I installed a similar unit just a different brand about 8 months ago. Pumpkin. Works great. I don't think I could stand a normally head unit again lol. I had to do a bit of trimming and lining up to get it to fit to my liking's.

 

I almost got a pumpkin as well. Where do these people get names for their head units?? lol. No doubt, once you go Android it'll be extremely hard to go back. It does take a little bit to setup, but it's awesome. I have a little digital speedo widget, clock and weather widget and a PowerAmp widget that shows coverart.

 

I hope it is this simple. For the steering wheel controls I was just told to connect OEM steering wheel wire to Key1 wire of the headunit. Makes perfect sense since our cars use resistance for steering wheel control and the headunit takes a resistive input. I'll be trying when I get home and will report back.

 

Oh, nice - so, no adapter needed to make the steering wheel inputs work?

I have a JVC touch double din, but I am not thrilled with it. Was considering selling it off (sounds like I could sell the steering wheel adapter with it) to offset some of the cost of picking up one of these Joying units.

And, for what it's worth, I am torn between the JY-UQ128 and the JY-UQ130.

The 128 has no physical buttons. The 130 has buttons and a volume ****.

InfiniteReality - does the backlighting on the 128 work properly? I was reading reviews that the buttons on the 130 weren't very responsive and the backlighting didn't work.

How well do they work with dimming - is there an "autodim" sensor based on ambient lighting like a phone/tablet, or is there a dimmer sense wire like a normal headunit?

Oh, and - I hate he name too - "Joying"....I thought if I got this, I would just get some vinyl cut that says "Chevrolet" or something to cover it up and make it look more OEM.

 

From what I was told no PAC needed. I'll confirm here shortly. Fingers crossed even tho I already bought one. Least it'll save someone else the cost.

I vote for the 130, if anything for the volume ****. I had soft key volume, it'd drive me nuts. BUT if the steering wheel controls work and programmed, then it may not matter. There was some other difference it seems between the 2, but I can't think of it.

Backlighting works fine on mine. Easy to change to any color you want. Not totally sure if it works with dimming, I never dim my gauges.

I like the idea of something to cover up Joying. I have a vinyl cutter but don't think it'll cut that small of things. May be worth a test cut next time I use it.

 

Didn't have time last night to test the steering wheel controls, should have no reason not to tonight

 

I installed the Joying head unit into my Trans Am last night. It was a tight fit after cutting out that plastic, and luckily I did not have any issues with that.


I did have an issue with the metal clips that fit on the new Metra bezel. They did not want to push or screw on. I got one to go on, but it stripped out the plastic post and pulls off. I ended up taking the metal clips from the factory bezel. There is a slight difference in the hole in the metal clip that screws onto the bezel. The factory clips slip off the Metra bezel, and the clips that came with the kit do not want to go on. It figures a step that should be the easiest causes the most trouble.


I got the bezel to fit on, so I left it alone for now. I think I will take it off this weekend and epoxy the Metra metal clips onto the Metra bezel.


The radio and mp3 player work great. So much cleaner than the stock Monsoon. I knew the Monsoon is known as a "distortion machine", but it definitely got worse from when I first bought my T/A new in 2002.


I did have an issue with the Sygic navigation that came with the radio. I started it up and it told me that the license is invalid. I can get the exact message the next time I drive the car. I think I may have to contact Joying about that, but if their customer support is as bad as the English on their website, I may have a difficult time resolving that issue.

 

I was hoping just to use Google Maps or Waze for my Nav instead of their native client. I had heard that the native one doesn't lower or mute the volume on music when providing directions.

How did you guys trim the bezels? And how much needs to be trimmed?

 

I planned on using Google maps as well, just hotspot the phone. I'll actually be testing this out tomorrow to make a trip to Houston to skydive. So if you don't ever get a reply, you know why, haha.

I used a Dremel with a plastic cutting bit. Just hold securely and take your time and definitely test fit little by little.

 

LMAO on the reply.

I planned on doing the same with the hotspot - I am an Android phone guy, so Tasker should take care of that. When it connects to the HU via Bluetooth, I think I can have it fire up the hotspot automatically, and kill it once it disconnects.

 

Oh yeah, there is none other than android! That reminds me, I need to reinstall Tasker again for just that reason.....but after I test the steering wheel controls. lol

 

Those Pumpkin units are nice too.


I looked at those, and ones with the DVD player, etc were kind of out of my price range. My T/A is not my daily driver anymore, so I did not want to put too much money in the head unit. The Joying is perfect for what I wanted in my T/A.


I used a generic trimmer that I got from Harbor Freight. It is not as good as a Dremel, so it took me several hours of grind, test fit, grind again, test fit again, etc until I got a good fit. After a long day at work, simple repetitive tasks like that are actually relaxing. LOL.

The built in Sygic navigation is supposed to be offline and just use the GPS and no internet connection. The main reason I want to get it to work is that it comes with the head unit, so I technically paid for it.


