Help me choose a new Android Head Unit - What I have now vs What I am looking for - Android Head-Units

Hi All - I've had a Joying Sofia 3GR head unit since March 2017. I need to replace it. I currently have a 2008 Nissan 350Z without Bose or navigation, if this helps in the discussion. I like, but certainly do not love my Sofia unit, overall the experience has gotten far, far too frustrating not to replace this head unit. So here's what I do not like about the unit, and what I'd like to fix with new hardware.
1 - Right off the bat, the unit doesn't fit into any double-din dash kits I have found for this car. I've tried Metra and Scosche kits for the 350z, and the unit is a few mm too wide and too tall for it. Given the way the Z's center stack is designed, going with a unit where the display sticks out and is wider and taller than double-din likely won't work as I only have about 10mm of wiggle room before it touches the HVAC controls or prevents me from opening the center console compartment.
2 - I'm looking for a new unit with capacitive or no buttons. My Joying unit's NAVI button mechanism has failed, so it's stuck in. In addition, the volume encoder randomly adjusts the volume without me touching it. I'll be driving and all of a sudden the volume rises quickly and drastically, I can't have that obviously, it's too large of a distraction. Ideally, I'd like to get my factory steering wheel volume controls back. This has proven difficult as the standard aftermarket steering wheel control modules in the industry are frustrating and there's little documentation about it at all, and I don't believe my car has a CANbus or anything similar. I don't want to stick a BT remote on the wheel, that's silly.
3 - GPS randomly dies completely and bringing it back is luck of the draw. If I go into the Car Settings app or any GPS utility app, it cannot reach satellites. Ever. I've tried a reboot, I've tried manual A-GPS refreshes, I've tried making sure the date/time is correct, I've tried factory resetting it. Nothing, absolutely nothing fixes it with consistency, factory resets have gotten it back sometimes, but not always, and not currently. I guess this could be hardware, I just don't know. Navigation is a big part of why I decided to get one of these units in the first place.
4 - Poor performance. I'm trying to have to interact with the unit as little as possible. I'd like to be able to quickly set the music I want to hear, or the navigation destination of my choice, and have it work as reasonably well as say, my phone does. Currently, the Sofia unit hiccups, gets stuck, crashes, sound glitches, etc often. Usually at least once a day.
5 - Poor sound quality. It just doesn't sound as good as my factory CD player did. Not even close. I was able to get it sounding great with Viper4Android, but that takes up too much CPU headroom, so everything else will glitch, heat up, etc so it's not viable. Also since the 6.0 update, I can't use the EQ function in Viper, which is a large reason of why I was able to get it sounding good previously.
Does anyone have an Android unit that they love, and that actually works with consistency?

I wrote up a review here [Review] ATOTO A6 Install in Subaru WRX, but the bottom line is that i'm happy with ATOTO A6 Pro. I wont repeat the details here, but it addresses most of your needs and I was able to get the steering wheel controls working in my older car.

Related

Bad experience, looking for advice on a new 2 din unit

Hey guys,
Ive recently delved in to installing a 2 din unit into my Peugeot 307, and after searching for whats available and many youtube reviews, i settled on the Panlelo PA09YZ16. However, after litereally 1-2 days, issues started to occur, and ive been searching these forums for either fixes, or alternative units. (the capacitive buttons stopped working, spotify wont play in background, overall unit it sluggish).
So id like some advice on a new unit.
Would need:
7 Inch screen
Spotify playing in background, while using google maps
Next/Previous track control in spotify with steering wheel control
Physical buttons, not capacitive
Budget is up to £200 GBP
Any recomendations?
EDIT: I dont mind capacitive buttons, as long as they actually work. Just a preference to a volume knob.
Also, bonus points if its Amazon Prime eligible (not a necessity, i just want something that works and meets my requirements)
http://www.carnaviplayer.com/peugeot-307-2001-2011-navigation-radio-player-p-966
Thats actually a nice looking unit! Wish the screen was a little bigger, and dont care for a CD/DVD drive, thanks!
Any other suggestions welcome.
Tried some of the launchers, and allsorts of the apps people have created to try get the steering wheel controls working, and none of them are working at all on my current Panlelo unit.
Can anybody recommend just a 7 inch screen unit, which will 100% just allow me to control spotify with steering wheel controls, in the background while using google maps?
I see a lot of talk about the Sofia Joying units, will these work?
Hey guys, the Joying units seems fairly well received on these forums, and it would seem people have been getting the Steering Wheel Controls working fine.
Can anybody confirm whether the steering controls work fine with spotify?
Also, whats the major differences between these units?
https://www.carjoying.co.uk/android...uble-din.html?dir=asc&order=price
All seem great, but any reason to not get the cheapest one there?
