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I installed the Hamilton in my 2020. For it to work without echo in the microphone, I have to connect to the OEM BT and Hamilton BT and in BT mode. Sometimes CarPlay doesn't connect, sometimes it does. Frustrating.
My mistake is I didn't read the directions when it read, "Do not change the name of the Hamilton BT." Come to find out the Hamilton software does not like name changes. I'm not certain if this is the reason for the microphone echo.
We have an update for you that should clear it up should you prefer to use AUX mode. Email us attn: Dave and ask for Upgrade Kit Update. I will take care of you.
We have an update for you that should clear it up should you prefer to use AUX mode. Email us attn: Dave and ask for Upgrade Kit Update. I will take care of you.
@hamiltonmotorco happy to see you are an NC based company and located only down the road from me as well! Let me know if you need a GX test vehicle for your replacement screen
We appreciate it! I will make a note for our team.
I'll tag on to FishWithChris' question. I've seen you guys quoted (here) stating that your GX460 replacement will be priced slightly cheaper than CLL's, but theirs is currently $50 cheaper. Will you be lowering the cost of the unit anytime soon?
Also for everyone else, the CLL updated model also retains use of the OEM mic, so no need to run more cables.
Responding to you and FishWithChris, CarLinkLife's parent company and us purchase from the same manufacturer of tooling (this is the exterior plastic appearance). Our manufacturing partner is obsessed with product quality and has the top engineers in the industry for Lexus/Toyota. CLL's parent company is more closely affiliated with the tooling supplier but their engineers on the electronics side are not as strong as ours.
We traded them some help with their electronics in exchange for access to their tooling to be able to offer this product. As we are a US-based company that invests a lot in customer support and has greater accountability, we chose to spend more money on developing higher quality electronics. Our internal PCB is different from CLL as well as our lower PCB that handles the A/C controls and vehicle CANBUS inputs.
If CLL's lower PCB fails (even in a minor way), the whole system is rendered useless (From our analysis). This is how Chinese companies make electronics that are cheaper when they do not care about longevity. Our system is designed more like high end vehicle electronics that are designed to absorb errors that may occur down the road.
I'm assuming unless you hack up the wiring harness you won't be able to until Hamilton creates a wiring harness and official compatibility with the 2010-2013.
Responding to you and FishWithChris, CarLinkLife's parent company and us purchase from the same manufacturer of tooling (this is the exterior plastic appearance). Our manufacturing partner is obsessed with product quality and has the top engineers in the industry for Lexus/Toyota. CLL's parent company is more closely affiliated with the tooling supplier but their engineers on the electronics side are not as strong as ours.
We traded them some help with their electronics in exchange for access to their tooling to be able to offer this product. As we are a US-based company that invests a lot in customer support and has greater accountability, we chose to spend more money on developing higher quality electronics. Our internal PCB is different from CLL as well as our lower PCB that handles the A/C controls and vehicle CANBUS inputs.
If CLL's lower PCB fails (even in a minor way), the whole system is rendered useless (From our analysis). This is how Chinese companies make electronics that are cheaper when they do not care about longevity. Our system is designed more like high end vehicle electronics that are designed to absorb errors that may occur down the road.
@hamiltonmotorco I have a 2020 Luxury, which has the 360 cameras. When the camera display shows up, there are settings buttons on the screen, like Auto, and others. Do I lose those buttons when your product is installed, and do you have screenshots of what it looks like when the front camera displays automatically?
@hamiltonmotorco I have a 2020 Luxury, which has the 360 cameras. When the camera display shows up, there are settings buttons on the screen, like Auto, and others. Do I lose those buttons when your product is installed, and do you have screenshots of what it looks like when the front camera displays automatically?
thank you
You will not lose those settings buttons. Your OEM backup camera comes right through as it would on your factory unit. We will work on getting more pictures to share.
I'm assuming unless you hack up the wiring harness you won't be able to until Hamilton creates a wiring harness and official compatibility with the 2010-2013.
See the attached pictures. We just bought this clean 2012 Lexus GX and our engineers are hard at work here in Raleigh developing a version of our system to work with this car. We are super excited. It is going to be a factory fit/feel. Get ready!!!
Looking good! Here he is gathering all the CANBUS data as we work on our software development. Our Hamilton Systems are always developed on cars in the USA which are frequently different from Intl cars. Of course, we also test on Intl models for our friends in Aussie, Europe, and Asia.
For whatever reason my first attempt to post didn't go through. Strange.
In any case, this head unit looks really promising! But I have some concerns about unit durability over time [don't we all? It's part of the reason most of us buy Lexus in the first place ]. Little bit of context: I live in Kuwait. Temperatures here get absurdly hot [currently skirting the 122 F mark and we're not even in June yet] and there's very intense UV exposure year round. This usually makes buying aftermarket items a terrible idea because if the UV doesn't turn all the plastic moulding brittle, the heat will fry the actual electronic components. In light of that, and bearing in mind that a unit like this is going to be a pretty hefty investment [particularly when also factoring in the shipping costs that far out], I feel like I have to ask if much testing has been done on these units in similar environments [say, Nevada or Arizona, daily-driver without necessarily being garage kept?]
Additionally, are there any OEM features that don't function straight out of the box/full time with this unit? I know that with some infotainment swaps people tend to need to fiddle with the settings to bounce between different 'modes' for stuff like microphones, OEM vs. aftermarket radio, so on and so forth. Will this need to be done while using this unit, or does it manage to mate the Hamilton system's improvements to the OEM infotainment seamlessly?
The last question I have is, would this be a direct plug-and-play set up, or are there certain wires that need to be repurposed for other systems or piggy-backed to give functionality to new systems compared to the OEM head unit? The reason I ask is, as you mention in an earlier post, international vehicles are featured differently [in fact, my own GX, which is technically a base model here, is somewhere between the US Premium and Luxury spec with regards to features. No Mark Levinson, blindspot monitoring, Forward/360 cameras or radar cruise control, but still have the powered 3rd row, air suspension, heated and cooled seats, DAC and cool box], so I'm considering the possibility that the vehicle's electric and electronic warranty might be affected due to needing to splice wires or otherwise mess with things that shouldn't be messed with.
Loving the look of it and really got my hopes up after years of using the 2010-era infotainment, but want to learn what I can about its prospective service life in an environment like this before taking the plunge.
See the attached pictures. We just bought this clean 2012 Lexus GX and our engineers are hard at work here in Raleigh developing a version of our system to work with this car. We are super excited. It is going to be a factory fit/feel. Get ready!!!
Looking good! Here he is gathering all the CANBUS data as we work on our software development. Our Hamilton Systems are always developed on cars in the USA which are frequently different from Intl cars. Of course, we also test on Intl models for our friends in Aussie, Europe, and Asia.
You guys aren't fooling around! I love it! I'm waiting here with my 2010 GX460 ....
]. Little bit of context: I live in Kuwait. Temperatures here get absurdly hot [currently skirting the 122 F mark and we're not even in June yet] and there's very intense UV exposure year round. This usually makes buying aftermarket items a terrible idea because if the UV doesn't turn all the plastic moulding brittle, the heat will fry the actual electronic components. In light of that, and bearing in mind that a unit like this is going to be a pretty hefty investment [particularly when also factoring in the shipping costs that far out], I feel like I have to ask if much testing has been done on these units in similar environments [say, Nevada or Arizona, daily-driver without necessarily being garage kept?]
