Which Aftermarket CarPlay Radio did you go with?

Got mine installed yesterday, pretty happy with it so far. Shimmed out the trim kit to fit appropriately after the photo was taken.

 

Damn @forty2 that looks sweeeeeet! Did u install yourself ?

 

Yeah, it's pretty straight forward. Used a Maestro RR to integrate the steering wheel controls. Soldered the new radio harness to the Maestro harness on the bench and the install was all plug and play. The only things I still need to deal with are moving the mic into the OEM location (it's currently just clipped to the headliner above the mirror) and hard wiring the OBDII tap so it's not blocking the port.

 

I just replaced my head unit in 2011 DCSB with a Sony XAV-V10BT. Also bought some Focal speakers on sale at Crutchfield but haven’t installed those yet. If you are looking to replace I highly suggest you purchase thru Crutchfield. The6 will send you exact wire ha4ness needed and the gray dash kit the6 sell looks factory. I installed it myself and saved over 300 bucks that Bestbuy was goin yo charge for radio and speaker install. Crutchfield tech support was spot on and helped when I had questions d/t some extra pin modules that didn’t have connections. I retained steering wheel controls and installed a mic for wireless calling also. Looks and sounds awesome with stock speakers, can’t wait to install Focal speakers I got on sale.

 

Joying unit here Thursday, can't wait!

Big week for the Taco.

 

Still waiting to hear from a 1st gen

 

Which Joying unit did you go with?

 

https://www.joyingauto.com/joying-u...orolla-tacoma-android-car-stereo-upgrade.html

Should look fairly factory. There’s another thread on here for it, but it is under someone’s audio build thread.

 

@forty2 I finally pulled the trigger on that bad boy Kenwood DMX906S today baby! Somehow it finally feels like a Weight off my shoulders haha. Now I get the joy of waiting on it to arrive and finding an install spot nearby that will install and also bypass the parking control for me. (Best Buy did my last aftermarket pioneer and man it looks so confusing back there when I looked once). Also adding a Rockford Fosgate powered subwoofer and some USB ports for wired carplay if I need it and hopefully mirroring to my iPhone somehow to let my “passengers” watch YouTube lol.
did you guys buy new backup cameras for this and what type if I may ask. I have a shitty one that came with my old aftermarket unit. So grainy May see if they can put it on the front and get a new backup one. Or just get 2 new back and front units.

 

Nice. I got a backup camera with my unit as a part of a package deal. May eventually mount it up front, OEM back up camera is working just fine with the Kenwood so I'm not going to do anything there.

 

Did you bypass the parking break wire and if so how hard was it to do so

 

Nope, just used the Maestro harness as intended.

 

Joying works out great. Android Auto and Apple Carplay, both wireless.

 

I wonder if I could fit a 9” in my second gen

 

Which unit is that? I have the CTH T9 and reach for the nonexistent volume knob constantly. Could switch if the details stack up to the T9.

 

It's a Joying unit. I did a big write-up on Reddit. https://www.reddit.com/r/ToyotaTacoma/comments/eubifx/joying_head_unit_review_for_3g_tacoma_long/

Couple different threads here as well.

 

Man... I've read through that entire Android audio thread, and I'll be reading your reddit post as soon as I finish a presentation in a bit (stupid work getting in the way of buying shit for my truck... even if it does provide me the means to do so).

I was all set to buy the Kenwood until I saw what the Joying looked like installed; that's incredibly sharp. That's exactly what I want my head unit to look like--it looks stock. Or, rather, it looks like what the stock unit should have looked like. And the price is less than half of what I was planning on paying. And no, I don't have the JBL system--a big part of why I didn't get the premium package was that I knew I'd be replacing the head unit eventually, out of principle I didn't want to pay more for a system I'd be ripping out. (And I don't like sunroofs in trucks... though I do wish I had the heated seats, though).

Anyway, how are you finding it at this point? I read about the various little issues you had to sort out initially, and my only hesitation is that the whole thing still seems slightly fiddly? It's so stupid, but I think my biggest gripe is your report that the music doesn't stop when you disconnect from the truck. Such a first-world problem, but that'd irk the shit out of me. What app are you using when that happens? I use Spotify and Podcasts 99% of the time.

Ah well, I'm pretty sure I'm going to pull the trigger today regardless. At that price point, and with such a straightforward installation, I kind of want to find out for myself.

 

The installation was the fiddly part, being that the mounting points for the head unit don't line up with either the Scosche or Metra brackets. You'll have to cut the front portions off of either. The stock brackets will grab one hole, and it will be pretty close and may ultimately be the best solution.

I think the music not stopping issue is a wireless CarPlay issue vs a wired CarPlay issue. I'll use Pandora through CarPlay and notice the music on the phone won't stop but will also not switch to the phone's speaker. It could be an issue where it senses it loses the connection after a certain amount of time and stops, or just keeps playing. I keep my phone at zero volume and on vibrate permanently, so I should really investigate that. Even if that was something I couldn't solve, I could probably get into the habit of stopping the streaming manually via the head unit before shutting down, or when I grab my phone off the Qi mat. I will investigate all of this in the next day or so.

The only other annoyance I've found is that if you're connected to another device via hotspot (I stream YouTube on my iPad at the gym off my phone's hotspot), Zlink absolutely will not connect until you shut off the hotspot, because it still shows I am connected and giving data to the iPad.

Every single bit of this though was worth the hassle. I marvel at the screen every time I get in the truck, and it is pretty damn responsive with everything except for loading the one game I installed. Best mod.

 

My installation was not fiddly at all--direct PnP with no issues. (There is only one screw per side on the factory bracket but that hasn't been a problem.) You do lose the compass in the instrument cluster but my primary reason for this unit was to get Google (and Apple) maps for usable navigation so I don't care about the dash compass. It replaced the iPad and iPhone that were hanging off those Ram mounts. I also had the Germes Lab front camera system installed and that won't work with the Joying. However, I have ordered the Anytimebackup camera kit and hope that it will work. I'll report back when I install it. On the economics: I paid $299 for the Joying unit from Amazon and sold my Toyota HU for $450 to infotainment.com. I made money on the deal!

 

They didn't care about the brackets not being there? Otherwise the bottom unit isn't attached except for the wiring.

I didn't like that gap along the bottom where it is pushed in when I did mine, which is why I tried to use mounting kits. I think what I may eventually do is fab up a little accessory piece of metal that triangulates the two holes on the Joying unit with a third on the factory mounting brackets and make it fit perfectly and without hassle. Could probably be done via 3D printing easily, but I don't have one.