It is my belief that if you add any more screens, gadgets or doohickies to the interior of your vehicle, it will have to be registered with the FAA. I am sure you recall the reaction I had when I climbed into your truck a couple years ago as we buzzed through MN on our way back home to GA?

I had a similar reaction to a friend of ours in SC. He is a retired deputy sheriff and had more screens and doodads than you do, if you can believe that. I chuckled and told him that he must be reaching back to his LEO and patrol car days.

 

That’s why you reroute those into the spacesuit you wear to drive this rig.

LOL I remember that now that you mention it. I DO like my doodads.

 

Since my A6 pro gesture got wet it is now black screened. Still works, just can't see what your doing. And the hard buttons don't work anymore. Well, a couple of them dont anyway. TLDR, what's my best replacement?

 

Will be a tight squeeze getting the antenna to fit, but it should be waterproof enough for Tristan

 

Do you want to stay with an android radio, or would carplay/android auto be an option? I say that because I moved from the Atoto A6 which I enjoyed, to a Jensen 910x with carplay that works with my iphone and runs limited apps - so check that.

I can run FORScan Lite on the phone for some gauges/diagnostics, while having maps up and an audio book/music going. Android does that pretty well too - I just liked this interface and physical arrangement. Consider a larger screen too - really like the 9" screen.



But...this is an ATOTO thread, so ignore all of that propaganda. A6 or S8 with hard buttons is what I would recommend, if staying with an android radio. I liked the A6 with its dedicated hard buttons. The S8 premium with dedicated but capacitive touch buttons, not so much - hard to consistently select with my fat fingers.

I see ATOTO makes a carplay version - doh, there I go again...

 

Jeff, I encourage discussion about various options people are considering when shopping for a head unit. Not only because the A6 is no longer available, but because it is not right for everyone.

Coincidentally, I had a Jensen head unit in my truck I removed for the A6. I want to say it was a 730, but not sure. It worked well for a few years and at least one cross country trip, but after getting spoiled by live Google Maps, I knew I needed a change.

Frankly, if I had known I was going with a USB OBDII dongle and didn't need the two BT receivers in the A6, I may have gone another route.

Tristan, what Jeff said is my advice as well.

 

The only two reasons I wanted an Android head unit was for gps, which I don't really need an Android head unit for, and running forscan on the dash. I personally don't care for all that extra fancy stuff on the dash, like I don't need to be able to download apps and stuff but, it seems that's the only way to really run forscan on the dash without getting a CTS 3 or something.


So, as much as I would love to simplify it and get something without all the fancy stuff, it seems I am stuck with it if I want to run forscan on the dash.


I also prefer having the USB wired connection to the OBD port. I'm much prefer the hard connection over trying to use Bluetooth every time.


So, since I pretty much have to stick with an Android head unit, I'd like it to at least work well. Does the S8 have a faster response time then the A6? My A6 has been pretty good, although I have found it to be slow at times, some settings to be finicky and continue to ask you the same question that you told it not to ask you again.....



One of the S8 models is $48 off on Amazon right now. If It has a little faster response time and maybe a faster connection time, it may be worth the extra money to me.


I got to say, I really hate the stock size of the radio. I can barely read it. I think I'd really like to get a bigger screen. Although I don't think the attardo has a 9 inch version. I think it has a 8-in version and a 10 inch version or something like that. Of course I could be completely wrong on that. And yes, I mistyped Atoto and got a good laugh at it and decided to leave it


I think 10 inches would be a little big (that's what she said) and would probably block off part of the vent which, i wouldn't worry about too much other than that you're blowing heat directly onto the back of the screen. ​​​​​​


The heater in these trucks gets pretty hot. I remember a couple years ago I had to drive barefoot for one reason or another, and when I push the clutch in the heater blowing on my toes felt like it was burning them



So, admittedly, I kind of figured out some of my preferences while writing this sitting in my truck looking at my current Atoto so, now I'm off to Amazon to see what size screens there are and compare features! Now that I know I want a larger screen, I have to go back to Amazon and start over because I was previously avoiding the larger screen. As my mom always tells me when she finally figures out what I'm getting at when I'm talking about truck parts, "I see said the blind man."

Thanks for your help!

 

The tight squeeze is what keeps it waterproof.

 

Interested to see what you decide on, Tristan.

I found the S8 to be no faster than the A6. Both use a proprietary version of the Android OS, and I think attardo (love that) loaded up the S8 version to use up the additional speed/memory available with that model.

