Related
Now a proud owner of a Dopod 900 (don't laugh at the name! - at least I can get local service in Singapore). Out of the box the unit worked fine - then I started to load on all my "compatible" WM5 applications that I hadbeen using on my XDAIIs....And guess what.. lock-ups and resets galore...
So hard reset and stopped the Ext. rom installation. Exposed the Ext. rom and installed the bits I wanted. Then bit by bit I have added various applications. And it is very clear that many applications that claim to support WM5 still have a number of bugs. I have patiently run my device, added an application, run it for a couple of days, added another and so on to see what works and what doesn't. Many applications immediately start causing hangs, resets etc.
Many of the popular mainstream launchers, today plug-ins etc clearly still have some bugs to be worked out. I am sure they will get sorted, but at the moment I think they are adding to a poor perception of the universal's capability.
So I guess all i am saying is don't be too hasty to blame your hardware - do some proper logical testing and analysis of your software apps (ext_rom and self-installed) to see if they REALLY are as compatible with WM5 as they say they are.
Couldn't agree more, although it does seem that the OEM's have shot themselves in the foot by including software in the various ExtROM's which obviously doesn't function very well on WM5, (I'm thinking of O2 active, and Skype in particular, here) what is the average user supposed to think if the default setup is running poorly...
There does seem to be software emerging which is now "properly usable" with WM5 as opposed to "barely compatible", which can only be a good thing. Give it a few more months, and we should be able to install pretty much any WM5 software without worrying too much about whether it will screw the system up.
(Of course, a new ROM update wouldn't go amiss either, I'm sure it must be just round the corner, and you never know, the ExtROM software may have been tested a bit more thoroughly this time....?)
Problems I've got with the Acer A500:
GPS is very weak. I get the best reception with the back of the unit facing the sky but in normal orientation I'm lucky to get 5 sats.
Compass doesn't work, always 90deg off
Digitizer unresponsive 3 times, had to power off each time. Strangely enough, the last time this happened the buttons at the bottom (home, menu, etc) still worked but nothing responded when tapped on the main screen area.
Have to be careful about plugging and unplugging items while the device screen is off. The headset icon is still showing in the tray after having disconnected a cable last night when the screen was off. Have seen problems where external USB devices aren't scanned if the screen is off.
System shut down 1 time after showing a low power notice. I was at 80%. Haven't had this happen again.
Market, Maps, Firefox crash a lot. The latter is probably Mozilla's fault but the core apps shouldn't be this crash-happy.
Bluetooth sharing only shows visible devices and not paired devices. What's the F-ing point of pairing if I have to make a device visible before I can send a file to it?
No media scanner notification. It takes a while to scan external USB media and there's no indication the scanning is going on. The only indication that it's done is when media starts appearing in apps like gallery. On older revs of the OS there is a notice that scanning is ongoing.
Copy/paste annoying. Especially that you can't paste if there's no text in your editor!!! In 2.2 you tap once to bring up the picker/caret (don't know what the google term is) and you tap that to get a popup menu for copy/paste/delete. On the Acer you have to double-tap to select text and only then do you get a menu on the top of the screen. Trouble is, if you have no text in your document you can't paste because there's no text to select!
Can't turn the d**n sound off on the camera.
Have to drill down into the settings turn the "ringer" off to mute the system. Why isn't there a dropdown icon for that?
Some of these are certainly Acer's fault and are related to hardware specific to this device. The UI elements I'm left wondering about. This is the only Gingerbread device I've really used and I can't tell how much is default behavior and how much Acer messed with the OS and borked it.
It's possible I've become spoiled by the devs on XDA. I'm coming from a Vibrant and the dev action is furious with that device. I've regularly upgraded my device with new ROMs on the order of every 2-3 weeks since October and I'm currently using 2.2.1 on my phone.
Given that the bootloader is locked (and encrypted?) I'm thinking dev action isn't going to happen real soon and I'm further thinking about returning this. I hate the idea of doing that because in a lot of ways this is a really nice tablet. It's got the form factor and weight I want. It's responsive. wifi is good enough for my purposes and I can carry it throughout home and work with no connection problems. I've found ways to make it part of my device chain (doc markup, blogging, reading, music playing) and the price was was low enough for me to give it a try. For the most part I like the device.
Trouble is, the bugs are like having someone standing next to you randomly poking you in the ribs. It's not enough to call the police but if he doesn't stop I'm going to punch him in the nose. With the Acer the bugs aren't bad enough for me to throw it out the window but they're getting bad enough that this thing may get returned.
For those in the know, how much of what I've complained about is normal Gingerbread and how much has Acer likely borked?
For reference my kernel is 2.6.36.3-00001-g9b3ce2b and build is Acer_A500_1.104.02_COM_GEN1
michaelh99 said:
Problems I've got with the Acer A500:
GPS is very weak. I get the best reception with the back of the unit facing the sky but in normal orientation I'm lucky to get 5 sats.
Compass doesn't work, always 90deg off
Digitizer unresponsive 3 times, had to power off each time. Strangely enough, the last time this happened the buttons at the bottom (home, menu, etc) still worked but nothing responded when tapped on the main screen area.
Have to be careful about plugging and unplugging items while the device screen is off. The headset icon is still showing in the tray after having disconnected a cable last night when the screen was off. Have seen problems where external USB devices aren't scanned if the screen is off.
System shut down 1 time after showing a low power notice. I was at 80%. Haven't had this happen again.
Market, Maps, Firefox crash a lot. The latter is probably Mozilla's fault but the core apps shouldn't be this crash-happy.
Bluetooth sharing only shows visible devices and not paired devices. What's the F-ing point of pairing if I have to make a device visible before I can send a file to it?
No media scanner notification. It takes a while to scan external USB media and there's no indication the scanning is going on. The only indication that it's done is when media starts appearing in apps like gallery. On older revs of the OS there is a notice that scanning is ongoing.
Copy/paste annoying. Especially that you can't paste if there's no text in your editor!!! In 2.2 you tap once to bring up the picker/caret (don't know what the google term is) and you tap that to get a popup menu for copy/paste/delete. On the Acer you have to double-tap to select text and only then do you get a menu on the top of the screen. Trouble is, if you have no text in your document you can't paste because there's no text to select!
