Has Anyone Installed One Of The Generic Chinese Android Head Units?

Please don't take this as a smartass comment, because it isn't at all.

I just want to thank you for posting your experience with this... I'm fairly tech savvy, and have been looking at these for a while... That being said.. You saved me from pulling the trigger on one of these.

And I am grateful.

I wish you all the luck in the world in making it work for you, with minimal hassle, you're in waaaay deeper than I would have been before smashing it.

No offense taken. There is no reason not to put out the good and the bad so others can make informed decisions. I really like it, though. Those glitches I last mentioned were a result of some apps battling for primacy.

But yeah, there is a "here be dragons" component to these. You'll never get the most out of them without rooting/re-flashing. Support in my case sucks. Weird stuff like hybrid Android over WinCE on some models. Historically sh*tty Chinese electronics.

A small update. Since I'm using a hotspot, the USB-1 cable on the head unit is now free. I got a Logitech K520 wireless keyboard/mouse combo (currently $20.00 on closeout at Wal-Mart) and they both work well. And you'll see below the keyboard is recognized. A mouse doesn't seem to work for dragging, though. Scrolling laterally is done by left-clicking.



BT peripherals aren't recognized by this HU, but I think any 2.4Ghz wireless ones (like these) ought to work.

Joying and others have new Android Lollipop (5.1) HUs available. Some are 10.1" screens that overlap the bezel and are detachable. But if anyone is considering one of these HU, I know with Joying that as of now, existing HUs can't upgrade OS-and I suspect that's true for others.

So, people are wondering what that means as far as their promise they'd push Lollipop out to existing owners. As of now, it seems components need to be changed. Some speculate that Joying (again, possibly other brands-I don't keep up with them) might either offer to sell the components for DIY or send the HUs back..again, speculatively you pay shipping/component costs and they'll install/re-flash. Or they might need more time to make Lollipop stable with current hardware. Currently, you'll brick an MTCB unit if you re-flash with the MTCD (new models) ROM.

Long story short, if you want one of these generic HUs (and this applies to all brands), better to spend a little more for the MTCD units rather than hope for a Lollipop upgrade for MTCB units. It remains to be seen if they'll come up with a stable build for existing hardware. And everyone would be pissed to some degree if they literally follow up only on the promise to offer the ROM with a potential hardware swap/shipping paid by end-users.

Right now, there is a tentative custom Lollipop ROM for MTCB units that's being vetted. Some are reporting it's stable. This is another reason to root/re-flash, but again not something taken lightly. Me, I'm not going to-at least for a while. I'm quite happy with my setup and would be over the top if I could just find a workable BT OBD II module and get SWAC going. Re:OBD module-I read on Joying's forum that costlier modules like ScanTools don't seem compatible. IDK why, so I'm thinking about trying the BAFX one on Amazon.

EDIT: Looks like Joying announced how they'll handle upgrading existing customers. Upgrade

It reads that you pay shipping both ways ($35.00 X 2) AND a deposit of $130.00 and they'll refund your deposit afterwards. I suppose the $130.00 escrow is in case one has a bricked HU or defective parts. The cynical side of me wonders why you need a deposit if the parts are supposed to be free, although I understand the shipping on the customer. The launcher looks like ass on these new ROMs, also. I wonder what the other brands will do; I suspect since the issues are the same, this will be how they all handle it.

A small yet big update-Torque Pro is now functional. I got the BAFX OBD II adapter because it specifically stated other (cheap blue ones) adapters had trouble with SAE J1850 protocol. I also saw on Joying's blog that ScanTool adapters didn't play well with these units. Also, somehow on this custom ROM the Bluetooth MAC address wasn't showing, but worked by manually-entering it.



Pretty big, but leg room is fine.



This is a cold start panel reading.

I still caution anyone considering one of these generic HUs to do their due diligence. But after five months, I'm quite happy with things. I've got internet, navigation, 250 GB of movies and music, PC Radio for Sirius substitute and a fairly decent means of productivity with Autodesk360/WPS Open Office/mouse & keyboard.

