XC90 2012 CarPlay and Bluetooth
 

Purchased a roadtop 8.8 inch CarPlay unit and ripped out the pop up RTI screen. It’s working amazingly well and means I have a relatively cheap CarPlay unit that can connect to my standard Volvo stereo (when I say “well” I have to twiddle the source knob to CD and back again to BT to get the phone to connect to the car, but it does work, otherwise the roadtop plays sound through its built in speaker).

So the question I have is that the car stereo and the roadtop should be able to connect via Bluetooth but the stereo needs a PIN for Bluetooth and it seems the roadtop unit doesn’t support PIN entry (have asked the roadtop co if a software update is coming but they haven’t responded yet).

So the question is.. finally.. is there way to remove the need for a pin from the standard stereo for Bluetooth (and if so how).

I’ll post some pics of the unit when I can work how to upload them.

XC90 apple CarPlay
 

Never did get it to work but I will just wire it in to aux in on the head unit. Software update from the manufacturer didn’t make any difference either

Video here of what it looks like when it’s installed.

https://youtu.be/MT7AYBWLg3s

Fairly cheap way to get CarPlay and keep the standard head unit. Still a work in progress, need to finish off the mount and cover the back where the wires come out of the unit.

Should have looked at the Legend!
It's superb!

Note that the radio performance is not as good as the original Volvo radio.

Volvo uses diversity FM antennas, the Legend only connects to one FM antenna.
and I've read reports that the FM RDS performance is nowhere near as good.

Whether that bothers you is very much a personal decision

@Sugarbear; thank you for sharing your experiences, what is yours now after a couple of months ? Even when you removed the RTI, can you just unplug the Roadtop and take it with you to another car if you like ?

I am considering combining it with a Legend unit to replace the original headunit and the fact that you can take it with you when using another car seems quite excellent to me ?

Cheers, Alain