Anyone know anything about this stereo -
http://www.parrot.com/usa/products/bluetooth-hands-free-car-kits/parrot-asteroid
Even, where it can be bought, how much it is? What OS it runs for that matter?
well it says that it has Android embedded, so the OS is Android
it looks pretty interesting too...
as for when/where/how much, the site says "Coming soon in 2011", so I'm guessing that it is yet-to-be-offered and they may not have decided their MSRP yet.
William
First, I don't know if I can post links yet. Second, I'm too lazy to dig it up. They had an article on Androidpolice during CES that included a speaker from Parrot showcasing it. I think he said a Q2 release. I'll be getting this the second its released, regardless of price.
anyone have any more details on this? Q2 is all they're saying...
I want one now!!
For the European markets, they say May. Hopefully the beginning of May
Hope they didn't get a developer team from Motorola, then it's going to takes at least another year
next week
i was infomrmed dynamicsounds expected to be stocked next week
wonder if its worth getting
i am currently considering getting it as i need a car kit any way
apperantly they are avalible as of today at 289 euro in the netherlands
I have one
I currently have an Asteroid sitting on my desk here
When I find some time tonight I'll take it for a testdrive and let you guys know!
Excellent. Please let us know.
What apps are available at the moment?
Im hoping for Spotify and proper navigation once the sdk is released...
Yay, someone that has the Asteroid!
Please, let us now!
And, tell us how the music player works.
I want to hook a big memory card, or if there's room a 40GB laptop harddisk to the unit.
Also, streaming from Bluetooth from your phone. Btw, what kind of phone do you have?
(And hmm.. Gorinchem.. That's not that far from my weekly commute.. )
Asteroid
Been driving around with the Asteroid for a while now and it's a pretty neat radio but not perfect.
Building it into the car was a breeze. With the radio came all the needed cables, like a 3,5mm jack, iPod cable, USB cable for usb-sticks, GPS dongle and microphone for the carkit. All cables were pretty long so you should have no problem routing them to whatever place you want them in your car.
Soundquality is pretty good and there are plenty of connections for subwoofers and external amplifiers so it should suffice even for cars with loads of fat speakers.
Connecting my phone, an HTC Desire with CyanogenMod 7.1 (nightly build), was easy through bluetooth and streaming music over bluetooth went without problems. Answering phonecalls and navigating the menu is pretty easy.
A few problems I ran into though. To use internet on the radio (for google maps, internet radio, coyote speed camera alerts) you can either use a 3g USB dongle (which costs you at least 10€ a month where I live) or tether your phone through bluetooth (maybe usb works, haven't tried yet). To do this, your phone needs to support the bluetooth DUN profile which android lacks. Nokia phones should be no problem though. I've tried using 3rd party apps like PDANet but to no avail.
Furthermore I found that the device lacks some tweaking capabilities. For example, when i'm navigating my contacts from my phone, the device tries to "read" the contacts for me using text-to-speech. I've found no way to turn this off. Furthermore I could find no option in the settings to turn off the traffic announcements from radio. The device now switches to radio when i'm listening to music from my SD card to bring me the traffic information (Which can be skipped by pressing the "back" button). Finally, the device came with a Dutch language setting and i've found no way to turn this to English, which is the language I prefer.
Please note, I have only used this radio for a short while and I might've missed some things! I think this is a very nice radio though and since it is the first model and only out for a week or so now I think there will be some updates from Parrot's side, perhaps expanding the capabilities of this device. The only major drawback is the lack of internet connectivity if you have an Android phone. This is not Parrot's fault though but rather Google's. I heard though that Honeycomb supports Bluetooth PAN and I think the Asteroid supports this for Internet tethering so i'm keeping my hopes up for Android Icecream to bring this feature to my phone.
Pro:
- Lots sources for music: Radio, USB stick, SD Card, iPod, 3.5mm Jack line-in
- Android with Google Maps
- Speed camera Alerts
- Large screen (for a single DIN radio unit)
- Lots of cables came with the Radio (With a Pioneer your need to buy overpriced iPod cables separately)
- Its a handsfree carkit, and Parrot knows how to make those by now
- Lots of tweaking possible with the sound
Con:
- Internet does not work with Android phones (yet)
- Lacks certain tweaking possibilities in the settings menu
Feel free to ask any questions
Thank you for the excellent review.
Those drawbacks are major issues,
but Im hoping Parrot will come up with some patches
soon.
The Asteroid is not on sale here yet, and it might take a while.
But I am going to Holland later this month..
Anyone know a place close to Schiphol that sell Parrot equipment?
I also have the Parrot Asteroid for a few days now. But I can't get thetering trough Bluetooth working on my HTC Desire Z (Android 2.2).
