Hello, I have a few questions for those who have installed aftermarket 9" android 10 screen on their w166. I am very interested and want to understand the unit a little better before I pull the trigger.

- In one of the youtube video, it seems like the time to boot up after turning the ignition key is very long, like ~40 seconds. Does it do this every time? The factory display, although doesn't have many features, is almost instant.
- How does power management work on android side? when I turn off the ignition, does it get always-on power from the battery and gracefully shutdown, or it loses power immediately?
- How does the display get its power ? The display is considerably bigger and with the added 8 core processor, it will draw quite bit more amps than the factory one, wondering if this could cause problems.
- I am interested in the model with 8-core snapdragon, which has 'build-in' Carplay - so I don't need any dongle to connect my iPhone?
- The screen looks nice and it gives much needed features (Carplay, especially) to ML350, Is there anything with this mod that doesn't work as well as the factory one?

Thanks!

 

Main Screen Retrofit to 9" with CarPlay - MBWorld.org Forums

 

you should also ask @we47b1me , he did a retrofit on his car too and his experience might point you in the right direction

 

Thanks, @BlownV8 I have seen that thread before and I didn't see any information WRT start up performance and power management.

cc @Eric@wages and @htce38 who I found has first handle experience with that unit in that thread.

Thanks!

 

Someone will most likely reply so keep checking.

 

[QUOTE=hovr;8297988]Hello, I have a few questions for those who have installed aftermarket 9" android 10 screen on their w166. I am very interested and want to understand the unit a little better before I pull the trigger.

- In one of the youtube video, it seems like the time to boot up after turning the ignition key is very long, like ~40 seconds. Does it do this every time? The factory display, although doesn't have many features, is almost instant. YOU NEED TO REFERENCE THE VIDEO AND SCREEN MODEL. BUT NO, THIS IS NOT NORMAL BEHAVIOR. MINE BOOTS UP INSTANTLY TO THE NTG SIDE, AND WITHIN 10 SECONDS HAVE ACCESS TO ANDROID SIDE
- How does power management work on android side? when I turn off the ignition, does it get always-on power from the battery and gracefully shutdown, or it loses power immediately? GRACEFUL SHUTDOWN, BUT NO ALWAYS ON POWER TO SCREEN. YOU CAN TURN ON THE COMAND SIDE, BUT WILL HAVE NO SCREEN ACCESS
- How does the display get its power ? The display is considerably bigger and with the added 8 core processor, it will draw quite bit more amps than the factory one, wondering if this could cause problems. NO.
- I am interested in the model with 8-core snapdragon, which has 'build-in' Carplay - so I don't need any dongle to connect my iPhone? YOU NEED TO REFERENCE SCREEN YOU ARE LOOKING AT. WE CANT READ MINDS
- The screen looks nice and it gives much needed features (Carplay, especially) to ML350, Is there anything with this mod that doesn't work as well as the factory one?

Thanks![/QUOTE

 

I planned to order from 4x4shop.ca:
https://4x4shop.ca/product/2012-2018...sb-multimedia/
the 8-core snapdragon model. It's about $100 more expensive than aliexpress, but if that can save me all the hassle and risk of getting fake crap, it's well worth it.

I almost pull the trigger today, then the sales guy told me that I cannot use the GPS splitter, he said there is no adapter for it. I want to have very good GPS nav (either carplay or android google map) so this is a bit of a bummer.

 

you can use the gps splitter and utilize the MB antenna. It's a basic fakra splitter. He's wrong

 

Wish they made a screen that was just a upgrade of the NTG instead of the android junk

 

android works fine if you don't treat it like a tablet, install a million apps (looking at you Netflix!) and constantly try and get the latest updates. Have had mine in for almost 2 years now with zero problems. With a customer launcher, it looks amazing, and does what I need it to do. Run Waze, Sirius, Pandora, YT Music and Yr. And occasionally the DirecTV app.

 

Pulled trigger today. they (4x4shop.ca) updated the options and now the GPS splitter is an option. I Will update here when it arrives and gets installed.

Thanks everyone for your helpful comments.

 

I also ordered one yesterday from 4x4 Shop for my 2017 GLE. I got the Snapdragon 4gb + 64gb Rom option, I selected wireless CarPlay, GPS antenna and also the USB extensions. Looking forward to getting it! We just got a 2nd car for my wife (2018 Nissan Rogue) and it has a touch screen and after using that I thought "Ok, I need a touch screen for my GLE ASAP!" hahaha

 

I am stuck. the INAV unit doesn't come with a passcode to access android factory setting, so I can set OEM screen. I have tried

1314
1617
1688
000000
123456
111333
None of these worked.

