Develop Bugs

Can someone guess at this adapters function

Hi all,
The atom has just passed FCC testing and in the documents was the attached picture. Can anyone tell me what they think this adapter is??
I am trying to find a method of bringing the VGA screen out onto a monitor without the need for a PC or activesync, to provide universals instead of laptops for my staff. This may be the answer or can anyone suggest whether it would be theoretically possible to use a wifi enabled monitor and software such as nydots new pocketpc software.
If you have any other ideas for possible methods of turning the universal into a desktop/laptop replacement please let me know.
thanks
jayman

Looks like it could be a dsub monitor lead, but then again, resolution is low so it could be a serial lead?
However, consider the x50v for tv out.
Alternatively, see if this works for pda > monitor
http://www.innobec.com/en/index.php
Tell us how you get on.
V

vijay555 said:
Looks like it could be a dsub monitor lead, but then again, resolution is low so it could be a serial lead?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The dsub's are definitely only 9 pins, so it's not a VGA connector. I have no idea what it is... it looks like two mini usb connections, one standard usb connection, and two serial connections.
Alternatively, see if this works for pda > monitor
http://www.innobec.com/en/index.php
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's the opposite of what he wants. It lets you extend your PC's desktop onto your PPC.
That said, though, I just downloaded the trial version and I'm trying it now. It's seriously cool. I have absolutely no idea what I might use this for, but it's still really cool.
Brett

BrettS - I understand that sidewindow works PC to PDA (and it is great, although a bit gimicky ), but I wrote PDA to PC so that he could investigate if they supply anything like that.
I can't think of any solutions that capture the PDA's screen at fullspeed really...they're all quite choppy so not ideal.
V

looks like a x2 9pin serial adaptor to x2 mini usb connectors. and a power input to deliver 5v to the JJ for mains power.
i think it could be alot simpler cable than percieved

You could try this, but I'm not sure if it works with WM5 or not...
http://www.mobilityelectronics.com/handheld/presentation/pitch-duo.htm

Thanks for your input, I have had a reply from O2 stating that this will not be compatable with the Universal.
However they did state that they are working on their own solution that should be available within the next few months. Which will also allow time for ROM upgrades to repair early video bugs and speed issues.
I will keep you updated as I learn more.
The idea is that as the majority of my staffs work will be calls, short emails, reviewing small compressed videos and data input into a web based database, that the universal can provide all these functions. A 15" screen that provides a minimum of 640x480 resolution will be easier on the eyes and a bluetooth keyboard can be provided for touch typists. This will save on desktops laptops and mobile phones.
I hope O2 provide a solution that provides a multiplug such as on the XDA2 expantion pack. This will then allow you to use hotel TVs as monitors.
It allows you to play video and presentations stored on your XdaII through a PC monitor/Projector via VGA jack or TV via video or s-video jack.
Resolution supports:
For LCD display: VGA 800x600 and 640x480
For TV output: 640x480 NTSC and PAL system
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

anything which is usb connected would require the device to be able to act as usb host to be able to transfer slow! tv or monitor out using usb
non of the HTC devices do usb host
some say that universal does but nobody have been able to confirm it
if it did one could use one of the usb video cards you can get
that is if there were drivers for pda's for those

I think that replacing laptops would be a VERY bad idea; JJ is a far cry from laptop power, the office apps are seriously crippled compared to the real thing, and emailing is not html. And all at twice the price of a small laptop...don't think so.

