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Android Head Unit For Ford Focus

Anyone know of an android head unit for a 2012-2015 focus that supports the park assist/auto parallel park system? I've tried looking it up on a number of the units and can't find one that explicitly says that it is supported.

azureau said:
Anyone know of an android head unit for a 2012-2015 focus that supports the park assist/auto parallel park system? I've tried looking it up on a number of the units and can't find one that explicitly says that it is supported.
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https://www.aliexpress.com/item//32806335682.html

My experience:
I have a Ford Mondeo. I haven't seen (or had) any units that can decode the CANBUS messages to be able to display the climate controls for instance. Best they could do is to be able to decode steering wheels music controls (vol up, down, next, back and M ) display the radio frequency on my Converse+ but not the RDS data. Also they aren't able to display music metadata or CD track names.
My point is if they can't do basic stuff I am pretty sure they can't handle more complex stuff like parallel parking system that requires a deep integration of the Headunit with the car.

After many weeks of testing the unit i finally installed it in my Mondeo just to find out that the CAN decoder box is not working right. The steering weel "back (track)" and "next (track) functions are reversed (when i press "next" it goes to the previous song and when i press "back" it goes to the next one. Rest is working ok, it's detecting when reverse, voume buttons work ok.
Wrote to Joying and they told me they cand help me the can decoder is not 100% compatible with all Fords... Strange answer
Any ideas? Are the buttons work ok for you? Have you installed yhe method 1 with the small can box or method 2?

Have you looked at this one?
https://www.aliexpress.com/store/pr...Player-Radio-for-Ford/426795_32839757790.html

edit said:
After many weeks of testing the unit i finally installed it in my Mondeo just to find out that the CAN decoder box is not working right. The steering weel "back (track)" and "next (track) functions are reversed (when i press "next" it goes to the previous song and when i press "back" it goes to the next one. Rest is working ok, it's detecting when reverse, voume buttons work ok.
Wrote to Joying and they told me they cand help me the can decoder is not 100% compatible with all Fords... Strange answer
Any ideas? Are the buttons work ok for you? Have you installed yhe method 1 with the small can box or method 2?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you goto factory settings and play with the different car models in the can bus module try the basic focus settings that fixed the same problem you have got

GS MTCD Android 6.0 HeadUnit Soft-Buttons Issue and mirrored Touch Input

Hi folks,
I have bought a Xtrons PB96MTVAPL last week. which is a GS MTCD PX5 Octa-Core HeadUnit.
I am very pleased withe the performance of the system and the UI in general.
Since i am pretty new to the matter i played around with it a bit today.
I wanted to optimize the Factory Settings today and "accidently" pushed the "Reset Soft-Buttons"-Option... resulting in directly disabled Soft-Buttons... which is not preferable on a "Soft-Button-Only HeadUnit".
I also have a horizontal mirrored touch input now wich is really crappy and twists my poor brain...
I have contacted the Xtrons-Support but I have the feeling they force me to return the Unit which i dont want....
Is there maybe a way to remap my MCU Softbuttons?
Is there anybody who could send me a copy of his dmcu.cfg for the PB96MTVAPL?

[solved]
Hi,
i solved the issue myself by using the "Reset Toch Screen" function. One has to point at the upper left and lower right of the touch area. After that one can remap the softbuttons.
it was quite a struggle getting there with a totally flipped screen.

Hi. I am also interested in you unit. How is the radio reception, the audio quality and generally the unit? I would like to send me a quick video if you can or upload one in youtube. Thanks

Eonon GA2168K "DO NOT OPERATE WHILE DRIVING" error while opening apps

Hi All,
I just got this unit from amazon. I have the quad core 2GB RAM 16GB ROM 10.1" version which came with Android 8.1. Installation was easy and the unit seems very nice and fast enough but when ever I try to open an app like spotify or youtube or even OBD apps the screen goes black with "DO NOT operate while driving" error. I tried installing a third party launcher and it caused this error every time I tried to go to the home screen. Google maps does not cause this issue.
I currently wired the rear cable to ground just in case wiring causing the issue but that did not help. Under the settings there is no option in the video section which would allow me to turn off this error. Overall the rom on this as is looks half baked missing bunch of options. I do not even have a system update option for me to flash a different firmware.
Any suggestions that could help me get rid of this annoying issue and use this unit properly?
Thank you all.

