Tesla Style Headunit | Ford Explorer Forums - Serious Explorations

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Tesla Style Headunit

Zodiac

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Joined
November 21, 2016
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Year, Model & Trim Level
2017 Ford Explorer Sport
I know I have read something on here where a few members have installed the Tesla style screen to replace the stock headunit.

How is it holding up? Do you have any regrets? Was installation pretty straightforward?

I am curious to see how it has held up.
 



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I bought a Kirinavi and it was a piece of junk.
 












Coming out with a whole video on it. But it was super buggy.
 






I know I have read something on here where a few members have installed the Tesla style screen to replace the stock headunit.

How is it holding up? Do you have any regrets? Was installation pretty straightforward?

I am curious to see how it has held up.


Love it. Plug and play except I had some trouble figuring out the hazard lights but all good. I'm glad I didnt purchase the sync 3 package, tesla style unit was a great purchase. Didnt like the navi it came with so I downloaded and installed a different navi, works perfectly.

The links below no longer function.
20180625_134341.jpg

20180629_115902.jpg

20180629_193655.jpg
 






Who makes the one you got?

List of issues I had with the unit I got that looked identical (Made by Kirinavi):
Wifi turns off whenever you turn the car off. No matter what I did I couldn't get it to stay on.
Google maps was unusably slow. (20 second screen render times)
Outside Temperature always reads 30deg C
If you turned the car off with the heat on, the next time you turned the car on the blower would turn on cold until you tapped the temperature adjustment, then it would jump back to hot.
Adjusting the fan speed was slow and unresponsive compared to the OEM knob. You had to wait like 1-2 seconds between tapping, and each tap would only change it one step. You could not jump to the level you wanted.
Hazard light switch just had two blunt cut wires with no explanation of where to connect them. The unit came with no instructions whatsoever.
The output of the CANBUS box that had the reverse output was opposite polarity of the reverse camera trigger input making the OEM backup camera on all the time EXCEPT in reverse.
Could not use any other music player other than their crappy one that didnt even have a proper shuffle. I tried VLC and it would not play more than 30 seconds if you switched screens.
Volume would reset to 10 every time you started the car (though I found a very buried setting in a hidden app that fixed this)
There was no way to change the temp display on the HVAC to F. If you changed the C/F setting, it would change the label, but not the actual temperature. I see you don't have this issue.
Brightness control was very limited. At night it was still really bright even at the minimum setting. Had to install an app called Lux to get it lower.

Even with all these issues I probably would have kept it if it wasn't for the fact that the screen was black when wearing polarized sunglasses. Because it's turned into portrait mode, the LCD polarizer is 90 deg out of phase with sunglasses and you can't see the screen at all. Living in the "Valley of the Sun", I always wear polarized sunglasses so not being able to see the screen is really annoying.

Despite them telling me "don't worry we'll fix the issues, but if not we'll give you a refund" (how will they fix the polarization?), I was getting no where with them and I forced them to take it back, and then they stopped replying when they got the package. I had to file a claim with my credit card for $750 and it cost me over $100 to send it back.

I have a video half edited about it.. just been super busy. I'd never make it as a full time youtuber.. lol.
 






Love it. Plug and play except I had some trouble figuring out the hazard lights but all good. I'm glad I didnt purchase the sync 3 package, tesla style unit was a great purchase. Didnt like the navi it came with so I downloaded and installed a different navi, works perfectly.
Welcome to the Forum David.:wave:
I had to stand my monitor on its side to properly see the pictures and to avoid straining my neck.:D

Peter
 






My only question is, Is it impact rated so if you get in an accident you don't have a 12 inch screen of glass flying around?

I would have to see this, I have a hard time hitting little icons on a screen. I like the tactile feel of buttons and switches so when I am driving I don't have to look to long to find what I want to do.
 






It would seem that the unit you have now has more buttons than the one shown in the above picture which doesn't appear to have any.

Peter
 






It would seem that the unit you have now has more buttons than the one shown in the above picture which doesn't appear to have any.

Peter

Yup it has Icons which I hate to try and hit while I am driving. The buttons I have now work well for me because I can feel the difference when I touch them.
 






Love it. Plug and play except I had some trouble figuring out the hazard lights but all good. I'm glad I didnt purchase the sync 3 package, tesla style unit was a great purchase. Didnt like the navi it came with so I downloaded and installed a different navi, works perfectly.


20180625_134341.jpg

20180629_115902.jpg

20180629_193655.jpg

Do you have manual or auto climate control? I have almost the exact centre but with key ignition, not push button, and have been contemplating this unit (which I assume is the same as the one linked earlier in the thread).
 






Do you have manual or auto climate control? I have almost the exact centre but with key ignition, not push button, and have been contemplating this unit (which I assume is the same as the one linked earlier in the thread).

Hmm not entirely sure I understand manual vs auto climate control. You can set the temperature and itll continue to push air or heat at the setting you placed it everytime you start your car? Tbh I would've been more than happy getting a AWD base explorer and just install the tesla style center unit. But then again, I really like the signature lights..
 






