[graaja]

Originally Posted by PraNeel

I have a friend who is from Coimbatore and he frequently visits Bangalore, so asked you.

Oh. Ok. I got it from a small auto electric shop. His name is Rathish and the number is 8122292777. He did not have this in stock, but he went and sourced it from some place. His shop is located on Mettupalayam road.

You can also ask your friend to check the auto accessories shops around Nehru stadium.

[senthils27]

Hi Ganesh,

Excellent review with detailed inputs. Thanks for sharing.

I read your android HU review last time and was tempted for an upgrade. But for me sound quality is of primary importance. I had already upgraded to RCD 510 in my Vento and found significant improvement in audio quality from RCD 320 with stock speakers. With android HU you had rated it between RCD 320 and RCD 510 (may be 8 speaker setup in your Jetta sets the standard high). Actually I had once tried a Chinese HU long time back but sound quality was very poor so was not willing to take risk.

Now this HU is even more tempting with super VW integration like TPMS, door warning status etc. But again your sound quality rating is same as that of android HU so holding off for now. But not sure how long I can.

One question about the shuffle feature, does this feature shuffles between all folders or just in one folder. I faced this problem in my old Chinese HU where it shuffled songs only in that particular folder.

[graaja]

Originally Posted by senthils27

Excellent review with detailed inputs. Thanks for sharing.
...
Now this HU is even more tempting with super VW integration like TPMS, door warning status etc. But again your sound quality rating is same as that of android HU so holding off for now. But not sure how long I can.

One question about the shuffle feature, does this feature shuffles between all folders or just in one folder. I faced this problem in my old Chinese HU where it shuffled songs only in that particular folder.

Hi Senthil,

Thank you so much for the kind words!

Now that I have used the HU for a few days and after a few tweaks to the equalizer settings, I would rate the sound quality of this unit better than the Android HU, almost nearing that of RCD510

Regarding shuffle, this HU also shuffles only songs within the folder. If you have repeat off, once all the songs in the folder have been played, it moves to the next folder and then shuffles the songs between that folder.

[senthils27]

Originally Posted by graaja

Hi Senthil,

Thank you so much for the kind words!

Now that I have used the HU for a few days and after a few tweaks to the equalizer settings, I would rate the sound quality of this unit better than the Android HU, almost nearing that of RCD510

Regarding shuffle, this HU also shuffles only songs within the folder. If you have repeat off, once all the songs in the folder have been played, it moves to the next folder and then shuffles the songs between that folder.

Well, then it does not sound good for my wallet

If you want complete shuffling folders, can you try this?

Keep just one song in root folder. Then you can keep any number of folders and subfolders. Try shuffle after playing the song in root folder. The player may shuffle between all folders. Even in RCD 510 I faced this problem and found this workaround from internet.

[Chethan B G]

Originally Posted by senthils27

If you want complete shuffling folders, can you try this?

Keep just one song in root folder. Then you can keep any number of folders and subfolders. Try shuffle after playing the song in root folder. The player may shuffle between all folders. Even in RCD 510 I faced this problem and found this workaround from internet.

I do the same thing on my RCD 510. Just one song in the root directory. I have plenty of subfolders in the root directory. Shuffling works like a charm.

Also on RCD 510, the shuffle feature takes care of our individual choice too, I think. If we keep skipping a particular song / folder, it tends to skip it the next time.. not sure if I am imagining things..

[kishore1984]

Hey,

What's your take on this Console

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Andr...1-ae7e7ade5af0

The amount of detailing the seller has provided, looks like a decent bet

[graaja]

Originally Posted by kishore1984

Hey,

What's your take on this Console

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Andr...1-ae7e7ade5af0

The amount of detailing the seller has provided, looks like a decent bet

This is the standard RK3188 chipset android HU that is made by many vendors in AliExpress. The one I had before is based on this platform.


Looks like they have upgraded to Android 5.x. If you plan to get this, just check whether the HU has built in mic for bluetooth or external mic. I saw many latest Android HU's with internal mic and from my experience with the last Android HU I had, internal mic could be better for voice quality.

[graaja]

Radio Antenna Cable Installed:

As I had mentioned before, when I installed the DS611, the radio antenna cable in the original wiring harness did not match with the connector on the HU. The original harness had a single connector, whereas the HU had a double connector. I had ordered the adaptor cable from AliExpress. I had got this a few weeks back. But due to work related travel, I could not get this installed. Used the festival holidays to get this done.

This is the cable I received from AliExpress. It has a dual connector on one side that plugs into the HU and single connector on the other side that connects to the existing wiring harness.


I had ordered from the below link.

Radio Antenna Adaptor Cable

Opened the console, removed the HU and connected the cable. The dual connector plugs into the HU.


The single connector plugs into the connector in the existing wiring harness (sorry about the poor quality out of focus picture).


With the radio antenna connected, I was able to tune 3 stations. Radio reception and sound quality is excellent!


Firmware Update:

I had reported some minor issues about the HU to the vendor.

1. The engine temperature value on the home screen does not get updated automatically. When I change to some other screen and back to home screen, it gets updated
2. When using navigation and playing from SD card, the music volume keeps fluctuating a lot.
3. When I am playing songs on my phone using A2DP, I am not able to pause the music using the pause button on the HU. If I use pause button, and then press play, the song restarts from the beginning. Also, I am not able to select next or previous track.
4. The clock is drifting a lot. I set the time yesterday evening, and today morning the clock is faster by 15 minutes. How to improve the accuracy of the clock? There is an option to sync to GPS, but when I do this, the HU is displaying Chinese timezone.

