HT

Okay, so I managed to get a Magden M1.b computer for Baja, but now I need to get a new head unit to display everything.

I'm not sure what I want at this point. Looking at a few Kenwoods (9960 and 7160) as well as a few Pioneers (Z-120BT and 4200DVD).

Does anyone have any suggestions on these?

Also, Baja is an 07, and therefore has the analog cable in the glove box, is there any way I can keep the functionality of this port with my new HU?

Thanks,

HT

wayne613

That one is fairly popular, larger screen then the others I´ve noted, touchscreen, alot of expandablity(see bottom of this page).

A touchscreen would be ideal, if you can find a normal HU that will be compatible with magden´s mini-computer. You might get lucky and the pioneer registers as a standard HID device using the back USB connection, assuming they´ve even got it on the bus still. Likely won´t happen, but other than buying an actual separate touchscreen monitor, probably the best shot. They might know a few that are compatible, if it were me, I´d hit up their support, might be a couple good HU´s with touchscreen´s that will function with it, perhaps even this one amongst them.

This and this, essentially a knock-off from scoche. I´d trust the PAC one though. Couple other companies clones as well that do the same thing.
That aux-in from the console is on the 16pin harness. You´d likely want to get an adapter (RCA to 3.5mm stereo), as I think the pioneer uses the 3.5mm for it´s aux named input rather than the RCA inputs.


Never heard of this Magden offering until now. Nice how it´s this refined, pain to get the gauges and such you want using the base skins for most of these others for PC ODB-II interfaces, but the general gist of what it shows and can record can be done with just a bluetooth or wireless enabled smartphone as well now.

I noted the options they had for wiring in sensors not on the ODB-II or mscan-bus, did you get any of those for that unit?

HT

Well, I just typed up a long response and it got messed up in the posting process, so I'll try to make it shorter. Basically, the 9600 is the top of the line from Kenwood, complete with nav, while the Z-120BT is Pioneers comparable unit (with flaws and worse GPS, but much better graphics and interface). The Kenwood 7160 is a slight step down from the 9960, but still has GPS. The 4200DVD is a pretty major step down in price because of the lack of GPS. I think I'm leaning towards the 4200DVD, because it's so much cheaper. Nav would be nice, but it's not required for me.

Can you explain how the aux thing works? Currently, I'm using a Droid X for music and nav. I have a dash mount for it, and I run an aux cord from the glove box port to the headphone jack on my phone, so I get a charge to the phone, nav, and audio at the same time if I need it, but I will admit it isn't the easiest setup. I was told that I could use the USB input on the HU for my phone, I can run a USB to mini-USB adapter to a discrete location but I'm not sure how good the functionality would be here. I'm not sure if I could interact with the device using the head unit, or if I'd have to use the phone. I know I couldn't use the dash mount, because it utilizes the Mini-USB port as well. I don't know if it would charge my phone...I'm just not sure. Do ya'll have any ideas on how to make this as seamless as possible?

As far as the Magden goes, I don't have any extra sensors, but I think I can still get them if I need them. I don't know what readouts I would need that I'm not getting from the OBD-II though. Most notable would be boost, but I'm not running any, so that's not an issue at this point, and I don't see it being one for quite a while. What else would I want that I'm not getting from the OBD-II?

Thanks in advance,

HT

wayne613

It will have 5v on the usb, I´m not 100% positive, but it should charge as they don´t have Steve Jobs draconian policies behind even just trying to get you to use ¨their¨ charger. You can get the bluetooth module for the pioneer as I understand it, and you will then be able to play whatever you wish using that connectivity, drawback being it will do so for any app on the thing trying to play a sound. Obviously to run it into the center console you´d need to buy an usb extension.

So, nothing is going to be completely seamless. At best you might get losing the separate charger, and using the BT functionality to stream the audio instead of the aux input jack.

Unless there´s some new model that´s due out (CES weekend) that someone knows about, the droid popularity hasn´t hit the level needed yet for the manufacturers to integrate functionality like the Iphones as of yet. Kinda odd to me really as I thought overall sales (droid OS wise vs Iphone) were a bit towards droid sales in the last year.

tightdogal

I think this year will be more support for the droids, since the os is on a gaZillion phones now. Which is also odd since iOS is only on one phone, the iPhone.

HT

Yeah, I was just hoping that I with all the new units coming out, I might be able to nab a deal on last years model. I guess there is just a lot of things to work out before I buy one, so I'll be patient.

I saw a thread about an Android HU that runs on the Android OS and gets all the apps and the marketplace, but I'm sure it will be crazy expensive in its first production year and I don't know what the benefits of it will be.

I'm not overly attached to the aux input in the center console, but I just figured if it was their I may as well have it functional. I'm also not overly attached to the dash mount, it's ugly, but it gets the job done currently.

The key features I need are:

- Separate selection of audio and video (so I can play music and display my Magden gauges)
- A way to play my audio from my Droid.
- A nav system (it doesn't have to be in the head unit, but if it's not, I need to be able to use the dash mount for my Droid)

Nice features that I would prefer would be:

- Bluetooth, which may be necessary to achieve what I want.
- Pretty interface (a lot of the HUs have old-looking graphics)

Ipod and all the other stuff would just be icing on the cake. I'm willing to pay to get what I want too, because I'll be using this every time I turn the car on and I want to be happy with it.

wayne613

Really, for doing it right, you´d want that PAC unit anyhow, really. So that´ll be there.

Need the 2 pioneer addons for the Nav and BT for the 4200.

If you can use something el-cheapo for half a year you might be able to find the true integration your looking for, other than that though, your likely not going to, at least at the depth you´d like.

I´m unsure how the aux line switching is for these units, so that I can´t answer. With BT it should still play the audio and allow switching the video as it´s going to mute everything else when sound is playing on the droid I believe.
Again, this isn´t first hand, just what I´ve read, I have the evil empire Iphone jailbroken and patched so I can use the tethered 3g.

HT

I feel like if I do that, I'll basically be creating a Z-120BT with lousier interface. I don't know what the price difference will be yet, I'll have to look that up. The Pioneer Z-130BT is listed on their site now, but it hasn't shipped yet.

I've been looking at the Z-120BT compared to the Kenwood 9960 and it seems like the Kenwood owners are happier, since the nav is much better (Garmin), the Pioneer owners are complaining about a lot, even though the interface is much more professional in appearance.

And currently I do have a cheap unit, it's an Eonon something or other, but I took it up to an audio store to check out the trim kit and harness, and the trim kit doesn't fit over the unit. The guy at the shop said that even if he did the install, he thought it would look like shi*, so I think I'm going to sell the unit and look for something else. This is tough though. My last HU was a Kenwood DDX6019. It was old, but I really liked the usability. It was straightforward, although the interface was really ugly, and I wasn't asking as much out of it then as I am now with the Magden computer.

wayne613

Interesting, just checking the specs of the two. The kenwood seems far better overall.

Even divx and h.264 support for both models(as .avi, no mkv container support) via usb with fat16/32 formatted attached drive. Kenwood seems like the better overall one from the 2 though just from going through the spec sheets for them, unless something better gets released in the near future. Would suck to spend 1.2k, then 6 months later have a unit that gives you what you truly want for the same price.

HT

This is true. I'm going to look back into the differences between the 9960 and the 7160.

Then again, I could sit here for years waiting for the new products to come out. Something can only be new for so long...idk what to do though. I wonder if CES will be the unveiling of something I might really want...