[getrav]

I recently purchased one of the many android radio replacements one can find on Aliexpress.

This is my particular model.

One can find much information on this units on this XDA tread.

Purchasing from Aliexpress is quick and easy, pretty much like on eBay. I contacted a few sellers first, communication in English is always possible but, just like items descriptions on aliexpress - not always perfect.

I contacted my seller in advance and asked for two upgrades: higher resolution screen (extra $30) and a rear-view camera ($20). I am glad I did - the screen is excellent quality and the camera is great value - the picture is more than acceptable.

Upon ordering one may expect to wait at least a week until the unit is shipped. Supposedly this is for testing. Once shipped the unit arrived 3 days later. I did not have to pay any import taxes but I hear this may at times happen.

This HU is very well made, I'd say OEM quality. Installation was easy but only because of the wealth of information on this message board. The unit comes with no any instructions or manual. Installation process can be completed in less than 30 minutes - but only if you dont plan to install the camera.

I was so absorbed in the installation, sadly, I took no pictures. But one can easily find picture reference to each step that is required to install on these forums.

Since I did install the camera I spent nearly the whole day in my very small garage. The camera comes attached to a replacement license plate light. You remove the old light but keep the light bulb on the wire, insert the bulb in the new holder/light and push it back in the slot above license plate. Be careful because the plastic is not the highest quality.

The wire from camera was too fat (well, the connection jack) to thread it tru the hole that already exist in the gate panel (inside) right behind and little above the license plate light. I expanded it with a drill and sprayed a few coats of clear coat. I routed wires tru the gate, tru the rubber hose coming from car to the gate (between gate hinges) and this was very, very hard because there are many cables and a windshield washer tube in this hose already.

For power I tapped into wires from the electric socket/cigarette lighter in the rear of the car.

Camera signal wire was just long enough to route it inside behind the rear plastic panel, later in the wire channel along both doors, up behind the glove box and to the unit.

I found on this forum how to locate the red wire with a reverse signal to the radio. this allows the unit to show camera picture once shifted in reverse, automatically. The unit takes about 30 seconds to boot but camera image show imediately, once shifted into D the booting process continues. 30 seconds boot is only from the cold state. Later power cycling is immediate.

All wires were simply plug and play. There is a substantial GPS antena with a large magnet. I stuck it to some kind of a metal pipe that runs across the front of the car right behind the glove box.

There are two USB extension cords included and I run them so they exit in the glove box as well. These can be used for flash drives but also for a 3g usb modem.

There is an external microphone included but I have not been able to find where to plug it in. The front AUX port does not seem to detect the microphone.

Radio reception is good, I think comparable with the original radio. There seem to be a bug in AM mode where stations' frequencies are shifted a few units - so your favorite 500 mhz station now becomes 503 or so.

The included Sygic navigation software is pirated and old. I downloaded current version from google play and I found it much better. The hardware button for navigation was not correctly assigned but this was an easy fix in settings.

The screen is more responsive than any OEM Infotainment system I used in rental cars. It is bright and crisp. However, with polarized sunglasses it is hard to see much on the screen, I think I will have to buy another sunglasses now.

There is a rather bad application for music playback. I replaced it with the free Shuttle music player from play store. I tested a few players but this seems like the best and simplest to use plus it is free.

This unit connects to home wifi or you can of course also tether to your phone. Purchasing USB modes is another option.

Bluetooth calls are at most acceptable because of the poor quality of the build-in microphone. As mentioned there is a substantial external microphone but I have found to way to connect it yet.

So far I am very happy with the purchase. I hope it will work for a few years!

 

[jferry2]

I found on this forum how to locate the red wire with a reverse signal to the radio. This allows the unit to show camera picture once shifted in reverse, automatically.

I'm currently searching for that wire and have not been able to find the prior post you're referring to. Any tips on where the red reverse wire may be found?

 

[getrav]

I hope I can help.

Once you remove the OM radio you will see a thick bundle of cables that are located just behind the radio. I dont think this bundle is even connected to the OEM base radio. However, you will notice that there is a weird connector branching out in the MIDDLE of the bundle (not at the end). That branched cable ends with a flat, 5 pin connector. The red wire is what you need.

