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@chaznatr thank you. I understand the F/C temp switch. I just never worked in the past so great to see it working and good to see they seemed to have also added the seat cooling option. Any chance you can take a pic of the can bus box as well and if possible post a quick video of you accessing those climate controls from the main screen? I'm still not clear how you're getting there. Also a link would be better than a pic as these guys often copy each other.
I took a picture before of the can bus I don’t recall if it had a label on it. I will pull it out in the next few days and snap a picture if it does have a label. I’m attaching pictures of how I access the metric / imperial settings.
I hope the photos help I couldn’t attach a video is too large
@chaznatr thank you. I understand the F/C temp switch. I just never worked in the past so great to see it working and good to see they seemed to have also added the seat cooling option. Any chance you can take a pic of the can bus box as well and if possible post a quick video of you accessing those climate controls from the main screen? I'm still not clear how you're getting there. Also a link would be better than a pic as these guys often copy each other.
Hi Sean I replied last night but it doesn’t appear that it posted. If it does not show up tonight I’ll post the pictures again.
@chaznatr Thanks for this post - I have the same car as you and the same original problem. with audiio..it appears the 14-15' models need something different. My vendor is helpful...but I could use your experience. Can you forward any vendor correspondence, guidance/pics? Much appreciated. johncto@outlook.com
I just recently replaced the Blue Box provided with the unit for my 14' XKR premium sound (HK) with the one shown in the image, then connected the Audio In and Out plugs together. I have sound from the audio now. If you have a similar experience, just take this step and you should be good. I tried every combination/workaround before doing this. Order from - Guangdong Aotsr Network Information Technology Co., Ltd. Ding Huang, If you can't get one from your vendor. It turns out these boxes are like Swiss army knives. They contain the code for all kinds of cars, despite the labeling. However, the labels don't follow a structured path for the given software. So..the version needed to support the audio for our cars is likely in this box.....with no correlation between the printed label and the car. (I'm thinking Jaguar made a change to the audio interface for the 2014 & 2015 XK models. Good Luck.
Great job on this thread! This is one of the most detailed I've read on this type of installation. I ordered the same from AliExpress, but I'm not advocating for them by any means. Shortly after it was delivered I experienced a health issue that precluded me from installing it. After surgery, some healing time, and physical therapy I attempted an install, but I physically couldn't do it. I hope to tackle it soon. Based on my first attempt I have a few questions I'm hoping you or someone can assist with:
1. I believe the OEM climate control connector plugs into the back of the wood-burl trim of the purchased unit and is also the switch for the emergency turn signals. It didn't seem to just snap in place with the plug from the purchased radio. In the video it appeared they bent the white plastic piece of the purchased radio to make it fit onto the OEM plug. I did the same thing and it seemed to work but wouldn't stay connected. Did you zip-tie or tape it to secure the connection? The climate controls didn't seem to work, but the emergency turn signals did.
2. I couldn't get any audio from the speakers. I'm not sure what the red-white RCA plugs on the purchased unit connect to. I didn't see any behind the OEM head unit when I removed it. I have the Bowers-Wilkins sound system, and the dealership installed the Audio Control Module (ACM) for me a few years back. Are there RCA plugs coming from the ACM unit that I need to use? Also, the purchased unit came with a separate audio filter that has those plugs; not sure where this filter goes.
3. Did you have to train the purchased radio to function properly with the steering wheel controls? I'm assuming steering wheel controls work inherently on the purchased radio, but I did see Key1 and Key2 wires for that purpose. Did you have to use these?
I already had a back-up camera installed, so I only had to get the yellow RCA plug from the trunk to the one on the purchased radio. Worked like a charm.
Any assistance would be greatly appreciated. I have a 2007 Jaguar XK base model convertible with a 4.2L engine. I literally LOVE this ride and hope to get this upgrade installed and working soon. 2007 Jaguar XK base model convertible, 4.2L
Hello
I tried to order a unit after reading the article, they said they would not deliver to the UK. How did you get around this problem.
