Android CAR PC

[PV1]

The tablet's been working pretty good so far, though there are some issues. Today, maps doesn't want to open.

The SDR dongle showed up today and works pretty well. Sounds clear.

Now to hook up the amplifier.

 

[PV1]

Had everything in and working, and it was a neat setup, but I found that the stock radio is easier to use and actually sounds better than the aftermarket Pioneer radio I put in to amplify the tablet output. Even coming from CD, the stock radio sounds better.

On top of that, I had to keep covering up the tablet so it wouldn't overheat in the sun.

I put the stock radio back in. Maybe I'll try an actual Android head unit one day.

 

[tigger19687]

Maybe a use a Smartphone on a lower area so that sun doesn't get it ?
I wonder if you can use smaller smartphone where the air vent is and move the air vents up to where you have the Tablet now ?

 

[PV1]

I have an old Galaxy S that I used in the past when running CaniOn. If it wasn't for the battery in the tablet, I wouldn't worry about the sun hitting it, but the last thing I want is a Lithium thermal runaway in the car.

When outside the normal driving routes, having maps open would be nice, but sound quality is more important to me, so I'll probably stick with my Nuvi or the phone in a dash mount. Outside of stored music or radio, I rarely used the extra functions of the tablet.

 

[PV1]

Maybe a use a Smartphone on a lower area so that sun doesn't get it ?

Wouldn't you know, that's exactly what I ended up doing. :lol:

I've tried many different configurations, but couldn't beat the ease of use and sound quality of the stock radio, so it stays for now. I've spent a lot of time trying to figure out the best way to organize my music collection, and I think I may have finally got it. With help from the Windows program Musicbee, I now have a new library that I'm slowly adding to that gets synced across my devices using a Windows Share folder. All audio is stored in lossless FLAC format. Musicbee also has a nifty feature that will allow it to perform an on-the-fly media conversion to be compatible with other devices. Unfortunately, the stock radio does not support .flac files, so I ended up making my car's flash drive contain all music in .wav format. The downside is that .wav uses twice the space as .flac, but it has identical sound quality to the source, which is CD for most of my music.

CaniOn and Google Maps run on the Galaxy S3 I have mounted to the driver's door with a dash mount. I bought a low-profile Micro-USB cable with a right-angle connector, so that the wire is hardly noticeable. With the door closed, the wire hangs right next to the door panel so it is out of the way with just enough slack for the door to fully open without tugging the cable. The sun can only hit the phone in certain angles, and even then it doesn't blast the front or back because it hits the (top) side of the phone. It is also in perfect position for operating with my left hand while I rest my arm on the armrest. Because I have the OVMS installed, I picked up an OBD splitter cable with a right angle connector. Now, I have both OVMS and the OBDLink plugged in full time. No more switching between the two :mrgreen: .

I have Impel set up to automatically enable Bluetooth about 10 minutes before I normally need the car in the morning and turn BT off at midnight. Screen brightness is automatic based on ambient light (the tablet that used to be in the car was programmed for certain times). I have a screen timeout switcher app that sets timeout to 15 seconds when power is disconnected, and 30 minutes when power is connected.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/g62tgopuexxa9sr/AABa4R0RO0Bmz4TewXF7v_CKa?dl=0


Items left to complete are:

1. Get a bigger storage device for both the car and my media server.
2. Hardwire a USB power supply into the car.
3. Set up a sync of the BT_CAN folder to my media server.

 

[PV1]

Maybe I'll try an actual Android head unit one day.

This might finally be the end-all solution. I installed a Newsmy Android Carpad NU3001 a couple of weeks ago. Months of on and off searching yielded mostly head units that were a Windows/Android perversion that don't work very well. I finally found a decent looking pure Android unit with a quad core processor and 2 GB of RAM.

The actual brains of the operation (dubbed the Android Box) is a separate piece that connects to the head unit via a Firewire cable. The head unit itself is merely a touchscreen, tuner, and amplifier. All interactions with the system go through Android, but items such as Bluetooth phone connections, AV inputs, and the speaker amplifier output are mostly invisible to Android, only being controlled through an API. There are actually two different Bluetooth radios, one strictly for phone headset and audio connections, and the other is for Android, which of course is to be used with CaniOn :lol: . With Rocket Player now installed (was using an old version of Google Play previously), the HU can directly play FLAC music files stored on a flash drive. To sync my music right now, I take the flash drive out of the car and plug it into my media server, which automatically syncs the libraries.

So far, I'm impressed. This is the first audio system I've put into the i-MiEV that sounds just as good if not better than the stock radio, it runs CaniOn reliably, even with music and navigation running in the background, and the boot time is bearable (though I'm working on fixing this). I have basic steering wheel controls provided by a Pebble Watch (same as with the tablet I had previously).