Universal - HDD

Hi all,
I am a newbie to this forum and have not yet bought my Universal. I am waiting for my next visit to the UK. Long story.
Anyway, the main point of this topic is that for me, one of the main things missing from the Universal is large mass storage capability (videos, photos, etc.).
I therefore intend to develop an interface to connect a hard drive to the Universal. I am a professional hardware and software developer BTW.
As far as I understand from this site, the current position is this;
The USB interface does not support host mode. (whether due to software or hardware...).
There is no expansion port as fitted to the XDAII etc. (if only, then this would be a no brainer).
The SDIO/MMC card socket is probably the most likely interface to use.
Can anyone confirm these assumptions?
I would like to develop this either as a docking station or a replacement back for the universal. However initially I suspect it will be connected by a cable.
If anyone has any more information, please let me know. I suspect that I will end up developing an MMC/SDIO to ATA/IDE or USB host interface. Alternatively I could just wait for CE-ATA drives and hopefully someone else will have written the drivers...

lkingscott said:
The USB interface does not support host mode. (whether due to software or hardware...).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just off the top of my head.
One USB host channel is used for the GSM/UMTS/GPS data transfer. The second one is
not used. The third is configured, but its purpose is unclear.
There is no expansion port as fitted to the XDAII etc. (if only, then this would be a no brainer).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
They didn't wire even the serial port, so what
expansion port are you taking about
The SDIO/MMC card socket is probably the most likely interface to use.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You have no other choice. USB and SDIO.
I will end up developing an MMC/SDIO to ATA/IDE or USB host interface.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
MMC/SDIO<->USB is the best, if you will solve the power problem.

If you read my post more carefully, you will see that is exactly what I say - I.e. the Exec/universal has NO expansion port as far as I am aware (unlike the XDAII which has one which can even support ATA style interface (Compactflash...))
USB2 host via SDIO/MMC will be unlikely as the MMC/SDIO interface is so slow and would probably require 2 separate interfaces plus micro although Atmel have some promising looking devices with integrated USB... However SDIO - ATA/IDE could be done relatively easily with a decent microcontroller.
Power is no big deal, as an external device it would have its own power - internal battery... but if I get as far as making it part of a docking station or replacenment back, then a bigger battery or even 2 batteries would be the way to go.

To bad this is all hot air. Time wise you don't have the time. What is the lifespan of the universal? 18 months to two years. No way in that window will you have time to develop a "Docking" station. Well not as commercial product anyway.

Pesimistic or what...
32G MMC & SD cards are supposed to be available next year.... Maybe that's why they didn't bother with expansion options...

I could confirm all of your assumptions. I have a Universal for a while now and one biggest thing I really wanted is, a Mass Storage, like an external HDD. I posted a while ago, my dream addition is a backpack/docking station that has extended battery, and a mass storage, or at least a USB host port or a CF slot.
Besides all interfaces you mentioned, don't forget the Universal also has wireless interface: BT and IrDA.
I read there is BT HDD outhere (4GB) but kind of expensive and not sure if its in production already.
If there is a way to hook up an external HDD, I will be among the first customers.
Btw, where did you hear about the 32GB SD Card?
Other thing I can think of, there is a device such as Cowon A2 that has a USB host function. It certainly can read from Universal SD Card if they are hooked up together, but Universal will not be able to access the Cowon A2 big harddrive. They mention that Cowon A2 can only read and copy from, and not copy to.

Since internal mass storage isn't an option, then external storage via wireless has to be a reasonable alternative. I don't know if bluetooth HDs exist, but there is certainly a wi-fi option from ASUS - see http://uk.asus.com/products2.aspx?l1=12&l2=44
This takes a standard laptop 2.5" HD and can connect wirelessly to an existing network or it can act as an access point for direct connection with another device. It's not the fastest device in the world, but it works fine on a home network as a basic back up file server as well as a store for mp3s which can then be played by any other device on the network. I hope to get my XDA next month and see if it also can wirelessly play mp3s in this way.

sjdigital said:
Since internal mass storage isn't an option, then external storage via wireless has to be a reasonable alternative. I don't know if bluetooth HDs exist, but there is certainly a wi-fi option from ASUS - see http://uk.asus.com/products2.aspx?l1=12&l2=44
This takes a standard laptop 2.5" HD and can connect wirelessly to an existing network or it can act as an access point for direct connection with another device. It's not the fastest device in the world, but it works fine on a home network as a basic back up file server as well as a store for mp3s which can then be played by any other device on the network. I hope to get my XDA next month and see if it also can wirelessly play mp3s in this way.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
2kg!!!!! :shock:
Who wants to carry that "portable" device? :lol:

I don't know where you get "2 kg" from? The thing weighs 200g according to the specification in the instructions (although whether that includes the HD itself I can't say!). It's certainly portable, if not pocketable, but the original post was about mass storage for music, videos, etc. and this device provides that very conveniently.