I used an app called "PdaNet" or something, with that I can enalbe "Dun - Dia-up Network". And I can make a connection with the parrort trough Settings > Network > Bluetooth. But as soon as I try to use an application that uses internet, it won't work and says I need a internet connection.
Anyone know how I can use DUN or PAN, because an Asteroid doesn't have WiFi and can't tether trough USB ??
Thanx!
RobertR21,
Android does currently not support PAN or DUN so using that is probably not possible without any 3rd party software. I tried PDAnet aswell but it did not work.
You might try connecting your phone to the 3G dongle port on your asteroid through USB, as android supports USB tethering, I have not tried this myself. I can verify though that DUN works, I tried it with my Nokia and it worked flawlessly.
I hear there's rumours on the Internets though that Android icecream is going to support PAN though, so maybe then we can use our android phones. Maybe before that time Parrot will find a solution.
Does anyone know which 3g USB dongles work with the Asteroid?
In my case: I have a Trekstor/Huawei MiFi which can also be used as a "Stick" - Will this work via USB? My Asteroid Device ships in (wish me luck) tomorrow. Pimpin' my Ride is planned at Saturday ;-)
ThX
Hi, I've got the this Parrot Asteriod also.
And For you guys I can use bluetooth internet though my old HTC Hero. I can do it also with other phones. but there is a trick for it.
First root your phone, this is absolutely nessasary.
Then download from the market 'Wireless Tether for root users'(it is a free app).
This one has internet tethering through bluetooth.
Go to menu and select bluetooth instead of wifi.
then go to access-control and eneble it.
Make the bluetooth visible in the tether program.
On the asteroid go to setting and then network and then bluetooth is will find your phone(again) and press the nice parrot butten and it connects.
then on your phone again give it authorization to use the tether and you have your internet.
One problem is that you have to connect manually every time. (your carkit does it automaticly) but not the internet. But at least you can then enjoy your live radio and google maps if you want to.
You only have to have the tether active and connect only through the radio other steps are not needed anymore after.
Internet through usb with your doesn't work, to bad.
One issue that I've encountered with this radio the front panel will become pretty hot after playing an half hour on a high volume. does anyone else have this problem also?
Hi,
I am also considering getting an Asteroid. I have several questions:
- Is there also offline navigation available?
- Can any app from the normal market be installed? Or is there a special Parrot market?
- What Android version is installed?
- Anyway to root it? (What ever functionality this would add?)
Greetings
karlv
Dysphoria said:
Furthermore I found that the device lacks some tweaking capabilities. For example, when i'm navigating my contacts from my phone, the device tries to "read" the contacts for me using text-to-speech. I've found no way to turn this off. Furthermore I could find no option in the settings to turn off the traffic announcements from radio. The device now switches to radio when i'm listening to music from my SD card to bring me the traffic information (Which can be skipped by pressing the "back" button). Finally, the device came with a Dutch language setting and i've found no way to turn this to English, which is the language I prefer.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For disablieng the traffic information go to tuner, select a radio station then press the menu button there you can edit if you want traffic information on or of.
text to speech, try the menu button in the app contacts you can change it there. I like that so I didn't look at it yet.
The most options regarding a app can be found in the app it self. try to look for tweaking option there.
karlv said:
Hi,
I am also considering getting an Asteroid. I have several questions:
- Is there also offline navigation available? NO, not yet at least
- Can any app from the normal market be installed? Or is there a special Parrot market? Special Parrot market, apps that are avaible can be found on the parrot site then put on usb stick and then install.
- What Android version is installed? Android 1.5
- Anyway to root it? (What ever functionality this would add?) No, maybe also later.
Greetings
karlv
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Everyone can correct me if I'm wrong
anyone already tried getting in touch with the radios file system?
I assume those usb ports only are usb hosts?
there's a new firmware out:
http://download.parrot.com/Parrot_Asteroid_soft_update/asteroid_update_fr_FR.plf
It's nearly 90 MB, so it looks as a complete android software build.
can we get this extracted? modders, come on
EDIT:
there exist some plftools for other Parrot Devices. Maybe they can be used to extract useful stuff out of the Asteroid firmware files...
Links:
http://embedded-software.blogspot.c...howComment=1311293537224#c8852365956008835373
http://sites.google.com/site/repurposelinux/df3120
EDIT2:
part of the firmware update file:
parrotparts=nand0:256K(Pbootloader),16M(Pmain_boot),4M(Pfactory),241408K(Psystem) console=ttyPA0,115200 loglevel=8 update
maybe it is possible to divide the plf file into parts and mount them somehow? (http://plugcomputer.org/plugforum/index.php?topic=478.0)
EDIT3:
Serial output of AR Drone Update, wich also uses plf update files and is based on linux:
http://kapejod.org/download/ardrone_install.txt
Hello,
I've got an Eonon MTCB unit (with Malaysk 4.4.4) on a Opel/Vauxhall Astra H (MK5).
