Hi all,
It's been a few months since I have installed my Android head unit so I thought it may be useful to post up my experience with the unit. I used a few guides off here so I think it's only fair to return some knowledge.
For starters, I have a 2012 i30 GD CRDi and sometime last year my GD-01 head unit started to malfunction. At first, radio became static. This wasn't an issue because I mainly use Bluetooth so it didn't bother me. However, then all audio stopped working - even radio became silent instead of static. Standard functionality other than audio worked, i.e. I could connect with Bluetooth, I could control the unit with steering wheel controls etc, just no audio out.
After a bit of googling, I found this is apparently a fairly common issue with the GD-01 units. My options were to either repair GD-01, upgrade to GD-03 or upgrade to an Android unit. I couldn't find any GD-03 at local wreckers, and the companies who repaired the GD-01 issue were quoting at around $500-700 which was the cost of the Android units I was looking at, so I opted to go the Android route and gain GPS.
From what I can gather, most of the Android units are essentially the same, and the branding doesn't change too much. However from my research, the general consensus seemed to be that Joying offered the best in terms of firmware updates and overall support if issues were to arise, although at a slight premium.
I messaged their support team and they recommended this unit:
Joying Latest 7 Inch Double Din Android 8.1.0 Car Navigation System with Built-in 4G ModuleAnd this fascia kit:
CARAV 11-184 Car Radio Fascia Stereo Trim Dash Kit For HYUNDAI i-30 2012+ 2DIN 708402438833 | eBayPlease note, the Joying (and most likely all other Android units) have slightly different dimensions to the standard GD-01/GD-03 units. The standard fascia kits will typically be around 173x98 mm, where as the Android units require 178*100 mm.
I purchased both the recommended products. The fascia kit they recommended is 178x100 by default, and has an extra insert if you require the smaller size.
It's also worth noting, it's possible to buy adapters/connectors for the internal cabling, so that you don't need to do any manual connections. I skipped this step and just opted to wire it up myself. I would recommend sourcing the connectors if you don't want to wire it up.
Dead GD-01 unit
Gd-01 and Joying unit side by side
Joying wiring diagram sticker
GD-01 wiring diagram sticker
Cabling that came with the Joying unit
The pin out sticker on the GD-01 wasn't very descriptive, however after a little searching, I was able to find some better ones online. After this, I made a quick little cheat sheet to have up on my laptop while I connected the two together.
A couple of things to note - some things don't get hooked up. For example, in the GD-01, it uses ILL + and ILL -, for illumination. Where as the new unit uses a single line for illumination. These aren't compatible so you lose the option to control backlight illumination through the standard car controls.
I also tied the joying "BRAKE" line to ground. I read that this is used in some situation to halt operation if the car break isn't active, for example, video would be paused. I don't watch video in car however I thought it's useful to have it set up this way in case I run into other similar features later on.
To start with, I cut the old GD-01 connectors off of the internal cabling, making sure to take photos before hand so I knew the colours of the cables at each pin. I didn't solder any of the connections to start with, I just twisted the connection and had head shrink ready to go. This is just so I could test the unit and make sure everything was connected properly before soldering it.
I then moved the heat shrink over the joints to ensure there's no connections between cables during testing.
First boot worked.
After a little more testing, I discovered the steering wheel buttons weren't working properly. This was kind of expected, since I simply guessed the first time around how to hook it up. I wasn't able to find too much online so it turned out to be a bit of trial and error, but I managed to get it with my second guess.
My cheat sheet is up to date above, and I only needed to connect GD-01 "ST - Remo" with Joying "KEY1", and GD-01 "Remo GND" with Joying "GND". It must send multiple different values along the single line for the button presses.
After switching it, everything on the steering wheel worked as expected once configured in the Joying settings. You also have the option to change how these buttons are mapped, for example, you could make the "MODE" button open Google Maps or turn off the display etc.
Time to solder and heat shrink the connections
Final check with Bluetooth audio
Panels back on with radio display
So I've been using the unit for around 3 months now and can provide some comments.
The good
- Bigger, brighter, more colourful display
- GPS (which works well, even offline with downloaded areas, however you gain traffic updates online)
- Steering wheel controls work
- Ability to download apps, i.e. Waze, Torque Pro, spotify etc
- Extra USB port (2 total)
- SIM card slot to gain LTE/internet if needed
The bad
- Very reflective display, which can be bad if it catches the sun
- Bright at night, though you can reduce the brightness, or turn off the display completely quite easily so not too bad
- No standard USB face plate*
If you see my final photo, I just have the SIM card slot, 2 USBs and GPS antenna cabling coming out of where the USB slot used to be. I prefer it this way since it allows me to pulls the USB cables out further if needed, but it doesn't exactly look clean.
It's also possible to mount the GPS antenna under the dash, too however I opted to mount it on top of my dash, with the cabling running out through the USB hole, under the glove box and around the door trim. I've done my dash cam the same way so it was easy to do and I preferred to have the GPS antenna to have more direct coverage. The antenna just sits on the front left of my dash without issues.
All in all, I've been very happy with the swap out. The GPS has been my favourite part, since it's a reasonably sized display and checking for GPS updates in the centre is quite intuitive and saves my phone battery. Google maps also switches over to dark mode at night so it's not too bright. You can also still have BT audio or radio playing while GPS is up, and you can control the audio using the steering wheel controls even while maps is in the foreground.
