CarLinkit Apple CarPlay Box

jrumball · January 20, 2020

The wife has a Late 2014 CT with the updated Mark Levison Audio and Sat nav system. While the Audio is amazing the sat nav is diabolically bad for a car that is really high quality everywhere else ! I have been looking for the last year for a way of adding apple CarPlay to the CT and watching the evolution of various systems . Last week I finally took the plunge and bought one for about £210 delivered by DHL, it took 3 days to arrive from China. It came from a company called Carlinkit and so far my initial impressions are good. I haven't installed it yet but, but it looks to be good quality.

I will detail the installation once its completed , here are some initial pictures

Product Page

http://www.carlinkit.com/productinfo/378755.html

Manual Link (click it it will open a PDF in a new tab, the forum doesn't like the link...)

Yorky Pud · January 22, 2020

I'll be interested to watch how you get on with this. I have also been reading up on aftermarket infotainment systems.

jrumball · January 25, 2020

So I have successfully installed the system tonight . Initial impressions are very positive . It functions as well as the interface does in the Audi . It is miles better than the built in system from Lexus and will only get better as the phone software is upgraded as it is just an interface for the phone .

The car is a 64 Plate CT200h Premier Pro with the Mark Levinson SD card based navigation (the first facelift)

Installation

The installation was simple plug and play with the cables. Once the centre console has been dismantled and the facia around the screen has been removed it is easy to plug everything up. There are plenty of instructions available to do this and the reassembly is as easy as disassembly with a screwdriver 10mm socket and some trim removal tools. There was some experimentation with getting the right combination of can links for my car, but it all seems to be working as expected now . The box is small and easy to hide. I choose to just poke the USB lead in the passenger foot well centre console trim, I may change this for something integrated habit better into the facia .

Interface

The boxes software is easy to navigate the system boots quickly and directly into CarPlay if you have a phone plugged in. It has it's own interface with will let you choose between various types of interface media input HDMI input and the various types of screen mirroring and apple CarPlay and Android Auto

My car has a joystick, it seems the hack to get it to work is treating it like a wheel (it navigates around the interface the same way my Audi does with factory Carplay) . It is not perfect but neither is any hardware interface for Carplay. Moving the joystick to the left and right jumps goes from a selected item to the next, up and sown seem to jump 5 items at a time in a list not 1 by 1, once you have your head around it it is easy to navigate. Pressing the home button is the back key and clicking the joystick selects. If you hold the joystick it activates Siri that seems to work accurately with the built in microphone in the car. Switching between the cars system and the box is done by holding down the home button, the steering wheel controls for volume work as do the keys to skip tracks and the call and drop call buttons work as expected . The keys on the right still control the screen in the dash and the voice control button only works for the cars system

Audio/Display Quality (The display quality is much better than it looks in these photos the compression on this forum has done odd things to them ! )

The car has to be set to AUX or A/V input to output the audio from the box I choose to use A/V because it seemed to sound better to me no idea why.....

The display is a limiting factor because it wasn't amazing in the first place that said the bright simple CarPlay interface works well and is easy to use on a screen of its size and resolution.

There appears to be no degradation in audio quality I have done back to back comparisons between the stock head unit and it still sounds great

The car has the mark Levinson and it still sounds great.

Call quality is better than the stock Bluetooth ! There is no echo like with the stock unit and the call is clear at both ends.

Wireless apple CarPlay

Seems to work well, you are instantly given the option to use it the first time you connect the phone . The only downside is the car doesn't have wireless charging so CarPlay will eat the Battery of the phone.

Parking reversing sensors etc

The Car switches perfectly to the factory camera when it is put in reverse and the sensors can still be heard clearly.

Bad points

The use of the joystick will take some getting used to. The system needs to be used on its own you can't have audio from the car radio at the same time as the box which means if you want to use CarPlay and get navigation announcements from Waze etc and listen to the radio you will have to steam through an app this seems to work well with the BBC Sounds APP. I has also crashed once but this was when I was connecting phones 3 phones in quick succession testing and it was also connecting to a phone wirelessly ..... Time will tell how stable it is but so far so good .

Conclusion

I think it has really improved the usability of the car, with a modern Sat Nav using Waze and lots of audio options. It nearly works as well as a factory installation. Most importantly the wife is really happy with it 😃

Wiring and Dip switch settings for a 2014 FaceLift CT200h Premier Pro with the Mark Levinson audio system and an 8 inch monitor

Dennisdenxo · April 11, 2020

On 1/25/2020 at 3:32 PM, jrumball said:

Wiring and Dip switch settings for a 2014 FaceLift CT200h Premier Pro with the Mark Levinson audio system and an 8 inch monitor

Hi. How did you know which one need to turn on for the dip switch? I bought same carlinkit carplay. I got a 2014 lexus ct200h advance.

alex_l · July 5, 2020

do you still have connectivety via cable available with that unit?

jrumball · July 5, 2020

If you mean can you connect a phone wirelessly as well as with a lightening cable then yes !

jrumball · July 5, 2020

16 minutes ago, alex_l said:

do you still have connectivety via cable available with that unit?

