DIY: Virtual Cockpit Retrofit MK7 (aliexpress version)

[Acadia18]

Don't mean to necrobump (okay, yes I do) ... but I installed this in my 2019 GLI a couple weeks ago. It's pretty great with a few quirks. As OP noted, the screen mirroring from your phone is rather useless, especially if you want audio -- but I wanted to point out that it's just an HDMI cable so you can plug basically anything into it ... including, in my case, a RasperryPi4b running MagicMirror2. I power it off a USB add-a-circuit stuffed in the circuit panel, it connects to my iPhone as a hotspot for internet access, and to the car stereo via bluetooth for audio out which is FAR superior to the digital console's FM transmitter.

With The RPi in there, I can now customize the digital cockpit display to be anything I want ... right now it's just Magic Mirror showing me a calendar and the weather forecast, and streaming backgrounds from Reddit's /r/wallpapers sub. In theory, I can connect it to the ODBII port and write my own custom gauges, or add a GPS module to the RPi and have a live map display on the dash at all times. Possibilities are limitless... but this ain't bad for the 20 minutes of effort I put into it.

View attachment 289350

When I had mine, I tried plugging an SNES Mini into the HDMI port and it didn't work

 

[timneedscoffee101]

The display is definitely picky about the source … I wasn’t able to connect the RPi initially either. Had to manually define the display type and resolution in its config for it to work. Very common with those embedded displays. But as far as I can tell, any 1080p-native source should work

 

[tWiStEd-tORqUe]

So im looking into getting this for my 17' R.

Can some confirm these :

1- I have ACC, will the digital dash show the relevant information when in use.

2- i have factor Dynaudio setup, will this interfere with the audio quality or the setup generally?

3- My car is ACP/AA factory enabled, will it show the relevant information when in use, like spotify, Map, YTM etc.

 

[bobloblawGTI]

So im looking into getting this for my 17' R.

Can some confirm these :

1- I have ACC, will the digital dash show the relevant information when in use.

2- i have factor Dynaudio setup, will this interfere with the audio quality or the setup generally?

3- My car is ACP/AA factory enabled, will it show the relevant information when in use, like spotify, Map, YTM etc.

1. Yes.
2. Can't necessarily speak for Dynaudio, but there's no issues with the Fender audio/amp in our NAR cars.
3. No unfortunately there's no way to get any info from AppConnect (CarPlay/Android Auto) into the cluster as far as I'm aware.

[EDIT] I didn't see which thread this was and thought it was for the OEM one. Pretty sure all the above still applies but can't speak definitively to any of it since I've never done an Ali cluster before. Defer to @Acadia18 on all things Zhong

 

[Acadia18]

The AliExpress clusters don't show anything additional that's not already there on the OEM one. They're basically just a fancy way to show what the OEM ones do.

They do offer phone screen mirroring, but trust me when I say it is more of a gimmick than anything and not really useful.

 

[tWiStEd-tORqUe]

The AliExpress clusters don't show anything additional that's not already there on the OEM one. They're basically just a fancy way to show what the OEM ones do.

They do offer phone screen mirroring, but trust me when I say it is more of a gimmick than anything and not really useful.

Thanks guys, it looks like ACC is not supported, just got a message from the seller, a deal breaker TBH otherwise could have been a good alternative to 1.5K OE option.

 

[Cuzoe]

Obviously not worth the risk if the seller says otherwise, but interesting that the only picture they have shows ACC and lane assist info .

Picture screenshot from the link in the OP...

 

[Guro]

hi guys,

I have in plan by the summer to order virtual cockpit from ali....
I saw the installation procedure, but i have another question. this device have android on it? so i can install GPS software like sygic on it??? wifi?

 

[Cuzoe]

It can mirror your phone. So whatever is on your phone can be displayed.

You cannot install or run anything "on" the cluster.