I have had multiple Joying devices, they seem to be moving from the Intel platform back to the MTCD.
Their latest would be MTCD PX5. My intel was awesome, but it died. They ran pretty hot and a lot of people had issues with the dying after a year or so. In Joyings defense, they did send a replacement

Android head unit for VW Golf? Recommendations?

Hi,
So I am looking to buy a android headunit for my VW preferably in this style...
https://www.eonon.com/upload/product/Gallery/GA8153/GA8153-01.jpg
My current one I have got is a Joying 8inch which is similar to the one in the picture however the subwoofer had a seperate level control which was annoying because whenever you turn your speaker volume down, the sub woofer was still playing really loudly, you would then have to turn the subwoofer adjustment down as well so I had enough of it and gave it to my brother. I am now searching for another one however my BIG need is that I want the subwoofer and speakers to be controlled together using the volume knob.. I dont want to be driving and adjusting the volume knob as well as adjusting the subwoofer level on top of it. Its a silly design and all the new head units seem to have this!?
Any ways here is what I would like with the headunit:
WIFI
Bluetooth
Navigation
USB port
Browsing youtube
CD/DVD drive
Split screen/ Multitasking
Dashcam setup with DVR built into the head unit...
Here is the one I have seen https://www.eonon.com/Android-Car-G...a-Core-GPS-Navigation-System-Touchscreen.html
Have already pre ordered it but the stock wont be in till 8th january so I can still look around and find something else which might be better... Any recommendations guys? I love the fact this has a 8 core CPU but then it comes with the annoying subwoofer level adjustment which makes no sense to have. Would like a head unit without this sub woofer level adjustment feature.
Thank You.

Atoto A6 or Dasaita HA2100-V600 - Opinions please

Hello eveyone. I'm looking for a new 7" universal Android head unit. I've narrowed it down to the non-physical button model because I like the flush look. I had it narrowed down to the Atoto A6 until I found the XDA forum. I've read that the Dasaita may have a little better support and that the HA2100-V600 may be a little brighter. And now, I've found the Dasaita with 4GB of RAM. I Think this could be useful in the future.
I've spend hours reading all 84 pages of the MCU update forum that has spanned over the past 7 to 9 months. During that period, there were several reports of problems with the Dasaita Blue tooth, GPS and other things. However, the people still seem to stand behind their brand. Are the problems with the Dasaita as bad as it sounds, or is it just a few people having these problems?
I like the idea of the Atoto A6 having Dual Bluetooth. This will allow me to Pair with my phone and the OBDII adapter at the same time. None of the other head units mention this. I keep reading that these units are basically the same, so it seems that they all should be able to do this. But I don't know if they do. Any one have a Dasaita HA2100 that can verify it? Could it be an Android 7.1 feature? The Atoto also has the external wireless antenna and multiple USB outlets, one of which is 2 amp for quick phone charging.
If anyone has either of these models and wants to elaborate on what they like about it (or don't like), I would greatly appreciate it.
Thanks for your help.
The Atoto is one of the few that uses a MediaTek SoC instead of a Rockchip or Intel Sofia. That means for right now, there's no community support.
I've got the 2gb touch-only version, had it since just before Christmas. It's reasonably responsive (think 2012-2013 high-end tablet/phone responsive), it gets really bright (I'm in Florida with a sunroof and non-tinted windows, never had a problem seeing the screen), colors are a bit muted but viewing angles are good. 2 second boot is true, it comes alive very fast, backup camera activates quickly.
Dual BT was the main selling point for me, and it works as advertised, phone is paired for phone/contacts/media, OBD2 is paired, and phone is can paired again for BT tethering. BT tethering works decent, there's plenty of bandwidth for running Maps/Waze while streaming Spotify, but you'll of course want to switch back to WiFi tethering/hotspot for video streaming or even installing apps from the Play Store.
The microSD card slot works well, I've use a NTFS formatted 128gb SanDisk with no issues. The "fast charge" USB connector puts out just under 2a, so it does charge quicker than most, but still no comparison to an QC 2, 3, or Power Delivery charger. That same USB port is the only USB 2.0 port, the other two USB ports (on one dongle) are USB 1.1
The combination of on-device and external microphones seems to work well enough for voice activation and calling (my callers say I sound fine, no worse than any other speakerphone). Google Assistant does NOT work on this device (or just about any tablet for that matter), but Google Now/Voice Search does work, along with OK Google voice detection. (and OK Waze detection if you're Wazing).
I've only had one crash, and that may have been a launcher problem, or a Spotify problem as much as an Atoto problem.
Audio quality is good, with a half-decent EQ, fader/balance controls, loudness. Power is lacking, so you'll want to run this through an amp.