The way the car is designed means that I get to keep my old LCD display in the dash, positioned above the MTCB unit.
The original car music player displayed current song title or radio station name on that display.
The MTCB unit displays much less useful info like "MUSIC MM:SS", "RADIO", "AVIN" or "OTHER", depending on current input source, but never
something specific like song name or radio station name.
I would like to reverse engineer how the unit sends out these messages so that I can send my own, more meaningful ones.
The unit came with a CAN bus decoder, so I bet that's how messages go out. However, regarding the software side I have no clue.
Does anyone have an idea how I can go about this?
Someone tried to change that thing. There other threads to. But no solution at the moment because it takes a very long time (I believe to read that) :/
hello everyone,
I just installed a SEICANE chinese android head unit in my Fiat Ducato from 2017.
I connected the ISO port directly to the 2 connectors from the car, I've first tried to use a power harness including the CanBus decoder, but then the HU is dead. Without harness , the HU works (I guess the car already has a CanBus built in?).
The radio works very well. Also Wifi works well, I can surf on the Internet. But some apps I can not download (using Play Store). For example when I try to download TomTom GO, the HU tells me that there is no Wifi (although there actually IS Wifi!). Other apps are no problem to download (I've "fixed" this problem by installing Sygic i.o. TomTom).
I paired my Samsung XCover3 via Bluetooth and also problems: when I try to make a phone call, sometimes it goes to handsfree (like it should), but sometimes it does not (although the phone display opens on the HU). I did the pairing 10 times , but no difference. I also tried to make an Internet connection using Hotspot or tethering, but that also does not work.
I resetted the HU, but no improvement.
Does somebody knows these problems (and has sollutions to it)?
Regards,
Peter
I have a 2017 Honda Accord Sport SE, with only the single display system that handles bluetooth and streaming etc.
Ever since somewhere around the May or June Oreo update and including the new Pie first production release, the car has been unable to transfer contacts from the Pixel XL to the car system.
I've played around with the AVCP setting, but that does not help. Briefly on the last version of Oreo, I was able to use the app "Bluetooth PhoneBook" to alter the phones PBAP so that my contacts were appearing in the car, but the first Pie version is now incompatible with "Bluetooth PhoneBook", so I cannot get contacts into the car system, and therefore cannot use voice dial with the phone. So I disable the bluetooth in the car and have to use my Plantronics bluetooth earpiece to make calls via bluetooth. The author of the app at http://www.android-rsap.com/bluetooth-phonebook/38-aktuelle-nachrichten/143-phonebook-app-and-android-8-oreo.html, mentions:
Google once again changed the internals of the Android Bluetooth stack, and guess what: it breaks my phonebook app. It is no longer able to properly stop the built-in phonebook service.
Today I found out that the latest Android source contains a change which once again enables my app. I don't have an idea when that change will be published in an official release or if there may be new Android 8 firmwares in the future which don't contain that fix. Simply check if your car connects to my app, if not you'll probably have to wait for the next firmware update.
And these problems all happen only because Google refuses to add a proper Bluetooth SDP API to the Android SDK. So they work their way from hack to hack. Sad...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can anyone explain to me how the Bluetooth PBAP works an if this is an issue with the car manufacturer's implementation or Google's fault.
Unfortunately, Honda being a car manufacturer is not very interested in keeping firmware in its cars up to date, at least as far as phone functionality.
The 2018 Honda's allow firmware updates easily, so I imagine this is going to be less of a problem for 2018 and newer models.
Hi everyone, looking to pick up an octacore headunit from aliexpress, "KANOR" branded.
[can't post link because new member]
But one of the main reasons I want it is to connect with my ECU through a google play app called MDash. It connects via bluetooth. Through my reading over these android head units, I've seen a lot of mentions of the bluetooth functionality only working for music, phone calls, and the obd2 adapters. Does anyone have experience on whether or not the bluetooth is still this limited for the newer Android 8.0 octacore units? And if so, is there a way I can get the functionality I need out of the headunit by rooting it?
Thanks for your time and help!
bump
bump. Any help is greatly appreciated before I spend my money on a headunit.
Yes mate still crap. In fact Id say worse.
I have a new erising octa px5, mtcE, android 8 and bluetooth is minimal. Phone app is rubbish, sounds / looks terrible and it just about works .
Dont no for sure what profiles it has stock but seems everywhere I read now ppl are going the android auto route (which uses 'OK' google everything (surprise surprise)) and always on data. etc.
Lemmings!