Still trying to solve the SWAC situation and will update periodically. Otherwise, I think this topic has run its course. All the 3G Ram-pertinent stuff is here for anybody interested in doing this, along with the good and bad.

Axxess ASWC-1 Success with Joying HU

For what it's worth, my experience with a similar HU from Joying and similar car (2006 Jeep -- I'm assuming the low-speed entertainment CAN Bus is the same as that in your 2005 Ram 2500) ...

I purchased a similar Joying HU from Amazon (jy-uq124u, 1024x600, with buttons on left side), installed in a 2006 Jeep Commander, and used an Axxess ASWC-1 unit for the steering wheel controls and an Axxess BX-CH1 unit to produce the "Accessory", "Illum" and "Reverse" inputs to the HU.

The steering wheel controls [mostly] worked. On my steering wheel I have up/down/center buttons on the left side and on the right side, for a total of 6 buttons. I programmed the Left up/down/center buttons as Vol-Up/Vol-down/Mute and programmed the Right up/down/center buttons as Seek-down (<<) / Seek-up (>>) / nothing. What I mean by "nothing" is that for some reason the HU would not recognize the right center button press, so it couldn't be programmed.

My factory harness at the radio C1 connector has 2 wires for the CAN Bus: "CAN Bus+" which is colored WT/OG and "CAN Bus-" which is colored WT; and of course includes the 12V and Ground. I believe all 4 are required for the Axxess units. I bought a Metra harness adapter to connect my factory C1 harness to both the Axxess BX-CH1 unit and ASWC-1 unit. I connected the ASWC-1 Brown wire to HU Brown (Key1) and connected the ASWC-1 Brown/White wire to HU Pink (key2).

I updated the firmware on my ASWC-1 using software downloaded from the vendor's site (Axxess Integrate, Comprehensive Interface Products) by connecting the ASWC-1 unit to my PC via USB cable. This step was probably unnecessary and cumbersome.

The ASWC-1 installation instructions include observing the number of flashes of the Red and Green LEDs. The LEDs flash crazy fast and I had to repeat the turn-on many times to determine that the RED flash count was 7 which means [according to the Axxess instructions]: "If the ASWC-1 flashes 7 times and you do not have an Alpine radio connected to it that means that the ASWC-1 did not see any radio connected." Axxess customer service instructed me to follow the procedure for "Changing Radio Type" and change it to "#11 Metra OE". After this, the HU recognized 5 of the 6 buttons and allowed me to associate the buttons via the HU menu. I did NOT use the Axxess procedure called "Remapping the SWC buttons".

Also, the Axxess BX-CH1 unit worked properly. The "Accessory" input works properly by recognizing the RAP (Retained Accessory Power) bus messages. The "Reverse" input works and the HU displays the backup camera (and mutes) when in Reverse. The "Illum" input doesn't seem to do anything -- the HU buttons are always illuminated and changing the dash brightness has no affect on the HU.

Hello and Welcome, Conrad. 2006 was the first year for Ram CANBUS, although I believe 2005 Durango/Dakota had CANBUS.

I haven't really done anything with the SWAC, lately. Last thing I tried was ~three weeks ago when on XDA someone suggested I ground Key2 to the same location I grounded my SWAC retro-fit. If I had the buttons from the factory, the ground probably would've been someplace within the harness. I followed the tutorial here or at DodgeTalk to install them and grounded the SWC to the dash frame.

The theory was I needed to use the exact ground for the HU to "see" the same button resistance values without being muddled by other item grounding. I couldn't understand why a different ground would matter, and ultimately it didn't. I still can only get one button to map and the SWAC won't actuate the function. I may even splice the SWAC ground straight to Key2, eliminating the SWAC chassis ground and seeing if the HU harness ground will complete the circuit.

