Why can't we use car stereo controls? - Nexus 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

The wife's Versa has integrated iPhail support that allows you to have one plug and it charges the phone and all that as well as change tracks and stuff with the steering wheel buttons. I'm sure you all know what I'm talking about.
Well, she recently got rid of the 4s and got an S4 Active while I have the Nexus 4.
She asked "I wonder if they have one of these cables so I can plug the phone into the car like I did with the iPhail..."
"Nope...can't do that."
"Why not?"
"...uh..."
I really didn't have an answer. I know that that data and audio and all isn't passed through USB like that on Android (not to mention I'm sure "Android" doesn't "speak Apple") but, what I wonder is:
Why not? We send commands to our phones all the time through USB. Reboot, fastboot, bootloader unlock, push files, etc...why wouldn't we be able to change tracks? Why wouldn't the audio be able to come out that way, too?
Just a thought.
Thanks!

Keep in mind that there is no standard for this kind of stuff through USB. It would also require a decent bit of logic on the receiver/car side to implement. Think of how the newer Lightning connector works. It requires active logic to set up the pins correctly since there aren't any dedicated pins anymore like on the old 30 pin dock connector.
Of course, you could always do something like Samsung did on their newer phones and add extra pins to the USB connector that can be used for other logic, but there is no standard for that.
Luckily, Android has supported Bluetooth AVRCP for quite some time now. That's a Bluetooth profile that allows "remote control" of a device. It allows you to change tracks, play, pause, and generally control the device. With Android 4.3, we got version 1.3 of that profile, so supported devices can also display track information.

