E46 Fanatics Forum banner

Official: ///AVIN BMW E46 Full Android Multimedia Navigation System - Info and Q&A

248K views 742 replies 146 participants last post by  Haug523 
#1 · (Edited)
Official: ///AVIN BMW E46 Full Android Multimedia Navigation System - Info and Q&A

Official: ///AVIN BMW E46 Full Android Multimedia Navigation System - Info and Q&A







Hi I wanted to share with you guys the new ///AVIN BMW E46 Full Android GPS Navigation System I have been working on. A little about me before I go into detail about the new system. I am from the San Francisco Bay Area and have been a registered member of E46Fanatics for more than 10 years. Some of you might know me better as M3Evolution the guy that makes and supports the custom Dynavin Android ROM. I am happy and proud to say that I am now a full supporting sponsor of E46Fanatics!

After working on the custom Dynavin Android ROM and speaking with and helping the many frustrated Dynavin Android owners from all over the world I sought out to develop a new system. I got a lot of great advices and suggestions from other helpful E46Fanatics members and Dynavin owners of what kind of features they would want the new hardware and software to have. My goal was not to only fix all the problems we had with our Dynavin systems but to go beyond that and introduce more advance features, better user experience, all while keeping it simple and intuitive to use. This last part was especially important since we will be using this in our cars driving at the legal speed limit of course.

The BMW Avant series hardware and software was inspired by the many great members here at E46Fanatics. We listened to many owners of different systems about the problems they had, what annoyed them most, and what their ideal perfect system would be like. We sought out to develop a system that would try to meet those high expectations. Even the BMW Avant Premium Amber UI color scheme was recommended by the E46Fanatics members here to compliment the BMW 3 Series dashboard and interior. The BMW Avant series is designed to be fast, reliable, simple, and intuitive to use. The UI design is meant to be intuitive so you can keep your eyes and attention on the road. The AA-BE46 hardware was designed to keep true to the original factory look and feel of your BMW 3-Series. It's Torque built-in compatibility makes it easy for you to access your cars diagnostic directly from the 7" touchscreen. It is always ready to go whenever you are (video demo of startup time in post#22). It's a full Android system but does not require you to be a rocket scientist or an Android developer to take advantage of its advance features.

Now you can have easy access to your GMail, Facebook, Pandora, Spotify, Google Music, Waze, Google Maps Navigation, Youtube HD, Yelp, Foursquare, Soundhound, Shazam, and thousands more apps from Google Play store. You can even make and receive Voip phone calls without ever using any of your cellphone minutes.

Installation is simple with the included plug-n-play OEM harness connector. There is no need for any modification to the factory wires or harnesses.

We surveyed many current BMW owners and asked them what are the most important features that they wanted out of their stereo / navigation system and the overwhelming response was ease of use and more importantly reliability. We depend on our cars to get us from point A to point B quickly and efficiently as possible. When we start our cars we want our Navigation system to be ready to go when we are. The ///AVIN AA-BE46 is powered on and fully usable within a few seconds of starting your car. This is the fastest start time I have seen out of any Android in-car navigation system out there on the market today. So if you are in the market for an Android in-car Navigation system one of the first thing you should ask is how long do I have to sit and wait after starting the car before I can start inputting my destination address and then driving off. (video demo of the amazingly fast startup time of the ///AVIN Avant AA-BE46 in post#22)

The HOME, BACK, MENU buttons on the panel of the ///AVIN AA-BE46 are very important.

There are some APPs (eg. Torque, SlingPlayer) that will force fullscreen and that means the top statusbar with the digital Home, Menu, Back buttons will disappear and the app takes over the entire screen. This can be a great thing because APPs like Torque or other video or games apps can take advantage of the entire screen. Navigation maps can also take advantage of the fullscreen to display map and directions. There are other systems on the market that do not have these important hard buttons. The owners of those systems will have no way to exit an app or go back to the Home screen if there were no physical HOME,BACK, MENU buttons. The only option for users of those other system is to turn off their car and restart the entire navigation system if they get stuck.

If you are in the market for an Android in-car navigation make sure it has physical HOME, BACK, MENU buttons or you will be stuck and unable to get out of fullscreen APPs like Torque

Being a long time E46Fanatics registered member and owner of other previous navigation system myself I understand the concern about quality, reliability, after sales service, and warranty.

To ensure that all our customers receive the highest quality products we personally visit the factories where they are made and do our own quality control tests. We cooperate and work closely with the engineers as well. We do not depend on third parties to do the inspection for us. Any products that do not pass our strict standards gets rejected. After each order that we receive we personally fully test each unit again before shipping out to customers. This ensure our customers gets the highest quality and most reliable products. All of our products are backed by a 1 year US warranty. If customers ever need to send a product in for service our service center is conveniently located in Northern California.