Things still needing improvement or completed are:

1. 2 hour timeout. Within two hours of last using the radio, the Android Box stays powered on, allowing for a near instant power up. After that, the Android Box has to do a cold boot, taking about 25 seconds. I need to bypass the HU power supply to keep the Android Box powered on full time (though it goes into sleep mode when the car is off).
2. Auto pause. Right now the music keeps playing after turning the car off. I installed an app that was supposed to fix this, but apparently didn't work.
3. Finalizing installation. Right now, the Android Box is in the glove compartment. I plant to install it permanently somewhere. With this, I will try to connect the factory USB port so I can easily access the flash drive. Also, I have a 2-DIN trim on backorder from Ricart Parts.
4. 3G/4G dongle. I would like to install a cellular dongle instead of the MiFi I have in the car right now. With Wifi on, CaniOn sometimes has trouble connecting (probably due to the OBDLink WiFi compatibility).
5. Finish installing the Playstation 2. Yes, I have a PS2 in the car :mrgreen: . Need something to do at the charging station, right? :lol: Seriously though, this doubles as a CD player should I want to play a CD, but totally works for games while parked. I repeat, while parked.
6. Solar trickle charger. Given Joe's recent post on one of his car's 12 volt battery going flat, I'm going to try to find somewhere to put a small 12 volt solar panel to trickle charge the battery, as I now have 3 devices pulling power (OVMS, OBDLink, and the HU). This may never be an issue with my usage habits, as well as OVMS warning me of a low battery, but I want to be prepared.

Once I get the trim piece, I will post pictures of the unit installed in the car.

 

[PV1]

Finally received the trim piece from Ricart. It's an official Mitsubishi part (as it should have been. RicartParts.com was excellent to deal with). It fits perfectly on the dash and around the radio, plus the color is the same as the original radio and matches the trim around the climate controls. So glad I purchased the factory piece.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/v195ieh0dxkf162/AAD_royfGXgKs6lzoZHRaLbSa?dl=0

Here are some pictures of the radio. Very similar setup to my old tablet as far as usability, but no worries about the lithium battery in a hot car, plus the head unit integrates much better into the car.

The unit I installed allows for three video inputs. One is a dedicated backup camera with a reverse sense wire, another is an audio/video input (which I'll use for the PS2), and a third video only input. There is an app called AV In which switches the screen and audio to the AV input.

The Android box has a full size USB port and SD card slot, as well as a Mini-USB OTG (on the go) port. An adapter is included to make it a full size USB port. I have a 64 GB flash drive plugged in with all my music on it in .FLAC format, which gives me CD quality music. With this radio, you can hear the difference between MP3 and FLAC (FLAC being higher quality when coming from CD). I am using Rocket Player with the Dark Red theme. It's easy on the eyes and matches Mitsubishi's red theme.

If you have any questions about my setup, let me hear them.

 

[PV1]

The Android Box is now properly mounted and out of the glovebox. I was also able to hook up the factory USB port by modifying a USB extension cable. I had to remove the pin assembly from the housing and trim it down to fit in the connector. I traced the connections and found that I had to transpose the wires (pin 1 became pin 4, pin 2 became pin 3, pin 3 became pin 2, and pin 4 became pin 1) for the port to be connected properly.

I also started to fish the wires back to where I'm mounting the PlayStation. The issue I'm having with the PlayStation is that I'm hearing the disc motor coming through the speakers, almost drowning out the audio. I believe a ground loop is at fault, because the noise is there even when the AV inputs aren't being used while the PlayStation is running. If I run the PlayStation from a separate power source, there is no noise.

 

[priusfan]

Please, post some pictures...
Xavier

 

[PV1]

Has anyone else with the Newsmy NU3001 head unit noticed a decrease in volume? It seems that I've had to keep going higher and higher on the volume level to get the same decibel output. It also seems that there isn't as much bass as there used to be. The stock radio in Koorz has considerably more bass than the Android HU despite it having less speakers. Originally, the Android HU had more punch and more volume than the stock radio, but that's no longer the case. It's to the point where I'm considering putting the stock radio back in just to get the sound quality back.

 

[PV1]

There's definitely a noticeable difference in sound quality. I just put the stock radio back in and heard an immediate boost in both bass and overall volume. This means that I lose the integrated PS2 and Android apps, but sound quality is more important to me and something I pay attention to almost every day. CaniOn only gets run during trips (which my old Captivate is up to the task for), and the PS2 is almost impossible to play during daylight hours as the screen is too dark (plus, who wants to sit in the driveway to play a game? I have yet to use it at a charging station).

Also, since I went back to iOS for my mobile devices, this allows me to use them for music storage instead of a separate copy on a flash drive. The only thing I need to figure out is which format I want to use. Right now, my Hi-Fi library is in FLAC format, but is of course not compatible with Apple. The bulk of my library is MP3, but of low quality. Maybe I shall see how high a quality MP3 can support, unless something like AIFF would work better.

This thread must read like I have attention issues :lol: . One of these days, I'll get everything figured out.