ItchyTasty

Nice, thanks for posting. There are a lot of settings that have no explanation, but I guess experimentation will be necessary.

My question now is this unit appears to have the software that is shown in the carlife mall videos. Did you order from them? If not, it seems other sellers are using the same software that was supposedly being developed by carlife to address customer complaints and issues with the the V1 screen. If that's the case, it just makes sense to go with whoever offers the cheapest price. I'd also be interested to see if you can use google maps offline by just downloading the local maps

timopro

Hi all, I bought a "V2" version of the 10.25" from Aliexpress, with Android 7.1 everything works fine, except the original display doesnt show, I cannot see the radio menu or any original display..I double checked the wiring and connection everythigs Its correct...I installed ina MB GLK 220 Facelift 2014,
I tries to read thw old post but didnt find a solution for my problem..any advice? Cheers from Switzerland.

Chris The Swede

Ask the seller of the unit.

timopro

Yep done it, Im looking for any other fast advice..as this is a forum.... 😉😉🤗

Sly_North

The video should come through a small blue connector plugged in the cable with the smallest white plug behind the screen.
​​​Did you buy a screen that is explicitly compatible with your GLK?

LemonSqueezy

Hi Chris, do you have any answers to post #471

timopro

ok I solved, I had to change video resolution to number 4..it was set to 2 ..tks for support anyway.

Chris The Swede

Sorry no...But Id say most of it is fixed or working now.

Split screen will never be done.

AfterMarket

I purchased from http://www.ckmcardes********/ for $658.20
The installation was a challenge to do it right.
The steering wheel controls work for volume, and the Comand knob works.

Some other thoughts:
1. I ordered from CKM because of this forum and the support he had provided in the past. I did not want to take a chance with a bad unit (return issues) or other support if I ordered elsewhere.
2. I contacted Rock (carlife), and he responded quickly on a question I had via email, but their website did not offer the product (even though he said it was available directly).
3. As Sly North suggested, I wanted to set this up on a "test bench" before I installed it in the car. Once the unit was in route, i ordered a 12V power supply so i had it on hand when the unit arrived. It says it uses 2A, so I ordered a 5A supply. I could not get it to power up... Maybe I should have gone with a 15A or 30A. I connected to the yellow and black wires in the harness that feed a fuse box, but was unable to get it to power up on the bench. I started getting worried that I would smoke the unit, so... see #4
4. Preparing the vehicle for a bench test is super quick. I had the the old screen out, the ventilation trim, and radio out in less than 30 minutes. I used the first part of Chris' video for the screen removal and this video for the ventilation and radio. I was able to hook up the screen and harness within another 30 minutes and check everything. Sly North: If you have poor signal in your garage, i would just drive to a parking lot and "play" with the rough install to confirm everything is working for you (and you can keep the engine running to save your battery). Or maybe you can experiment with a higher amp power supply on the bench... but it is still a limited experience because you are missing all of the Comand stuff.
5. The install is a bit rough to route the wires. First, routing the aux cable from the unit to the aux port in the arm rest is straight forward, but tedious. There is a natural cable channel under the ash tray for the aux cable... and I routed one of the usb females (there are two) to the hole under the ash tray (no more ash tray, but I don't smoke). I spent about 8 hours total on it (but disclosure: I was also routing some additional power wires and USB over to the glove box for a 360 camera box while I had the car torn down, and routed accessory power to my armrest for a remote cigarette lighter and fast charging ports). I used this video to remove the ashtray. Note: this might be overkill for some. You could probably route it under one of the trim pieces, but I wanted to tap power also.
6. It is a b*tch to get that radio back in the hole with all those extra connectors on the back. I just kept pushing them down into the cavity back and below the radio (behind the A/C control). I was worried that I would disconnect something or pinch a wire when I pushed the radio in, but it finally went in...

For my needs, I am pretty happy with the result. I wanted a monitor for a 360 camera, no loss of stock Comand, and phone mirroring (Samsung S9). This provides that for me.

I think with Tasker on my phone, and Tasker (maybe autovoice) on the screen, I will be able to get this to work as I hoped.
It is a nice upgrade to the stock screen, and love that I will be able to add 360 view (no more wheel scuffs) without having an additional monitor (and love that the turn signal switches to the 360 camera when turning). Next weekend: install the 360 cameras (oh boy...).

AfterMarket

Thanks to all of those that posted here and helped me find answers before I purchased!

IMHO, this product could use a dedicated wiki or moderated thread.

There are lots of tips and tricks that we can share as a community to improve on the experience without fishing through 20 pages of posts.

This device is far from perfect, but it can also be pretty great - just depends on your needs/expectations.

