Hi all,
Apologies in advance if this is in the wrong place. I've tried using the IR port as a universal remote and found (just like everyon else oddly enough) that it only works from about a meter away and if it's angled exactly right. When I get my XDA back from the shop (cracked LCD €200 - ouch !) I'm going to try putting in an LED from a cheap IR RC car. I was also thinking of taking off the red plastic cover and putting in some kind of parabolic mirrory thingy. Just wondering if anyone has any tips or has tried something similar and had any success/failures ? Is it likely that the IR port will still work for transmitting to laptops etc ?
I THINK U NEED TO AMPLIFY THE IR'S SIGNAL, JUST REPLACEING THE BULB PROBABLY WONT HAVE ANY AFFECT
Sounds like an awful lot of trouble to turn an expensive pda in to a universal remote. :roll:
i seen on sum sites b4, that u can make, or buy :roll: an external IR booster...it works really well...but i dunno if Id want sum clunky lookin thing sittin on the corner of my PDA :lol:
So there *is* a remote software, that works on XDA (regardless of the range) ... which one is it? Did anyone try it yet on the XDA II? Yesterday I tried 6 of them but wasn't able to get my TV to react. It *is* in the list of delivered device-configs ... I even kneed in front of the TV as near as 10cm ... and learning made the XDA freeze in two cases, with a third prog I got the message, that no IR was detected ...
hm ...
TV remote controls usually drives the LED's at 10-20 times the rated current through a 1/5th duty cycle bursts. The XDA2 was not designed to be able to do this.
LED's from similar bins usually have the same luminous flux rating, but the angle at which it transmits is changed by adjusting the position in the plastic housing. Moral of the story: No free lunch when it gets to LEDs.
Good luck with changing the emitter anyway. Can you recall if the XDA uses a HP IRDA module or a discrete circuit?
about extenders for the ir
http://www.pdawin.com/irtranceiver.html
http://www.homeautomationnet.com/Shopping/remote-control-accessories.asp
http://www.smarthome.com/8220A.html
Hi....
Received the active holder from Proclip.
Here's my take on it:
My car is one of those really unpopular here in the US way back then. It's a Nissan NX2000. Production of the car was from 1991-1993.
On the website, the car isn't even listed. Luckily I knew that the same car is called 100NX in Europe and started searching for it. Found the part number and called up Prokit USA and they said that they have the part number in stock. Go figure. Anyway, ordered it Friday, Dec 16th and received it today.
The vent clip is made of strong plastic. In order for the clip to stay on in my car, I'm going to have to get some adhesive tape and stick the bottom part of the clip. Will probably get some of the velcro from 3m that is double sided and easily removable (by pulling it).
The reason you need to have adhesive at the bottom is because the vent clip needs to be pulled down for the plastic hook to stay in the vent.
The active holder looks pretty good too. There's a place for the mini USB when the Universal is not in there. When you get in the car, place the universal in the holder, remove the mini usb from it's position in the cradle and plug it in.
The holder is plastic and I do not think it will scratch the unit at all. Then again, I only have it for one day. I doubt that with the proporta alu case that I'm getting, I'll be able to fit the whole thing in there. So removing it from the case will have to be a regular thing for me.
Experience from driving with the unit in the cradle.
I went ahead and placed a avi file in the card just to test it out while I'm driving. In the afternoon, while driving, the screen is not very visible because of glare (and the way the Universal is positioned). Played around with the position but couldn't get rid of most of the glare.
My car is also lowered, hence a lot of bounces. But the cradle did it's job. There was no worry about the Universal dropping from the cradle or the vent.
Here's another thing to consider. I plug the universal to my radio (has an aux input) and I hear a lot of static while the engine is on. In fact, the static is in tune with the engine...meaning when I rev more, the static has a higher pitch. Wondering if it's the phone or I need to ground my car better.
Anyway, I'll be here till the end of the week on and off. If any of you have any questions, I'll be happy to answer them. As for pics, no can do. Don't have a digital camera and the one on the universal really sucks.
You'll need a (i think its called) ground loop. You would see this quite often on computer cables especially USB. The cable is looped around a core to sheild from interference. For sure you'll find it in Radio Shack.
Hmmm....didn't know such a product exist.
So, I need to get a ground loop isolator for the audio cable from the Universal to the Car Radio?