Thank you
Andy
While this unit may be cool for some or most people in here, I am now glad that I didn't purchase one. It seems more of a hassle and not worth the price to me. I have a big *** screen in my truck and I barely use that as it is.
This has definitely been a worthwhile thread, to be sure.
Extending on the post before - any sense of style?
I know, de gustibus non est disputandum.
But to me this thing looks horrible in an otherwise beautiful car.
I had the same issue of no sound. I removed the iPod interface just in case it was causing a headache for the new style unit but still no sound. The reason I changed the unit was because the original unit was switching on and off driving me nuts. What got the sound working was unplugging the Bluetooth module at the back and putting an optical bypass loop connector in. Has been great since.
Hello everyone,
Looking for a way to improve my XKR Convertible ugly sound quality, I saddly came to the conclusion there's no much choices right now on the market.
Or i accept to pay 20% of the car value and keep the original look ( which I would prefer if budget was not a matter), or there's the Tesla type solution...
So, does anyone have a model to suggest or one to runaway from amongst the several choices on aliexpress?
Is it better to have 8g 256Gb ?
Do they all work with any aftermarket rear camera( the one they usually sell with the screen are ugly)?
is there some anti-glare screen? (i thought reflection might be a problem in convertible)
What option did you pick? (I thought about the 4Glte modem,TPMS internal sensors)
Hello everyone,
Looking for a way to improve my XKR Convertible ugly sound quality, I saddly came to the conclusion there's no much choices right now on the market.
Or i accept to pay 20% of the car value and keep the original look ( which I would prefer if budget was not a matter), or there's the Tesla type solution...
So, does anyone have a model to suggest or one to runaway from amongst the several choices on aliexpress?
Is it better to have 8g 256Gb ?
Do they all work with any aftermarket rear camera( the one they usually sell with the screen are ugly)?
is there some anti-glare screen? (i thought reflection might be a problem in convertible)
What option did you pick? (I thought about the 4Glte modem,TPMS internal sensors)
Thanks.
Would reach out to @chaznatr as he seems to have a model that has features us early adopters didn't such as temp displaying in F and C, cooled seats. In other words, they made some fixes later on.
As far a gigs and RAM, don't buy cheap but no need to get carried away. If you bought a tablet, how powerful would you want it? How much memory? Same thought applies here.
You will absolutely need an anti glare screen. I bought one from these folks - https://www.photodon.com/custom-screen-protector.html I have a coupe and when I installed mine, the reflection was ridiculous and in the sunlight, the screen isn't visible at all.
The externals are embarrassing to have on the car. They're huge and look silly. TheTPMS is an app and reads only 433 MHz so it should work with your OEM TPMS but you still need to buy the tPMS antenna. Make sure they include it.
Yes they throw in a camera but also yes, you can use your OEM or any aftermarket camera. You'll need a small Fakra to RCA conversion cable $7 ON AMAZON if you are converting OEM camera, otherwise all the aftermarkets are already RCA.
So I'll pick an 8Go 256GB with anti-glare.
About the cam I'll take one that integrate in the rear plate lights.
About the TPMS, mine are getting old/out of battery I guess... They send warning about the "unable to control tyre pressure" since today after messages claiming few days ago that front left tyre was not controled...The tyres are new Sportmax2 so there's no trouble on this side.
I guess they are dying (16years old) and their battery might be out ...If I'm right replacing the batteries is not really possible , that's why I might pick a new set.
Are you still happy with your system? Did you have any down side since installed?
Originally Posted by Sean W
Would reach out to @chaznatr as he seems to have a model that has features us early adopters didn't such as temp displaying in F and C, cooled seats. In other words, they made some fixes later on.
As far a gigs and RAM, don't buy cheap but no need to get carried away. If you bought a tablet, how powerful would you want it? How much memory? Same thought applies here.
You will absolutely need an anti glare screen. I bought one from these folks - https://www.photodon.com/custom-screen-protector.html I have a coupe and when I installed mine, the reflection was ridiculous and in the sunlight, the screen isn't visible at all.
