any difference but did read somewhere that using simplesoft doesn't give a many settings options as Raise does. 

 

Thanks I'll try this. 

 

 

For the canbus settings, I didn't notice any missing settings (at least that I use) between simple soft and raise. 

 

Finally, do you use the car factory mic or did you go for another option?

 

 

 

20 hours ago, nickytheshaft said:

 

Thanks I'll try this. 

 

 

For the canbus settings, I didn't notice any missing settings (at least that I use) between simple soft and raise. 

 

Finally, do you use the car factory mic or did you go for another option?

 

 

 

After trying out the factory mic which seemed to me to be worse than the inbuilt  mic in the head unit I have not bothered to look at a different type of external mic and I have just opted to use the inbuilt one in the head unit for the time being.

There is a new update

The unit feels more snappy now

So my cable has arrived pluged it in the harness and now factory usb is working, data and android auto. 

 

I hope the seller now provides it to any new customer. 

 

Last issue I have to solve is the microphone. 

 

Wagster, did you do any extra settings on the mic? When I use the app to test, no matter what gain I use, the sound is so distant and no one hears me on the other side? 

 

I tried a cheapo flat external mic, same thing loke this that I borrowed from a friend https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005002241419943.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.0.0.42bd3addaG73Jd&algo_pvid=dd7e749d-308e-4f26-88b2-026fe0f9b75f&algo_exp_id=dd7e749d-308e-4f26-88b2-026fe0f9b75f-2&pdp_ext_f={"sku_id"%3A"12000019567972923"}&pdp_pi=-1%3B2.87%3B-1%3BEUR+0.00%40salePrice%3BEUR%3Bsearch-mainSearch

 

But still the same, I have to be in the mic to hear anything. 

 

I ordered the same one as FUBAR and still waiting for it. 

 

Thanks

Edited 17 January, 20224 yr by nickytheshaft

7 hours ago, nickytheshaft said:

So my cable has arrived pluged it in the harness and now factory usb is working, data and android auto. 

 

I hope the seller now provides it to any new customer. 

 

Last issue I have to solve is the microphone. 

 

Wagster, did you do any extra settings on the mic? When I use the app to test, no matter what gain I use, the sound is so distant and no one hears me on the other side? 

 

I tried a cheapo flat external mic, same thing loke this that I borrowed from a friend https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005002241419943.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.0.0.42bd3addaG73Jd&algo_pvid=dd7e749d-308e-4f26-88b2-026fe0f9b75f&algo_exp_id=dd7e749d-308e-4f26-88b2-026fe0f9b75f-2&pdp_ext_f={"sku_id"%3A"12000019567972923"}&pdp_pi=-1%3B2.87%3B-1%3BEUR+0.00%40salePrice%3BEUR%3Bsearch-mainSearch

 

But still the same, I have to be in the mic to hear anything. 

 

I ordered the same one as FUBAR and still waiting for it. 

 

Thanks

Glad the new cable is working but to be honest I cannot see the chinese sellers being that worried out it, hopefully anyone thinking about installing this type of head unit it that needs the different type of USB lead will have read this topic so they can ask for it before buying.

 

As for the mic the only thing I tried changing was the gain settings.

1 hour ago, wagster said:

Glad the new cable is working but to be honest I cannot see the chinese sellers being that worried out it, hopefully anyone thinking about installing this type of head unit it that needs the different type of USB lead will have read this topic so they can ask for it before buying.

 

As for the mic the only thing I tried changing was the gain settings.

Did you set the gain to max? I tried mic test but no matter what setting I use, the recording is so far and faint.

 

I tried microphone amplifier and I can get a nice strong sound so the mic doesn't seem to be the issue. But that is just in the app. Once I quit the settings don't stay.

Edited 17 January, 20224 yr by nickytheshaft

23 hours ago, nickytheshaft said:

Did you set the gain to max? I tried mic test but no matter what setting I use, the recording is so far and faint.

 

I tried microphone amplifier and I can get a nice strong sound so the mic doesn't seem to be the issue. But that is just in the app. Once I quit the settings don't stay.

I tried the gain settings at different levels but didn't see to make much difference. 

On 17/01/2022 at 12:22, nickytheshaft said:

So my cable has arrived pluged it in the harness and now factory usb is working, data and android auto. 

