I may have missed it, but which brand rear view camera did you use?

The big screen looks great in there.

 

This may sound weird considering I've owned four C6s so far, but the first time I drove it, it felt like a completely different vehicle (I'm sure adding new brakes and new tires helped a bit). It has the same Carplay convenience that I have my 2021 GMC Sierra (wireless - connects even with the phone in its holster). The factory Bluetooth in these C6s is real clunky and takes more than a few steps to just make a phone call. For this new device, there are so many screens and customization options that I'm sure I'll be dialing it in for days. This will be my first update (installing the Agama Car Launcher and setting it to a blue theme).

I stole this photo from David A. Hopefully he doesn't mind. I'm also planning a similar steering wheel from RFE Design:



Some other features I didn't cover since I haven't installed them (yet):

• 4G connection - in my photo in the first post showing all of the components, the bottom right has the two 4G antennas and the 4G SIM socket
• External Amp connections: There's a pigtail that has outputs for an external amplifier if you really want a killer sound system. I'm strongly considering this option for future expansion because audio with the top down at 65+ MPH is pretty much unusable even with the factory radio. This thing is begging for more power.

 

Both cameras come with the unit.

 

I ran across another installation video that covers both front and rear cameras and also the optional DVR camera that just went on sale in March. Fun stuff! I'll reference this when I get ready to install my front camera, and now I'm also tempted to pick up the DVR camera.

This is on a coupe, so the routing is slightly different for the rear camera.

 

The unit really modernized the car without overdoing it. Lots of resistance from others (including myself) when this launched. The more I use it the more I like it. Nice job documenting your journey with the unit.

 

Thank you. I was also on the fence until Damian threw out his Black Friday special. I had this sitting in the box for over four months. I shouldn't have waited. It was a lot easier to install than I thought it would be.

 

I wouldn't have purchased without that sale. Knowing what I know now, I'd pay full retail for sure.

 

I am absolutely thrilled to report after finally getting the chance to play with it that my USB connection hack worked! I loaded up a 16GB USB key formatted to FAT32 with a bunch of random MP3s (so pay no attention to the playlist since it was just a bunch of files from a media backup folder). So those who have C6s equipped with the factory auxiliary connection in the console can still take advantage of it.

That said, @KnightDriveTV has reported that connecting a cell phone to the unit has in some cases caused strange behavior (e.g. white screen that requires system reset), so I think I may just leave this as a USB music port (and update port) and get a cigarette lighter adapter for that auxiliary power port in the console to keep the phone charged.

Yay!

EDIT: I confirmed both FAT32 and exFAT file systems work as well as MP3 and FLAC files. Now I'm loading up a big USB stick with pretty much my entire digital music library.

Oh, and, yes, I'll probably vacuum out that console. I don't think it has ever been done in its 13 years of in-service.






Now this is interesting. After testing Journey's Greatest Hits album in FLAC, I brought it back to my PC to add more music folders, and the Max-DIN just like pretty much any Android device added a bunch of folders automatically, so I moved Journey to the Music folder, and now I'm wondering what movie formats it supports.

 

VetteVinnie, I have to ask you....why the garage door opener? I figured your GS has Homelink.

I have a very old Sears garage door openener that I bought in 1981. It has the old technology DIP switches. My GS Homelink works with it. Since I have only one garage door opener, I programmed all 3 buttons to open the same door.

BTW: Nice head unit, glad you got it working just right.

 

It has a Homelink, but for some it refuses to program to my garage door. I may need to get a third party repeater for it at some point. Something must have changed between 2008 and 2010/2011 because my 2008 Z06 programmed just fine, but neither my 2010 ZR1 nor the Grand Sport want to talk to it. It's just as easy to flip up the console and hit the button, so it wasn't a priority.

 

Does your garage door opener have wifi? If it does you should be able to download the app onto the max-din and use that to open it.

 

Negative. Craftsman before Sears shut down.

 

I sat in the garage yesterday and connected the unit to my home WiFi. If you've ever owned an Android phone or tablet, you would feel right at home with this system. A tap on the Chrome browser icon, with a couple logins and a search for Agama Car Launcher, took me to the Google Play store. After a brief download and install, it brought a new loading screen to the playground.

This is just the default (with a quick change from the default "Nissan" to "Corvette" and a change from red to blue theme). I left it on the clock for now since the default Corvette logo is for a C8, so now I get to go hunt for the perfect C6 logo to stick in there. Changing those buttons is super easy. Just hold your finger on them, select the app, select an icon, give it a name, and Bob's your uncle. I already set a placeholder for quick access to the front camera (the "AUX" app) for when I get it installed.

Side note, I can also change the color of the backlight on those physical buttons. Right now, they're just rotating colors. I'll probably lock them into blue also.

 

I have a 2012 3LT Grand Sport, what HUD functions will I lose with this upgrade?

 

Just navigation and possibly radio information (I don't recall if it displays that or not). I run mine in Track Mode 2 all the time, though, so for me it's a "don't care". This would be true with any aftermarket head unit, though, not just this one.

 

The output of the factory head unit to feed the HUD, is image based data. The mapping hud configuration was bad, at best, and if anyone is using navi in their C6, God help them.

The only solution moving forward, for the world of older cars with HUD's, are updated and replacement HUDs, that can display information commanded by a core unit. This would allow mirroring and certain other functionality to be easily integrated into a central core unit. I hope you can tell that it's been discussed, extensively. The issue for C6 is the sales volume. If people invest their money into universal double din radios, versus something made for the car, then nothing else also made for the car can exist. Kenwood will never make a HUD for a C6, nor will Alpine, JVC or anyone else....but I can....and I already built the core unit to feed it.

 

So does that mean you're making an updated HUD to interface with this?

 

I'm very interested in this. It's a good time for me since I have the seats out and the console out. I've been wanting to upgrade my upgrade radio for some time.

I have two questions, does the screen auto-dim for night driving? Also, have you tried installing any of the monitoring apps such as
Torque.

Tks

 

I have not tried any of the monitoring apps, although I'm pretty sure there are some out there (or some in development) because I've seen screenshots. And, yes, there's the same automatic day/night function as the factory unit.

Since there's already a DVR camera available for it, I would love to see some PDR functionality added at some point even though I probably won't ever need it since most tracks won't allow a convertible to run on them. Damian at @KnightDriveTV would be the one to ask about future developments.

 

What a great job, thanks for sharing. I just did mine with a crutchfield JVC setup. It works and sounds great. Rear camera is great. I would like to do a front camera. I wish I would have known about Max-DIN before I jumped in and I would have held out until I could afford it.