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raytaylor

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#154576 1-Nov-2014 03:19
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I just replaced my stock standard stereo in the car with one of those chinese headunits. Found one that was reasonably well spec'd and had the correct dash frame for my korando.

Its awesome because
 - Better navigation (much better than crappy navman unit)
 - Web browser in dash
 - No need for a seperate tablet as i was going to get for the car

I hate bright dash board lights when I am driving at night - the blue highbeam LED on the dash is as blinding to me as the headlamps are to the possum in my path. So I usually have a bit of electrical tape stuck over it to hide it from my direct view.
The orange screen on the stereo I have always felt is a little bright too.
So now with the new one, i can turn down the screen brightness, and if that isnt enough, there is an app called Screen Filter that can add a full screen mask to an android device to make it even dimmer still.

I am a little dissappointed with a few things but they are easily worked around
 - Lost steering wheel control
 - Had to re organise the wiring loom that it came with, could have blown stereo or something else due to their faulty design

But anyhow I am rather pleased with how it turned out - it looks really nice and fits in well with the dash board.

Some of you might remember my old windows xp 7" eee that I had in the dash of my subaru a few years ago. This is much much better.

Before:


And After:
<coming soon>




Ray Taylor

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Dingbatt
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  #1166266 1-Nov-2014 07:40
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Browsed at something similar on eBay only last week. I look forward to your updates on the installation.




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timmmay
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  #1166267 1-Nov-2014 07:42
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raytaylor: Lost steering wheel control.


Huh?! You installed a new stereo and now your steering wheel doesn't work?! ;)

raytaylor

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  #1166313 1-Nov-2014 09:36
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timmmay:
raytaylor: Lost steering wheel control.


Huh?! You installed a new stereo and now your steering wheel doesn't work?! ;)


I have buttons on the steering wheel - mute/seek <> / Volume

Here is the final result.
Sorry audio fixes itself up after a minute or so





Ray Taylor

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gzt

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#1166396 1-Nov-2014 11:59
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Go Android!

richms
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  #1166496 1-Nov-2014 15:32
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What was wrong with the supplied loom? Last one of these I fitted for a friend just had standard iso plugs on the supplied loom like stereos should so plugged straight into the car (early 2000s peugeot)




Richard rich.ms

raytaylor

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  #1166503 1-Nov-2014 16:05
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richms: What was wrong with the supplied loom? Last one of these I fitted for a friend just had standard iso plugs on the supplied loom like stereos should so plugged straight into the car (early 2000s peugeot)


The plug on the back of the android is not a standard plug and needed a converter loom. When it wouldnt turn on, i found by following the wires and pins that the ACC + was connected to the front left speaker - in the korando's side of the connection, and the power going in from the ACC and battery was going into things like the remote inputs and another speaker.






Ray Taylor

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richms
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  #1166545 1-Nov-2014 17:13
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Weird one, so they have used a standard iso connector in a non standard way or it was just some random plug that they had balled up the wiring on? Bit of a worry in either way. I dont like how many headdecks come with a strange plug and then short bare wires.




Richard rich.ms



MikeAqua
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  #1167573 3-Nov-2014 12:55
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[edit deleted question answered in video].  Keen to see how this performs for you.

I've thought about one of these for a while.  I like the flexibility.  A lot of them seem to lack inputs for things I want like reverse light input, parking sensors and ideally even the ability to interface with wireless tyre pressure sensors.

I share your loathing for the Xmas tree like environment of the modern car at night!





Mike


trig42
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  #1167587 3-Nov-2014 13:14
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Good video Ray.

For the Steering Wheel controls, you could look at the Axxess AWC1. I have onoe in my car (connected to a standard Pioneer stereo) and in the setup instructions for it, it did say you could program it if the button/functions did not work.

Love having SW controls.

raytaylor

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  #1167891 3-Nov-2014 18:53
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I never realised how important to me steering wheel controls would be.

There is a + input for the steering wheel control, but the korando appears to have a seperate + and - independant of the ground which i find a little odd.
Anyhow when I go into the learning function, and select a function like vol+ it just sits waiting for a command while I am pressing the vol+ button on the steering wheel.

I spent 2 hours yesterday afternoon getting some apps set up on it.
Sygic maps navigation is by far the best satnav app for android. The NZ maps are a little out of date - it was telling me the speed limit is 50 when I am entering a 70 / 100 area. So I need to find out how to make suggestions to them.
The biggest problem getting sygic to work was I had to find an older apk file to install. The play store said the current version was incompatible with the device. Anyhow this version from last year runs really well and has great features / easy to use.

Another thing I do find annoying is the designers of the shell have removed a bunch of accessibility options from the settings menu. So you cannot define how tall menu items are - they feel super tall/fat and designed well for fat fingers, but it makes using google maps navigation almost impossible.
The origination / destination boxes used up 50% of the screen space, the keyboard uses up the other 40% leaving only 10% for you to scroll up and down to select one of the route options. Once you select the route its all good.
edit: 7" tablet syndrome

I went to dse and purchased a $99 2 degrees 3g hotspot. The instructions only listed some huawei cdma 3g dongles as compatible. Going via the 3g hotspot with the vodafone sim card in it works perfectly well.




Ray Taylor

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sdavisnz
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  #1167976 3-Nov-2014 20:29
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Hi,


I also use one of the metra axcess awc1 steering wheel control with a pioneer appradio unit, looking to upgrade to a new pioneer head unit when they incorporate android auto http://www.android.com/auto/   and Apple carplay https://www.apple.com/ios/carplay/  together into one unit.

I have found the boot time on the generic android head units a bit slow from watching youtube videos.


-Steve





Voice gives context

raytaylor

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  #1167985 3-Nov-2014 20:47
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Ray Taylor

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gzt

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  #1168895 4-Nov-2014 21:56
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Awesome review Ray. Thanks for the effort. Do you have a link to the product/and/or similar products?

The google mapping behavior is unfortunate.

On the entertainment side of things do you plan to play music files directly with this unit or let your existing setup handle that?

hairy1
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  #1168905 4-Nov-2014 22:13
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HERE maps might be worth a look at for it...


http://here.com/download/?lang=en-US




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raytaylor

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  #1168931 4-Nov-2014 22:55
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gzt: Awesome review Ray. Thanks for the effort. Do you have a link to the product/and/or similar products?

The google mapping behavior is unfortunate.

On the entertainment side of things do you plan to play music files directly with this unit or let your existing setup handle that?


This is the unit i purchased
http://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/Pure-Android-4-2-Car-DVD-GPS-for-Ssangyong-korando-New-Actyon-CPU-1-6Ghz-Capacitive/812760_1962061535.html 

It replaces the existing head unit.
Music playback is pretty good - it plays off a micro sd card.
There is no shuffle function and no inter-folder playback - you select a folder on the sd card and it will just cycle through the mp3s in that folder.

I dont really listen to radio - I just have always had a usb stick with a few hundered songs on it so copied them to the micro sd and it does the job






Ray Taylor

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Spreadsheet for Comparing Electricity Plans Here


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