Legacy 2009 Caska multimedia system installation.

[ayedaraj]

Dear Sir;

please help me regarding the "maplaunch.ini" . i have CASKA device installed in a car which i bought , when i try to start the navigator i get this message on the screen no file maplaunch.ini. i checked the SD card and found that there is no file with this name in it. But there is an IGO FOLDER with all maps.

Thank you much

Ayed

 

quote you earlier

"""Also had to fight a little with the GPS because I bought it without software and SD card, there is a need in a "maplaunch.ini" file on the sd card that contains the path to the navigation launch file

 

If some one need more info on that I can help.

[julianfast]

Gonskiian--

Yeah, the JDM 2 DIN kit is one of my backups. I'm hoping to buy a head unit from Europe with the controls set up for left hand drive first. If that fails I'll probably try the JDM kit. My funds are getting tight since my wife doesn't seem to have the same willingness to keep throwing large chunks of money at this project

So, I'm being a bit cautious since my next purchase might be my last.

 

ayedaraj--

I had to spend quite a bit of time playing with the configuration files to get my Caska working correctly. Eventually, I got it working and I can send you my files if that would help. What Caska model do you have and what in country are you in?

[julianfast]

Just a warning...don't buy from this guy. Very bad deal.

 

Hohnsteiner Weg 8

D-88709 Meersburg Germany

 

http://www.caska-europe.eu/

 

The guy's name is Johannas Frank. I think it's a one man company and the address looks to be a house in a neighborhood. Anyway, charged me too much, was wrong about all kinds of things especially that it included the HVAC controls. He assured me multiple times that it did. I ordered it the beginning of July and sent him my money. I finally got it in November. Along the way he stopped responding to emails for 3 and 4 weeks at a time. I really thought I had been scammed. Once I got the unit he was unable or unwilling to help with the HVAC issue. The only reason, I don't send it back is because I'm pretty sure I would not get my money back anyway.

 

Also, beware of paypal. I like them and I use them all the time, but as far as their dispute process goes they will not do anything to help if it has been more than 45 days. Even, for fraud. So, if you have a dispute with someone make sure you start the process before the 45 days are up. Unfortunatly, I don't know a better option. Obviously, don't wire anyone money.

 

There are other Caskas in Europe such as the UK and Belgium. They have been no help so far either, but I can't say bad things about them since they haven't ripped me off.

[goneskiian]

Thanks for the heads up on the guy in Germany.

 

I was wondering if the JDM double din kit had HVAC controls that you could simply unscrew and put into the Caska kit so the RHD vs. LHD wasn't an issue. If only you could get someone that already has it to open it up and investigate.

 

I think I have a local with the JDM DD kit. I'll ping him to see if he'd be willing to break it down for a closer look.

 

Cheers!

[goneskiian]

I pinged the Hungarian Caska distributor but got turned away.

 

I found they have a video showing all the functions...

 

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEg7eLbycFs&feature=player_embedded]CASKA Multimedia - The Test (English) - YouTube[/ame]

 

Makes me want one even more!

 

I did find a North American contact on caskaglobal.com and have sent her an email.

 

Maybe we can get the thread starter AlexShu to pick up a couple for us and maybe even source some climate controls too!

[ayedaraj]

Julianfast

Thank you much for your care, my CASKA model is CA3689 , i reside in saudi arabia, i have the IGO maps for the gulf countries including saudia arabia, but due to the SD card not having the maplaunch.ini and the rest of the configuration puzzle i am stuck .

once again, Thank you for your help

[julianfast]

ayedaraj...check your messages.

 

Nice video. The one I have doesn't have the latest interface, but it doesn't seem much different. The 3606 only has one SD slot for the nav software and the SD card has to be in the slot for the nav to work. I didn't try the USB, TV or phone but it's there waiting.

 

What do you mean they turned you away?

[goneskiian]

I mean they said they won't sell outside of Europe. I wonder if you're guy in Germany was entirely above board with Caska?

 

Still no response from the North American contact at Caska either. Maybe I'll trying pinging again.

 

Then again, I may just live with what I have. It's just the gadget lover in me that wants this anyway.

[ayedaraj]

thank u much julian ,, because of uR HELP the GPS NAVIGATOR IS WORKING NOW. One problem only , is that when i turn off my car engine and restart the CASKA system and try to start the navigator, i have to go through new set up inside IGO and change the setting of the port and Baud rate, and also all the favorites locations are gone. r there any thing that i can do to keep these:) settings...

thanks

[julianfast]

My guy in Germany was very likely not above board. Of course, I did eventually get the unit...sort of. I don't know what it is with Caska, everyone I try and contact doesn't seem to want to talk to me. Apparently, they sell a bunch of these for Mazdas, maybe they really are not set up for Subaru. Too bad, because I think they could sell a ton of these.

