Beancounter_74 wrote:

No audio, that would do my head in, I think I'd have gaffer taped a Bluetooth speaker to the dash by now to run from my phone

Disaster averted, quick 15 mins and thanks to the harness from Gary speakers working and sounding good despite the manufacturer's origin. In fact I now receive FM radio in the multi storey parking unlike with the OEM stereo... BT also working, as is SatNav and mic.

So happy days now downloading apps to get my desired GUI for the stereo and just need to work out how to get a Range Rover Logo for the boot image....

Also need to cut hole in the top storage on passenger side to route the USB points, then can connect thumb drive with music and movies.

Then I think the rest will be done after holidays when I can drop the car off for a coupe of days....

Photos will follow to show the cable mess and the temp mic and GPS on the dash.

Guy 2006 RRS S/C CONSTANTLY under modification...
1994 RRC 4.2l not LSE sadly gone but not forgotten
LR Defender 300Tdi - affectionately know as "The Black Beast"

Guyzer73 wrote:

something similar had already crossed my mind...

Let's just say if I can't get the audio wired up tonight I think I'll be 'installing' my Bose Soundlink in the car until it's working...

Guy

I was actually thinking of a soundlink, they are great bits of portable kit. I stick one with the plastic protector under the seat on my lawnmower when cutting the lawn, does a great job of drowning out the engine......

Sounds like you're making some good progress . Do you plan to keep this car forever, or complete the works then move to a newer model  ON THE WAY: BMW F21 M140i
MERCEDES GL350 - Metallic Navy Blue w/Grey interior

GOING: BMW F31 335D MSport+ xDrive Touring
GONE: Land Rover Discovery 4 HSE - Stornaway Grey w/Black Interior (wish we'd kept it )
GONE: BMW F10 520D MSport - Carbon Black
GONE:MY12 RRS SDV6 HSE Sumatra/Ivory/Grand Black Privacy glass

Well I've had a little play over the last few days. Some good some bad as can be expected.

The system does have some surprising limitations. EG it doesn't support multiple wallpapers meaning my planned User Interface will need to be redesigned.

I've trialed Nova launcher and it works but until the UI design is sorted there's no need for it.

I can't get Android Auto working yet, but Automate does, even though it did lock up once I think I'll get it working again.

A common problem I'm experiencing here as well is that the head unit won't automatically connect to my Google Pixel XL WiFi hotspot, so I might look at re-purposing an old phone and using it as a hotspot

Here are a few pictures:

Nav Screen (before zooming in - this is actually the Sygic App):


Full screen movie:


App Drawer:


Home Screen:




So still a load to do:

1. Install rear view camera - garage
2. Steering wheel controls - me
3. Position mic - me
4. Position GPS antenna - garage
5. Install new amp(s) - undecided as sound is generally ok - audio tech

Hopefully post some better pics in due course.

Look forward to your feedback.

Cheers

Guy 2006 RRS S/C CONSTANTLY under modification...
1994 RRC 4.2l not LSE sadly gone but not forgotten
LR Defender 300Tdi - affectionately know as "The Black Beast"

How close to stock look are you going to get with the (lower) screen surround? I imagine it's going to be painted piano black as the rest of your center console and it's going to look as it was factory installed? Regards etc.,

Wojtek

---
WAS: 2006 RRS Supercharged
IS: 2010 RRS TDV8 HSE

Hi The Wojtek,

Yes the idea will be to file, fill and sand the surround until its 'perfect' then paint it piano black. It should look fully stock, or at least as much as the piano black can.

Once I know what I can do with 3rd Party launchers I will decide how to progress with the user Interface, even though the stock interface isn't bad. The only real gripe I have is the media player as it's very difficult to read the album titles and there's no real search ability.

I also have to consider what to use the top tablet for as currently the only thing I can think of is clocks, maps and diagnostics which don't require sound and let the new HU carry the load of movies, music and navigation.... I could always feed the audio into the HU if I wanted to.

Cheers

Guy 2006 RRS S/C CONSTANTLY under modification...
1994 RRC 4.2l not LSE sadly gone but not forgotten
LR Defender 300Tdi - affectionately know as "The Black Beast"

So I've had a play with the interface per se and the result is a very "Applely"screen, but it's clear and works. From this I can launch all the major Apps and with a swipe up the App Drawer to access all the other Apps.



I am however going to try and get Automate Car dashboard to work in launcher mode as this will give the cleanest interface. I have tried and the BT phone app and native media apps all launch from Automate so that's a bonus, just need to work out what caused the screen to freeze last time....

Hopefully by next week I'll have installed the SWC and the mic. I might also have a play at installing the rear view camera, at least in its old position.

If anyone has any questions please ask.

Cheers

Guy 2006 RRS S/C CONSTANTLY under modification...
1994 RRC 4.2l not LSE sadly gone but not forgotten
LR Defender 300Tdi - affectionately know as "The Black Beast"

Well here's a quick photo of my WIP user interface while I try get Automate Car Dash working as a launcher.


What do you think?


Guy 2006 RRS S/C CONSTANTLY under modification...
1994 RRC 4.2l not LSE sadly gone but not forgotten
LR Defender 300Tdi - affectionately know as "The Black Beast"

Just brilliant  2006 RR Sport Supercharged Love this car
2009 BMW 335D GONE
2008 VW R32 GONE
1999 RR SE GONE
1994 RR HSE GONE
2001 VW V5 GONE

Thanks Delta351

Still WIP but definitely shaping up. The cream on top will be if the steering wheel controls can be brought to life... If that works I think it's about as good as it can get.

