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Aftermarket touch screen do-everything's?

It's good there are options on price...people have different criteria, it gives us options.

At some point I'm going to have to re-wire my truck, one of these units will most likely be part of that. I don't use my truck enough to get use out of a $1200 unit, but a $300 unit still feels reasonable.
 
I used to aim low on stuff like that, but I use tech so frequently in my daily life that I cannot stand devices that are slow to respond to inputs or don't work well when too cold or too hot. There is an enormous quality difference from low to high range electronics. Name brands still carry higher price tags but it's a safer bet that it'll work on a cold winter morning whereas cheaper displays won't even turn on when it's much below zero degrees.
 
It reminds me of when I mounted a galaxy tab inside the dash of my DD for engine monitoring, music, nav, etc. Every day in the winter it would always pop up "too cold to charge". Mounted between the heat ducts and in front of the defroster duct, before I'd get to work it would pop up "too hot to charge". These pop up every few minutes and you can't touch other controls until you acknowledge them.

I also remember MANY years ago doing a lot of work to have a touchscreen "carputer". It would occasionally lock up and skip the same 1/2-second of a song in perpetuity, with of course all buttons non-responsive including volume and mute.

So yeah, we're doing these things for convenience and when they don't work right *almost all* of the time, it's not worth it.
 
For me a lot of this stuff is testing to see if the functionality is worth it. If something works really well, then sure, upgrading can be worth it. I'd have to play with bluetooth GMRS to see if it actually works well. Is navigation used enough that the larger screen is helpful?

My concern is really the environment...humidity and shock/vibration are the main ones. I would expect higher end stuff to hold up better in those regards. But with gas prices being what they are, the truck being used once or twice a year for longer periods of time, it's very hard to justify investing real money into things that don't enable it to get from A to B.

I have a penchant for mounting things solidly, but without modifying the truck physically. So it's not a big deal for me to come up with a bracket to bolt things to existing holes, and if I don't like it, remove it. With no AC, gauge bezel or dash pad, it makes testing this stuff out MUCH easier. Thus low-cost stuff that fails or doesn't function the way I want isn't so bad to remove. Relatively cheap experiment.

I do like the convenience of newer vehicles, so adding stuff like this does have appeal.
 
dyeager535 said:
You mean like inside a vehicle? Compasses don't work well there either.

You've tested airtags in various locations to see what sort of distance you get out of them? There are no barriers to easy access that aren't solidly enclosed, like under the dashpad, in the bedsides, in the headliner, behind the grill, under any of the interior trim, etc.?
Click to expand...
Google what a Faraday cage is. It’s a metal enclosure to keep radio waves from escaping. You can have a transmitter inside most anything and the waves can travel through it without degradation of the signal. Things like a dash pad, glass, cloth, non-metallic items, etc are invisible to radio waves (for the most part). You want your phone to suddenly drop off the map or stop receiving calls, wrap it in aluminum foil. Ever wonder why the door on your microwave oven has a screen with holes in it and it’s not just plain clear plastic? It’s because the radio waves are larger than the holes and can’t pass through them.
 
Yeah. I plan to make my blazer and suburban my daily drivers while the wife has a nice newer car that is more reliable. So for me the addition of wireless apple carplay is a must-have so long as I can do it reasonably. And being that it can get down to -40 where I live, I need the electronics to work.

If this were nothing more than a toy, I'd be FAR less likely to worry about such niceties.
 
I've got a couple of Atotos. They're not bad for the price. Took a little playing with to tie up to phone properly and have one bug. The built in mp3 player doesnt like how many songs I have on the media I plug.
 
JoshHefnerX said:
I've got a couple of Atotos. They're not bad for the price. Took a little playing with to tie up to phone properly and have one bug. The built in mp3 player doesnt like how many songs I have on the media I plug.
Click to expand...

What version do you have? Seems there are quite a few, and I'd expect the lower end ones to have "glitches" like you mention.

Have you used any of the other features like backup camera? I like having mine, but a bigger display would be handy.

I normally just bluetooth my music, but I'd also want to be doing things like google maps on it with bluetooth as well. Unfortunately I think this is down the road aways.
 
dyeager535 said:
What version do you have? Seems there are quite a few, and I'd expect the lower end ones to have "glitches" like you mention.

Have you used any of the other features like backup camera? I like having mine, but a bigger display would be handy.

I normally just bluetooth my music, but I'd also want to be doing things like google maps on it with bluetooth as well. Unfortunately I think this is down the road aways.
Click to expand...


Sorry, been offline. A6 Pro


Have a feeling the bug is the built in player doesn't like the number of songs I put in there. Its in the 10's of thousands. It populates the list up to about G and starts choking. Put a camera on one. Works fine. No bugs.

Also use a gps speedo at times. Works ok.
 
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