yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Android Auto General] bigguynak:
So, if I understand correctly, you would place these files on the root of a usb drive, connect it to the radio and run the update? But we need to make sure to be on fw 1.02.06.0 first correct?

It sounds like you have full access to the system, does that mean you can customize the UI?
[Android Auto General] superdave:
Yeah, you copy all of the files in to a folder named update at the root of the drive. Pretty much the same as Sony's update.

I do have full access. A few things are controlled by config, but, most is compiled in QT. What are you looking to change?
[Android Auto General] bigguynak:
It drives me absolutely nuts that the song information scrolls under the preset buttons when listening to the radio. Can the presets be changed to just display the station, ie 104.1 or 97.3, etc.
[Android Auto General] superdave:
That is pretty annoying. There are some config items for station names. I'll take a look at it.
[Android Auto General] FormelLMS:
Wow, that's absolute fantastic. I'll definitely give it a try.

Do you think you can do something about Bluetooth connection? I've sometimes problems while speaking. There are distortions where I don't know, where they come from.

One question: is it possible to go back to official software after flashing yours? Just for the case....
[Android Auto General] superdave:
I can take a look at the bt config and see if there is anything that might be related. That's pretty tough to track down without logs. Once you update I can send you a script that you can put on your usb drive and every time you insert it it will dump your logs out.

Yes, you can always reflash the stock update and the changes are gone.
[Android Auto General] FormelLMS:
Ok, sounds great.

I will update this weekend.

We can talk about the logfiles then, so I can see when I have to plug the USB device on it.

Thanks!
[Android Auto General] invertedskull:
Hi. Thanks for the awesome hard work on this!

I have a USB Type C cable connected to my unit and it's somewhat of a pain to open several car panels to gain access to the back of the unit... Do you know if I can put the "update" folder on my phone (LG V20 with USB Type C port, which I use with this unit every day), and connect my phone to the cable, put phone in File Transfer Mode and the update will work?
[Android Auto General] superdave:
I tried it on my Xperia with Nougat and it didn't work. With the radio booted it only wants to launch AA, even when selecting file transfer. With the radio in U-Boot it scans the phone and finds 2 devices, but, doesn't recognize either of them as storage devices. It did work with my USB-C SSD drive though.
[Android Auto General] invertedskull:
What if AA was first uninstalled from the phone?
[Android Auto General] superdave:
Unless your phones USB storage mode is different than mine it wouldn't work. AA was getting in the way when I was in the radio OS, but, when I was in U-Boot where the firmware is updated it wasn't. I could scan the USB device and it found it, but, even in USB storage mode it did not detect it as a usable storage device.

One option would be to pick up something like this https://www.amazon.com/Female-Cable-Macbook-Tablet-Mobile/dp/B00WJP3G14

You could also make one pretty easily if you have a spare usb c female cable.
[Android Auto General] leonkernan:
Interesting, that's almost identical to the Kenwood headunit I pulled apart.

I should try the same trick to get rid of the warning on that.
[Android Auto General] bladerj:
Thanks! I've just purchased my unit, this warning already bugs me.

Thanks to you I didn't have to put up with it for long! It's gone!
[Android Auto General] FormelLMS:
Dang. Seems that my USB stick isn't good anymore.

Copied the whole update folder to it, applied it to the radio USB, start the car and nothing happened. Could be, that the radio doesn't recognized it. :(
[Android Auto General] superdave:
With the USB stick in, when you go to settings/firmware does the update button become enabled? If so, when you click it are you getting a not compatible error? Also are you on firmware 1.06 now?
[Android Auto General] FormelLMS:
Ah, scratch that please. Seems, that I was too dumb.

I've had another radio where I've had to plug in the stick and start the car to make an update.

Seems that I've totally forgotten the update button.

Now everything is fine. Works!

Many thanks to you!
[Android Auto General] superdave:
I have a few that are like that as well. Glad you got it working.
[Android Auto General] forceu:
Thank you superdave for this great update! Finally that annoying warning is gone :) Do you reckon it would be possible to add a button on the homescreen or the menu to switch the dim mode to on/off? Also, can I download the decrypted firmware from somewhere (or is there an easy way to decrypt it myself)?
[Android Auto General] FormelLMS:
Good idea!

