Mini Review of XTRONS Head Unit for the IS250

[AFlex]

6 hours ago, ahmed24 said:

Ok so further to my last answer. It appears I was mistaken. Just discovered i am able to turn on the parking sensor display. It's an option that's disabled in the menu. I enabled it and now I get a floating illustration showing the corners that are close.

Amazing! They have clearly put a lot of work into it for an aftermarket unit. I'm convinced to take the plunge now - will be ordering mine this week.

Did you get it direct from Teyes? I am guessing I'll be lumbered with 20% import VAT since it looks like it's being shipped from overseas... 

[ahmed24]

14 minutes ago, AFlex said:

Amazing! They have clearly put a lot of work into it for an aftermarket unit. I'm convinced to take the plunge now - will be ordering mine this week.

Did you get it direct from Teyes? I am guessing I'll be lumbered with 20% import VAT since it looks like it's being shipped from overseas... 

message me later this week I'll be back in town and I'll send you details of where I got it from and I didn't have any import fees and was express delivery with FedEx came within 7 days. Attached are some screenshots of the parking sensor display. The rear ones is an illustration that floats on top of the reverse image 

[AFlex]

On 8/29/2022 at 10:35 PM, ahmed24 said:

message me later this week I'll be back in town and I'll send you details of where I got it from and I didn't have any import fees and was express delivery with FedEx came within 7 days. Attached are some screenshots of the parking sensor display. The rear ones is an illustration that floats on top of the reverse image 

That's great thanks bro - send me a DM

[ahmed24]

I haven't had a chance to make my review video yet. Hopefully will do so in the coming weeks. A few more developments on my Teyes CC3 setup. Out of the box a lot of these units whether it's Teyes, XTRONS or anything else will all claim that the steering wheel buttons are programmable. They will show you screenshots of the app that lets you program this. This is all generic marketing jargon. All these units have two pins on the back of the head unit know as Key1 and Key2, if the steering wheel buttons are wired to these pins then yes you can customise what you want the buttons to do. However, with the IS headunits, these manufactures pre-wire the steering buttons straight into the canbus decoder. As a result the functionality of the steering wheel buttons are all pre-programmed and cannot be adjusted. Out of the box this isn't really a problem because all the steering wheel buttons are pre-programmed to work as they should with a bit of settings tweaks. However, what I really wanted to do is have the voice button on the steering wheel map to Siri on CarPlay or Google Assistant on AndroidAuto. Unfortunately, the default Teyes steering programming app doesn't let you progamme that function because they want you to use the Teyes Voice app. Which i find to be rubbish. So what I ended up doing is loaded a jailbreak MCU and OS made by a Russian Teyes engineer. This allows me to use the Joying steering control app and customise my voice button to Siri and Google. In order for this to work, I had to re-pin a wire to the Teyes connector. 

 

Below is a video example of the button in action now. And also a video showing you my custom boot animation that I created.

 

 

 

[ahmed24]

Correction, I've figured out a way to do the Siri and android auto voice button mapping without having to jailbreak the MCU or the OS. So I should be returning to the stock Teyes firmware now 🙂

[SteL]

Hi, I recently read and watched McShmoopy’s review of the Xtrons head unit for the IS250 and found it really informative as I’m thinking of also replacing my stock head unit. However, reading down the thread I became aware of the T’eyes CC3 which I think is more suited to my needs.  
I’m no expert, basic novice is more akin to my electronic know how, but I’d appreciate advice from any CC3 owners concerning compatibility of the Mark Levinson sound system, original rear view camera and amazon Echo Auto  and what version of the CC3 I require. 
I’ve contacted T’eyes support who have reassured me of the Mark Levinson sound system, but not the rear view camera or Echo Auto.
I have a 2007 pre-facelift model with Navigation and I’m reasonably comfortable that the CC3 128GB-B is the unit I require but without removing the head unit and inspecting the rear as T’eyes suggest, I’m still a little unsure if anyone can help.

