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Carobotor Nightmare!

PIMPMYJEEP

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Hello fellow Jeep Peeps.

I haven't seen much discussion on the Carobotor dash for the JL. Although I have read a few posts on here but no real feedback on install, usability overall satisfaction.

I've seen a few of the JK Carobotor videos online and how great they are but I take those videos with a grain of salt because usually they're paid or sponsored users from that company. I've only seen two or three for the JL and none were very informative.

What I can tell you is for the price point it is not an upgrade I can recommend to anyone. I was in a position where I got one sent to me as my jeep was at the fabricator shop being completely built and Carobotor had offered me a free unit if I was able to showcase the unit. Honestly I was happy to accept it and agreed without hesitation. Who doesn't want to save upward of $3,000 on a mod like this. Upon receiving the unit it, was packaged in a wooden crate that was very protective. It looked like a new rifle had shown up at my house. Everything was packaged perfectly and neatly no damage whatsoever. I waited for that weekend anxiously to do the install. Immediately the fabricator called and said there was no way he was going to install the dash because the instructions were a joke and he didn't want to charge me based on the instructions being pathetic. I told him not to worry about it I would do the installation. My background is computer technology, low voltage wiring and I currently hold the title of CTO at my company so I felt very so I felt very confident to do the installation.

The weekend came and I decided to do the install.
The installation took me a total of two and a half hours to complete.

Upon opening the box the finish on the dash looks cheap. It's a high gloss black and it doesn't match anything within the the interior. I elected not to get the red as I did not have that option for the interior. So I cannot comment on that color, however the black sucks. Installation was Plug and Play and I think the hardest part was having to plug the old Dash and new Dash together to read the mileage from the old Dash. This was where the problem started. The new Dash could not read the mileage from the old Dash I kept getting an error. I tried disconnecting and reconnecting and everything a logical person would do and it would just not read the dash information (mileage).

I reached out to the company for support and they had me take a picture of my mileage and send it to them, they sent me a zip file back with an update to the correct mileage.

However there are other issues that started arising immediately. Backup camera does not work. Air conditioning controls do not work unless you have dual zone. Thank God the factory control still work. Other issues etc etc.


However even after using JScan and setting it to dual, still doesn't work. (Didn't think it would) Cruise control mileage is in kilometers not miles per hour and there's no way to change it. The touch screen is extremely laggy. The Android version stated is not what's installed. The miles per hour are incorrect. GPS doesn't lock the location. The 4G LTE antenna did not function. Just stupid things that should have been tested before the unit went out.

When I emailed back about the amount of issues I had, Carobotor went completely radio silent. Previously they were gung ho and emailed like crazy about getting the unit to me and having an installation video and picture sent to them immediately. However now that I needed help there was no one to be found. To this day they have yet to respond and it's been months. I even went as far as to join their forum and ask for help there and I blatantly called them out and they deleted my post and banned Me from their own form. This should tell you everything about the company as a whole.

Being extremely frustrated and not wanting to rip my dash apart again, I decided to do some research and see if I could actually make the dash a better unit or at least better working unit. I was a Android developer a few years ago, Soooo a little tweaking a little a little tinkering and I was able to root the device and figure out all their passwords for the head unit.

Once I was able to find their passwords, I've been able to fix the screen lagging, System responsiveness is not almost instant. GPS lock issue fixed. I was able to fix my mileage and have the original speedometer sync with the new dashboard correctly. Still can't figure out the cruise control mileage. Now that the head unit is rooted I'm able to install the apps that I want to use as system apps not the garbage they installed, including one app that is known spyware. I was able to fix the 4G LTE for data as the antenna came with the unit was not functioning. I upgraded the GPS antenna as well. I was able to install my live television app which now works properly and a Revanced youtube. Ring, and other apps that would not work before. Honestly so far so good. If the dash have been like this out of the box I would have way less complaints.

What I cannot figure out at this point is the backup camera. It does not work on the system no matter what settings or what I do. I've tried swapping out the camera and I get the same result. A blurry picture, then black screen. I have taken my original dash and camera to the fabricator and had him plug in my old head unit on his test bench and it works perfectly. I don't know... I'm at a loss with this one.


My fabricator asked me if I had to do this again, would I?
The answer is absolutely not...

My recommendation is to leave this one alone. If I had bought this dash, I believe there's no way they would have refunded me. This has been such a nightmare to this point. The obviously do not support their product. They don't care about their customers and they have very bad business ethics.

On a final thought. I read some people complaining about losing a vent for the air conditioning. Believe it or not, it blows just as cold without that one vent. Since I live in Miami and it gets disgusting hot and humid here. I would notice immediately. It truly has no impact

Jeep Wrangler JL Carobotor Nightmare! 20230712_084143

Jeep Wrangler JL Carobotor Nightmare! 20230712_084308
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Deke

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That sounds about like I expected... all except the rooting and fixing their crap part.
Thanks for the info.
 

Spank

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What would be nice is a way to hack the UConnect 8.4 radio itself and dive inside its code. Yeah, the technology is dated, but I bet the underlying platform and software in general is disastrously built and a talented group of software guys could clean it up nicely for better performance and reliability.
 
