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What is a Good Brand Double Din ?

MrMarty51

MrMarty51

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Miles City, Montana
Currently in my truck is a Kenwood player with CD device.
I would like to get one of them devices that I could add the Quadstar Tuning app to and create a radical gauge cluster.
I dont really know the difference between a single and a double Din. I think the double is a bigger screen. Which ever one it is I do want the CD/DVD capabilities. I guess if it has a regular USB port then I could just plug in my CD/DVD player into it and then listen to my talk shows through that.
The two that I’m looking at is the Kenwood.

Or the Pioneer.

 
I have a Pioneer DMH160BT on my truck. both Pioneer and Kenwood are good units. but if you want to use the apps for a digital dash showing things on the screen from your rig's ECM you will have to have an android based unit. One that you can side load apps and files like a tablet. I'm not sure if ether brand makes one that runs android operating system as it's base. that would be something we need to do some research on.

you can find chineesium ones all day long on both the jungle site and evil-bay but I don't know how good of a sound they have.

as for the BOSS branded units, they are cheaply made. Although I have a BOSS amp in my rig driving a 10" sub behind the rear seat and it had decent sound :)
 
when looking for one, don't confuse "Android Auto" with one that is android based. the android auto is just an interface that allows your android phone to display it's apps like maps and phone calls on the stereo's screen, same with apple car play.
 
I was trying to do this with a normal Samsung tablet (showing ECM stuff on the screen) but the issue I kept running into for me was I needed the tablets micro-usb port for the connection to the PCM on my truck (OBD1) and couldn't figure out how to keep it charged too. there are very few tablets that use a separate charge port and usb and even fewer that allow charging while it's talking to the trucks PCM. the tablet had to be in a special connection mode to talk to my PCM but wouldn't do both at the same time. Mounting the tablet and making it look nice was also very limited in the cab too!

for the newer OBD2 trucks I think you can use a bluetooth thingamagig for a tablet to talk to the truck eliminating the problem with keeping it charged.

what would have worked for me was getting one of those mini computers and mounting it under the seat somewhere with a small touchscreen monitor mounted up front but I dropped that after seeing how much that project was going to cost LOL. having the tablet connected is a super nice tool though, giving the ability to record data off the truck, seeing performance numbers and whatnot.
 
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IIRC, Pioneer and Kenwood are pretty much like DeWalt and Black & Decker. Same guts, different skin. Either way, both are good at the consumer level. Of the two items referenced, the Pioneer states that it runs on Android, but the ad does not give the OS version number which makes this claim a little suspect. Best bets are do dig into the actual vendor's information instead of the Jungle's listing.

Crutchfield carries Boss products, so implicitly they are at least worthwhile.

Joying had a good reputation a few years ago for Chineseum carputers running Android. Do not know about current reputation as things change quickly in that world.

One thing to recognize is that the Android carputer might take a long time for it to boot-up and start working. As opposed to a more simplistic radio which comes alive almost as quickly as when it gets voltage. Some carputer manufacturers have a "cheat" for booting up fairly quick, but it means that the unit goes into a sleep mode rather than actually going completely offline. Unless I am missing something, sleep mode will continuously draw some power and might need mitigation if the vehicle sits for a week or so without use. If it is necessary to defeat the quick-start "cheat" by outright turning the carputer Off to keep it from draining the vehicle's battery, then the carputer will need to go through the lengthy startup process.

I also wanted an Android based carputer and got something from Eincar about 4 years ago. Goal was to add vehicle monitoring, offline navigation, and anything else that Android offers. Tried out a hybrid approach of a flip-out monitor which can give the landscape of a Double DIN unit but only needs a Single DIN housing. While the concept is exactly what I want, Eincar's product is meh, and so was the after sales support. Installation manual was a Chenglish mess where I was supposed to hook one of the harness's wires to the vehicle's "ACC - Adaptive Cruise Control" wire. (Ummmmm.... No! That is not what ACC means in this application.) While Eincar stated that navigation data was free for life, I have yet to figure out how to get the data from them and gave-up after a couple E-mail support attempts. Only thing I like about the end result is that I can watch OTA TV via a USB adapter / antenna when waiting to give somebody a ride.

I looked into going the Bluetooth dongle and tablet approach, but backed away as it means that every time I start the truck, I have to separately reach-out and start / initiate the tablet. Same for when stopping the truck. No thanks, I'm lazy. Although, if I did more long distance driving, the dongle and tablet approach might have more appeal.
 
If you want to really take a deep dive and DIY, there are instructions floating around on how to make a Raspbery Pi carputer. This is not as hard as it seems as people have already created the modified OS. This is on my wish list, but my time keeps getting sucked into something else (Honey, clear the clogged drain. Honey, the garbage disposal won't work. Honey, my brake light is On. Honey, are you going to mow the lawn this weekend...).
 
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