Related

[Q] Audio Through USB

I'm currently aching to be able to play my own music through my car speakers, weird place for this yes.. if it's the wrong section to post this please let me know.
But, I was wondering if it's at all possible to feed the phone's audio through the USB.
For example, I have a USB port on my stero in my car, and when I plug it in..i'm able to feed off my SD card to play the music thats on it. But.. I'd like to be able to play pandora as well..which I'm currently unable to do.
Was wondering if this is possible. If i've confused you feel free to ask more questions
XtaC318 said:
Since it isn't possible.. what about an app that allows me to control the music played? I can stream music from the sd, but its got to mount to read therefore I don't have access to the stock music app. Only way to control what's played is the buttons on the stero and its pain staking..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't believe this is possible. As far as I know, when you use the usb the deck itself is decoding the mp3's (or whatever music files you're using) directly. It doesn't support playing music through the usb, it just uses the usb to get the files. I hope that makes sense...
So is that why I ca never plat music on my xbox whenever I have a phone hookedup to charge? I thought my xbox just didn't play nice with phones
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XtaC318 said:
I'm currently aching to be able to play my own music through my car speakers, weird place for this yes.. if it's the wrong section to post this please let me know.
But, I was wondering if it's at all possible to feed the phone's audio through the USB.
For example, I have a USB port on my stero in my car, and when I plug it in..i'm able to feed off my SD card to play the music thats on it. But.. I'd like to be able to play pandora as well..which I'm currently unable to do.
Was wondering if this is possible. If i've confused you feel free to ask more questions
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So your car stereo has a USB input but no auxiliary? If so, your best bet would probably be to get an FM transmitter. Like the poster above said, your car's stereo is merely mounting your phone as a mass storage device and reading the mp3 files off the SD card and decoding and playing them locally.
It sees it as you do on the computer, just a drive. The only way to get what you want is to use a source from the phone that plays audio. Head phone jack or Blue Tooth. Your stereo... if it has USB should also have an AUX input or BT. Havn't come across to many that have USB and not an AUX or BT. Its nice though... having Pandora in the car.
If you tell me the Model of the Stereo I can help you out. I have seen a BT to FM Mod. Those are kinda cool. If your in a pinch with a stock stereo.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using Tapatalk
a454nova said:
It sees it as you do on the computer, just a drive. The only way to get what you want is to use a source from the phone that plays audio. Head phone jack or Blue Tooth. Your stereo... if it has USB should also have an AUX input or BT. Havn't come across to many that have USB and not an AUX or BT. Its nice though... having Pandora in the car.
If you tell me the Model of the Stereo I can help you out. I have seen a BT to FM Mod. Those are kinda cool. If your in a pinch with a stock stereo.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Makes sense. My stero does have an auxiliary port on it, but due to recent events I'm really short on cash lol, was wondering if there was a work around so I'm not limited to my sd for music.
Since it isn't possible.. what about an app that allows me to control the music played? I can stream music from the sd, but its got to mount to read therefore I don't have access to the stock music app. Only way to control what's played is the buttons on the stero and its pain staking..
XtaC318 said:
Makes sense. My stero does have an auxiliary port on it, but due to recent events I'm really short on cash lol, was wondering if there was a work around so I'm not limited to my sd for music.
Since it isn't possible.. what about an app that allows me to control the music played? I can stream music from the sd, but its got to mount to read therefore I don't have access to the stock music app. Only way to control what's played is the buttons on the stero and its pain staking..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nope... The phone isn't even connecting to your stereo. When you put it into USB mode so it can read the SD, it unmounted from the phone. Its as if you pulled the SD out and slid it into a card reader. When you pull the plug... It will remount to the phone. You'll notice it scanning for media at the top.
Now when you go BT... You can control it via the stereo or phone, using the Aux you can control it by the phone. "They" could make the phone controllable via USB like an Iphone but they would have to built that into the stereo like they do the Iphones/Ipods. Not likely to happen unless the Galaxy S takes off like IPOD did.
In theory, a rooted Epic with proper kernel support and hacked cable (since they don't exist commercially) can repurpose the data pins on its USB port for left and right analog audio thanks to the Fairchild FSA9480 USB switching chip inside the phone (the same chip enables the USB pins to be repurposed as a serial port with nonstandard voltage levels, enables the normally-unused fifth pin to be used as mic input, enables it to be used with a special "JIG" interface for JTAG reflashing without having to hand-solder anything to the microscopic internal pads, and apparently can also work its magic in conjunction with a chip by Silicon Imaging to use 5 pins to output a signal that can be transformed by a companion chip (embedded in the cable's connector shell) into valid HDCP-compliant HDMI. I'm pretty sure the 9480 can also repurpose the two data pins for external I2C, but don't quote me on it.
Check out the I9000 boards... they're about 2 months ahead of us. If you google for FSA9480, you can find a brief (but revealing) dialogue between a Samsung engineer and the Kernel.org folks regarding a kernel addition to support the chip. He had a few issues, because on one hand he's apparently not allowed to say much about how the chip works or what it does, but the kernel folks managed to wring much of it out of him one juicy detail at a time. If you check Fairchild's site, they don't even acknowledge that the chip EXISTS, but it's been photographed inside all the Galaxy S phones in various teardowns.
In English -- yes, the hardware exists today to connect your phone to a stereo's analog inputs via a cable that repurposes the USB port... but the official software to make it work from Samsung and Sprint doesn't exist, and the information needed to make it work ourselves on a rooted Epic with AOSP isn't quite available yet.
I'm personally quite happy about the uart, because that means we DO have an easy, low-ceremony way to do i/o between something like a gamepad built into a hardcase a-la-iphone-GameBone that doesn't require Bluetooth (note that if something IS using the USB port for UART purposes, the USB port is still active, but the phone sees it as having nothing connected because the signals from the D+ and D- pins are physically re-routed by the 9480 to the CPU's UART pins. Think of the 9480 as being like an old-fashioned telephone panel with cables that can be moved around to connect the USB port's 5 physical pins to different pins inside the phone.
I'm now pretty sure that this is why there are exactly 7 contacts on the microUSB connector inside the phone -- 5 are used to get the pre-HDMI signals out of the phone, and the other 2 (3, if you count the ground/anchor tabs and assume they carry a signal as well in addition to mechanically anchoring it in place) are used to supply +5v and ground, and possibly one wire for half-duplex signaling purposes.
Wow that was a lot of info... lol. I didn't know that about the usb tho. That's good to know. I was thinking of taking it apart to see.
But... I think he's wanting a UI via the USB like the way some players will do for the IPODs, not analog. To go throught all that when the Head Phone jack will do the same... I could only see that if it was broken or if you really really want only one cord to the phone.
; )
Sent from my SPH-D700 using Tapatalk
I've got an Alpine unit, I hook my USB up - turn on the TUNER. Mount the Drive and once the phone is done - swap back over to USB and i can get all my MP3S. sadly I get all of my ringtones too - odd when the radio is full blast and a track changes - none the less works well for me. Try it.
I purchased this Kensington LiquidAUX Bluetooth Car Kit for my phone a few days ago. It works perfectly on my sister's iPod touch (no AVRCP [silly apple]) and an old WinMo 6.1 phone.
I just got my Epic in the mail today so I'll be testing it out soon.
WTF. AVRCP (bluetooth remote control) is really buggy with this phone. I used the LiquidAUX with an old Omnia for a week with no problems. The Epic connects and plays audio just fine. I can also pause and play music but the forward and back buttons don't work. When I first pair the phone with the device everything is fine, but after disconnecting and reconnecting the remote control stops working. I got it to work after un-paring and re-pairing but it only worked once.
The Moment I had before this had really choppy audio.
EDIT: I had the phone opened up in DDMS and the phone is receiving signals from the remote. But it only reacts to them when the media player is on the screen. Weird.

