Retro Fit Apple Carplay & Android Auto

[Phill111]

After getting the update (Thanks local Toyota Dealer for not charging for this) most things work well, or did for the first few days.

Some improvements of note, the home screen map now respects what you have set on the map screen direction wise. So if you set 3D there, it is 3D on the home screen. In addition, those odd phrases like "traffic ralenti" are gone and now we have the English translation instead. Finally, the grey area at the bottom of the map now shows the street you are in all the time, like it used to on my old RAV4. No longer is there a grey box with nothing useful in it.

So the niggles. Well, after 7 days I started getting messages about being unable to connect to the server. The I started seeing error 4122 regularly. So I reset the system clearing all personal data etc. Still got the error. So, I then deleted my car from "My Toyota" and re-added it. That stopped the 4122 error. I re-registered the nav and at first it came up with the wrong device ID, and every time I logged on it saw the actual cars device ID but would not let me add it. So I deleted my car again and this time when I added it back things worked. Still cannot send/receive data from the car but never used that before so hey ho.

Also of note, now when you press the phone button on the steering wheel it opens the recent calls on the main screen and not on the instrument cluster. While you see more recent calls, you now have to touch the screen to dial them and the up/down buttons on the steering wheel do nothing. Before you could use those to scroll through the numbers displayed on the dash. No biggy as I will probably just use voice dial or siri. But for some it is a bit of a poo UI.

Next is google search provider, it has vanished. I cannot get it whatever I seem to do. I have been through all the menus, and there is no search provider. If I do a POI search it only searches the built in DB. So that is annoying. Yes, I know I have Apple Car Play and will probably use that most of the time. However, there are times when I don't want to plug the phone in, there are also places where there is no phone signal. So those times it would be nice to have it working.

Next is OTA map updates. Despite it being 2020v1 and 2020v2 is now out, it always says my map is up to date. So I have prepared a USB stick with the update and will do that part tomorrow.

[Limpy Harries]

On 12/11/2020 at 11:30 AM, ApophisAstros said:

Try this its brill,

https://cplay2air.com/

Roger

Now that looks like the solution! 
anyone got it and confirm it works with Toyota ? 

[ApophisAstros]

On 12/16/2020 at 7:15 PM, Limpy Harries said:

Now that looks like the solution! 
anyone got it and confirm it works with Toyota ? 

It works on my Corolla 1.2 vvt Touring Sport  2019 ,after being Carplay upgraded in November , seemlessly,just reduced the price after i purchased , although from Hong Kong can pay with Paypal for peace of mind,and relatively quick.

Tracking info

-------------

Date/Time	Location	Activity
12/02/2020 21:14:09		Delivered(Delivered by Worthing DO)
12/02/2020 13:00:23		Local courier warehouse, received and ready for processing
12/01/2020 09:47:02		Local courier warehouse, received and ready for processing
11/26/2020 15:51:00		Arrived at airport
11/24/2020 22:34:00		CHINA, Flight departure from international airport to abroad
11/23/2020 05:37:18	Shenzhen	Departured from SFC warehouse
11/22/2020 13:33:55	shenzhen	Arrive SFC warehouse in processing
11/21/2020 16:48:39		Shipment information sent to SFC

Roger

[Scottydog007]

On 10/23/2020 at 7:40 PM, greigster said:

Great news for you Scottydog, where are you based? If you are in the UK then I can put a bit of pressure on my dealer here in Norwich. 

Sorry I have just seen this 2 months later. My dealer is in Saint Albans. The system works fine.

[SEH]

My 2019 RAV4 is booked in for service this Friday ( 22nd )  with requested Apple Car Play retrofit.

£50 charge with Service payable on the day.     

Dealer is Beadles Medway Toyota.

[SEH]

ACP retrofit completed. No issues. Plugged phone in and it connected seamlessly. Siri works perfectly too. 

[ttz642]

Well I've had my AA & CP retrofit in my RAV4 (UK).

After a couple of hours, I can confirm that the satnav is now usable (after short test), it appears to better guess where the car is to perhaps 30-40 yards rather than the 100+ previously which makes a big difference in usability. A number of other issues appear to of been fixed.