Can't turn the d**n sound off on the camera.
Have to drill down into the settings turn the "ringer" off to mute the system. Why isn't there a dropdown icon for that?
Some of these are certainly Acer's fault and are related to hardware specific to this device. The UI elements I'm left wondering about. This is the only Gingerbread device I've really used and I can't tell how much is default behavior and how much Acer messed with the OS and borked it.
It's possible I've become spoiled by the devs on XDA. I'm coming from a Vibrant and the dev action is furious with that device. I've regularly upgraded my device with new ROMs on the order of every 2-3 weeks since October and I'm currently using 2.2.1 on my phone.
Given that the bootloader is locked (and encrypted?) I'm thinking dev action isn't going to happen real soon and I'm further thinking about returning this. I hate the idea of doing that because in a lot of ways this is a really nice tablet. It's got the form factor and weight I want. It's responsive. wifi is good enough for my purposes and I can carry it throughout home and work with no connection problems. I've found ways to make it part of my device chain (doc markup, blogging, reading, music playing) and the price was was low enough for me to give it a try. For the most part I like the device.
Trouble is, the bugs are like having someone standing next to you randomly poking you in the ribs. It's not enough to call the police but if he doesn't stop I'm going to punch him in the nose. With the Acer the bugs aren't bad enough for me to throw it out the window but they're getting bad enough that this thing may get returned.
For those in the know, how much of what I've complained about is normal Gingerbread and how much has Acer likely borked?
For reference my kernel is 2.6.36.3-00001-g9b3ce2b and build is Acer_A500_1.104.02_COM_GEN1
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not sure if you know this or not, but tablets and Honeycomb are pretty new.
rorytmeadows said:
I'm not sure if you know this or not, but tablets and Honeycomb are pretty new.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I'm aware. How does that apply to my questions & issues with the A500?
michaelh99 said:
Yeah, I'm aware. How does that apply to my questions & issues with the A500?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, I think your thread is misleading. Tablets are new and there are going to be flaws in new products. That's why you don't buy the first new model of a car. But if you're going to, then understand there is always risk.
1. I have had no problems with the GPS.
2. I have had problems with the compass, but nothing unusual for a digital compass.
3. Unresponsiveness happens with pretty much every device. Mine has been unresponsive like 5 times already, but a power down and then up again fixes it beautifully. It's like a nice reminder to clear the system and make it run faster. This doesn't necessarily have anything to do with Acer. It could be Honeycomb.
4. Apps crashing. Happens. I'd think that it's Honeycomb, rather than Acer.
5. I've seen the headset icon on when I didn't have any headphones in. Oh no! Stop the presses! This occurs, sure, but that could be Honeycomb, not Acer. Also, are we sure it's not the music icon?
6. Bluetooth profiles are limited. Sure. But maybe that's a reminder to us all that Bluetooth is awful technology. This one is probably Acer.
7. Copy and paste, although annoying, isn't Acer.
8. Right now, it's not proper to open the bootloader for everyone. Don't hold that against any company.
Most of the things you mentioned really might have to do with Honeycomb rather than Acer. So don't trash the wrong company.
Now given that it's Honeycomb instead, it's new. It will have bugs and problems. Sit and wait or learn the trade and get in there and fix it.
Or wait until a future generation product.
Problems I've got with the Acer A500:
Digitizer unresponsive 3 times, had to power off each time. Strangely enough, the last time this happened the buttons at the bottom (home, menu, etc) still worked but nothing responded when tapped on the main screen area.
NEVER OCCUR for me
Have to be careful about plugging and unplugging items while the device screen is off. The headset icon is still showing in the tray after having disconnected a cable last night when the screen was off. Have seen problems where external USB devices aren't scanned if the screen is off.
NEVER OCCUR for me
System shut down 1 time after showing a low power notice. I was at 80%. Haven't had this happen again.
NEVER OCCUR for me
Market, Maps, Firefox crash a lot. The latter is probably Mozilla's fault but the core apps shouldn't be this crash-happy.
Just restore to factory default or clear the data in "manage application" can solve the problem
Can't turn the d**n sound off on the camera.
Root the device and remove the sound using root explorer
Have to drill down into the settings turn the "ringer" off to mute the system. Why isn't there a dropdown icon for that?
when you press vol +/-, there is a small icon on the right and you can adjust 3 volume settings
....
Ya, I'm pretty much in the rorytmeadows and ardatdat camp. Considering Acer did very little to their OEM copy, I'd place the blame for a lot of the issues on HC.
The compass is definitely finicky. I've only ever got a solid read when my GPS was tracking - when it's not, the compass is definitely off (using GPS Essentials here which could also be an app issue). If there is a common degree variance, this can be coded in/out. Also, orientation matter - whether you have it in portrait, facing you, landscape facing up... There's a difference and the gyro checks.
I understand where some of you guys are coming from re. new releases having bugs. I can't accept that viewpoint. I paid for this device and while a few bugs are to be expected these days, some of the problems amount to beta level bugs that should have never left the factory.
If there were going to be regular releases of updates I'd feel differently but it seems clear that releases will likely only come from the devs and only after jumping through the hurdles and hoops that Acer has put in their way.
I think the A500 was worth trying but I'm still not sure it's worth keeping.
A BETA bug is something that is consistent (across all testware) and repeatable. Nothing you listed falls near that.
gammaRascal said:
A BETA bug is something that is consistent (across all testware) and repeatable. Nothing you listed falls near that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think we'll have to agree to disagree. The general level of bugginess shown by the complaints in this forum alone cause me to classify this (and many other android devices) as beta.
With so many people willing to be paying testers, the manufacturers don't have any incentive to behave differently.
michaelh99 said:
I think we'll have to agree to disagree.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ya, but... Nothing you listed is consistent and repeatable... Where exactly is the disagreement?
The general level of bugginess shown by the complaints in this forum alone cause me to classify this (and many other android devices) as beta.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't see it. Maybe I'm biased *shrug* The majority (not all, of course) complaints or issues with the a500 (be them HW, SW or HC related) on this (and other) forum are sporadic and inconclusive. Not a lot of serious testing happening and a complaint like 'my gps can't see any satellites' doesn't mean a whole lot without more granular info. It doesn't help and it certainly shouldn't be used as part of a rationale. You gotta take those kinds of half-thought out complaints with a grain of salt.