[Q] How to connect to car audio system via USB?

I wanted to know how to connect via USB to my cars audio system.
I used this tutorial: http://www.mobiletechworld.com/2010/11/18/use-your-windows-phone-7-device-as-a-portable-usb-drive/
I can now store and retrieve picture files from the phone but I still cannot play music files on my cars audio system. It seems as if the phone turns off this feature when my cars head unit tries to communicate with it via USB.
I also cannot connect via bluetooth.
I have read that some folks have been successful in implementing this feat. I really dont want to use the headphone jack because I cannot control the phones audio via my head unit. I guess I am looking to set it up legacy style like my previous phones eg iphone, nexus one, milestone etc.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
The portable USB 'trick' doesn't make the device a USB Mass Storage device. It's a client-side registry modification that only makes the device viewable in windows explorer (legacy mode). It's still running its communications over the proprietary MTPz zune-sync protocol. This is why after running the registry modification, you can't just plug your WP7 into another computer and have it pop up, and also why it requires the Zune software to be installed, and to sync up first for it to work.
This is also why it won't/can't work with your USB capable audio system. It has absolutely no ability to do Zune protocol sync (as far as I'm aware, Kenwood made a head unit that could, but I don't know if it works with WP7. I'd doubt it), and despite the misreporting of various sites, your WP7 is not magically now a mass storage device.
Bluetooth may or may not work. I don't know about A2DP support on either your car's head unit, or WP7, and it may be specific to the device/manufacturer as to whether this is present (I have no idea). If bluetooth doesn't work, you're pretty much **** out of luck.
Headphone jack is your best (only) option. I can't recall if the supplied headphone cable has inline media controls. If so, you could probably macguyver that into a line-in cable for your stereo and use the media controls on that. Ghetto, but workable.
wow, that really sucks.. I am liking this phone less and less...