The externals are embarrassing to have on the car. They're huge and look silly. TheTPMS is an app and reads only 433 MHz so it should work with your OEM TPMS but you still need to buy the tPMS antenna. Make sure they include it.
Yes they throw in a camera but also yes, you can use your OEM or any aftermarket camera. You'll need a small Fakra to RCA conversion cable $7 ON AMAZON if you are converting OEM camera, otherwise all the aftermarkets are already RCA.
So I'll pick an 8Go 256GB with anti-glare.
About the cam I'll take one that integrate in the rear plate lights.
About the TPMS, mine are getting old/out of battery I guess... They send warning about the "unable to control tyre pressure" since today after messages claiming few days ago that front left tyre was not controled...The tyres are new Sportmax2 so there's no trouble on this side.
I guess they are dying (16years old) and their battery might be out ...If I'm right replacing the batteries is not really possible , that's why I might pick a new set.
Are you still happy with your system? Did you had any down side since installed?
No downside really. At first sight I thought they units were ugly, then they kind of grew on me.
What I liked/:
Easy to install, send me a PM once you buy and I'll send you an install video. I removed it in favor of Cambo's (OldJaguar) CarPlay install.
I truly miss the sound (almost deaf now so it was pretty impressive for me to have the lossless sound)
I was able to download Torque Pro and have virtual gauges on the Tesla screen so that was handy.
Capacitive screen.
What I didn't like:
Soft buttons - everything is on the touchscreen and too much time looking at the screen vs eyes on the road.
Keep in mind my wife's last car was a Cadillac SRX and it too has a giant screen, so I thought I'd adjust to it but didn't.
Other things I mentioned, Couldn't switch temp controls from celsius to Fahrenheit but that's now been resolved.
Glare - addressed with anti Glare screen but still not perfect.
What others didn't like or don't like:
Warning messages. They don't display on the Tesla screen, just the instrument gauge and you can't just clear them with a touch of the screen. You'll need a code reader. I think that's a silly reason not to own because I fix the issues when they come up so that was never a dealbreaker for me.
Yes sure, buy the internal TMPS if yours are going out, they work fine. Make sure they give you the software app as it's an add on. You don't have to disable the OEM TPMS, it's overridden by the new can bus I think, but the messages will go away.
First I want to give a huge thanks to Sean W for consolidating these posts into this thread as well as his outstanding YouTube installation video. I studied this thread thoroughly (although just up through the 2022 posts, which you'll see the importance of later) before deciding to move forward with this project.
I have a lock stock 2012 XK convertible and I wanted to be able to access Android Auto on the screen rather than having my phone attached to the lower part of the console, one for convenience and two because in the summer if the phone is in the sun (as I always have the top down) it gets too hot and shuts down.
I first explored the NavTool option in order to retain the original unit. After investigation, I found their unit cost $599, required professional installation in the trunk with wiring to the dash and required the dealer to enable the aux functionality, which I came to understand from the forum is not even possible on later X150's. So that idea went out the window and I moved on to getting the Tesla style screen.
Since I've already purchased 100's of items from AliExpress ( mostly Legos for the grandkids and Jaguar clothing items), I was well aware of the strengths and weakness of that site. While it's great for small dollar purchases, I didn't want to risk it for a high dollar item and then wait 3 to 4 weeks for delivery, so I started looking for established retailers with their own websites.
First I scanned the QR code on the back of Sean W's unit from his YouTube video and saw it came from ZWNAV GPS Official Store (and not the fake ZWNAV F a c t o r y Store that shows up on AliExpress from time to time). First, their unit was in excess of $1,000 plus shipping and when I queried them, their replies came back in broken English and they usually only addressed about half of my questions.
