Quick update on my Pioneer AppRadio Android mirroring exploits:
Managed to turn my original plan into reality today and now have full screen mirroring and touch controls on the Pioneer AVH-X8600BT head unit from a LG G3 phone. The idea was to have the phone's screen fully mirrored on the head unit's 7" display, while at the same time allow for full control of the phone from the HU touchscreen and hands-free phone calls via Bluetooth.
Further details on this:
http://www.cnet.com/news/unlock-ful...ng-on-your-dashboard-with-this-appradio-hack/
What was needed:
Phone:
Apps for the phone:
Cables:
By far the biggest source of problems with getting this to work are phone cables. The cheap ones from ebay or amazon just do not work! If you want this to work properly, do not be cheap and try to save 15 quid by not buying original cables or ones that are known to work. Android phone manufacturers tend to use one of three different port standards MHL, Slimport and some phones actually have a dedicated HDMI port on them.
The
LinkS Slimport adapter definitely works on LG and is likely to work on any Nexus device. It is the only cable I needed to get my connection working, without having to buy the cable kit that Pioneer sells for something like 80 quid, which will not work for LG anyway
This cable connects to USB2 port and HDMI on the back of the HU and the slimport plug into the phone.
With the above sorted, I can now just get in to the car, connect the phone to the slimport cable and place it out of the way. The screen is mirrored to the HU with full touch controls working too. I can now use my phone's all-you-can-eat 4G data with any app to stream music or video, read email, use the very cool Torque app to get nice real-time car data dials and graphs on the HU screen... Really, anything you could do with your phone, you can now do through the HU without having to deal with phone mounts or flailing cables. The HU works with the steering controls, so skipping songs or controlling volume works in the same way. The skip forward/back function works with any currently active music app, so will work with Google Music or Spotify. Oh!, it also makes hands-free calls via BT!
No video for now, seeing as it would be a bit weird trying to use my phone to do the demo and make the video
In any case, there are a few videos of how this works on youtube. Here's one in French, enjoy! :
