2nd gen Joying Head Unit Thread

Thanks Mistrchow.

 

You know there is an adapter to keep your factory USB and Aux input.

 

I hadn't thought about it; I don't use mine currently.

The USB I linked was to replace one of the 12v sockets, but now I like the idea of hiding it somewhere out of sight.

 

I haven't looked at this thread in a few months. How is everyones Joying unit holding up long term?

 

$15 PAC USB-TY1 Toyota/Lexus OEM USB Port Retention Cable

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00F0YJ49O

 

I have had mine in the cold winters of Alaska and the hot summers of Florida and it has worked great for me. Spent 30 days traveling across Alaska, Canada and America with no “major” issues that I didn’t know about before going in. Some of the button on the steering wheel don’t work. Airplay is very good. Sound and performance was leaps and bounds above stock.

 

anyone figure out how to use OEM mic on a 2014? I have the 9" Joying

 

Thank you!

 

9” has the Mic built into the front of it.

 

Yeah I also have this issue with "some buttons on steering wheel don't work". Enough work to make it usable so I haven't tried chasing JOYING support about the matter.

 

Mines been holding up well, though it's only been a couple months. No issues to complain about besides the lack of steering wheel control, but I knew that going into it. Just haven't gotten around to getting the diff harness.

Also still figuring out the sound setting...can't quite get em where I like...the low rumbly bass I love has kinda disappeared since the new headunit, while the punchier bass in electronic and rock music is significantly more pronounced. Once I can figure out how to set up the bass with my aftermarket sound system properly, then I'll be totally satisfied lol. But that's not really on the headunit, more so on me.

 

in front of HU?

 

Yes. You don’t need to hook up the crappy mic that was in the box.

 

I got these fits in the lower blanks next to the 12v outlet

MOTONG Male to Female USB Cable...

MOTONG Male to Female USB Cable Adapter for Toyota VIOS/ALTIS (32 * 20mm)

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0742DFK2L?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

 

My 11" screen has been malfunctioning lately. Need to contact support to see about a replacement. Had it about a year now

 

Oh! That’s great. I have two blanks available.

 

I think I’m gonna stick with 9” either way, so super curious on feedback of your install.

 

I'll post up with pics once it's complete, just haven't had time yet.

 

thank ya!

 

I've had mine installed for a little over a year and a half now. For the price, it could not be beat. I have the 8" version with two knobs in the top left and top right corners in my 2013 Taco. For the most part it is working great, but I have been having some issues over the past 6 months (or more). Some of it seems to be USB related and I need to troubleshoot a little more, and some is just with the apps. Maybe some others here have experienced the same, so I'll give my thoughts thus far... (TL/DR? Summary at bottom)

First things first, before I installed the Joying, I upgraded my speakers to some Infinity 6x9s in the front and 6.5" in the back. I also upgraded to the Subaru/Infinity tweeters. This improved music through bluetooth and from a thumbdrive a fair amount, but the audio from the radio tuner didn't improve that much. Even with better speakers, I noticed an immediate improvement in all audio quality once I installed the Joying, and the EQ is soooo much better than that on the original HU.

The basic interface is OK for what it is. Mine doesn't do the 2-app split screen mode and I wish it did, and it doesn't really look like a typical vehicle head unit. So after trying a few different car loader apps (many recommended by this forum), I settled on Agama and it has been working quite well - enough so that I purchased it.

It doesn't come with any pre-installed navigation apps, so I tried a few free ones that allow you to download maps and work without an internet connection. I settled on Sygic. And here is where the fun begins. It always starts. Even though i went into settings and specifically turned off the feature to autostart the nav app, Sygic always starts. And that was fine for the most part, but over time, I have become annoyed with it because when I turned the Taco off I was using the music player (more on that later) or the radio app (more on that, later, too), and most of the time, I really would like whatever was the app on screen when I shut the truck off to be what shows up when I start the truck, OR I would like the Agama loader to come up when I first turn things on. And occasionally it does that, but way more often than not, Sygic Navigation starts. So, for reasons that I will explain shortly, I installed Waze and set up my phone as a wireless hotspot that the Joying could connect to. I also switched the default Nav app to Waze. I also removed Sygic from the list of Nav selections in Agama. Now, both Sygic AND Waze start when I turn things on, even if I reboot the Joying. WTF is going on here? I have double and triple checked settings to verify that Nav app on startup is NO. Any idea how to prevent Sygic and Waze from starting at startup? Even if I explicitly shutdown Waze and exit Sygic before I shut things down, they still both start whenever I start the truck or reboot the Joying. This is now beyond annoying.

