Anyone tried the "Tesla style" screens available on Aliexpress (V36)

[LineItUp]

Hey guys,

Just curious if anyone has tried these Tesla style screens for a G35S/G37 in their RHD V36.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Android-system-video-Bluetooth-video-car-play-HD-tesla-sytle-screen-Navigation-Car-Player-For-Infiniti/32954293972.html?spm=2114.search0104.3.13.51c74f8aecRIUZ&ws_ab_test=searchweb0_0,searchweb201602_5_10065_10068_10130_10547_319_317_10548_10696_453_10084_454_10083_10618_431_10307_537_536_10131_10132_10133_10059_10884_10887_100031_321_322_10103,searchweb201603_51,ppcSwitch_0&algo_expid=6e4f2833-37de-4543-b37a-1342886389e7-2&algo_pvid=6e4f2833-37de-4543-b37a-1342886389e7

There are some reviews on Youtube, but they all seem to be from the US.

[The Max]

Looks to me like it takes over the climate control as well, even though they have kept the physical buttons underneath, which could just be a careless Photoshop job. If it were only for the entertainment and possibly navigation system, then I might not be so dismissive.

But when it taps into critical systems, hell no. Android is not the ideal operating system for embedded applications, which is why typically QNX (and similar operating systems) are the OS of choice in embedded systems - they're extremely lean, so they load up fast and they are far more robust. A lot of money and R&D goes into developing these OSes and their relevant software applications that sit on top. Nobody in China is going to put in the same effort unless they're contracted to do so by a reputable manufacturer.

To summarise my answer, not a chance in hell.

[VQ35HR]

I would love that this would work. I don't share concerns that The Max raised about tapping into critical systems, a delay in the air con coming on would not be a deal breaker.

 

Would it work as is, is the question. I looked at the Grom Audio Vline solution and after sending them many photos and a lot of back and forth they said their solution will not work with the Japanese head unit. This is a little different as it completely replaces it, but I would be concerned it would not work with the Bose setup.

If someone has a spare 1k and wants to give it shot I'm sure many people would be very keen to hear the results as it looks a lot better than the tack on android setups that end up costing the same amount.

 

 

[The Max]

I'm not talking about delays in operation. I'm talking about reliability overall. Last thing I want is for the air con to completely stop working on a hot day. That's just one example.

[VQ35HR]

PLenty of G35/37 owners installing. FOund a facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/2080122282231211/

In talking to a supplier in China now to see if its compatible.

 

 

[VQ35HR]

24 minutes ago, VQ35HR said:

 

In talking to a supplier in China now to see if its compatible.

 

 

 

Scratch that..  I think it might be a bit of lost in translation but in the end the answer was " We dont have this nissan"

 

[LineItUp]

I spoke to the people at Gromm previously, my car isn't BOSE, and got basically the same response.

This guy seems to have one in a LHD Q50, based on his cluster etc I assume its a Canadian or European (metric + LHD) spec car.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lvu1LTvvK8Y

I might go back to my original plan of using a raspberry pi with the stock touch screen (on aux) to run something similar to crankshaft for Android auto; I didn't want to tap into the factory wiring harness

https://getcrankshaft.com/

 

[The Max]

That's an interesting find (Crankshaft). Totally different to what I've been gradually working on the last few months or so.

I, too, am leveraging the OEM system as much as possible. My design entails:

• Gigabyte i7 NUC with 1TB SSD (and custom-designed ignition sensing power management circuit, controlling an eBay Hong Kong sourced 19V buck-boost converter)
• Digital Forecast BridgeX HDMI to Composite converter
• Microchip's now deprecated AR1100 resistive touchscreen USB interface
• Garmin 18x-5Hz GPS antenna with MapFactor navigation software
• JDS Labs EL-DAC with Foobar2000 audio player, running what I hope will be a good overlay for 7" screens
• Custom-designed regulated power supplies to power both the video converter and the audio DAC - the video converter probably didn't need the 12VDC regulated supply but I couldn't get anyone from the Korean manufacturer to confirm the highest possible voltage that their regulation circuitry would allow

The reason for all that horsepower instead of a Raspberry Pi is largely for the GPS software. I've looked at the (rare) Linux alternatives but I've found that MapFactor works extremely well. Since it's only suited to the Windows platform, that forced my hand to run Windows 7. Being GPS, I figured I wanted faster calculation speed than most dedicated GPS units out there (and especially Android apps on phones!), so I threw as much horsepower as was practical out of a NUC that would fit in the boot.

The AR1100 is readily recognised with the appropriate drivers but I have yet to plug it into the touchscreen overlay to see how well it does work. Backup plan for that will be a Bluetooth mouse in the interim until a touchscreen solution is figured out.

The ultimate goal here is to use the NUC for navigation and entertainment (for the sake of receiving voice assistance while music is blasting), while maintaining the OEM phone hands-free Bluetooth interface. I'm happy to forego the ability to dial phone numbers manually with the touchscreen for the moment, until I can be bothered to research the connectivity differences between the AR1100 and the OEM headunit, for the purposes of designing a splitter that can share the touchscreen between both devices.

Once the project is eventually at a reasonable state of progress, I'll start a little write-up on it, like I did with my amp and speakers upgrade thing a long while ago.

In the meantime, I'd like to see more of these projects being published here for comparison (and just a good learning exercise) for everyone.

[LineItUp]

That's an impressive setup you are working on! Keen to see more info when you are further along. Are you planning to integrate with the factory touchscreen? I saw some threads on US sites where it looked fairly straightforward to put on a switch so you could use the touchscreen with an external device, or revert to factory.

It was really easy in my previous car (Toyota Altezza aka Lexus IS2/300); I mounted a Nexus 7 in the dash and used one of the 'headunit' apps to get Android auto functionality via an OTG Y cable (charging + data) The Nexus 7 had been in the dash of the Ralliart colt I had before that (but that pre-dated Android Auto); 

[The Max]

Yep, working with the OEM touchscreen is the ultimate goal here. Not terribly happy that we've only got composite video to work with, as it won't be as sharp as a VGA signal, which is what the screen seems to natively support. If it shits me enough, the BridgeX device can convert to VGA as well, so I would be OK from a conversion standpoint. Only thing that would be needed after that is to have it intelligently switch the screen to the VGA signal when I press the Aux button but to switch back when I tap into another screen, including the side camera, or engage the reverse gear. Keep It Simple Stupid comes to mind for now. :)

I really don't want to start implementing additional switches for flicking the touchscreen between devices, more so for the sake of keeping the installation as clean and factory as possible. That's why if I'm going to implement it at all, I want to leverage existing switches in the dash to take advantage of that, perhaps steal one of the useless GPS buttons that's in the button panel in front of the screen to switch it, but that will be another circuit design for another time. Best to attack this one step at a time so that I don't go wasting money and development time on an overall mediocre result. I'm busy enough with my job as it is. It's a miracle I've found any time at all to work on any of this.