[oVeRdOsE.]

Anyone having experience with those 2 units?

I have a xtrons unit in my audi, and it's flawless, very please with it.

However, Im skeptical about Mr12volts be able to do this :

- showing JB4 or MHD gauges
- using Ymusic.apk to stream and download .mp3 to the internal storage.
- Having split screen with Waze.
- Hotspot my cell phone to get data

Possible with mr12volts?? (full android , no problemo)



xtrons : https://xtrons.ca/bmw-various-androi...m-qpbs8360ci-2

mr12volts : https://www.mr12volt.com/collections/bmw

[gaze2]

I got an aliexpress linux head unit in mine but its only for apple carplay / android auto (I think it has screen mirroring also). I dont see why it needs to have android to slow it down, in your case maybe to show gauges, but otherwise just use spotify or whatever it will split screen with waze on android auto. Everything works, steering wheel buttons, idrive controller, has built in mic, aux sounds good (same as just plugging in my phone to aux), switches to PDC when I reverse instantly and also has option for reverse camera, takes like 20 secs to launch android auto, I just get in the car and it works. Was 190$ during the aliexpress sale, bonroad or something like that, with the higher resolution screen.

I honestly dont see the appeal of the mr12volt units, I think newer android/linux units dont have issues with sound, but then again I have the shitty sound system, no logic7 or hifi. But the biggest drawback for me is that you keep the OEM screen, you dont get a touch screen with higher resolution, although glare is a bit of an issue on my unit, but it doesnt get unviewable, just annoying in the worse case. Twice as expensive as my unit for what? A marginally better sound with no touch screen and worse screen

[oVeRdOsE.]

bump.

more opinions ?


Still not decided.

[KClemente]

I have the mr 12 volt and it's nice having an E90 with a backup camera with oem style reverse lines. It also has a DSP and that means I can finally crank up my upgraded underseat woofers and give them some more eq. which made a big difference. Carplay fully connected in less than 20 seconds from key insertion.

The unit is designed around android auto and carplay but you can alternatively just play through bluetooth or use wireless mirroring. You won't be able to load up an apk since it runs on its own OS. I think linux.

Just a warning, you cannot use carplay/android auto with MHD since they both require their own wifi connection. So anytime I have to use MHD I turn off my bluetooth so the carplay does not successfully connect.

My only issue with the Mr12volt is that it's connection algorithm is super aggressive and the unit does not go to sleep right away. So imagine doing a car wash, you open the door and the car connects to your phone overriding whatever bluetooth speaker was playing in the back.

For my E70 X5M, I got a Linux based unit and since it's linux, it connects extremely fast too. I don't think i'll recommend any android based units since for the most part, they don't have sleep or hibernation capability. They always shut off and will take 20 seconds just to boot up (without connection to carplay). But if you need the adjustability that android offers, theres a discord group dedicated to modifying android headunits and they do a lot of bmw stuff.

[eljay]

Here's the best thread on the mr12volt unit: https://www.m3post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1852418

I am monitoring this myself as I currently have an Andream unit behind my CIC and one of the cables must've dislodged as I no longer get car's CIC display. The backup camera and Andream screens still work fine.

The appeal of the mr12volt unit for me is that installs to the side, doesn't need connection to the iDrive controller and there is no quadlock connector shoved behind the actual CIC unit - this last part is likely what broke/dislodge my connector. It was a very tight fit to re-install.
So, when I'm ready to open everything to fix my connector and add front camera, I'm thinking of just selling the Andream unit and going with Mr12volt for the installation ease. The sound quality improvement would be great too, but it's not my objective.

[oVeRdOsE.]

great point with MHD, no matter the type of unit, having a wifi connection will be an issue, especially if I hotspot my phone to have data.

Ill use Jb4 for monitoring stuff anyway.

I never tried a proper car play/android auto, so I have absolutely no idea what are the features and limitation.

There's a app that will emulate this, I might give a try,