Controlling Android phone via Amundsen Sat-Nav

[damianscott71]

Has anyone got any experience of using the new Amundsen sat nav with an android phone? I'm taking delivery of my new vRS this week and an hoping to select and play podcasts stored on my phone, directly from my stereo, either via bluetooth or USB.

I'd be grateful to know your experiences, if you've got the new Amundsen (or possibly new Bolero) in your Octavia III and have tried this already.

Thanks,

Damian

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 4

[dirk1978]

Not the Amundsen but from the Android side.

 

Your Nexus 4 is generic MTP which most audio systems don't support. The older stuff would support mass storage through USB which stopped at Android 2.2 so lots of audio systems don't bother as much with MTP now as it's a bit more difficult to support than mass storage.

 

Your best bet is bluetooth because it seems that the Amundsen supports A2DP so you'll be able to control the phone through the stereo to just stream whatever you like, then calls will cut in etc.

[damianscott71]

Thanks Dirk1978.  What I'm trying to avoid is handling the phone whilst driving in order to choose tracks, which I half expect to have to do via Bluetooth.  I know that I could just download all my podcasts to the SD card, but the beauty of keeping them on the phone is that they'll always be "up to date".

 

The car is only a few days away now, so I'll try and figure this out and will report back on any findings.

 

One thing, I did note that USB Mass Storage is supported by Cyanogenmod, which I was running briefly a couple of months back, but I went back to stock ROM (4.3) after experiencing battery life problems.

[Juniperz]

Thanks Dirk1978.  What I'm trying to avoid is handling the phone whilst driving in order to choose tracks, which I half expect to have to do via Bluetooth.  I know that I could just download all my podcasts to the SD card, but the beauty of keeping them on the phone is that they'll always be "up to date".

 

The car is only a few days away now, so I'll try and figure this out and will report back on any findings.

 

One thing, I did note that USB Mass Storage is supported by Cyanogenmod, which I was running briefly a couple of months back, but I went back to stock ROM (4.3) after experiencing battery life problems.

(Completely off topic, but if you have used CM, then you should give the Purity 4.3 ROM a go - everyone on XDA says it is the best ROM for the N4 at the moment - I love it on my Galaxy Nexus).  I have Columbus so will not respond to the original question as it might be misleading.

[Mike999vRS]

As far as I'm aware (as an iphone user - sorry!) the limitations aren't device dependant, rather protocol dependant.

It's the bluetooth protocols (and permissions on the device) the determine what can and can't be done.

I think you will only be able to skip (and fast forward/rewind) tracks and that's about it.

The other option is to mount your phone in a sad place and use voice control on your phone(?). Works fine for me and let's me select albums/artists (and podcasts) although it does mean having to touch the phone to activate voice control as there is no way of activating it via the bolero or multi function steering wheel.

[Mike999vRS]

That should read "mount your phone in a safe place" NOT sad place. Unless of course you feel the need to punish your phone for some reason!

[Austinparratt]

Hi,

 

If it helps, I also have the Nexus 4 and I managed to get it working via bluetooth in the car I had on test last week ....

 

Cheers

[damianscott71]

Hi,

 

If it helps, I also have the Nexus 4 and I managed to get it working via bluetooth in the car I had on test last week ....

 

Cheers

When you say "working via bluetooth", what do you mean Austin?  Can you select directories, playlists and tracks stored on the phone via the headunit?  Or are you simply able to play/pause a track, skip to the previous or next file?

 

Thanks for everyone's input on this.  I do find it all quite interesting.  

 

I'm just downloading the Purity ROM now and will give it a go.

[B19RAK]

One bugbear on my mk2 is that when I stream from a podcast app, I just get unknown on the display, or it shows something else playing from the music player. My old iPhone worked a lot better in this respect.

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk 4

[damianscott71]

It would appear that installing a custom ROM onto a phone with Android 4.3 isn't as straightforward as previous versions. I'll report in again tomorrow, hopefully. Quite why phone and car manufacturers haven't got their act together "properly" yet, I'll never know!

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 4

[gadgetman]

Hook it up via bluetooth, select 'media' and it should play, although it will also play ANY audio including ringtones.  So you can start it before you leave, but will need to re-find tracks when you get in and out.

 

You should be able to use the < and > to skip tracks.

[Austinparratt]

I was using Spotify on my Nexus 4, it happily showed the track listing. I was able to select tracks via the head unit. I thought it worked well, certainly better than the Clio I am currently driving.

[dirk1978]

Using either my Galaxy Nexus or S3 on my Pioneer cheapo bluetooth head unit is perfect. Full text display of all tags, track skip works, and it automatically starts playing the default music player at last point when the bluetooth source is selected. Calls cut in and out perfectly as well.

 

I'd suggest any incompatibilities would be more down the older implementation used in the amundsen rather than the phones.

[Wassers]

Damian - did you ever crack this in the end?

[andyvee]

With a Nexus or a Samsung Android phone you should have full functionality from 4.3 onwards, as the Bluetooth stack was standardised.

Samsung's of 4.2 are good as well.

HTC are a pain in the arse, as the Bluetooth implementation on 4.2.2 is frankly awful, and they are taking an age to release 4.3 for my phone ......

Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk

[CSM]

With a Nexus or a Samsung Android phone you should have full functionality from 4.3 onwards, as the Bluetooth stack was standardised.

Samsung's of 4.2 are good as well.

HTC are a pain in the arse, as the Bluetooth implementation on 4.2.2 is frankly awful, and they are taking an age to release 4.3 for my phone ......

Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk

What about the One on 4.3?

[andyvee]

Should be fine as it has the standard Bluetooth stack. I have a One X and it is at the bottom of the queue for updates

Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk