Sweet!

Now if only I can find a way to read aux sensor inputs in addition to the OBD-II to complete the wish-list. For example, these head units allow software (FORScan, Torque, etc) to read OBD-II data, but we still need separate gauges for add-ons like EGT, boost, and fuel pressure. If there is a device which will incorporate information from aux sending units back into the OBD-II data stream, have yet to find it. Worst case is that I will keep using an Edge monitor separate from any head unit.


Android 6.0? That is going back to when the incoming President was still VP. No more security updates for it either. Just say-in.

For the conflict scenario, am not quite sure I am following. Was the SD card's floundering caused by trying to access it by both the A6 and an external device (ex: mobile phone) at the same time? Or was it simply from trying to access it from the A6 (example: native dash-cam software and the A6 file manager)? Or...?



And, just noticed something on the ATOTO's OS. A quick search on the AICE OS brings me back to ATOTO as the only source of this as a firmware. So perhaps they are rolling their own outside of the Android eco system?

 

I have not run across a head unit that does this, but that does not mean it is not out there. If you find one, by all means post a link and some information here. I am always willing to learn about something like this, even if there is a 0% chance that I will be purchasing it. I will store the information/product in the back of my brain for future reference for other FTE'rs here online or in person. I have had the pleasure to meet quite a few FTE'rs in person and the list only continues to grow as the days go on.

As for making videos, if that is something you are in to. Leonard (FordTruckNoob) has been using "dashware" (DashWare - Telemetry Data Overlay on Your Videos) with some good success. He claims the learning curve is fairly steep, but is a pretty nice utility to have at your disposal.

You mentioned an Edge, and I think that is about as close as we can get. Unless you perhaps installed a single board computer like a "Raspberry Pi" and found a way for it to interpret the EGT, boost and FP. The micro processors in the gauges may be translatable to a program running on the Raspberry Pi, but that would take some real work in the configuration area and is definitely not plug and play.


The ATOTO A6 series has been out for quite a while and comes loaded with Android 6.0. The ATOTO S8 comes with Android 8.1. The version of Android doesn't bother me much since I will not be using it for anything other than live Google Maps, FORScan and the occasional audio book or podcast from YouTube. The FM radio and media players doesn't require a newer version of Android, so I suspect that is not an issue either.

I found that Android 6.0 has the capability to install and utilize the latest applications from the Google Play Store, just like the latest version of Android. The older version of Android may be a negative for some, but for me I am good with it. There are updates available on the ATOTO website, but I do my best to go by the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" saying and also I don't want to "fix it until it is broke". I may be able to download a newer version of Android, but that is not on my list of things to get sorted out before installing the head unit.

For now, the OS works and is quick to use and that is all I can ask for. I have changed the aesthetics as much as I can and am able to anyway. Newer versions of Android are available on other head units, like the one posted by blaczero in post #98. I don't know the latest version of Android available, but the prices go up as the Android OS number goes up too. I still use a Samsung S7 that I got 50% off from Verizon on Black Friday when they first came out. The phone works great and I don't need a fancy, shiny one. Just like the 7.3L truck... Old and somewhat outdated when compared to a 6.7L, but still works great and is reliable.

Security updates are not a concern of mine as most people will not be within range of receiving a BT signal, even then the head unit will not be broadcasting the BT signal and will not be "discoverable". If this is a concern of yours, I don't think an Android head unit is right for you in anyway. I have a BS in Information Systems Technology Security and ran multiple TS/SCI and SAP level networks for the last 7 years of my military career and feel I have a pretty good understanding of security in IT and what my requirements are. Your requirements may be different, and that is OK.

Security, the biggest risk to security is the head unit being stolen and there is not much more that I can do to physically safeguard the truck or device. Hopefully I never have to face that sort of thing, but if I do, I will deal with it at the time and move forward with my 1st world problems. I also have multiple Windows 7 machines running at my home and they work fine. I carry a 16 year old 7" netbook under the seat of my truck when traveling running on Windows 7 Ultimate, just in case.

Thanks for sayin though, as this may be something others are concerned about.

The floundering was not caused by the microSD itself. I "think" there was an issue with using the same application, but two different versions and both of them being set as default for viewing the files on the microSD in an explorer view. I am not 100% sure this is what was happening quite yet, but the issue has gone away since removing "File Manager+" and leaving "File Manager" in place. Since these are freeware and readily available I plan to download File Manager+ in the future and test it again. Perhaps it will fail and need to be removed, perhaps not.

File Manager comes preloaded based on the custom launcher for the Android system. I have not decided to root the OS or not yet, but that is a possibility. There is not really any bloatware to speak of and each application has a function that a basic computer or head unit would emulate, but I do like to tailor these things more than the average Joe due to my background.

This is how things go in IT sometimes. I always used to say that computers are worse than teenagers because at least when a teenager does whatever it wants for no good reason, they have the capacity to be remorseful. A computer will do what it wants, when it wants and not feel bad in anyway shape or form.