Steering wheel interface works (though I needed both a PAC CANBUS harness/box, and at PAC SW-1 RC to make them work). Pro-tip if you go with the PAC stuff, program the SW-1 as a Pioneer, and then use the Kenwood wire (instead of the 3.5mm plug) to Key + on the A6. There's also no provision on the A6 for dual button mapping, you get one function per button (some units allow for double press or long press for more options).
Wifi reception is solid, the included remote antenna is the key to this (mine is mounted on the edge of my windshield, partially tucked under the headliner, and practically invisible.
GPS reception is also very good, I almost always get 10+ satellites and quick locks.
So far, so good.
But...the A6 has three big problems.
The first is that the distance between the outer glass screen with the touch layer, and the actual LCD is pretty wide, and that causes parallax issues, where you touch on the glass doesn't match up with the screen, especially annoying with small buttons and hamburger menus. The physical button version doesn't seem to have this issue, because the touch screen and the LCD are closer (at the cost of having the whole display inset and not flush.). If I had to do it over, I'd opt for the PB model.
The second issue is that there's always some electronic noise heard when the unit is powered up, similar to putting a mobile phone next to speakers, and it varies with CPU load and Wifi activity. You don't notice it when music is playing but if there's a pause (or you pause), there it is again. Doesn't seem to be affected by volume settings though.
The last major issue (and there's maybe a fix coming for this in the next firmware update from Atoto) is that when the device has been off for more than oh, ten minutes, when it comes back on, it automatically loads the AM/FM tuner and plays. Which is annoying enough on its own (the FM tuner app is hideous, for one thing), but for some reason, the volume from the tuner is 2x the volume of MP3, internet streaming, or BT streaming music, so if you were rocking out even just a little when you parked the car, when you get back, your eardrums will be bleeding from the FM blast. So far, nobody has figured a way to disable the FM app, it's part of the system, and tied to the MCU.
Overall, I'm not unhappy with the A6, since I went into it knowing that all the Chindroid head units are flawed...but for $179 (Lightning deal), I figured it was worth the risk.
Croak said:
The Atoto is one of the few that uses a MediaTek SoC instead of a Rockchip or Intel Sofia. That means for right now, there's no community support.
I've got the 2gb touch-only version, had it since just before Christmas. It's reasonably responsive (think 2012-2013 high-end tablet/phone responsive), it gets really bright (I'm in Florida with a sunroof and non-tinted windows, never had a problem seeing the screen), colors are a bit muted but viewing angles are good. 2 second boot is true, it comes alive very fast, backup camera activates quickly.
Dual BT was the main selling point for me, and it works as advertised, phone is paired for phone/contacts/media, OBD2 is paired, and phone is can paired again for BT tethering. BT tethering works decent, there's plenty of bandwidth for running Maps/Waze while streaming Spotify, but you'll of course want to switch back to WiFi tethering/hotspot for video streaming or even installing apps from the Play Store.
The microSD card slot works well, I've use a NTFS formatted 128gb SanDisk with no issues. The "fast charge" USB connector puts out just under 2a, so it does charge quicker than most, but still no comparison to an QC 2, 3, or Power Delivery charger. That same USB port is the only USB 2.0 port, the other two USB ports (on one dongle) are USB 1.1
The combination of on-device and external microphones seems to work well enough for voice activation and calling (my callers say I sound fine, no worse than any other speakerphone). Google Assistant does NOT work on this device (or just about any tablet for that matter), but Google Now/Voice Search does work, along with OK Google voice detection. (and OK Waze detection if you're Wazing).
I've only had one crash, and that may have been a launcher problem, or a Spotify problem as much as an Atoto problem.
Audio quality is good, with a half-decent EQ, fader/balance controls, loudness. Power is lacking, so you'll want to run this through an amp.
Steering wheel interface works (though I needed both a PAC CANBUS harness/box, and at PAC SW-1 RC to make them work). Pro-tip if you go with the PAC stuff, program the SW-1 as a Pioneer, and then use the Kenwood wire (instead of the 3.5mm plug) to Key + on the A6. There's also no provision on the A6 for dual button mapping, you get one function per button (some units allow for double press or long press for more options).
Wifi reception is solid, the included remote antenna is the key to this (mine is mounted on the edge of my windshield, partially tucked under the headliner, and practically invisible.
GPS reception is also very good, I almost always get 10+ satellites and quick locks.
So far, so good.
But...the A6 has three big problems.
The first is that the distance between the outer glass screen with the touch layer, and the actual LCD is pretty wide, and that causes parallax issues, where you touch on the glass doesn't match up with the screen, especially annoying with small buttons and hamburger menus. The physical button version doesn't seem to have this issue, because the touch screen and the LCD are closer (at the cost of having the whole display inset and not flush.). If I had to do it over, I'd opt for the PB model.