Test it with multimeter - you will clearly see that you get 12V only in reverse.
g

 

[jferry2]

Thanks. I decided to tap into the reverse wire at the fuse box. It's the red wire sitting by itself at the bottom of the pulled harness in the picture. (EDIT: the picture posted sideways, so it's the red wire to the far right in the picture. In your car it will be at the bottom.)

For what it's worth, the aftermarket camera I used came with something I had never seen before: an RCA cable with yellow RCA jacks on each end and a small red wire extending from below each jack. Since there were no instructions included, I was initially dumbfounded as to what it was for since this cable is supposed to just carry the video signal. I assumed it must be an alternate way to run the hot wire to the camera and fortunately that was correct.

So here's the connections I made for my Kenwood DDX471HD and aftermarket camera: I used an extra piece of wire (not included) to run the purple and white wire marked "reverse" from the head unit to the red reverse wire in the fuse box. I plugged the yellow RCA into the "R. Cam." port on the head unit. I hooked the red wire on the RCA cable to a red hot wire. On the other side of the RCA cable, I connected the yellow RCA to the RCA port on the camera, and connected the red RCA mystery wire to the red hot lead on the camera. The black wire from the camera I hooked to the chassis for ground. Everything is working fine.

Since the camera is connected directly to a red hot wire, it is running whenever the car is on. While some may worry that this puts too much wear on the camera, I don't particularly care since it's cheap to replace if necessary. The big benefit is that the camera comes on and shows on screen whenever I go into reverse AND I also have the option of turning the reverse camera on at any time regardless of gear by pushing and holding the "TEL" button on the unit.

 

[getrav]

good idea with the red wire attached to the RCA. I did not think about it so I run a hot wire from the rear cigarette lighter to accomplish the same thing - always powered on camera.

However, I found no way to show the camera while driving forward yet.

 

[nouse4aname]

Yeah, my Kenwood DDX371 also will show the reverse at any time by long pressing the Tel button. Handy if you've got the cargo area packed to the gills and you can use that as a rear view mirror. I'm switching over to a Clarion unit that has hdmi inputs though so I can mirror my iPhone to the screen. That also has an option to display the rear at any time.

Kind of surprised at the price of this unit as $400 gets you a very good head unit from a reputable company. I'm just shopping in the $250 range.

 

[getrav]

yes, you can get a very good HU for $400 but this one, being android, has practically unlimited potential. I now have 2 different navigation packages on it, all the streaming services I wish, fantastic, high resolution, lag-free screen and whatever else I can think of.

 

[thev6dude]

Backup Camera Grid Modification on Android Units

I have purchased the quad core variant with 1024 x 600 resolution from Joying. Hardware-wise, I think there are only 4 variants of these android units sold by various Asian retailers (Joying/Klyde/Eonon etc.) I believe it is mainly the software that varies with retailer.
RK 3066 - Dual Core with 800 x 400 resolution screen
RK 3066 - Dual Core with 1024 x 600 resolution screen
RK 3188 - Quad Core with 800 x 400 resolution screen
RK 3188 - Quad Core with 1024 x 600 resolution screen (This is what I have )


Install Feedback
I have been fairly inactive on these forums for many years but lately have been lurking a lot to find a lot of valuable info for installing headunits and backup cameras. I would be out of hundreds of dollars in installation costs had I not seen the guides here. The most difficult part for me was removing the rear fender interior panel partly because I was not well equipped with a long arm wrench to loosen the 2 super tight 14mm anchor bolts. I finally got them out after discovering the double wrench technique (linking 2 small wrenches to lengthen the moment arm). Also I had no idea how hard should I be yanking the panels. Glad I didnt break anything.

