[Redline10000]

Are you able to adjust the resolution via the settings ?

[Eschmacher]

I just need to vent here for a second.

My chinese unit from alibaba had the video in/out labels reversed, and how the actual fuck are you supposed to fit any of this cabling back there???

[Eschmacher]

If someone wants to buy my Kremersino box from me, HMU. I'm not patient enough for this shit.

[floc]

Originally Posted by Firefly1337

Okay, unit is installed in my car and I just finished my test drive.[..]

thanks for the very comprehensive feedback I'm curious about the autostart, maybe a bt connection could be initiated hiding a nfc tag in the phone holder.

Just for clarification, androidauto route the audio via bt when wired, so I think that wireless androidauto does the same thing, and the cable traffic is done via wifi

Did you try handsfree calling yet? Any particular issue?

I saw your monitor, seems very similar to my original one, is a non-touch 8.8? Any issue using androidauto via iDrive knob?

thanks

[mastrchee]

Originally Posted by Firefly1337

Okay, unit is installed in my car and I just finished my test drive.

To my knowledge there is no way to force reboot the unit, so you have to park and turn off the car completely to initiate a normal boot.
The 2nd try I did not connect USB and instead tried wireless again.

You can reboot - it’s under CarPlay menu, “reset”

[chhappy7]

Originally Posted by mastrchee

You can reboot - it’s under CarPlay menu, “reset”

Thank you for all your posts.
I just haven't been able to justify the 5~600 usd for CarPlay, but with this being only 240 ish, I'm going to try it.

EDIT: Quick question. For fiber optic cable, since there are two, does it say which goes where?

[Redline10000]

Originally Posted by chhappy7

Thank you for all your posts.
I just haven't been able to justify the 5~600 usd for CarPlay, but with this being only 240 ish, I'm going to try it.

EDIT: Quick question. For fiber optic cable, since there are two, does it say which goes where?

Get in on a group buy and help drop the price to 148!

[chhappy7]

Originally Posted by Redline10000

Get in on a group buy and help drop the price to 148!

I totally skipped over that part... I already ordered one from Aliexpress but I can still cancel it I think. How many more people do you need?

[mastrchee]

Originally Posted by chhappy7

Thank you for all your posts.
I just haven't been able to justify the 5~600 usd for CarPlay, but with this being only 240 ish, I'm going to try it.

EDIT: Quick question. For fiber optic cable, since there are two, does it say which goes where?

Yes, both optic cables are clipped together. All you have to do is unclip and move the pair to the new connector (HU side) that comes with carplay, in the same position as the original one. The optic cables do not connect to the actual carplay unit itself.

[mastrchee]

Based on the video I've seen of the new bimmerpost mmi prime adapter, I think this is the same unit (except the software).

[Firefly1337]

Originally Posted by Redline10000

Are you able to adjust the resolution via the settings ?

No, not the resolution itself. You can make extensive adjustments (e.g. color, gamma, ...) and there is even an equalizer included to adjust sound.
But I think I know what caused my confusion. HeadUnit Reloaded uses the widescreen, example here.
This unit doesn't, so everything appeared to be... 'wider' ^^
Also the black bar is not at the left but at the bottom. Maybe there is some way to activate this widescreen mode, I will have to take a look again at the settings.

Originally Posted by mastrchee

You can reboot - it’s under CarPlay menu, “reset”

Thanks, I wondered what that was for.
But in my described situation all I had was a black empty screen and a non-responsive unit.

Originally Posted by floc

I'm curious about the autostart, maybe a bt connection could be initiated hiding a nfc tag in the phone holder.

BT connects automatically (works even better than the factory iDrive connection), so no need to do this manually with an NFC tag.

Originally Posted by floc

Just for clarification, androidauto route the audio via bt when wired, so I think that wireless androidauto does the same thing, and the cable traffic is done via wifi

To the best of my knowledge, no, AA only uses the BT connection for calls. Media is transfered either via USB or WiFi.
I had a BT-free setup before with HeadUnit Reloaded and sound worked over USB or WiFi.

Originally Posted by floc

Did you try handsfree calling yet? Any particular issue?

No, not yet. I am also curious which BT connection will be used in the end for calls. iDrive or this aftermarket MMI?

Originally Posted by floc

I saw your monitor, seems very similar to my original one, is a non-touch 8.8?