The second issue is that there's always some electronic noise heard when the unit is powered up, similar to putting a mobile phone next to speakers, and it varies with CPU load and Wifi activity. You don't notice it when music is playing but if there's a pause (or you pause), there it is again. Doesn't seem to be affected by volume settings though.
The last major issue (and there's maybe a fix coming for this in the next firmware update from Atoto) is that when the device has been off for more than oh, ten minutes, when it comes back on, it automatically loads the AM/FM tuner and plays. Which is annoying enough on its own (the FM tuner app is hideous, for one thing), but for some reason, the volume from the tuner is 2x the volume of MP3, internet streaming, or BT streaming music, so if you were rocking out even just a little when you parked the car, when you get back, your eardrums will be bleeding from the FM blast. So far, nobody has figured a way to disable the FM app, it's part of the system, and tied to the MCU.
Overall, I'm not unhappy with the A6, since I went into it knowing that all the Chindroid head units are flawed...but for $179 (Lightning deal), I figured it was worth the risk.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you, that is exactly the kind of information I was looking for. I had read about the radio coming on with each startup. I'm glad you said something about the touchscreen. The flush screen was one of the selling points for me, but if the actual lcd is still recessed, I may go for the PB. Prices have skyrocketed since just before Christmas.
On the Dasaita, I had asked if the 4GB HA2100-V600 they have on Aliexpress would be updated to Android 7.1 (it's currently Android 6.0). They told me that unit would not be able to run Android 7.1 because of hardware incompatibility issues. He said they had an Android 8.0 unit with 4GB RAM if I wanted to pay the Price. I didn't even ask how much because the 6.0 unit was already at the upper price range I want to spend for one of these. However, Hot Audio is saying they are working on a 8.0 upgrade for the HA2100 and it should be out any time now. Who Do I Believe? I feel pretty sure the android 6.0 unit will be upgraded since there are several other brands already running 7.1. Anybody?
Thing about the flush screen/body is that most car kits end up making the whole thing recessed anyway. PB version wouldn't have looked any worse, and it would have operated a bit better. Also, turns out the PB model is a much more recent hardware revision, released in November, whereas the touch-only model came out almost six months earlier.
Here's a shot of mine using a Schoshe double-din mounting kit.
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Does the Dasaita HA2100 have dual BT? I'm in the same position as OP - I currently have a Joying 2GB unit and it's a pain to BT tether (still not reliable after root). The Atoto A6 blog says there is a pro version coming by Feb 2018 end with "hand gestures recognition control", whatever that means. http://www.myatoto.com/index.php?m=...FjAFegQIBRAB&usg=AOvVaw0vQxQJxnoYd_2loGxiT1vf
Till then I'm looking at the Atoto A6 a61721p.
Great ATOTO using experience.
Croak said:
The Atoto is one of the few that uses a MediaTek SoC instead of a Rockchip or Intel Sofia. That means for right now, there's no community support.
I've got the 2gb touch-only version, had it since just before Christmas. It's reasonably responsive (think 2012-2013 high-end tablet/phone responsive), it gets really bright (I'm in Florida with a sunroof and non-tinted windows, never had a problem seeing the screen), colors are a bit muted but viewing angles are good. 2 second boot is true, it comes alive very fast, backup camera activates quickly.
Dual BT was the main selling point for me, and it works as advertised, phone is paired for phone/contacts/media, OBD2 is paired, and phone is can paired again for BT tethering. BT tethering works decent, there's plenty of bandwidth for running Maps/Waze while streaming Spotify, but you'll of course want to switch back to WiFi tethering/hotspot for video streaming or even installing apps from the Play Store.
The microSD card slot works well, I've use a NTFS formatted 128gb SanDisk with no issues. The "fast charge" USB connector puts out just under 2a, so it does charge quicker than most, but still no comparison to an QC 2, 3, or Power Delivery charger. That same USB port is the only USB 2.0 port, the other two USB ports (on one dongle) are USB 1.1
The combination of on-device and external microphones seems to work well enough for voice activation and calling (my callers say I sound fine, no worse than any other speakerphone). Google Assistant does NOT work on this device (or just about any tablet for that matter), but Google Now/Voice Search does work, along with OK Google voice detection. (and OK Waze detection if you're Wazing).
I've only had one crash, and that may have been a launcher problem, or a Spotify problem as much as an Atoto problem.
Audio quality is good, with a half-decent EQ, fader/balance controls, loudness. Power is lacking, so you'll want to run this through an amp.
Steering wheel interface works (though I needed both a PAC CANBUS harness/box, and at PAC SW-1 RC to make them work). Pro-tip if you go with the PAC stuff, program the SW-1 as a Pioneer, and then use the Kenwood wire (instead of the 3.5mm plug) to Key + on the A6. There's also no provision on the A6 for dual button mapping, you get one function per button (some units allow for double press or long press for more options).
