Linkswell T-Style Radio: My experience so far...

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Gwerner74

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I installed the Linkswell 10.1" Gen 4 unit in my 2015 2500 2 weeks ago and wanted to share my experience to this point. Overall I love this thing and am mostly pleased with my purchase. The install went fairly smooth but I do have a couple of gripes that are mostly related to the advertised features and I hope sharing this will save other potential buyers some headaches after the fact.

First the positive, I purchased my unit from ADC Mobile. It shipped quickly and Walt at ADC was great to work with. I had a few questions during the install and called ADC's tech support line and was surprised to have an actual human answer the phone, it was Walt himself and he was extremely helpful. Most everything about the unit works as expected and it's been great so far.

I say most everything works as expected, and that leads to my 2 main gripes and these are things that are not really clearly stated in any of the literature available or the specs listed on Linkswell's site or even the dealer pages for that matter.

The first is the HDMI input. Linkswell has recently eliminated the HDMI input on these units. If you want an HDMI input you are out of luck unless you can find one in stock with a part number that ends in -4A. The -4B units being produced and shipped now only have an HDMI output. To me this was not clearly advertised so buyer beware.

The second is the way they list the number of camera inputs. The unit is advertised as retaining the factory backup camera and having 3 camera inputs. This made me think I had 3 camera inputs in addition to the factory camera but that is not the case, one of those 3 camera inputs is needed to retain the factory cam. This is probably listed somewhere in the 300+ page thread about these radios but I didn't see it, so shame on me. Mentioning this to help out anyone else looking to buy one of these things.
 

FunWithDirt

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Thank you for this. I have been considering a Linkswell as one of the options to bring Android Auto into my 17 Ram.
 

NJ_TN Ram

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I think I will go this route as well. I was gonna do the whole 8.4 upgrade but scrambling for all the parts at a discount has become time consuming and too confusing. I tried an aftermarket alpine head unit but I’m intrigued by the bigger linkswell screen
 

Gordo2212

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I think I will go this route as well. I was gonna do the whole 8.4 upgrade but scrambling for all the parts at a discount has become time consuming and too confusing. I tried an aftermarket alpine head unit but I’m intrigued by the bigger linkswell screen
There’s someone selling a whole upgrade kit in the for sale section.
 

Pancho1310

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Did you use the Linkswell model

TS-DGPU10-4RR-4A – 2014-2018 DODGE RAM & 2019-2020 RAM CLASSIC GENERATION 4 T-STYLE RADIO for the install?

 

Tonyloc

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Have had this radio for almost a year. I was the first person to contact ADC (owner Walt) took the call about their being no HDMI output. There is a knock out in the housing but no plug. Walt contacted the manufacturer and was informed due to the price of chip they eliminated the input feature. You are Able to use a adapter through the RCA's but you then lose rca inputs. He immediately revised the listing, it was still a bummer. All said I love the unit. I had previously purchased the 12.4" from Phoenix and had multiple issues even returned for a replacement that had same kinds of issues. ADC MOBILE IS THE WAY TO GO. The gen 5 version is being released soon!!!
 

sixback

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Welland Ontario
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I installed the Linkswell 10.1" Gen 4 unit in my 2015 2500 2 weeks ago and wanted to share my experience to this point. Overall I love this thing and am mostly pleased with my purchase. The install went fairly smooth but I do have a couple of gripes that are mostly related to the advertised features and I hope sharing this will save other potential buyers some headaches after the fact.

First the positive, I purchased my unit from ADC Mobile. It shipped quickly and Walt at ADC was great to work with. I had a few questions during the install and called ADC's tech support line and was surprised to have an actual human answer the phone, it was Walt himself and he was extremely helpful. Most everything about the unit works as expected and it's been great so far.

I say most everything works as expected, and that leads to my 2 main gripes and these are things that are not really clearly stated in any of the literature available or the specs listed on Linkswell's site or even the dealer pages for that matter.

The first is the HDMI input. Linkswell has recently eliminated the HDMI input on these units. If you want an HDMI input you are out of luck unless you can find one in stock with a part number that ends in -4A. The -4B units being produced and shipped now only have an HDMI output. To me this was not clearly advertised so buyer beware.

The second is the way they list the number of camera inputs. The unit is advertised as retaining the factory backup camera and having 3 camera inputs. This made me think I had 3 camera inputs in addition to the factory camera but that is not the case, one of those 3 camera inputs is needed to retain the factory cam. This is probably listed somewhere in the 300+ page thread about these radios but I didn't see it, so shame on me. Mentioning this to help out anyone else looking to buy one of these things.

I just recently installed a Gen 4 NavOS unit. ( Same as a Linkswell ). My 2500 had a RA1 radio and no backup camera initially. To integrate a backup camera solution I purchased a factory compatible backup camera and a new 6" Split Y Cable to access the pre-existing camera and tailgate autolock wiring loom which I confirmed has 4 camera video wires going back to the radio harness connector.
However after enabling the rear camera, and rear camera csm in AlphaOBD, I don't get a video signal, but the head unit does recognize the can bus changes and displays the rear camera interface with video signal format radio buttons displayed.
Before I take my tailgate apart again to test for camera power, just want to confirm that the linkswell does pass power to the factory camera from the head unit through the factory harness pins and only requires the factory camera RCA male output on the main adapter harness to be connected to the Rear Camera RCA Input on the linkswell camera harness to function?
There isn't anything else I need to enable in AlphaOBD to turn the camera on is there? Just concerned that my truck didn't have RA2 or higher to start with. I am hoping that uconnect s/w is strictly contained within the radio head unit and the ecm doesn't care what version is running to enable the rear camera option.
 

Scaleguy53

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I hope you got your back-up camera working. I just purchased a 2022 Ram1500 and have been looking aat the Navos, Linkswell and Phoenix. The Phoenix is about $500 less, but all are made in China and I don't want to the $4000 for a direct fit Ram big screen. How has yours been working beyond the camera issue?
 
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