Yes, it's a non-touch 8.8" display. My HU is an NBT EVO ID4 (year 2015).

Originally Posted by floc

Any issue using androidauto via iDrive knob?

The individual buttons like 'Menu', 'Nav', 'Phone' etc are not supported.
'Menu' would've been nice to quickly jump to the home screen, but the rest I think is negligible.
The tilt-directions (UP/DOWN/LEFT/RIGHT) and scroll (LEFT/RIGHT) are supported and work just fine.
To jump to the black navigation bar you have to press 'Back' once to escape the focus from the main app so to speak.

It is very intuitive and works like you would expect it to.

I have not yet tried the steering wheel buttons.

Since you mentioned it in the other thread as well and to be 100% transparent: After switching back to original iDrive I still have some ghost inputs. But only like 2, only scroll up/down and you always land on the main menu (so scrolling 2 entries is not that bad). Yes it's a bug, but for now I can live with that. It is not as bad as with the 10.25" android unit.

Originally Posted by floc

thanks for the very comprehensive feedback

You are welcome

Originally Posted by mastrchee

Based on the video I've seen of the new bimmerpost mmi prime adapter, I think this is the same unit (except the software).

I think so, too.
Bimmertech has a different label printed on the unit but other than that everything seems to be the same.
Aside from the fact that their unit seems already outdated because it does not support wireless Android Auto.
Kind of ridiculous that they want 649$ for that.

[magnumchode]

Firefly1337,

I've been sort of following your progress from the "10.25" Android 9.0 HU discussion" thread to here. I read every post of the Android 9.0 HU thread & I pretty much came to the same conclusion as you, in that all the compromises you'd need to make with that unit just weren't worth it.

Would you say now that after having installed your new unit that it performs more like an OEM/stock unit & that you're happy overall? All I really want in the end is wireless AA & something my wife can easily control, which this seems to accomplish.

My only concern from what I've seen so far is that AA doesn't cope well with widescreens & seems stretched on an 8.8" screen, but I'm really only going off of that single pic you posted (since all the sellers seem to purposely use pics of the 6.5" screen to not depict this). How bad is the stretch? I do have an old iPhone6S I could leave permanently connected & use carplay too, since that seems to use the correct resolution/aspect ratio... but I dont know the trade offs.

Lastly, is this the same unit? Aliexpress' price goes up $30 from the cart to checkout for no reason & the estimated ship time to the US is a month+, so I figured if it's the same unit I can just order it direct:

https://www.android-car-dvd.com/coll...muitimedia-ios

Thanks a lot!

[Firefly1337]

Originally Posted by magnumchode

Would you say now that after having installed your new unit that it performs more like an OEM/stock unit & that you're happy overall? All I really want in the end is wireless AA & something my wife can easily control, which this seems to accomplish.

It's too early to tell, I only installed it yesterday and drove 20mins tops.
But for my personal use case (Android Auto) it is much better than the 10.25" android screen. I personally hate touch screens in cars und this unit works completely without it because it was designed for it.

Still have to figure out the correct (and best) boot behavior.
Android (and iPhones, too, btw) do not like WiFi networks that don't have internet access and won't automatically connect to them. You also have to explicitly tell the phone to stay connected to it (but only once).
Maybe there is a setting to auto-connect as well or maybe e.g. Tasker could be used to automate that process whenever BT is connected.

Originally Posted by magnumchode

My only concern from what I've seen so far is that AA doesn't cope well with widescreens & seems stretched on an 8.8" screen, but I'm really only going off of that single pic you posted (since all the sellers seem to purposely use pics of the 6.5" screen to not depict this). How bad is the stretch? I do have an old iPhone6S I could leave permanently connected & use carplay too, since that seems to use the correct resolution/aspect ratio... but I dont know the trade offs.

I attached some more pictures to give you a better impression.
Looking at them again I don't even think they are stretched anymore (just super wide), I was just used to the split-screen thing HeadUnit Reloaded uses.

Originally Posted by magnumchode

Lastly, is this the same unit? Aliexpress' price goes up $30 from the cart to checkout for no reason & the estimated ship time to the US is a month+, so I figured if it's the same unit I can just order it direct:

https://www.android-car-dvd.com/coll...muitimedia-ios

Yes, that's the same unit (EW-BMCP-NBT01A).
I paid 218€ (240$) directly on Ali, so the price there seems ok.