Wifi reception is solid, the included remote antenna is the key to this (mine is mounted on the edge of my windshield, partially tucked under the headliner, and practically invisible.
GPS reception is also very good, I almost always get 10+ satellites and quick locks.
So far, so good.
But...the A6 has three big problems.
The first is that the distance between the outer glass screen with the touch layer, and the actual LCD is pretty wide, and that causes parallax issues, where you touch on the glass doesn't match up with the screen, especially annoying with small buttons and hamburger menus. The physical button version doesn't seem to have this issue, because the touch screen and the LCD are closer (at the cost of having the whole display inset and not flush.). If I had to do it over, I'd opt for the PB model.
The second issue is that there's always some electronic noise heard when the unit is powered up, similar to putting a mobile phone next to speakers, and it varies with CPU load and Wifi activity. You don't notice it when music is playing but if there's a pause (or you pause), there it is again. Doesn't seem to be affected by volume settings though.
The last major issue (and there's maybe a fix coming for this in the next firmware update from Atoto) is that when the device has been off for more than oh, ten minutes, when it comes back on, it automatically loads the AM/FM tuner and plays. Which is annoying enough on its own (the FM tuner app is hideous, for one thing), but for some reason, the volume from the tuner is 2x the volume of MP3, internet streaming, or BT streaming music, so if you were rocking out even just a little when you parked the car, when you get back, your eardrums will be bleeding from the FM blast. So far, nobody has figured a way to disable the FM app, it's part of the system, and tied to the MCU.
Overall, I'm not unhappy with the A6, since I went into it knowing that all the Chindroid head units are flawed...but for $179 (Lightning deal), I figured it was worth the risk.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks a lot for your honest reivew. After find your honest using feedback, I placed the Order for one ATOTO product: A62721PB. It seems like their products is hot-sale. There are just left 3 to sell now. So lucky for me to find this great Chinese head unit. However, I am not so lucky enough to catch their lightning deal. So I paid $249.:crying::crying::crying:
Anyway, I am very happy with ATOTO product. I noticed that you pointed out an using issue: radio automatically turn on. Based on my experience, please make sure you exit our radio, turn off the car then turn on car, the radio will not showing up. If the radio still turning on after the car is on, please open AUX then exit it. I am sure you will solve the problem.
I also have the same problem. I know it is a nuisance. So I registered on their support website and found this way. Hope it will help you. What's more, I have sent mail to their support team, they feedback to me the same method within 1 hours. I had to say: They have a great and professional support team. I will get another ATOTO product for my GF.
bluemind497 said:
Thanks a lot for your honest reivew. After find your honest using feedback, I placed the Order for one ATOTO product: A62721PB. It seems like their products is hot-sale. There are just left 3 to sell now. So lucky for me to find this great Chinese head unit. However, I am not so lucky enough to catch their lightning deal. So I paid $249.:crying::crying::crying:
Anyway, I am very happy with ATOTO product. I noticed that you pointed out an using issue: radio automatically turn on. Based on my experience, please make sure you exit our radio, turn off the car then turn on car, the radio will not showing up. If the radio still turning on after the car is on, please open AUX then exit it. I am sure you will solve the problem.
I also have the same problem. I know it is a nuisance. So I registered on their support website and found this way. Hope it will help you. What's more, I have sent mail to their support team, they feedback to me the same method within 1 hours. I had to say: They have a great and professional support team. I will get another ATOTO product for my GF.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The trick with switching to AUX and exiting does not work on my unit.
But I've found a fix and it will work 100% of the time. I'm arranging a return of the Atoto unit with Amazon. The radio issue is not something I can live with, having to do half a dozen button presses when starting the car, I may as well use a mobile phone.
Also, if the radio does not get turned on at startup, the MCU isn't initialized, which means there's no audio, no backup camera, etc. My return period expires in a week, and I have no faith that Atoto will fix this before then, so I'm returning it, and finding a different unit. I'll take a look at Atoto again with their next generation of units, they're on the right track, but they're not there yet.
There is supposed to be a "pro" version coming out before March, which will include hand gestures control. ATOTO support says you'll be able to control the unit without touching the screen/steering wheel. I'm guessing the price for the current premium version will go down so I'm going to wait. If you find another unit with dial Bluetooth or easy tethering let us know pls.
Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk
car_dude_123 said:
There is supposed to be a "pro" version coming out before March, which will include hand gestures control. ATOTO support says you'll be able to control the unit without touching the screen/steering wheel. I'm guessing the price for the current premium version will go down so I'm going to wait. If you find another unit with dial Bluetooth or easy tethering let us know pls.
Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sounds great! I will buy the next version. Hope they can give me some discounts! Let's waiting!