With so many people willing to be paying testers, the manufacturers don't have any incentive to behave differently.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I read this all the time - with games mostly, but the argument is the same.
How when a new game is released (pick your poison) you're bound to get a very small, thought vocal, minority who dig their nails into the support section complaining about 'players are paying to be testers' - or - 'their computer should be able to play it' etc. The argument being, 'it's suppose to act the way I want it to act' when in fact, that is never the case. With games, with hardware - software. 'It's suppose to act the way they want it to act' - We're just consumers. We consume. They create, we consume.
Now, I'm not trying to discount the importance of your view (I know it reads like I am but I'm not trying too - just trying to further the discussion). You're obviously having issues with the a500 and far be it for me to make lite of them. I think what is key here is that, for the majority of us, there aren't any of these kinds of issues and that, of the ones you listed, few are consistent and repeatable.
So I chalk it up to one of two things - you got a bum tablet or it's user error.
gammaRascal said:
Ya, but... Nothing you listed is consistent and repeatable... Where exactly is the disagreement?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Most of the problems are very repeatable on my machine. In the end, that's the only one I care about and the only one that matters to me.
Not a lot of serious testing happening .. You gotta take those kinds of half-thought out complaints with a grain of salt.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're mistaking brief descriptions for incomplete testing or "thoughts.". I haven't described my testing methodology nor put down all the tests I've done because I'm not game for writing a paper on the subject.
I've been around quite a while and have been in development for decades and done my time in QA. I know how to test. Which is part of the point. I'm not running into these problems while doing things that qualify as something a user shouldn't do and I'm really not interested in helping Acer or Google iron out the bugs in their system.
Hell, I just did a factory reset and without installing any apps I had the Market crash twice while just browsing my paid apps list.
The argument being, 'it's suppose to act the way I want it to act' when in fact, that is never the case. With games, with hardware - software. 'It's suppose to act the way they want it to act' - We're just consumers. We consume. They create, we consume.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, know where you're coming from. My complaint isn't the same.
I want it to behave the way it used to
My UI complains stem from behavior that was present in 2.2x and is very different but harder to use in 3.x. They futzed with the UI for no good reason IMO.
So I chalk it up to one of two things - you got a bum tablet or it's user error.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, it's not user error
I've just factory reset the thing and I'm going to spend a few hours using just the apps I can't live without and leave off the questionable utilities that might be destabilizing the system (widgetlocker, stuff like that) and see where that gets me.
So far it's not good though. 2 market crashes with a stock system.
All very fair and understandable. I've had my share of freezes/lockups and FC. There is no doubt that updates are needed. I'm just not convinced the majority of the issues are Acer related, but rather, Honeycomb related.
Hey Michael do us a favor and return it. I am having none of the issues you have listed with mine with the exception of some FC apps, but I attribute this to the apps not being optimized for HC since the tablet specific apps work perfect.
Sounds like you got a bum tablet, so you have 3 options. 1) keep it and keep complaining and hope you or another dev can fix your problems. 2) exchange it for a new 3) return it and wait a year or so til HC is more stable and out of this "beta" phase.
Sent from my Droid using XDA Premium App
michaelg1030 said:
Hey Michael do us a favor and return it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you a favor? In other words, stfu?
BTW michaelh99, I appreciate the fact that you're not flying off half-cocked and taking anything I (or others) have said out of context. It's important for mature and focused discussion to stay calm and proactive - with the goal being, resolution - not argument.
If bugs were completely out of technology before it was released to the public then we wouldn't have technology.
gammaRascal said:
BTW michaelh99, I appreciate the fact that you're not flying off half-cocked and taking anything I (or others) have said out of context. It's important for mature and focused discussion to stay calm and proactive - with the goal being, resolution - not argument.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks.
I'm not really expecting people to supply resolutions to the problems I've seen. It looks like most of them are problems with the first release. Some could be due to my personal usage patterns (apps I have installed) but others are clearly out of box bugs.
It may be that I need to bite the bullet and get a larger version of my phone (Samsung), which I've been very happy with. Like many people I wanted to pay as little as I could. May be that I went too low for my expectations.
rorytmeadows said:
If bugs were completely out of technology before it was released to the public then we wouldn't have technology.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If I can crash the market by browsing my paid apps after having done a factory reset and without having installed anything I would say they haven't met the minimum necessary to release the device.
The market is a core component of the system. If that's unstable, the whole device is suspect.
Why did you start this thread knowing that no matter what good things are said about the tablet, nothing would change your mind. If you are not happy with the device then return it and go on. The majority of the owners here are very satisfied with both the hardware and software of the Acer. I don't think anyone was expecting HC to run as smooth as apple os and if these were your expectations then you will never be happy for the time being.
Again, I'm assuming you started this thread hoping someone would agree with you, but the fact is that most of us do not. Your problems are way out of the ordinary and for all intended purposes unacceptable in this device. So again, return it. Your not doing yourself any service by keeping a faulty product.
Sent from my Droid using XDA Premium App
Good point michaelg1030.
michaelh99 said:
If I can crash the market by browsing my paid apps after having done a factory reset and without having installed anything I would say they haven't met the minimum necessary to release the device.
The market is a core component of the system. If that's unstable, the whole device is suspect.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
michaelh99 have you considered posting a bug report to Google? For what it's worth, it may at least bring the issues you're having to their attention. It's placating but it can't hurt.
http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/list
Ive had this unit for about 2 months now. Purchased it from the US seller on amazon. It shipped within 24hrs from NY. Arrived in Florida in about 4 days.
It arrived in the typical plain white box, no thumbdrive with this one, no sd card. Not a big deal as i have plenty of both. Well packaged and un damaged.
The vehicle i installed it into is a 2016 Mustang GT, base model with the 4" screen and abomination that Ford likes to call "sync".