Then through my searching I came across the Navihua website which showed the same unit and had an "Inquiry Now" button, so I clicked. The next day I received a very nice email from Evan Chen offering the 4GB RAM/64GB ROM unit for $715. Evan answered all my questions promptly and clearly, including photos where appropriate. I wound up selecting the 6GB RAM/128GB ROM unit for $765 plus $135 for FedEx air shipping. I placed the order late on a Thursday night and the unit was delivered the next Monday, July 10th.
Obviously, the next morning I was excited to do the install, and with Sean W's video on my tablet on top of the dash, everything went flawlessly and truly was plug and play. I finished up easily and turned on the unit, everything worked except I had no audio.
What followed next was the typical difficulty getting tech support from a Chinese vendor of emailing during the day and then waiting for their overnight response the next day. First step was to provide photos of all my connections. Next was to try plugging the two optical lines that had been looped out into the optical converter (blue box). Then they wanted pictures of the back of my original unit, followed by photos of the amplifier in the trunk.
At this point I decided to do my own troubleshooting and bought a $4 Y cable from Walmart with RCA jacks on one end and a 3.5mm headphone jack on the other. When I connected my portable speaker to the new unit, I had audio. I now knew the input to the optical converter (blue box) worked and since I had successfully reinstalled the original unit at least three times at this point, I also knew the output to the car worked, so that just left the optical converter (blue box) as the culprit. This is when I wished I had read the 2023 posts from chaznatr and jkasmark.
Despite providing this info to the technicians, they wanted me to purchase a 10 ft+ optical extension cord to connect the optical converter (blue box) directly to the amplifier in the trunk and were not willing to send a new optical converter (blue box), so I offered to pay for it if it proved not to be the issue.
Unfortunately, they sent the same optical converter (blue box) as I already had and that didn't work either. Neither did plugging the extension cord into either of the amplifiers optical ports.
Their next suggestion was to reinstall the unit and then apply an extra optical loop to the optical cable attached to the upper amplifier. That didn't work either. Since I already had the trunk torn apart, I decided to try the loop on the optical cable attached to the lower amplifier. After a few seconds, I actually had audio. That said, if I ever want to reinstall the original unit, I'll have to remember to pull the trunk apart and reattach that cable.
Also, as a word of caution, I was so excited to finally get audio after a month of trying, I just pushed all the cables and boxes into the cavity and, screwed the unit in place, popped the cover plate on and took off for a drive. I immediately found I had a new rattle in the dash. It must have been the two control boxes bouncing off each other and/or the bottom of the compartment. So I went back home, took it out yet another time, and cable tied the new wiring to the existing wiring harness in the middle of the cavity. Problem solved!
Now to my issues, first observations and answers to others questions.
First, the only functionality I appear to have lost is the Intrusion/Tilt option for the steering wheel. Even though it's in the settings menu, the system won't allow me to turn it on.
The system allows temperatures to be shown in Fahrenheit, however, changes in temperature are still incremented in half a degree Centigrade. As a result, the system adjusts as follows 69.8, 70.7, 71.6, 72.5, 73.4 etc.
The system also has controls for cooled seats and the heated steering wheel, in addition to the heated seats. What's interesting is your selections remain in effect when the car is restarted as opposed to being reset each time with the original unit.
The sound quality is fantastic, my only issue is that while the volume control ranges from 0 to 36, level 2 is at or above the level I normally listen to, so it would be great if I could reduce the system volume to generate a more usable range.
While the system does support Android Auto, unfortunately it uses less than half the screen, so it's basically the size of the original unit. That being said, the only reason I can see to use Android Auto here is if your phone doesn't serve as a hotspot and your not willing to sign up for a SIM card. Since I'm not in the Apple universe, I can't speak to CarPlay.
A number of the first adopters mentioned the loss of TPMS when replacing the original unit, however, my 2012 only reflected TPMS warnings in the center display between tach and speedometer. What am I missing?
Waze Amazon Music Applications Android Auto App Intrusion/Tilt Setting Trunk cable that had to be looped out. Supplied Optical Converter Let me know if you have any other questions.
01-28-2023, 03:46 PM