I recommend every Android Auto user to download OBD2AA. A real benefit for those systems. There is night / day theme with sunrise and sunsettime. Is this what you search?
[Android Auto General] igorstasijevic:
Hi superdave,

i searched the Forum for another Problem and found this. Maybe you can help me i would pay for that if you can :)

I bought a Carplay2Air adapter whitch should allow me to connect my Iphone to the Sony Head Unit wirelessly with Apple Carplay. On my XAV AX100 it works but the radio boots to long so i have to delay the adapter with a time telay. Now i bought a Sony XAV AX 5500 which boots in 2-3s what should work. But now i have the problem that my new radio has weblink on it. So when i put in the adapter the radio thinks its a Phone and starts automatically the weblink app. Is it possible to disable the weblink ab like it does never be installed?

Thanks a lot!

BR Igor
[Android Auto General] forceu:
Unfortunately not, as I would like to physically dim the screen. Thank you though.
[Android Auto General] superdave:
I've just started recompiling the qt apps. It may be possible, but, im' not sure yet. Of course we could always write our own home screen. That's probably what i'll do once I get the MCU firmware re'd. Yeah, i've attached the script/decryptor I wrote for it. It's not very polished,but, it works.

Dave
[Android Auto General] TiMo Tim:
Just a quick guest reply to say THANKS! I just installed this deck in my wife's van over the weekend, and had already been searching for hacks. Saw on Sony's OSS site that it used Qt, and was already plotting how to auto-dismiss the specific nag screen if it used a message box from their framework. (I'm a Java developer, but was willing to learn something new (or re-learn my never-used, barely-beginner C++ skills) to play with this exact problem.)

I'll let her decide if she hates the nag screen enough for me to apply your version. In the meantime, I'll be watching your github for updates.

Thanks again!
[Android Auto General] telecam:
Thank you SuperDave for the fix! No more annoying "Disclaimer OK" screen on my XAV-AX100 :). I have another issue related to Apple CarPlay, I don't know if behavior is the same with AA ....

My 2012 car has no daytime driving lights so, I typically turn my lights on to be more visible, especially on rainy or overcast days. When doing so, the XAV-AX100 switches the map display in Apple CarPlay to night mode which makes the map hard to see. Short of keeping my headlights off while driving at day time, is there anyway around that? We also have a 2018 Honda CR-V with OEM radio and Apple CarPlay which behaves normally.

- Lights on, night time: Apple Maps are displayed in night mode (darker shades)

- Lights on, day time: Apple maps are displayed in day time (lighter shades)

- Lights on, day time but entering a tunel, garage or other covered space: Apple maps switches from daytime to nightime display mode.

So, I suppose the car is equipped with an ambient light sensor that sends a signal to CarPlay to switch between daytime and nighttime mode taking in account both, the car lights state and ambient light?
[Android Auto General] FormelLMS:
On Android auto is an app for that problem: OBD2AA

In my eyes a must have for AA with it's features.
[Android Auto General] telecam:
It'd be great if a daytime/nightime switch function could be assigned to one of the REW or FWD buttons on the front panel.... I guess for now, the easy fix would be to add a hardware switch to kill the illumination command whenever I want to drive at daytime with my lights on and see the maps in daytime mode. And yes, that is with CarPlay, not AA...
[Android Auto General] Cptn_Nemo:
i cREID without tears when I saw this thread. Damn superdave, you're super titan for this!

I've been wanting to get this unit (best quality for budget price) for months now but all reviews/videos showed this EVERY TIME warning was a really infuriating issue. and I frequently in the car, so turn on/off for dash is a lot. Even sony's forum had many complaints to turn it off, so I kept checking every few weeks if there's been a new firmware and saw your post today.
[Android Auto General] superdave:
Hehe, glad you like it. It was pretty annoying for me as well. I think it's a great radio. I had been running the Joying's for a while now and these units are much better. I have a few other tweaks i'm working on, but, I don't really have many complaints. This was really a simple fix. Eventually I plan on replacing the home plugin. Sony being cool about publishing their open source code really made it easy.
[Android Auto General] ideasman69:
i dont know how i found this thread but im incredibly thankful to [MENTION=238068]superdave[/MENTION]! definitely going to give this a go when i get home :D