BUT fundamentally the unit appears to work to the nearest degree and no finer, all the mobile phones I've had in last 10+ years have a resolution to the hundredth of a degree (0.001) which explains the 166 yards that the info screen shows as resolution which the satnav tries to improve on by using the compass and vehicle turning. It is better now and is much closer, eg shows speed camera 25-30 yards ahead rather than 100+when actually parked.

The satnav is of the standard expected in the 2000's, certainly not to the standards of cheap mobile phones in the mid 2000's (eg 2005) and inferior toy Suzuki & Vauxhall I have used in last few years., and nowhere near any of my mobiles in the last 10 years.

The radio is a little better and doesn't cut out quite so quick and returns faster but still not acceptable as a radio. I was stationary at traffic lights at a roundabout and the radio cut out/in 4 times before cutting out after moving.

The radio isn't usable, I used to listen to news & current affairs on the radio in my previous car (Suzuki Vitara) and never experienced such poor reception. I typically listen to LBC & talkRADIO (both on DAB) so missing 10's of seconds or minutes of a discussion makes it totally useless.

New issue, when the radio is on the voice directions are mixed with the radio, can't see how to mute the radio when voice guidance active.

Overall verdict of retrofit:

* Satnav - Useable, noticeable improvement, although for a £35k 2019 car not really very good

* Radio - little real improvement, not enough to convince me to turn on the radio, hearing only parts of a discussion is more annoying than total silence.

* Until Toyota upgrade to better hardware,ie gps receiver and DAB tuner they will never resolve the issues and are just tinkering.

I can't accept Toyota's argument that as every car does the same it's how it was designed, NOBODY designs things to not work, or is that Toyota's philosophy of poor design?

[Phill111]

22 minutes ago, ttz642 said:

Well I've had my AA & CP retrofit in my RAV4 (UK).

After a couple of hours, I can confirm that the satnav is now usable (after short test), it appears to better guess where the car is to perhaps 30-40 yards rather than the 100+ previously which makes a big difference in usability. A number of other issues appear to of been fixed.

BUT fundamentally the unit appears to work to the nearest degree and no finer, all the mobile phones I've had in last 10+ years have a resolution to the hundredth of a degree (0.001) which explains the 166 yards that the info screen shows as resolution which the satnav tries to improve on by using the compass and vehicle turning. It is better now and is much closer, eg shows speed camera 25-30 yards ahead rather than 100+when actually parked.

The satnav is of the standard expected in the 2000's, certainly not to the standards of cheap mobile phones in the mid 2000's (eg 2005) and inferior toy Suzuki & Vauxhall I have used in last few years., and nowhere near any of my mobiles in the last 10 years.

The radio is a little better and doesn't cut out quite so quick and returns faster but still not acceptable as a radio. I was stationary at traffic lights at a roundabout and the radio cut out/in 4 times before cutting out after moving.

The radio isn't usable, I used to listen to news & current affairs on the radio in my previous car (Suzuki Vitara) and never experienced such poor reception. I typically listen to LBC & talkRADIO (both on DAB) so missing 10's of seconds or minutes of a discussion makes it totally useless.

New issue, when the radio is on the voice directions are mixed with the radio, can't see how to mute the radio when voice guidance active.

Overall verdict of retrofit:

* Satnav - Useable, noticeable improvement, although for a £35k 2019 car not really very good

* Radio - little real improvement, not enough to convince me to turn on the radio, hearing only parts of a discussion is more annoying than total silence.

* Until Toyota upgrade to better hardware,ie gps receiver and DAB tuner they will never resolve the issues and are just tinkering.

I can't accept Toyota's argument that as every car does the same it's how it was designed, NOBODY designs things to not work, or is that Toyota's philosophy of poor design?

Let’s start with the sat nav. If you are using AA or ACP then use Google maps or Waze. It is then the phones nav, not the cars that is being used. 
 

Radio, I think you need to get your system checked as I have not experienced any of the issues you mention. DAB is fine for me. I often drive from London to Wales and rarely do I have reception issues. If it really is that bad for you then get the garage to sort it. I do use BBC Sounds app to listen to local radio via bluetooth at times but that is to be expected as the station I listen to is not on one of the National transmitters. 
 