Seems nobody cares but I finally figured out the solution. Under settings>car options>about there is another settings button. If you select that and enter "8888" it will take you to the deep settings menu where in drive options you change "Break" to "0". This will get rid of this bug permanently.
Thanks in anyways.

I care
I just had the same exact problem with the same radio
thanks so much for taking the time to update your post!

Do you have anymore information on tips and tricks for this radio?

Hi, tried this on my mekede head unit, took a few minutes to figure out which menu to follow and the part to alter but it worked great. Awesome. Cheers

Eonon ga2168k
Good job on figuring it out... I went through this with the same exact head unit...
Let me expand on this "problem" a little further please...
So most head units now are more than just a radio/CD player ..specifically ones with DVD players (or ones that can play any video really) the manufacturers can be held liable for people getting into an accident while driving because they were watching a movie or had a movie playing (Cant fix stupid) on their head unit located on the dash (as well as it being illegal in most (if not all) states in the USA).
REAR DVD players are exempt from this because... well they are in the rear... and not in the driver's line of sight.
With that being said, one wire on the harness that came with this unit (wire #23 I think) is labeled " BRAKE CONTROL" - IF (a big IF here) EONON set this up like most other head unit manufacturers that make an in dash DVD/video display, this wire needs to be connected to the brake switch so that it receives a signal saying that the brake is "on" and the vehicle is not moving...therefore "SAFE" to operate this unit (watch a movie, video, make setting changes, brew you a cup of coffee, paint your nails etc etc etc......)
Because there is NO REALLY good diagram for wiring this to the brake switch... you are left with a guess as to how it is to be done. (Should just be a positive connection from parking brake to wire.... I think... I guess...)???
This brake safety feature has been in other units for years and a LOT of people negate this circuit (I wont list the ways... it's easy to figure out) I even know of some car installers that worked for a national electronic retail store that would "bypass" this circuit in the customer's cars.
I am glad Eonon put this programming control into the back end of the unit because I, (having installed a few radios in numerous vehicles I have owned) REALLY didnt want to go through the trouble of bypassing the circuit... so shutting it off, on The unit was just as well for me. 1 less wire to worry about.
Just go into the root menu as stated above, and select "BRAKE" then adjust to 0. This removes all enable/disable requirements for that circuit.
Great unit so far... wish Eonon would spend more time writing a more informative instruction manual.. and maybe hire an American or British to actually write the darn thing so people could understand it.
Hope this helps.

I have the same unit but I can't get the panel to light up. Anyone knows how to wire to the car to get the panel to light up?

syung61 said:
I have the same unit but I can't get the panel to light up. Anyone knows how to wire to the car to get the panel to light up?
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Panel as in the buttons not on the touch screen? (Ie power, volume up volume down )
Wire (I believe its orange or blue in color if my memory serves me well) regardless it has a tag on it that says "ILL" or ILLUM... that's for illumination. You need to figure out what wire in your car is for illumination for the stereo... if you cant, run a wire from your headlight switch that controls the parking light. USUALLY, there is a wire for the stereo to make it light up when the headlights are turned on. You just need to find it.

Wyatte Steel said:
Panel as in the buttons not on the touch screen? (Ie power, volume up volume down )
Wire (I believe its orange or blue in color if my memory serves me well) regardless it has a tag on it that says "ILL" or ILLUM... that's for illumination. You need to figure out what wire in your car is for illumination for the stereo... if you cant, run a wire from your headlight switch that controls the parking light. USUALLY, there is a wire for the stereo to make it light up when the headlights are turned on. You just need to find it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep. In the Eonon harness, it's an Orange wire with a tag on it that says "ILL". just hook it to any wire that feeds your dash lights.