Now, I was poking around in Settings>Apps>All and saw "CANBUS Service". I have deactivated it since 2005 Rams aren't CANBUS. I'm wondering if the running service is causing SWAC resistance signals to be misread. I did that late yesterday and will see today if the HU will learn the values and the buttons will actuate.

Meanwhile, I'm also trying to confirm a USB-3 connection via hub will be recognized and allow for a variety of extra peripherals. If so, it would be ideal for a third SSD for a DVR.

Finally, SWC works.

Hi Core-Lokt,

First of all, I want to thank you for this thread. It is really interesting.
I looked everywhere for instructions to make Axxess SWC interface to work with Joying HU. I didn't find anything.

I also have a Joying HU, the same as you. The difference, I bought directly from Joying, not from Amazon. I don't have a RAM but a Ford, but I decided to create an account on this forum to let you know I've just succeeded to make it work (almost, let see why later).

No more suspense, interface has to be set up manually to Metra-OE and brown wire to KEY1 to HU (Brown/White is discarded). That's it. As the manual says.

Metra OE: Connect the steering wheel control Key 1 wire (Gray)
to the Brown wire.

Click to expand...

Now let me tell you my story

I didn't buy the AWSC-1, but the Axxess BX-FD2.
BX-FD2 harness is a mix of 3 products: AX-ADBOX2 & AX-ADFD01 & AWSC-1.
I wrote to Axxess to ask them what was the difference between the 3 parts and the BX-FD2 and they replied it was the same but their tekky guys prefered use the 3 differents parts as it was easier to troubleshoot.

So because of the price, I chose the BX-FD2 combo.

Like you, I tried every combination and I gave up. I wrote to Joying. By the way, they did replied to me quickly each time and they did not help.

After reading your post, it gave me hope (the line where you said somebody made it work with another brand). I told myself I had to try to setup manually the interface to Metra-OE once again.

According to number of flashes, my unit was detected as Alpine by the interface. I tried several things to set it up manually but learning did not work at all. I think all this time, I messed up the sequence and did not set it up correctly.

To set it up correctly I did:
- Unplug the main plug to shut down the interface.
- Replug it (don't put the key).
- Wait for the interface to finish its first sequence. (You can count number of flashes, I had 7)
- When the LED goes off, put the key and turn it to ignition.
- Then follow the instructions to change the radio type.

If I have a comment to say for instructions, I would change #4 et #5.

4) Press and hold the Volume Up button until the LED goes solid, then
release. Repeat this step for the desired radio number you have
selected.

5) Once the desired radio number has been selected, press and hold
the Volume Down button, on the steering wheel, until the LED goes
solid. The LED will remain on for about 3 seconds while it stores the
new radio information.

Click to expand...

In my case:
#4: I didn't have to hold the button. I just have to press the Volume Up and the LED switched on. When I tried to hold the button, the sequence did not complete. The LED stopped to switch on.
So I pressed normally the Vol+ 11 times.

#5: I pressed the Vol- but the LED switched off as soon as I released the button.


Then, go to Settings > Steering Wheels Keys and start to learn the keys.

On my steering wheel I have Vol-, Vol+, Prev, Next, Microphone, Phone, Media, Ok.

I could learn only Vol-, Vol+, Prev, Next. All others still remains connected to it Sync. (Ford speech Recognition system) - except media. It let me switch between sources. Radio Sat 1, Radio Sat 2, Radio Sat 3, Bluetooth (connected to Sync, not the Joying HU).
Prev and Next do work to change Sirius stations though.

Things to know:
- As soon as the interface is disconnected (battery is unplugged or dead), the manual setup of the SWC Interface has to be done.
- Sometimes, the Vol+ does not work. It seems to be when I stop the car and restart it quickly. (less than 5 minutes). I will make some tests and let you know.

If you have any questions, do not hesitate

PS: I use the cheap blue OBDII adapter, it worked with Torque Lite. But it stays connected and drains current from the battery even if the car is off. I have to jump start my car twice before finding the problem :-( I don't use it anymore.