GPS is not the best, but better in many ways than some other high end cars I have driven including Volvo and Merc. I do 40K per year so am using the system a lot. Bit miffed at times, currently the built in sat nav had lost Google search as a provider and my emails to Toyota have been a complete waste of time. But now I have the option to use Google maps, Apple maps or waze so never have any issues getting to my destinations many of which are barely known nature reserves or woodlands known by local names etc, 

[ttz642]

On 2/2/2021 at 8:27 PM, Phill111 said:

Let’s start with the sat nav. If you are using AA or ACP then use Google maps or Waze. It is then the phones nav, not the cars that is being used. 

Built in SatNav is good enough now it's accuracy has been improved, not the best (or even good) but usable now, before the accuracy was so bad you'd get instructions to turn as you passed the junction, can't reverse on Motorway.

[ttz642]

On 2/2/2021 at 8:27 PM, Phill111 said:

Radio, I think you need to get your system checked as I have not experienced any of the issues you mention. DAB is fine for me. I often drive from London to Wales and rarely do I have reception issues. If it really is that bad for you then get the garage to sort it. I do use BBC Sounds app to listen to local radio via Bluetooth at times but that is to be expected as the station I listen to is not on one of the National transmitters. 

I have taken the car back and they came out with me, after cutting out many times asked to try another station, it also cut out, so did every other station. On returning to the showroom when we parked we could not pick up a single station.

One of the mechanics took a RAV4 home for the weekend and he said it was the same, continually dropping so there was nothing wrong with my car as others work the same.

Toyota UK have stated it is working as designed !  I can't understand who would design something not to work.

Previous car was Suzuki Vitara (bought month before diesel gate, I just couldn't believe claims being made so bought cheap petrol to replace Avensis 2.2D), anyway the Vitara just needed the radio re-tuning due to atmospheric variations as do most radio & tv. Once re-tuned never dropped stations for near to 6 months, re-tune again perfect for months.

I drive 250+ miles from Scotland to Wales, M74, M6, M56 and nowhere did i find stations that didn't frequently drop, perhaps a few miles or 5-10 minutes at best.

How do you re-tune the Touch 2 and Go RDS radio ? this might fix it but after 18 months I can't figure out how to and dealer doesn't know and Toyota UK don't know.

[ttz642]

Toyota response

I have a RA4 not C+HR.

[Phill111]

11 minutes ago, ttz642 said:

I have taken the car back and they came out with me, after cutting out many times asked to try another station, it also cut out, so did every other station. On returning to the showroom when we parked we could not pick up a single station.

One of the mechanics took a RAV4 home for the weekend and he said it was the same, continually dropping so there was nothing wrong with my car as others work the same.

Toyota UK have stated it is working as designed !  I can't understand who would design something not to work.

Previous car was Suzuki Vitara (bought month before diesel gate, I just couldn't believe claims being made so bought cheap petrol to replace Avensis 2.2D), anyway the Vitara just needed the radio re-tuning due to atmospheric variations as do most radio & tv. Once re-tuned never dropped stations for near to 6 months, re-tune again perfect for months.

I drive 250+ miles from Scotland to Wales, M74, M6, M56 and nowhere did i find stations that didn't frequently drop, perhaps a few miles or 5-10 minutes at best.

How do you re-tune the Touch 2 and Go RDS radio ? this might fix it but after 18 months I can't figure out how to and dealer doesn't know and Toyota UK don't know.

Honestly, mine is fine. I drive 40K a year and if it was that bad I would tell the lease company either fix it or take the car back. I actually had to do that once with a Mazda CX-5 that regularly needed the Battery disconnecting to unfreeze the infotainment system. It even melted a couple of USB sticks.

On the touch 2 go it is not too hard to re-tune. You’ll get sod all help from Toyota online as I have recently found out. From memory make sure RDS alternative is ticked. Then re-scan the station list. RDS in the UK is a bit cack compared to RDS+ that some European countries use. Local transmitters tend to be terrible so you need to pick national bands. Even then, you will find the bit rates used en lower quality than FM and in many cases mono instead of stereo. It is why a lot of people resort to using things like the BBC Sounds app in AA or ACP rather than the radio. I can probably guess your Suzuki biased RDS to the National transponders when you do a search. Toyotas system seems to favour local for some reason, even if the same channel is on a national band too.

[ttz642]

6 minutes ago, Phill111 said:

On the touch 2 go it is not too hard to re-tune. You’ll get sod all help from Toyota online as I have recently found out. From memory make sure RDS alternative is ticked. Then re-scan the station list.

