Maxca 7 Inch Wireless CarPlay Headunit

[The_Hawk]

The next piece of the puzzle arrived yesterday and was installed today:

A passthrough USB plug (under that cap) in case I ever want to plug something in.
I also replaced the TCS button as the clips holding it in were broken.



And for a bonus, I've had a replacement drain tube for the RVC sitting on my desk for months which I put in today too. This is what an old one looks like, note the little rubber end had perished so it wasn't poking out the bottom anymore so would have been draining into the boot lid. There doesn't appear to be any ill effects, although that pipe doesn't look quite so clean and clear as the new one

[The_Hawk]

I should update this thread:

I've replaced the rear camera with an Aliexpress flip camera using good old composite after trying different adaptors to get the OEM CVBS camera working. They all seem to be **** and this simplifies and solves the issue (with a loss in picture quality)... but now it works instantly, every time as it should. In doing this I've also discovered my steering wheel has the turn sensors in it for the moving parking lines, they are completely useless on this headunit/RVC combo as they have no correlation with reality, but interesting to note that the system knows when and how much I'm turning.

Related to that I was updating firmware with the help of the OEM when I was trying to get the CVBS adaptors working which has meant a couple of things. Units now can lo longer select the boot logo from a menu (thanks to copyright) but it's apparently possible to load one manually when you load firmware. Something I haven't managed to get working just yet.

I have noticed that the screen isn't as bright as I would like even at max brightness. With the roof off it can be unusable depending on where the sun is (but that's hardly a fair test), but even with the roof up it can be hard to see if the sun is in the wrong spot. I think the RNS510 has a similar issue, but not as bad??

I'm still working out volume controls, while it is plenty loud enough and there are multiple sliders for music, nav and phone the main volume is a separate slider which turns everything up and down. This means if you're listening to a quiet podcast and turn it up, your nav volume is also turned up and is now screaming at you. Similar story when you take a phone call and turn it up to hear, the music is then stupidly loud when you hang up.
Other headunits/vehicles I have had dynamically change what the volume knob does depending on what you are doing and each volume is separate and fixed so turning up the phone call has no impact on the music or nav. It would be a step forward if something like this could be implemented in a firmware update.

All of that said and given the price point, I still think it's a compelling option to bring Mk5 and Mk6 Golfs into the modern day on the cheap.

[Guinan]

Where did you get the "passthrough USB plug" looks neat and if I go for this would like to do the same thing. Shame they don't do a green light version for Skoda owners...
Ian

[The_Hawk]

This is the one I bought and note that I don't think it has any light in it at all:
Diy Car Usb Adapter Audio Usb Cable Switch For Vw Golf Mk5 Mk6 Vi 5 6 Jetta Cc Tiguan Passat B6 - Cables, Adapters & Sockets - AliExpress

If all you want is power there is these options:
For Vw Golf 6 Jetta 5 Mk5 Scirocco 2006 - 2014 Car Usb Charger Pd Quick Charge Qc3.0 Auto Phone Charging Adapter Button - Cables, Adapters & Sockets - AliExpress

I think I have only used it for firmware upgrades since I just stream everything from my phone. Still much nice than having a cable floating around.

It would be nice if you could replace the MDI socket with a USB socket in the centre console instead, although this is just as neat.