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PIMPMYJEEP

PIMPMYJEEP

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Well funny you ask,
@Spank

The new Uconnect 5 is based on android. This is a big deal as sooner or later someone will find away to unlock the bootloader, root the current firmware or either sideload apps.
(Was just able to do this recently with my 2020 KIA Stinger GT....)
Time will tell I guess.

Uconnect 4 is QNX operating system ( Unix ) and is pointless to work with. Honestly worthless...
Think Blackberry :LOL:
 

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Spank

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Well funny you ask,
@Spank

The new Uconnect 5 is based on android. This is a big deal as sooner or later someone will find away to unlock the bootloader, root the current firmware or either sideload apps.
(Was just able to do this recently with my 2020 KIA Stinger GT....)
Time will tell I guess.

Uconnect 4 is QNX operating system ( Unix ) and is pointless to work with. Honestly worthless...
Think Blackberry :LOL:
Oh, I'm aware of that, but if there was a relatively easy way to decompile and make changes to these radios, QNX or not, folks would definitely take the challenge. Android is easy to edit/hack/tweak once you've got access, but there is likely some goofy security check on the older radios that doesn't allow a simple blind flash, not to mention FCA's strict language about changing their shit.

Someone was doing tweaks to update files on the old MyGig radios back in the day, but I can't remember what they were changing. It wasn't for UI purposes, though.
 
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PIMPMYJEEP

PIMPMYJEEP

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@Spank

The 3 problem's with QNX is

1. Hardware ia outdated and useless.
2. No apps or anything of use is available for it.
3. The motherboard and Hardware is locked so unless you're going to solder on jumper cables and know the pin has to each location it's just a pointless endeavor.


Like your idea though
 

jeepingib

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It's neat looking. But not something that I would ever think of doing. Especially with the access that the radio has to both CAN hi and low networks. Glad this unit went to someone who is able to root it and make it mostly usable. As far as the camera, try an aftermarket camera. I've heard that the camera on our Uconnect systems are quite unique and don't work well with aftermarket radios.
 

AFD

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That's pretty slick! Read the title and thought you were (badly) misspelling the word carburetor and was wondering why we'd even be discussing that here. I also jump to the same conclusion whenever I see a Tozalazz product being discussed ?
 

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PIMPMYJEEP

PIMPMYJEEP

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20230717_210742.webp


It's neat looking. But not something that I would ever think of doing. Especially with the access that the radio has to both CAN hi and low networks. Glad this unit went to someone who is able to root it and make it mostly usable. As far as the camera, try an aftermarket camera. I've heard that the camera on our Uconnect systems are quite unique and don't work well with aftermarket radios.
I was able to figure out the camera after looking at the wiring schematics. Although I haven't attempted to rectify the problem because it requires taking the whole dash apart again.. I will try to figure it out on Saturday

The pictures above show something pretty cool. There is a Bluetooth relay system called trigger. It basically makes virtual switches for LED lights or whatever else may use a relay for. Winch, air compressor or whatnot. There are no switches to wire. Before I was able to root the head unit I could not change the Bluetooth password for nothing. So there was no way to connect to the Bluetooth relays . Now I can connect to the relays and all the lights and the winch are controlled through head unit virtual switches. Also I installed a new home screen which has Maps, radio player, video player, and other functions laid out on the single screen that work in real time.

This is what the trigger app looks like on the phone. On my screen it looks completely different

Jeep Wrangler JL Carobotor Nightmare! trigger-4-phones


Jeep dash

Jeep Wrangler JL Carobotor Nightmare! 20230717_171259
 
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PIMPMYJEEP

PIMPMYJEEP

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***UPDATE ***

JScan is up and running perfectly.
My opinion is that this blows the TaserJL out of the water and at a fraction of the cost. Don't get me wrong I think the TazerJL is a good product.

The amount of configuration options is mind-boggling in JScan.
Also it's nice having these functions on the fly.

Sorry for not the cleanest pictures it's really dark out for some reason my phone is not playing nice.

Jeep Wrangler JL Carobotor Nightmare! 20230726_202910


Jeep Wrangler JL Carobotor Nightmare! 20230726_203201


Jeep Wrangler JL Carobotor Nightmare! 20230726_203414


Jeep Wrangler JL Carobotor Nightmare! 20230726_203826
 

soycarloslr

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Hello fellow Jeep Peeps.

I haven't seen much discussion on the Carobotor dash for the JL. Although I have read a few posts on here but no real feedback on install, usability overall satisfaction.

I've seen a few of the JK Carobotor videos online and how great they are but I take those videos with a grain of salt because usually they're paid or sponsored users from that company. I've only seen two or three for the JL and none were very informative.

