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What do you have on your TV AUX

Jimmy82

Jimmy82

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South East
E51 Owner
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Elgrand
E51
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I love these cars have an AUX IN for the TV tuner. The possibilities are endless.

What do you all have running through it?

I've experimented with a few things so far & these are my findings.

I've never liked Proprietary navagation systems, you always have to pay for updates and your so restricted on what they display regarding speed cameras etc... so Google maps & waze was the way I wanted to go anyway.

So my first mod was to disable the TV aux turning off when moving/handbrake released. Once that was sorted, My first attempt was a HK ONE Android box. I connected a U Blox USB GPS device to it & an air mouse for control and it worked really well with all android apps.

The most annoying thing with this system was, I powered the android box from the 12v supply in the boot, so I would plot my journey on maps, start the engine, and immediately reset he box because the supply dies when you hit the starter!

My next idea was to add a battery buffer to stop it restarting every time i started, I experimented with a few batteries. Annoyingly power banks didn't allow "pass through power" so if they were connected to a charge source they wouldnt output any power. So that won't work.

My solution was a UPS device that was designed for 12v Internet routers.

Unfortunately when charging from the 12v socket and outputting power at the same time to the android box, it would create the most awful interference in the screen. So again no joy.

So now ive currently switched to using an old galaxy S9 with a HDMI output in to the aux. The phone charges on the 12v output and uses its internal battery to stay alive when you start the engine do no waiting for Android to boot.
 
Also the phone has its own internal GPS device so all navagation worked without any issues.

Just wondering if anyone else uses there TV aux in as a navagation systems.
 
A pretty common mod. My solution is a Miracast dongle.
 
Google chromecast for me, basically turns it into a smart TV with a remote. Considering one of the cheap gaming emulating hdmi sticks as another upgrade in the future..
 
I used to have a small GPS tracker connected to an old Motorola power bank that did do exactly what you wanted, it would charge up from usb, and when the GPS battery ran down it would charge it up. It worked perfectly until it died, and I never found another power bank (not even a new vususlly identical motorola) that worked the same way. I ended up not using the GPS anymore as without the power bank it only lasted aboit a day.
 
Jimmy82 said:
I love these cars have an AUX IN for the TV tuner. The possibilities are endless.

What do you all have running through it?

I've experimented with a few things so far & these are my findings.

I've never liked Proprietary navagation systems, you always have to pay for updates and your so restricted on what they display regarding speed cameras etc... so Google maps & waze was the way I wanted to go anyway.

So my first mod was to disable the TV aux turning off when moving/handbrake released. Once that was sorted, My first attempt was a HK ONE Android box. I connected a U Blox USB GPS device to it & an air mouse for control and it worked really well with all android apps.

The most annoying thing with this system was, I powered the android box from the 12v supply in the boot, so I would plot my journey on maps, start the engine, and immediately reset he box because the supply dies when you hit the starter!

My next idea was to add a battery buffer to stop it restarting every time i started, I experimented with a few batteries. Annoyingly power banks didn't allow "pass through power" so if they were connected to a charge source they wouldnt output any power. So that won't work.

My solution was a UPS device that was designed for 12v Internet routers.

Unfortunately when charging from the 12v socket and outputting power at the same time to the android box, it would create the most awful interference in the screen. So again no joy.

So now ive currently switched to using an old galaxy S9 with a HDMI output in to the aux. The phone charges on the 12v output and uses its internal battery to stay alive when you start the engine do no waiting for Android to boot.
Click to expand...
I've used a battery buffer to keep a firestick alive, experimented with a Raspberry Pi and have "in-car" broadband courtesy of a 4G LTE router.

Currently got an Echo Show up front that allows me to make calls via Alexa and answer my Ring doorbell
 
Alexa auto 2 looks interesting, it's small and unobtrusive
 
sg66 said:
Alexa auto 2 looks interesting, it's small and unobtrusive
Click to expand...
The 2nd gen Echo Auto (the current one) is down to £30 (50% off)
https://www.amazon.co.uk/echo-auto-2nd-gen/dp/B09Y13TCNZ

The up side for me is mainly the microphone array and firmware that cuts out background noise - should make calls clearer for the person at the other end.