[McShmoopy]

5 hours ago, SteL said:

Hi, I recently read and watched McShmoopy’s review of the Xtrons head unit for the IS250 and found it really informative as I’m thinking of also replacing my stock head unit. However, reading down the thread I became aware of the T’eyes CC3 which I think is more suited to my needs.  
I’m no expert, basic novice is more akin to my electronic know how, but I’d appreciate advice from any CC3 owners concerning compatibility of the Mark Levinson sound system, original rear view camera and Amazon Echo Auto  and what version of the CC3 I require. 
I’ve contacted T’eyes support who have reassured me of the Mark Levinson sound system, but not the rear view camera or Echo Auto.
I have a 2007 pre-facelift model with Navigation and I’m reasonably comfortable that the CC3 128GB-B is the unit I require but without removing the head unit and inspecting the rear as T’eyes suggest, I’m still a little unsure if anyone can help.

Hi Steve, I spoke to Ahmed alot about the Teyes on Instagram and vice versa with my headunit. Unlike my XTRONS the Teyes team provide a handy harness specific to your year of vehicle and if its a NAVI or not. I am unsure if like mine the Teyes can access the original Mark Levinson settings (Such as EQ, surround sound, sound leveller) as it is a CANBUS profile setting but failing this the Teyes has much  parametric EQ controls and compression options anyways so I wouldnt be particularly concerned. Your reverse camera will be able to be fitted by using a specific harness which I believe theyll include. I've had a look on the Teyes website and it looks like it will be the B option you need as that is pre facelift, if you had a 2010 like myself you'd opt for the A option.

The only thing you will probably need to do is splice one of the Steering wheel control cables if you want to program them as they are fixed and can't be changed. I haven't gotten around to this but Ahmed has done this quite successfully, there are two different SWC cables but you only need to splice one which controls MODE, Hang Up, Answer Call, and Voice Control as Volume Up / Down, Skip Track and Previous track work as expected. 

Only thing I think you may have an issue with this head unit, you will not be able to access the OEM parking assist settings like adjusting the distance of your parking sensors or the Parallel park assist as you have to press the touch screen on the reverse camera input but don't quote me on that. I'd get your OEM settings to the following before you swap the head units incase these options are no longer accessible. 

Audio Settings for all channels set to default. 

Volume to 30.

Reverse camera sensor distance. 

Reverse camera setup as you like it, (type of lines and view etc).

EDIT: Never used an Echo Auto however you should be able to retain the AUX connection and the Teyes has a Bluetooth connection built in, I'd probably suggest you get one of the faclifted USB / AUX connector and replace your standard AUX connector with that as well as a USB cable so that you can conveniently have a USB port that goes direct to the head unit in the centre console storage. My facelift car had this as standard but you can retrofit it into older IS's, I'll include the cable I got to plug it in also. I'm sure you could slip in a very long USB extension cable instead but having things look OEM is pretty snazzy 😏

https://lexuspartsdirect.co.uk/product/lexus-is-phase-2-usb-aux-wire/

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/353878702681?mkevt=1&mkpid=0&emsid=e11051.m43.l1123&mkcid=7&ch=osgood&euid=66a6b3f1431b4c7ba849dd22fb434505&bu=43575022862&osub=-1~1&crd=20220304050745&segname=11051&sojTags=ch%3Dch%2Cbu%3Dbu%2Cosub%3Dosub%2Ccrd%3Dcrd%2Csegname%3Dsegname%2Cchnl%3Dmkcid

[SteL]

Hi, thank you that’s extremely helpful.

I’ll go with the T’eyes CC3 unit (128GB-B) + a few of the add on’s (tyre pressure and DAB+ USB monitors).  Hopefully that will enhance the entertainment and functionality systems to what I would like the car to provide.

As you rightly point out, the amazon Echo Auto, should work from the aux if I can’t connect it directly to the unit, but it works from a USB port so again I can’t see any issue.

Not too sure on the splicing, never attempted that before, as I said I am a total novice.  If need be I’ll give it a go 😬.

Thanks again, greatly appreciated.

[McShmoopy]

4 hours ago, SteL said:

Hi, thank you that’s extremely helpful.

I’ll go with the T’eyes CC3 unit (128GB-B) + a few of the add on’s (tyre pressure and DAB+ USB monitors).  Hopefully that will enhance the entertainment and functionality systems to what I would like the car to provide.

