So, I finally received my CarPlay module yesterday…. My plan was to install it next weekend. But that plan went astray… you know me, I could not wait that long.
Besides, I have done this before, so it would only take like 1 hour. At least that’s whatI thought.
With that in mind, I started the installation yesterday night (at about 7pm). Remember I’m changing the Joye module by this Ebilaen module.
Well… it took 4 hours and a divorce threat 🤣…. Not what I had planned.
A couple of unexpected issues….
1. Taking the head unit out was OK. Opening it, I had to refresh the process, took longer than anticipated, even though I had done it 3 times before.
2. Took out the old board, installed the new one over the same stands… No issues. Connecting wires and passing them through holes, no concerns.
View attachment 244659
3. This is where issues started. After assembling everything, I connected the head unit to the car, and could only see half of the screen, like everything shifted to the right. That concerned me, so I disconnected everything and re-opened the head unit to check all wire connections.
4. When reseating the wires, I disconnected one of the ribbon wires that goes to the screen and the whole connector came lose (I accidentally removed the whole thing - leaving the pins exposed). That concerned me a bit, but I know that these connectors can be reassembled. It just takes time and patience because the darn pins are so small. That took about 30 minutes.
5. Assembled everything back and got it to the car for testing, and this time it worked well. However, there were a few times during the installation that the screen when blank, and only got resolved by disconnecting and reconnecting the main harness. I hope this is not going to be an issue going forward.
6. I reinstalled the head unit (not the trims at that point), but forgot to test the microphone (Siri). I thought that I had the factory microphone. So, when I tried it, it wasn’t active. I took the head unit out again (fortunately I had not reinstalled the trims)… and connected the provided microphone. I could not get it to work. The microphone doesn’t work. I need to figure that one out yet.
7. While I had the unit out, I decided to test some additional items, like the backup camera. So… backup camera didn’t come on when I put the car in reverse. Spent 30 minutes before I remembered that I needed to take the emergency brake off…. 🥴. Even then, I had to activate a few options in the settings for the system to switch to backup camera.
When everything was all said and done, it was 11pm… (4 hours!!).
Should’ve waited for the weekend!
Now, for the review….
The improvements over the Joye:
1. Speed of readiness. With the Joye, I had to wait for about 10 seconds before the system recognize my phone and hence CarPlay. With Ebilaen is basically instantaneous.
2. Audio: Audio improvement with Ebilaen is nominal, but it is improved. I still need to tune it, but sound is not as attenuated. But still not as good as with the direct iPod input.
3. Response: It seems that Ebilaen is more responsive and quick. When you change from AUX to iPod and back, it is very responsive.
4. Connection: so far, connection had been solid with Ebilaen. No dropped connection so far.
5. Compact: the installation is cleaner with Ebilaen. Just the board and some wiring vs board, module, wiring and dummy connector with Joye.
6. User Interface: much improved over Joye. Setup is easier.
The Quirks (so far):
1. When in iPod mode and using CarPlay over WiFi, I lose the ability to control volume with the head unit volume knob. However, the steering wheel volume knob works well. Fortunately, this is not an issue, as I have both the steering wheel knob and the Helix Conductor to control volume. I think this is due to the fact that the Ebilaen module takes control of the head unit volume control for CarPlay and it wants to control CarPlay volume when you are actually with the iPod.
2. Related to item # 1, when I connect through AUX, then I can control the volume in the head unit, but is different than everywhere else. The volume intensity is maximized by the steering wheel volume control, and the head unit can’t go above that max volume set by steering wheel. It can go down from there, but not up. It basically disconnects the two volume controls from each other. Hence why I lose control when in iPod. But don’t despair, everything goes back to normal when you get out of CarPlay. The only benefit with this is that it display a volume bar that goes from 0 to 40 (if that can be considered a benefit).
As for how I’m using it, I’m using it the same way as I was using the Joye module. Audio through iPod and displaying CarPlay wireless. Still no audio from GPS apps (other than Google Maps).
More to come on this, as I continue to learn and experience it.
What I can say for sure is that this is the last upgrade I make on my head unit…
PS: By the way, I didn’t bother taking a lot of photos or doing a DIY on this one, as this was masterfully done by
@Don16. See earlier posts for a great video on how to do the installation.