on a side note, is there any way to change the sony logo at startup to something else? ie car logo?
[Android Auto General] superdave:
It's doable. The logo is in a partition called "logo". The image is a raw 800x480 RGB32 pixel definition. This is set before you get serial access in uboot so it could be risky if something went wrong. There are checks for the partition magic and it doesn't seem like there would be any issues if it was bad. I may try it on my test unit when I get a chance. If my firmware is flashed it would be simple to write a script to update it from usb.
[Android Auto General] ideasman69:
thats awesome :) is it possible to upload the original image they have in the firmware?
[Android Auto General] superdave:
Sure, attached is the file with a bitmap header added.
[Android Auto General] baggar11:
EDIT: Finally got around to installing this. Worked great. My unit was on an older firmware so I flashed the latest and then flashed the files from github.

Just adding my 2 cents in case anymore can be done with modifications to the interface.

* Would love to add a custom bootup pic

* Have the tuner utilize channel numbers for its presets instead of titles

Thanks for your work on figuring out the nag screen!
[Android Auto General] invertedskull:
I tried the phone in File Transfer Mode (with AA uninstalled first), and it didn't work. :(

I ordered that female USB A to female USB C adapter. Tried it also, didn't work. Looks like I am going to have to pull out my car panels again. Doh. Will be worth it though!
[Android Auto General] superdave:
Sorry about that, from the reviews I would have thought it would work. I ordered one to to test, but, never got it. I need to follow up on that.
[Android Auto General] Alex1188:
So has anyone tried to use this same method for the Sony XAV AX200?? No update has been pushed for the 200 yet, but I can't imagine there being any huge differences.
[Android Auto General] superdave:
There are differences in the main firmware I can see in the source Sony released. That's not an issue though, since we could just dump the existing firmware and mod if. The problem is I have not found a way to get a stock unit into update mode without updating the MCU. We don't have an MCU update for the 200 and we know it has a different version than the 100. I'll look through the updater asm more and see if I can find another way in. My guess is the MCU has a way in since I've seen a few references in Xboot, but, I have not found those either.
[Android Auto General] DavieMan18:
Sony XAV-AX200

Will this work on the AX200?
[Android Auto General] FormelLMS:
See one post above yours...
[Android Auto General] n7slc:
[MENTION=238068]superdave[/MENTION] - I just tried this on my new unit and I get the, "This data is not compatible" error.

It is on the latest firmware. Possibly a USB formatting issue?
[Android Auto General] superdave:
What firmware version is your radio on? Did you copy all the files into the update folder?
[Android Auto General] n7slc:
Yeah, it's on 1.02.06. I created a folder called "update" in the root of the flash drive and copied all the files to it. I've tried it on two different thumb drives and get the same error. Both drives are formatted for Fat32.
[Android Auto General] superdave:
What size USB stick? I've only seen that when both the CUST_PACK.BIN and the st16mcu.bin are not in the update folder,but, I think a few other users reported large flash drives caused an issue.
[Android Auto General] n7slc:
One is a v2.0 8GB and the other is a v3.0 16GB. I'll see if I've got something smaller that I can try.
[Android Auto General] superdave:
When connecting a USB3 device I have had to use a 2.0 hub first. I'm surprised the USB2 8GB didnt work though.
[Android Auto General] n7slc:
No love with an old V1.0 4GB either...damn.
[Android Auto General] superdave:
Hmm, can you screen shot your update folder?
[Android Auto General] n7slc:
Here you go!
[Android Auto General] superdave:
Something is not right, those file sizes are way off. Can you try pulling it down again.
[Android Auto General] n7slc:
I can click on each individual file and download them with the exception of the runtime_cfg.img. I right-clicked and did "save file as" on all of the files originally. How big should the runtime_cfg.img be?

The files in the update folder are now:

CUST_PACK.BIN 16 KB

rootfs.img 3,808 KB

runtime_cfg.img 66 KB

spapp.img 33,048 KB

st16mcu.bin 121 KB

I'm not about to try this until you tell me they all look good. :)
[Android Auto General] FormelLMS:
Download the whole zip file, not all single files.
[Android Auto General] n7slc:
I would, but there's no link for a zip file that I can find. :confused:

Clone or Download button on the main screen.
[Android Auto General] FormelLMS:
Press Clone or Download and choose download zip file
[Android Auto General] n7slc:
Thank you. It's updating right now. *fingers crossed*

---------- Post added at 11:13 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:09 AM ----------

Okay! It worked! Thanks guys.

