The Unit
http://www.vaistech.com/vml.php
http://www.vaistech.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1064
At a price of $349 (october 23rd to Nov 15th) without any hard drive plus shipping costs it will have to live up to it’s expectations, and price.
Included, was a modist instruction. user manual. A vehicle specific cable which was insufficiently marked or explained, in that on the 2009 Camry with navigation, there was a supplied port for a direct connection of the unit.
The interface cable to unit cable was either too short or too long depending on where you were going to mount this unit.
In my case we will supply music via a micro SD card and adapter. I choose this unit as it is extremely small and less then the size of ½ of a normal key. At present this is an 8 gig card with 4.3 gigs of mp3’s
My unit arrived being serial number 177 and was produced on the 3rd of October 2008.
This unit is well designed for further upgrading which would be done via an internally mounted hard drive and it appears to be a simple plug and play installation.
Mounting location
As mentioned previously mounting location was limited by the length of connection cable supplied. Ideally I would have liked to have mounted this unit in the trunk under the speaker shelf; however with the cable being approximately 24” long this would not be possible.
I did not try to mount it under the seat as the passenger front is already occupied with the factory amp and the driver’s side is always going forward and back and thus I feel it was not an ideal location.
My first choice for installation was the center front console under the radio which is large enough to house the unit and allow for updating and access to drives etc.
Unfortunately the unit was about .25 of an inch too long even when removing the Ipod connector and 12 volt plug from the rear of this console.
Second choice was the armrest console which in my case the unit was again about .25” too long. If you wanted to you could cut the plastic case and it would then fit perfectly, however this would mean the hard drive, it ever installed, would then be installed and running on it’s side, doable but not the perfect location.
Third choice was the glove box, put it in lots of space however too big an opening and easily stolen if discovered.
Back to my first choice, If I mounted to the top (roof of inside) of the front console then the door would close as it provides that extra .25” necessary. This is where we will install the unit.
Installation supplies.
- 1 foot of industrial Velcro approximately 2” thick
- isopropyl alcohol
- clean paper towel
- 10 mm socket with 8” extension
- Phillips #2 screwdriver
- Small flat eyeglass screwdriver
- Flat thin plastic spatulas
- 4-5 thick large towels.
Installation for 2007-2009 Camry with Factory Navigation system.
To remove the shift handle simply unscrew counter clockwise and place it on the passenger side seat.
The two wings on either side of the pop up door console are removed by pulling on them straight backwards.
The shifter cover is removed next, start by pulling upwards by the center arm rest/console and towards the front. You might have to place the gear selector in “1” or “B” to get this out. You will need to unclip the rear 12 volt plug by pushing on the retainer clip. If you vehicle has power seats then you will have to remove this wire too.
In order to get to the radio we basically remove everything around it.
Just above the radio is the center vents which if done correctly are quite easy to remove. We insert the two thin plastic spatulas under the vent unit and between the upper part of the radio which releases the tabs and allows the vent to be pulled directly out with a little force. Congratulations this was the hardest part. Don’t forget to unplug the wiring on the back which power the hazard and clock switches.
Now the front center console unit which is where we will be mounting the unit. Simply un-do the 2 Phillips screws and this unit will pull straight out, wait not too fast there are 2 connectors on the rear, the 12 volt power supply and Ipod cable connector these must be disconnected first in order to remove the console.
The center console box being out we are going to remove the 12 volt power supply in order to get our wiring into the unit without drilling. There is a tab on the side of the cigarette lighter which when pried upwards allows the center steel portion of the unit to slide forward and then the outer portion will squeeze out.
Looking from the inside we now see our center mounting box upside down to allow for the installation of the unit.
We clean then clean again this area with the alcohol in order for the Velcro to attack itself.
The matching side of the Velcro is attached to the top of the unit with a cut out so as not to obliterate the serial number of the unit. Unfortunately in our case the store I bought the Velcro could not measure and even though I paid for 12” of Velcro I actually got a little under 11” of Velcro.