My only question is, Is it impact rated so if you get in an accident you don't have a 12 inch screen of glass flying around?

I would have to see this, I have a hard time hitting little icons on a screen. I like the tactile feel of buttons and switches so when I am driving I don't have to look to long to find what I want to do.

Hmm probably not? I did stick on an anti glare screen protector, only because it showed a perfect reflection of my front passenger's face every time I looked down at the screen..
 






Hmm not entirely sure I understand manual vs auto climate control. You can set the temperature and itll continue to push air or heat at the setting you placed it everytime you start your car? Tbh I would've been more than happy getting a AWD base explorer and just install the tesla style center unit. But then again, I really like the signature lights..

Rub it in why don't cha? Haha just kidding, but I've been wanting signature lights every since I got it (bought used) but it's just too expensive to justify.

I can't remember what I meant by that, I just wasn't sure if there was a difference between push button and key ignition that would affect the installation of this centre console.
 






Who makes the one you got?

List of issues I had with the unit I got that looked identical (Made by Kirinavi):
Wifi turns off whenever you turn the car off. No matter what I did I couldn't get it to stay on.
Google maps was unusably slow. (20 second screen render times)
Outside Temperature always reads 30deg C
If you turned the car off with the heat on, the next time you turned the car on the blower would turn on cold until you tapped the temperature adjustment, then it would jump back to hot.
Adjusting the fan speed was slow and unresponsive compared to the OEM knob. You had to wait like 1-2 seconds between tapping, and each tap would only change it one step. You could not jump to the level you wanted.
Hazard light switch just had two blunt cut wires with no explanation of where to connect them. The unit came with no instructions whatsoever.
The output of the CANBUS box that had the reverse output was opposite polarity of the reverse camera trigger input making the OEM backup camera on all the time EXCEPT in reverse.
Could not use any other music player other than their crappy one that didnt even have a proper shuffle. I tried VLC and it would not play more than 30 seconds if you switched screens.
Volume would reset to 10 every time you started the car (though I found a very buried setting in a hidden app that fixed this)
There was no way to change the temp display on the HVAC to F. If you changed the C/F setting, it would change the label, but not the actual temperature. I see you don't have this issue.
Brightness control was very limited. At night it was still really bright even at the minimum setting. Had to install an app called Lux to get it lower.

Even with all these issues I probably would have kept it if it wasn't for the fact that the screen was black when wearing polarized sunglasses. Because it's turned into portrait mode, the LCD polarizer is 90 deg out of phase with sunglasses and you can't see the screen at all. Living in the "Valley of the Sun", I always wear polarized sunglasses so not being able to see the screen is really annoying.

Despite them telling me "don't worry we'll fix the issues, but if not we'll give you a refund" (how will they fix the polarization?), I was getting no where with them and I forced them to take it back, and then they stopped replying when they got the package. I had to file a claim with my credit card for $750 and it cost me over $100 to send it back.

I have a video half edited about it.. just been super busy. I'd never make it as a full time youtuber.. lol.

Truth. Agreed with all 100% of your post. But I learned to live with a lot of it, I've deleted a majority of the apps with the exception of my navi, YouTube, and play store. No issues with HVAC saved settings but controls are slow, I turned off outside temp display just to declutter the screen. I did install an anti glare screen because the unit aligned perfectly to where I see a perfect reflection of my front passengers face, can get awkward at times. It did sacrifice brightness and had some difficulty seeing the back up camera on bright days.

As for the polarize sunglass issue, I always wear cheap $5 sunglasses only because of my tendencies to misplace my sunglasses so it works out for me. As I mentioned before I did have issues installing the hazard lights but was able to resolve it, same with the backup camera though that took a bit longer to figure out (totally forgot about that headache).

Had my explorer came with sync 3 screen and navi I probably wouldnt have purchased the tesla unit but i say it was a good purchase and definitely a big upgrade from the lower tier center unit.
 






Rub it in why don't cha? Haha just kidding, but I've been wanting signature lights every since I got it (bought used) but it's just too expensive to justify.

I can't remember what I meant by that, I just wasn't sure if there was a difference between push button and key ignition that would affect the installation of this centre console.

Haha sorry! But you did choose the smarter option imo, this was my second car purchase and my last ever I buy any car new.. ‍♂️ cars depreciate so fast.

I dont believe theres any difference between push button and key ignition for the unit, I would 100% go for it! Just need some knowledge manipulating wires.
 



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Haha sorry! But you did choose the smarter option imo, this was my second car purchase and my last ever I buy any car new.. ‍♂️ cars depreciate so fast.

I dont believe theres any difference between push button and key ignition for the unit, I would 100% go for it! Just need some knowledge manipulating wires.

I would love to, but my kids seem to be really good at magic, specifically this one routine where money just disappears into thin air?
 






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