And how do you re-scan, Is that just in the manual mode where you pick the ensemble ?

Anyway to delete all channels and let the radio rescan?

Can you factory reset the radio ?

[ttz642]

9 minutes ago, Phill111 said:

I drive 40K a year and if it was that bad I would tell the lease company either fix it or take the car back. I actually had to do that once with a Mazda CX-5 that regularly needed the battery disconnecting to unfreeze the infotainment system.

I bought mine, was hoping to keep for 10+ years and avoid an electric car for as long as possible, like the smart meters which will be used to disable the car chargers when there not generating enough electricity.

Shouldn't have to change a car to get a reasonable radio.

[Phill111]

1 minute ago, ttz642 said:

And how do you re-scan, Is that just in the manual mode where you pick the ensemble ?

Anyway to delete all channels and let the radio rescan?

Can you factory reset the radio ?

You can refresh the station list. When done pick your stations making sure they are on the National transponders. If he station is not in the station list, then use the manual mode.

The alternates option I mentioned should do auto switching and even pick an FM alternative if available and no DAB version is there

[Phill111]

2 minutes ago, ttz642 said:

I bought mine, was hoping to keep for 10+ years and avoid an electric car for as long as possible, like the smart meters which will be used to disable the car chargers when there not generating enough electricity.

Shouldn't have to change a car to get a reasonable radio.

Nowt wrong with EVs. I will almost certainly get one next year. Current smart meters will not be able to cut your charging that way. The meter is placed before the fuse box and your car charger after so it has no way of being able to disable a specific output. Cars will do similar in the future though but that will be based on tariffs. You can set charge times based on cheaper rates. There are other downsides of smart meters, such as the potential to increase charges by going to apparent power rather than actual. But that is going very off topic for this thread.

[Devon Aygo]

3 hours ago, ttz642 said:

I have taken the car back and they came out with me, after cutting out many times asked to try another station, it also cut out, so did every other station. On returning to the showroom when we parked we could not pick up a single station.

One of the mechanics took a RAV4 home for the weekend and he said it was the same, continually dropping so there was nothing wrong with my car as others work the same.

Toyota UK have stated it is working as designed !  I can't understand who would design something not to work.

Previous car was Suzuki Vitara (bought month before diesel gate, I just couldn't believe claims being made so bought cheap petrol to replace Avensis 2.2D), anyway the Vitara just needed the radio re-tuning due to atmospheric variations as do most radio & tv. Once re-tuned never dropped stations for near to 6 months, re-tune again perfect for months.

I drive 250+ miles from Scotland to Wales, M74, M6, M56 and nowhere did i find stations that didn't frequently drop, perhaps a few miles or 5-10 minutes at best.

How do you re-tune the Touch 2 and Go RDS radio ? this might fix it but after 18 months I can't figure out how to and dealer doesn't know and Toyota UK don't know.

Can I ask: Do you have a dash cam fitted.

Reason: it is becoming increasingly common to find a dash cam installation is causing electrical noise and interfering with DAB signal and is usually fixed by installing a ferrite core on the dash cam power supply lead/s

[griff279]

Hi I had the same problem with the DAB radio dropping off some stations on my 2016  Auris

Toyota came to my local dealer and swapped the head unit and the same happened they then unplugged the usb adapter i had plugged in the accessory socket and it all worked.

When I looked at the reviews on Amazon a lot of people had reported the same issue  loss of DAB radio stations.

Worth a try if you have one plugged in

[ttz642]

20 hours ago, Devon Aygo said:

Can I ask: Do you have a dash cam fitted.

There's no difference with dash cam, didn't have one for first 3 months when I got the car and had the problem from day 1. Also mechanic took demonstrator RAV4 for weekend with no dash cam and he seen the same issue. So mine is working (or not) the same as another vehicle so it's working !

Toyota UK, just say as designed, yet other DAB radios in other cars don't suffer the same (eg previous Suzuki Vitara I had for ~ 4 years, daughter has it and doesn't have any issue with radio loss).

I can only think it's very early dab silicon and poor sensitivity.

[ttz642]

23 hours ago, Phill111 said:

Current smart meters will not be able to cut your charging that way. The meter is placed before the fuse box and your car charger after so it has no way of being able to disable a specific output.

