Well, I received my PAL yesterday and it works great. There are a few bugs but Ray is working in direct tandem with Mediatronics (the creators of the PAL for GM) and software updates are constantly being made. Eventually, there will be a way to update the PAL via USB on one's PC.
With this new version of the PAL (2.x), Aux input has been enabled.
Here's my post from the
CorvetteForum:
GXP25 wrote:
I own a 2006 Pontiac Grand Prix GXP with the same NAV unit and I received my PAL unit yesterday. I have the original iPhone.
The sound quality is great. It is miles above XM's compressed streams. I would argue though that it is less than an MP3 CD I have in the vehicle (comparing the same song, one on CD, the other on my iPhone).
The menus take a while to get used to. I did have a problem when doing an artist search, where sometimes pushing the "SCAN" button would make the menus go crazy.
The song title correctly displays on my HUD (my XM songs don't, only the station), albeit with a character limit. It would be nice if it could scroll. Likewise with all the other buttons displaying album names, etc. This could be a limitation of the NAV unit. My steering wheel controls work as well, except for the play button, which is defaulted to starting up the CD player.
Issues: - When music is playing, my NAV unit displays ": Playing" after displaying the song title and artist at the top. I'm not so sure if the colon is supposed to be there or not. Notice more errors in the menu.
- I encountered the XM playing for a bit before the PAL initializes. Like another member mentioned, this is probably due to the relay(s). [Un]Fortunately (?), since my vehicle is larger/longer, I do not get to hear the relays click.
- I lost XM once when the menus decided to hang. I "only" have 387 songs on my iPhone so I'm a little confused. I am not a mad button tapper; I allow time for the menus to load. So I had to go to the trunk and unplug the PAL and plug it back in to get the XM buttons back. Kind of annoying since mine sits behind my trunk's carpet above my rear driver side wheel well.
- When navigating through the menus, the volume tends to drop as the buttons are populating. It reverts to normal after they're done. But it is ongoing as one continues to navigate.
- I don't have an "[ ABC ]" button under my "All Songs" search. I can tap the button and search, it's just not populated with "[ ABC ]".
- Ray, one of the extra extension cables' female connector does not secure correctly (the one you sent me separately), creating severe connection issues with the PAL. The extra extension cable (in sealed clear plastic) included in my PAL kit works just fine though. Fortunately, it seems that only one single extension cable is sufficient for my vehicle.
Requests:- In the settings menu, when tapping a button ("Language", "Shuffle", "Timeout", etc.), have it show the current setting instead of instantaneously changing the setting. A second tap would then effectively change the setting. Maybe the settings' values could be displayed above instead of on the actual buttons?
- Is it necessary to tap "CAT" twice to initialize scrolling?
- When tapping "[ TIME ]", are the extra zero place holders necessary?
Ideally, a menu like the CD menu is desirable, but I know we're limited due to interfacing with the XM connection/module.
I am sure more issues and requests will come up, but overall it's a good product and I anticipate future updates. :thumbs:
Thanks for all of your hard work Ray!
Not a bad deal for $180.
More info about the GM PAL:
http://www.kawal.net/PAL%20Rev%202.htmBtw, Mediatronics is working on getting the PAL to work with other Class II vehicles. Since they have the PAL working in non-NAV C6 Corvettes, I expect other non-NAV Class II vehicles to follow.