I think I went insane

After seeing a video where you can control a parrot AR.Drone 2.0 with the shield I started thinking up ways to control a real car with it.
Probably wont attempt this but I like the idea.
chevyowner said:
After seeing a video where you can control a parrot AR.Drone 2.0 with the shield I started thinking up ways to control a real car with it.
Probably wont attempt this but I like the idea.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
main problem i see is when shield's battery runs out.
and i wouldn't want to try it until its out beta, otherwise it might lose wifi connection lol
glitchhawk said:
main problem i see is when shield's battery runs out.
and i wouldn't want to try it until its out beta, otherwise it might lose wifi connection lol
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
most cars have a 12V socket in the cabin somewhere.....
Otherwise, this is doable.
Dependant on the age of the car and its level of security (engine electronics wise) you could either tap into the engine management units, braking and power steering (power steering alone can actually steer the car with no user input, IF the system allows it or can be modified to be controlled externally in that way, same goes for many other areas of the car) or take a direct hardware approach. Some actuators bolted to the pedals and steering wheel could easily be controlled with an arduino which can then pair via bluetooth, wifi or USB to the shield (USB would be cheapest but would prevent charging from the car lighter socket and of course mean you would have to sit in the car and might aswell drive anyway).
Cars controlled via other means have been done frequently anyway. Your only changing where the input comes from. Your idea isn't really that insane, but I wouldnt want to try it.
As for loss of power/signal. You would require some sort of "computer" aboard the car anyway. Even if its just a simple 8 bit arduino, in fact let us assume that it is an arduino UNO R3 for some reason, even that measly little 8bit CPU can be setup easily enough to detect the loss of communications with the Shield and cut the engine, engage brake etc etc.
I have a either a pandaboard es or a rasperry pi model b I can use. I am not planning on being in the car I am planning on mounting a camera about where the drivers head would be and streaming the video form that to the shield.
As for the car I am think about using a gutted 97 camaro for that, and adding a carburated 350 and some automatic trans. the most advanced computer on the car will the one to radio control it.
As far as usb power is needed there are 5 volt dc-dc regulators for cars that supply 1+ amps.
edit
Yes I know I would need to avoid running myself over.
Either one would be adequate.
I'm not a car wizard so couldnt say whether or not that camaro could have its systems directly tapped into by the pi/panda but either one could control actuators mechanically connected to the steering wheel and pedals.
As for the auto transmission, I despise the very idea of an automatic transmission and have never set in the drivers seat of an automatic vehicle let alone driven one (unless you count a 50cc scooter with a CVT). But in the case of a small computer controlling the car, probably a good idea to reduce the amount of things it has to do.
I have a twin USB adaptor in my car, max 2A shared between both sockets although that does appear to mean (with my non scientific tests as I dont own a multimeter, really need to get one actually) that with only 1 port active it can supply 2A to that port. I think it may just be a straight 12v>5v @2A converter with 2 USB's in parallel.
There are plenty of linear actuators available, for the steering a windscreen wiper motor from a truck, a pulley and some sort of feedback mechanism would be possible.
Would be a cool project, if somewhat dangerous if you don't know what your doing But get online, its been done.
SixSixSevenSeven said:
I'm not a car wizard so couldnt say whether or not that camaro could have its systems directly tapped into by the pi/panda but either one could control actuators mechanically connected to the steering wheel and pedals.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the car currently has no interior at all
no engine
no transmission
no hood
no side windows
no steering colum
no pedals
it maybe missing some brake parts.
it is gutted.
SixSixSevenSeven said:
As for the auto transmission, I despise the very idea of an automatic transmission and have never set in the drivers seat of an automatic vehicle let alone driven one (unless you count a 50cc scooter with a CVT). But in the case of a small computer controlling the car, probably a good idea to reduce the amount of things it has to do.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The car had a manual trans but it is gone now.
SixSixSevenSeven said:
I have a twin USB adaptor in my car, max 2A shared between both sockets although that does appear to mean (with my non scientific tests as I dont own a multimeter, really need to get one actually) that with only 1 port active it can supply 2A to that port. I think it may just be a straight 12v>5v @2A converter with 2 USB's in parallel.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
5v 10a this is more of what i am thinking.
http://www.miniinthebox.com/dc-24v-...own-regulator-car-led-power-buck_p394573.html
Guys who might be able to help you best are probably over at letsmakerobots.com
I am a regular on there although only with 1 submission, 2nd on its way.
I'm no guru and with a project with a potential for some danger I think its probably best to not take anything I say as gospel, other than that it is possible and that the raspberry pi can probably do it (I have already used the pi for running 2 motors with speed control, a servo and ultrasound module with no issues, python plus RPIO).

			
				
should i make this
or this
then?

