Modern After Market Stereos and accessories.

Lazybones · July 13, 2018, 11:22:51 AM

Well I am stuck on two issues still.

1. No video from the backup camera.. I have realized to fully troubleshoot this I am going to have to find a small monitor that takes RCA / composite video in.. I don't have anything portable like that anymore. been keeping an eye out at value village etc, but most stuff was broken.

2. The Carplay dongle draws too much USB power when combined with a phone.. Worked around it with a powered USB hub but that prevents the deck from sleeping / powering down for some reason.

O the joy of off brand tech...

Tom · July 14, 2018, 09:22:13 AM

I'm sure you've tried this, but hey, just to be on the safe side:

- swap the pin out on the video?
- have you tried turning it off and back on again?

Lazybones · July 14, 2018, 08:48:41 PM

Got the backup camera working.. Purchased a portable DVD player for $67 and was able to narrow down the fault

Tom · July 15, 2018, 12:31:51 PM

So what was it?

Lazybones · July 15, 2018, 12:35:46 PM

Quote from: Tom on July 15, 2018, 12:31:51 PM
So what was it?

The camera came with a super universal power / video cable to cover many different car installs.

This included a relay controlled at the front of the car.

The instructions for MY deck and car only call for powering the camera from the backup light and the DECK switches input based on the CAN-BUS NOT the camera turning on.

For what ever reason the power was not coming out of the connector so I just cut it off and bypassed it in the back of the car after confirming the video hookup worked and the cables and camera worked independently (via AV in on a portable display) with a separate power adopter (had one of those multi plug / voltage AC/DC bricks).

Edit: added the photo of the kit.. Not illustrated is a third trigger cable on the relay at the front in that bundle after the rely box. The directions in the package with the adapter also conflicted slightly with the illustration here provided from seicane.

Lazybones · July 15, 2018, 04:26:50 PM

Quote from: Tom on July 10, 2018, 08:36:55 AM
Actually pirated, or just sideloaded cause geting google play certification is actually kinda hard?

As a troubleshooting step from I was asked to do a factory reset.

The ?offline? gps app with the strange name was cleaned off.

They also provide an APK download for Torque on the OBD2 sensor page. It doesn?t look official. (It?s an old version of pro)

Everything part of the clean base image seems legit.

Playstore works. I have installed Plex and browsed around for other stuff.

Haven?t spent much time customizing yet. Just happy the core stuff is working like the backup camera.

I still hope for a more clean solution to the CarPlay power issue but that is technically an add on

Tom · July 16, 2018, 09:33:56 AM

Ah, so a bit of piracy then. Not great, but at least it's not like a complete rip-off.

Lazybones · July 16, 2018, 09:42:39 AM

Quote from: Tom on July 16, 2018, 09:33:56 AM
Ah, so a bit of piracy then. Not great, but at least it's not like a complete rip-off.

Ya it is a bit odd.. Seems like they did create a clean core product but AS SHIPPED it did have a side loaded GPS that I suspect was pirated and as I noted the OBD2 device page has a download for what also appears to be a pirated copy.

I have reset the unit. I am using google maps with offline maps cached (when not using car play) and I have purchased Torque pro from the Play store since it has improved a lot and is an great app.

Tom · July 16, 2018, 10:33:20 AM

Coolio! Let us know how it all works.

Hopefully it doesn't fail right away

cheap stuff can be cheap.

Lazybones · July 16, 2018, 11:17:59 AM

Outstanding is getting the dash cam to auto record. The included app only supports manual recording. Lots of apps in the play store however few support mapping the camera correctly or just crash on load

The power issue with the CarPlay dongle is still outstanding. Annoying but I have a workaround. Just wanted to finish that off by making it part of the car instead of more dongles / visible cables.

Summary so far:

Pro:
- deck it self was easy to install
- deck looks good in both fit and finish
- backup camera works, it is automatic hand even lowers the music volume when in use (configurable)
- radio app is very nice, includes over the air track info like other modern decks
- Canbus integrates, steering wheel controls work
- google maps makes for a great GPS if you sign in and use offline maps.

Con:
- accessory issues with Dash / Cam
- accessory issues with power and CarPlay Dongle
- some oddness with Android in general. Apps do not know if it should be a phone / tablet or its orientation some times. Lots of odd issues with selecting cameras or some UIs not working in landscape mode.
- poor directions / issues with backup camera install
- can?t change which apps are cycled when hitting the mode button on steering wheel. Notably there is a Bluetooth A2DP app and a phone app for call control.
- notable sun glare on screen. Might look for a screen protector to see if this can be reduced.

Lazybones · July 16, 2018, 09:55:21 PM

I think I have a proper solution for the CarPlay power issue now.

Instead of putting the Y power cable between the deck and the dongle I put it after. It now powers the phone and still lets the deck shut down.

I figure I can now purchase a USB flush mount and 12v hard wired USB power supply to nicely hide this in the dash.

Only thing not working the way I want now is the dash cam, and I think I can let that go to a degree.

Tom · July 17, 2018, 09:08:19 AM

Ugh, even google can't seem to figure out tablet/landscape mode. It's one of my pet peves, esp since facebook gets it so wrong.

Is there a drop down notification/settings panel? If there is, just lock the orientation. if not.. I imagine theres a hack you can do to lock it, maybe an app or some root config file...

Lazybones · July 17, 2018, 09:11:22 AM

Apparently USB dash cams are a bit of a hack in android. Basically a custom driver forces the USB camera to appear as one of the native ones. However many recording apps don?t let you select the front or back camera and fail if the main camera is not detected.

Tom · July 18, 2018, 09:42:27 AM

If Android's HAL treats any cameras super special, its all a big hack. but this is android so it shouldn't be too surprising.

On normal linux a camera is a camera. some just have different properties.

Lazybones · July 28, 2018, 11:02:23 AM

Some tidy up.. Didn't like having a blue USB extension cable coming out from under the glove box so I installed some USB ports into a blank that was in the center console.

I 3D modeled my replacement blank from the original part. It took about 3-4 iterations before I got the fit right but now it just snaps in.