As for the ATOTO version of Android, it is no different really than what Samsung, LG, Kyocera, Sony or any other manufacturer does with the Android OS. They take the bare bones Android OS and make it their own with proprietary software and operating functions. This allows them to have a bit of an edge over the competition because they can say "LOOK WHAT OUR DEVICE DOES!!!" as well as the hardware features.

Think of it as the Earth is the Android OS and each country (USA, Russia, China, etc) is their own version of the Android OS. Each version (country) has their own little tricks and features they feel are for the greater good of their customers (citizens). Will there be issues and conflicts, yup. That is why updates are available and proprietary through the device manufacturer like Samsung, LG, etc... This kind of relates back to the root possibility that I may consider. With a root kit, I can make it "Android 1.0 Sous". I can change anything and everything as I see fit. I can have my own country on the planet Android...

Maybe... I don't think I want to get that deep into the woods as the head unit is suiting my needs quite well for the time being, but I am still testing and setting things up.

I understand this is above what most people are looking to get into and that is OK because it is not required, just an option available to me. I hope this clears up your questions or concerns that you were sayin. If not, I would be happy to attempt to address them again, if I know the answer that is. If not, I will do a bit of research and my best to figure it out.

Thanks for your comments and thoughts, I enjoy this sort of conversation.

 

Agree that Raspberry is probably the only real alternative. But that is outside the scope of this build.

Am looking forward to seeing this in the truck

 

There is a way to add those sensors and gauges not monitored by the PCM. I did this for one of the joying headunit’s I installed with torque pro. Lemme see if I can find the interface thingy.

 

https://www.plxdevices.com/ProductDe...e=897346002085

I think this is what the Joying users did to add EGT and fuel pressure to torque Pro.

 

Awesome find!

This looks like it can clean up the dash and pillar by not needing extra dedicated gauges by adding this information to the head unit. Bonus is that this module looks like it is expandable to allow more than one unit in the data stream. Not so sure that needing more than one module's worth of sensor inputs is necessary on an OBD-II vehicle, but nice to know.

 

I ran into a minor issue between the dash camera and the head unit and have been working off and on to resolve it. In days of past, I may have been overtaken by my temper and said things like FML (F&CK MY LIFE) and smashed/broken something, but I walked away from it when I got frustrated and baked some chocolate chip cookies instead. Once the cookies were out of the oven and still warm, I grabbed a few and got back to it in a state of GFML (Grateful For My Life).

1st world problems are great problems to have...

There appears to be a minor issue (why I call it minor explained later) between the ATOTO AC-44P2 dash camera and the ATOTO A6 Pro. I feel this is a very uncommon issue because I could find NOTHING, nada, zilch about this issue anywhere on the internet. I even scoured the ATOTO support forums and there was nothing about what I am seeing as a minor issue. Nothing in the Amazon reviews, numerous videos, dash camera forums, etc...

The A6 Pro is attempting to access the dash camera as a multi-media device like a USB drive or microSD card automatically and opens the music player because it thinks there is music to play. More on this below...

The ATOTO dash camera has an onboard memory allotment which is very small and designed to retain the application to view the recorded footage if the HD DVR application happened to be deleted from the A6 Pro. This is a fairly common practice in my experience. Some of you may have seen files and folders on some of your USB flash/thumb/jump drives and wondered what they were. This is the same thing and fairly common in modern times. Those files are loaded by the manufacturer and are there to aid in the use of the device with some low resource software or instructions.

The dash camera also has a microSD slot that is capable of utilizing up to a 256GB card, which is where the recorded video footage is stored.

I originally thought the A6 Pro was opening the music player and accessing the memory of the dash camera because I hadn't formatted the microSD card. I formatted the microSD card utilizing FAT32 which is the protocol the camera requires. This is all done through the HD DVR application on the A6 Pro. The issue still persisted. I did this a couple more times to ensure I was not missing something. The issue still persisted. I have miscellaneous software and tools on my laptop since my background in IT will not let go of my brain at times. I used a "formatting tool" in order to format the microSD card to FAT32 with an allocation size of 32768 which is what a 256GB storage device like a microSD card should be when formatted to FAT32. This is a somewhat uncommon protocol for a larger storage device, normally NTFS or exFAT. My other dash camera uses FAT32 as well though, so I was not surprised to see this protocol being used.

Good news though, the dash camera functions properly by starting immediately after the 1 second wake up time of the A6 Pro and begins recording 1080p video in 5 minute clips (I set the length). I am impressed with the dash camera recordings and quality of the video based on initial testing, but still needed to figure this minor issue out.

I say minor issue because the music player is easily closed out by swiping down (like on a smartphone) and then hitting the "X" next to the notification bar. I know that I could just go on with it like this, but I feel I can also resolve the issue with some more looking into and not have to take that extra 2 seconds after startup in order to swipe down and close the music player application.
-

• I contacted ATOTO support at 14:24 on December 10th with some details I thought they might ask about and the issue I was experiencing. I did not tell them about the chocolate chip cookies...
• ATOTO support replied at 04:53 on December 11th with an assurance that they would either help me fix it the issue or replace the hardware at no cost to me. They also asked 3 questions and provided a link for a video to be uploaded if I was capable of doing this.
• At 10:52 on December 11th I answered the questions with a great amount of detail and recorded a short 15 second video and uploaded it to DropBox for them to access.