I found the weight there:
http://www.techfever.co.uk/products.asp?partno=4721&source=tempriser
but you're right, on the other website it says 200g:
http://www.techbuy.com.au/products/....5_Hard_Drive_Case_-_802.11g_Ethernet_USB.asp
but anyway, you need to use an external power source so for me it's not portable...

Yes, I have one and for sure it's nowhere near 2kg! It's a bit smaller than a video cassette (remember them?) and really is very handy. But as I said, portable rather than pocketable. But given the wireless capability of the XDA, the ASUS device is a realistic option for a semi-fixed file server that is accessible wirelessly. And it even has a built in ftp server so you can hook it up to your home network and acess it via the internet using your XDA or whatever. As I write this I'm listening to my mp3s which are stored on my ASUS and played back via a wireless media player. Neat, huh? And it's that capabilty that I want from an XDA but I want to wait until it has A2DP so that I can stream the audio to my hi-fi via bluetooth!!!

ASUS HDD
I have just bought an Asus WL-HDD hard drive case. I was hoping that it would be smaller than it is, the case is the most inefficient I have ever seen. However, it should do what I am looking for.
With a 60G Maxtor hard drive it weighs 315 grammes. Note that you also need a 5 volt supply - more wires, not exactly portable, however it's a good start.
After loads of pain getting to work properly, I have been playing with video streaming and it seems OK, even from an external hard drive plugged into its USB 1.1 port. Not bad, a 40 quid device that has all that and a host USB port and they couldn't get the USB port right on an Exec costing 10 times that...!!!
Now I have got the Asus going, there's other things it can do, like being an Access point and there's loads of tweaks out there from the open source community. Have a look at http://wl500g.info , you can even write your own software for it if you want.
BT would be useless as the max data rate is crap. There is no way that you could reliably stream video without lots of compression...
So, while the Asus product is not perfect, it does mean that I will not be bothering with the XDA add on. I will certainly now be buying an Exec and I now have the bug to start playing with WiFi embedded servers... As a start I think I will recase the Asus, including some LiIon batteries and built in card reader (it just hangs off the USB port). Not really a major development, but it will save carrying a power brick and a load of cables.

80211B
I have just noticed that the WiFi interface is 802.11b.
When I tried video streaming with the Asus WL-HDD, 802.11g would work fine, but 802.11b was just too slow. However I was streaming relatively high quality video.
Ho Hum. I think I'll still get one and try it. I suppose lower quality video can be used, but then some of the advantages of the high quality display are lost. Anyway, for my particular requirement I am more interested in still image display.
Lisa

Without trying to hijack this thread, yes, the WL-HDD isn't the fastest device around! But 11b wireless isn't the problem, even hard wired to my router it doesn't manage anything like 11b speeds. But I can happily play mp3s, and video files that aren't too high quality, that are stored on it. It can, for example, happily cope with playing video files generated from a consumer video camera. But are you actually streaming, or simply playing files stored on the device?
You've already found the wl500g forum where lots of info is available, you could also try www.macsat.com.

802.11b/g
I don't know what goes on with 802.11b or g, but the sustained data rates don't seem to be anywhere near 11 or 54Mbps.
Assuming a reasonable quality 500M MP4 or Divx video 2 hours long. That's around 5Gbits in 15000 secs, i.e. 333kbits/sec.
I have tried dfferent combinations of adapters, routers and pc cards and the results are always similar. Yet file copying times would indicate data rates nearer to those quoted.
Ho hum...

