Mark Doiron

You're right you don't want to be locked into data connectivity. There are mapping options that give you control of that. Copilot GPS has pretty good maps for offline use. Backcountry Navigator allows use of the free CalTopo maps, which I've found surprisingly complete and accurate in the U.S--besting Garmin GPS devices on several occasions. The downside is you need to select areas for download in advance, which can take a couple hours (and I have a -ac Wi-Fi net in my house with 100 MB Internet). And maps are large--You have to occasionally clear old ones out to make room for new destinations. That is also a small pain to do.

gjasonjames

Agree With Ya, it really comes down to what are your ultimate goals are as with anything, I like the android OS, I have many of the Samsung devices both Phones and Tablets and like them all, but for what we need as a center piece of function and entertainment for our vehicles its not the same, I've never seen or heard an Android device that has the sound quality I would expect from a true mobile audio system. and to your point the GPS will be great to get you to the Mall, but that's about it. I'm in not way bashing the entry of andriod into the car audio market, but its has a long way to go to get to whats basic in todays market and offerings.

Mark Doiron

Backcountry Navigator on my Nexus 7 has gotten my friends and me a few places, but never the mall ...

A planned route before running it ...




All remaining show the recorded route after running it ...


















... and many, many more!

P.S.--And since I freely share the route files my Nexus 7 creates, I'm pretty certain it's successfully gotten a lot of other people to pretty out-of-the-way destinations. I've never heard anyone complain they were misdirected to the nearest mall. ;-)

Skippman

Mark, that's downright sexy right there!

Now, the Android head units can be controlled via steering wheel controls using a CAN-BUS adapter like this one from PAC. The Android OS on these devices has a service menu allowing you to adjust the controls themselves which is nice.

I'm just spit balling here. I've used devices from companies like Alpine, Kenwood, and others. They're often very expensive ($1500+), limited, and glitchy. The factory NAV itself is $1000 or more. I figure I can do more with a similar unit to this than I can with either of those other options. From running various types of nav, to OBD II, to being able to store the manuals in PDF's on the unit. As far as maps eating up data you could always use something like TomTom's Android app that lets you download the entire map for offline use.

Mark Doiron

Are you referring to highway nav, or topo maps? Highway maps, GPS Copilot does a good job and the maps are entirely on the device. A data connection offers other features, such as accessing Wikipedia for info about a location, etc, isn't needed for basic route finding.

As for topo maps, they're just pretty large files is the problem. I had the maps for about five or six of my trips, including parts of Washington, the Arkansas Ozarks, southeast Oklahoma, Big Bend region of Texas, and the Gila Mountains in New Mexico and that was about 25 or so GB or data at 1:24K topos, as well as higher scales (note that you can't just have one map for a place--you need that map at various scales so that the text remains readable as you zoom in and out). I would probably need something approaching a TB or two to have the same level of detail for the entire lower 48, much less Canada and Alaska.

Skippman

I guess I wasn't aware the topo maps were quite so large. I have an offline topo map app for my iPhone and it eats up about 400mb.

Mark Doiron

Some of it has to do with some inefficiencies in the way Android stores small files. That is, small files still take up quite a bit of space, and the way BCN stores maps is as thousands of small tiles that are accessed as you scale and pan. This is similar to an approach we used on a military command and control system I was involved with back in my USAF days and it is very efficient for system performance. But, at least in the case of Android, not so efficient for storage. Still, I don't think the CalTopo maps would fit on a 400-MB space.

David Manley

I put the Motorola XY board in and attached it via ram mounts to a Vector Offroad JK e-dock

jkchr1s

I just took the plunge on a similar one, do a search on Amazon for "For Jeep Wrangler 2007-2012/Ourney 2008-2011/Jeep Sebring 2007-2012/300C 2008-2010/Grand Cherokee 2008-2012/Compass 2009-2012/Caliber 2009-2012 Android 4.2.2 Dual Core system multi-Touch Screen Car DVD GPS Navigation Build-In Bluetooth,Radio with RDS,Analog TV, AUX&USB, iPhone/iPod Controls, Steering Wheel Control, Free Map" (don't want to put a direct link in here).

It's scheduled to be delivered today. There are already tons of mods for this HU, Google "HuiFei - 2 DIN Pure Android 4.2.2/4.4.2/4.4.4 RK3066 Car Stereo Radio Head Unit" to see.

These units ship from China, so warranty claims can be very shady. They make them (like the one mentioned above) to be a very close-to-factory look, so at a glance, I'm hoping a thief can't easy distinguish the unit from a stock NAV unit. However, these have pre-programmed CAN bus that are supposedly plug-and-play for steering wheel controls and everything. I have a 2014 with Alpine Premium package Sahara, so I'm wondering if it will interface correctly with the stock amp.

There's also an American reseller, Insane Jeep Audio, that I'm pretty sure simply buys these units (they look 100% identical from the pictures) and sells them with a huge markup. If you look around, this company swears otherwise... but if you take a close look at pictures on their site and forums, you'll notice even down to the wiring harness that the font on the labels, the screen shots, everything is 100% identical.

I'll post a thread once I get the unit in, DHL says it's on the courier's truck for delivery today. Here's a pic:

DadsCJ

Well, how does to function, look, and is it the Insane model?