Just got an email from ATOTO - new model coming in March. I'm waiting...
Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk
I own a Dasaita HA2100A-V600.
I own a Dasaita HA2100A-V600. It differs from the HA2100-V600. It has a capacitive home button, lacks a micro sd slot, and is 178mm wide. The dasaita is not compatible with Bluetooth game pads nor my obdlink mx obd2 scanner. I suspect that the ATOTO A6 is compatible with these BT accessories. I had to use the much cheaper and faster usb obdlink sx on my dasaita. Honestly, if dasaita makes a direct fit product for your car, it is more economical than getting a dash kit, canbus to analog converter for reverse trigger and (retained) accessory power, in addition to steering wheel control adapter. Dasaita units have built in canbus capabilities where ATOTO units do not. Dasaita doesn't make a direct fit for the Ford Focus MK3. If I were to do it all over again. I would've gone with the Atoto unit from the start, only because fitment of an ATOTO 173mm unit has to be easier than the larger Dasaita units.
Croak said:
The Atoto is one of the few that uses a MediaTek SoC instead of a Rockchip or Intel Sofia. That means for right now, there's no community support.
But...the A6 has three big problems.
The first is that the distance between the outer glass screen with the touch layer, and the actual LCD is pretty wide, and that causes parallax issues, where you touch on the glass doesn't match up with the screen, especially annoying with small buttons and hamburger menus. The physical button version doesn't seem to have this issue, because the touch screen and the LCD are closer (at the cost of having the whole display inset and not flush.). If I had to do it over, I'd opt for the PB model.
The second issue is that there's always some electronic noise heard when the unit is powered up, similar to putting a mobile phone next to speakers, and it varies with CPU load and Wifi activity. You don't notice it when music is playing but if there's a pause (or you pause), there it is again. Doesn't seem to be affected by volume settings though.
The last major issue (and there's maybe a fix coming for this in the next firmware update from Atoto) is that when the device has been off for more than oh, ten minutes, when it comes back on, it automatically loads the AM/FM tuner and plays. Which is annoying enough on its own (the FM tuner app is hideous, for one thing), but for some reason, the volume from the tuner is 2x the volume of MP3, internet streaming, or BT streaming music, so if you were rocking out even just a little when you parked the car, when you get back, your eardrums will be bleeding from the FM blast. So far, nobody has figured a way to disable the FM app, it's part of the system, and tied to the MCU.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually, full root and a custom recovery is available for this now. As for custom roms and stuff, nothing for that right now. My unit is fully rooted but I have not yet installed TWRP custom recovery as its not something I am going to be using at the moment. FlashFire is working just fine for my needs.
I will address your issues number 2 and number 3.
As for the "electrical noise" when powered up or when no sound is present, I am not experiencing that what so ever. Make sure you have good solid ground. If you are using a PAC device (You mentioned that earlier about the steering wheel controls), make sure its not the PAC device its self causing the problem. I am using the PAC RP5-GM11 in my 2004 Chevy Tahoe and there is zero electrical noise/hiss what so ever.
As for the radio always turning on, that I will agree with, it is super annoying as is the SD card or anything other than the radio, playing at what seem like half volume that the radio plays at. The best way to stop the radio from playing when you first turn on your car/power, is to turn off the head unit with the power button before you remove power/turn off your key. Now when you turn the car back on, the head unit is off and you will have to turn it back on. But be ready to turn the volume down if you had it up pretty high when you turned off the unit.
Myself, other than the clunky factory UI/Launcher and the radio issue I mentioned and the quoted post, that are my only real issues but far from deal breakers for me. The launcher is easy, just install a different one. And now that my unit is rooted, its just a little bit better for me. Overall, after 2 months now, I am very happy with mine so far.
I have installed the Atoto A6Y2721PB on my 2017 Honda Accord Sport. I am having an issue with the ASWC-1. I have updated both firmwares to the most recent versions. When I go to program the Steering Wheel Controls through the Atoto system, it is only recognizing no more than 3 of the buttons on the Steering Wheel. Right now it is configured for Pioneer/Jensen as that is what Atoto Customer Service recommended. However, the only buttons recognized are Volume Up, Seek forward, and Seek Backward. It does not recognize volume down, source, or any of the lower buttons: Pick Up Phone, Hang Up Phone/Back, or Voice Command. I tried every brand available on the ASWC-1 manual stereo program, as well as the Auto stereo program, and some recognize the source and volume down buttons, but none recognize the lower (Pick Up Phone, Hang Up Phone/Back, or Voice Command) buttons. I have tried wiring the Atoto to the 3.5mm female multiple ways as well, sometimes different buttons will work, but no more than 3. I am not getting any errors while setting up the ASWC-1, I get the 7 Green LED blinks, and the Red Solid LED as well. Any ideas or recommendations?
