ICE

[Fasteddie]

I have seen a lot of chat about ICE here. I'm a little behind the times here, stereo being something i can put a CD in and listen to music with oh and of course the radio too. However as I have seen apps and car data displayed on the screen i really do want this. So I was hoping somebody with much more knowledge about the various options (shouldn't be hard as i really am new to this) could help me with what i need.

 

Requirements:

Lets start with the obvious:

Radio (DAB please but not essential)

CD or on board storage for MP3's etc)

Rear camera display

now the more exotic.....

Sat Nav - Waze will do fine but i guess it needs some form of GPS (or can it use the phones?)

take a feed from the OBD to display engine and GPS data for track timing (how does it do this?)

Can it double as my hands free device, where do you put the mic?

Connects to and charges my iPhone via USB (if poss)

Looks nice, with user defined options like wallpaper etc

 

 

So clearly I'd like to be able to download Apps, how is this done? I've seen talk of Routing or jailbreaking, never done this is it necessary and if it is is it easy? 

 

I don't need fantastic sound, I'm sure standard will do nicely, the car should sound great but I'm not really driving it to hear the finest rendition of Beethoven's 5th, if i was I'd be buying an Audi A8!

 

I don't think i need the latest tech and ideally i don't want it costing the earth. Are there a lot of options out there. I have seen a lot of ICE referred to as AppRadio - would any of these do what i need or do i need to be more careful with selection.

 

Thanks all

 

[Bibs]

http://www.parrot.com/usa/products/asteroid-range/parrot-asteroid-smart/

 

Seems very popular and ticks all your boxes too 

[Fasteddie]

Thanks Bibs, I did note that the asteroid ticked the boxes but surely there are others that do. I was hoping they'd be loads also need to know how the mic works for calls and how the ice connects to the OBD and whether the system needs to be "routed or Jailbroken"

Cheers

[Bibs]

Without having used the system so these are educated guesses having owned similar...

 

The mic will be ace, it's a Parrot and they're the kings of in car calls. It's got Bluetooth built in so you'll be able to use an ELM327 ODB connector (less than a tenner on ebay, get the mini) and you'll not have to 'root' it, that'll work out of the box as is

[Vulcan Grey]

The Pioneer Appradio can do all those things (except maybe DAB, not sure)  I have an older Appradio 2 which does not have a drive for CD/DVD or onboard storage, so I just leave an ipod in the glovebox at all times.  They now have an Appradio3 with a DVD/CD drive.

 

It does have an external GPS antenna for better signal.

It has a wired mic that you can put anywhere in the car and use as a hands free device with your phone over bluetooth.

It works with the bluetooth OBDII with your Android phone or, Wifi OBDII with your iPhone.   I use the Dash Command app to see my cars engine data, and it'll log your data along with gps and accelerometer data around a racetrack...

 

I can connect my Android phone and ipod at the same time and play music from the ipod while I use WAZE on the Android.  Or you can play music from the phone and use WAZE at the same.  It also does work with a backup camera.

 

The screen is a 7" glass touchscreen like an iPad, feels good to use, and you can do pinch to zoom and rotate.

[superdavelotus]

My mate has just bought a double DIN Pioneer for his other car that clones the screen of his Iphone. This also has DAB digital radio but no sat nav. He uses the sat nav (Nav Free) from his phone and it's on his big screen on the Pioneer. He also has a WIFI OBD2 dongle off amazon for £12 which then uses a varied diagnostic app, I use Dash Command as this doubles up as a diagnostic and additional dials, as well as MPG and other stuff. You can also use the internet radio or Sky Go using your mobile data or something you've downloaded.

He has also added a rear screen for back seat passengers to watch a movie that he's downloaded.

It was £280 retail from Halfords (2013 model) but got £50 off because he had a discount card or some promotion. I don't know all the details, he told me about this the other night.

[Fasteddie]

Good stuff, thanks. So what is the difference between OBDII Bluetooth and wifi or rather why do the device connect through the phone and iPhone is wifi while android is Bluetooth. I was confused by this while looking at apps. I have an iPhone and looked at a few free apps, most say wifi but go point says Bluetooth? I saw dash command and hopefully if I do pick this car up I'll be getting that as it seems the tool of choice.

[Vulcan Grey]

Generally the Android phones can only connect to a bluetooth OBDII dongle.  And generally the iPhone can only connect to a Wifi OBDII dongle...  It is possible to get either phone working with both, but usually involves jail breaking the iPhone or rooting the Android, voiding warranty.

 

Originally the iPhone couldn't do the whole bluetooth stack (all the features available in bluetooth) and Android wasn't allowed to join an ad-hoc wifi network.

 

Wifi is faster than bluetooth.

[TBD]

Without having used the system so these are educated guesses having owned similar...

 

The mic will be ace, it's a Parrot and they're the kings of in car calls. It's got Bluetooth built in so you'll be able to use an ELM327 ODB connector (less than a tenner on ebay, get the mini) and you'll not have to 'root' it, that'll work out of the box as is

I can confirm all that Bibs says. Rooting it does give you more options, but that is up to you. 

Best is to install a 3g dongle to provide online connection, but you can use a smartphone as a hotspot. 

Only pain is when you get an update for TomTom, which is about 3GB, so you'll be looking for a wi-fi access point.