There is currently a discount towards a new ///AVIN BMW E46 Full Android GPS Navigation System for those that have generously donated for my custom M3Evolution Dynavin Android ROM before 03/20/2014. The discount is up to $100 off. Message me for more details.

I will try to update this post with more information soon. If there are any questions you can reply here or email me at tommy@avinusa.com .



http://youtu.be/sd4JxfB7ODM

You can now Chat with Us Live directly from our website
www.avinusa.com

 
See less See more
4
#548 ·
Yes... same here... Google NAV is crashing on me as well... again, I'm sure a fix will be out. I'd like to find a nice High rez BMW wall paper for the background or even a nice live wallpaper equalizer for the background... I'm also going to pick up a 32G Micro SD card tonight as well... What are you guys using if I might ask...?
 
#552 ·
Hey, so I installed the AVIN unit and it works fine and has power however I have no sound. I have JL stealth boxes and an aftermarket amp. Wondering if I'm supposed to use this wire off the included plug and run it to my aftermarket amp? It's labeled "Amp-Con" and is orange... Any thoughts?


Sent from BimmerApp mobile app
 
#553 ·
Hey, so I installed the AVIN unit and it works fine and has power however I have no sound. I have JL stealth boxes and an aftermarket amp. Wondering if I'm supposed to use this wire off the included plug and run it to my aftermarket amp? It's labeled "Amp-Con" and is orange... Any thoughts?
The stealthboxes are for your subs, correct? Do you get any sound from your regular speakers?

Did you run the RCA cable back to the sub amp? If so then yes, you need to run a small gauge wire back to the amp and connect it to the Amp-Con wire.

If you didn't run the RCA cable and instead were planning to use line level inputs on the amp, then that would be different. Report back and I'll try to help you from there as best as I can.
 
#555 ·
Connecting to two Bluetooth devices

I have the 1st generation AVANT E46 model. I am using the RaceChrono app to datalog GPS & OBD-2 data during track events. I just got an external Bluetooth GPS receiver and cannot seem to get both the external GPS & OBD-2 data simultaneously. Is the AVIN unit capable of connecting to two Bluetooth devices simultaneously? I will not be pairing my BT phone to the AVIN during this time.

External Bluetooth GPS: QSTARZ BT-Q818XT
Bluetooth OBD-2: included with purchase of AVIN unit (black w/ blue button)

I do not understand the AVIN's Bluetooth pairing scheme. The only option in the settings are to scan for OBD devices. When I do the scan, I see the GPS & OBD-2 devices. It would not connect with the GPS device until I entered the PIN to 0000. After I did that, RaceChrono could get data from the GPS device. However, it wouldn't read from the OBD-2 device anymore.

I tried deleting the 0000 from the PIN setting but it would not let me. I believe this PIN of 0000 prevents me from connecting to the OBD-2 device at all.

This is all preliminary from this morning so I have not tried many options. I would appreciate any help!

Thanks,
Jared
 
#558 ·
I have the 1st generation AVANT E46 model. I am using the RaceChrono app to datalog GPS & OBD-2 data during track events. I just got an external Bluetooth GPS receiver and cannot seem to get both the external GPS & OBD-2 data simultaneously. Is the AVIN unit capable of connecting to two Bluetooth devices simultaneously? I will not be pairing my BT phone to the AVIN during this time.

External Bluetooth GPS: QSTARZ BT-Q818XT
Bluetooth OBD-2: included with purchase of AVIN unit (black w/ blue button)

I do not understand the AVIN's Bluetooth pairing scheme. The only option in the settings are to scan for OBD devices. When I do the scan, I see the GPS & OBD-2 devices. It would not connect with the GPS device until I entered the PIN to 0000. After I did that, RaceChrono could get data from the GPS device. However, it wouldn't read from the OBD-2 device anymore.

I tried deleting the 0000 from the PIN setting but it would not let me. I believe this PIN of 0000 prevents me from connecting to the OBD-2 device at all.

This is all preliminary from this morning so I have not tried many options. I would appreciate any help!

Thanks,
Jared
The Avant can connect to Bluetooth Handsfree and only one Bluetooth data profile at a time. This mean you can only connect the OBD2 device OR your GPS device at any one time and not both at the same time.
 
