Today I was mostly installing a carplay/android auto unit. This one although mine is not from Veloces 
. The 'manufacturer' of this box is Ksmart, yet another rebranded/reskinned Limcet box. It has the usual graphical interface like all the others from Eng-custom, Imperium etc, uses the built in microphone, camera, speakers and steering wheel controls, has 5G Wifi and so on.
As you can see below it looks very pretty in Android Auto mode!
![Image]()
This unit was cheap in the Black Friday sales, but now I've got it, I think I will be reselling it. Not because it doesn't work, it works exactly as described, just because I don't think I'm enough of a user of streaming music services and don't hate the inbuilt Tom Tom nav enough, to deal with the irritations of Android Auto. At least with the Alfa Nav you can actually get full screen, you can't with AA (unless some kind person can enlighten me) see screenshot below.
![Image]()
It's also a bit of a PITA to take the unit out every time the car goes to my dealer (these units are allegedly bricked by a proxy alignment according to another poster on this forum, I don't trust my local dealers at all, yours may be fine). As you can see from the picture of the screen mirroring below, the size of the picture on the phone is the same as the phone mirrored to the dash, so you have to ask the question.. why not just mount the phone on the dash, and not bother with the screen mirroring software ... or indeed the whole unit?
![Image]()
Of course, if you really hate Tom Tom, or you need Spotify, then its easy to flip the car into AA mode when you get in (I think it does it automatically) and away you go! I don't have an Apple phone... Carplay may be much better, and I've seen vids where you can put the map on the car display and have your turn list on the phone, (which is a great use of screen real estate). There are a fair number of enthusiasts for Carplay and AA out there.. I like the idea a lot, but it seems that Google have missed a trick here, their implementation of AA could be so much better, and my phone is running a current android version.
Will write up some install notes with photos for the future buyer. For an RHD car, the under steering wheel arrangement of panels appears to be different to LHD and I always find that if you are pulling panels, its good to have some idea where you can attack them. The electronics are easy to connect, as you're only disconnecting two multiway plugs from the back of the car unit. Although I was using trim tools, you probably only need a screwdriver and a T25 and T30 torx allen keys. If there is any interest, happy to post instructions up here, it is a very easy install.
As the install is not permanent yet I haven't sorted out a 'final' location for the unit, that might be a challenge because of the proximity to the brake unit (behind) and/or the front dash pocket (in front of the unit) in my car. The Chinese suggest 'on top' but not sure this works well for RHD cars. Any ideas welcome on that one from any of the experts out there!
. The 'manufacturer' of this box is Ksmart, yet another rebranded/reskinned Limcet box. It has the usual graphical interface like all the others from Eng-custom, Imperium etc, uses the built in microphone, camera, speakers and steering wheel controls, has 5G Wifi and so on.As you can see below it looks very pretty in Android Auto mode!
This unit was cheap in the Black Friday sales, but now I've got it, I think I will be reselling it. Not because it doesn't work, it works exactly as described, just because I don't think I'm enough of a user of streaming music services and don't hate the inbuilt Tom Tom nav enough, to deal with the irritations of Android Auto. At least with the Alfa Nav you can actually get full screen, you can't with AA (unless some kind person can enlighten me) see screenshot below.
It's also a bit of a PITA to take the unit out every time the car goes to my dealer (these units are allegedly bricked by a proxy alignment according to another poster on this forum, I don't trust my local dealers at all, yours may be fine). As you can see from the picture of the screen mirroring below, the size of the picture on the phone is the same as the phone mirrored to the dash, so you have to ask the question.. why not just mount the phone on the dash, and not bother with the screen mirroring software ... or indeed the whole unit?
Of course, if you really hate Tom Tom, or you need Spotify, then its easy to flip the car into AA mode when you get in (I think it does it automatically) and away you go! I don't have an Apple phone... Carplay may be much better, and I've seen vids where you can put the map on the car display and have your turn list on the phone, (which is a great use of screen real estate). There are a fair number of enthusiasts for Carplay and AA out there.. I like the idea a lot, but it seems that Google have missed a trick here, their implementation of AA could be so much better, and my phone is running a current android version.
Will write up some install notes with photos for the future buyer. For an RHD car, the under steering wheel arrangement of panels appears to be different to LHD and I always find that if you are pulling panels, its good to have some idea where you can attack them. The electronics are easy to connect, as you're only disconnecting two multiway plugs from the back of the car unit. Although I was using trim tools, you probably only need a screwdriver and a T25 and T30 torx allen keys. If there is any interest, happy to post instructions up here, it is a very easy install.
As the install is not permanent yet I haven't sorted out a 'final' location for the unit, that might be a challenge because of the proximity to the brake unit (behind) and/or the front dash pocket (in front of the unit) in my car. The Chinese suggest 'on top' but not sure this works well for RHD cars. Any ideas welcome on that one from any of the experts out there!
