I know what you mean. When I first saw PDR did not work I was ready to box it back up.

I only used PDR once to try it out where the car was brand new. Never since. If it would turn on and start recording when you start the car so it could be used as a dash cam, I would use it. I'm considering buying a dash cam. Might get a cheap GoPro. But I cannot find a dash cam that turns itself off during rapid acceleration, excessive G forces, or when I am going over the speed limit!

I considered trade it in for a newer car. I would have except India is dangerously under-employed, and my company is unfettered layoffing people here in the US while hire freely there... You see, I felt pretty secure for the 15 years prior to purchasing my C7 brand new in April '15 and then the company promptly provide massive layoff notices shortly thereafter and now does them regularly. No fun having to fret over loosing one's shirt selling a brand new car. Been there, done that. My 15 is paid for.

But at least you now know exactly what you are going to get from Infotainment.com aka OEM Parts.

The other thing I asked him is about the maps version loaded. As I mentioned, the Software Information under settings seems to be missing. He said if the module was from an 18, which it is, it should have the 18 maps loaded. So I asked about future map upgrades, and he said to use VIN from a '18. I told him he was wrong as when you order maps from here.com or GM, they ask for your VIN and if it does not match it will not update. I thought the proper process would be to order the maps for the year of the HMI ('18) with my real vin. He said if I needed a map update in a few years to call him and he could load them somehow. I'm not confident about them being around by then.

 

Another feedback item I just noticed. This is regarding Android Auto in general, not peculiar to this upgrade.

If you have Pandora installed on your Android phone, and you "test" it one time, after that every single friggin time you plug in the phone Pandora will start playing and override whatever audio source you were using before that. Extremely annoying. Seems to be a lot of other Android Auto users complaining about the same thing. I am trying to find a way to stop it, other than uninstalling Pandora.

The other thing I should have been clearer on is that before the upgrade, there was a Pandora ICON on the screen, but afterwards there is not. Seems you use Pandora through AA on the newer setup.

EDIT - found the cure:

It did for me.

 

Sorry I haven't responded to your recent email. I had family in town this weekend.

That's really odd about the Pandora icon. My car still has it. I wonder if it's a software version thing. Mine is running 15.2B033. I've got an update to 16.3B020, but I haven't loaded it yet. It looks like yours shipped with 16.4B012, but the vendor may have updated it. Can you go into the development menu and see what you're currently on? Press Power + Home + Menu all at the same time. Then tap HMI and scroll down to 'supplier ECU software version number'. It should say something like GMG3G_Linux_16.xxxxx.

 

Well, this is interesting. Never knew you could do this! A lot of info about the HMI module sure pops up!

Like yours, mine is an I05 and the same version as yours too (GMG3G_Linux_15.2B033). Do you know what 16.3B020 will do for you?

 

lots of interesting info there. Jeff is teaching me a lot!

 

I wish I knew. I've dug into the update files and I can't find anything like release or upgrade notes. The main reason I asked is I'm hoping there's some sort of mismatch between my software and my calibration values. I'd update my HMI and get everything back in sync, but I'm taking the car on a road trip next weekend and I don't want to risk messing it up. I'll do it when I get home. Flame Red's is newer than mine, so it'll be interesting to see if just getting the software updated will fix the problem. His is also running the same software it was manufactured with, so the vendor didn't update it before they sent it out. They may have very good reasons for this, so please don't take it as a judgement of their work.

The other thing I'm wondering about is the radio module. The PDR connects to the radio in several places, so it's possible the non-functional PDR has nothing to do with the HMI at all. If anyone knows where I can find a cheap, used PDR, let me know

There's some really good technical information on the HMI modules here if you want to read a bit more: https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...-versions.html

 

Maybe your onto something. Maybe the PDR module was updated in 16 as well so you need a 16 HMI and 16 or newer PDR module???

 

Flame Red said earlier the vendor has even tried newer PDR modules, and that didn't work. There's got to be a way to get this going.

 

Definitely. There's some piece to the puzzle we're all missing. It's just a matter of what. I'd hate to have to really take a lot a part to find out what. I'm hoping it's more software based then anything.

 

Yes, that is what they said, but they also said that I would lose nothing and we know that was not the case. Who knows if they really tried a 2018 PDR module or tried back in 2016 when this first was listed. I agree, someone more clever probably could get it working.

But infotainment.com cannot just so all potential customer now know!

 

Saga continues. I called the vendor and it seems Pandora is an app that now has to be downloaded from the "shop" ICON. I saw that ICON and did not know that according to the GM web site, gives you the ability to down load three applications: Pandora, Glimpse and Weather Channel. I also noted the settings has a "Wifi" option.

So I connected the car to my house Wifi and it connected just fine. After pressing the shop icon, it sits for a minute with dots cycling and then says "error" and give you a Settings or call onstar choice. So instead I set it up to teather to my phone but it did the exact same thing. So the shop application does not appear to work. But that is where one gets Pandora now. It does not come with it out-of-the-box.

 

A bit of an update on the Shop application. I spoke with Joe at the vendor. He is most helpful and really wants to make sure their customers are happy.

He stated that the OnStar runs the connectivity to GM's Shop app. He believes there is a database somewhere that OnStar/GM has that show what features the car has. Since the 2015 car was originally equipped with IO5 module, Shop won't work and they stop it. He said they had one customer who was eventually able to talk to an engineer and have him update the back end database so that Shop would work. He stated what we all know that GM is not very customer focused (would rather you trade in your car for a new one and not upgrade the radio) and getting through to an actual engineer that can actually get their back-end database updated is slim to none.