Hello and Welcome, zetoune. Thanks for joining just to post this.

FWIW, I now know of a better source for sales/service. It's Joying USA, and the man that runs it is named Farjad. IDK the exact relationship, but I think he's a reseller and service source. He's in NY and charges a flat-rate fee if it's outside of warranty scope..maybe if bought elsewhere. Beats the hell out of sending something on a slow boat to China and giving a credit card number. Parts costs are subject to authorization from Joying or at what his price is. His e-mail is joyingusa@gmail dot com. You'll actually talk with someone that speaks English and doesn't give you nonsensical and repetitive advice of no worth.

Now, about your setup-your truck is CANBUS? How many wires are used for the controls? I've only one in the factory harness and undoubtedly a common ground. I'll have to research those parts and see if any are applicable. Everybody from Joying down swears I only need my existing wiring.

After two new members joined after seeing this thread and offering help, I gave it another try. I disabled CANBUS Service, seeing as I don't need a running process that doesn't affect me. I tried to get the HU to learn, but no more luck than before. Next, I tried the suggestion of eliminating the SWAC chassis ground and connecting that to Key2. Nothing. However, I touched that to a chassis ground and got the first part of the learning function



Function defined.



That isn't fully learned, though. So I remove the wires from the chassis ground and it learned the function.



Here's a really crappy 35 second video of trying out the function. lol, I've got the camera upside-down and trying to look at too many things at one time to keep it short.



http://vid1119.photobucket.com/albums/k623/Opus_Dei/truck/Joying SWC Test_zps2i6hunwq.mp4

The wires are off the chassis ground when I start, to mimic an unpressed button. I slip the ring terminal over the screw and the volume starts running up, as it would if the button was steadily pressed.

Clearly, with both the SWC ground and Key2 to a chassis ground, it is an interrupted process. Breaking the ground allows the process to happen. However, it won't do this through the buttons themselves. Additionally, the HU still only learns one function.

Joying has a video where they use a test SWC with three leads; one to Key1, another to Key2 and a third to the HU harness ground. We simply don't have that many wires to work with on 3G Rams. Additonally, having pin 14 in the factory harness running through the MUX behind the instrument cluster doesn't lend itself to modding.

Hi there,

yes my truck is CANBUS. According to diagrams I found (http://www.discountcarstereo.com/pdf/frd04-aux.pdf). it seems to have 2 wires for CANBUS.

I used the Axxess Interface to communicate between the SWC and the HU. I didn't try to bypass the Axxess Data Interface. As I said earlier, I only use one wire between the Axxess Interface and the HU (key 1).
No ground at all.

(I still have the problem with Vol+ button. Sometimes it works, sometimes it does not).

Thank you for the contact in NY.

SWAC are now working! I'm not entirely happy how I did it, but I'm OK with it. It is fully reversible and not some hot ghetto mess.

I'll start by saying that my truck didn't come with SWAC. I added them based upon a tutorial on DodgeTalk. If you DIY, you'll remember where they connected at the base of the clockspring/column. If your 3G 2005< truck had SWAC and you want to get them working this way on a generic Chinese HU, the wire colors likely aren't the same. However, at the mentioned bottom of the clockspring/column, there are two connectors. One is yellow and one is white. The white one has the SWAC ground and lead to cluster. You'll have to determine which is which.

Long story short, I knew the SWAC switches had two leads each; there's a red/black and a red/yellow to each button with a splice to a single lead to the clockspring. With a common circuit, logic says the resistors in each switch have different values.



You can clearly see the two pins of the switch. The switch looks a little butchered, but again, the parts were sourced from the DodgeTalk thread and others modified them that way to make it work. When I put them in, I used a couple of dabs of hot glue to keep contact with the harness plug. It's soft glue and easily removed. It might not need it, but JIC...