 

I tried the North American contact months ago and nothing there. Then I tried all the contacts listed on their website and not one response. At that point I just figured Caska wasn't a real company and I had been scammed so I pretty much gave up. Then a few weeks later, I got my unit and I love it. I don't know, how they expect to do business. Really weird.

[julianfast]

thank u much julian ,, because of uR HELP the GPS NAVIGATOR IS WORKING NOW. One problem only , is that when i turn off my car engine and restart the CASKA system and try to start the navigator, i have to go through new set up inside IGO and change the setting of the port and Baud rate, and also all the favorites locations are gone. r there any thing that i can do to keep these:) settings...

thanks

 

Sent you an email. Let me know how it goes.

[harake]

Guys,

 

I got the Caska navigation system for my legacy, I hoped that I have seen the installation procedure here before the installation. Anyway I bought the system includying the maps, the problem is that the GPS can't find map card, in everytime I start the navigation system it says "error can't find map card please check", I can access the sd card from the computer, maps and software are there. Is there anyway I can verify that the system is reading my SD cards? any hints would be appreaciated.

 

Thanks all

Harake

[harake]

It's working now by adding the "maplaunch.ini" file.

 

regards

Harake

[AlexShu]

Hey guys !

Sorry for the absence, I am on a business trip and been away from home for a while.

Ill try to answer your questions.

 

First I bought my Legacy in Israel its late 2009 model

my radio model is GX-206LE, the climate control system is not on the same board and its deattachable

 

regarding where to buy. I bought mine from a local dealer, so I don't really know

I would be happy to check some junkyards for this stereo but as I said I'm away from home.

 

the maplaunch.ini

open notepad and paste this :

just change the parameters according to what you have

 

[*navigation software name*] - just a name not really changes anything

path = *folder name*\*EXE name*.exe; - the path for the executable file that runs the navigation software

bmpiconpath = *folder*\*file name*.bmp; - the path for the icon of the software

showname = *Display name*; - the name that will be displayed on the screen

 

so if you have an "igo.exe" file in a folder called "navi"

and "icon.bmp" file in a folder called "navi"

your file should look like this:

 

[igo]

path = navi\igo.exe;

bmpiconpath = navi\icon.bmp;

showname = iGO;

 

 

then click File > Save

Save as type : All Files (*.*)

the name is "maplaunch.ini"

Save

 

Copy the file to the root of your SD card and thats it

Hope I covered it all :]

[julianfast]

Harake,

Was it straight install or did you need a wiring harness? I have a US car and I think I need the wiring harness from SVXdc referenced here.

 

http://legacygt.com/forums/showthread.php/official-dual-hvac-double-din-jdm-kit-thread-113589p31.html

[SVXdc]

Harake,

Was it straight install or did you need a wiring harness? I have a US car and I think I need the wiring harness from SVXdc referenced here.

 

[ link to some post in the Official dual HVAC Double Din (JDM) Kit thread! ]

 

North American cars will need my i88 adapter harness.

 

European, Australian, and Japanese market cars already have the required signals on the factory i88 plug -- so no adapter harness needed.

[SVXdc]

[Finally able to reply to jabz's questions from a few weeks ago]

 

Here's the service manual for the Kenwood GX-204xx HUs (GX-204KE, GX-204KH, GX-204LE, GX-204RE, GX-204SE).

 

As he observed (and thanks for the pictures, both here and on my 'stock HU questions' thread on NASIOC!), this model has a small ribbon cable coming from the A/C panel that connects into the main portion of the OEM radio.

 

Does Caska instruct you to connect that somewhere on their HU? Do they mention it at all?

 

Technical info:

 

I studied Kenwood's schematics, and determined that the ribbon cable is mostly for the A/C panel to send information to the main radio microcontroller. However, there are also a pair of UART lines that the two units use to communicate. I have no idea what their conversations are about.

 

All of the signals are +5V. Pin-out at the A/C panel (connector CN4):

 

Pin  Name       Description
---  ---------  -----------
1   GND        Ground
2   SH DATA S  UART data from audio to A/C panel
3   SH DATA H  UART data from A/C panel to audio
4   IGN DET    +12V Ignition detect to audio unit (+5V = ON)
5   BRIGHT     "Change logic when brightness changes" Operation: When “H”, bright data is finalized at UART
6   HTR        "For determining bright terminal valid/invalid" (H=valid)

The pin numbers are flipped on the connector at the opposite end, CN503 (pin 1 on A/C panel = pin 6 on audio board, 2 = 5, etc.).

 

"Bright" mode is where you change your instrument illumination (backlights) to cancel the dimming that normally happens whenever you turn on your headlights. On 2005 models, there is a button for this next to the clock. On later models, you activate by turning the dimmer wheel all the way up.

 

So it appears that somehow the A/C panel gets the bright signal from the car, and passes that along to the radio portion.