I normally have my WL-HDD connected by ethernet cable but I've just tried it wirelessly and data transfer is just over 5 Mbps. A long way short of 11b never mind 11g speeds. I can play a 30 minute 300MB MPEG movie on my laptop from a file on the WL-HDD. That's a data rate of about 1.3 Mbps. But I tried a 57MB avi file which is only 16 seconds long and it simply wouldn't play properly - it just stuttered along. But the data rate required for that is about 28 Mbps, which is clearly well beyond what the WL-HDD can manage.
But it should be able to cope with anything up to 5 Mbps, i.e. a one hour video file of about 2.2 GB (I think I've got my bits and Bytes, and Mega and Giga, right!)

WiFi 802.11g on your HTC Universal & Wizard
Check this guys!
http://www.pocketpcaddict.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=5880
Salam!

Just tryed it, but my network is in the list as "Available" and I dont have a connection
Linksys WRT54GS in G-only mode...

Hi,
Engadget says Universal supports external HDD (read comments at http://www.engadget.com/2005/09/02/...l-questions-weve-got-htc-universal/1#comments )
Is there a way to get in touch with them?

I do not fully understand what everybody is trying to achieve here. I use Resco explorer and connect over Wifi to my home network. I get a shared drive and can use all the harddisk space in the world. Grant it will only work at home, but that is where I need the external space the most.

Steam/GameStream StreamBox PC Build

Greetings, I'm looking to build a very barebones 4K game streaming pc for my ShieldTV. Imagine a tucked away small to medium form factor computer, powerful enough to push [email protected] but without any other bells and whistles since it will only be used for streaming games to my Shield. I wanted to start a discussion and perhaps query for a parts list that the community thinks would be appropriate for the task.
StreamBox Considerations:
[email protected] Steam/GameStream capabilities
Nvidia GTX 1070/80
bare minimum processor/ram
bare minimum ITX motherboard (no special features)
simple case or even considering an open test-bench to build it into my media console (pic coming soon)
Thanks in advance, will certainly keep a build log here as I proceed

The minimum system requirements will depend on the games you want to play. I use this machine: https://www.hpe.com/us/en/product-c.../pip.hpe-proliant-ml10-v2-server.7796450.html as as a remote game server. It's a prebuilt server system that costs less than €200,-. I swapped the original Pentium that came with it for a Xeon E3-1231v2, (overkill for most stuff, doom ran fine with the original cpu). Added disks and 16GB of ECC memory. I also installed a GTX950 because of it's low power consumption (75W, the psu is 350W). This is plenty fast for 1080p gaming but won't do 4K of course.
Apart from the disks (the machine is also a NAS) it cost me about €600 which roughly translates to $100,- (the price difference between US and europe is really horrible). The good thing is that it works like a charm.
Things to be aware of:
- the motherboard needs a soundchip/card to stream sound at all, I just installed a virtual soundcard (VB-Audio virtual cable)
- you are required to connect a mouse to the pcif the system is running Windows 10 or remote mouse control won't work
- past versions of gamestream/steam wouldn't work after connecting to the system with an RDP session. Use VNC instead.

Will the Shield TV ever do 4k Gaming? I'm not aware of that being an feature of the Tegra X1. IIRC [email protected] was the max for Game Streaming.
*Edit*
Ok so, perhaps thats how it was, but according to the new Release Notes apparently 4k Game Streaming will in fact be possible..

Steveborough said:
Greetings, I'm looking to build a very barebones 4K game streaming pc for my ShieldTV. Imagine a tucked away small to medium form factor computer, powerful enough to push [email protected] but without any other bells and whistles since it will only be used for streaming games to my Shield. I wanted to start a discussion and perhaps query for a parts list that the community thinks would be appropriate for the task.
StreamBox Considerations:
[email protected] Steam/GameStream capabilities
Nvidia GTX 1070/80
bare minimum processor/ram
bare minimum ITX motherboard (no special features)
simple case or even considering an open test-bench to build it into my media console (pic coming soon)
Thanks in advance, will certainly keep a build log here as I proceed
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you want 4K60 then even a 1080 will struggle with some games.
Take a look here for inspiration: http://www.techspot.com/review/1246-ludicrous-graphics-test/
If you lower graphics then 4K60 will work fine with a 1080.
CPU's don't matter as much these days, so a Haswell i5 (4570/4590) should be fine. Probably the K version so you can overclock it in the future if needed.