Or is it a USB ground loop cable that I need?
Hi Modem Man
Glad your gear arrived and you like it,
Sorry I couldnt help this time, easier shipping from internally in the USA I guess,
Cheers again
Bryson
zerimar - Thanks for the advise. Tested it out this morning and it works great! No more engine hum!
bryson - I'm glad you're around to answer all the questions concerning the Brodits!
Hi,
It never happened to my Shift before but I never travelled with it till now.
I used to use the Shift in UK with no issues but I am on holiday in Rio (38 degrees Celcius right now) and every time I use the Shift it gets very hot to keep it on my lap.
Once, it shut itself down with no warning and I thought it was the battery but it was not. Then I noticed that, while on my lap, the vents were been covered and now I cannot find a position to hold it that is comfortable and does not block the vents. And holding it up in the air for long periods of time is not comfortable (I am very little!) and if I want to use the keyboard I have to use it on a desk or table which makes it not a very mobile option.
I wish designers would think of such things as vent positioning when designing essential parts of equipment. It would save so much grief!
Does it happen to anybody else, or is it just me?
Thanks from very, very hot Rio.
Overheated Shift
Happened to mine for the first time ever, had it on my lap,
airvents probably covered, and kapfiewwww it shuts down
to completely off.
Now I discovered my headphone jack doesn't work, when
I plug in earpieces, the sound shuts down trough the
speakers, but no rerouted sound to the headphones, pull it out,
speakers give normal sound again... strange...
Anybody ever had this?
Kind regards from a snowy Belgium
Freakydile
just happened exactly like woven. luckily it has overheat control
yeah same here just learned to keep it vented most of the time the protective case it comes with dose well with this
My solution!
It happened to me when I tried to use it on a irregular surface like a bed. As everyone has figured out, the ventilation areas are blocked and the device seems to have no alternative but to suddenly shut down... At first, I got surprised but then I eventually found a solution:
Now I simply use it with my proporta leather case, since it has custom designed holes that allow ventilation (and a couple of plastic furniture feet I decided to glue one day), creating enough space between any surface and the actual device...
Another solution if you rather want to hook it to a big monitor and wireless keyboard and mouse, is a glass table and no case...
Ohh by the way, leaving it on inside a bag pack also causes it to overheat, unless it is on WinMo only!!
Try using yr shift sitting on top of a rectangular plastic tray , ( u can get it at any supermarket anywhere , bring yr shift to test it out first before buying ) , the tray's height is about 2 to 3 inches high , it is best using it on yr table , but for lap or bed , then u need some balancing act - cheers - jimmunsw
same problem
Hey everyone. I have been working on an in-dash Nexus 7 install in my 2010 Jetta Wolfsburg, and I thought I would share my progress as I go in case any one else was considering this for their car. I did a similar install with the original Samsung Galaxy Tab in my 1998 BMW 540i which can be seen on bimmerforums if you're interested. Just search E39 Android Tablet Install.
The first think I did was to buy a double din kit from Metra for about $12 from ebay. I took a Dremel to this and modified it by cutting off the center piece as well as all 4 clips on the corners. Then I got some Plastic Weld made by JB weld from Home Depot and started to shape the bezel like I wanted it to be for the Nexus 7. To get this to be flat and mate with the tablet nicely, I had to take a nail file and sandpaper and fill/sand/fill/sand etc until I got it to be as flat as I could. This is what it looked like at first:
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
I then added more to the bottom molding to give the tablet some support from the sides as well. I think this will help in keeping it stable. These are depicted by the yellow arrows. The filing/sanding I was talking about was referring to the red lines in the pictures. I am trying to get these surfaces to be as flat as possible so that the tablet will mate closely with the bezel.
I plasti-dipped the bezel, which FYI matches remarkably well with the interior plastic. Then I attached elastic bands traversing each other diagonally to hold the tablet to the bezel. In addition, I attached magnets around the bezel, which can be seen as the black circles around the edge. I will explain why I did this in more detail as I continue with the install. I also started messing around with the tablet to make it how I would want it in the car. I am using the 2013 Nexus 7 running Paranoid Android so that I can customize every app individually. I put the buttons on the side and made them red to match the interior. One thing that I am happy about is that the way that I chopped up the bezel, I left the camera, light sensor, and notification light open to be used. This way I could even do video calls (granted I will be looking at the road) which might be pretty cool. Here are some more pictures:
I then removed the stock headunit.