Without getting into why, I wanted a head unit that would have navigation and run apps without all of the nanny controls you find on the more common units, and did NOT retain ford sync. If anyone has ever been on a mustang forum, you will see half the threads are complaints about the factory sync, or people testing out various Chinese replacements for the base system. None of these options interested me as i would be still stuck with sync. So i discovered these types of android head units first on ebay, then some research on youtube lead me to the "Joying" brand. Some pretty favorable reviews here so i decided to take the plunge on this unit: h t t p s :// w w w .carjoying.com/android-5-1-car-stereo/android-5-1-car-stereo-2din/newest-joying-2016-automotive-lollipop-android-5-1-1-universal-7-inch-car-head-unit-double-2-din-autoradio-gps-navigation-system-quad-core-hd-1024-600-radio-stereo-audio-16gb-support-revers.h t m l
I figured it was more money than the typical china mustang screen upgrades, but less money than i would spend on an alpine or pioneer that still would not do what i wanted.
Contrary to what most people told me, there was plenty of room behind the dash, as long as you use a bezel from a premium model. I was able to complete the install to this point without cutting ONE SINGLE WIRE thanks to a member on mustang6g forum who made me a custom harness. In fact, Joying didnt even want to sell me the unit as they said it would not fit, despite my sending them pictures showing it would. It was as if the world wants you to suffer with a garbage radio if you own a 16 mustang lol.
So far this uint has performed nearly flawlessly. It has never frozen on me, or even slowed down on me for that matter. I am able to run pandora, spotify-yes spotify! waze, google maps and navigation, chrome, even netflix. I was rather surprised just how well all the apps run on it as ive read threads on here where people have had issues with some of these apps, but it runs just as fast or faster than my galaxy s5. The only thing ive seen happen is if you try to run apps as its still booting up it will bog down.
The sound quality of the built in speaker level amp is very good. much better than stock. I have not tried using the pre-amp outputs yet or the sub output. The factory equalizer does its thing, has a fader but not a spacializer. It appears to be able to use the steering wheel controls but i have not tried to tackle that yet. Also, there is an area where it appears you can read the vehicle can bus, but i have no idea how to connect that as there is almost nothing on the market for the 15-16 mustang yet.
Here is a bad video i made of it lol: h t t p s :// youtu.be/VDxKmkw_as8
If anyone on this forum can point me in the right direction as far as steering wheel controls or can bus connection I would really appreciate it, and of course ill try my best to answer any questions about my experiences with this unit.
Also, i thought i saw there is a contact for JoyingUSA on this forum? Maybe he could offer some guidance.
Thanks
Nick
doctorman is the Joying guy.
Glad to see a good review
Interesting to read the unit works fine for you. I got the equivalent for Volkswagen (EU-JY-VQ125) and got some issues:
The radio app often forgets station names, but at least it refreshes them later during operation.
The radio reception and sound quality is quite bad (with dual aerial + amplifier built in car) compared to OEM.
The "Media" (Music) app has problems with MP3 tracks (on SD card): often it takes a lot of fiddling to get the tracks list (it takes a lot of time after inserting the SD card, occassionally no storage type (internal, SD) is listed at all), often the tracks cannot be changed by tapping on the new directory in the tracks list - the GUI returns to the main app screen, but the original tracks continue to play and the new selection is completely ignored). It is pretty dangerous to operate the HU while driving...
The "Media" button cannot be assigned to a different Music app and even if it can be, the other apps do not work well with the system (e.g. you easily get both Radio and MP3 playback simultaneously).
A note on the 3rd party app Waze: The GUI has always been bad for landscape mode, but since the version 4, Google really screwed it. In navigation mode, the half top of the screen is used by driving directions and notifications and as a result, it is unusable for navigation because there is not enough map shown in front of the car symbol.
CadillacMike said:
doctorman is the Joying guy.
Glad to see a good review
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey CM, I just bought a Joying in 5.1.1 and of course mining all I can before the install. I was wondering if you have already put one of these in your Caddy? I have a CTS w/o amp or at least I don't think it has an amp since its not a Bose system. Hudson has a vid on YouTube showing cutting into the middle plug on the DIC unit with RCA plugs......... how would that work w/o an amp? Also I'm reading these units are a tad bigger than American uints.... how much I tad?
By the way, I'm just across the river from you....
garythompson said:
Hey CM, I just bought a Joying in 5.1.1 and of course mining all I can before the install. I was wondering if you have already put one of these in your Caddy? I have a CTS w/o amp or at least I don't think it has an amp since its not a Bose system. Hudson has a vid on YouTube showing cutting into the middle plug on the DIC unit with RCA plugs......... how would that work w/o an amp? Also I'm reading these units are a tad bigger than American uints.... how much I tad?
By the way, I'm just across the river from you....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
no sorry, I'm actually no longer a Cadillac man, I traded it in on the Jeep Wrangler I have. I previously had a 2011 CTS, with the pop up Nav screen, and I dont know how you'd get one of these to work in it.
cogano said:
Interesting to read the unit works fine for you. I got the equivalent for Volkswagen (EU-JY-VQ125) and got some issues:
The radio app often forgets station names, but at least it refreshes them later during operation.
The radio reception and sound quality is quite bad (with dual aerial + amplifier built in car) compared to OEM.
The "Media" (Music) app has problems with MP3 tracks (on SD card): often it takes a lot of fiddling to get the tracks list (it takes a lot of time after inserting the SD card, occassionally no storage type (internal, SD) is listed at all), often the tracks cannot be changed by tapping on the new directory in the tracks list - the GUI returns to the main app screen, but the original tracks continue to play and the new selection is completely ignored). It is pretty dangerous to operate the HU while driving...
The "Media" button cannot be assigned to a different Music app and even if it can be, the other apps do not work well with the system (e.g. you easily get both Radio and MP3 playback simultaneously).
A note on the 3rd party app Waze: The GUI has always been bad for landscape mode, but since the version 4, Google really screwed it. In navigation mode, the half top of the screen is used by driving directions and notifications and as a result, it is unusable for navigation because there is not enough map shown in front of the car symbol.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry you are having issues with yours, im still really please with mine.
Re the fm radio i so rarely use fm radio i would not even really notice if it was gone completely lol. but i will say after reading this i checked and the reception is weaker than stock.
ill have to try playing off the sd card.
ill take a shot of waze, i use it very often and have had no issues with that app.
jekyllrider said:
Sorry you are having issues with yours, im still really please with mine.