AfterMarket

Here is a picture of the USB connector (I will use for USB mirroring) that comes up through the hole where the ashtray normally is.

bucktown

If a demonstration video is out of the question, can we get a change log? I, like most here who are interested I'm sure, would hate to order this V2 expecting perfect function and bug fixes and be disappointed after a lengthy process and install (and subsequent return).

For all the talk about "support", there seem to be a lot of voices in here asking pertinent questions and getting nowhere, and multiple PM's left unanswered.

I'm sure you're a busy man, and this is only one segment of a very large platform, but it seems we only get the support if we buy the product on faith, and not a moment sooner...I'd love to be proven wrong though.

Skeechan

Chris is on a 30 day ban for advertising (I guess having the website in his forum signature). Personally, I have never had trouble getting support from Chris by emailing directly.

JohnnyC

bucktown

Is he not a forum sponsor? I was under the impression he was.

Skeechan

Doesn't appear on the registered vendors list, unless there is a difference between a sponsor and registered vendor.
https://mbworld.org/forums/vendor_directory.php

willi6

hey guys Chris can answer for 30 days, he's been banned or something like that so you have to contact him directly if you want answers I guess

Skeechan

Well got my Android 7.1 (V2?) unit today from Chris and NOTHING but problems trying to get it to work in my 2011 E350 SDN with NTG4. First, no comand is showing in the picture in picture, but the 7.1 settings screen looks different than the one in the beginning of the thread so I cannot find that scaling menu. Also no audio at all, even when I hook up the old command screen (in parallel) and the dash shows it is on a radio station. The comand dial also doesnt do anything. Finally major android apps crash. When trying to start navigation for example, I get global_cfg not found error.

This thing is a complete mess.

Things I have done and tried.

First my unit uses the silver video adapter since I do not have the OEM blue plug. The paper in the box (there was absolutely ZERO instructions included with this thing) said connect the red off of the silver box to white and black on teh adapter hardness. Done and no comand. Tried the thing earlier in the thread providing video (yellow) with 12v and still nothing.

Double checked the fiber optics were going into the adapter cable at the head unit, fine.

Check that the connector was well seated between the OEM harness and the adapter cable and the adapter cable and the head unit. The cable is very hard to plug into the head unit but is in as far as it will go and the latch barely latches.

Checked fiber optics again were plugged into the outer port.

What does work, RPM, door is ajar, reports correct temp and then android stuff itself, screen obviously functions, touch functions, some apps open, but that it is. Nothing works as it should when it comes to the comand interface, dial and audio. Car has ZERO audio now..

Heisenberg5070

You should have waited a while before buying it so that they fix all the bugs first.

Skeechan

Skeechan

Alllllright, what a nightmare, 8 hours so far. Turns out the bad crimp in the adapter wasn't the only problem. Whoever put the pins into the connectors put a few in backward so they wouldn't lock. I would plug it in and it would work, remove it plug it back in and it wouldn't. I was pulling my hair out until I grabbed my eye loupe and looked at the connectors. Flipped the pins and voila, most of the unit started to work. The bad connector assembly was the source of my audio problem.

So now it is hooked up correctly, so I think, but still several things are not working properly, both in hardware and software.

Hardware wise
Comand dial does not work in Android, I was under the impression that it is supposed to. I can use it through touch no problem, but that is a reach to get to the right side of the screen.
Auto switching to AUX never works. I have to switch to comand, change the input and exit. Lame.
Backup camera does not work. I get the yellow and green graphics lines and they respond to steering, but the actual image never appears. Did I miss a connector? Is there a connector only for the OEM backup camera, because I can switch to and use comand no problem.
GPS is dog slow at picking up signals. I have repositioned the GPS antenna several times but it is still really slow. It picks up 2 right away, but to get 3-6 or 3-7 takes forever. Once locked, navigation is speedy.

Software wise
My Android 7 unit is SUPER buggy. The apps that ship with it have problems, like my iGo app is missing some component so it won't start. Several store apps will install and run occasionally, but crash frequently. Waze for example, a very popular navi app for us in the USA, will sometimes crash at start, or will crash about 2 or 3 minutes into navigation. It is super annoying. Other apps are apparently not compatible. Netflix for example, the Google Play Store reports as incompatible so won't let you install. Apple Music will install but has problems, it will not let me log in. I press log in on the screen and the app reloads the same screen instead of presenting the enter your apple ID and PW screen. So, Apple Music is a fail. Some apps require the unit not be rooted or jailbroken, like my AT&T U-Verse app (I use it to listen to TV programming like news channels during my commute) reports it failed a security check and the most common reason is that you are trying to run it on a rooted phone. That is not a bug, just not compatible. So of the 3 apps I primarily bought this android unit for, 1 of them is crash happy and 2 don't work at all. Disappointing. But it looks great >_<

I am hoping this stuff can be fixed with OTA updates. I am also not happy about getting bad harnesses as it turned a 2 hour job into an all day job. People still on the fence and who want to use a lot of apps should probably wait on the V2 until some of these issues are resolved or workarounds discovered. I will talk to Chris, my seller, and see if he has any workarounds or ideas about how to get stuff like the backup camera working, comand dial working or get the unit to report that it is not rooted. I don't care about rooting, I just want store apps like AT&T U-verse to run.