Should it still show 1.02.06?
[Android Auto General] superdave:
Yeah, i didn't change the version. If your caution screen is gone, it took. You can also execute scripts by creating a file called usbexecute on the flash drive. That will run everytime you plug the stick in.
[Android Auto General] ilgaspa:
Hi SuperDave :)

Thanks for your work on this headunit, being finally able to bypass that nagscreen is awesome.

Do you think your file can be used on the european XAV-AX100 too? I noticed that the st16mcu.bin file included in your repo is completely different from the one present in Euro XAV-AX100 update file (121KB vs 58kb)
[Android Auto General] superdave:
Which link are you using? I just pulled down the UK version from https://www.sony.co.uk/electronics/support/mobile-cd-players-xav-series/xav-ax100/downloads/00000083 and it's the same as mine. SOC: 1.02.06 and 123094bytes.
[Android Auto General] ilgaspa:
Hem... :angel: I'm sorry...

I noticed just now that I was looking at the fil STILL INSIDE the archive from github... thus seeing the compressed size, not the real one :rolleyes:

Sorry... the files are indeed identical .
[Android Auto General] superdave:
Ah, cool. I thought I had looked through multiple country updates a while back. I was hoping to find a different MCU for some comparison, but, they all appeared to be the same.
[Android Auto General] rhibear:
Folder shuffle

Is there any way to make it shuffle the tracks within a folder instead of EVERY track on the drive?

Lack of folder shuffle is almost making me regret my purchase. :(

BTW. Big thanks for the caution screen disable hack.
[Android Auto General] superdave:
I think I have found a way to update the AX-200. You can get into update mode and skip the MCU update by setting developer mode before doing the update. There is a small risk since we don't have a released update, but, if someone wants to try a test I've attached an update that will just backup the devices partitions to usb and reset.

To use it.

1. Put the attached update folder and file on the usb stick, create a folder named output on the usb stick and insert it.

2. Set the radios date/time to 06-06-2016 06:06

3. Go to firmware update and update it.

AGAIN!!!!!!!!! There is a slight risk here. I looked at the source for the AX-200 and it appears to have the same function, but, since I don't have a 200 I cant test it myself.

Edit: changed update to backup partitions.
[Android Auto General] rmay2851:
How do I do this using an Apple 7+ phone.
[Android Auto General] FormelLMS:
[MENTION=238068]superdave[/MENTION] one Problem with the Sony.

Sometimes it seems to forget the time and sets to 1976. So Android Auto won't start anymore until you fiddle the time right.

Websearches told me, that I'm not alone with this problem.

Do you think, you could dive into this?
[Android Auto General] superdave:
That's interesting, I have not seen that one. Its default date/time is "Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 UTC 1970" after a reset. At least on my non MCU unit. That's never happened on my main unit. I'll see if I can find anything.
[Android Auto General] FormelLMS:
Uh oh, could be that it's 1970.

But it's really annoying. Seeing others on Amazon with same problem.
[Android Auto General] CrazyPeter:
Is it correct to say, this unit is now wide open, we can compile own firmware from the Sony source and flash it?

This I guess opens up lots of future opportunities ?
[Android Auto General] superdave:
Mostly, it is wide open. We can compile a flash the new kernel from Sonys source. We can also flash any of the other partitions. Rootfs, spapp, spbin, etc. We have Sonys qtpackage, but, we don't have their qt app source. So we would need to patch it or rewrite those. Fortunately it's mostly modular using plug-ins. I'm working in a new home Plugin now. We also don't have the source for the mcu or even a full bin. I had to wipe mine to get it to boot and have not been able to get Sonys mcu firmware back on. I figured out the entry point for their bin, but, it doesn't contain the bootloader. I found the gpios for the main power and the lcd so I can boot it. I need to figure out the rest of them.