Steveborough said:
Greetings, I'm looking to build a very barebones 4K game streaming pc for my ShieldTV. Imagine a tucked away small to medium form factor computer, powerful enough to push [email protected] but without any other bells and whistles since it will only be used for streaming games to my Shield. I wanted to start a discussion and perhaps query for a parts list that the community thinks would be appropriate for the task.
StreamBox Considerations:
[email protected] Steam/GameStream capabilities
Nvidia GTX 1070/80
bare minimum processor/ram
bare minimum ITX motherboard (no special features)
simple case or even considering an open test-bench to build it into my media console (pic coming soon)
Thanks in advance, will certainly keep a build log here as I proceed
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're going to need a ton of horsepower to push 4k @ 60fps, if you want anything in the graphics turned up. You'll probably need two of those cards and they are huge by the way. I'm not sure how small you will be able to get the case considering that. Normally you want a large case for air flow, but if you want it as compact as possible you will need to do water cooling, also amazing to keep the noise down. Try to find a case that is the exact same size as your MB (make it a compact MB) and then do custom water cooing with two gtx 1070s. No wifi or sound card, just use LAN (faster anyway) and no peripherals or speakers or anything. PSU takes up a lot of space too unfortunately, but at least you can get low profile ram lol.
I got it. Buy a 3500 dollar surface book lol

So after thinking about this for a few days, the plan is to build this into my TV media console as an open-air streaming rig. Here's some of the parts list in my head and a (poor quality) pic of my floating media console and 4K TV setup
mini-itx z270 motherboard
Kabylake i5 7600k
air cooler
GTX 1080
modular power supply
I plan to mount the motherboard w/ air-cooler upsidedown in the center cube of the console (imagine a cool looking heatsink suspended from the top of the center cube) and use a pci ribbon cable to put the GTX 1080 on display on the inside bottom. Will post diagrams next week, works kicking my *ss. It's rather hard to see but the console has doors on the 2 right-most squares; here's where I plan to hide a modular power supply (drilling a hole big enough for the mobo/gpu power cables) This should be amazing! Anyone think I can get Nvidia sponsorship, this would show off GameStream and the new ShieldTV (even though I have the Gen1) like nothing else I can imagine!

Looks awesome, keep posting
Btw, I did a mini-itx build to play and stream games on my TV.
Parts: http://pcpartpicker.com/b/rrHhP6