I'm hesitant to buy it though as I think that's about the only use I'll get out of it - I occasionally use voice control with the Google assistant on my phone to ask it a question, play some music or 'navigate to...'... but this just adds a device to do the same.

That said, at £30 it's probably worth it for the jump in call quality.
 
Anyone got any ideas on how we could potentially improve the quality of the aux input?

The front screen is obviously capable of much better quality than analogue input can deliver. I wonder if some electronic wiz could identify the video chip in the tv tuner unit and patch in to digitally. (Like rhe mod you can buy to add a HDMI output to the classic N64 or Dreamcast) I recon it could be done if you knew what you were looking at....
 
Many have tried and given up. The aux in is a composite signal and remains so all the way to the screen.
 
LeStempy said:
Many have tried and given up. The aux in is a composite signal and remains so all the way to the screen.
Click to expand...

Has anyone experimented with the DVD player? Presumably that's digital?

Just brainstorming here... what if an optical drive emulator could be developed that removes the optical drive and replaces it with a digital input. Once again, people have developed similar things for game consols that convert optical drives to SD cards. Not the same thing I know but of a similar concept.

I dont really use the DVD player, but when I have its definitely much better quality than the RCA input. I think I would prefer a digital input to a dvd player anyway.
 
I removed the TV tuner and rewired at the image distributor. I fed the HDMI output of the Miracast unit to a D to A converter and fed the composite output of the converter directly to the image distributor TV input. The image is good enough for Google maps from my phone.
 
Does anyone have a wiring diagram or understand how this fits together.
e.g. does the rear RCA go into a tv box (the thing in the boot side cubby?) and then is swtiched there?
I'm wondering whether there's an option to replace the box with something that outputs RCA, has an input and receives a UK DVB signal.
Keep the aux working but also have a 'TV'.
 
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The DVB tuner I have fitted to the RCAs has an HDMI input and a usb input .
 
Nevillerover said:
The DVB tuner I have fitted to the RCAs has an HDMI input and a usb input .
Click to expand...
Really? Can you share what you did?
Sounds like that's the obvious solution.
What is the model of the tuner?
Does the aerial fit and work?
Does it work with the TV/Aux button?
Very interested.
 
I haven’t tried the sockets yet, thought I would plug a firestick into it.

xtrons.co.uk

Digital TV Box | FV014

Car Digital DVB-T/T2 Freeview HDMI TV Tuner Receiver MPEG2 | MPEG4 | 1080i | DVB-T | DVB-T2 | H.264 Note: DVB-T is not compatible in USA. Please check out the following link for a full list of DVB-T compatible countries before you buy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVB-T •Freeview HDConnecting...
xtrons.co.uk xtrons.co.uk
 
Nevillerover said:
I haven’t tried the sockets yet, thought I would plug a firestick into it.

xtrons.co.uk

Digital TV Box | FV014

Car Digital DVB-T/T2 Freeview HDMI TV Tuner Receiver MPEG2 | MPEG4 | 1080i | DVB-T | DVB-T2 | H.264 Note: DVB-T is not compatible in USA. Please check out the following link for a full list of DVB-T compatible countries before you buy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVB-T •Freeview HDConnecting...
xtrons.co.uk xtrons.co.uk
Click to expand...
Nice! Like the look of this, Great idea!
 
It is but not my idea. There is a thread where a member used the built-in Elgrand ariels and that gave my the idea but I used the ariel that came with the unit. Not such a neat solution but you know it’s gonna work.
I think the USB socket is for a big memory stickso you can record a programme. I don’t think you can download from another device and expect the tuner to play it. I reckon the HDMI will take a firestick, now tv, apple thing tho.
 
Firestick, Raspberry PI (x2) and Phone - connected via 5 way HDMI switch and HDMI to RCA converter.
1711828448144.png
 
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