Music in car through usb

Does anyone know how I would be able to play music in my car through usb? I am currently using tune link which uses Bluetooth and 3.5 jack. The issue I have, is that I have to change the song using my phone rather than the control buttons on my steering wheel. Sounds dumb, but I hate having to pick up my phone and navigate to screen to change the song.
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Try using an OTG, it enables the phone to be used as a typical computer usb port.
I will try that.
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Yeah that didn't work.
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Have 100% the same problem. Did anybody find the solution? My old Xperia Acr connected like a common flash card and worked fine. Now I have to use AUX and this is not so comfortable =/
Why do you use a cable AND Bluetooth ? Does you car have AD2P ? If it has you should be able to play music through your phones BT and have the steerring controls . I have a Kenwood head unit DNX 9140 and when i pair my phone to it, i can play music and still keep steering controls over BT
The music out via USB was removed on the s5...was present on the s4.
Tomo1971 said:
The music out via USB was removed on the s5...was present on the s4.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not true. There is a lot of misinformation promulgated on the subject. Music out on USB works fine on my S5 just as it did on the S4, S3, S2 and S1..
But that isn't to say that Samsung, Google or (especially) the automotive audio equipment cartel make much effort towards standardized interoperability. It's frankly a mess, a hodge podge of half ass implementations and proprietary protocols that usually don't play nicely together. It can be made to work with carefully chosen components or creative approaches. But randomly connecting components from two different vendors typically fails.
While Samsung and Google could be characterized as only having made a minimal effort to provide standardized USB support.. that is still leagues ahead of what most automotive audio vendors have done. Not to mention that it's routine to find inaccurate details, if not outright lies of what automotive component X will supposedly interconnect with. I sometimes wonder if their marketing departments even bother to collate real facts on the subject before they write their copy.
It's not too hard to find decent DACs and headphone amps that will accept USB audio out from the S5, but I frankly gave up trying to figure out what would or wouldn't work on the automotive end. I ended up going with a brute force approach and installed a SBC (miniature PC) in my car. Having a full PC as a middleman, means that there is a vast array of powerful software (and hardware) that can slice, dice and format the control stream to whatever is needed by the auto head unit. But it's hardly a simple or off the shelf solution.
The OP can probably find a working solution if he searches hard enough. The S5 has USB audio out, although making it work with some car decks requires a combination of root, custom kernels (proper USB host support) and audio apps. An app like USB Audio Player, in conjunction with a kernel that has proper USB host support will satisfy many auto decks.
Hopefully Android L will give us better USB support. But it also depends on how sane your automotive equipment vendor was when they designed your car deck too.
Further reading for any stray audiophiles around here:
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B3XYy1FuzDUeZDNBSVpjQU9Nd2s/edit?pli=1
http://www.avsforum.com/forum/173-2...-audio-any-android-4-0-smartphone-tablet.html
http://www.head-fi.org/t/595071/android-phones-and-usb-dacs
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B3XYy1FuzDUea3U3aTJ1RkpQdW8/edit
.
The problem is that since 4.1.2,USB Mass Storage was removed.
Most, if not all, radios, media players, etc don't support the MTP protocol. They require a mass storage device, and do not support a media device.
Sent from my SM-N9005 using Tapatalk 2
MTP is a newer and much more capable protocol. The problem in your example is that radio, etc vendors are stuck in the past and not adopting newer standards.
MSC (mass storage) has many serious drawbacks that are overcome by the newer transactional protocol. MTP was standardized six years ago, which is just short of forever in consumer electronics. So one has to wonder why the radio vendors continue to drag their heels and can't get with the program.
It's like blaming Android for having moved to flash memory.. and refusing to go along. Expecting everyone to continue using cassette tapes instead. Yes that would be one way to maintain compatibity. But it doesn't make a lot of objective sense.
.
ShadowLea said:
The problem is that since 4.1.2,USB Mass Storage was removed.
Most, if not all, radios, media players, etc don't support the MTP protocol. They require a mass storage device, and do not support a media device.
Sent from my SM-N9005 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, and for activation Mass Storage root is required ...
Guys, but what about using USB analog audio input? I remember I did something like that with Galaxy S II - from 5 mini USB pins one was used to sense what phone is connecting to - for ex if it is a car dock, desk dock or... should it enable analog audio output on USB data pins.
Unfortunately I no longer have dock I made back then, anyone knows if that might work with S5?
EDIT: check this out!
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1321491
EDIT2: Oh it seems I completely missed the point, you want to use it as mass storage to connect to car USB port.

Pairing NON-media/input Bluetooth devices (OBD2 dongle)

Hey everyone! I bought an Onn. Streaming Box at Walmart a couple of days ago, intending to run Torque Pro on my car's preexisting Backup Screen w/ a Bluetooth OBD2 dongle (a tiny $25 self-contained Android box seemed to make a lot of sense for that application). I sideloaded the Torque apk onto the box and used a remote app w/ mouse cursor to set up the layout, but when I went to finally pair the OBD2 dongle, it wouldn't pick it up. Since the screen just says "Accessories", I'm guessing you can only pair things like headphones, controllers, keyboards, etc.
I also tried sideloading "Bluetooth Direct", and forcibly connecting to my phone's Bluetooth address (just to test), and it couldn't connect (it seems like that app doesn't work for a lot of people though).
Is there any way around this?
I'm waiting for a powered OTG cable to be delivered today, so I can root and hopefully figure something out that way. It seems weird if it's really a limitation built into the OS, since regular android is buried underneath there somewhere, and it isn't like the box has some special Bluetooth hardware that limits it to certain devices.
If all else fails, maybe I could just get an OBD2 to USB cord and plug into an OTG, but idk if that would work either (it should on other Android devices).
And for anyone wondering, yes, the Android TV UI optimized for giant 4k TV's does not work well on a 5" 480p HDMI -> RCA screen, LOL.
Figured this out if anybody wants to do something similar, I just sideloaded the app "Bluetooth Scanner - Bluetooth finder - pairing" (com.pzolee.bluetoothscanner), and was able to pair it right away. I am running LineageOS and rooted with Magisk, but I'd think this should work on stock too.

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