Only chargers working with smart meters are being fitted, they will allow remote disconnection and will control when you charge.

Going forward car charging will be limited grid load, imaging getting home at 5pm and plugging in car and getting the message charging will be started at 1am, but i need to collect the kids at 9pm and the car hasn't got the range for round trip to collect them.

[ttz642]

23 hours ago, Phill111 said:

You can refresh the station list. When done pick your stations making sure they are on the National transponders. If he station is not in the station list, then use the manual mode.

Are you thinking about the manual tuning menu where changing the ensemble reloads the channels, but is it re-tuning or as i suspect just checking the stations are still available, to me it looks too quick for a re-tune.

Normally a re-tune would delete all channels and then re-scan the spectrum. (factory reset of radio?).

Normally DAB radios like Freeview TV's have an auto-tine option that clears all stations and re-tunes. Due to atmospheric changes it's normal to have to re-tune twice a year (early spring & late autumn).

[Phill111]

9 hours ago, ttz642 said:

Are you thinking about the manual tuning menu where changing the ensemble reloads the channels, but is it re-tuning or as i suspect just checking the stations are still available, to me it looks too quick for a re-tune.

Normally a re-tune would delete all channels and then re-scan the spectrum. (factory reset of radio?).

Normally DAB radios like Freeview TV's have an auto-tine option that clears all stations and re-tunes. Due to atmospheric changes it's normal to have to re-tune twice a year (early spring & late autumn).

Manual selection of the channels. DAB doesn’t tune per-se. There are a set of frequencies and on each frequency their are multiple channels. For instance, 5A, BBC National etc. Each is a frequency and using multiplexing multiple channels can be transmitted on one frequency.  Now let’s take for instance Virgin Radio, it is broadcast on a couple of those bands. One is a local London only transponder, a frequency that covers London and surrounding areas the drips off rapidly. It also transmits on one of the National transponders, one that is covers all the available national transmitters. So if you initially tune in on the London one you risk loosing signal very quickly. Instead you have to pick the national one. The DAB alternate tick should take care of this for you but in my experience it can be a bit flakey. There is also no easy way to see if you are on a DAB signal, or the better DAB+ ones. Some stations are currently on both.

DAB in its current form in the UK is really not the best, it is slowly improving but you will find many channels are still operating on very low bit rates and even mono instead of stereo. Britain rolled out too early IMO and ended up with some inferior tech. Toyotas implementation of the user interface is a bit poor too making it hard for even the tech savvy to work out exactly how to use it, to find the right channels and to put the right ones in their favourites. There is plenty of information online about the DAB issues we face so maybe time to do a bit of research. We are at a very difficult time in UK with the full switch off of FM and AM, all analogue stations in the UK will go. In mid 2020 the government did a review of the future of radio in the UK and agreed it is currently a bit of a mess. You can read all about this on site like which, the BBC etc. DAB is in mid transition to DAB+ so some stations are on both, some only on the old and some only on DAB+. A bit of a mess is an understatement. If you have unlimited data on your phone the for many stations it is better to use apps like BBC Sounds via AA or ACP to listen to the radio on the move as DAB is just not that good in the UK at the moment. Toyota cannot be blamed for that.

[ttz642]

7 hours ago, Phill111 said:

Manual selection of the channels. DAB doesn’t tune per-se. There are a set of frequencies and on each frequency their are multiple channels. For instance, 5A, BBC National etc. Each is a frequency and using multiplexing multiple channels can be transmitted on one frequency.  Now let’s take for instance Virgin Radio, it is broadcast on a couple of those bands. One is a local London only transponder, a frequency that covers London and surrounding areas the drips off rapidly. It also transmits on one of the National transponders, one that is covers all the available national transmitters. So if you initially tune in on the London one you risk loosing signal very quickly. Instead you have to pick the national one. The DAB alternate tick should take care of this for you but in my experience it can be a bit flakey. There is also no easy way to see if you are on a DAB signal, or the better DAB+ ones. Some stations are currently on both.

