So the world is in love with the idea of a tablet dash but I was looking at something while on the throne and it kind of made more sense to me:
What about mounting an Android radio in the dash? It would have more than what you need and resolves power supply and mounting issues plus has GPS navigation and can power speakers!
Am I missing something?
I'd be really interested in that if it were single din.
Actually, my dream car stereo is smaller than single din. Would have a small display, but would play radio, or Bluetooth connection to phone. Run handsfree calls, directions, music from phone in pocket. A circular gauge face could be cool.
And it needs to NOT play some ridiculous LED light show.
This thread prompted a Google search. Turns out, gauge face circular radios are common for marine audio. They mostly don't do handsfree calls though, which is lame.
There are 'classic car' radios that have almost all the features I want though, at like $350.
I dont remember wich company, but someone sell a radio with speaker output and bluetooth etc that is the size of a gauge. About 2.25po...
Depends what your end goal is.
The Android Mobile radios don't allow interfacing with the OBDII normally. So it'll do radio stuff that a tablet won't as well as run some apps like Maps but it won't do gauges or diagnostics.
Normally anyway. It's possible some will but I've never tired. That was supposed to be the big thing with Android 6 when they announced AndroidAuto. Google and Parrot Bay walked that back though.
The0retical wrote: Depends what your end goal is. The Android Mobile radios don't allow interfacing with the OBDII normally. So it'll do radio stuff that a tablet won't as well as run some apps like Maps but it won't do gauges or diagnostics. Normally anyway. It's possible some will but I've never tired. That was supposed to be the big thing with Android 6 when they announced AndroidAuto. Google and Parrot Bay walked that back though.
How does a Nexus 7 do it?
Isn't it in the program (app) and adapters you choose?
A lot of those Android radio have bluetooth connectivity, so all you need is a bluetooth OBD2 adapter and the Torque App to have all the OBD2 info you want.
I almost did what you are thinking of two years ago when the second radio let go in my 2012 Mazda5. I didn't back then because the online reviews of those radios pointed to many problems. But the reviews seem to be getting more positive and the prices cheaper recently, so I might chance it next time my radio craps out.
Is this what you mean? (7" in-dash on Amazon)
This seems like the ticket to my immense dislike of Toyota's locked down implementation in my Taco that will only allow me to run apps that Toyota thinks I should have. Plus, Torque pre-installed and it integrates with steering wheel controls and back-up cameras. For $300 with 2G of RAM it's only $25 more than the wiring harness that others sell to hack the Toyota radio.
In reply to QuasiMofo:
Usually it's the standard Torque/OBDII adapter for the tablets that people mount in the dashboard.
The difference in the head units is that they're often not running a version of Android that you'd associate with a Nexus device. Generally it's a version configured for large icons and no app drawer. If it's running a full version of Android it should be possible to use the OBDII adapter and it should function the same way as a tablet. Mirrorlink helps a lot with this as well since it is driven off your phone.
Word of warning: Unless it's a Pioneer or Parrot Bay version of the Android Auto head unit it probably won't ever receive an update to the head unit OS. Anything below 5.0 (and creeping up to 6.0) is getting pretty long in the tooth. Backward compatibility may eventually go away so you'll be stuck with whatever the last app update was.
Tablets also have this issue but can run an ASOP version of Android to extend their life.
I'm not saying they're bad, I've considered this route myself, you just have to watch what you buy because it might be a one shot deal (like factory navigation units, imagine that) as far as the software goes.
In reply to The0retical:
Many of the cheap chinese in-dash deals are easy to boot into recovery and install your own ROM according to some stuff I've found on other forums where people are hacking them to drive video screens in the back seats and multiple cameras and all sorts of nonsense. Easy like they provide instructions with the unit.
I have used an old kindle fire hacked to run ASOP with Torque, a cheap BT ELM unit just to do OBDII gauges that I did when this whole fad got going just to try it in the race car and it works surprisingly well - but in my "real" car I want integration with the steering wheel controls, existing backup cam, audio, preamps and such. It would be worth the extra coin if the ROMs can be replaced to get to a fresher version of Android. Plus having the in-dash touch screen to control the apps directly (rather than having to also mount your phone where you can reach it and screen mirror) is great. Not like for texting and crap... but for things like reporting police traps on Waze and running blind spot "mirror" cameras for towing.
It seems like what OEMs should be doing in the 1st place, honestly but for whatever reason they cripple E36 M3 out of them on purpose even though they have no money making scheme to charge extra for the stuff they disable. THe 7" stock Toyota unit is an Android so hobbled by their monkeying as to be worthess for anything but a radio with sat nav. I wish there was a recovery boot hack out for it.
EDIT: Quasi... sorry for the partial threadjack. I will go back to listening mode now that I've had my little rant ;)
just as as side-note, for any tinkerers that use the ELM bluetooth adapters and Torque to read gauges on a phone or tablet - and notice just how very slow and/or jerky they can be...
I found an app, which I believe is just called "btSSM" (or something close), which can run virtual gauges on a phone/tablet (similar to Torque) and it's very very responsive.