Sorry just seen this I experimented until it worked ..... did you figure it out ?

holiday · July 6, 2020

Hi I just read your posts. What you could’ve done was that you could just use a vtr connection cables and did the mirroring for around £30. That’s what I’ve done and it works.

jrumball · July 7, 2020

Mirroring and apple CarPlay are two completely different things, mirroring quality (composite video) is terrible in comparison and no integration siri and control with the car buttons etc . The system is also safer to operate while driving which is important. A proper apple CarPlay system is night and day, apps scale to the screen differently and in the UK it is illegal to touch the phone while driving, which you would have to do with the mirroring box. Each has different uses and cost, I for one think it was worth the money for my wife's safety, and continuity between the other cars we have 😃

ColinBarber · July 7, 2020

17 minutes ago, jrumball said:

and in the UK it is illegal to touch the phone while driving

it is not if the phone is in a holder.

jrumball · July 7, 2020

The Law is actually unclear, but the sentiment is clear.... I for one am not going to risk the points or fine or accident for that matter. The law is changing as people were using this idea as a loop hole....

https://www.gov.uk/using-mobile-phones-when-driving-the-law

https://www.fleetnews.co.uk/news/company-car-tax-and-legislation/2019/08/01/driving-phone-law-loophole-high-court

ColinBarber · July 8, 2020

11 hours ago, jrumball said:

The Law is actually unclear, but the sentiment is clear.... I for one am not going to risk the points or fine or accident for that matter. The law is changing as people were using this idea as a loop hole....

https://www.gov.uk/using-mobile-phones-when-driving-the-law

https://www.fleetnews.co.uk/news/company-car-tax-and-legislation/2019/08/01/driving-phone-law-loophole-high-court

It is perfectly clear as your .gov link states. You cannot use a hand-held device unless you have hands-free access, such as:

a Bluetooth headset
voice command
a dashboard holder or mat
a windscreen mount

Whether you have a hand-held in a mount or an in-built sat nav, the rules around driving without due care and attention still apply.

The link you provided on your initial post states the device is only compatible with ES/IS/LS/NX. Is there another one that has CT compatibility, did they confirm it would also work in the CT or did you just take a chance? The RX and GS are also missing from the list - I wonder if it will work with them.

jrumball · July 8, 2020

They have changed the page that link goes to the version I bought from AliExpress said CT compatible....

This should link to the one I bought on AliExpress

￡219.84 43％ Off | Carlinkit for Lexus NX ES US iS CT RX GS LS LX LC RC 2014-2019 Multimedia Wireless apple CarPlay and Android auto Retrofit Kit
https://a.aliexpress.com/_dZLKIl8

Trunkz · July 9, 2020

Do you know if this unit is compatible with the pre-facelift models? Wife had a 12 plate.

llhjones · November 25, 2020

On 7/8/2020 at 9:56 AM, jrumball said:

They have changed the page that link goes to the version I bought from AliExpress said CT compatible....

This should link to the one I bought on AliExpress

￡219.84 43％ Off | Carlinkit for Lexus NX ES US iS CT RX GS LS LX LC RC 2014-2019 Multimedia Wireless apple CarPlay and Android auto Retrofit Kit
https://a.aliexpress.com/_dZLKIl8

Hi there

Have just come across this post having wanted to add car play to my 14 plate CT200h. Just wondering if you're able to give an update with how this system is performing considering it has been installed for a few months now.

Any advice would be appreciated

Regards

jrumball · July 29, 2021

So a quick update, after 18months and a few iOS updates the box and kit is still working the apple CarPlay updates seem to of helped with the jog wheel control too. Honestly the only frustration is the lack of being able to have the DAB audio and apple CarPlay Audio mixed like you would with a factory installation. This is solved by using the equivalent radio app ie BBC Sounds etc.

SRVO · December 21, 2022

On 7/6/2020 at 10:38 PM, holiday said:

Hi I just read your posts. What you could’ve done was that you could just use a vtr connection cables and did the mirroring for around £30. That’s what I’ve done and it works.

Sorry to drag up an old post, but at £30 this solution looks great for what I need. One question though, how did you bypass the video-in-motion detection? The only thing I can find is a bypass module from Beat Sonic which costs £200+. For that money, I may as well go down the route of installing a proper CarPlay box like the OP. Any advice appreciated! 🙂