Dears,
anybody tried Eonon GA2178 - 10" Android 9 Head Unit?
I'm actually on Eonon GA2168K - 10" Android 8 Head Unit, it's a good device with minor problems.
Anytime developers fix a problem they introduce an other problem and there's no community support for MTK chipsets.
Because of this I'm evaluating the new Eonon GA2178, that is quite similar but based on Rockchip chipset.
Tks!

Brake setting
On my Ga2172 the brake setting shows open close or speed, so which is it to watch video on the move?

[Help] Ford Focus Tesla Style Android Head Unit A/C & Nav Bar

Hello everyone.
I have recently purchased a android 10.1 headunit that fits perfectly in my ford focus mk3.
So far i'm liking the headunit but.... there are some problems with it that are quite annoying.
The top nav bar i can't seem to manage it, i can't change the applications it opens nor the icons.
The bottom part of the screen is horrible too, i'm losing around 1/8th of my screen due to it which defeats the point of the headunit tbh.
The bottom part of the screen is used for the home button, back button, ford (A/C, Heated seats, Sync etc) which has no use for me since i don't have those features in my car.
I am wanting to remove it and replace it with a smaller bottom bottom bar.
Is there anything i can do to fix this?
This is the headunit i bought by the way.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Android-...i-Navigation-For-12-17Ford-Focus/383939987371
Thank you for your time.

Simple answer. Tasker.
You can force immersive mode directly with tasker or with one of the many apps on play store, globally or at a per app level to remove the nav bar. and create WebScreens to replace your "back and home"
I haven't really experimented with adjusting the margins, as I mostly am in the HeadUnit Reloaded screen which can very easily adjust the margins. (PS the latest beta as of writing is the only version that works for me with the newest android auto release on Play store) I haven't tested it myself but this app looks like it may be able to help. I may try it myself! =). Good luck!

@rowan112
it's a bit off-topic, but would you share some of your experiences with this kind of radio? i can find plenty of those tesla-style radios for the ford focus, and i was really wondering if they are functioning well. i am particulary interested in the canbus, wether that's opening door, or whatsoever if those informations are being shown on the radio as well.

Steering wheel controls for normal Android tablet

I know that there are many purpose-built Android DIN units that have some sort of resistive keypad interface. More than that I don't know a whole lot. I'm not talking about those.
I'm talking about normal Android tablets, like my Nexus 7 (2013) that sits on a gimble mount to my right. I do USB and Bluetooth so that's what I tried. Android has KeyEvents for a few things, like phone call, contacts and calculator. It doesn't have KeyEvents for Google Maps or your different audio apps. So your USB or Bluetooth device has to be different than a standard HID input device as you'll want to send custom info. Because you'll need to send intents, you have to make sure that your steering wheel is connected all the time to a specific Service or Activity. A normal HID input device belongs to the system and goes to the foreground app, not some random background app. So you need a custom USB or Bluetooth and an Activity or Service.
My steering column currently has just the single wire. I figure that I will use Bluetooth and steal a bit of power (milliamperes, not enough to actuate the horn) so it doesn't need batteries.
So, I threw together a proof-of-concept using USB. It works fine on my Android 9 devices, I set hot keys for a few different apps. I should be able to either add a second HID interface for "normal" buttons like volume, call or simply add that to the Activity or Service. There are currently permission wrinkles to get over on Android 10. Switching this from wired USB to Bluetooth is trivial.
Am I missing something? Is this old hat? How else is this done?