Re the fm radio i so rarely use fm radio i would not even really notice if it was gone completely lol. but i will say after reading this i checked and the reception is weaker than stock.
ill have to try playing off the sd card.
ill take a shot of waze, i use it very often and have had no issues with that app.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Here is the answer concerning SWC: http://mustangforums.com/forum/2005...in-factory-steering-wheel-audio-controls.html
I'm in the market for an Android head unit, but most reviews and posts are from people who have had problems. It would be helpful if people who have had good experiences with their units could let us know what they like and what units they chose. There are numerous complaints about lots of different tech from phones and tablets to washing machines. I know from experience that this can give a really lopsided view of a device or brand that isn't always accurate.
Like most people I would like an all singing, all dancing car radio (dab, sat nav, bluetooth hands-free), but can't justify lashing out loads of money on the big names. So what brands and models are actually worth taking a punt on. Surely all generic, Android units can't be bad?
I'd certainly appreciate hearing about the success stories.
Thank you.
@Rottgrub can you tell me what canbus adapter you used to make dasaita compatible with fender system ?
Recently bought a Owtosin PX6 720p head unit from AliExpress. While it's an not too bad I wished I would have bought an head unit from a well known manufacturer and a "real" seller.
The best system for a head unit is in my opinion Apple CarPlay. It's also more supported with updates then Android Auto. But an Sony/Kenwood/Pioneer or other known brand with Android Auto would probably been a better choice than this Chinese Android head unit.
Listing all pros and cons would be a really long post so I will try to do a shorter summary.
Support / warranty is almost non existing as soon as it's not possible to make a complaint to AliExpress anymore.
There is a lot of small and bigger bugs that can be frustrating and irritating, and they will probably never get fixed.
Handsfree sound quality is quite bad, both ways.
Reverse cam is unreliable.
Fading setting is not possible if you use your cars oem amplifier.
When using Android Auto (USB connection) the phone will draw more power than the head unit will provide. The fast charging USB port is not compatible with Android Auto.
No automatic brightness! On max brightness it's a little to dark a sunny day but way too bright on evenings and nights.
And more things that's irritating you almost every day.
iwl said:
Google Speech Recognition works not to bad even with laud background music so I hope it will work when driving.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
may i ask which units are capable of speech recognition and how to enable it (i have a Pumpkin PX5 CSN2)?
just in case my unit already has it, does it work without an internet connection? What can i do with it?
For the 300 Euros I paid mine is not to bad, even I haven't installed it in the car yet, but test it in my "lab", but hopefully it will fit, wiring problems I can solve sooner or later.
I bought it wanting the flexibility of an computer and know there is more to fiddle with for that.
Wanting that flexibility I'm most disappointed with the limited options for configuration.
E.g. mine switches of with Ignition off and there is no option to change that, like asking or after 30 min of inactivity, it should even not be a problem to monitor the Voltage and warn and switch off when the Battery gets low.
There seems to be no open interface to the CAN-Bus and so there are only few apps for advanced car control hacked somehow.
There also seem to be no proper official firmware support / update websites.
I only have my unit and be in the topic for one week now and looks like I have to invest more time to get it working the way I like.
Google Speech Recognition works not to bad even with laud background music so I hope it will work when driving.
Unfortunately Google Speech Recognition still misses some essential features like correcting if it doesn't understand spell, by nato alphabet, I say again.., correction... You can start a song by play singerxyz songxyz but you can't stop the music music stop, stop playing, I tryed a lot.
Radio receiving with some old wire only is quite good also the sound with some speakers I found somewhere for testing.
Some thoughts after owning a Joying JY-VM130N2D for a few weeks (installed in a Golf mk6):
Sound quality is at least as good as the original device (RCD310 in my case).
FM Radio app works ok.
IGo navigation and GPS works fine.
Interacts well with the cars air condition unit, i.e. a display pops up when temps, fanspeed etc. changes.
Car info works well except handbrake alert which seems to have an inverted logic.
The apps I use for music etc. works fine (Spotify, Netflix). Basically it is a working tablet in my car. Browsing the web is a bit slow.
Drawbacks:
There is no proper documentation with the unit. I especially miss explanation of the settings in the "Car settings" menus.
Dab+ reception with the supplied antenna (and DAB+ dongle) is really poor..
The supplied Dab+ app is very basic.
The supplied Bluetooth app is missing lots of functionality (imported contacts with multiple phone numbers only shows the first number, no favorites category, etc, etc).
But the really annoying drawbacks (In my opinion) are these:
Screen brightness is too high in darkness. You can work around this by installing e.g. LUX lite, but this means you have to run that program and manually adjust the brightness when needed.
The unit sometimes reboots when turning on the ignition (instead of waking up from sleep mode). There is no logic to when it boots and when it wakes from sleep. When it reboots you will have to restart any apps you had running the last time.
If I power off the unit (by pressing the power button for a few seconds) it will power off, however it does not "remember" this state the next time I start the car but pops to life with the volume and apps I had going before. This behavior is almost killing my wife...
I see some big security issues if you log on services like mail, goolge play etc. and the car/unit is stolen...
I am actually happy with my Ownice c500 Octacore
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I've owned four different units (Ownice C500, Joying SOFIA, Umecity, and Dasaita PX5), and I have to say that they are all decent units. Each has areas where they are very good, and areas where they are quirky. I think being happy is really going to depend on your individual expectations.
For me, I needed something both compatible with my car's Fender Amplifier, and that had instant-on backup camera functionality. The Dasaita PX5 was the only unit that gave me that. Everything else was gravy.
I play all of my media through Android applications (PowerAMP, XIIA, Google Music, Audible, etc). I handle my calls through Hangouts Dialer, and Google Voice directly on the head unit. I don't use Bluetooth at all, since it's both buggy on these units, and sounds crap even when it works properly. That means I don't bother trying to piggy back anything off my phone (Android Auto, etc), and therefore don't have to worry about any radio/phone compatibility issues.
All in all, I'm quite happy with the Dasaita V600 PX5 unit I have now. Works great without a lot of fussing with it.
I am on my 4th chinese unit. 2 with WinCE, 1 Witson dual core with android 4.4.2 and a Joying Intel Sofia (not the latest version with the fancy AMP) with android 6.