This is installed with the Metra 99-7804 kit for my vehicle.
Any update? How is the unit after 6 months? Is the radio turn off problem better now?
Blakestr said:
Any update? How is the unit after 6 months? Is the radio turn off problem better now?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Firmware update in early February made it a tiny bit less annoying, in that the "Aux trick" works more reliably. But you still have to frequently manually select AUX after starting the car, or you get either no audio using speaker wire output or muted audio with no onboard controls (fader/balance, EQ, SWC etc) if using RCA outputs to an external amp. There's been no firmware updates since then.
Also, on mine, the backup camera stopped working in late January. Atoto sent me a replacement camera/harness, still not working. Reverse trigger works (it mutes audio when in reverse) and the dedicated camera power and ground connections in my car meter out correct, but it gets no signal from the camera...even took both cameras to an audio shop, and they both work on the shop's test devices, so it's something in the input side of the Atoto that went bad. And yes, I installed a relay on the PAC harness, so it's not the 1 amp limitation that's causing the problem.
Updating apps from the Play Store is painfully slow...it's not a bandwidth issue, it's once the app update has finished downloading, it takes many, many minutes for the update to process. Things like Waze or Maps can take 20 minutes to update AFTER downloading.
Finally, the biggest reason I went with the A6 in the first place, dual Bluetooth for tethering, is a feature I ended up not using much after the first month, because I have an in-car hotspot now, and don't need to tether my phone for data.
But other than that, it's working mostly fine for what I use it for, which is Waze, MP3, Spotify, with CarWebGuru as the launcher. And, it only cost me $179 for the unit itself. Still looking for that "great" double-din universal Android head unit, but at this point, I'm probably just going to go with a 2018 model major brand head unit with capacitive display and Wireless Android Auto (the Alpine HALO9 unit looks very interesting).
As soon as I saw MediaTek.....
Keep away.
Perfect, thanks for this. I ordered the 2 gig Physical button, 239 minus the 15 clipon off amazon. I also ordered the steer wheeling control (even though I don't really like the way it looks but I care more that it's made and seems to work for it), a highly rated backup camera for $25 and the Atoto Bluetooth OBD2 reader.
This is for a 2005 Hyundai Elantra, which I already have the Scorsche DoubleDin kit and the Metric Harness.
I'm particularly excited because there has always been this huge gap in tech between my home life and my car. I've spent the last 3 years using a bluetooth headset as my audio source from my phone. (audiobooks mainly, physical control buttons on headset). Though I could never get my S7 Edge to root I should be able to use one of the paid tethering apps of the playstore hopefully. (I want faster speeds than BT tether - I "watch" a lot of information videos on Youtube that are more or less audio productions.
Always use a PX cpu. never go for mediatek or allwinner unless you cannot fint a PX unit.

Audi A6 C5 Shenzhen Hualingan (HLA) brief review

Quick review of the subject unit, which is an Android 8.0 Octa Core Car DVD GPS Player For Audi A6 1997–2004 Radio Navigation
unit. It is the one found on dvdplayer.c0m.cn although updated.
Not too many choices for the C5 Audi A6 (1998 -- 2004 in the US), so went with this one since it looks fairly like the RNS-E I had in there previously. It's a bit too deep black, not too noticeable except when directly lit by sunlight. I bought mine through Top Navi off of eBay, quick shipping and good communication. They asked for confirmation photo of dashboard and a description of installed equipment (existing navigation, with or without Bose). Unit came set up with Bose-level outputs (between line-out and fully amplified, from what I understand) and signal to power on the amp. Also came with an antenna amplifier, which is apparently required if the vehicle has a shark-fin antenna (Maybe all VWs? Don't know for sure.)
Initially my car battery was being drained overnight, which was just a bit annoying. On the Pumpkin forum, Pumpkin recommended cutting the yellow wire (always hot) to the CAN gateway, which worked. Apparently some interaction between the gateway and the vehicle CAN system prevents the car's CAN system from shutting down.
I wanted the head unit to operate as much like the stock unit as possible, such as shutting down only when opening the door (key off). I found the wires running from the car's Comfort and Convenience unit to the driver's side window control panel and spliced the head unit's Aux power feed to that, rather than key-on Aux power. Radio shuts down now (soft shutdown) when the door is opened, rather then when turning off the key. (The wires are red w/ gray stripe, red connector under the footwell side cover.) I have no steering wheel buttons (It's an RS6, so no buttons), so haven't done anything else with CAN or KEY wires so far, but intend to add hard buttons for radio station change at some point -- can't stand touch screen for that type of thing.