As you rightly point out, the Amazon Echo Auto, should work from the aux if I can’t connect it directly to the unit, but it works from a USB port so again I can’t see any issue.

Not too sure on the splicing, never attempted that before, as I said I am a total novice.  If need be I’ll give it a go 😬.

Thanks again, greatly appreciated.

No worries mate, let me know how you get on! I'd say get the Teyes branded stuff as it will integrate nicely with the headunit, you can get any aftermarket android one but it will need its own App and the main selling point of the Teyes is that their own software is very intuitive and integrates nicely.  

Splicing isnt too difficult but having the right tools and connectors makes it a doddle, If I get around to doing this myself I shall document the process. I need to get around to adding TPMS , sort out my 360 reverse camera system and possibly DAB also still. 

[ahmed24]

So an update on the Teyes CC3. I've now successfully installed a Model A version of the CC3 too for someone else. Basically the 2005-2012 IS comes with two variant of OEM navigation screens. 2005 to 2009 you have the DVD based system and late 2009 onwards you have the hard drive based system. Teyes refers to these as Model A and Model B as pictured below:

 

My car is a model B and the installation on Model B is a hell of a lot simpler. However, the fascia is made to fit the Model A lower unit and upper vent. So if anyone installing it on Model B, you need to modify some of the tabs on the lower CD changer. But on the Model A this fits perfectly. I've also changed my upper vent with the newer model A version so fits very well.

I just did a Model A installation for someone else over the weekend and thought i'd mention some very important factors along with photos. Like I mentioned before, I will do a full review on this and do a write-up at some point.

So with the late 2009 onwards models (Model A), there are much less connectors. However, it appears most of the processing on this model happens from the OEM top screen unit. without the top unit you are not able to read canbus data and it doesn't work properly. So it appears for the Model A system you have to keep your original upper unit too as well as the lower unit. However, ofcourse the screen and the fascia needs to be completely dismantled. Leaving behind only the processing unit of the top unit. This is what I did. I managed to install the unit nicely and mount it to original frame. I had to modify the teyes metal frame slightly to make it work. Pictures below. I've also attached a quick video demo showing the Siri button mapped to the voice button.

And finally, the reverse camera. If you want to use OEM you have to splice or de-pin the connector pins and wire it that way. I went for installing the camera that came with the Teyes as it's much better quality anway.

 

[Mr Vlad]

Great write up Ahmed 👍

[SteL]

Hi Ahmed, thank you, brilliant write up and very timely as my unit has arrived and is available for collection at my local delivery office, which I’ll do tomorrow morning.

I was hoping it may be more or less a plug and play with a few minor tweeks needed.  I think I understand most of what you’ve described but being a total novice I may try to get a local installer to assist if I can find one.

The images and your descriptions are extremely helpful and it looks great fitted.

Thank you again for the update.

[ahmed24]

17 minutes ago, SteL said:

Hi Ahmed, thank you, brilliant write up and very timely as my unit has arrived and is available for collection at my local delivery office, which I’ll do tomorrow morning.

I was hoping it may be more or less a plug and play with a few minor tweeks needed.  I think I understand most of what you’ve described but being a total novice I may try to get a local installer to assist if I can find one.

The images and your descriptions are extremely helpful and it looks great fitted.

Thank you again for the update.

No problem at all. I will do a proper detailed write-up at some point. This particular Model A installation I will be removing to paint the fascia and upgrade LED's and make the climate button tweak in Decemeber. At that point I may try and do a little video installation guide.

Another very important thing to check is the fascia frame itself. The fascia frame is made by another factory and usually bundled into the same pacakge. The fascia frame comes with a metal plate to attach it to the main unit. This plate is extremely sharp and because of poor packaging can often scratch the fascia during transit. Check your fascia carefully and if it's badly scratched, open a dispute with AliBaba or Express whereever you bought it from. This Model A i installed had come with quite a few scratches but the owner got £85 refunded for the scratches to cover cost of new frame.

Also, test all the buttons make sure the buttons press properly. On this second installation the quality control was bad because they put short screws on the PCB and the PCB board wasn't secure so the buttons weren't pressing properly.

Also, looking at your profile it appears you have a 2007 so that willl be a Model B like mine. Installation on that is much simpler than Model A.