I am really hoping I just ate too many Crayons and forgot a connector somewhere. Most of the video's including Chris' skip steps including some connections and without any instructions at all, you are left with open connectors wondering if something is supposed to be connected to them.

Lastly, I ended with an extra part, a loop back labeled A. I have no idea what it is supposed to be for and found no reference to it in any of the W212 assembly videos. Maybe it is the magic connector that makes the dial and backup camera work, but I have no idea where it goes.

Skeechan

Carplay dongle works fine except there doesn't seem to be support for night mode. Normally carplay is integrated with the dash brightness control and when at max, locks carplay into day mode but take the dash lights a notch of max and maps will flip into night (when dark/headlights on etc). With this Android 7 + carplay setup, the Apple maps stay locked in day mode which is WAY too bright even with the backlight all the way down. Anyone have carplay with this screen and have you ever seen maps in night mode? I normally use Waze but waze has been buggy on this Android 7 unit and Apple maps responds to siri for quick directions.

timopro

Dear all, installed the V2 unit (Carsara) Everything works fine , but the audio from Android app like Music Play or Spotify are just working only on one channel in my case only on the LH speaker...
My GLK have no AUX input but I have the AUX choice in the menu...

OEM Radio or CD works fine on both Speaker

I have no auto switching If I turn on Music Play I have mannualy to select AUX and trough bluethoot I have audio but on the LH Speaker only... any idea ? some one of you had similar Issue ?

I read all the thread before but no solution found...

bigjule

Wow u guys reiterate on y I chose to wait ! That's just to much BS to b dealing with .. i went thru similar Bs with a dynavin unit on my old BMW .. it was stressful and just plain unbearable to deal with ..as bad as I want Android auto on my 212 I think I'm gonna wait

Skeechan

If basic HW/SW QC had been performed at the factory in China, I would not have had most of the problems that I have had so far. I received defective components (bad harnesses) and it took a long time to realize what was going on. Fixing them took just a few minutes. At least I think I got it fixed. There may be other harness defects causing the comand dial and backup camera not to work, but I did continuity tests on all the pins and it looked good before putting it all back together.

If not for that harness problem, it would have been largely plug and play. I didn't even have any problems getting everything stuffed behind the head unit. I just reached from the top and nudged the connectors down behind into deeper area at the back while sliding the unit back in. I had plenty of room in my W212 install. To get connectors into the glove box, I just drilled a hole on my 2nd level near the multimedia port, pulled the AUX audio cable and 2 USBs through and then slid on a grommet. For the fish, I used a 48" zip tie and it was a very easy pass through.

Today, I received some parameter things to try from Chris that may fix the backup camera, AUX switching and the comand dial. The software bugs may be solved through OTA updates from China or other work arounds, that will just be a wait. Things like carplay maps night mode may not be fixable just because of the way this is all set up (not a factory OEM integration). If I can get Waze working reliably, Apple maps would be moot. Maybe the problems with some native apps not opening are also causing the crashing of some 3rd party apps. Once the major issues like the camera are working, I can start tweaking on android. These are the only problems and quirks I am seeing. Some are pretty major, but the rest of the stuff works fine. On my commute home yesterday, had no problem streaming video from a news website and tethering is rock solid. Screen mirroring works great. Sound quality and integration is really good. I will try more functions and 3rd party apps today, but I have a lot of work to catch up on as that dumb harness set my Wednesday on fire.

Earlier there were comments about screen brightness not being very good or bad screen quality. This V2 is nothing of the sort. Image quality is awesome as is brightness. There are full backlight controls for both day and night mode and well as auto switching between day and night. If anything, the screen is too bright and I wish I could turn the backlight down even more in night mode. The comand PiP is pretty good, you can tell it is scaled but is still plenty sharp and it is super easy to switch back and forth.

There are plenty of quirks and bugs for sure and some Android gestures are not the same as they are on tablets, but the wow of going from the lame 2011 NTG4 comand to this has me more than willing to hunt down work arounds or just live with them. But that harness...WTF.