The launcher is pretty ugly, and there doesn't seem to be a way to change the Music button to launch A2DP, which I would much prefer. The unit uses an ST 7851 amplifier, and sounds every bit as good as the RNS-E (well, it's feeding the Bose amp, so no reason why it wouldn't.) Radio reception is good, no worse than the RNS-E. The screen is most often bright enough in daylight, but is low-contrast and can get washed out. the buttons feel solid. The IGO nav kept looking to the SD to finish installing, although the seller swears that it should be looking at internal storage. I deleted IGO for now, will re-download and start from scratch at some point. The internal mic works well enough, as in I'm intelligible, although apparently I sound like I'm in a small, echoe-y room. I'll hard-wire an external mic at some point.
Overall, it's a pretty good unit for the money, if a bit unpolished.

Review of PX6 Android 9 head unit -too high expectations? Return or exchange?

I ordered a PX6 4 /64 GB (MTCE_CHS) head unit with 720 p display and Android 9 for my Mercedes-Benz W211. I found a seller at AliExpress with great reviews so I felt safe to order from them.
This will be a short review which I hope can help someone who is looking for info before buying a Android Head unit, but I am also very thankful if someone has ideas how I can solve my problems.
Pros:
- Very sharp display with good viewing angles.
- Reverse cam works great in good lightning conditions.
- Fast startup from standby.
- Useful equalizer which makes it possible to get a great sound experience.
- Custom ROM, root, Tasker and FCC Launcher make it possible to customize the head unit in many ways.
- Very good GPS performance when connected to original powered GPS-antenna in car.
- Apple CarPlay works and looks generally very good, but has problems with sound mixing which makes it useless.
Cons:
- Handsfree sound quality sucks so much it's useless. Sound from the other persons is bad and they can't barely hear me. Tried with external microphone also.
- No auto brightness and max brightness is low in sunny conditions.
- General audio quality, there is constant background noise and interference from wifi, bluetooth and USB devices makes it worse.
- The head unit was supposed to be plug and play but I had to modify my car and use an dremel multi tool to cut the plastic in the car, which makes it difficult to go back to original head unit. This is normal according to seller but no info before buying.
- Android apps does not display well in a car head unit. Even when adjusting dpi it is difficult to find a good setting. Text and objects will be too small or too big, sometimes frustrating and dangerous to control music and navigation apps when driving.
- Android Auto is displayed in low resolution and looks bad, it also has problems with sound mixing which makes it useless.
- FM radio reception is bad, even though I use the original powered antenna in the car.
- General sound mixing problems in different apps.
- I had dust debris inside the display, which is visible with both display off and on.
Problems:
- I have an intermittent problem with a "popping" sound and at the same time the display goes to night mode for a second and reset the clock to 0:00. Tried to disable auto night mode in factory settings but no difference.
- Sometimes when opening a door or turning on the ignition there is a loud high pitch sound from the speakers, very uncomfortable, almost hurts the ears and scares the passengers.
- Sound mixing, when using Android Auto och Apple CarPlay, it will automatically lower music volume when giving navigation directions, but will not increase volume afterwards. So when you manually increase music volume again, next time the voice will be so high it almost destroy your speakers and ears. The navigation voice in Waze Android app gets cut 0,5 - 1,0 seconds to early.
When speaking to the seller they have problems understanding my issues, and just tell me to wait for MCU update (I already have the latest). Seems like they just want to delay so the time when it is possible to open a dispute will end.
What would you recommend me to do? Demand an exchange of my head unit and canbus decoder and hope it will solve the problems? Demand a refund and buy a Sony or Kenwood Android Auto / Apple CarPlay head unit?
Just accept the problems and issues and try to forget that I paid A LOT of money for the head unit and all the accessories?
There are dozens of different manufacturers and hardware types using PX6.
Post MCU type so people can know the manufacturer and type of unit being reviewed.
marchnz said:
There are dozens of different manufacturers and hardware types using PX6.
Post MCU type so people can know the manufacturer and type of unit being reviewed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry, it is a MTCE_CHS, I added the info to the first post.
I think that this highlights a general problem with the chinese android head units: They just aren't "consumer-ready". Don't get me wrong, they provide fantastic bang for your buck, but they all have their problems (many of which can be solved through help from this forum) and they all lack any decent support. Having said that, I also have a PX6 4G/64G unit in my car, and I just don't have any of the problems you mention. It's not without its annoyances, and I have had to work through several problems to get it sorted, but after just a few months I am very happy with what I have ended up with. The sound quality is fantastic to my untrained ears, and it all works fairly smoothly. I got a massive upgrade in functionality in my 21 year old car for not much money.
In your case, there seem to be too many problems that appear to be related to the hardware. I don't think that an MCU update is going to fix the issues that you list, and so If it were me, I would be returned the unit asap, and trying a different manufacturer, either another chinese manufacturer or one of the proven japanese manufacturers.

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