Screen size - agree 10" is too big and partially blocks the Ford vents, but 7" is small to see the content we want to see on these radios now. 9" was just right. My son has the 10.1" Jensen in his '04 silverado and it has clearance around the vents in that truck. Boy, I'm not seeing a 9" ATOTO that has hard buttons, just soft. That would kill that option for me.

I miss the wired OBDII dongle supported by the android radios. I'm using a bluetooth dongle, and sometimes it does not connect unless unplugged/plugged back in. I'm troubleshooting that issue now. But never had an issue (other than slower but adequate sample rate and start-up speed) with the no-longer-sold BAFX bluetooth dongle.

 

 

Well, it doesn't have to be an attardo, what if I decided to be a guinea pig and try something on the cheaper side? Just as a random example, this popped up underneath the attardo 9 in. Anybody got a 9-in Android head unit preferably available on Amazon but not a deal breaker that they would like me to be the guinea pig on?

UNITOPSCI 9 Inch Double Din Android Car Stereo with Wireless Apple CarPlay, Android Auto Bluetooth Radio GPS Navigation Head Unit Touch Screen Mirror Link 2G+32G/WiFi/FM/USB/SWC/DVR + Backup Camera https://a.co/d/e6BI0qC

 

I have one of these we can work up a deal or trade on if your interested. Text me. I've had a couple different android one and this one was a better one. Not the best but did decent. Probably about the same as a atoto.




I have a teyes Cc3 2k in my truck now. It looks identical to that one but a lot better hardware and more ram. But there expensive. But it has 0 lag and doesn't ever freeze. It's just as fast as a name brand tablet. I have a my cable TV app on it and can watch cable tv if I wanted to. 😂

 

I'm curious how much you paid for it? Have a link to it? I'm just curious at this point. I always like to know what I'm missing out on

 

It was around $500 for everything shipped to me. It's the teyes Cc3 and the 2k screen upgrade option. You can add 360* camera options. Tpms. All kinds of stuff to them.

https://www.teyes.com.au/pages/teyes-cc3-brochure

 

Well, my decision making was done pretty easily this go round thanks to Trevor. I Had to figure a way of mounting it but, she's nice and solid. It's a little aggravating having the larger screen like that only because it means you have to plug everything in on the dash bezel with the heavy radio weighing it down and, it means every time you take your dash bezel off all of the plugs on the back of the radio have to be unplugged whereas with a standard size screen with the radio mounted inside the dash like I did with my attardo, I could pull the dash off without even touching the radio. It was real nice if I had to do something else and I didn't feel like messing with all the extra stuff on the radio but, it's only like five or six things that have to be unplugged extra so it's no big deal. I did go ahead and make sure to zip tie all the separate harnesses in their own little bundles so they would be easy to keep separated when unplugged and so they wouldn't go everywhere.

I love having this larger screen, it's so much easier on my eyes. nice steering wheel controls as well. The way I mounted it is a little crude but, I wasn't worried about it because the screen completely blocked everything and nobody can see a thing. Trevor was the one that gave me the idea of using the screws that hold the vents in place to hold the radio down as well. This worked fantastic on the passenger side but, on the driver side I stripped out the screw and the plastic broke. I think I only paid like $40 for this dash bezel in a Walmart parking lot so, I don't really care about it and it has a crack or two anyway but it was better than the one I had at the time if I remember correctly. I forget what I did to mine to have to get one but, now if anything happens the parts truck has a good bezel in it as well.

So here are a couple of pictures.


I need a new steering wheel..... Also, you'll see my super cheap seat covers I found at Old Time pottery that is going out of business. When I actually have them tight and in place they don't look like that, they are decent at least but, I was on my knees looking over the dash bezel trying to hook up wires and stuff and scruffled them around. Definitely better than it was!




I was going to do this on the other side of the radio but, the plastic broke away when I tried to tighten the screw in.

This is the hole that got stripped out. From the back of the bezel it's at the top right of the radio opening and it holds the top corner of the Vent in place. I don't think it really matters, the vent is still where it needs to be with the other two screws holding it, it's just unfortunate that I was not able to use that hole for mounting my new radio.

There are lots of options for the steering wheel controls. Each button has a short press and long press function so a total of 12 buttons essentially. Completely programmable completely against what the stickers show. All in all it seems to be a great head unit and I love the larger screen. Thanks trevor!