Almost ready to buy, few final questions. Octocore PX5, 4GB, Oreo

A quick bit of background, I have recently sold my car that had a factory fit wince media centre fitted, and although locked down I miss the navigation and ease of use in my new car. The new car is actually a 10 year old Mazda MX5 NC (MK3) and currently has the stock radio which I'm thinking of upgrading.
I have figured I had 2 choices, either an all singing android unit, or a regular manufactures unit which supports Apple AirPlay. I figured that would still give me the basics of what I need, and probably with no potential for things to go wrong Anyway I like a challenge and the though of having more possible functionality I think is winning the argument for getting an android unit, but I have a few final questions from people in the know!
I have bene looking at a couple of units that look pretty similar spec wise (cornet me if I'm wrong) :-
Pumpkin AE0273B, XTRONS TE706PL. I was posting links to them but I'm not allowed yet So you will have to google for the exact details if needed.
So onto the questions :
1. I see a lot of the connectivity is via USB, and If I were to add several of the extras (E.g DAB+, 3/4G, DashCam, Phone) I would ned more USB ports than supplied (The XTRONS has 3, but the Pumpkin only 2). Can I just use a USB hub to get more ports like on a computer? If yes I'm assuming a powered one would be better as those accessories all need power.
2. I currently have a simple dash cam that just records video and audio in a loop onto an SD card all the time the ignition is on. Each file is about 2 mins long and I get about 4 hours recording before it starts to overwrite older files. This works great as I can forget about it and in 3 years, have never had to even look at the footage, and hopefully never will. But it gives peace of mind. I see you can get a USB one that I'm sure will have much better user interface if I want to play back footage. My existing camera has a phono out which I could connect to an AUX input to use the screen, but would still have the fiddly buttons to press on the camera behind my mirror.
Does the DVR app on the unit with the USB camera just crack on and record stuff in a similar I can forget about it way, and its just all there if I need it in the future. Or do I need to do something every time I turn the ignition on? Where does it record the footage, do I need to provide an additional SD card?
3. I see there are often 2 SD card slots, one marked for maps, the other presumably for music. Is there actually any difference, or are these just 2 mount points in the system that get used for anything? This question just came to me when thinking about the camera above. It wasn't actually on my list!
4. I'm worried that with a convertible car I'm not going to be able to see the screen due to the huge amount of ambient or even direct sun light. I have heard that there are anti-glare filters which could help a bit, but is this going to be a problem for me when it comes to navigating etc? Are the screens on the standard manufacture units (e.g. Pioneer etc) any better. In other words would I be better off sacrificing the cool stuff and getting a straight CarPlay unit that would be bright enough to see?
5. Lots os talk about rooting the device. What are the actual advantages of doing this? Are there some killer apps that make this a worth while exercise?
I appreciate its a long post and there are lots of questions, so a big thank you in advance for any of the questions you might be able to answer.
Regards
Ben

EDIT: forgot to mention — almost all units are identical to one another. They all have almost identical MTCD/MTCE MCU boards with the same audio/radio/wifi/Bluetooth chips (there are exceptions). And the main SoC is gonna be a PX5 with 4 GB of ram. So outside of that you want build quality (buttons, screen, plastic) and if it’s made to fit your car already.
First off, check out Joying units which have Carplay built in as well (and they have Octa core 4gb android 8.0 double din universal ones).
Next, yes you’d be able to use a USB hub and yes a powered one is best. Get one that works off of 12v and wire it in for a clean solution (so you always have a powered hub in your glove box for instance)
There are dash cams that the head unit manufacturers will sell you that you can leave plugged into your unit and they will auto record as you say. You basically don’t have to touch them, and just open the necessary app if you wanna change settings, or lock/save a file.
The 2 SD card slots are identical but one of them is meant to be always-in for GPS maps (for the Navi that the seller pre-loads sometimes). Also for firmware updates the GPS slot is the only one it boots from.
Glare depends heavily on the angle that your dash positions the screen at, so it’s hard to say. But yeah sometimes the sun hits it just right and there’s pretty much nothing you can do. Happens on oem units too.
Rooting isn’t super necessary but depending on how much you want to tinker it adds nice features like apps staying open after sleep, and the ability to customize the way everything looks. That said, there’s a lot in the way of customization that’s already available. Check malaysk’s custom ROM though. It’s pretty stable and the inclusion of viper4android alone is worth the hassle (in my opinion)
Hope this helps!

So it looks to me like there are 3 generic systems that have been badged up, one with a knob at the top, one with a knob at the bottom, and one without a knob.
The ones with the knobs seem to have the slightly newer TDA7851 amp chip, and the one with out uses the older TDA7850, which is a shame as I prefer the look of just buttons.
The Xtrons unit has a 3rd USB, which saves having to get a USB hub.
The Joying has the benefit of the built in ZLink, but as its software it does mean you loose that benefit if you use a different rom.
And there are various options on the back of the units, some have small wifi antenna built in, some have connectors for an external one.
It all make for lots of extra decisions!!

After getting Whitehouse support from Pumpkin, I would only buy Dasaita now. I just ordered a Dasaita PX5 4GB Oreo to replace my Pumpkin PX3 2GB.