Back Camera comments:
The most annoying part annoying part was lack of suitable location for a backup camera without the sport appearance packege. I ordered the cheap RAV4 specific license light CCD camera from ebay but was discouraged to install it after finding out how much to the driver side it would be offset. Luckily, I had access to an unwanted Kenwood CMOS-230 camera which retails for a lot more $$ but spec-wise doesnt seem very superior to cheap ebay ones. I felt like the Kenwwod would hold up better in the long run with better waterproofing and build quality. I don't feel so anymore because the mounting bracket with 3m double sided tape doesn't feel very strong. The manual also cautions against going thru automatic car-washes (I doubt I will follow. I will count on my spare tire to shield the camera from high pressure water) I mounted the kenwood onto the painted plastic license plate mount under the spare tire with inspiration from Vanib's install. This location seemed fairly centered but too low. My other option was to mount it on the underside of the semicircular spare tire mount since my RAV only has a fabric spare tire cover. However, I wasn't keen on cutting up the cloth or leaving the tire bare. The center of spare tire isnt anymore centered with the vehicle compared to Vanib's location anyway. I am satisfied with the location inspired by Vanib's install. It took a while to adjust the camera angle and location to minimize presence of the spare tire in the image while showing a bit of the bumper. However, the guidelines projected by the android headunit still look way off since they were designed for a camera setup located higher.

Android Unit modifications for reverse guidelines.:
Joying has been surprisingly excellent with customer support. I have emailed them 3 times and received a quick response within 1-3 business days each time. They seem to be good with providing android updates and latest maps for iGo GPS software. I asked them if they could incorporate adjustable guidelines into future updates and I got a quick response saying that my feedback has been forwarded to their engineers. In the meanwhile, I took a look inside their latest update ROM and found that the parking guidelines is a superimposed image (png) in the MTCBackView app. I figured maybe I could place some physical make-shift guidelines behind my car and create my own guidelines image based on what I see on the camera. Then I can replace the apps superimposed image with my own image and have accurate guidelines. If this method works out, then I could even switch to the more discreet license light camera that would then display offset guidelines for the offset image. The current issues I have is that the MTCBackView app is a system app and requires the unit to be rooted to be able to modify it. Either I would need to slip in the modified app into the update image file, or I would need to go with the rooted ROM provided by Malaysk on xda. I am leaning towards the other option since the rooted Malaysk ROM has some interesting upgrades. I would need to brush up my rusty photoshop skills to create professional looking guidelines.

I will post back in a couple of days to provide an update if I am successful. Hopefully I will have some good pictures. Perhaps this might help anyone with an android head unit and an off-centered backup camera who is seeking accurate reverse guidelines.

 

[thev6dude]

Success- Modifying Reverse Camera Guidelines

Ok, so I was successful in modding the reverse camera guidelines on the android unit. I will summarize the main steps and would be happy to elaborate on any step if needed. Hopefully, this will be useful for owners of any variant of RAV4 specific Android Head unit. Even though there is little room for screwing up, proceed with caution at your own risk (I won't be responsible if you brick your unit)

1. Root the unit to be able to modify the reverse view system app (MTCBackView.apk) that imposes guide lines. For quad core units variants running Android 4.4.4, I believe the only way to root is by upgrading to a pre-rooted ROM. I used the latest MALAYSK ROM found here:
FileMirror for HuiFei-Units
There should be a custom ROM for each of the 4 hardware variants. Make sure you choose right one for your hardware or else you will brick your unit. At first I upgraded to the Malaysk ROM that features Next Launcher because it sounded cool. However, I found the interface a bit confusing so I switched to the Malaysk ROM without Next Launcher. The latter ROM was surprisingly almost identical interface to the original software interface. This is good for anyone who is worried about drastically changing the way their unit operates. Most of the previous settings are retained and the extra features are nicely tucked in system settings. For anyone needing info about how to upgrade the ROM, scroll down to the instructions outlined at the bottom of the following page:
Joying® Aftermarket Best Android Head Unit, Android Car Stereo, Android Car Radio Audio How to Root Joying Android car stereo Radio head unit ways and methods Android In-Dash Android GPS navigation | carjoying.com
If you were unsure whether rooting was succesful, there are may root checker apps that you can install from play store to verify root.

2. Next step is to access the "MTCBackView.apk" app. The Malaysk ROM comes with a root explorer that is capable of reading and writing to the root. If you used any other root method, make sure you have a file explorer app that can access root. Navigate to root/system/app/ and find the file called "MTCBackView.apk". Copy this file to removable media such as SD or USB.
Check out the attachment "MTCBackView in root.jpg" for picture steps.