As mentioned, those leads fed through the clockspring and used two leads for the circuit. I decided to cut the wire to the cluster and crimp some spade ends to restore the wire, if ever needed. The ground to the dash frame was left as-is.



The BL/BK wire goes to the MUX..maybe C4. You can see where the RD/GN grounded to the dash frame. There's still a piece or two of friction tape from when the harness was bought and disassembled.



I made a "Y" harness to bridge the MUX cable to the HU harness. The intent was to go with one lead to Key1 and the other to Key2. There's no need to differentiate them since the resistance values of each switch determine the function you assign. I crimped the three ends together and soldered/heat shrink the splice.



I tagged each of the three ends so there's no mistaking which goes where if I want to restore the wire.



The video is ~2:00 and shows the programming and testing. Unfortunately, all my settings were wiped out from leaving the battery disconnected overnight. I'll have to get all that re-established.

These are tentative settings. I assigned VOL UP/Phone OFF/VOL DN to the right switch and radio presets up/down and Phone ON to the left. Additionally, there are tweaks via Xposed modules (only rooted/custom ROMs) that allow mapping buttons to apps. I think Spotify was one I saw mentioned. Also, there is supposed to be the ability to add functions by long or short presses of the buttons. I don't know that I care to do that, though.


Anyway, everything is proven to work with specific details on how I did it. 2006> 3G trucks seem to fare a little better in that PAC or Axxess modules seem to work for SWAC, given CANBUS. I may still try for USB-3 and if I do, I'll report on it. Otherwise, thanks for reading.

EDIT: Those are default radio settings and there are no stations on those frequencies in my area, therefore no sound. Plus, I was in my metal building.

Just giving an update on things. The HU is working fine. There's an occasional glitch (probably one a month), but a reboot sorts it out. Usually, it's my phone hotspot or OBD II adapter not automatically pairing. It's not an issue, and a friend with a 4G Ram with factory nav seems to have the occasional glitch, too.

I posted in the DIY forum about installing heated seats. At the time, I was going to run some cables for HU-related stuff. I didn't get the USB extensions in time, so I'll have to do it later. I did run a wire for a powered USB hub under the rear seat. When it's done, USB-1 form the HU will run to the hub which in turn will handle the 2.4 ghz wireless adapter for the keyboard and mouse I already mentioned and vetted earlier in the thread. Of the three remaining ports, I intend for one to go to the console, another SSD (USB-3 function isn't claimed but has been proven over at XDA) for a DVR and the fourth vacant.

I'm not running JetAudio anymore. I already had Kodi on my PC, and it works on Android devices, also. There is no media center on these HUs as-built, so if I wanted to watch a movie, I had to go into File Explorer. I'm having difficulty getting my phone recognized as a remote control (works fine on my PC).

I've put on some TV (Kodi add-ons) while driving. Buffering and signal loss in rural, rolling terrain don't make for a great viewing experience. Best luck I had was with Bloomberg Business Channel, lol. That said, Kodi isn't optimized for small screens, so it's not easy to switch options. When I get USB-3 going, I'll post some pictures.

You are lucky!

I've been looking for a solution for my battery drain with no luck for the last 3 months.

After 2 or 3 days, my battery goes down and I've to jump start my car.
I wrote to JOYING but they've always replied nothing useful.
I'm looking for someone in my area who can take a look at it but nobody wants because it's a chinese unit.

I don't how to find the issue by myself. My wiring seems ok. I don't know what's going on.

zetoune said:

You are lucky!

I've been looking for a solution for my battery drain with no luck for the last 3 months.

After 2 or 3 days, my battery goes down and I've to jump start my car.
I wrote to JOYING but they've always replied nothing useful.
I'm looking for someone in my area who can take a look at it but nobody wants because it's a chinese unit.

I don't how to find the issue by myself. My wiring seems ok. I don't know what's going on.

Click to expand...

