ROOF MONITOR

[dave murrell]

with an android head unit already fitted in the car I am at a loss as to what to do about the redundant roof monitor, its the wide screen type, is it suitable for anything at all?

Would prefer to take it out and put something useful up there instead, any ideas, the car is all dark interior with lounge seats.

[big_boz]

Usefull? 

[Alphard Club]

On 12/6/2023 at 8:18 PM, dave murrell said:

with an android head unit already fitted in the car I am at a loss as to what to do about the redundant roof monitor, its the wide screen type, is it suitable for anything at all?

Would prefer to take it out and put something useful up there instead, any ideas, the car is all dark interior with lounge seats.

i cannot think of anything that could replace it and I guess leaving it there is better than having an imprint in the roof lining.

[threepot]

Just thought I'd post up I got my roof monitor successfully working with my Android head unit last night....

 

 

And its actually really easy on the grand scale of things, follow this link to the other forum topic....

 

 

[dave murrell]

Superb, thank you for the link.

[threepot]

The passenger mirror camera and the front camera are very easy too hook up too by the looks of it.

Under the passenger seat is the IPA (parking assist controller), and on this connector.....

 

 

You will find both the cameras connect to this connector, front uses pins 23,24,25,26 and the side one uses 15,16,17,16

 

 

 

Now all they are is CV+ (red) and CV- (white) which is the video signal itself. And to make the camera work it needs 6v feed to CB (black wire), and Ground is Ground!

 

In the back of the android head unit there is connector C, with camera input pins for all the cameras, my back up camera is connected currently to C5/C6 and works. So just put the side one to C3/C4 and the front one to C9/C10.

 

 

Well that's the theory, I'll tell you if it works in a few weeks time when I give it a whirl, but there is little doubt in my mind it'll just work but hopefully the pictures are the right way round etc.

 

[big_boz]

Where do you get the plugs to interface to the back of the head unit? AliExpress? I have the reverse camera, on that c block

[threepot]

You can just steal some pins from the other unused connectors like the RCA outs etc. But I ordered one of these here just to cover all bases.

 

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005980041812.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.main.1.427310d0AhZ4gt&algo_pvid=c4c509e7-1307-4917-b7a8-4699a7690c50&algo_exp_id=c4c509e7-1307-4917-b7a8-4699a7690c50-0&pdp_npi=4%40dis!GBP!5.00!3.5!!!6.15!!%40211b61a417033710448111053e34a1!12000036145331587!sea!GB!118814954!&curPageLogUid=1CUrZKcf1IDJ

 

 

And to create the 6 volt power feed for the cameras you can get these little boxed regulators on amazon for £8

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Converter-Module-Voltage-Regulator-Waterproof-2PCS/dp/B08DTQJ18D/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2KMNMEBOKFZ1L&keywords=12V%2Bto%2B6V%2BCar%2BPower%2BVoltage%2BConverter%2BDC%2B9V-22V&qid=1703374110&s=industrial&sprefix=12v%2Bto%2B6v%2Bcar%2Bpower%2Bvoltage%2Bconverter%2Bdc%2B9v-22v%2Cindustrial%2C86&sr=1-1&th=1

Edited December 23, 2023 by threepot

[threepot]

So I have my roof monitor install properly working and tidy installed. I just cut one of the yellow plugs of the USB adaptor lead and soldered two pins to the wires, then heat shrinked it all up. This then just slips into the Toyota factory plug as per the attached pictures.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited December 24, 2023 by threepot

[dave murrell]

Does the roof unit work independent of the android head unit and vice versa.

[big_boz]

16 minutes ago, dave murrell said:

Does the roof unit work independent of the android head unit and vice versa.

Will depend on the head unit, some support independent rear screen support so you play video to the rear and run nav on the head unit (I had an xtrons in my old Merc viano that could do it) but.....It didn't work with android auto so if AA was connected it would only mirror, I could run video to the back and g maps on the head unit. 

[dave murrell]

So I could get away with an android roof unit with built-in USB sockets and BT headphones and just need power and ground.

[threepot]

27 minutes ago, dave murrell said:

Does the roof unit work independent of the android head unit and vice versa.

With the USB to Video output adaptor plugged into the Android head unit, it just creates a cloned output of the front monitor. So whatever is on the front screen is cloned to the rear monitor. Thus you cannot have a video on the back one, while you do other things on the front one. They are simply a clone of each other. Quite what the android head unit really can do is a bit of a mystery to me at the moment as I've not had it a week. Maybe with time we will find ways to do more things with it, they are all much of muchness so maybe we can make a firmware flavour that is really cool on Alphard/Vellfire! Build into the Android OS is something called "multi display", and it can either be in clone mode, or extended desktop mode. Some research and testing into this should permit different apps to be on the different monitors I'd imagine.