This gave me more room to work. I bought a CR2-VW2 harness by PAC from one of the VW forum members. This harness allowed me to connect an aftermarket headunit and retain the stock audio system (amp, speakers etc) but did not include steering wheel controls, which I did not need anyway. I chose the Alpine UTE-42BT for a few reasons. First, it is only $88 which is very reasonable. Secondly, it doesn't have a CD player which is good since that feature would never be used anyway. It has a front auxiliary port and bluetooth handsfree built in, which will allow me to use handsfree from the tablet. I will explain the intricacies of this in a more detailed write up when the project is completely done. As of right now, this is how it is looking:
Pardon the mess, the project is ongoing =) As of right now, the tablet is running on battery, but I am planning on setting it up so that it receives power when the car starts, thus turning on the screen, and when the power shuts off, the screen timeout of 7 seconds will kick in. I'm realizing that 16GB is not a lot of space for something I want to keep music on, so I recently bought a USB OTG cable to mount external storage and I'm waiting for that to arrive. Does anyone have experience with using USB OTG that could provide some insight into this? Will Google Music pick up on the media on the USB storage and add it automatically if I use Stickmount or something like that? I'm going to see how that works out before I decide I need to buy a 32GB Nexus 7 instead. To charge it (if USB OTG works, meaning that the micro USB port will be taken), I will get a wireless charger and plug that into the cigarette lighter for power. If USB OTG doesn't work, I will power it directly using micro USB. One thing I would recommend to anyone trying this is to pick up a ground loop isolator, since charger and using auxiliary at one can lead to some interference. There should be more to come over the next week as I get some more of these peripheral supplies. It sounds great though, and the functionality is far superior to the stock headunit.
Very amazing. I've a plan to put a tablet of some sort in one of my cars! you beat me to it long ago seems like! I wanted to connect my rasberry pi to some sort of 7inch touchscreen!
but this is wayyy nicer.
PROPS!
Reminds me of Statham's Audi from Transporter. Looks pretty futuristic.
Kookas said:
Reminds me of Statham's Audi from Transporter. Looks pretty futuristic.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My friend just got the statham harcut
Awesome work samboner, keep us updated on your progress!
7786 said:
Awesome work samboner, keep us updated on your progress!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Dude, leave me alone! Unless you're here to answer my USB OTG questions. Otherwise, back to leaving me alone Olley.
Looks good, but otg and charging will not happen unless a kernel supports it.
They got it working on the 2012 n7 so most likely will happen
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 4
BrianDigital said:
Looks good, but otg and charging will not happen unless a kernel supports it.
They got it working on the 2012 n7 so most likely will happen
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 4
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can confirm this for wireless charging and USB OTG. On mine the wireless charging cuts off when the OTG cable is plugged in.
7786 said:
Awesome work samboner, keep us updated on your progress!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
BrianDigital said:
Looks good, but otg and charging will not happen unless a kernel supports it.
They got it working on the 2012 n7 so most likely will happen
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 4
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
PMentior said:
I can confirm this for wireless charging and USB OTG. On mine the wireless charging cuts off when the OTG cable is plugged in.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh shoot, you can't do wireless charging and USB OTG at the same time? That is going to be a major problem for me. Well I'm glad I didn't buy a wireless charger yet. The USB OTG is working out like a charm, but I definitely need to have a long term charging solution. I don't want to have to take it in and out. Do any of you know if anyone is working on a kernel that allows USB OTG and wireless charging simultaneously?
faruqster said:
Oh shoot, you can't do wireless charging and USB OTG at the same time? That is going to be a major problem for me. Well I'm glad I didn't buy a wireless charger yet. The USB OTG is working out like a charm, but I definitely need to have a long term charging solution. I don't want to have to take it in and out. Do any of you know if anyone is working on a kernel that allows USB OTG and wireless charging simultaneously?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Could you somehow use Bluetooth instead of OTG?
Options!
I made a steering wheel interface for Androids, n7 primarily.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2206156
For one, I can tell you that you can Charge and use USB OTG if you install the right kernel.
read here too
http://forum.xda-developers.com/show....php?t=2113259
I haven't tried the pogo pins and USB OTG together, that might work. Otherwise there are a few options.