#1 and #2 were not a big concern. But I wanted a solution for #3 and #4. The vendor promised a firmware update and as promised sent me a mail with a zip file with the updated firmware.

I had to unzip the file and copy the content to a blank SD card. Then I inserted the SD card into the maps SD card slot. When I opened the version screen, the HU read the firmware version from the SD card and displayed the version information of the existing and new firmware.


I had to then go to factory reset screen and execute a factory reset. The HU then installed the new firmware.





After the new firmware installation, the A2DP problem is solved. Now I am able to pause, play, and select next and previous tracks from the HU. The next and previous track selection from the steering wheel also work fine. I have not got a chance to check the engine temperature refresh.

However, the time drift is still there. I set the time yesterday evening, and today morning, noticed the time to be off by 20 minutes. Have reported this to the vendor and the vendor has promised they will come back with an update. Having said that, I am not very much concerned about this feature, as I do not see the time on the HU (It is much convenient to see the time on the instrument cluster).

[Mitz]

Hi Graaja,

Have you got any chance to do a detailed comparison between the Android HU and the DS-611 ?
Ali express is having heavy discounts today (11/11) and I am planning to buy the Joying 5.1.1 HU.

Do you think the android has a significant edge over DS611 ?

[graaja]

Originally Posted by Mitz

Hi Graaja,

Have you got any chance to do a detailed comparison between the Android HU and the DS-611 ?
Ali express is having heavy discounts today (11/11) and I am planning to buy the Joying 5.1.1 HU.

Do you think the android has a significant edge over DS611 ?

I wanted to do a comparison of the Android HU and DS611, but did not get the time. Here is a quick comparision.

Android HU:

Pros:

• More flexible due to Android platform. The possibilities to configure are endless
• Comes with Google Maps
• You can use your preferred music player like Power Amp, Google Play etc.
• Can run apps like Torque and many more

Cons:

• Very long boot up time. Takes almost a minute to boot up, whereas the DS611 does it in less than 15 seconds
• Every time you take to the service center, you will have to lock access or delete your Google Play account to prevent foul play
• Not very easy to use. You need to be tech savvy to get it setup to your liking

DS611

Pros:

• More OE look (subjective)
• Integrates well with the car. For example, when you mute the audio the media goes to pause and resumes when you unmute. I was never able to get this working reliably in Android HU. There were some Apps which were supposed to do this, but they were very unpredictable.
• Integrated TPMS. This is the feature that I like the most.
• In built navigation, does not require data. But I have not used this extensively to comment on its capabilities compared to Google maps
• Supports Phone mirror function

Cons:

• The in built navigation is IGO8, which may not be that effective. With phone mirroring Google Maps may be used for navigation
• Does not support iPod
• Music browsing is very simple folder based. Does not let you browse music based on album, artist etc. It does not shuffle all music

Summary:
The Android system needs more time to setup to your liking. You have to setup Google Play to install the music player of your liking, screen lock apps etc to lock before giving it for service etc. Even after a month of use, I was still fiddling with the system installing new Apps, changing settings etc. On the other hand, the DS611 is a no-nonsense system that can be operated out of box without having to worry about many settings. In fact, once I set it up during installation, I have not changed anything at all.

If you are tech savvy and do not mind the effort taken in setting up the system, then Android is the one to go. If you want the HU to be simple and work out of the box, then DS611 is the one to go.

[rauldsouza]

Hi Sir,

Couple of questions before finalizing on this.

1.How is the display resolution of this Head unit ?
2.Can font or themes be changed, i maybe nitpicking here however the UX doesn't seem elegant compared to RCD 330 plus. Apologies i come from a UX background. I feel Apple Car Play MIB2 is the gold standard.

The thing that is hard to beat is TMPS integration which is tilting the decision towards this

[graaja]

Originally Posted by rauldsouza

Hi Sir,

Couple of questions before finalizing on this.

1.How is the display resolution of this Head unit ?
2.Can font or themes be changed, i maybe nitpicking here however the UX doesn't seem elegant compared to RCD 330 plus. Apologies i come from a UX background. I feel Apple Car Play MIB2 is the gold standard.

The thing that is hard to beat is TMPS integration which is tilting the decision towards this

1. The resolution is quite good. Video played back from a DVD has very good resolution.
2. No. The font or theme cannot be changed. In terms of user interface look and feel, I think RCD330+ is far better.

Even for me, TPMS integration was the most important feature that made me choose this HU. Once TPMS saved me from a faulty air pressure gauge in a petrol pump. Though I had asked for a pressure of 34, and the pressure gauge in the petrol pump showed 34, the actual pressure was 26. The HU immediately gave me a warning, and I took the car to a different petrol pump and got the pressure fixed. This was just before a 500km drive, and it could have been disastrous to drive with such a low pressure.

All the great features aside, there is one niggle that is quite irritating. If the HU is turned off when a long music track (>5 minutes) is playing, while starting up, it takes quite a long time (close to a minute) to boot up. I plan to write to the vendor about this problem and see if they have a firmware fix.