 

In the US, the bright signal is on pin 8 of the harness with the aux input and steering wheel controls (SWCs) -- designated "i85". But on this HU, pin 8 is not used. So I have no idea where the signal originates for this HU.

Except perhaps for the UART data, it looks like the GX-204xx's A/C panel should work without being connected to the radio portion. You should either carefully remove the ribbon cable from the A/C panel's connector, or else insulate the end of that ribbon cable (in a way that won't damage the foil or leave residue, in case we learn that it does need to be connected to something).

[julianfast]

I think I'm 95% of the way there. I just need a little bit of wiring help and SVXdc is helping with that. The Caska 3606 unit has a spot for the ribbon cable. Just carefully plug it in. I'll post more later.

[goneskiian]

Excellent. Thanks for the updates.

[julianfast]

Got it working! Finally. Here's the pic.

 

SVXdc's wiring harness was a big help. I was looking at the JDM kit and noticed that the buttons are in a different order than what is on the Caska. Since they are part of the Caska and have very specific contact points with the HVAC board so I'm pretty skeptical that it would work.

 

By the way, I tried to get a black shifter trim panel from Europe, but apparently all the Europe cars are automatics. Seems strange. Can anyone confirm that?

 

I'm tired so more details tomorrow.

[julianfast]

First day with the unit was pretty good. Some of functionality is a little weird. Setting the radio presets is a little tricky. It seems to pick up whatever happens to be the station info. This is typically scrolling so what you get is hard to control. Sometimes I got 89.7 and sometimes I got "Baltimo". Your get the idea. If you're fast you can usually get it before the info starts to show and you just get the station freq. There is probably a setting for this somewhere, but the manual is terrible.

 

The bluetooth hooked up to my iPhone pretty easy. The password is 1234 by default. It pulls the recent phone numbers fine, but I haven't figured out how to get my contacts to show up. I assume it's possible. Making calls is pretty easy and the sound is ok. Of course I had low expectations since Alex said it was no good. I am able to play the music from my phone via bluetooth which was pretty cool. You don't see the song info. It's more of a shuffle, but you can move forward and back through your songs. I drove to an from work without hooking up the iPhone connection because the bluetooth music was just fine. I chuckled a little when I realized that because the whole reason I started this saga was for the iPhone support and I didn't even use it once I had it. There is a lot of functionality that I haven't even touched let alone figured out. I'll probably be tinkering all weekend.

 

As far as build quality goes, I agree with Alex...China. Of course, I now own three OEM Subaru radios for this car an they are all made in China. That being said, some of the buttons on the Caska feel cheap compared to the OEM radios. The on/off/vol button feels less substantial and the HVAC buttons on the bottom don't work as smooth as the OEM ones. Maybe after they get some wear they will be better. The buttons on the side feel pretty good on the other hand. Anyway, I generally feel that it all works as good or better than I had hoped.

 

One nice feature is you can dim the main display by quickly pushing on the on/off button and you can turn off the display by pushing it again. This is nice at night since the display is pretty bright.

 

So far my biggest grip is that it doesn't match the silver shifter panel. Actually, I think I like the black better than the silver especially with the silver trim on the side. So maybe my real grip is that I don't have a black shifter panel. Either way, it would be nice if the two pieces matched.

 

It would also, be nice if you didn't have to leave the SD card in the slot for the nav to work. I would like to put music on it instead. Of course, how many ways do you need to have to play music?

 

2/28/12 Noticed today that the up/down arrows on the fan point the wrong way. No big deal, it works the same and I drove it for days before I noticed.

[thefultonhow]

How did you end up getting a GX-204 HVAC panel?

 

Also, sounds like you're in Baltimore? I'd like to check this out.

[julianfast]

thefultonhow, sent you a PM to meet up.

 

As far a getting the GX-204LE, it took about 3 months of sending emails to salvage yards all over Europe. Eventually, I lucked out. The GX-204RE seems more common but is for RHD.

 

You can try searching for autoverwertung which is junk yard in German.

 

http://www.schindelar.de/schindelar/index.html

http://www.autoverwertung-kroher.de/

http://moto.allegro.pl/czesci-samochodowe-620 --like a polish ebay

 

So for a quick price breakdown.

 

Caska with nav software - $1050

GX-204LE - $550

wiring and some tools - $100

Total -$1700

 

Plus a false start with a US 2007 P-204UH radio for $300. Anyone want to buy it from me before I put it on ebay? Send me a PM.

[mrmako]

Funny thing, I have a JDM 3.0 specB, and want to have European maps and GPS. Hmmm..... Maybe I should pay this CASKA rep in Germany a visit?

 

Or if someone has a EDM (UK preferred) head unit they are selling....?

[julianfast]

If I started building these with the HVAC controls and selling them with a warranty, would anyone be interested? If so, how much would you pay?