What I can tell you is for the price point it is not an upgrade I can recommend to anyone. I was in a position where I got one sent to me as my jeep was at the fabricator shop being completely built and Carobotor had offered me a free unit if I was able to showcase the unit. Honestly I was happy to accept it and agreed without hesitation. Who doesn't want to save upward of $3,000 on a mod like this. Upon receiving the unit it, was packaged in a wooden crate that was very protective. It looked like a new rifle had shown up at my house. Everything was packaged perfectly and neatly no damage whatsoever. I waited for that weekend anxiously to do the install. Immediately the fabricator called and said there was no way he was going to install the dash because the instructions were a joke and he didn't want to charge me based on the instructions being pathetic. I told him not to worry about it I would do the installation. My background is computer technology, low voltage wiring and I currently hold the title of CTO at my company so I felt very so I felt very confident to do the installation.

The weekend came and I decided to do the install.
The installation took me a total of two and a half hours to complete.

Upon opening the box the finish on the dash looks cheap. It's a high gloss black and it doesn't match anything within the the interior. I elected not to get the red as I did not have that option for the interior. So I cannot comment on that color, however the black sucks. Installation was Plug and Play and I think the hardest part was having to plug the old Dash and new Dash together to read the mileage from the old Dash. This was where the problem started. The new Dash could not read the mileage from the old Dash I kept getting an error. I tried disconnecting and reconnecting and everything a logical person would do and it would just not read the dash information (mileage).

I reached out to the company for support and they had me take a picture of my mileage and send it to them, they sent me a zip file back with an update to the correct mileage.

However there are other issues that started arising immediately. Backup camera does not work. Air conditioning controls do not work unless you have dual zone. Thank God the factory control still work. Other issues etc etc.


However even after using JScan and setting it to dual, still doesn't work. (Didn't think it would) Cruise control mileage is in kilometers not miles per hour and there's no way to change it. The touch screen is extremely laggy. The Android version stated is not what's installed. The miles per hour are incorrect. GPS doesn't lock the location. The 4G LTE antenna did not function. Just stupid things that should have been tested before the unit went out.

When I emailed back about the amount of issues I had, Carobotor went completely radio silent. Previously they were gung ho and emailed like crazy about getting the unit to me and having an installation video and picture sent to them immediately. However now that I needed help there was no one to be found. To this day they have yet to respond and it's been months. I even went as far as to join their forum and ask for help there and I blatantly called them out and they deleted my post and banned Me from their own form. This should tell you everything about the company as a whole.

Being extremely frustrated and not wanting to rip my dash apart again, I decided to do some research and see if I could actually make the dash a better unit or at least better working unit. I was a Android developer a few years ago, Soooo a little tweaking a little a little tinkering and I was able to root the device and figure out all their passwords for the head unit.

Once I was able to find their passwords, I've been able to fix the screen lagging, System responsiveness is not almost instant. GPS lock issue fixed. I was able to fix my mileage and have the original speedometer sync with the new dashboard correctly. Still can't figure out the cruise control mileage. Now that the head unit is rooted I'm able to install the apps that I want to use as system apps not the garbage they installed, including one app that is known spyware. I was able to fix the 4G LTE for data as the antenna came with the unit was not functioning. I upgraded the GPS antenna as well. I was able to install my live television app which now works properly and a Revanced youtube. Ring, and other apps that would not work before. Honestly so far so good. If the dash have been like this out of the box I would have way less complaints.

What I cannot figure out at this point is the backup camera. It does not work on the system no matter what settings or what I do. I've tried swapping out the camera and I get the same result. A blurry picture, then black screen. I have taken my original dash and camera to the fabricator and had him plug in my old head unit on his test bench and it works perfectly. I don't know... I'm at a loss with this one.


My fabricator asked me if I had to do this again, would I?
The answer is absolutely not...

My recommendation is to leave this one alone. If I had bought this dash, I believe there's no way they would have refunded me. This has been such a nightmare to this point. The obviously do not support their product. They don't care about their customers and they have very bad business ethics.

On a final thought. I read some people complaining about losing a vent for the air conditioning. Believe it or not, it blows just as cold without that one vent. Since I live in Miami and it gets disgusting hot and humid here. I would notice immediately. It truly has no impact

20230712_084143.jpg

20230712_084308.jpg
HEY MAN, HOW ARE YOU?.

I read your post and I have some familiar issues regarding trying to "update" the screen.

I have no electrical knowledge but the guy that installed me the screen had the same issue with the cameras, Front and Rear. The solution was to put a CAPACITOR for the rear screen. at least that is what he said to me and it is working now. I am still pending to solve the front camera now.

hope this helps you.


Is there any chance you could give me some orientation step by step to try to solve my problems?

I have the same issue of not having accuracy of the measures of the gauges, it seems that my water temp is 3/4 on the gauge and in a real case of overheating I will not know.

tyre and oil pressure is always in kpa and can not change them to psi.

I will also like to know how to install 4g so it can hotspot a dashcam that I have.


Finally I found someone with an idea of how to solve this, since they have really ghosted me.


Kind Regards

Carlos from Mexico city
 

Jeep15

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Does anyone know if there is a radio you can replace the Carobotor with. I think the dash had to be cut to install the Carobotor. it was installed by the previous owners.
 

Randiniz

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You mentioned that you discovered the passwords for the dash system. Are you able to share them?
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