Guy 2006 RRS S/C CONSTANTLY under modification...
1994 RRC 4.2l not LSE sadly gone but not forgotten
LR Defender 300Tdi - affectionately know as "The Black Beast"

Well, sadly 3 months have passed and I've done next to nothing on this project. It's working except for the SWC which I haven't connected yet and the reversing camera which both need wiring up.

One strange side effect of all this is that the OBD port doesn't seem to work, or at least the IID Tool doesn't boot up when connected, which is odd. So I'll need to see if I can remedy that as I need to update one of the ECUs.

What has happened is that I have an interface that I'm relatively happy with. I now use total launcher to give me the Apple Car Play look and it works pretty well. I'll look to refine it but at present it's fit for purpose as seen below.



I've also got a new boot image, but still need the boot animation changed...



Also, the eagle eyed of you will see that I have reinstalled the OEM touchscreen. I did this because, I, like "The Wojtek" like the 4x4 info screen.

TheWojtek wrote:

If there was a possibility to route the stock 4x4 info screen to the big one in order to replace the small stock touchscreen with the basic Disco3 empty box... that would be the king of all systems for a RRS.

So now I need to work out how to get the image from one to another... Any ideas??

Something else I've decided to 'can' is the additional amplifiers. The built amp delivers 4x45W allegedly and with the InCarTech harness all but the boot sub woofer and front center speaker work and the sound is pretty good, or at least good enough for me as I usually only listen to local radio.

What I have got working is the USB Modem so I have internet and a WiFi Hotspot in the car for others to surf on. The USB thumb drive works so all my music and films are there.

The Sport will go to the garage whilst I'm in the UK to get everything I haven't got time for done in my absence so should get the finished article back at the very beginning of September

BUT... and there's always a 'but' I'm still not happy... So I'm thinking of either installing an LR4 touchscreen as per this link, so that the top screen also hasa black background theme, OR... going a step further and adding a secondary 8.8 inch unit, which would in fact become my primary head unit... like the mock up below.

Click image to enlarge

Now before you all go crazy about why, the principle is to have a harmonious interface that best benefits my needs. So the idea would be to use the current head unit for multimedia interface for radio, music, movies etc. as it currently is but use the top screen for navigation, back-up/ reversing camera and telephony, including mirroring the phone on to the display and using the currently defunct center front speaker for the navigation directions and telephone calls. This means the most important and likely events are in the line of site (navigation, reserving camera and telephone calls) whilst the multimedia is lower and less distracting....

The top screen would also be the screen that would accept the 4x4 info screen image if I can get that working and also act as the IID Control App location if I can resolve the issue mentioned above.

What do you think?

Cheers

Guy 2006 RRS S/C CONSTANTLY under modification...
1994 RRC 4.2l not LSE sadly gone but not forgotten
LR Defender 300Tdi - affectionately know as "The Black Beast"

So I saw partial sense and only installed a 2010 touch screen.

I'm very happy with the results. Need to sort a few issues out and decide how to finalise the setup to run in tandem with the Android head unit.

Here a few pics:













Hope you like it.

Look forward to your comments

Have a good weekend

Cheers

Guy 2006 RRS S/C CONSTANTLY under modification...
1994 RRC 4.2l not LSE sadly gone but not forgotten
LR Defender 300Tdi - affectionately know as "The Black Beast"

In a word "Excellent".  John

RRS MY12 SDV6 HSE. Sumatra Black/Ebony & Walnut + Dynamic Pack, + Cold Climate Pack + Memory Pack, Digital TV/DVD, Premium Leather, Cornering Lights, Cooler/Fridge Box, & most Options.

Cool if you manage to work out the tv input let us know

Thanks Johnski it's a real work in progress but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel... The only issue I have is that the HU is quite slow

Geoffsnook, I'm working on it and will let you know in due course if my layman's logic works or not....

Here's a quick update on the Home Screen UI I've been working on. I can't claim it to be my design, the eagle eyed will spot the similarity with the new Velar screen





As you can see there's a lot of reflection currently compared to the OEM screen. This should be resolved with a matt screen protector that I'll cut to size.

Very much just starting out on the design implementation using "Total Launcher" which currently has settings to provide data on location, next calendar event, weather etc. These are live data so should update accordingly. I'll check this with the location update tonight.

Tapping either the App icon or the data will launch the App or a pop up widget providing more details.

So watch this space.

Any and all input and suggestions welcome

Cheers


Guy 2006 RRS S/C CONSTANTLY under modification...
1994 RRC 4.2l not LSE sadly gone but not forgotten
LR Defender 300Tdi - affectionately know as "The Black Beast"

Hi All,

Well a brief update on how the UI is developing:

Home Screen:


Information/ News Screen:


Blank Screen:


Social Media Feeds:


Multimedia Screen:


As you can see it's getting there. Even with the reflection is it legible during full sunshine and will improve with the matt screen protector mentioned in the earlier post.

The real direction now is to get the type face and size etc standardised across the different widgets and information. Also I still need to resolve the problems with the default apps for Radio and Bluetooth which have no widgets or intents so I can't get information from them... Need to find a work around for that...

The only other problem is that the address updates too slowly so I need to work on that and a few minor bugs but otherwise it's nearly there

Still need to resolve the parking camera issue, not related to the stereo though. Also still need to facilitate steering wheel controls and get a video feed to the OEM touch screen (see other thread).

Let me know your thoughts, or any questions.

Cheers

Guy 2006 RRS S/C CONSTANTLY under modification...
1994 RRC 4.2l not LSE sadly gone but not forgotten
LR Defender 300Tdi - affectionately know as "The Black Beast"