Oh and finally, the Teyes will come with about 6 or 7 missing screws because the amount they give isn't enough to mount the screen to the fascia as well as the metal frame. So you will need to get hold of some matching tiny screws. I have a bag full for this kind of stuff like the pic below:

 

[Neurus]

On 8/9/2022 at 9:27 PM, ahmed24 said:

...

Another thing, I completely dismantled the PCB's from the fascia and upgraded all the LED's to white and blue to match my previous setup. I also hydrodipped the frame to match my previous setup. One thing to note is that the frame itself is made by one company and used by Teyes and many of the other head units. The Passener and Driver temperature buttons are in the LHD orientation. I spoke to the manufacturer of the frame itself regarding whether it was possible to get RHD version and they said it's not possible due to it being mass produced and they don't have enough sales in RHD market. At first I thought I can live with it but then it started annoying me because once you set steering location as Right in the head unit settings then it gets even more annoying because you press the temperature button on the left for driver but the display changes on the right. So in other words the software shows the correct way round but the button is wrong way round and it messes with your head lol. So I set out to fix this. I reverse engineered the PCB board and figured just like how lexus do most other things, the temperature controls are based on resistance values measured by the button presses. So I was able to swap around 2 pairs (4 total) SMD resistors and the problem was fixed. Now I have the temperature buttons working correct way round. I will be sticking the temperature decals on soon. I've also recorded a quick video demo showing the climate controls working right way round. Here is the vide demo:

 

Hi @ahmed24,  do you have more information (or a picture) of what you swapped? I am in Australia and will have the same annoyance.

Also, the australian web site states the 4 buttons on the left "will be closed". I believe they mean disabled. Any idea why? Do yours work?

Thanks,

 

 

[Mr Vlad]

Hi Neurus. The 'buttons ' on the left refer to the touchscreen. The reason is because the size of the screen is such that those buttons are hidden by the frame. The buttons on the frame work in place of the ones on the screen. 

[ahmed24]

@Neurus as @Mr Vlad has correctly said, the buttons they are referring to is the soft buttons on the headunit itself (next to the reset and mic holes) These get hidden underneath the frame. One thing i did do is remove the LED behind them completely as I found they tend to bleed the backlight through the frame. Easy option would be to put tape on top. I also completely desoldered the internal mic which is on the same board. So basically just kept on the reset pin. The reason I removed the internal mic is that I found by keeping internal mic and connecting an external mic, the volume level of the external mic seems to suffer because the headunits dont tend to completely turn off the internal mic. So it almost acts like you've got a doubler with two mics sharing one channel. This causes mic volume to be considerably lower. This isn't just a Teyes thing, i've seen this across a variety of units.

In regards to the climate button mods, i dont have pictures sorry and cant remember from the top of my head, it's just something I did there and there. It involved moving 4 smd resistors around

[Neurus]

12 hours ago, ahmed24 said:

@Neurus as @Mr Vlad has correctly said, the buttons they are referring to is the soft buttons on the headunit itself (next to the reset and mic holes) These get hidden underneath the frame. One thing i did do is remove the LED behind them completely as I found they tend to bleed the backlight through the frame. Easy option would be to put tape on top. I also completely desoldered the internal mic which is on the same board. So basically just kept on the reset pin. The reason I removed the internal mic is that I found by keeping internal mic and connecting an external mic, the volume level of the external mic seems to suffer because the headunits dont tend to completely turn off the internal mic. So it almost acts like you've got a doubler with two mics sharing one channel. This causes mic volume to be considerably lower. This isn't just a Teyes thing, i've seen this across a variety of units.

In regards to the climate button mods, i dont have pictures sorry and cant remember from the top of my head, it's just something I did there and there. It involved moving 4 smd resistors around

Thanks  @ahmed24 and  @Mr Vlad for clarifying about the buttons.

If you ever take the head unit out and have a chance to take a picture of the button swapping resistors change, please do so as I know having the buttons the other way around will bother me. 

Thanks again.

[AFlex]

On 9/22/2022 at 1:27 AM, McShmoopy said:

Only thing I think you may have an issue with this head unit, you will not be able to access the OEM parking assist settings like adjusting the distance of your parking sensors or the Parallel park assist as you have to press the touch screen on the reverse camera input but don't quote me on that. I'd get your OEM settings to the following before you swap the head units incase these options are no longer accessible. 

