Category Archives: Day-to-day

Pumpkin Android player, 8 months on

Well it’s been 8 months already using this unit so maybe it’s time to say a bit on what it’s been like to live with.

Overall it’s been a good investment. It’s done everything it’s promised so far with few complaints.

So what have been the positives?

The sound quality is good and it has enough volume for all situations.

It runs Android apps great although there’s really only a couple I use on the move.

The interface is fine and fluid with no lag.

It looks cool with its blue back-lit buttons.

It starts up pretty quickly and I like having the Nissan logo displayed while it’s booting.

Integration with the buses steering wheel controls is a great feature.

Here are the negatives then…

Often poor radio reception.

The buttons sometimes seem to take a couple of presses to register.

Can’t enable Mock locations in Android so I can’t use my external GPS receiver.

Technical support is pretty poor with them just quoting the manual, or saying x is not supported in this version.

It’s lost paired Bluetooth devices a couple of times.

Only DVD can output to external devices and not movies played from SD etc.

Final thoughts: I would buy one again as this one is fine for what I need and they will only improve with newer versions of Android. It’s a shame the external outputs are only for DVD (actually they also output what is coming into the input but the sound is only sent to the rear speakers for the latter). Not being able to use an external GPS receiver is my biggest gripe.

DigiHUD Speedometer Pro
DigiHUD Speedometer Pro

 

 

It’s alive!

More accurately, it’s finally on the road! Today has been one of such mixed emotions.

Hopefulness

This morning started, like every other day for weeks, with thoughts of ‘oh I hope the dealer gets the V5’. So I texted him just to see if he’d had an update from the DVLA.

Excitement

He apologised that he had, but he just hadn’t let me know. Finally! It wouldn’t be long before I would know the reg and could get plates made.

He sent me a scan of part of the V5 which should let me get the plates. I wasn’t 100% hopeful though as I know how much harder it is now to get plates made as you need the V5 and a driving license.

I’d tried to insure it on-line but due to being an import they needed to check a few things over the phone. They would call me back later.

Apprehension

After work I went to Halfords and thankfully the guys there agreed to make plates even though I had a copy of the V5 and not the real thing. They’re not supposed to make plates from copies of the V5. A massive relief though, and a big thanks to the guys there for their understanding.

...Relief

Later at home I taxed it for a year and had a call from the insurance company…20 minutes later it was insured! So with the new plates on and a bit of charge in the battery (I’d run it down by playing with it over the weekend) we were all set to take it out for it’s inaugural trip (to get some fuel)!

I love it, absolutely love it. It’s bigger than I’m  used to (hey, I drive a Micra ffs) but I used to drive similar sized vans when I was younger so it’ll soon feel normal. It’s quiet, it’s comfortable, has great all round visibility and pulls like a train. Cornering is pretty good too. I actually can’t wait to go to work in it tomorrow.