3. Transfer the apk file from removable media to your computer. Open up the apk file using WinRAR. WinRAR is a free software in case you do not already have it. Once open, go into res\drawable-nodpi\ and find an image file called "bg_distance.png" This is the ruler overlay image. Extract/copy this image onto another location on your computer. Check out the "Extract Guide Lines Image.PNG" for picture steps. For reference, I have also attached the original overlay image as "bg_distance(orig).png"

4. Now we shall may modify bg_distnace.png to show the guidelines appropriate for the installed camera. The image resolution, file name, png format and image transparency must be retained. For modifications, I used Paint.NET, a free software similar to Adobe Photoshop that allows working with layers. For calibration purposes, I laid makeshift guides on the road after parallel parking tight to a curb on driver side. I used a wardrobe shelf that was just above 2m long and laid it parallel to the curb and vehicle alone the center line. I also unscrewed the rods of two mops that I laid on driver side to mirror passenger side lines. I used a random block to mark the 0.5 meter location. The resulting image can be seen in the attachment "calibration1.jpg". I used the calibration image to draw my own lines in Paint.NET and saved the resulting "bg_distance.png" (attached). This modified image file can now be copied and pasted into WinRAR to replace the original image. Close WinRAR to finish updating MTCBackView.apk.

5. Transfer the update "MTCBackView.apk" to removable media to load onto the head unit. Now root explorer can be used to copy this file from external storage and paste to replace the original file in root\system\app\. Once this step is completed, reboot the device for changes to take effect. The attached file "guidelinesmodified.jpg" shows my final results. As can be seen, I chose to include distance markers because the optics of my camera make it difficult to judge distances correctly. Also, my camera is not exactly centered, so a centerline seemed necessary.

 

[graaja]

Ok, so I was successful in modding the reverse camera guidelines on the android unit. I will summarize the main steps and would be happy to elaborate on any step if needed.

Hi,

Thank you for the detailed post.

I followed the instructions and updated the MTCBackView.apk with the new bg_distance.png file (I used the same file you have uploaded). I am using Fx File Explorer to copy the updated MTCBackView app to the system/app folder. However, after restart, I am still seeing the old guidelines.

To confirm if the image was updated, using the file explorer, I unzipped the MTCBackView.apk in the system/app folder, and the bg_distance.png file is the updated one. But still old guidelines are being displayed. Does the system cache the image somewhere and is using the cached image instead of the updated image?

I am a newbie in android, and not sure what could be the problem.

Thanks in advance for any pointers.

 

[vanib]

getRAV, can you do GPS and a Bluetooth call simultaneously?

 

[graaja]

I found the problem. The image that was being displayed was from the camera. I had not turned on the ruler in Settings -> Drive settings in the HU. So, all the time, the camera's ruler was being displayed. I turned on the ruler in settings, and now I am able to see the new guidelines.

 

[onrecess]

getRAV, can you do GPS and a Bluetooth call simultaneously?

Yes. You can see this here:
Joying® Aftermarket Best Android Head Unit, Android Car Stereo, Android Car Radio Audio Joying Quad Core High Vision 1024*600 Plug and play Head Unit Toyota RAV4 7 Inch Double Din Pure Android 4.4.4 kitkat GPS Navigation System 16 GB Memory , android
Carjoying has lots of youtube videos too.

 

[onrecess]

I got the CarJoying quad core unit. I also got the back up camera from their site. I mounted it under the license light shelf. I mounted it as far to the middle of the car as possible. The guidelines seem to work fine. I had my wife stand centered and walk back away and she was perfectly centered.
The only problem I have is radio reception is weak. I bought the antenna booster from carjoying but it still is weak. I just wrapped the antenna wire with electrical tape twice, as I read that helps with interference. I'll post in a day or so how that works.
Everything else is great except I don't have the car logos. I will contact them, as they have great customer service and live chat.
This thing knocked me out!