I understand that the transmitters use specific frequencies but a radio receiver needs to calibrate itself to compensate for component, environmental and ageing which creates errors. Crystals drift in frequency with age, this has to be compensated for, high & low temperatures also alter crystal frequencies. Without either automatic frequency compensation or re-calibration the signal will be lost or go below a level where it will be ignored. The dab receiver in the radio is probaly an old one and has lower sensitivity (requiring a stronger signal) than new radio's, but my Suzuki was bought in 2015 and the RAV4 in 2019, I would of expected it to be better. Buy a mobile phone or TV and there always better than older ones, RAV4 radio doesn't seem so, perhaps it's 2010 silicon?

I'm tuned to stations that are only on the national transponder, eg LBC or LBC news.

When the radio was first switched on I'm sure it must of calibrated itself and tuned in, but where in the UK did that happen?

[ttz642]

8 hours ago, Phill111 said:

If you have unlimited data on your phone the for many stations it is better to use apps like BBC Sounds via AA or ACP to listen to the radio on the move as DAB is just not that good in the UK at the moment. Toyota cannot be blamed for that.

So buy a £35,000 car and use a £50 mobile phone because the radio doesn't work?

But like I said my 2015 Suzuki Vitara dab radio worked perfect, never lost a signal in the central belt, only when on M74 mid way between Glasgow & Carlisle where there's no sinal and expected not to work.

[Phill111]

52 minutes ago, ttz642 said:

I understand that the transmitters use specific frequencies but a radio receiver needs to calibrate itself to compensate for component, environmental and ageing which creates errors. Crystals drift in frequency with age, this has to be compensated for, high & low temperatures also alter crystal frequencies. Without either automatic frequency compensation or re-calibration the signal will be lost or go below a level where it will be ignored. The dab receiver in the radio is probaly an old one and has lower sensitivity (requiring a stronger signal) than new radio's, but my Suzuki was bought in 2015 and the RAV4 in 2019, I would of expected it to be better. Buy a mobile phone or TV and there always better than older ones, RAV4 radio doesn't seem so, perhaps it's 2010 silicon?

I'm tuned to stations that are only on the national transponder, eg LBC or LBC news.

When the radio was first switched on I'm sure it must of calibrated itself and tuned in, but where in the UK did that happen?

Frequency drift really isn't a problem. Modern digital radios don't operate quite like analogue radio did. Common chips like the Kino 3 only have a single clock crystal which if it drifts causes the chip to simply not work. 

Each multiplex is also on a very wide band and not a narrow frequency like AM and FM stations were. 

In the UK there are three companies providing DAB/DAB+ transmitters. The BBCs one provides the best coverage and signal over the UK. Sound Digital has OK coverage with transmitters working at a higher power than the other two companies but they have less transmitters. Digital One, which is what LBC is on, has lots of transmitters although their power levels are a bit iffy from what I have heard and read. I don't listen to LBC, it is really not my thing, but I do listen to other stations on 11A and those have not been a problem for me. I would suggest if yours really is that bad then you are either in blackspots (there are shed loads on DAB) or there is a fault in your car. 

DAB in the UK is just not that good. Government reviews had said so numerous times and repeated plans for upgrades have fallen by the wayside. It is one of the reasons why they have not switched off FM yet, because they know DAB is just not good enough as it stands. Only really the BBC transponders are up to the task of mobile DAB and only just in many areas. You will see many complaints about this from almost any car manufacturer. Toyota don't make their own radios, companies like panasonic (Toyota use two brands but IIRC they both use the same DAB IC) do and you will find the same DAB module in many brands of car. The software and antenna are different so some are easier to use and possibly get a better signal due to the antenna. They are also susceptible to internal noise and that could also be a problem for you. Things such as a dirty connector on a wiring loom in the car can cause noise affecting DAB. All you can do is complain and hope they can improve things for you but remember the techs in the garage will not have the ability to find such issues and it will probably end up with a lot of part swapping until hopefully the nail is hit. Even then, DAB in the UK really is just not that good. I drive many brands of car as a company car driver. As I am sure you know, every 10K our cars need a service and as I do 40K+ a year I tend to get a hire car whenever my car is in for service, or repair after some numpty has reversed into it in a car park etc. All DAB radios I have experienced have been the same signal wise as my 2019 RAV4, my previous 2017 RAV4 and my Prius+. DAB is just not that suited to mobile service.

As I said, you are probably better off using AA or ACP and an app as mobile signal is usually a lot better, unless you live in pars of wales, the lakes or the highlands.