 

I hope the seller now provides it to any new customer. 

 

Last issue I have to solve is the microphone. 

 

Wagster, did you do any extra settings on the mic? When I use the app to test, no matter what gain I use, the sound is so distant and no one hears me on the other side? 

 

I tried a cheapo flat external mic, same thing loke this that I borrowed from a friend https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005002241419943.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.0.0.42bd3addaG73Jd&algo_pvid=dd7e749d-308e-4f26-88b2-026fe0f9b75f&algo_exp_id=dd7e749d-308e-4f26-88b2-026fe0f9b75f-2&pdp_ext_f={"sku_id"%3A"12000019567972923"}&pdp_pi=-1%3B2.87%3B-1%3BEUR+0.00%40salePrice%3BEUR%3Bsearch-mainSearch

 

But still the same, I have to be in the mic to hear anything. 

 

I ordered the same one as FUBAR and still waiting for it. 

 

Thanks

Hi All.

 

Just to let you know I've joined the club thanks to this great thread, and bought one of these units. It arrived yesterday, and I've had a go at fitting it which went kind of OK considering I'm not very good at these things. It looks like I've received the same factory USB cable that doesn't work (only 4 pins), no power leads. I've emailed the seller to see if they can send me a modified cable the same as nickytheshaft was sent, so fingers crossed they agree to send it through.

 

A couple of questions (apologies if they are stupid!) :

 

Does the bluetooth phone app import the contacts from your phone and call history like my original MIB1 Amundsen used to? The call history and contacts don't seem to be appearing for me at the moment.

 

Where do I put a 4G SIM?

 

Does the unit draw power continuously when the ignition is off? I'm having problems with my car battery at the moment and fitting this seemed to tip it over the edge yesterday and the car wouldn't start.

 

Thanks

51 minutes ago, londonmoog said:

Hi All.

 

Just to let you know I've joined the club thanks to this great thread, and bought one of these units. It arrived yesterday, and I've had a go at fitting it which went kind of OK considering I'm not very good at these things. It looks like I've received the same factory USB cable that doesn't work (only 4 pins), no power leads. I've emailed the seller to see if they can send me a modified cable the same as nickytheshaft was sent, so fingers crossed they agree to send it through.

 

A couple of questions (apologies if they are stupid!) :

 

Does the bluetooth phone app import the contacts from your phone and call history like my original MIB1 Amundsen used to? The call history and contacts don't seem to be appearing for me at the moment.

 

Where do I put a 4G SIM?

 

Does the unit draw power continuously when the ignition is off? I'm having problems with my car battery at the moment and fitting this seemed to tip it over the edge yesterday and the car wouldn't start.

 

Thanks

No question is a stupid question in relation to these stereos!!!!

 

When you 1st setup the bluetooth to your phone if you look at the icons on the right side of the phone dialler you will see what looks like a download arrow button, click on that and it will download your contacts list (you might need to allow access on your phone when it asks to do the download). It won't download your call history but once you start making and receiving calls it will show those.

 

For the 4G sim, you can try using the 4G dongle that is connected to one of the additional cable harness that should have came with the head unit, it should be on the harness that also has the multi-coloured RCA connectors on it.

 

The head unit works in the same way as the Amundsen apart from you cannot turn it on without the car ignition on switched on (not engine running). There used to be 2 power feeds that were needed to switch on and also keep the settings of the radio, a 12Volt permanent battery feed and a 12Volt ignition +ACC feed, this is not the case now as the ignition feed is controlled by the Canbus, when the Canbus detects a signal request for a component to be switched on it activates the required auxially voltage feed. The 12V +ACC feed for the head unit is taken from the Canbus box that you connect up. The permanent 12Volt feed is connected directly to the head unit but when the igniton is off it should only be drawing minimal power and nowhere near enough to cause a major battery drain. You will find as i do, if i have the igniton switched on but engine no running and i am playing around with the head unit, after anout an hour i start getting a low battery warning.

 

2 hours ago, wagster said:

No question is a stupid question in relation to these stereos!!!!

 

When you 1st setup the bluetooth to your phone if you look at the icons on the right side of the phone dialler you will see what looks like a download arrow button, click on that and it will download your contacts list (you might need to allow access on your phone when it asks to do the download). It won't download your call history but once you start making and receiving calls it will show those.