(to be clear, the best option would be a kernel that allows USB OTG and charging, at the same time. )
:good: First, probably best, Buy an adjustable regulator like this : http://www.seeedstudio.com/depot/adjustable-dcdc-power-converter-125v-35v3a-p-1534.html and adjust it to 3.9Volts (lipo used in tablet works between 3.7v and 4.2v) , use the always on BATT 12v input. Then remove the back cover of the N7, remove the battery, and power it directly from the car. http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Nexus+7+Teardown/9623/1 It looks like the black, yellow and red wires would be Ground, Vcharge and Vout, but you'd need to verify. You'd probably have to cut the wire. You might want to order a replacement on Ebay to use. You can then use tap to wake to turn the screen on or a USB micro setup like the one I made to tell the tablet to turn on/off with the key (act as if a keyboard was plugged in and you hit the power key).
Second, and most tricky. USB OTG uses pin 5 as the sense pin for Host/Client. IF you don't intend to use Host mode all of the time, like just when pressing a steering wheel button, you could use a Microcontroller to trigger the mode.
Third, Would be to charge when the car is off, and USB host when the car is on. Again this comes down to using pin5, or if you follow Kuchar09's post he has a wire diagram for this.
---------- Post added at 01:37 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:14 PM ----------
Sorry, I just realized yours is a 2013 version. Same deal, not sure about the kernel, but someone will make one. Also not sure about the touch control, it needs kernel modules to work, so again compatible kernel.
BUT my first option, still the best work around.
Here is the tear down http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Nexus+7+2nd+Generation+Teardown/16072/1 and you can see the battery still uses wires. you'll need to test what they are. Powering the tablet with a regulator in place of the battery would be ideal.
...
http://www.seagate.com/external-hard-drives/portable-hard-drives/wireless/seagate-satellite/
That would solve the problem.
fzelle said:
http://www.seagate.com/external-hard-drives/portable-hard-drives/wireless/seagate-satellite/
That would solve the problem.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, my first thought was a wifi HDD as well. Just give it power and put it somewhere out of the way. personally, I'd wire it and put it in/under the glove box for easy media adding/removal.
I've done this in several vehicles so far.
What are you doing about heat in a parked car in the sun? At 90 outside, in my sons car ( lighter colored cloth interior ) it's approx 110-115 in the car. In my 350z with black leather, it's over 120 inside.... With the hookup you have going, making that a removable mount would be pretty easy with a pair of nice magnets to snap that entire enclosure and tab into place. Makes it nice when you have to leave the car in the sun for any amount of time, or to work on it, etc.... I've seen 1 screen physically crack, and a 2nd device just flat out die. Something to keep in mind depending on where you live.
As far as the power issues.... I use tasker. When the power is cut to the device, I force it into deep sleep and airplane mode. It will go for 2 weeks+ sitting there idle without dying. When the power is fired up, wake up ( no lock screen ), and set the screen to full bright and no timeout. No need to hack the device. A kernel for this would be great like the orig N7 had, but until we get one, this will work too.
Also, don't go BT to a head unit IF you care about the sound quality ( compressed audio sucks and if you have a good system, you'll hear the difference ). Go with a DAC ( from 30 to 300 bucks depending on what you get ). The sound quality will be much better then using the compressed BT crapola. Or even go out via the head phones, it's still much better then BT.
Just some things I've come across doing this for a few years now with various devices.
Oh yea.. and put an anti glare screen protector on it. Play with them to find the right one, or your screen will be invisible when you have glasses on. IPads do the exact same thing. Once you go into landscape mode, black screen ( put on your shades and just turn it, you'll see.... it sucks )..
fzelle said:
http://www.seagate.com/external-hard-drives/portable-hard-drives/wireless/seagate-satellite/
That would solve the problem.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Coronado is dead said:
Yeah, my first thought was a wifi HDD as well. Just give it power and put it somewhere out of the way. personally, I'd wire it and put it in/under the glove box for easy media adding/removal.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How exactly do these wifi hard drives work? Can I connect to a wifi hotspot while using one of these? How exactly is the storage mounted? Do you have to use a file explorer to access the files, or will Google Music be able to find the media automatically? ie media scanner
rkennison said:
I've done this in several vehicles so far.