 

Have you tried reaching out to 4x4 Shop?

What do you need the Passcode to do?

I plan on having mine professionally installed when it comes.

 

Their instruction video is based on a different unit than the one we purchased, to set up the OEM screen, you need to set the proper resolution, according to their videos, you use an android app "NTG setup", but this app doesn't exist on my unit. I have seen other folks video/instructions use the android factory settings UI, but that requires a password.

I don't think professional install going to help you unless these things are sorted out.

It's very frustrating because I have the dashboard opened, factory display removed and with cable all over, it's a freaking weekend and they won't respond until Monday .

This kind of frustration is exactly I was hoping to avoid, by paying more (compare to order directly from Aliexpress), and here I am.

 

Those of you who successfully installed screen, how you route audio to car speakers? I have Ml350 2014 which have fiber optic connection and only way to get audio is either connect a audio cable from head unit to ami port in centre console or manually connect bluetooth to command (each time you start vehicle) and use screen for car play display/maps only. I can play audio on Phone but no sounds from android unless I connect audio cable.

 

That sucks. Let me know how it goes.. Did you purchase the live support or just email support?

It will help as I will give them the install video and 4x4's contact info and it will be their problem 😊 The shop I'm bringing it to does these types of installs a lot. It was who my mechanic recommended me to.

Have you checked around the xda-developer forums?

 

Very frustrating. still no luck, but I found some clue that might explain this - when I try to setup wireless carplay, I found there was already a phone configured, it wasn't my iPhone, so the unit I received might have been a returned unit and the previous owner might have changed the default password.

I am not going to waste any more time with this, will call 4x4shop.ca on Monday and see.

 

The install video they just sent me (my order shipped) has the password to be 190627. Have you tried that one?

I also saw from the videos you need to run a mic and also have the GPS antenna on your dash? That seems crappy to me... I had emailed them to cancel my order and then got a shipping notification. Shady af...

 

@Patrick Hill , which video has the password?

Yesterday I was very frustrated but I want to be fair to 4x4shop.ca, the shipping was pretty fast, and I emailed them a couple of times about GPS antenna and they seemed to be responsive. since I need the car today, early in the morning before I got your comment about password I already put factory screen back in. so I can't try it for a few days (want to get all my questions answered before try it again)

In general if I get everything working, I would rate the product 8/10. and I rate MB's COMAND 3/10.

- On the mic - yes, I read somewehere that you need to poke a small hole on the faux leather covers the steering wheel, and run mic wire from there, this doesn't bother me to be honest. I have read from this forum that someone had very good quality call with this set up.

- On the GPS - No you don't have to use their GPS antenna (have that ugly thing on dashboard is UNACCEPTABLE), you can use the following adapters so the android unit and the COMAND unit can share MB factory GPS antenna.


Here is the factory connection:
Factory GPS antenna (Fakra female) -> COMAND unit (Fakra male)

Here is how you share the antenna:
Factory GPS antenna(Fakra female) -> splitter in (Fakra male). -> splitter out 1(fakra female) -> COMAND unit (Fakra male *)
splitter out 2 (fakra female) -> fakra to twist adapter(fakra male) -> twist connector -> android screen (twist connector)

* Note that the fakra male connector on MB COMAND unit has 2 'tongues' that are aligned with the grooves on female connector, but one of the tongues doesn't align with the one I got from Amazon, so I had to use a knife to remove it from the 2 male connectors. The one on COMAND unit is a bit tricky, as I only have a utility knife, but I managed to get it removed after about 5 minutes. and I tested it with google map and it worked fine.

- You also need to run audio cable from the head unit to your center console AMI plug, this is probably the most difficult one for me (haven't done it yet) but I think this should be a piece of cake for professionals that does this on regular basis.

One thing that really concerned me though, yesterday I had everything connected, and was trying to figure out the password issue, I left the unit connected for about 2 hours with the overhead led light on, at the end I found my battery was drained to the point that my car wouldn't start and I had to jump it.

 

It was the 4th video "Unit Setup"

 

Which GPS splitter from Amazon did you get? Type 1, Type 2 or Type 3?

 

Type 1 - 2 female, 1 male

 

Any update on the install?

 

Not yet, having a busy week at work. will install it this weekend.