ahmed24

I installed a Teyes CC3 Android Head Unit about 9 months ago and never got round to posting it on here. I've installed this on my own 2006 IS250 with factory nav and ML. Teyes call this option the Model B. I've also installed it for a few people on the late models that have USB music playing options from the factory. Teyes calls this the Model A. Just to clarify, the Head Units themselves are the same between Model A and B. The difference is that they supply a different wiring loom/harness as the two models of cars have completely different wiring layout.

After 9 months of use, my personal opinion on this is that it's a fantastic kit. There are loads of other unbranded chinese units you can get but none of them compare to the build quality of this. I've installed a good few unbranded ones for customers in the past. The UI on the other chinese units are in my opinion not upto scratch. They give you a mediocre launcher UI and everything else they don't touch and so the user experience is somewhat spoilt with the constant change of UI and themes. Teyes on the other hand have completely created an entire OS skin with their theme. So you won't find any section without the Teyes UI theme. Which I think is fantastic. Some of the other unbranded or unknown chinese brands don't even include a cooling fan into their design. Teyes has a cooling fan and it's all constructed very well. As I have installed a good few unbranded chinese units on many different car models over the years, one thing i've always found with them is that once you install it, it's very rare that you will get full software updates with useful new features. Having owned Teyes for 9 months. I've recieved 3 updates with nice new features. I think a lot of the chinese unbranded stuff you have to just buy and leave it as it is without any hope for support in the future.

A few things worth mentioning if anyone planning to get this system

1. The Model B installation is a lot simpler. Just remove old and install new. The Model A is a lot more challening as it involves dismantling your original upper screen and just keeping the processing unit. This unit has to be kept behind the screen while installing this new head unit. So the room behind is a bit of a challenge. But if you do it right, there is plenty of space.
2. On the Model B the reverse cam is supposed to be plug and play just requiring the setting to be turned on. But on model A, if you want to use OEM reverse camera, you have to locate the camera wires and de-pin and wire it to the Teyes. I personally wasn't bothered about the OEM reverse camera because I wanted to upgrade to AHD reverse camera as I found the OEM one to be poor quality.
3. The frame itself is not made by Teyes, they are made by companies that specialise in this and supply to other Head Unit manufacturers too. And they only have LHD versions of this frame. Meaning the Drivers and Passenger temperature controls are wrong way round. I've managed to fix this by reverse engineering the PCB and swapping out some resistos to flip it around.
4. If anyone thinking to buy this, please make sure the seller that you buy from packages the metal frame properly and bubble wraps the actual frame with lots of layers to keep the metal seperate from the plastic frame. The amount of people i've seen receive this with the metal frame scratching the hell out of the frame is shocking. Just poor packaging. Since I mentioned it to people, it appears they take extra care.

I've also done a few mods and tweaks on the unit, which are as follows:

1. Carbon hydrodipped the frame to match my OEM unit that I had previously done.
2. Upgraded backlight LED's to white to match my OEM unit that I had previously done.
3. Wired the Steering wheel voice button to activate Siri (CarPlay) or Google Assistant (AndroidAuto) - Video demo:
   here
4. I customised the boot animation with my own custom made one. Video demo:
   here
5. A video demo of my LHD to RHD temperature buttons can be found here

Below i've attached some photos of the installation and finished product on my 2006 IS250.

ahmed24

And here are a few pics of the installation I did for someone else on a 2012 IS250 Model A.

IS350mumba

Some have said steering buttons will not work, microphone quality disaster. Issues with buttons, no home or back button on the device.Top status bar with navigation buttons in some applications disappears. If you have pre facelift model then for perfect fit need to buy 09+ dash vent witch costs about the same as new dashboard.

ahmed24

I’ve installed this on mine plus 6 other 2is’s. All work perfect. The steering wheel buttons work fine but if you want to be able to program it to do your own thing you need to modify the provided harness. Which is what I did to map the voice button to siri. The low mic quality isn’t the problem with the external mic. The problem occurs on most aftermarket head units. I’ve installed a good number of unknown brands on European cars too and the problem with the microphone is a result of bad internal design on all these units. It’s because there is a built-in internal mic and the option for the external. And ofcourse people plug in the external. Problem with that is then the single mic input now becomes shared and as a result the input volume is drastically effected. You simply cannot just split a mic input into two. The way I got round this is to completely disable the internal mic. I did a sound recording test file before and after. Before it sounded like I was very far and after disabling internal mic it sounds like a normal microphone. I also increased the gain in the settings. By far the best unit out there. Top navigation bar ofcourse will hide if you have apps on full screen, you just need to swipe down. I’ve mapped the mode button on the steering wheel to go to the Home Screen and long press goes to settings.

as for the vent. Yes these units are made for the newer design vent which I already had and was planning to swap out. So worked out well for me

BikeGuy

I guess you are running an older firmware or Vincent Vega Edition firmware ? Could you share that bootanimation it looks awesome.