The music player is rudimentary. I have a USB thumb drive I plug into the USB/audio port and play off of that. And while it does seem to allow me to view what is on the thumb drive in a somewhat ordered fashion, it seems it can only play things in alphabetical order, despite the fact that each album is in it's own directory. There are times when I'd like to play a particular album and it doesn't allow that. Or I'd like it to shuffle the order. It doesn't do that either. So I'll probably install an alternate music player. There are a lot of choices out there. Any suggestions? Also, sometimes the Joying just loses the thumb drive, and there is no getting it back unless I do a complete reboot.

The radio app is also fairly rudimentary. I like that it has two sets of 6 AM presets and 3 sets of FM presets. And the radio audio quality is much better than the original head unit. But it shows just how much audio quality is dependent on the station broadcasting. Some stations I can fiddle with the EQ and get pretty good audio, and others are poor no matter what. One thing that did just happen is that we were on vacation a couple weeks ago and my wife took the Taco into town and tried to tune in a local station. Somehow, she managed to reprogram ALL the presets by accident (and it almost all country or religious stations where we were vacationing!!!!!)!!! How did it do that? I can't figure out how to do that intentionally! I had to program all the presets individually. Also, is there a better radio tuner app out there? I keep finding radio apps that require an internet connection.

The real reason I got the Joying is for Android Auto/Apple Carplay. I have an Android phone. When I got the Joying, I had a Galaxy 9. It usually worked great. Last September I upgraded to a Galaxy 20+. It also usually worked great. With both the 9 and the 20+, every once in a while, when I started the carlink app, it would stay on "waiting for device to connect". A reboot of the Joying would allow things to connect and Android Auto worked great... until lately... Starting this spring, this started to happen more frequently. Android Auto has been upgraded a few times and when we went on vacation (July 4th week) I was pleasantly surprised that Android Auto now had a split screen mode, so I could have Waze on the left half and Audible, or a media player or a podcast app on the right side. it worked great for our vacation. And then things got ugly. Now, no matter what I do Carlink does not talk to my phone. Nor does EasyConnect. In fact, when I plug in my phone, I can see that my phone is charging, but when I start Carlink, it just gives me the "waiting to connect...." message and my phone quits charging. It is like Carlink turns off the USB ports (I have tried this with both USB ports on the back of the joying unit. Even after I exit the Carlink app, my phone will not charge from the USB ports, not will the music player app recognize if I plug a USB thumb drive into the USB port. I have to reboot the Joying just to be able to charge my phone, now. I have tried rebooting my phone, rebooting the Joying and rebooting both. Ironically, the last software update to my phone was right BEFORE our vacation, after which Android Auto worked flawlessly for the trip. Also, there does not appear to be any way to update the Carlink app. Anyone experience this?

In summary, audio is much improved, the preinstalled apps are functional at best and I'm looking for better ones, Nav apps ALWAYS start up whether I want them to or not and it is really starting to piss me off, [strikethrough]and Android Auto is now completely FUBAR, which is REALLY pissing me off[/strikethrough].

My next step is to do a complete factory reset, but doing so will probably also cost me my paid version of Agama (It was under $10, so worth the cost if I can get functionality back).

Any advice would be appreciated.

Update: It would appear that the USB port on my NEW(ish) phone is dying. I charged my old phone and plugged it into the USB of the Joying and started Carlink and Android Auto started right away. I can still charge the NEW(ish) phone via USB, but data seems to be dead. Ugh!

Update #2: The USB port on my phone is fine. There was an Android Auto update on July 21. Since that update, my phone wants to connect to the Joying only wirelessly. I cannot seem to change that setting on my phone. On my phone, when I go into Settings -> Connected devices -> Android Auto, if the phone is plugged into the Joying via USB and I start Carlink, the Taco appears as a device with "Wireless Android Auto available". But the Joying doesn't do wireless Android Auto. Ugh!!!!