Are you sure about this? The photos of the reverse screen that Ahmed has shared seem to show a totally different reverse video screen, not the stock one. So does it even matter what the settings were before you switched to a new navigation unit?

For what it's worth, i actually like the stock reverse screen and the way that it shows your trajectory based on steering wheel angle - so I hope you're right!

[ahmed24]

11 hours ago, AFlex said:

Are you sure about this? The photos of the reverse screen that Ahmed has shared seem to show a totally different reverse video screen, not the stock one. So does it even matter what the settings were before you switched to a new navigation unit?

For what it's worth, i actually like the stock reverse screen and the way that it shows your trajectory based on steering wheel angle - so I hope you're right!

I'm not sure about changing the settings for the OEM camera on the unit but you can definately 100% make changes to the trajectory lines if you are using an aftermarket camera. The canbus software has also receive a new update and now the front parking sensor graphic is a lot better. It's a small graphic which floats on top and has a transparency so doesn't block your main content underneath fully. So you can still see the content at the back. Previously and on the OEM park assist, if the front sensors go off then the entire screen goes black with the graphic. So the latest canbus update has made this a whole lot better. Much better

[McShmoopy]

On 10/19/2022 at 11:33 PM, AFlex said:

Are you sure about this? The photos of the reverse screen that Ahmed has shared seem to show a totally different reverse video screen, not the stock one. So does it even matter what the settings were before you switched to a new navigation unit?

For what it's worth, i actually like the stock reverse screen and the way that it shows your trajectory based on steering wheel angle - so I hope you're right!

Hi Mate, Ahmed has chosen to change the camera out and not use the OEM stock one provided, you can use the original OEM Camera as it involves either a harness (or with mine splicing a cable or two) however until someone can confirm and check this I don't think you can use the touch screen input on the reverse camera screen for the extra features like parallel park assist and what not.

[Neurus]

Hi@ahmed24,

 

You mentioned in an earlier post that you contacted the company that manufactures the frame.

Would you be able to share their contact details? 

Perhaps they can provide me a circuit diagram so I could rework the buttons.

A guy named Dan from Teyes only provided vague answers that don't really help...

"...Most our units have been sold to RHD countries. So far have not had anyone approach us with the inverted temperature issue"

"...How to retain factory reverse camera? Looks like this vehicles harness retains it..."

"...We don't have installation details for 2010-12 Lexus IS yet..."

 

Thanks,

[AFlex]

On 10/28/2022 at 6:47 AM, Neurus said:

Hi@ahmed24,

 

You mentioned in an earlier post that you contacted the company that manufactures the frame.

Would you be able to share their contact details? 

Perhaps they can provide me a circuit diagram so I could rework the buttons.

A guy named Dan from Teyes only provided vague answers that don't really help...

"...Most our units have been sold to RHD countries. So far have not had anyone approach us with the inverted temperature issue"

"...How to retain factory reverse camera? Looks like this vehicles harness retains it..."

"...We don't have installation details for 2010-12 Lexus IS yet..."

 

Thanks,

I dont think it's Teyes that manufactures the frame - looks like it's a generic part that they are using as the fascia for their units:

Example on ali express

 

[SteL]

16 hours ago, AFlex said:

I dont think it's Teyes that manufactures the frame - looks like it's a generic part that they are using as the fascia for their units:

Example on ali express

 

 

[SteL]

I’ve recently received my T’eyes CC3 unit from T’eyes Australia and had a similarly issue with the frame being damaged (see image).  However, I contacted T’eyes who are seeking to replace the frame.

Thanks to Ahmed24 for the earlier post outlining a similar previous issue.

All that’s left to do now is the installation 😬

 

[SteL]

Attempted to fit my recently acquired T’eyes CC3 today, all went reasonably well however it appears the canbus box isn’t working, as I have no hazard lights, air con fan, and I’m not able to adjust the volume.  I’ve not tried the indicators or other functions.

Did anyone else experience a similar issue and if so how was it resolved?
 

Thanks in advance.