He did not know of a way to "side load" any apps.

I made some phone calls. If you don't know someone that works for a dealer, you are never going to get in touch with a GM engineer.

 

Have they had any other thoughts on what would not be allowing the PDR to function correctly? Maybe trying a different input etc?

 

They had no other ideas on how to get the PDR working. They have given up.

I received the programmer the vendor sent me for guidelines for the rear camera. It did not work at all. No guidelines on the rear camera.

So here is my final comments on this upgrade. https://www.infotainment.com/collect...ant=1025047957

Don't believe the web site, or the salesman that every function will be retained. Ask and they will waive the restocking fee. Their technical support is responsive but they cannot fix any of the missing stuff. They answer their phones, M-F 9-5 and they call you back pretty darn fast, within a few minutes, if they don't know the answer. But what is missing is missing and will not work.

The net results are,

You will lose:
* PDR (if you had it)
* Pandora, but you can use Pandoria via AA/CarPlay. Or just stream it via BT with crappy quality and no controls.
* Guidelines on the rear camera.
* You GM warranty on the infotainment system. Don't let the dealer update the infotainment software - ever!!!

You will gain:
* A MUCH faster responsive, no more laggy screen
* HD Radio
* Android Auto via USB
* Voice system that works!
* Updated maps, exact version I could not determine.

The new stuff that does not work
* GM Shop
* GM over the air software updates
* Wifi connects, but it is of no use since you cannot load any apps
* Front camera ICON will not work

 

Thank you for the nice summary.

All in all, would you say the faster response is worth it? I think I'd be ok with giving up PDR as long as everything else you mentioned works good

 

The speed of the GUI was not the reason I decided to keep it. The reason I decided to keep it was the ability to use Waze through the main screen. I don't flop through the screens too much. Once things are set I don't change them much.

Your expectations might be different. And it is a TON of $ for breaking a lot of functions!

At first, I was really, really pissed off the growing list of items that did not work after their sales guy kept assuring me that I would loose NOTHING.

The tech support guy Joe was more sympathetic and gave me the option to return it for a full refund. But I did keep it.

I think the decision is based on what you use.

I only used PDR once to try it out when I first bought the car. But on the other hand, that option was cost me a few thousand $! The rear camera guidelines I do miss as they are helpful backing into parking spots. I don't use Pandora since my wife likes to pay XM. I don't listen to HD FM since I have XM.

I don't use the NAV anymore as Waze is far superior over the GM NAV. Another benefit for me was the Voice Recognition actually works for me where it never did on the old system.

So you now know the facts and what you can expect.

 

Got back from my brief road trip today (had a great time) and decided to run the software update on my HMI.

You generally can't download these updates unless you're a dealer or you have an AC Delco subscription like I do.

If you ever find USB update files floating around on the internet, DO NOT LOAD THEM

Even if the files are legitimate, even if they match your hardware, and even if they load correctly, you'll still need a trip to the dealer. This is what I was faced with after doing my USB update.




My center display would not show anything besides "Calibrate Device" and my cluster was stuck on the "audio off" screen. My center display was locked and my steering wheel controls did nothing.

Do not load a USB update unless you have access to the tools and software needed to finish the job!

Fortunately the car will still start, so you should be able to drive it to a shop where you'll be charged a lot of money for someone to click a few buttons on a laptop.

Anyway, I have all that stuff. So I finished it up and got my system updated to 16.3B020.



As far as I can tell, it did nothing for me. It didn't break anything, but it didn't fix my drive mode settings either. So my idea about the software being incompatible with the calibration files is busted. That's just the nature of experimenting.

I've made some progress with other aspects of the software, but I can't promise when or even if they'll ever bear fruit. But there's at least hope.

 

 

Well, I have to compliment infotainment.com, their customer support is better than I expected. So here is the latest update.

They previously sent me a dongle that they thought would program the HMI with the menu for the rear camera guidelines, but as I stated it did not seem to work. So they sent me a label and asked me to ship it back to them. They came back and said they sent me a new HMI that should have the guidelines active.

Sorry, but looks like I'm not done with my updates yet!

 

Hopefully my last post on this topic. Infotainment.com shipped another HMI overnight. Great news! The menu for the rear camera is back, and on, and the guidelines work again!

So for the final feature summary:

https://www.infotainment.com/collect...ant=1025047957

Don't believe the web site, or the salesman that every function will be retained. Ask and they will waive the restocking fee. Their technical support is VERY responsive but they cannot fix any of the missing stuff. They answer their phones, M-F 9-5 and they call you back pretty darn fast, within a few minutes, if they don't know the answer. But what is missing is missing and will not work.

The net results are,

You will lose:
* PDR (if you had it)
* Pandora, but you can use Pandoria via AA/CarPlay. Or just stream it via BT with crappy quality and no controls.
* You GM warranty on the infotainment system. Don't let the dealer update the infotainment software - ever!!!

You will gain:
* A MUCH faster responsive, no more laggy screen
* HD Radio
* Android Auto via USB
* Voice system that works!
* Updated maps, exact version I could not determine.

The new stuff that does not work
* GM Shop
* GM over the air software updates
* Wifi connects, but it is of no use since you cannot load any apps
* Front camera ICON will not work

Make sure you mention that they need to program the rear camera guidelines!