What are you doing about heat in a parked car in the sun? At 90 outside, in my sons car ( lighter colored cloth interior ) it's approx 110-115 in the car. In my 350z with black leather, it's over 120 inside.... With the hookup you have going, making that a removable mount would be pretty easy with a pair of nice magnets to snap that entire enclosure and tab into place. Makes it nice when you have to leave the car in the sun for any amount of time, or to work on it, etc.... I've seen 1 screen physically crack, and a 2nd device just flat out die. Something to keep in mind depending on where you live.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good advice. Yeah, that's the plan with the magnets I built into the bezel. I am going to put some metal/magnets in the cavity where the tablet will go and I'll use those to put the tablet/bezel combination in and out.
rkennison said:
IAs far as the power issues.... I use tasker. When the power is cut to the device, I force it into deep sleep and airplane mode. It will go for 2 weeks+ sitting there idle without dying. When the power is fired up, wake up ( no lock screen ), and set the screen to full bright and no timeout. No need to hack the device. A kernel for this would be great like the orig N7 had, but until we get one, this will work too.
Also, don't go BT to a head unit IF you care about the sound quality ( compressed audio sucks and if you have a good system, you'll hear the difference ). Go with a DAC ( from 30 to 300 bucks depending on what you get ). The sound quality will be much better then using the compressed BT crapola. Or even go out via the head phones, it's still much better then BT.
Just some things I've come across doing this for a few years now with various devices.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was thinking about rolling on battery alone, but I thought it would be nice to run it from a charger. I'm realizing that there physically isn't room to use the micro USB port, so I think I will use a wireless charger. I figured I would use Tasker to turn the timeout off, turn on the wifi and bluetooth, and other stuff like that with power, and reverse it when the power drops out. I am planning to use the auxiliary output for now.
rkennison said:
IOh yea.. and put an anti glare screen protector on it. Play with them to find the right one, or your screen will be invisible when you have glasses on. IPads do the exact same thing. Once you go into landscape mode, black screen ( put on your shades and just turn it, you'll see.... it sucks )..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That is definitely something to think about. Are there any brands you would recommend or have experience with?
You could also mount a 120mm fan behind it for when it's hot. Heck, I bet the fan could run while the car is off and draw next to nothing from the battery. You would only need to run the fan at a few hundred rpm as well.
Fiio makes some pretty good ones without breaking the wallet. You can bypass the charging issues by just going headphone jack into the DAC, then into your headunit via an aux port (3.5 or RCA, they make DACs for each). You can go with a USB DAC as well, but I think there are driver requirements and crap to deal with on top of the power issues when hooking up via the N7s usb port. Just sounds messy so I've not tried it that way.
I pulled the HU from my son's completely and go from DAC right into the amp ( well into a crossover first so I can pull the sub frequencies into a separate amp as well ).
I kept my HU in. I just like having the 2 7" screens on the dash so I can still have full nav on the HU and music on the N7.
Oh and I just checked, the spigen ultra crystal screen protectors will cure the landscape sunglass issue. I'm sure others will as well, but I can verify these.
The hdd's create a hotspot the tablet would connect to. I don't know how the tablet would react as far as scanning media. You could soft link the files from the hard drive to the tablet if it doesn't just recognize cans play them. The Seagate is dlna compatible so it should be easy to play from.
A small fan would be easy enought to cool the tablet, you could even have a temp sensor on it, think attic fan, that would just come on automatically. Also of you follow my suggestion and remove the battery, and power it right from the car, the back cover would be off so cooling would be easier.
I run my system phone to Bluetooth (Sony sbh20) straight to my amps, it sounds great. All this bs about USB DAC's is mostly BS. The tablet has a DAC inside its what is converting the 1's and 0's to music. Yeah it might not be the best DAC on the market but I don't think its the source of bad sound quality on most any unit.
I personally am not a fan of hiding a deck just for the amp inside of it. This basically makes zero sense. However many new factory sound systems have the head unit specially eq'd to make the crappy speakers sound good. You might have to get new speakers to make a direct tablet -> amp -> speaker method sound good.
I did car audio for 10yrs I know a bit about it.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 4
That is beautiful! I want to do that so bad but I change tablets too much. So here's my option, bluetooth and all.
2013 N7 Kang Banged!