Yet another android tablet as a head unit

Hi,
I'd like to introduce my project...
I'm building a vintage kit car using the BMW Z3 (2000 model year) as the base car. I want the car to have access to tech but for the tech to be hidden in the centre console, actually on the underside of the top of the console. The concept is that when no tech is needed (for example at shows) the car will retain its vintage looks but when tech is required (i.e. when being driven) the tech becomes available. I'm imagining a top section of the console which will hinge up and reveal the tablet. There isn't going to be much space on the underside of the console which is why I'm going for a tablet rather than one of the many Chinese android units.
As an aside, I've just ordered an Icebox Octa core 64G Rom / 4G Ram unit (TTF1983 ) for my facelift (2015) Vauxhall Insignia which I expect to arrive in the next week or so.
I've already researched other people's projects which has helped me to get to where I currently am. Where I currently am is ordering many of the bits and pieces which I expect to need.
My tablet project is intended to be a much simpler affair than the Icebox unit:
DAB and FM radio
Rear and, hopefully, front camera
Sat nav
OBD II
Mirror my phone if needs be
What I won't need includes:
Steering wheel controls
Air con management
Electric roof control
Pretty much everything else that an android head unit offers
What I might need is:
BT Phone but in a convertible that's going to be a bit of an issue any way
Because the car will only be used sporadically I need an effective power management system, one which will kick in after perhaps a month's lack of use.
My tablet of choice is a Galaxy Tab S 10.5 (SM-T800) which I happen to have lying around, it's currently running stock Android 6.01 . The tablet is a wifi model so the plan is to hotspot it to my Galaxy S8 when I'm on the road
I've already ordered
a 12V to 5V 3A dc-dc converter
a 4 port USB2 hub
an OTG Y cable to take power from the dc-dc converter to feed the tablet and to move data between the devices
an easycap UTV007 video capture device (for the parking camera units)
a USB to USB relay to allow the easycap to feed the video through to the USB when reverse is connected
an 'intelligent' video selector which has two video inputs (front and rear cameras) and one video output (to the head unit via the USB relay). The unit keeps the relevant camera connected to the output. I need to take delivery of this and play with it to see what it can really do.
an ELM327 bluetooth OBD II device
a NooElec Smart DVB+ device
a Creative Soundblaster DAC
I know that I'm going to need a decent amplifier between the DAC and the speakers (suggestions and recommendations welcome). I might also want a manual volume control, possibly with a push button mute facility. I've probably missed a bunch of stuff...
I've rooted the tablet and tweaked it (overwritten lpm) so that when the ignition is switched on then the tablet will boot. I've used MacroDroid to tell the device to switch off 10 seconds after the ignition is switched off (unless the ignition gets switched on again within those 10 seconds)
I'm looking very closely at the Agama Car Launcher to pull much of it together. There are some aspects of this launcher that I'd like to see improved. For example I'd like to be able to get back to the home screen from the maps screen (or other screens) CarWebGuru places a button on the screen to allow this. It would be nice also to have a split screen so that I can have maps on one side and Audio / OBD / any other app on the other side. I'm aware that I might not get all that I wish for
One thing I'd REALLY like to see improved is the cold boot time which is currently 50 seconds. I might consider a custom ROM if anyone knows of a ROM that will fire up quickly, or any other tweak which will significantly shorten the cold boot time. 10 seconds or less would be nice. I've looked at Cyanogenmod 12.1 or 13 with the quick boot utility but I understand that the quick boot is basically hibernate and may not survive a month without the ignition being switched on.
Hopefully I've given a reasonable overview of what I'm looking to achieve and hopefully there will be people out there that can help tie everything together and troubleshoot when the time comes.
Russell

nice project, good luck with it..

Keep us posted on your project progress...

Wondering how this is coming along?
My question for you is, will the tablet charge and use data via the OTG cable simultaneously? Did you need to run a custom kernel to enable that?
thanks.

Quite in consonance with what I've been wanting to achieve. Nevertheless, the plan was frustrated by other priorities. Would love to see how this emerges. Meanwhile here's a basic experiment I've tried.