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A comment on 'volume control'.
As those who use it know, the volume control in the Parrot Asteroid is demanding in the Roadster. Trying to slide your finger on the volume slider while the car bounces about, and continually having to adjust the volume as ambient noise changes with speed, is a hassle. External HID keyboards are better, but generally ugly.
The solution I finally ended up with is to (a) install Asteroid Tweaker, (b) re-map the volume button to be volume-down, (c) re-map the running-apps button to be volume-up, (d) setup speed-aware volume adjustment as +1 for each 10kph above 20kph. With (b) through (d) all done through Asteroid Tweaker.
You can get Asteroid Tweaker here: Parrot Asteroid Customisation
It is side-loaded and has several very very good features.
All you lose is the ability to call up the recent apps with one button, but you can get that by just holding down the second button from the top (home). With this approach, volume up and down adjustment is just a single press, and the need to adjust volume reduced anyway because it does it for you as the car speeds up and slows down.
I'm done with this now. It is as perfect as it can be.
Regards, Mark.
As those who use it know, the volume control in the Parrot Asteroid is demanding in the Roadster. Trying to slide your finger on the volume slider while the car bounces about, and continually having to adjust the volume as ambient noise changes with speed, is a hassle. External HID keyboards are better, but generally ugly.
The solution I finally ended up with is to (a) install Asteroid Tweaker, (b) re-map the volume button to be volume-down, (c) re-map the running-apps button to be volume-up, (d) setup speed-aware volume adjustment as +1 for each 10kph above 20kph. With (b) through (d) all done through Asteroid Tweaker.
You can get Asteroid Tweaker here: Parrot Asteroid Customisation
It is side-loaded and has several very very good features.
All you lose is the ability to call up the recent apps with one button, but you can get that by just holding down the second button from the top (home). With this approach, volume up and down adjustment is just a single press, and the need to adjust volume reduced anyway because it does it for you as the car speeds up and slows down.
I'm done with this now. It is as perfect as it can be.
Regards, Mark.
Not to mention this thing is running on some old hardware. What kind of CPU and how many cores is it running? RAM? That's why it's appealing to some to mount an Android tablet in the dash, more power.
I've read that the parrot has a 7 band equalizer (like the Classic) with a crossover on the sub. That's it. Most $150 head units will have some sort treble and bass adjustment. I had a cheap JVC that allowed a 3 band parametric equalizer.
I would say this unit would beat all other Android units in the same category as far as sound quality and telephony integration. However, for $600, you could have had a pioneer, or a kenwood DD with crossovers and a little less internets and stuffs. Heck, forget DD, get a pioneer deh 80prs, which has some phone integration, to get a top notch audio system with some change left over for an amp for your sub. You gotta pick your battles
For $500, and change, you get a 2DIN unit with fantastic telephony, great sound, google maps navigation, built-in navigation, waze, pandora, spotify, tunein, podcasts, etc, etc, etc. And the unit is open to add whatever other apps you need. Nothing else I've seen comes close.
The Parrot is not perfect, but it is the best I've seen.
Sticking a 7" android tablet onto the dash, running audio from a 3.5mm headphone jack, just doesn't do it for me.
The Parrot is not perfect, but it is the best I've seen.
Sticking a 7" android tablet onto the dash, running audio from a 3.5mm headphone jack, just doesn't do it for me.
Maybe not, but you would have way more functionality not to mention power.
After alot of digging, it looks like the Parrot runs on a 800mhz processor. Couple that with Android 2.3 and this head unit was outdated the minute it was released...
Outdated for what? As an Android tablet, sure. But, not as a car head unit. For that purpose, it is way ahead of anything else I've seen from the major suppliers.
Sure, I'd much prefer it if it ran Android 4.x, lots of ram, and had a quad core processor - in the Tesla I'm not worried about power usage.
But, bottom line is that it works fine for what it was intended for - a head unit. The processor and screen is a hell of a lot more responsive than the US$3,000 Alpine head unit it replaced. Let's not even talk about the Alpine Windows CE navigation module...
Jaff
Active Member
+1 for sure...far more flexible and enjoyable to use than the stock Alpine... upgrade the speakers and add a couple of amps, the sound is great!
Vger
Active Member
Well, I finally got home from my long overseas trip, and picked up my wonderfully renovated Roadster, with an elegantly installed Parrot Asteroid Smart. The team at Vancouver Tesla Service did an outstanding job, and I am super pleased. After having played with the unit on the way home and for the past two days in the garage, I am really glad I made this investment in the modernization of my Roadster, and grateful to markwj for pioneering this whole thing :biggrin:.
I will have more pictures to post soon, as well as more observations and adventures in the software customization arena. For now, here is one photo communicative of how thorough Tesla Vancouver was in doing the upgrade:
Also, one quick issue and a question for Mark: I have rooted and installed the Google Play store, as well as a number of useful unofficial apps. However, the Play Store on the car will not show Google Maps, and the store on the web explicitly says Google Maps is "Incompatible with your device." Perhaps Google has upgraded it beyond what will run on the flavour of Android on the Asteroid? Mark, or others, any insights?
I will have more pictures to post soon, as well as more observations and adventures in the software customization arena. For now, here is one photo communicative of how thorough Tesla Vancouver was in doing the upgrade:
Also, one quick issue and a question for Mark: I have rooted and installed the Google Play store, as well as a number of useful unofficial apps. However, the Play Store on the car will not show Google Maps, and the store on the web explicitly says Google Maps is "Incompatible with your device." Perhaps Google has upgraded it beyond what will run on the flavour of Android on the Asteroid? Mark, or others, any insights?
It definitely runs (I use it daily).
You do need the correct version of play services. It has been a while since I did it, but this (long) thread is helpful and contains some pointers to sites with the correct versions:
(car audio) Parrot ASTEROID Smart - xda-developers
Vger
Active Member
I think I figured it out. It is not about the store version, but about the version of Google Maps itself.
Recently, Google did a major rewrite from V6.x to V7.x. It seems that V7.x is not compatible with the old Gingerbread-derived version of Android that comes with the Asteroid Smart. That is why even the web store on my laptop will not provide the current version. I found a forum thread where someone had developed a spoofing tool that allows installation of incompatible apps, but that sounded like a deal with the devil, so I did not go that way.
Since apparently, a lot of people do not like the substantial UI changes in the new Maps V7.x, a number have taken it upon themselves to post side-loadable apk's based on Google Maps V6.x. I found a reasonable one here: Good Old Google Maps. I got it installed, and it seems to work fine, with a very adequate set of features, including the ability to login to my account and pick up My Places, etc.
This might not be the only approach to work, but it is fine for me.
Jaff
Active Member
Vger, have you tried Waze (from the Asteroid store) yet...I have been using it based on Mark's testimonial...finding it very good and entertaining...when travelling to Toronto from Niagara this morning, the notifications of "locations of Police vehicles", and of "debris on the roads" have been very accurate and helpful indeed!
Vger
Active Member
PokerBroker
Member
Covert Tuning Dynamics in Columbus, OH did a great job on my new DoubleDIN upgrade and Parrot install... Overachieved on the custom USB port I wanted installed in the tray in my 1.5!
shrink
Member
+ 1 on that. Would you consider the Pioneer Carplay units? I'm thinking of going that route rather than waiting for Alpine.
was debating on that too but figured that maybe the rear camera wouldn't require an adapter or what not to work with the Alpine system....
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