I've been doing some more work on this. I'm a bit surprised that I've gotten no resonance on this or anyone saying that they already do this some other way.
The 16 buttons can each do one of three things
A hot key directly to an app (not simply "next app" or "app switcher" dialog)
Go to a specific webpage using (and reusing) a specific browser tab (I've got onboard systems that host status web pages)
Normal Android keys like VolUp, VolDn, MediaPlay, etc.
The USB version works fine. It uses a daemon to inject the normal keys. The Bluetooth version is coming along. I've switched to using raw GATT instead of HID over GATT.

Na? How about this then?

Hi Renate,
I think these units you are talking about are not that often to find in cars. I don´t know anyone who uses a tablet in his car and the Nexus 7 is a real outdated unit, slow on startup and in usage.
The car units themselves normally provide SWC via CAN or resistance based.
To have an additional keypad beside the radio is not needed, as you are able to use the SWC buttons individually... at least for the most ones which are working resistance based.
That is the reason you won´t get any answers in this forum. Sorry for bad news...

Hi rigattoni: Thanks for the response. I'm just trying to figure out how people are using stuff in this whole Auto department.
I didn't think that anyone would be impressed with my Nexus 7 (2013), it's just what I'm using at the moment. In my vehicle (a Chevy G30 1 ton truck) a DIN unit is not as visible as a gimble mounted tablet. I do have space for a dual DIN. Currently I have a single DIN $20 stereo with Bluetooth. That's good enough.
But my theme was mostly: Do people have app-specific keys (without using the screen)? Can you go to Google Maps, your favorite streamer, your local audio collection (without using the screen). Would you like to? If you have CANBUS SWC you probably don't have a dedicated button to display your propane & fresh water tanks.
Aren't SWCs mostly normal Android KeyEvents? How can they get you to a specific app?

On CAN there is no possibility to change the SWC buttons to different apps.
If they are resistance based as a lot of the cars (even if I would like to get all things done via CAN) there you have an internal app included to register your buttons based on different resistance.
On a lot of units you even are able to set your SWC buttons to specific apps.
On top there you have this menu button on the SWC where you can toggle between FM radio, launcher, phone, MP3 and navigation, you name it...
I don´t use Google Maps, instead I use TomTom and if you set TomTom as standard navigation app, you can do so.
Additional buttons in form of a number pad I personally don´t need. By using an aftermarket launcher and have all my needed apps just in front.
For tablets like you use, the num pad is a nice thing as you don´t have these possibilities.... sure.
BTW: If you use an android car unit, there is no full BT stack implemented. That means that you would not be able to connect with your unit to the propane or fresh water tank or something like that. The implemented BT stack can only be used for phone calls and for BT OBD scanner.

Thanks again. Wow, it seems like those DIN units are more like radios than like Androids if they don't have full Bluetooth. Resistance keypads are kind of bush league too.
Actually, my tanks, power, HVAC, tilt come over WiFi from my Raspberry Pi. The OBD comes over USB from the microcontroller that runs my instrument display. (I've got to take a new photo since I replaced the display with a larger yellow one.) The PRNDL indicator indicates shifter position and which gear I'm actually in. The "5th gear" on a 4 speed is just what I call it when the torque converter locks. It kind of is another gear. I really love the lower left engine running time so that I remember to take coffee breaks!
I threw the keypad back on the steering wheel. For testing I just have 2 x AAA batteries. I'll add the current "stealer" later.