Let the truck go fully to "sleep" by letting it sit with the key out and everything closed for maybe 30-60 minutes just to be safe. Get a multimeter and set it to read Amperage. Disconnect the negative terminal from the battery. Put one lead of the multimeter on the battery negative post. Put the other multimeter lead on the battery negative cable. It should give you a reading in milliamps. Normal standby current drain on most vehicles is around 50 milliamps (0.05 amps). The lower the better. If yours is showing much higher than that, pull the fuse for the radio. If this then brings your current drain down to the normal level, then the problem is in your radio. If it doesn't, you'll have to keep looking.

Zetoune, do you have an OBD II adapter? A lot of people say theirs drains their battery. I think ScanTool has models that go into a sleep mode but IDK if they really work with these HUs.

You might want to contact Farjad, the Joying reseller in NY I gave contact info for earlier. He might have ideas or take your unit in for service rather than deal with those clowns in China. Or you can look him up on XDA under "doctorman".

@justin13703, Thank you for the advice.
Actually I did measure the amperage with my DC Amp Clamp. I got some peaks at 0.6 amps. It's 0.03 amps without the head unit.
Moreover, I removed the head unit for 3 weeks and my car started all the time as expected. As soon as I reinstalled it, I had to jump start my car again 2 days later.
Now, the thing is I don't know if the problem occurs cause of the CANBUS Interface (Axxess BX-FD2) I needed to add or the JOYING head unit.
Last week-end, I plugged the interface only. I will see how it goes.

@Core-Lokt, I do not have the ODBII adapter plugged. It's waiting in a drawer. You're right, this thing seems to stay on all the time. That's why I unplugged it to isolate the problem.
I've contacted Farjad. According to him. My problem is either the wiring or the canbus interface. It told me to ask JOYING in China for RMA. He said, if I have the same problem with the new unit, it would confirm it's a wiring/canbus problem.

I've checked the wiring more than once. It's pretty straight forward. If I have made a mistake, I can't figure out where.

BTW: I wrote to Metra support (the canbus interface brand) and they think the problem is the head unit (obviously).

zetoune said:

@justin13703, Thank you for the advice.
Actually I did measure the amperage with my DC Amp Clamp. I got some peaks at 0.6 amps. It's 0.03 amps without the head unit.
Moreover, I removed the head unit for 3 weeks and my car started all the time as expected. As soon as I reinstalled it, I had to jump start my car again 2 days later.
Now, the thing is I don't know if the problem occurs cause of the CANBUS Interface (Axxess BX-FD2) I needed to add or the JOYING head unit.
Last week-end, I plugged the interface only. I will see how it goes.

@Core-Lokt, I do not have the ODBII adapter plugged. It's waiting in a drawer. You're right, this thing seems to stay on all the time. That's why I unplugged it to isolate the problem.
I've contacted Farjad. According to him. My problem is either the wiring or the canbus interface. It told me to ask JOYING in China for RMA. He said, if I have the same problem with the new unit, it would confirm it's a wiring/canbus problem.

I've checked the wiring more than once. It's pretty straight forward. If I have made a mistake, I can't figure out where.

BTW: I wrote to Metra support (the canbus interface brand) and they think the problem is the head unit (obviously).

Click to expand...

There's not much that you can do wiring-wise with that harness to cause excessive ignition off draw. All it is is an interface. I'm willing to bet the problem is in the radio, or something connected to it.

justin13703 said:

There's not much that you can do wiring-wise with that harness to cause excessive ignition off draw. All it is is an interface. I'm willing to bet the problem is in the radio, or something connected to it.

Click to expand...

As I said earlier, I only plugged the interface with no head unit as a test.
I left my car parked for 3 days without starting it and voilà, the battery was dead tonight.

I don't know if I can conclude it is the problem, but there is obviously something wrong with the interface.

I have to check this out with Metra, I guess.

I'm not at all familiar with the interface setup you have, but it seems you've pinned down the source. Good luck on sorting it out and post updates.