I just completed about a 2800 mile trip from Colorado to Michigan and back in my Grenadier. I have a couple of funny stories to tell about the trip and one discovery that may or may not be obvious. On my way out I had the Grenadier drop my iPhone SE twice for no apparent reason. I was just cruising along with the CarPlay and all of a sudden it dropped. On the way back it happened again along the exact same stretch of highway but this time the entire system started acting flakey. The big difference on the return trip was the sun was shining directly in the front windshield and heating everything up even more. I think the following scenarios can cause issues:
1. Using CarPlay and viewing or using the map with a weak signal for an extended period of time will cause your phone to overheat. I am not positive, but I think it does warm up the Grenadier system as well. You can also cause this problem if you are talking and/or charging the phone with a weak signal for an extended period of time. Result: The system will drop your phone, but otherwise function perfectly normal. Before it drops your phone, if you are streaming music or talking on the phone the audio will begin to break up. This is a good warning sign that things are getting hot.
2. Having the sun cook the back of the system while doing any number of things like viewing Statistics, playing the XM radio or having the CarPlay map on will cause the system to start acting flakey. Result: None of the physical controls react within a reasonable amount of time. The touchscreen will randomly work and then stops working. The totally weird thing is the system seems to buffer your touches and clicks so as the system cooled everything started flashing, beeping etc. At one point the radio came on very loud and I couldn't turn the volume down which wasn't fun for about 10 miles. It was annoying, but by that time I figured out that heat was the issue and let everything cool off.
I was extremely bored on the last stretch of highway, so I decided to try a couple of things. The first thing you can do is take a piece of cardboard or paper and have it go from the defrost vent over the top of the display with the AC turned on. This cooled the display down really fast and magically everything worked without having to do anything else. I didn't even have to restart the system! Parking the vehicle in the shade and taking a fuel/bathroom break also seemed to reset everything but the system has to cool. Just shutting the vehicle off and turning everything back on does not solve the problem until the system cools.
Being a tech geek I am going to try two things. First I am going to try just shading the backside of the display to protect it from the sun. I actually think that will be enough to stop this from happening again. Second, if shade does not work I am going to try a small solar strip and a computer CPU fan on the vent of the backside of the display. This should be enough to circulate the air in the cabin inside of the unit.
1. Using CarPlay and viewing or using the map with a weak signal for an extended period of time will cause your phone to overheat. I am not positive, but I think it does warm up the Grenadier system as well. You can also cause this problem if you are talking and/or charging the phone with a weak signal for an extended period of time. Result: The system will drop your phone, but otherwise function perfectly normal. Before it drops your phone, if you are streaming music or talking on the phone the audio will begin to break up. This is a good warning sign that things are getting hot.
2. Having the sun cook the back of the system while doing any number of things like viewing Statistics, playing the XM radio or having the CarPlay map on will cause the system to start acting flakey. Result: None of the physical controls react within a reasonable amount of time. The touchscreen will randomly work and then stops working. The totally weird thing is the system seems to buffer your touches and clicks so as the system cooled everything started flashing, beeping etc. At one point the radio came on very loud and I couldn't turn the volume down which wasn't fun for about 10 miles. It was annoying, but by that time I figured out that heat was the issue and let everything cool off.
I was extremely bored on the last stretch of highway, so I decided to try a couple of things. The first thing you can do is take a piece of cardboard or paper and have it go from the defrost vent over the top of the display with the AC turned on. This cooled the display down really fast and magically everything worked without having to do anything else. I didn't even have to restart the system! Parking the vehicle in the shade and taking a fuel/bathroom break also seemed to reset everything but the system has to cool. Just shutting the vehicle off and turning everything back on does not solve the problem until the system cools.
Being a tech geek I am going to try two things. First I am going to try just shading the backside of the display to protect it from the sun. I actually think that will be enough to stop this from happening again. Second, if shade does not work I am going to try a small solar strip and a computer CPU fan on the vent of the backside of the display. This should be enough to circulate the air in the cabin inside of the unit.