 

 

As for the camera in the passenger mirror, and the front grill camera, they both are wired into the parking assist controller which is underneath the front passenger seat and look like this....

 

 

All we have to do is unplug the white and black connectors and connect to some pins in there, plus use a 6v adaptor..... then run 2 RCA Video cables to the back of the android head unit to connect to the Android head units video camera input connector. I have drawn up this "proposed" connection plan....

 

 

Then we can just plug in the Front and Side video signals to the android head unit panoramic camera connectors, along with the rear camera one that is already connected with the supplied android Alphard adaptor box...

[big_boz]

10 minutes ago, dave murrell said:

So I could get away with an android roof unit with built-in USB sockets and BT headphones and just need power and ground.

Yeah pretty much Dave, so in the Merc I could either run my rear 2 screens off the heard unit, or each screen could work independently and both had dvd players, they could then wirelessly connect to headphones and each screen could do something different. 

 

I'm more inclined to pull my currently redundant OEM rear screen and install a bigger android 17 inch wide screen xtrons roof monitor, the kids can then watch what they want with BT headphones. All that needs is a 12v to the roof and hotspot WiFi connection. Simples 

[threepot]

13 minutes ago, big_boz said:

 

I'm more inclined to pull my currently redundant OEM rear screen and install a bigger android 17 inch wide screen xtrons roof monitor, the kids can then watch what they want with BT headphones. All that needs is a 12v to the roof and hotspot WiFi connection. Simples 

 

I've had the trim off round the roof monitor, there is a connector plug in there with 2 x 12v permanent lives (blue wires), 2 x permanent ground (white with black stripe) and the is a red wire that with the ignition on give 5v feed (red wire) and goes off with the ignition off. So you could easily use the existing wiring to feed an android pop out monitor thing.

[dave murrell]

That is pretty much what I had in mind for the (wife's, thought it was gonna be mine) Vellfire. The Android head unit already came fitted so a little bit in the dark about what and how stuff is connected to it, can be operated from the steering wheel, would like to add extras to it as we go along.

 

Never thought the wife would go from her S class to the Vellfire, 😏

[threepot]

I just want all the original stuff to work with the android head unit I've just fitted. Most of the Alphard and Vellfire 20 series have the camera in the front grill and the left mirror camera already as its part of the Auto self parking system, but I've never seen any one on the internet or in person with an android head unit that the extra parking assist cameras work, or the roof screen. And it is just a few wires really to get them working from what I've found so far.

 

Also if you unplug the factory roof monitor, the whole audio output system stops working for the front head unit etc. You would have to make a few bypass wires to reform the MOST connections that go though the factory roof monitor. Because the signals from the front head unit loop though the roof monitor before getting to the amplifier unit. It is all solvable though with half a clue of the factory wiring.

Edited December 24, 2023 by threepot

[dave murrell]

Ordered the workshop manual with the wiring diagram on a USB stick so hopefully will remove the elongated roof monitor for an android unit.

[Cavegod]

Any idea which wires to connect on the roof screen llug to get the sound back?

[Cavegod]

Ok made some pins up and connected MI- to MO-, MI+ to MI+ & SLD- to SLD+ and still no sound. not sure what else to do apart from keeping the old screen

[dave murrell]

5 minutes ago, Cavegod said:

Ok made some pins up and connected MI- to MO-, MI+ to MI+ & SLD- to SLD+ and still no sound. not sure what else to do apart from keeping the old screen

Replace it with an Android roof unit with built-in USB and BT.

[Cavegod]

Just now, dave murrell said:

Replace it with an Android roof unit with built-in USB and BT.

Yes i have ine but as soon as i unplug the factory screen i lose audio

[dave murrell]

20 minutes ago, Cavegod said:

Yes i have ine but as soon as i unplug the factory screen i lose audio

...and is there no simple way of bypassing the socket at the roof to complete the circuit I take it?

[Cavegod]

5 minutes ago, dave murrell said:

...and is there no simple way of bypassing the socket at the roof to complete the circuit I take it?

I connected the obvious wires as detailed above maybe it need Wui connecting to wuo

Edited December 29, 2023 by Cavegod

[Cavegod]

On 12/24/2023 at 5:27 PM, threepot said:

I just want all the original stuff to work with the android head unit I've just fitted. Most of the Alphard and Vellfire 20 series have the camera in the front grill and the left mirror camera already as its part of the Auto self parking system, but I've never seen any one on the internet or in person with an android head unit that the extra parking assist cameras work, or the roof screen. And it is just a few wires really to get them working from what I've found so far.

 

Also if you unplug the factory roof monitor, the whole audio output system stops working for the front head unit etc. You would have to make a few bypass wires to reform the MOST connections that go though the factory roof monitor. Because the signals from the front head unit loop though the roof monitor before getting to the amplifier unit. It is all solvable though with half a clue of the factory wiring.

Anyideas on bypassing the roof screen to get the sound back