Now the removal of the radio, remember those extra 3 large towels we got for this job., we use on to completely cover the shifter handle and the other two on top of them which will allow us to unbolt and roll the radio on it’s face without scratching or damaging it.
There a 4 10mm bolts holding in the radio, these are fine threaded bolts and will fall in behind the radio is not slowly removed, carefully remove them and place them with the 2 Phillips screws which have a tendency of running away and disappearing never to be found again. 2 bolts are on the top and 2 on the bottom.
Carefully pull out your $1500 navigation unit just enough to get to that center gray plug without any connector in it. Now install the y-adapter in the correct orientation and firmly push it in until it correctly seats and locks into place. At this point connect the main cable to the y connector and throw the excess wiring over the rear so it hangs out the bottom of the unit.
At this point I re-installed my radio with the 4 10mm bolts. I then pulled the unit cable with the black end through the opening where the 12 volt power was and set up the unit according the 3rd, or mp3 setting.
After playing for about 30 minutes I then re-assembled the center console in the reverse order which takes seconds as everything simply snaps into place.
As you can see from this photo the unit is attached to the top inside of the front center console and is out of view when the door is closed. You still have access to the lower portion to put glasses or papers etc.
My SD card was formatted in fat 32 as a single 8 gig card, thus I show up as a single cd disc, had I formatted it into 4 2 gig drives or volumes then I would have shown up as 4 cd discs.
I confirmed that everything works as described and after changing the display setting I was able to access all 4 folders on my drive and all the music on the folders. If you do not change the display setting, then the display times out in the music mode, and reverts your display, to the map or fuel conservation mode.
I am quite impressed on how clean and clear the music is, there is absolutely no distortion and everything sounds as good as the original. I previously used the Toyota interface cable with my Itouch and the quality was in no way as clean clear and crisp as with this unit.
Recommendations and Improvements
This unit worked extremely well right out of the box. Total install time was a little over 90 minutes which included 30 minutes to shuffle throughout all the music. Writing this review was well over 3-4 hours including pictures.
If I could change anything I would add an additional USB port on the short side as this would have given me many more installation options.
As for documentation it was unclear of the 3 different ways of setting up the unit after installation and their advantages or disadvantages to each. I would also explain where the y cable is not necessary to be used as a y cable, took me 10-15 minutes to figure that one out.
As for improvements other then the additional USB port on the short side, I would make the unit a little smaller, paint it in a dark color so as not to be visible and I would include a 4” x 6” piece of industrial double sided Velcro for installation. I was lucky in getting this; I think other might have a real problem finding the industrial Velcro.
Other then adding a short USB extension so that it would be more convenient to swap flash drive this unit is near perfect.
I have now played with this unit for over 4 days and to say it is idiot proof is an underestimation. Installation really consisted of plugging the cable into the empty opening on the navigation system. Once this is done you do a 30 second set up according to the manual.
You then take your flash card and after formattion it in 16 or 32 FAT you place as many folders as you want. You name the folders by type age or what ever you like and then place MP3 songs in each folder.
When the usb flash card is inserted in the unit there is a couple of second delay and you have access to all your folders and songs.
The unit is limited to 6 simulated discs, of which each simulated disc can hold 999 folders and each folder can then hold 999 songs each. This amounts to 5,986,006 songs or about 39.86 years of continious music if you had a big enough hard drive available.
For my test I used about 5 gigs of music and quickly and efficiently switched between folders and music styles.
To Say the least
I was really impresses and that takes a lot, I own 2 itouch pods/phones and numerous storage devices and this unit is by far the easiest and simpliest to use.
The unit I tested was without a hard drive, and I look forward to testing this unit with the 40gb hard drive.
For any question please feel free to contact me at the following e-mail address.
tharvey@dccnet.com
Vais Technology MultiMediaLinQ How to/Install
Linear Mode