#564 ·
Yes.. push the righthand dial, once goes to dimmer ...
Right. And for the next version I'd wish a third "ultra-low" dim-level as it's still much too bright at night on the highway..
And for HW V3 a way to use the right dial to "select" (Enter) instead of the seldom used dim-function (short/long press?) or even better: a light-sensor just doing this automatically as on every other Android device :)

Michael
 
#568 ·
Right. And for the next version I'd wish a third "ultra-low" dim-level as it's still much too bright at night on the highway..
And for HW V3 a way to use the right dial to "select" (Enter) instead of the seldom used dim-function (short/long press?) or even better: a light-sensor just doing this automatically as on every other Android device :)

Michael
In the beta version I'm testing there's an included app called screen filter that works very well for that. Basically it dims both settings, so when activated it you get five levels (including off). Really liking it for night driving.

You may look for something similar on the app store or wait for the next release to get it.
 
#575 ·
Please urgent help needed.

I just received my avant 2 unit for my 2003 m3 coupe. I've plugged everything in but I have no sound from any source at all...I'm replacing my stock business non navigation radio.

Just to confirm I've plugged the bracket and the Ibus connector to the back for the avant. I also have another bracket(the one with ILL wire) that came with the avant 2 but I guess thats for radios with a different pin layout(I'm not using that one)?

I'm also not using the plug that has various audio in/out RCA plugs. I assume that for after market amps and stuff?

The bracket that is currently hooked in the back of the unit has a wire for REVERSE, PARKING, AMP...and maybe one other wire...those are currently not used...

The unit turns on. I have a media car in the slot and I can see my music.

If it seems everything has been installed good then how come I have zero sound from any inputs, radio, media SD, Bluetooth etc... Please help....

Thanks



Sent from BimmerApp mobile app
 
#576 ·
the best and closed interest. thx to tommy

I search a lat of systems. And i decided for avant-2. I think i am lucky because i bought last avant2 from tommy.

Now we are waiting the avan-2 with forward.

Maybe after in Turkey market we can be distributor for AVIN at www.bmwnavigasyon.com

We are thinking about same invation for this market.

Thank you Tommy and see you soon again.

We will share photo and video when we are make mounting and after with operation.
 
#577 · (Edited)
alirz: It might be that the blue wire that triggers the factory amp to power on might not be sending a strong enough signal for your BMW. Do not worry there is a simple solution for this. I have emailed you the step by step guide how to fix this and soon you will have sound working from all of your speakers. Please check your email for the instructions.
 
#578 ·
Awesome tommy. Thanks.
That solved the issue.

On another note i seem to have quite some static/interference noise if i simply increase the unit's volume when no music or anything is playing..I think the interference comes from the ibus interface from my past experience. Do you know if there's any way to fix this...i hate the random pops,clicks and whining sounds..

i recorded the noise with my iphone, when the car was simply standing still, engine not running, no wind noise or anything. I'll send it you later, you can hear how annoying it is...Though in the recording it sounds louder that it actually is but still very noticeable to human ears
 
#581 · (Edited)
Official: ///AVIN BMW E46 Full Android Multimedia Navigation System - Info an...

Can the music player be set to only show root level folders from the media sd card?

Currently it's pulling all sub folders and displaying them. This is making it impossible for me to find songs/artist that I want to look for.

I keep my music arranged with a folder structure of : artist folder > album(s) folder > song files

I would like to have the music player show music in a similar way so that I can simply Browse by artist first and dig down to a max of two folder levels.

Thanks
 
#583 ·
Anyone notice with the AVIN unit...
1) when using onboard navigation programs Sygic, Navigon, or Copilot (all USA or North American versions from Google Play) other audio is disabled?
--For example, if listening to the radio during GPS-navigation, the radio (or BT or USB) audio will cease as soon as the text-to-speech directions are broadcasted by either Navigation program listed above. Vice versa, if the radio audio dominates, then the navigation audio ceases (perplexing). The audio of thes Nav programs work well my phone Android 4.x. Note: these programs no longer have an option to adjust their audio separately, even though the instructions on their respective websites indicate such. Navigon, simply states adjust the navigation audio using the separate media volume control on your phone--this is not an option for the AVIN headunit.

I have not tested with WIFI-dependent Google maps. I want to use this unit without paying extra for WiFi streaming through my phone, since I know of other NAV head units that don't require paying extra for superb onboard navigation. See Pioneer unit options below:

AVIC Pioneer options:
Touchscreen Display; Onboard Navigation
Built-in Bluetooth; Disc/SD/USB Playback
iPod/iPhone Control; Android Connectivity
HD+Internet+SiriusXM Radio; Audio Section
AV Connections; OEM/Remote Control

2) occasionally, upon close observation, Chinese characters appear on USA AVIN unit in radio broadcast identification?