Question for you in regards to FM radio, I installed a Teyes CC3 unit in my 2010 RX350 and it did not come with an adaptor to plug the radio antenna, I purchased an adaptor which has a blue wire which you attach to antenna power G8 on Teyes wiring diagram. First I plugged in the antenna without the power wire and instantly the reception was far better, I then plugged in the antenna power but honesty it sounds the same which is not as good as with the stock unit. Did you find that your audio reception degraded compared to stock ?

ahmed24

No, i tried running Vincent Vega edition back in July 2022 but wasn't happy with his support. I'm on the January 2023 fimrware. Although they've just released a new March firmware. I will stick to the January one for now as it has some nice new additons including the slider volume graphic and the abiity to have multiple app pages. Teyes have deliverately made it impossible to upgrade the bootanimation. In the past you could just flash the animation file with the lsec6315update file using a USB. Now it's practically impossible without rooting. The way I did it was had to unpack the entire firmware file then change the bootanimation and then repackage it with the correct signature method so Teyes likes it as a genuine upgrade software. Then I just flashed the software and the bootanimation worked.

In all honesty, I do not listen to the radio at all to be able to notice the difference. I tested it and I was able to tune into radio channels so that was fine. My car is a 2006 so it has the old style universal radio antenna plug. But on the newer facelift ones I installed, you need the adaptor to convert it like you said. But the people I installed it for chose to use the factory radio system instead of the Teyes one. So i left the radio on factory, they just go to the Radio app from Vehicle Settings which controls the factory radio.

jj68jam

Ahmet24-
What color are the LEDs for the side buttons on either side of the screen and below? Are they soldered onto a board? Did you buy yours on Ebay?
Thank you!

ahmed24

colour of LEDs are green to match the factory OEM lower unit. They wouldn’t make it a different colour for small group of people because the mass sales will be to people who have stock setup. I upgraded my original unit to white LEDs so had to upgrade the LEDs on this frame too so it matches. Yes they are soldered 0805 SMD LEDs.

I bought it from a Teyes reseller directly from China on alibaba. Teyes have their own aliexpress store and online store too

jj68jam

Got it- Thank you! I changed all of mine to a dark blue a couple years ago so I guess I'll have to do some soldering again. I like how you hyd-dipped the trim! It looks like the gray plastic is close but not an exact match to the OEM.

Alternet

You beat me to this post. My 2k screen CC3 is in the mail and i was going to do a post reviewing the install and stuff.

Glad to hear your happy with it. I'm going from non nav radio to this and i'm looking forward to having a back up cam and android auto.

CCColtsicehockey

iTrader: (3)

Been reading about these units that look factory but upgraded in the last few weeks. Great to see a thread pop up on them. My touch screen has died and I had been considering the GROM to get Android Auto in the car. However, these are tempting with the larger screen and capacitive touch if they work well.

@Alternet I am interested in seeing how your 2k screen one works since they it is a 9.5 screen and the opening on that cover is 9in and the reset and mic holes will not line up now according to the Teyes 2k upgrade page.

Alternet

Mine didn't have factor nav so teyes has a different setup for us non navi people. it doesn't have any buttons on the left or right at all. But because of that the screen is actually 10.2"




Also the 2k screen gets rid of the capacitive touch buttons on the top left side to make room for more screen.

If there is any further interest I can take a bunch of pictures as I install it and make a post.

Alternet

Question for you @ahmed24

I just installed my CC3 and got canbus all setup. I noticed that when i change the volume with the volume **** that it changes one volume (i'm assuming amp volume?). on the other hand the steering wheel buttons change the head unit volume. Have you found a way to get both the **** and steering wheel buttons to control the same volume (preferably the amp? volume)?

MikeFig82

iTrader: (13)

I hardly check currency against the dollar. Though Yesterday I had the 128gb version, and the HD upgrade package in my cart. Just to confirm the price would be $800+ once converted to AUD shipped to USA??

Alternet

I dont know all extras you may have added. Just Google "usd to aud"

I bought both cameras as well so I'm not sure the price for just the unit and 2k screen or what ever else you have a selected.