So yeah it's wide open, but, we'll need to write some of our own code.
[Android Auto General] n7slc:
So, maybe wireless Android Auto a possibility?
[Android Auto General] superdave:
I need to see how its routed, but, I can already get a USB WiFi adapter going so I don't see why not.
[Android Auto General] CadillacMike:
Does removing the message speed up the start up time? Or does it just alleviate the need to press OK?
[Android Auto General] superdave:
There is a slight delay when the warning screen is displayed so it may cut off a second or two. Alleviating the need to press the button has a big perceived speed increase though.
[Android Auto General] cloudpt:
I also have the same problem (clock and stations/settings reset) and my date also seems to go back to 1976 and not 1970. This might actually be relevant - I noticed on your profile you are based in Europe and so am I. Also bought from Amazon, although Amazon.es, but the products must be the same (european models, without remote control in the package). superdave and other users might be based on America and the software can have different defaults, maybe even have different software altogether, which might or might not introduce risk factors when flashing their stuff (!!!).

OTOH it might simply be the firmware version - I am still in stock firmware (not 10206). This might also be the reason why I am able to have USB Hub flash drive playback with simultaneous AA, since one of the 2 changes of the newer software is "improve USB device detection capabilities".

I'll grab my product model soon and paste it here for reference, but I have compared the official Sony US vs UK update files - same size at the byte level; UK has capital letters on the extension (ZIP) while US has small (this might simply be US/UK sites having different server file systems); "cmp" command states they are equal byte by byte though. This still doesn't rule out that my current version (not 10206) has different default date, but it indicates there might not be any flashing problems.

Refer to my extensive post here for verbose explanation of my experience with settings reset.
[Android Auto General] skylaneffz:
This is awesome. Made a donation. Keep up the good work!
[Android Auto General] superdave:
If would like you can use the file posted here https://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=75056581&postcount=61 to backup your current firmware. That would allow us to see what the changes are.
[Android Auto General] MrMEC:
Just wanted to chime in and say thank you to superdave for this awesome update. I really, really appreciate it! I really hope you continue down this road with future modifications to the unit. A couple of wish list items:

- station numbers only on the radio mode - no scrolling song names where the station numbers should be (this has always bugged me)

- the ability to change icons and/or fonts on the homescreen (just a nice to have)

Hopefully these are possible...but what you've done already makes a huge difference in itself. Thanks again!
[Android Auto General] cgytm:
sirius XM

Try it with Sirius XM apk and it WORKS!

Know nothing about this but I admire people like you who do just for pleasure that kind of work for the benefit of everyone,

Many Many Thanks!
[Android Auto General] CadillacMike:
Oh no doubt, no pressing OK is a big selling point. I just didn't know how much of the initial boot was the warning vs the actual boot up
[Android Auto General] cloudpt:
Not to sound rude, but you can just re-watch your own video and figure out it's about 15 seconds from acc (ignition) to the "OK" screen. So it should be 17 or so to the home with this mod (really gotta take some time this weekend to test this myself).

Side-note: In regard to the time Bluetooth connection would take to whatever device you're using (another point you make on that video), it will greatly vary with the combination of advertising frequency (of your external device, e.g. phone or watch) and polling frequency of the Sony stereo. Unfortunately most Bluetooth devices don't follow strict specification, and that's why different devices take different times connecting to each other (sometimes even time out and fail). I'm betting a Sony smartphone would work wonders on this because Sony likely agrees internally on this spec. Some companies with leverage over OEMs (e.g. Apple) actually publish a peripheral specification that goes as deep as advertising rates, which all certified OEMs must abide to so they can use Apple logo, so I'm betting an iPhone or an iWatch should be much faster connecting to the Sony or else they couldn't legally brag about Apple compatibility. Whatever stereo you had before just happenned to be a better match with your Samsung Gear, but IMHO, 30s is decent enough - much better than no connection at all, which is what you recurrently get on chinese stereos and/or smart devices (exceptions DO exist).
[Android Auto General] superdave:
Yeah, I would guess a second or two.

Watching the boot on the UART I see...

Uboot starts: 508ms

Kernel starts: 1634ms

Kernel load complete and profile execute starts: 3399ms

APP 1st Frame: 13200 ms

Home displayed and responds: 15372ms

After that there are a few Bluetooth calls. I would like to get this unit to instant boot, but, for now 15 seconds isn't too bad.