Android double-din Headunits

Forums › Gadgets, robotics, home automation, electronics (including wearables) › Android double-din Headunits

chevrolux

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#171011 1-Apr-2015 20:49

Just wondering if there has been many changes/new products lately?

Do they takes ages to start? Can you use most of the normal apps (maps & spotify being the ones I am most interested in)? And do they support all the 3G bands we use?

Are their any recommendations where to buy from?

Dairyxox

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#1275728 1-Apr-2015 21:26

Subscribed.

richms

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#1275730 1-Apr-2015 21:31

Friend has been thru a couple.

Not tried one with 3g on it, but the bluetooth on them was the biggest hassle he had. Android doesnt seem to have native support for being the other end of the connection for audio. So there was some terrible stuff on the headdeck from the makers of it to let it get phonecalls and stream audio from a phone. Barely worked. Lousy profiles so music sounded like a bad webstream.

Crashed a lot, didnt support multiple phones, didnt do data over the bluetooth so you had to wifi hotspot your phone at the same time, and that seems to screw up bluetooth even more.

USB ports couldnt power much, had 2 sd slots, one was for "maps" but seemed to be useless unless you wanted to use their dodgey map software. Couldnt find it in any file explorers.

Richard rich.ms

Niel

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#1275825 2-Apr-2015 06:38

I have not had one, but I design electronic products and can give an opinion. There are different versions of Bluetooth and different versions of audio profile implementations. If you want one that works, you'll have to go for a good brand name and pay the price and hope it works well (it should). Anything cheap and you are very unlikely to have it working well if at all, there is no effort spent on writing proper drivers. BT and WiFi does not work together in close proximity, especially for streaming. It is a fundamental issue. There are recent designs which improves co-existence, but it still significantly affects performance and is not as good as they claim (unless both devices have the same implementation of HW and SW, maybe).

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Disrespective

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#1275861 2-Apr-2015 08:55

I have done a fair bit of research on these lately and the boot up time is the biggest factor against them in my opinion. Then there is the constant power draw if you leave it on all the time. Then there is the fact that if you want to use a reversing camera it requires a little fiddling to make work (IP cameras and random apps which won't auto load when put into reverse without some third party hardware). And finally being able to use steering wheel controls seems to be hit and miss.

I don't think Android has been built for in-car auto so any solution is a hack. That being said, I'd be waiting for Android Auto and bring your own device to the vehicle. This is the approach I ended up looking at implementing in my Volvo V70 but through my own hardware. The Android device should be able to be connected with MHL to a screen. I'm not sure how touch screen commands are sent (if you wanted a touch screen) but you can get boards which convert canbus signals from the steering wheel into USB HID control signals. This just means mapping those controls to the appropriate Android commands and they work fine as Android supports USB controls natively. So long as the screen has two video inputs it should be simple to switch from one to the other when reverse is selected for the camera. I didn't start looking at screens but in my car i'd need a small 7" screen to fit the housing already there for the navigation (it only uses the screen for nav, now) and it would obviously have to take an HDMI signal for the device and probably VGA signal for the camera. Not sure how easy they are to find.

Android auto is essentially just a screen that is hooked up to the car so the car can control the video feed into the screen. This means standard reversing cameras are going to turn on instantly, and the android integration is much simpler hardware-wise.

chevrolux

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#1276450 2-Apr-2015 21:52

From what I have seen there are lots of cheap chinese ones which I can only assume will be crap.

I think my answer will be jut get a normal headunit with bluetooth and forgo built in maps. Either that or buy a Mercedes.

Handle9

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#1276471 2-Apr-2015 22:30

I've got a cheap (USD$195) chinese head unit running a hybrid of Windows CE for maps and a custom firmware for everything else. It is surprisingly decent with a few caveats.

The bluetooth music functionality only works when in bluetooth mode, not when running gps or any other aps. The screen is also a bit average in full sunlight. Other than that it's good. The reversing camera comes on about 5 seconds after boot so is usable. It's not fast to change radio stations but all in all well worth the money and I'm happy with it for what it costs.

chevrolux

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#1276487 2-Apr-2015 22:52

I'm half pie thinking a Windows 8/mikrotik/touch-screen hack. Figure Win8 starts pretty quick and with some clever battery/ups type software could manage shutdowns. Mikrotik gives both 3G/lte and Wifi WAN. Then just need to find a screen to suit. So much effort though...

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richms

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#1276494 2-Apr-2015 23:04

Plenty of dirt cheap lcd panels with HDMI on aliexpress targetted at raspberry pi etc, some with touch too.

Richard rich.ms

sdavisnz

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#1276498 2-Apr-2015 23:14

I use a 32gb 4g nexus 7 and I power cycle with car ignition, use a Bluetooth audio recoever for audio so guests can stream audio if they want to.

Boot takes about 20 seconds and shutdown is instant.

Voice gives context

AHitman

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#1277982 6-Apr-2015 21:42

No need to hack a Windows head unit together..
http://e3io.com/custom-computers-car-pc

8.1 Car PC

chevrolux

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#1278485 7-Apr-2015 16:35

That is very cool!!! Pricing seems a little OTT though. To get one that is actually useful it is around $1100. I do value the fact it would be just whack it in and go but not sure If I can stretch the purse strings that far just for a flash stereo.

Might do some more research on the windows thing and see what hardware I have to test startup times with.

heylinb4nz

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#1281851 13-Apr-2015 10:00

Aliexpress seem to have a few. Id say the ones in the $499 price range would be pretty good, provided you purchase from a seller with high feedback and good reviews on the item.

Remember when you pay $1000 from a big brand you are essentially paying $300 for the manufacture of the unit and $700 profit for company and retailer. $499 direct to a Chinese supplier is mostly item cost (they have very little markup).

Sure you can get crap chinese ones, but if you pay in the $250 realm then you can expect a high failure rate.

hairy1

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#1281891 13-Apr-2015 10:29

sdavisnz: I use a 32gb 4g nexus 7 and I power cycle with car ignition, use a Bluetooth audio recoever for audio so guests can stream audio if they want to.

Boot takes about 20 seconds and shutdown is instant.

I have a Nexus 7 sitting here not doing much. Can you give a bit more info on how you are power cycling and also which bluetooth receiver you are using?

Cheers, Matt.

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