Going forward...

I suspect there is an internal fault in the wiring of the dash camera or the USB cord that runs from the dash camera to the A6 Pro. I suspect this because the issue occurs no matter which of the 3 USB ports I plug the dash camera into. The issue does NOT happen if the dash camera is not plugged in. The A6 Pro performs flawlessly without the dash camera plugged in. The issue happens with the microSD card inserted into the camera or not. The issue does not happen with the microSD card inserted into the A6 Pro front facing slot. I can recreate the issue (music player starting) at will by one of two methods.
-

1. Removing the dash camera USB plug from the A6 Pro and reinserting it into the same port or either of the other 2 ports.
2. Removing 12v power from the A6 Pro and then reapplying power to the A6 Pro. Keeping in mind the A6 Pro supplies power to the dash camera through the USB port. I installed a small 12v SPST switch I wired into the accessory circuit to simulate turning the truck ignition on/off.

The issue is almost not worth figuring out or attempting to resolve. Although, since I am in the testing and familiarization phase of the project, I don't mind. Besides, I had a few minutes to not let my temper get the best of me when the issue was discovered and I was beginning to be overcome with frustration to walk away and make some great chocolate chip cookies!

I am hopeful for a response from ATOTO within the next 24 hours, but I am not sure what their work schedule looks like over the weekend.

More to follow, but the cookies will be gone by then I am sure!

 

Great find Jason and thank you for providing the information that I (and others) were previously unaware of. This may be very useful for someone in the future!

 

https://www.powerstroke.org/threads/...uepro.1066698/

Here's a write up how to add sensors to TP. I looked into doing it years back but got deterred.

 

Nice find sir!

I have extracted the data, images and links posted by G8orFord and inserted them into a PDF document, which I have attached to this post. That way, if there is any issue with the powerstroke.org website or image hosting over there, people will still have access to it here.



In addition, ATOTO support has been great thus far, updated timeline below. Latest update is in bold.

• I contacted ATOTO support at 14:24 on December 10th with some details I thought they might ask about and the issue I was experiencing. I did not tell them about the chocolate chip cookies...
• ATOTO support replied at 04:53 on December 11th with an assurance that they would either help me fix it the issue or replace the hardware at no cost to me. They also asked 3 questions and provided a link for a video to be uploaded if I was capable of doing this.
• At 10:52 on December 11th I answered the questions with a great amount of detail and recorded a short 15 second video and uploaded it to DropBox for them to access.
• At 01:58 on December 12th ATOTO support replied with a couple fix action ideas and 8 pictures detailing the steps required.
• At 08:46 on December 12th I replied with the results from the steps.

 

Latest update is in bold.

• I contacted ATOTO support at 14:24 on December 10th with some details I thought they might ask about and the issue I was experiencing. I did not tell them about the chocolate chip cookies...
• ATOTO support replied at 04:53 on December 11th with an assurance that they would either help me fix it the issue or replace the hardware at no cost to me. They also asked 3 questions and provided a link for a video to be uploaded if I was capable of doing this.
• At 10:52 on December 11th I answered the questions with a great amount of detail and recorded a short 15 second video and uploaded it to DropBox for them to access.
• At 01:58 on December 12th ATOTO support replied with a couple fix action ideas and 8 pictures detailing the steps required.
• At 08:46 on December 12th I replied with the results from the steps.
• At 06:51 on December 14th I received instructions to check/update the firmware on the ATOTO A6 Pro and ATOTO AC-44P2 dash camera. The A6 Pro was up to date, but the dash camera was not. I have updated the firmware on the dash camera and all has been good since during some testing and usage scenarios.

I am hopeful this minor issue is no longer an issue, but I will be doing some testing throughout the day and into tomorrow before letting ATOTO support know the minor issue has been resolved.

 

Sounds like their customer service is pretty good, which is always reassuring.

I have a Garmin sat nav, with lifetime map updates, there's a major road close to home that was re routed around a year ago, up until last month the routing would try to take you on the old (now closed) Road. I contacted their customer services about it on 3 or 4 occasions, all I ever got was "thanks for your enquiry" I will never buy another one of their products.

In fact having the Atoto I can use either Google maps or the Sygic app which is better for towing as you can input the dimensions of your rig. A necessary thing in the UK lol!

 

Rob, I really like the versatility an Android head unit brings with it. The OBD gauges in the dash, the live maps, the phone interface, etc...

I am looking forward to our travels in the future using the A6 Pro.

 

I'm really looking forward to getting my next truck so that I can get mine installed too! Although I can see the possibility of the head unit being a distraction....

 

Maybe at first? I’ve used my truck very little since installing mine and I’m already used to it. If pandora was open on my phone, it starts playing as soon as it connects to the A6. I’ve only used TP for gauges, but tapping the gauge icon starts the PID’s streaming and another tap/swipe on the screen to toggle google maps. With wi-fi, it’s fun to glance at satellite view while driving. (Oh, I never knew there was a big pond behind that row of trees next to the road!!)