3) Ipod song loading is slow (Ipod Classic 160 GB with 9000+ songs). One song loads over 30 minutes and that one song will cycle over-and-over. MP3 media on USB drive is workaround with default media player or Google Play app, but the caveat is this audio will cease if running a Nav app with maps loaded to the memory card. If your IPOD device loads songs quickly, please kindly inform on the type of Ipod unit you are using, its capacity, and estimate number of songs loaded...Thanks.

4) while the warm bootup is seconds fast, it only lasts for 2 days (if that option is user-selected, shorter times are available. I am not sure why "infinity" time or "never cold-boot" option is not available). Thereafter, the next start up is a cold boot (the cold boot time (30-45 sec) is on par with big name competitor 2-DIN units. However, the reverse camera software does not work during the cold boot). NOTE: the warm boots will again last for 2 days; the cycle is repeated when I use my car each weekend. What's your opinion on this feature? Probably none, if you use your car everyday.

5) large phonebooks (500+ contacts) upload slowly in the bluetooth function? Has anyone used this function, or is your phonebook relatively small? The built-in microphone works great and external mic option is great for conversation, but playing music via bluetooth only shows the BluetoothTM symbol; no title nor artist is displayed.

6) the stylus works consistently better than the finger, especially when scrolling through menus.

The unit looks great in the 2-DIN space in the car and the visual eye candy is excellent. There are cool accessories, such as OBD 2 readouts and the Radar detector interface But the slow IPOD interface and the audio bug with the onboard navigation virtually negates the "navigation" feature of the AVIN: I might imagine users who use their phones to stream data to the AVIN may experience better navigation.??? Any feedback from those who stream data through your phone would be invaluable. Photos or videos by users in 2014 in the US showing a tethered phone device (on the highway) serviced by one of the BIG providers (ATT, Sprint, Verizon etc) would be helpful to some members on the XOUTPOST community.

For me, I give it one :thumbup: for the decent visual radio UI, and one :thumbdwn: for the limited EQ function and the other non-existent audio tweaks for the audiophile. For casual listener, the audio adjustments, while minimal, are satisfactory--but the OEM unit's sound adjustments were satisfactory.

I give two :thumbdwn::thumbdwn: for the lack of native Onboard Navigation that does not require Wifi data and IPOD interface that does not meet expectation of an $800 stereo that advertises these functions.

I realize that other aftermarket 2-DIN units that need a faceplate to mount the unit removes some of the visual appeal that the AVIN unit showcases. But the cohesive programs installed on for example a 2014 Pioneer, Sony, Alpine, Soundstream, Kenwood (particularly those which offer fast Nav, BT, and Ipod interfacing) might outweigh what is lost aesthetically (not saying these are necessarily the best alternatives, but I would definitely explore these as options based on commentary by a company such as Crutchfield).

Would I recommend the E53 Full Android [2.3.4] "GPS" Navigation AVINUSA unit to a friend...? Likely NOT
 
#584 ·
Anyone notice with the AVIN unit...
1) when using onboard navigation programs Sygic, Navigon, or Copilot (all USA or North American versions from Google Play) other audio is disabled?
I exclusively use Waze and normally the nav voice interrupts the Radio but usually Radio works ok after that. Recently it has not been working and I had to the re-select Radio app then go back to Waze. Annoying.

5) large phonebooks (500+ contacts) upload slowly in the bluetooth function? Has anyone used this function, or is your phonebook relatively small?
I see the same behavior. This makes the BT phonebook sync completely useless. I want to specify a contact list/group to sync with the AVIN so that it is maybe a dozen contacts. With people's entire contact list in Google, no one has just a few contacts on their phone anymore. Key bug.

Another serious issue I have is the speakers are not correctly mapped. Either this is a software mapping issue or the wiring harness I have is miswired. The mapping is such that the front speakers are actually the two right speakers. This makes it interesting because the nav voice is only played on the right side of the car. I proved this by using the fader in the radio app. I may have to rewire the harness to resolve the issue. Has anyone else observed this?

Cheers,
Jared
 
#587 ·
Hi if you are referring to the S150 Android model then we also have that model for only $599.99
https://avinusa.com/bmw-e46-android-s150-series.html

The Avant-1 model in this thread is no longer available.

We now have the newer Avant-2.

AVANT-2 Series: Android In-car Navigation System
1 year US warranty
2 second start time *
Android 4.1.1 (Jelly Bean)
1.0 GHZ Dual Core CPU
1.0 GB RAM
Capacitive Multi Touch Screen
Higher Resolution (1024 x 600 )
Support USB Hard Drive (externally powered)
CarLink Wireless Control via Android Phone or Tablet
Wifi Built-In
Support for Apple AirPlay / DLNA

For more info on the Avant-2 specs and video demo follow the link below.

https://avinusa.com/bmw-e46-avant2-full-android-multimedia-navigation-system.html
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top