I tested Google Maps with my phone as a hot spot. Works great.


Other mapping options are HERE! maps, which is the mapping owned by Microsoft. They acquired it when they took over Nokia. I had Nokia maps (I think it was called Drive) when I had a Windows Phone a few years ago, and it was really good. HERE! has offline mode too, and I think it is free with no ads.


Waze also works, and like Google Maps, it requires an internet connection. I also tested that with my phone as a hotspot and it worked. I think Waze signed up Morgan Freeman to use his voice, so if you enjoy his smooth voice, then that is a bonus of Waze. LOL.

 

Well I tried hooking up key 1 to steering wheel wire with no luck unless my steering wheel controls didn't work when I bought the car. I didn't test further had stuff come up last night but did at least test.

Anyone know how to test them? Ohm meter, ground one and other for the wire I assume?

 

That is a bummer. I watched a video on the Joying website where one of their techs was demonstrating hooking up a steering wheel control to the radio. It was on a bench and the steering wheel control was removed from the car. He was using the learn feature on the head unit to program the buttons. The English on the video was impossible to follow, so I just muted the sound.


I think you are on the right track of using an ohm meter.


I was going to try what you did myself, but I did not feel like pulling the unit out after I just got it working. I will post more if I make an attempt at this sometime this week.

 

I have more updates on the GPS software. I updated the firmware with the latest on the Joying website, and while it fixed a few bugs, it also wiped out the Sygic GPS software that came with the radio. That was annoying.


The firmware update fixes one issue I had with the AM/FM radio presets. The presets would not stay set when I turned the car off and took the key out. The radio would go back to the factory setting of frequencies that played static. That was very annoying. The firmware fixes that, but there is one caveat. The radio does go back to the factory default if you do a hard reset, which is either pressing in the reset button on the front of the unit, or changing a factory setting and rebooting. I can live with that, but they really need to fix that too. There is a custom program on XDA that is supposed to save the presets (along with other things) on a hard reset. I have not tried that yet.


The weather widget never worked in the firmware version that came with the radio. It would not look up my location via GPS, and it would not save my location if I entered it in. It was completely broken. The latest firmware completely removes the weather widget, and the suggest that you download one from the Google Play store. The comments complaining about it are pretty funny. I personally do not care about the weather widget, but to each his own.


The firmware also wipes out some of the other custom programs that come with the head unit, but there is an OEM icon that will let you reinstall them. Torque is one of them, but I do not have the computer interface dongle right now, so I cannot test that feature. There are a few other programs that you can install from that icon as well. It does not have the Sygic GPS mapping, so I just went to the Google Play store and downloaded it myself. The WiFi I have at my house is available in my garage, so I can do these app updates without using up my data plan on my phone.


The Sygic GPS I downloaded from the Google Play store works really well. After installing it, I just downloaded the maps for my state. I do not drive from state to state, so I did not feel the need to download the entire USA. I am also pretty sure I will not drive my car to a foreign country, so I did not download the entire world either. LOL. I also found that if you want the voice navigation to announce street names instead of the simple "turn left, turn right" directions, that you need to download one of the "Advanced Voices". I downloaded the Advanced US and UK voices. There is something about a snooty British accent that cracks me up, so I stuck with that one for now. Most of this stuff is free, which is nice because you can test it out first. Sygic does have a premium product which is pretty cheap (less than $30), but I want to see if it works for me before I spend any money on it. My big complaint is the way you enter in an address. First you enter in the state, then the zip code or city, then the street, then the street number. Seems backwards to me. I would rather just enter in "123 Main Street, some city, some state" like a normal person. I have seen the factory GPS devices in cars of my friends, and those devices are the same way. Not intuitive at all in my opinion.

 

^^ That's some good info, thanks for that! I may update the firmware at some point too. I haven't had time to mess with it lately. Saturday I didn't end up driving it to Houston, rode with my buddy that was skydiving with me, so didn't get to test Google Maps. I'm sure there isn't an issue.

I need to play with the steering wheel controls more. When I hooked it up I tried to program them but nothing. I may need to hook up Key 2 possibly as well.

I'd recommend anyone to get a OBD2 bluetooth. It's a pretty cool addition, I have a digital speed widget on my home screen. I need to setup a 2nd screen with gauges that I can just swipe to as needed.

 

The guy followed through with the video. I take NO credit to this video, he deserves it all for helping this thread out.

 

Ah, so you DO need the PAC SWI. Thanks for posting.

 

Thanks for posting that video. It is more convenient to view it here than to search other forums.
He is right, the customer service from these Chinese companies is difficult to understand. How hard is it for those companies to hire someone who can speak and write proper English?


Now that I know how to wire it up, I am going to order a control box for the steering wheel controls.


I have more information on the different GPS software after experimenting with them over several days. I can post more later today, probably after I get home from work.

 

So, what doesn't function as you expected it to on this HU?