Out of the box they do work but all of there were far from ok.... at least for me. The Android ones were the ones that could be improved via software so I spend a lot of time making them work as best as possible. If you want to have a good Chinese Android headunit you need to mod them and you need to learn how to do it.... and you need to perform a lot of testing.... so overall you can have a good, stable, functional unit but you need to put in a lot of work.
Right now I am happy with my Joying.... it still has a few bugs that I hope someone will address them eventually...
After reading a lot on XDA I came to the conclusion that right now Joying is the way to go... there isn't a better alternative... at least for now...
velocity4 said:
I am actually happy with my Ownice c500
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is it a quad or a octa core?
What for cpu brand is that quad core MT3561 and the octa core MT3562? It seems nobody knows who produce this cpu's.
edit said:
If you want to have a good Chinese Android headunit you need to mod them and you need to learn how to do it.... and you need to perform a lot of testing.... so overall you can have a good, stable, functional unit but you need to put in a lot of work.
Right now I am happy with my Joying.... it still has a few bugs that I hope someone will address them eventually...
After reading a lot on XDA I came to the conclusion that right now Joying is the way to go... there isn't a better alternative... at least for now...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you go for a Sofia 3GR unit, go for the Joying. As @edit mentions you still need to put quite some effort in it, but that's also due to the relatively new 6.0.1 android. I guess we will see a few more firmware updates before development slows down. Once it is stable you make the final changes and you do not need to touch it for a very long time and have a solid, rock-stable unit (maybe still with some quirks).
Sofia 3GR will be a dead platform "some time in the future" as the chipset is no longer actively developed.
Joying did show a 7.1 Android version video on Youtube and their site, but on one of their old PX3 models. My personal guess is that we will not see it on Sofia 3GR (but I have been wrong before and hope I'm now as well.)
Or you go for a PX5 MTCD. Choose a brand, not a "no-name" unit. Not because that guarantees a better unit, but hopefully (slightly) better support in case you need it.
Malaysk is a very active modder who created a nice Custom ROM for the PX5. PX5 will be expanding the coming months, whether you consider it a real improvement or not.
Don't go for an "old" PX3 even though they come already with Android 7.1. The PX3 is too old and slow, having not enough memory making it even slower.
But in the end you judge for yourself.
Flemischguy said:
Is it a quad or a octa core?
What for cpu brand is that quad core MT3561 and the octa core MT3562? It seems nobody knows who produce this cpu's.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's Octa. I can't look for a while.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I don't agree that you have to do extensive modding to have a decently working Android radio, though it does seem to apply to the Joying Intel units. I felt that this platform was very solid under 5.1.1, with a few simple scripts to add optional functionality or root. It's only been since the unstable release of 6.0.1 that it requires a lot of manual patching and maintenance.
So far, the Dasaita (Hotaudio) PX5 has regular firmware updates that actually seem to address problems that the community finds. Aside from updates, I've chosen to root, and remove what I felt is a questionable apk. Neither were game changing alterations, or even necessary.
Rottgrub said:
I don't agree that you have to do extensive modding to have a decently working Android radio, though it does seem to apply to the Joying Intel units.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did say that, but there are indeed a lot of users who don't do any modding at all and enjoy their Joying as a good unit. The point is maybe that some users want to do more with those units where they were not designed for.
Joying has released 5 official 6.0.1 ROM firmwares so far and at least one intermediate version that was delivered with their units between releases.
The last 2 versions still have some bugs but are generally good and stable: no modding necessary.
Real issues are:
the main "all connecting" server apk limits the use of navigation apps. I have mentioned that a dozen times but they don't seem to want to understand. (several mods available)
Another issue is that they do not allow USB-UVC cameras apart from their own cameras. It is hardcoded into the kernel.
Their bluetooth connection is also crippled in that they only allow phones and odbd plugs to connect (mod available)
Finally: RDS functions in the radio app are crippled. RDS-RT is hardly working. RDS-AF is completely incorrect implemented (seem to be general to chinese radio apps).
2nd and 3rd are not bugs but deliberately programmed limitations to promote sales of their own accessories.
But if you only use Google Maps or iGo, your phone over BT, and no accessories, you have a good working unit. Of course not having RDS AF in Europe sucks. I know Asia and USA don't care about that as they don't know/have the immensely dense populated and fragmented frequencies in those many small regions per country with other frequencies per region.
Rottgrub said:
I don't agree that you have to do extensive modding to have a decently working Android radio, though it does seem to apply to the Joying Intel units. I felt that this platform was very solid under 5.1.1, with a few simple scripts to add optional functionality or root. It's only been since the unstable release of 6.0.1 that it requires a lot of manual patching and maintenance.
So far, the Dasaita (Hotaudio) PX5 has regular firmware updates that actually seem to address problems that the community finds. Aside from updates, I've chosen to root, and remove what I felt is a questionable apk. Neither were game changing alterations, or even necessary.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you want to make the best of your unit, you need to put in the work. Think that these units are bought by a lot more people than the ones that come in here... most don't have a clue about programming, adb, dos commands, scripts, permissions, folders, root. Let me explain a bit more :
1. Intel Sofia and PX5 - Because the default EQ is poor if not rubbish for many you need to install in a custom way not the way people are used to the Viper4Android that is one of the best if not the best software EQ solution to enhance the sound quality of the units (especially on the bass side of things). To be able to install the Viper4Android you need to root the unit and it's another thing that it's not for everyone.... so you need to learn how to do it...
2. out of the box you can BT tether on the Intel Sofia... again... you need to read, find the proper software, learn how to use the root explorer, make folders, copy, give permissions, setup, test it... again... it's not for everyone.
3. because the default music players are very poor in features and known formats you need to find the apps that offer you the best experience... not that complicated but involves a lot of testing and it's time consuming
4. out of the box the Intel Sofia kills all the apps on shutdown so every time you start the unit you need to start the apps, in some cases load the playlist and make sure it does not start each day with the same song... time consuming.
to fix it you need to install a mod... involves ADB, dos commands... again... not very complicated but not a piece of cake either for the vast majority...
