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How I displayed Android Auto on the stock screen for less than $50
So, I was able to get android auto working on my car with the help of a Raspberry Pi and a few mods to the stock screen assembly. This uses a Pi 3 running the free Crankshaft NG software.
Setting up the Pi:
First thing you want to do is configure your Pi. Download the software and follow the instructions on their website: https://getcrankshaft.com/
Note that after you flash the image, you need to change the config so the display will show up properly on a 7" display. Put the following at the bottom of config.txt on the root of the SD card.
After, plug in your USB cable and make sure android auto is working before installing in the car.
Modifying the display:
The car already has touch screen overlay for it's factory nav system. Its useless and will need to be removed. Basically we need to open up the housing, separate the screen from the digitizer, cut a slot for the new ribbon cable, and reassemble.
Display after removing the stock digitizer, sticking the new one in it's place
You need to cut the housing like so, to allow the cable to pass through.
The controller for the digitizer will be mounted under the screen, like this.
Getting video onto the display:
This will vary depending on your car's year. My car is a pre-2010 with RCA inputs in the center console. I simply used an RCA to HDMI converter to get the pi's display onto the screen. The quality isn't the greatest, so I will revisit this in the future.
If you don't have the RCA or your car is post 2010, you may need a converter such as the naviks unit: https://naviks.com/i-22763577-2007-2...tegory:1137501
After this, the rest is simple. Just reassemble the car and verify everything is working. If you do it this way the volume and climate controls will still show up when you turn the *****, backup camera and stuff obviously works fine as well.
I ran all the power to my center console, and then ran wires to hide the Pi under the passenger seat. This way i can still easily reach it if i need to change the firmware or something.
Future improvements:
As you can see from the pictures, with the HDMI to RCA converter the quality isn't the best. Also, my 2007 G does something weird with the signal, and the center of the picture is slightly squished. Even stranger, when you adjust the volume the picture un-squishes and then goes back to being distorted once the popup goes away.
For a future improvement I'll either buy the Naviks unit to bypass the OEM system completely, or i will simply replace the entire center screen with a new one.
So, there are multiple ways to do it. My car has the RCA inputs so I am using those for the video input, and that is also the most convenient since it allows for the back cam to automatically come on, climate / volume pop-ups etc. So for me to switch, all I have to do is click the status button on the top left.
The downside to this is the image quality isn't great, so my next step is to connect to the screen directly, and put in a switch to go between systems. The screen uses RGBS, so you can go directly from the Pi into the display with some rewiring.
Also, you're right that the 2010 is much higher quality, but I can't just plug that into my 2007 system. the interface is completely different, you would have to replace the entire system. Not worth imo, since that would probably get closer to $800-900. But, even with this screen once I bypass the Infiniti system and go directly into the screen it should look a lot better.
So I’m looking at putting this in my ‘09 perhaps. Wanted to go RGBS, and have been trying to make a converter from scratch. Sucks. Anyways I wanted to know if the wiring from ‘08 to ‘09 was the same. I understand anything above 2010 is the higher quality display and will be a completely different interface. Looking at a potential vehicle switch up, so well see if that happens.
If you have an 09 you have the composite input right? that would the simple way to go, but the quality isn't the greatest. The wiring is the same 07-09 btw, but it IS different between bose / non bose / nav / non nav. it's all in the FSM.
See this post: https://www.myg37.com/forums/audio-v...ml#post4178456
I am currently working on a potential way to just replace the entire with another multi-input one right now. So it would go off the stock board > Weiya 04 > new screen. I just did this today but I need to get test it... my screen hasn't showed up anyways though.
There is also this, that I saw some guy on reddit do. Im trying to get him to send me more info still....
Cool. My setup is a Bose non-nav, but yes I do have the composite in my centre console. My idea right now is to figure out how to interchange this between the models with the higher quality display. Reason being is because I may be buying the other G currently sitting in the driveway. (‘10, coupe AWD, non-nav, has Bose) I guess some more thinking will be needed. I know this may conflict with my last post but I’ve also got my eye on a lovely ‘08 Sport. 🤤
and the other picture you posted, I recall there was another poster with a setup almost identical to this board. Sadly I never got enough info for me to continue this project so it was moved to the back burner back in the day.
Yeah, that guy did make a post here a long time ago. I tried to message him on here but he doesn't log in here anymore, just by random chance i found him on reddit. If he ever gets back to me I'm going to try to make one for my car.
You should be able to compare the pinouts between models and see what would work. But i guess you need to figure out which car your going with first lol.
OK, this is great news. here is my one question for 2010+ vehicles with USB and not RCA. do we need to buy this signal converter? will 3.0 work? is this signal converter even needed? and we simply go from USB (car) to USB (Pi) input? How do you switch between sources?
any help please!!!!!!!!!!! i don't want the tablet dash but i would love to be able to upgrade my current radio. (2011 Bose - Non Navi)
I've been keeping my eyes and collecting info to do the same thing on my 2013 with nav and bose. I want to do it on low budget too. My only road block at the moment is the USB AUX input. The converter you linked does the opposite of what we want. We need to convert an HDMI to USB which is against the norm/standard.
I've been putting videos on a USB stick so far and want to step up to the present era of Apple CarPlay and video streaming.
03-08-2020, 06:18 PM