 

For the 4G sim, you can try using the 4G dongle that is connected to one of the additional cable harness that should have came with the head unit, it should be on the harness that also has the multi-coloured RCA connectors on it.

 

The head unit works in the same way as the Amundsen apart from you cannot turn it on without the car ignition on switched on (not engine running). There used to be 2 power feeds that were needed to switch on and also keep the settings of the radio, a 12Volt permanent battery feed and a 12Volt ignition +ACC feed, this is not the case now as the ignition feed is controlled by the Canbus, when the Canbus detects a signal request for a component to be switched on it activates the required auxially voltage feed. The 12V +ACC feed for the head unit is taken from the Canbus box that you connect up. The permanent 12Volt feed is connected directly to the head unit but when the igniton is off it should only be drawing minimal power and nowhere near enough to cause a major battery drain. You will find as i do, if i have the igniton switched on but engine no running and i am playing around with the head unit, after anout an hour i start getting a low battery warning.

 

 

i will add that if you don't set a sleep time, the unit will stop drawing power as soon as you open the driver door. It cuts off all the power. 

I set mine to 2hrs sleep so that twhen I go out and in, I don't go trought the whole boot up sequence. 

 

One major difference with the factory unit tough, when you stop the car, the factory unit would stay on until you open the driver door. 

This unit will stay on as long as the matrix screen is powered. Once the screen switches off, bam, the unit will go to sleep. So you can't listen to the radio for a long periode of time with the car turned off. 

I think it lasts something like 10 minutes. 

 

Edited 19 January, 20224 yr by nickytheshaft

What’s CarPlay like on these head units?

 

I’m looking for something with navigation for my car but don’t fancy dropping £1k on an Alpine unit. If these work well with CarPlay they might be a winner at <£200

 

 

30 minutes ago, grmtylr said:

What’s CarPlay like on these head units?

 

I’m looking for something with navigation for my car but don’t fancy dropping £1k on an Alpine unit. If these work well with CarPlay they might be a winner at <£200

 

 

Carplay and Android auto is Standard as you will see on any unit. I don't have an iPhone but Android auto works Great great except for the world wide bug where strangely when you are sending messages it works Great but when you want to give an order like a destination, Google doesn't hear you

Wagster, for your TTS issues, on my side, I finally baught a voice with vocalizer. 

Then strangely, set Google Google engine as preferred engine and vocalizer as navigation app.

Then no issues with Waze. It muted the radio.

 

 

2 hours ago, nickytheshaft said:

Wagster, for your TTS issues, on my side, I finally baught a voice with vocalizer. 

Then strangely, set Google Google engine as preferred engine and vocalizer as navigation app.

Then no issues with Waze. It muted the radio.

 

 

I managed to get it working without having to install any tts other than the Google version.

 

Figured out that I hadn't set anything as the navigation app application so set it as Waze then by going into the sound settings and setting the navigation volume to max and the background volume to a lower volume I would have the tts work correctly by either lowering the music volume or if the background volume set to minimum everything will mute apart from the tts.

Thanks everyone for your help so far.

 

So the seller has agreed to send me the modified factory USB cable (for a charge of $1!🤨). Where and how do I connect the additional power wires from the cable to?

 

Also is there anywhere that tells me which 4G bands this unit is compatible with? I'm thinking of getting one of the 24 month Three 4G data SIMs from Amazon, but wanted to make sure it will work before I purchase.

1 hour ago, londonmoog said:

Thanks everyone for your help so far.

 

So the seller has agreed to send me the modified factory USB cable (for a charge of $1!🤨). Where and how do I connect the additional power wires from the cable to?

 

Also is there anywhere that tells me which 4G bands this unit is compatible with? I'm thinking of getting one of the 24 month Three 4G data SIMs from Amazon, but wanted to make sure it will work before I purchase.

 

Here is a front view of the provided quad lock and the schematic of it.  You should pout the 5+ in C3 and ground to C4 (the white connector) and you are good to go. 

Edited 20 January, 20224 yr by nickytheshaft

5 hours ago, nickytheshaft said:

 

Here is a front view of the provided quad lock and the schematic of it.  You should pout the 5+ in C3 and ground to C4 (the white connector) and you are good to go. 

Thanks much appreciated. Fingers crossed it works!

3 hours ago, londonmoog said:

Thanks much appreciated. Fingers crossed it works!

Don't worry,it will 🙂

Tested a PAYG Three 4G SIM and it seems to be working in the SIM dongle provided.

I've bought the DAB USB dongle, and that seems to be working as well using the Fakra to SMA lead from amazon.

FM Radio working with two blue wires connected together for power.

Software updated to latest version.

😎

 

Must admit I'm impressed so far!

 

I haven't tried bluetooth calls yet but by the sounds of it the built in mic is not up to much.

 

I've also ordered the reversing camera, so that will be the next challenge when I'm feeling confident enough.😁

 

Edited 21 January, 20224 yr by londonmoog

12 minutes ago, londonmoog said:

Tested a PAYG Three 4G SIM and it seems to be working in the SIM dongle provided.

I've bought the DAB USB dongle, and that seems to be working as well using the Fakra to SMA lead from amazon.

FM Radio working with two blue wires connected together for power.

Software updated to latest version.

😎

 

Must admit I'm impressed so far!

 

I haven't tried bluetooth calls yet but by the sounds of it the built in mic is not up to much.

 

I've also ordered the reversing camera, so that will be the next challenge when I'm feeling confident enough.😁

 

I couldnt get the sim dongle to recognise a Vodafone PAYG sim but worked fine with my EE contact sim, I had to open up the head unit to access the built in sim slot which works fine for the Vodafone sim, if you get a chance can you test a Vodafone sim if you have one spare just to see. 

 

I don't seem to have any problem using the built-in mic but until you try it you won't know. 

 

Didn't they send a free reversing camera with the head unit as I got one free but didn't use it as I already had a camera fitted.

 

Just remember to do a backup of the unit so you recover the apps if you have to reset for any reason. 

1 minute ago, wagster said:

I couldnt get the sim dongle to recognise a Vodafone PAYG sim but worked fine with my EE contact sim, I had to open up the head unit to access the built in sim slot which works fine for the Vodafone sim, if you get a chance can you test a Vodafone sim if you have one spare just to see. 

 

I don't seem to have any problem using the built-in mic but until you try it you won't know. 

 

Didn't they send a free reversing camera with the head unit as I got one free but didn't use it as I already had a camera fitted.

 

Just remember to do a backup of the unit so you recover the apps if you have to reset for any reason. 

 

I'll see if I can get hold of a Vodafone SIM for you, and give it a go.

 

The seller forgot to send me the "free" camera. Apparently it's now being sent with the modified factory USB lead. From the pictures I kind of assumed the camera provided would be rubbish anyway - maybe I've been too quick to judge.

 

The camera I bought from Alixpress was the one that is integrated into the boot handle, which looks like a neat solution. Just not looking forward to running the cable through the car!

 

Is there a backup function? Haven't found it yet. Or do you have to install an app to backup.

 

 

14 minutes ago, londonmoog said:

 

I'll see if I can get hold of a Vodafone SIM for you, and give it a go.

 

The seller forgot to send me the "free" camera. Apparently it's now being sent with the modified factory USB lead. From the pictures I kind of assumed the camera provided would be rubbish anyway - maybe I've been too quick to judge.

 

The camera I bought from Alixpress was the one that is integrated into the boot handle, which looks like a neat solution. Just not looking forward to running the cable through the car!

 

Is there a backup function? Haven't found it yet. Or do you have to install an app to backup.

 

 

I also have the boot handle camera and yes it is a bit of a pain to fit, mainly running the cables through the the rubber grommets where the the boot opens if you have the estate car.  I don't know how it will work installing the camera with the new head unit installed as I did it when I had the Amundsen fitted and I had to make some coding changes with Obdeleven to get the camera to work but without the Amundsen fitted you have no access to the 5F module to make the required changes. I guess you will need to test it before you run the cables and fit the camera to see if it works properly when you select reverse.

 

If I remember without looking you need to go into settings then factory settings then use the password 123456 and you should find a backup apk option. Once it has finished you go into file manager app and find the backed up folder and then transfer to memory stick. Also make sure you have show hidden files and if you have a folder called blink back that up as well as apparently that holds any licences for the unit. 

Edited 21 January, 20224 yr by wagster