I use similar head unit to this one:
And I use analog (or resistive, whatever) SWC. It can be configured as in video above. I mean you can map any of those 16 functions to any button in SWC
Renate said:
Do people have app-specific keys (without using the screen)? Can you go to Google Maps, your favorite streamer, your local audio collection (without using the screen)
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I'll try to answer as best as I can, because I'm not sure if I got your point.
Its possible to open some apps by SWC. For example button 4 opens navigation app, which can be selected in head unit options (it can be every navi app installed on your head unit - google maps, here maps, sygic etc)
11 opens FM radio app
9 pick ups a call (if actually is someone calling) or opens bluetooth app where you can make calls (contact list can be synced from phone, call history also). Also by this BT app you can stream music from phone to car audio.
As you can see its very limited. In my head unit there is no way to open e.g youtube app by SWC.
other functions which can be used:
1(play/pause), 2 ,3 ,5(mute),6,7, 10 no explanation required I guess
12 depends on how the Chinese implemented it In mine : press once - mute/unmute sound. press & hold for while - somehow locks the screen (like in smartphone), black screen with date and time is displayed. Sound is muted too.
13 'home' button - works like in smartphone, brings you to main menu
14 back - works like in smartphone
15 turns off display (but plays music/ navigation commands in background)
16 'mode' one of most useful - cycles through active apps
8 AFAIK it opens google assistant, but it doesnt work in mine.

Thanks, wotii098. It seems like you're reinforcing my point. Besides "Navigation" and "Radio" most of the actions are generic Android KeyEvents. I'd think that MEDIA_NEXT and MEDIA_PREVIOUS only work correctly when your music app is in the foreground? When it gets to the nitty-gritty, I use 3 different mapping services and I need to switch between them. If you are wondering what keycodes exactly are being generated (or just to check) you can use my UsbMode.apk (in the sig). Probably "Navigation" and "Radio" don't exist as KeyEvents.

Renate said:
Thanks, wotii098. It seems like you're reinforcing my point. Besides "Navigation" and "Radio" most of the actions are generic Android KeyEvents. I'd think that MEDIA_NEXT and MEDIA_PREVIOUS only work correctly when your music app is in the foreground? When it gets to the nitty-gritty, I use 3 different mapping services and I need to switch between them. If you are wondering what keycodes exactly are being generated (or just to check) you can use my UsbMode.apk (in the sig). Probably "Navigation" and "Radio" don't exist as KeyEvents.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, Renate, that also works if the audio or navigation is working in background as the translated button press throws an intent. Even Navigation and Radio or any other app can be started (or taken to foreground) by mapping a keycode to a specific app.
For radio you even are able to switch stations without bringing the app to foreground. That all happens in the background by intents.
So nearly any modern Car radio with Android is working like that. You even are able to connect 2 different key panels to the units. That´s what I did... My SWC buttons are connected to the key 1 cable and an additional thingi in my cup holder in the middle console has different settings and is connected to the key 2 cable. So the preconditions in Android car radios are fine to fire the intents to every single app you programmed.
You even are able to use long-click intents to switch to different functions.
Examples:
Station forward is a short click, station search is a long click.
Volume down works in a long click as mute/unmute button.
Menu button calls navigation on long click
the green phone button takes the call, on long click I open the voice dialer
...

Well, clearly your (custom) radio app is working on Intents and not KeyEvents.
The problem with long presses is that it delays the immediate action of a press (until it determines whether it's a long or short press).
Ok, in mode switching applications that's not a killer. For page-turn it is. Being impatient, I expect action on the down press. I defeated the long/short logic on my Android ereader.

I replaced my old Nexus 7 (2013) with my cheapy Walmart ONN 8" tablet. Although the battery was fine, I decided to do a "battery-ectomy". The first reason is, I don't like the USB cord coming in the bottom of the tablet where I can catch my knee on it when I turn around. The Onn 8 is pretty standard with a 10k resistor from the white lead to ground to simulate a thermistor. I didn't want to give up the USB connector entirely as I can/will use it for my custom ODB. I was going to solder in an extension so that I didn't have to use the connector out the bottom. It turned out easier than that. The little PCB for the USB can be unscrewed and the flex printed circuit for it can be routed out a hole in the back of the tablet. I may epoxy the board to the back of the tablet, but for now it's dangling. The round thing in the center is a sawed-off microphone holder (5/8-27 thread) epoxied to the back of the tablet. It screws on a gimbal mount by my right hand. The red/black wires get fed 4V from a Velleman buck converter.