I think I finally found an Apple CarPlay radio that I’m happy with so I wanted to make a thread about it. I had a few things that I wanted it to be when I was looking and this one ticked all of my boxes.
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Excited to install it I took it out and test fit it only to find that it didn't quite fit.
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The screen protrudes over the top of the radio so the trim in the Elise didn't allow it to fit in as it should. Looking at it longer feeling slightly defeated that it didn't work I got the thought to flip it and see how it looked. It looked like it fit much better so I decided I'd go the route of trying to flip the screen. At worst I figured I'd break it and be out $50.
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Taking it apart was fairly easy with two screws on each side. Next I had to disconnect the ribbon cables to take the trim surrounding the screen off. Fairly easy to do but I always have trouble with ribbon cables.
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After a bit of prying around I found that the screen was held in by plastic tabs on the trim pushing into the screen. Once I got one out the rest came out pretty easy.
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The only modification I had to do was cutting a spot for the black ribbon cable to feed through with the screen flipped. I started seeing if I could cut it out with just a razor blade because my dremel was in my garage and I'm lazy at times.
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After breaking a few tips and having no luck I braved the cold and ended up having to dremel it out anyways. I had to make sure not to cut this screw stud although I almost went right through it on the first cut. Didn't seem to affect it's rigidity when I put it back together. It probably isn't critical but I think would have rattled more if that stud wasn't there.
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Putting it back together I did a quick bench test to make sure I didn't break anything and everything seemed to be alright. I probably should have did this to start getting it off AliExpress it very well could have been shipped broken.
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The only button is the volume knob and clockwise/counterclockwise is the same flipped so the only thing that would hint that it's not right is the graphics on the trim. Now to put it in the car! First I tested that my armature wiring job did the trick with the harness I madeand thankfully not even I could screw that up.
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I didn't end up fully installing it because I found that it's still about 3/4" from fully seating into the bezel still. I though I'd have enough clearance being flipped but I'm now 3/4" off instead of 3".
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I will probably just drill a new hole for the detents to snap into or shim it some other way so that it'll work. I don't think they make extension sleeves for headunits but I'll see what off the shelf option if available before I drill anything. If anyone can think of a better way to do it I'd love to hear it. Either way for $50 I'm pretty happy with how it looks and works. My only complaints are that it is a bit slow on boot up and the audio playback is a bit delayed. I think most radios have some delay on startup especially connecting to apple car play but it's just slightly longer than I'd like it to be. The audio playback delay is about 1 second from when you press pause/play or skip to when the audio actually stops but that's not a huge deal killer for me. I'll take that for something that looks clean and put together.
- Single din
- Apple car play
- Physical volume knob
- Minimal extra buttons/lights
- Trying to avoid looking like it's from the first Fast and Furious movie
Excited to install it I took it out and test fit it only to find that it didn't quite fit.
The screen protrudes over the top of the radio so the trim in the Elise didn't allow it to fit in as it should. Looking at it longer feeling slightly defeated that it didn't work I got the thought to flip it and see how it looked. It looked like it fit much better so I decided I'd go the route of trying to flip the screen. At worst I figured I'd break it and be out $50.
Taking it apart was fairly easy with two screws on each side. Next I had to disconnect the ribbon cables to take the trim surrounding the screen off. Fairly easy to do but I always have trouble with ribbon cables.
After a bit of prying around I found that the screen was held in by plastic tabs on the trim pushing into the screen. Once I got one out the rest came out pretty easy.
The only modification I had to do was cutting a spot for the black ribbon cable to feed through with the screen flipped. I started seeing if I could cut it out with just a razor blade because my dremel was in my garage and I'm lazy at times.
After breaking a few tips and having no luck I braved the cold and ended up having to dremel it out anyways. I had to make sure not to cut this screw stud although I almost went right through it on the first cut. Didn't seem to affect it's rigidity when I put it back together. It probably isn't critical but I think would have rattled more if that stud wasn't there.
Putting it back together I did a quick bench test to make sure I didn't break anything and everything seemed to be alright. I probably should have did this to start getting it off AliExpress it very well could have been shipped broken.
The only button is the volume knob and clockwise/counterclockwise is the same flipped so the only thing that would hint that it's not right is the graphics on the trim. Now to put it in the car! First I tested that my armature wiring job did the trick with the harness I madeand thankfully not even I could screw that up.
I didn't end up fully installing it because I found that it's still about 3/4" from fully seating into the bezel still. I though I'd have enough clearance being flipped but I'm now 3/4" off instead of 3".
I will probably just drill a new hole for the detents to snap into or shim it some other way so that it'll work. I don't think they make extension sleeves for headunits but I'll see what off the shelf option if available before I drill anything. If anyone can think of a better way to do it I'd love to hear it. Either way for $50 I'm pretty happy with how it looks and works. My only complaints are that it is a bit slow on boot up and the audio playback is a bit delayed. I think most radios have some delay on startup especially connecting to apple car play but it's just slightly longer than I'd like it to be. The audio playback delay is about 1 second from when you press pause/play or skip to when the audio actually stops but that's not a huge deal killer for me. I'll take that for something that looks clean and put together.