The catch is that I've only gotten it to work with a Tactrix OBD2 adapter, it doesn't seem to be compatible with my ELM bluetooth or wired adapter. I believe the difference is protocol-related.
Anywho, just an FYI FWIW
In reply to Huckleberry:
I think a lot of the OEM limitations are driven by liability concerns. Big Billy and Little Billy can't go more than 10 minutes without checking in with their facebag friends. OEMs know this and respond by crippling functionality to avoid the lawsuit (and keep the gene pool shallow.)
If the hardware was right on the Chinese units, given what you've said about loading an AOSP version of Android on them, that's certainly the way to go. Tablets are a stop gap which gets around the hardware and OEM crippling which is why they became popular.
Driving speakers and steering wheel control are way up there on the list of features that make them appealing. I just get OEMitis after years of dealing with the nonsense that happens with phones so I approach any non-Nexus device with extreme skepticism.
The ones I looked at had rather under-powered hardware that struggled to run the "stock" OS, let alone a more recent version with more apps.
Sky_Render wrote: The ones I looked at had rather under-powered hardware that struggled to run the "stock" OS, let alone a more recent version with more apps.
That one I posted above is a quad core Intel Atom with 2G RAM so comparable to a Galaxy S5 phone in terms of hardware.
Huckleberry wrote:Sky_Render wrote: The ones I looked at had rather under-powered hardware that struggled to run the "stock" OS, let alone a more recent version with more apps.That one I posted above is a quad core Intel Atom with 2G RAM so comparable to a Galaxy S5 phone in terms of hardware.
That's part of the problems they had two years ago when I looked into this. But the newer units seem to have much better hardware.
What would they really need to run the system?
If not being used as a browser with the exception of say streaming audio, it basically would run Torque and have preferably the wired OBD access port, connect to the audio and video processing boards and the GPS board.
In the wildest of dreams an app would pull all of the engine signals in, add GPS based speed, leave Bluetooth open for phone control and a second link signal for steering wheel controls.
QuasiMofo wrote: What would they really need to run the system? If not being used as a browser with the exception of say streaming audio, it basically would run Torque and have preferably the wired OBD access port, connect to the audio and video processing boards and the GPS board. In the wildest of dreams an app would pull all of the engine signals in, add GPS based speed, leave Bluetooth open for phone control and a second link signal for steering wheel controls.
Torque Pro will do all of that with a USB micro to OBDII wired interface if your tablet has it's own "real" GPS unit. You would need to integrate the audio signals somehow but that can just be a headphone cable to an aux input if you have some audio already present. Except the steering wheel controls. I don't know how that would be managed.
The nice thing about the android head units is that they do all of that in one box tucked neatly into the dash and only use the phone for an internet signal (Waze/Google Nav/Weather/Traffic, etc)
In addition to the tech hurdles, might it also be a little deep to put a head unit in the normal speedo location? I know the room I have in my car wouldn't support the average car radio.
I looked seriously at some of the android radios about a year back. I think the Parrot brand was the consensus best at the time. The one thing that all the major reviews commented on was that the audio quality was noticeably bad.
So....you build the best car radio in history...but the radio bit sounds like crap? WTF?
Relevant (well, not as relevant now that bluetooth is so cheap and commonplace)
a buddy converted his bmw 2002 to efi using megasquirt, then used a usb to connect the MS to a 7" tablet in his dash. Allowing him full control of the car from the dash. tablet even had wifi so every night when he got him it'd up load the data of the days drive for any trouble shooting he needed... Pretty spiffy setup.
In reply to Mad_Ratel:
I'd imagine that in a locost type build running megasquirt, it'd be tempting to have a tablet act as the gauge set
That's a pretty good idea, in fact I'm thinking it may be worth losing my 3-gauge DIN panel (voltage, AFR and oil temp) to make 2 DIN slots available for such a thing. AFR and voltage could be displayed through Shadow Dash MS right away, I'd just have to get an oil temp sensor that can interface with the MS. And, if I get a BT adapter for my RCP box, it could talk to the head unit too.
ultraclyde wrote: I looked seriously at some of the android radios about a year back. I think the Parrot brand was the consensus best at the time. The one thing that all the major reviews commented on was that the audio quality was noticeably bad. So....you build the best car radio in history...but the radio bit sounds like crap? WTF?
The thing with the android in-dash units is that they aren't a radio. They are a computer that has some audio and video capability and that should be as good as the medium you are using (mp3, FM HD, etc). You still have to have good audio components in the car to send the output signal to. Some have built-in tuners for XM, FM, etc and some do not.
The bonus you get is that you can run any apps you want - like Waze, Radar Now, any music app you choose... integrate your own stuff... write your own apps if you want. There are some chinese units from a company called Joying that look pretty promising. Quad core, 2G ram, good pre-amps and lots of different integration ports (usb, hdmi, etc) etc.
I might just risk $300 to find out if it's matured enough for plug and play one of these days. I have to be able to retain all the amp, steering controls, mic and camera stuff that is already there or it's a no-go.
I would go double din and mod a Kindle Fire at $50.
EDIT: After searching you need a Barnes and Nobel Nook Tab A
You'll need to log in to post.