[CARR601]

Originally Posted by Firefly1337

It's too early to tell, I only installed it yesterday and drove 20mins tops.
But for my personal use case (Android Auto) it is much better than the 10.25" android screen...

Thanks for the photos. I haven't been able to decide because there are no photos of Android Auto on the wider displays. Think I will purchase one today from Ali. May just have to use the wired connection as the boot for the wireless seems a bit clunky. I'll see how I feel once I test.

[magnumchode]

Great, thanks again!

It does look pretty good. Even if there is a slight stretch to it, it's pretty hard to tell.

[mastrchee]

Originally Posted by Firefly1337

It's too early to tell, I only installed it yesterday and drove 20mins tops.
But for my personal use case (Android Auto) it is much better than the 10.25" android screen. I personally hate touch screens in cars und this unit works completely without it because it was designed for it.

Still have to figure out the correct (and best) boot behavior.
Android (and iPhones, too, btw) do not like WiFi networks that don't have internet access and won't automatically connect to them. You also have to explicitly tell the phone to stay connected to it (but only once).
Maybe there is a setting to auto-connect as well or maybe e.g. Tasker could be used to automate that process whenever BT is connected.

I attached some more pictures to give you a better impression.
Looking at them again I don't even think they are stretched anymore (just super wide), I was just used to the split-screen thing HeadUnit Reloaded uses.



Yes, that's the same unit (EW-BMCP-NBT01A).
I paid 218€ (240$) directly on Ali, so the price there seems ok.

I find this really interesting because I recently switched from a pixel 3 using Android auto (on another car) to an iPhone XS. The other car was a golf with built-in wired Android auto and whilst it worked most of the time, sometimes it would kick me me out and I would not be able to connect again until I power cycle.

Whilst I prefer the UI of Android Auto, wireless carplay has been spot-on with this unit. I've not had dropouts and the wireless connection has been solid. I miss Google assistant though.

Coming from Android, wireless carplay works slightly different to how it works on Android. It doesn't actually show that you're connected to a WiFi network, in fact my WiFi is greyed out and warns me that that it will disconnect carplay if I turn it back on. It also seems to be connected almost instantly.

Looking at your pictures, I can see that AA UI is stretched to fit the screen. I wonder if this is a AA limitation? Wireless carplay is definitely not stretched and graphics seems rather sharp, even better than the native idrive.

Not trying to rub it in, just comparing the differences.

[Firefly1337]

Originally Posted by mastrchee

Not trying to rub it in, just comparing the differences.

Don't worry, I actually like the CarPlay UI more, too.
AA is not stretched but just unnecessarily wide.

I would love to use the split-screen/widescreen as previously shown here. But even then, there is a lot of space just wasted. CarPlay definitely makes better use of the available space.

I don't think there is a setting for it, maybe they can provide a software update. I will try and reach out to them.

[floc]

Originally Posted by Firefly1337

It's too early to tell, I only installed it yesterday and drove 20mins tops.

I'm very tempted to ditch my android HU as well... Just waiting a bit for your opinion after a week or so

Originally Posted by Firefly1337

But for my personal use case (Android Auto) it is much better than the 10.25" android screen. I personally hate touch screens in cars und this unit works completely without it because it was designed for it.

the same here

Originally Posted by Firefly1337

Looking at them again I don't even think they are stretched anymore (just super wide), I was just used to the split-screen thing HeadUnit Reloaded uses.

the HUR interface is awesome imho, did you tried to force higher resolution on AA developer option? Maybe they force the new layout.

EDIT: found a source https://www.reddit.com/r/Android/com..._pretty_sweet/

[Kraftwerk AG]

Originally Posted by Redline10000

Get in on a group buy and help drop the price to 148!

Who's gonna organize the group buy? Put me in for another.

[Redline10000]

Originally Posted by DeeO

Who's gonna organize the group buy? Put me in for another.

I will email them and see if it's legit and then from there I'm happy to organize a group buy.

[Kraftwerk AG]

Originally Posted by Redline10000

I will email them and see if it's legit and then from there I'm happy to organize a group buy.

Thanks Red! This brand (rebranded Andream) and price point has me intrigued. Appreciate it.

[JLBMW]

I'm in for a group buy, just don't have time to organize one!!!

https://cornucopia.manufacturer.glob...-Interface.htm