[MTCB Hardware Development] CaptShaft:
Amen to that, Brother. I’ve seen extremely fast startups with the AVH series from Pioneer, on the order of 2-3 seconds, but those lack the versatility of these android units and the more recent ones tend to be comparatively expensive.

The “big-label” android units like the NEX series are reportedly buggy, expensive and not terribly friendly towards you running anything else other than a handful of their approved apps. They are not truly universal in their approach, so we are stuck working around the limitations of the current crop of android stereos until better, faster technology shows up on the doorstep soon.

Hopefully "soon" really does mean soon.

Below I'll list a few questions and answers about this modification project, as asked by another member:

=-*-=-*-=-*-=-*-=-*-=-*-=-*-=-*-=-*-=-*-=-*-=-*-=-*-=-*-=-*-=-*-=-*-=-*-=-*-=-*-=-*-=-*-=-*-=-*-=-*-=-*-=-*-=-*-=-*-=-*--=

The radio I have is a Pumpkin Auto KD-C0248. It uses the RK3188 quad core CPU, and it has 800 x 480 resolution on a 7” touchscreen, and it is ultimately manufactured by “Klyde”. You might find here: https://www.amazon.com/Pumpkin-Universal-Navigation-Steering-Mirror-link/dp/B015PZVRXS/

It works okay, I don’t have a lot of complaints about it, except that I would’ve preferred a volume knob rather than the push buttons for volume adjustment. Strangely enough the volume buttons are on the right hand side of the unit, even though I own a left-hand drive vehicle. This means I have to reach across the screen to push buttons for volume up or volume down. Since I have this wired into the volume controls on the steering wheel this isn’t too big of a deal, but if I did not have the steering wheel controls it would become a real pain.

This model comes with a DVD player, and in retrospect, now having the option of loading music from the microSD card or a USB drive, I realize I no longer need the DVD. It’s somewhat superfluous at this juncture in the technology’s development.

Knowing what I now know, I would instead recommend something like this: https://www.amazon.com/Pumpkin-Universal-Muti-touch-Navigation-Bluetooth/dp/B0151KNXJ8/ or maybe this: http://xtrons.com/td695ab-6-95-inch...ayer-with-screen-mirroring-function-obd2.html

In other words avoid radios that don’t have a volume knob. It lacks ergonomics to be driving down the road and having to look over to adjust the volume, and in my opinion it is also somewhat dangerous.

I use the Malysk ROM, the latest version, and I must say it is a night and day difference between the stock ROM and this. It’s a hair slower in the loading (if coming up from a cold boot) but the added bells and whistles more than make it worth it.

This ROM comes with built-in ad blocking as a system setting, five different home screen launchers I can choose from, and a handful of aftermarket music players built-in by default, including JetAudio and PowerAmp (demo).

Note that I am using the android 4.4.4 ROM here. I could download the 5.1.1 android lollipop ROM for this radio, but android 5 is slower than android 4. There is more lines of code involved. See here for further information: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUZjOGIV7zg

Additionally, this RK3188 processor is about one third slower than a galaxy S4 CPU (snapdragon 600 CPU). For what we are doing with a radio, android 4 is just fine. If this were smart phone, I’d want the latest operating system instead.

Please see attached pictures: http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?p=68082412#post68082412

I have not yet installed a hard switch, so this is on at all times. When I push the power button on the radio, it goes into a standby mode, fed by the auxiliary battery when the car is off. Boot up is just a few seconds. Because my battery isolator unit works a little bit too well, and because I purchased a small, cheap readily available UPS battery, I have to recharge the secondary battery every few days. I already own a battery charger, but the small size of the battery means it requires somewhat frequent maintenance, and this is a hassle. If I had a larger battery, or a regular car battery in the auxiliary battery box, this would be happening nearly as much.

I have indeed install the rechargeable battery, is a typical led-acid battery, fully sealed, and these are what is frequently used in UPS’s. It does recharge it a little bit when driving, although not as much as I would like.

I figure I have to recharge the battery about once or twice a week, depending on how frequently I am driving, and how far. Again, I have a very small capacity battery in here 18 AHr only, this is about 1/6th the capacity of a regular car battery. So I have to recharge it more than I would like.

I had previously done what I will suggest you when I was running in amplifier in my car, namely I had purchased a much larger battery, what is referred to as a deep cycle marine battery. This means it is specifically used in small personal fishing boats the power an electric propeller motor that won’t disturb the fish.

Here is one example: https://www.amazon.com/100Ah-SOLAR-WIND-CYCLE-BATTERY/dp/B00S1RT58C/

This this battery is meant to go a long time between recharges, and to discharge quite a bit between charges. With something like this in the trunk of my old car, and running a 1200-watt amplifier and (2x) 15” subwoofers in a sealed box, I could go one to two weeks between recharges. I would simply park the car in the garage, hook the battery charger up to the auxiliary battery terminals, let it charge all night while I sleep, then put everything back as it should be and hit the road in the morning. I did this for a few years. It worked fine.

Again, it’s a lot of running around to work around what is, in my opinion, a latent fault with these car stereos, but if you’re serious about your music, and you like the insurance of having an extra battery for jump starts in your trunk, then this is the way to go.