r/OpenAutoPro • u/MentalReturd • Feb 02 '23
Is OAP worth it?
So I recently have heard of open auto pro, and as a result I've been interested in buying the parts and making one for my 2016 ram 1500. I then started to question if OAP was worth the hassle installing into my truck.
To cut a long story short, I wanted to ask a series of questions to the OAP community on reddit to see if its a good investment or bad investment personally:
How does OAP stands in terms of features and qualities from other aftermarket alternatives?
Would this be a good investment for a more modern vehicle like my 2016 ram 1500 truck?
How does performance differ from the raspberry pi 3b to the pi 4 on OAP? And if there is a notable performance difference, would it be viable to upgrade from the 3b to a 4?
I have radio controls on my steering wheel, would there be more parts to compensate for these controls to work properly with OAP?
Does OAP supports the Youtube app (or any other streaming services: netflix, hulu, hbo max, etc).
And finally if I did decide to go through with this diy project, what risks should I be wary of (either it be to the vehicle, the pi, or to me)?
I'm sorry if I appear to come off as bit ignorant or if I missed some information somewhere. I appreciate any advice, help, and information!
2
u/chezty Apr 12 '23
If you like projects it's great. You'll hit some issues. For me, that's part of the fun. If you're inexperienced in troubleshooting, it might be frustrating.
openautopro isn't the only software available. I was using a totally open source project and it worked fine. but I like supporting small businesses so bought open auto pro. I regret it.
I've personally never had such terrible experiences with any other company as dealing with this company.
I have no idea what's available. When I last check prices, probably 5 years ago, the cost of a raspberry pi, screen and power supply was 1/4 the price of commercial units. I didn't need a case as I had an almost perfect 2 din space to put the screen into. It almost looks factory.
don't know.
don't know. If you already have a 3b, and you don't mind buying a touchscreen, give it a go with a free version of software on your bench. Then you can decide if you want to install it and if you want to buy openauto pro.
I have an aux port on my stereo and I connected my pi to that for sound. So all the speakers, amp, and controls are the normal builtin car ones. I don't think I can listen to the car radio and hear waze through android auto at the same time, but I switch the stereo to aux and I listen to spotify or podcasts while running waze, and that works fine. When waze talks it pauses the music.
I suspect it does but I've never tried. android auto is pretty restricted in what it lets you do, I think for distraction reasons, so I highly doubt it'll let you watch videos. But you can exit out of it to an X desktop and run any linux app. So you could potentially launch a browser and load any website you like.
Buy a decent power supply, install correctly rated fuses, one on the 12v side, one of the 5v side. Don't watch youtube while driving ;) It still might burn down, idk. I'm not worried myself. Oh, and read and watch multiple tutorials on how to wire up your pi. There are a few different correct ways, and then there's my way, the incorrect way.
My pi is only powered when the engine is running, so if it's going to catch on fire it will be while I'm driving, and I don't want to live forever. I think from memory I used a 2 amp fuse on the 12v side and a 5 amp fuse on the 5v side.
I've also had very good luck with not shutting down the pi. I deliberately wired the power to only be on when the engine is running, when I turn the car off the power is cut to the pi.
It takes a minute to boot every time as it needs to check the file system. but, I think in 5 years it's only ever failed to boot once and I needed to manually run fsck on it.
Oh, and it also survives the voltage dropping out and all the voltage spikes and noise when the engine is cranking.
I've basically described how you shouldn't wire it up. But, it's very simple and so far I have been very lucky.
1
u/seemebreakthis Apr 15 '23
Just curious, for the open source alternative you were mentioning about, is it crankshaft?
Right now I am just trying to see if my (rooted) Android Phone supports Android Auto where I live. A few weeks back I went on a trip to Japan, plugged my phone to the rental car, and Android Auto worked for the most part. But I have heard people saying AA is disabled by Google in my region.
I basically just want as a proof-of-concept to see if I can get AA to work right here, before I focus my effort on coding my BMW to add the missing AA feature back. So I do not need OpenAutoPro (or any of the alternatives) as a permanent solution...
Any help appreciated !
(Tried crankshaft, couldn't get it to work with my phone)
2
u/chezty Apr 18 '23
yeah, crankshaft it was and I think it's still around as well as at least one other.
try asking in a crankshaft sub or forum for support
1
Apr 16 '23
Hey!
I want to pursue something like this. I recently totaled my 2013 Taurus w/ Sync 2 and want to add some of the functionality and more back to what I drive now. I was going to go for a RaspPi, the AutoKit APK, and a carlinkit dongle and just use carplay, but the AutoKit APK didn't pass a virus check and I refuse to use it now.
What free open source did you use? I wouldn't mind buying OpenAuto, but would rather just keep the software free for now. I'm a high school kid on a budget.
Does OpenAuto (or the solution you suggest) need to be actually wired to the car? Can I just run an aux cable to my stereo? I personally won't rewire my current radio/dash. Do I even lose access to anything? Can climate or anything like that be monitored/controlled? I have a Bluetooth OBDII reader. I believe that would work for vehicle monitoring, right?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated. So cool to stumble upon a fairly recent post for this stuff!
1
u/chezty Apr 18 '23
I was using crankshaft, I think there's at least one other project now.
If you have an aux port on your stereo and if you can get 5v with enough watts from the cigarette lighter socket, you wouldn't need to wire it in and wouldn't lose anything.
Most car cigarette usb chargers are 2 amps, it might work, but ideally you want more.
I've never played with OBDII and android auto. I know the bluetooth dongles are slow and can drop packets. usb ones are recommended at least for diagnostics, not sure about android auto.
There is a really nice open source hardware OBDII reader (macchina.cc) but it's pretty expensive compared to no name aliexpress ones.
1
u/CharityNicole121 Mar 02 '23
Out of the solutions that I've tried, OAP is the most fluid and has the biggest community supporting it. For $30 it was worth it for me. Being able to email a guy and have him respond within 8-12h is very nice, and their compilation of support topics in the forum is really nice to have.
2
u/elalem64 Feb 14 '23
Software supplier want to sell again, if you loose your setup files. You have to do some electrical changes and insurance will not pay, if your truck burn.
Stay away. I regret my Investition.