5. you need to redefine what hard buttons do, what apps they launch.... you need to mod a script... this is very complicated to learn if you are not into programming... again... lots of work till you figure out but most will skip this one
6. your unit overheats and you need to mod it with proper heatsink, fan... involves a tiny bit of electronics, some basic cooling knowledge... again... not for everyone and involves time to study
I can put in a lot more but I think It's enough for everyone to figure out what means work. Yes, I guess some could live with the poor default EQ, some could live without the automated BT tethering and toggle an phone Wi-FI hotspot each time they get into the car till they get sick of it, some could live starting the apps day after day because the Sofia Server kills then every time till they get sick of it... BUT if you want to have a great unit with all the possible problems removed... you NEED to put in the work, search, read, study, learn, ask, mod.
edit said:
If you want to make the best of your unit, you need to put in the work. Think that these units are bought by a lot more people than the ones that come in here... most don't have a clue about programming, adb, dos commands, scripts, permissions, folders, root. Let me explain a bit more :
1. Intel Sofia and PX5 - Because the default EQ is poor if not rubbish for many you need to install in a custom way not the way people are used to the Viper4Android that is one of the best if not the best software EQ solution to enhance the sound quality of the units (especially on the bass side of things). To be able to install the Viper4Android you need to root the unit and it's another thing that it's not for everyone.... so you need to learn how to do it...
2. out of the box you can BT tether on the Intel Sofia... again... you need to read, find the proper software, learn how to use the root explorer, make folders, copy, give permissions, setup, test it... again... it's not for everyone.
3. because the default music players are very poor in features and known formats you need to find the apps that offer you the best experience... not that complicated but involves a lot of testing and it's time consuming
4. out of the box the Intel Sofia kills all the apps on shutdown so every time you start the unit you need to start the apps, in some cases load the playlist and make sure it does not start each day with the same song... time consuming.
to fix it you need to install a mod... involves ADB, dos commands... again... not very complicated but not a piece of cake either for the vast majority...
5. you need to redefine what hard buttons do, what apps they launch.... you need to mod a script... this is very complicated to learn if you are not into programming... again... lots of work till you figure out but most will skip this one
6. your unit overheats and you need to mod it with proper heatsink, fan... involves a tiny bit of electronics, some basic cooling knowledge... again... not for everyone and involves time to study
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't disagree. There is a lot that can be done with these units. I'm sure it's the main reason that we are all here. =) Having owned four of these current units, I just feel that there are solutions out there for most people that don't entail a lot of configuration. Again, it really depends on your individual needs. I hate to scare people off, thinking that all of these mods are required, when they really aren't for most people.
Responding to your points:
1: Since my car has an OEM amp, I think I may not hear some of the problems that a lot of users encounter with the EQ. With the VW Fender amplifier, the audio with both the Joying and Dasaita has been clean and strong. The basic EQs were sufficient to produce great sounding audio. I imagine that if you are relying on the various built-in amplifier chips, then this may be a vastly different experience.
2: It's cool that Joying made the BT stack available to Android, but I kinda feel like even at the best of times, Bluetooth is... not great. =) It's designed as a low bandwidth protocol, so pushing hi-def music, or other streaming data across it just doesn't seem worth the effort.
3: Definitely agree that the default apps are junk. That said, playing with all the different apps on the Play Store is half the fun with these units.
4: I'm really not sure why Joying uses these kill scripts. Android is built from the ground up to handle power management and deep sleep. That said, there are workarounds. For instance, Automate launcher can reload your media app, even after a full power outage. Either that, or use a different vendor.
5: There is an app for this on Dasaita units. I haven't played with it much, but it seems to work well enough. Can map both short and long presses of the SWC buttons, and panel buttons.
6: Haven't had any overheats on any of the units I've been using, but can see this being potentially being an issue even with big name commercial units.
edit said:
I can put in a lot more but I think It's enough for everyone to figure out what means work. Yes, I guess some could live with the poor default EQ, some could live without the automated BT tethering and toggle an phone Wi-FI hotspot each time they get into the car till they get sick of it, some could live starting the apps day after day because the Sofia Server kills then every time till they get sick of it... BUT if you want to have a great unit with all the possible problems removed... you NEED to put in the work, search, read, study, learn, ask, mod.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
These sound like really annoying problems, I feel kinda bad since I don't really encounter them. =) EQ issues aren't evident with my OEM amplifier. I don't like the audio quality over Bluetooth, so I don't use it. My Mobley hotspot starts with my car, and my calls go through Google Voice. I haven't noticed my apps being killed when I leave the car, so no issue with that either.
I have had mine for just under a year now, and I enjoy mine very much. It is a huge upgrade on the stock head unit (MP3CD), but that is not to say that it has been plug and play. It takes quite a bit of tweaking to get it how you like it. Support is patchy at best (apart from on XDA ofc!). The system is locked down to a certain degree, sometimes with odd choices (looking at you Bluetooth connection!).
I would def recmnd looking at rooting and cfw.
Certain things are frustrating (trying to get Tomtom to work, although that is more TomTom's fault), and the HU can be inconsistent in how it operates.
But.... when it all works, and you find the software that suits you, it is a pleasure to use. The good most certainly outweighs the bad.
So, am I happy with mine? Yes! Has it been easy? No, but the result feels better because I had to work for it, and now have a better understanding of what is underneath!
If you are tech savvy and not afraid of getting your hands dirty getting it to work, I would highly recmnd one!
surfer63 said:
I did say that, but there are indeed a lot of users who don't do any modding at all and enjoy their Joying as a good unit. The point is maybe that some users want to do more with those units where they were not designed for.
Joying has released 5 official 6.0.1 ROM firmwares so far and at least one intermediate version that was delivered with their units between releases.
The last 2 versions still have some bugs but are generally good and stable: no modding necessary.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm very glad to hear that Joying is finally releasing stable 6.0.1 updates. The instability of Marshmallow was one of several deciding factors for me selling the unit. Others were lack of Fender amp support, and my wife complaining about the lack of volume buttons on the 9" bezel.
surfer63 said:
Of course not having RDS AF in Europe sucks. I know Asia and USA don't care about that as they don't know/have the immensely dense populated and fragmented frequencies in those many small regions per country with other frequencies per region.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Be happy that you have radio worth listening to in Europe. =) In the US, most radio stations are so commercialized that it's not worth it. 10-15 minutes crappy, corporate sponsored and approved "music", 20 minutes of commercials at twice the volume, and then another 5-10 minutes of dumb shock jocks. Bleh... pass.