 

[masterhacka]

I found the problem. The image that was being displayed was from the camera. I had not turned on the ruler in Settings -> Drive settings in the HU. So, all the time, the camera's ruler was being displayed. I turned on the ruler in settings, and now I am able to see the new guidelines.

I had the same problem. Thanks for your solution! But now I'm getting both guidelines. The stock one and the modified one. Do you have an idea what I can do to see only the modified one?

 

[kyoo]

pics of the joying installed? i have one in my evo, love it

 

[Chaneyjd]

How good does the Joying work with an iPhone? I'm getting ready to purchase one for my RAV4

 

[thev6dude]

I had the same problem. Thanks for your solution! But now I'm getting both guidelines. The stock one and the modified one. Do you have an idea what I can do to see only the modified one?

Sorry for the late reply. Had been inactive on the forums. I am glad you were able to get the modified grids to show.

As for the camera's own grid, I do not have a real solution because the grids are probably hard-imposed to the signal (unless your camera manufacturer recommends otherwise). I ordered cheap license plate lights for the RAV4 and they seemed to have their own grids. Hence, I was in favour of installing a Kenwood camera without grids instead. I am sure the grids on the cheap license plate ones would be way off since they must be designed for the sports appearance package with center license plate. If double gridlines are really bothering you and there is no way to turn it off on the camera, I could suggest replacing things on the camera side. For me, routing the power and video wires to the head unit was more work than mounting the camera. If you can find another cheap camera without grids then you should be able to tap into existing wiring.

 

[thev6dude]

How good does the Joying work with an iPhone? I'm getting ready to purchase one for my RAV4

I use it with an android but once paired it with my friends iphone for music. It works fine. However, bluetooth is not the unit's best feature. You can use handsfree and music but I head that the person on the receiving end hears a lot of echo and static noise during calls. The unit comes with an external mic which I have wired thru my A-pillar to behind the rearview mirror. It is very sensitive and people can hear me when I am speaking at a mild volume. However its too sensitive and can pickup engine noises and ticking noises from indicator lights. I believe the static noise is becuase of the unit's internal mic which does not get disabled even after connecting the external mic. I believe there are some hardware fixes by modifying the circuit board but I haven't tried these fixes. The person on the other end may also hear themselves because I do not think the unit has sophisticated noise cancelling technology. The call quality is great on the drivers side though and works during gps. As for bluetooth music, it works great in terms of sound quality and you can use the units buttons to change and play/pause tracks on your phone. However, the unit does not display the song name and album info/art. This does not bother me much but it would be nice if the unit could do that. The unit also downloads contacts and displays the callers name. The bluetooth is a separate module so you cannot use standard android voice commands to get the unit to call people. The bluetooth module on the unit is also not able to read/display text messages like some cars can. Otherwise, integration with phone works well. I like that it does not display your phone's contacts and call logs when your phone is not connected in case you are sharing the car with someone else.

That was my review of the integration with the phone. The phone also has an app that can display the screen of your phone but I could never get it to work with an android/iphone. I only tried after rooting the device and the manufacturer warned that the screen sharing app does not work after rooting the device so that may be why. However, rooting was the best decision for me as it allowed me to modify my camera guidelines and came with some software to use poweramp app for the music.

 

[onrecess]

I hear the same complaints from people on the other end of the phone. Oh well, my end is just peachy! The radio does show station and title, but I've gotten spoiled using streaming music on Iheart over the internet. My only beef, and it isn't much, is the antenna/radio signal is not great. It isn't terrible, but the stock radio had a stronger signal. I put on an antenna booster and tried the wrapping the ant wire with electrical tape. Still not as good as stock. I read somewhere the stock antenna is or was powered. Anyone know of a wire that I should have hooked up to ant power other than my booster (or know the color of the wire to going to the stock ant)? I am still very happy with the unit and Joying answered right away when my car logos wouldn't show and when I had wiring questions on the back up camera. I would be less happy if I lived in the sticks and radio reception was already subpar.
The joying site has a little backup camera you can mount on the license plate light way over by the spare tire. You are pretty close to center there, so the guidelines are close enough. The backup cameras in the middle of the plate are way too far off center. IMHO