[Ovmsdev] Parrots

Sat Apr 27 15:42:48 HKT 2013

"Tesla Roadster - Any song, any time".

Accompanying YouTube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gYApR6PfyY&feature=player_embedded

The blank space in the above pictures is for OVMS - once I get it working.

This is no 17" display, but it is fully programmable, incredibly powerful, and just amazing for tech-heads. The thought of having OVMS running on this has me salivating...

Some notes:

I bought a US Parrot Asteroid SMART head unit, and Alpine HCE-C115 backup camera set.
I rooted the parrot with Framaroot (I think I should rephrase that for our Australian readers, but what-the-heck).
I SU'd the parrot with SuperSU.
I installed the google frameworks and google play. Thence, google maps, youtube, etc.
I use ADW Launcher Ex as my launcher, with ADW.Elegent theme.
I use Android Speedometer as the speedometer display.
I use Smart Volume Control+ for speed-based volume adjustment.
I use PullOpen Settings for a pop-up volume control.
I use TomTom for navigation (maps onboard), or Google Maps / Waze for Internet-based navigation. It has iGO for US-based users (maps onboard), but no iGO maps for Hong Kong (so I use TomTom).
The facebook app is on, as it is needed by other apps which do facebook sign-on. No, I haven't 'checked in' to my car yet.
Parrot Asteroid has Spotify and voice control apps available (either included or downloadable from their market), but I am experimenting with Utter as a very open and configurable solution.
Spotify just launched in Hong Kong. US$6/month - any song, any time (tm).
I got help installing this - just didn't want to mess with the roadster side of things too much. Had to re-wire a new audio harness, but everything needed was in the car (even though the head-unit side plug was the same, +12V and GND were the only two wires on the Alpine and Parrot harnesses that matched - all the others had to be swapped around). Mappings can be worked out by looking at the diagrams on the back of the Alpine and Parrot head units.
An alternative to cutting-up the old Alpine-Tesla harness is to make an adaptor cable (1xfemale and 1xmale head-unit side connector and 16 wires).
The backup camera in my car was a HCE-C107D, which only connects to Alpine head units. I purchased a discounted HCE-C115, which comes with a little adaptor box to convert the proprietary Alpine connector to standard RCA video (which then plugs in to the Parrot).
There is a setting buried three deep in the advanced settings page of the parrot, which turns on/off the launching of the reversing camera app when you put the car in reverse. 
You can arrange how you want, but we put (a) the laptop cable (for rooting and sideloading) under the fuse box, (b) the 3G dongle in the centre console (using existing usb extension cable from Alpine), (c) the gps dongle able the car's speedometer cluster, and (d) the iPhone cable driver-side beside the steering wheel.
We put the Parrot noise-cancelling microphone above the rear-view mirror (between the mirror and the root). A brilliant location (very hidden and very good sound pickup).
Apps that come from Google Play are not tagged as usable when driving (even if they are), and the Parrot will stop you using them when not parked. Solution is to ground the parking-brake line at the head unit side to disable the nanny.

Postives: Almost everything.
Negatives: Only two: (1) There is no hard volume control (so I'm trying to work out a gesture based volume control that works in all the apps) - the pop-up volume controller is not amazing, and (2) I wish Parrot had just put standard stock Android on this with Google Play (rooting was not hard, but just a hassle).

Conclusion: This is a unit for tech-heads, unless you are happy with the base functionality provided (iGO maps, Spotify and a currently-limited number of apps in the Asteroid marketplace).

Regards,  Mark.
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