Rottgrub said:
I don't disagree. There is a lot that can be done with these units. I'm sure it's the main reason that we are all here. =) Having owned four of these current units, I just feel that there are solutions out there for most people that don't entail a lot of configuration. Again, it really depends on your individual needs. I hate to scare people off, thinking that all of these mods are required, when they really aren't for most people.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I want people to know the truth so I rather scare them a little then painting a pretty picture on how simple it is to mod this units, especially for people that lack the IT background.
Responding to your points also
1. My car does not have an amplif but has good speakers, above average. I was mainly disappointed with the bass these (android based) units put out... Viper was the only EQ app that made the sound a lot better... a lot closer to the original car headunit that had very good sound quality output.
2: I think you misunderstood me a bit here. When I was referring to BT tethering I was referring to connecting the headunit to the internet via bluetooth. I like this method because it drains a lot less battery from my phone, it's automated (each time the phone connects to the unit, you have data).
Wi-Fi is a lot faster, I know, but I found bluetooth tethering speeds to be quite decent for for Waze/Google Maps data and streaming some music, podcasts or radio.
5. An app would have made things a lot better but unfortunately we don't have skilled people willing to write such an app... and the only way you can do it is to modify a script... Script that took me quite some time to figure out because I have zero programming skills... but took it as a challenge and with a lot of hard work I managed in the end to customise it to my liking.
6. I alot of people did not know that the MTCD units (octa core) overheat also because many could not read the CPU temp... but lately I read that a lot of people start complaining of the high CPU temp and throttling.
It's true that there are a lot of variables involved, like the unit positioning in the dashboard, the country you live in, the weather, where you park your car (underground or in the sun) and so on....
The upside is that can easily be addressed but you risk loosing the warranty.... depending how much you decide to mod it.
The Joying has good hardware, in my opinion the best hardware at the moment, it only lacks a skilled guy that can build an clean and simple custom ROM.
I would probably live without a custom ROM as long as the GPS speed bug is solved
Has anyone figured out a solution to lack of video out on a Joying unit? This seems like a fairly obvious oversight and is the only thing preventing me from picking one up...
I have to admit the main thing I don't like about my Ownice is he EQ, it's totally crap. However without rooting, poweramp pretty much fixes that, though obviously not for the radio which I don't use much anyway. I am also running the preamp outputs to good amplifiers so my SQ is pretty good I think.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I installed a Panlelo PA-09YZ16 last week which is just a quad core ARM processor powered 5.1 device. I have been mostly happy with it.
Pros
+Sound quality is better than Subaru's stock crap head unit
+ It responds faster to touch inputs
+ I can customize it any way I want
+ Stock Radio app is really good
+ back up camera is instant even when the device is booting up
Cons
- Stock audio player did not have a play list option (installed Power Amp)
- Stock audio player also did not recognize most of my album art (Power Amp also fixed this)
- required some tweaking via a new launcher to get a good look (installed Car Launcher Pro)
- no Satellite radio feature
- couldn't get the stock steering wheel controls to work
surfer63 said:
I did say that, but there are indeed a lot of users who don't do any modding at all and enjoy their Joying as a good unit. The point is maybe that some users want to do more with those units where they were not designed for.
Joying has released 5 official 6.0.1 ROM firmwares so far and at least one intermediate version that was delivered with their units between releases.
The last 2 versions still have some bugs but are generally good and stable: no modding necessary.
Real issues are:
the main "all connecting" server apk limits the use of navigation apps. I have mentioned that a dozen times but they don't seem to want to understand. (several mods available)
Another issue is that they do not allow USB-UVC cameras apart from their own cameras. It is hardcoded into the kernel.
Their bluetooth connection is also crippled in that they only allow phones and odbd plugs to connect (mod available)
Finally: RDS functions in the radio app are crippled. RDS-RT is hardly working. RDS-AF is completely incorrect implemented (seem to be general to chinese radio apps).
2nd and 3rd are not bugs but deliberately programmed limitations to promote sales of their own accessories.
But if you only use Google Maps or iGo, your phone over BT, and no accessories, you have a good working unit. Of course not having RDS AF in Europe sucks. I know Asia and USA don't care about that as they don't know/have the immensely dense populated and fragmented frequencies in those many small regions per country with other frequencies per region.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not so sure that your phone over BT is usable, not for me anyhow, or I am missing something as seems I am the only one complaining about this. If you connect to your phone with BT and download your contacts, it will not download the international dial + digit. Even my Local numbers on my phone have the + followed with the country code, otherwise WhatsApp don't recognize them on my phone. If one could add Contacts or edit them, then I can live with that. Maybe someone know where the contacts list is store in the directory.
Hi guys,
I'm new to the forum and just recently went into the world of Android Head Units.
I few months ago I bought a S160 Android Head Unit (4.4.4) and even though it works ok, I find it super slow and one of my main issues is that you can't run Google Maps properly because it makes it absurdly slow (I assume its due to the fact it only has 1GB of memory)
Now I'm looking to potentially replace my S160 with another unit that is quicker. I've seen the newly released S190 but also heard about PX3, PX5 which I admit I don't fully know the difference.
Main needs for me in the main unit would be:
1. Be quick enough to be able to run google maps and other Android apps (Google play music, YT etc)
2. Improved boot time -- sleep option would be a plus
3. Have proper support/documentation to keep it running for a long time
Any units currently in the market that would be certain upgrade from the S160 and would have the requirements above?
Thanks!
I've got the s190 and love it
I tested so many sat have including Google, and not one of them is slow, at all
Also I put my unit into "auto sleep" which draws 9mA, which is hardly anything, and it powers on straight away, no waiting time or boot loading
Jstyants said:
I've got the s190 and love it
I tested so many sat have including Google, and not one of them is slow, at all
Also I put my unit into "auto sleep" which draws 9mA, which is hardly anything, and it powers on straight away, no waiting time or boot loading
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can you share the link from where you bought yours? I've seen multiple sites selling the S190 and different specs.
Thanks!
CarNaviPlayer
Mine was the 2004 ForFour