Category Archives: Multimedia

Day-to-day, Electronicals, ICE, Interior, Multimedia

Pumpkin Android player, 8 months on

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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

 

 

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Electronicals, ICE, Interior, Modifications, Multimedia

Sumvision Cyclone Micro 4

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I recently bought a Sumvision Cyclone Micro 4 multimedia player so that we can watch movies from SD/USB/HDD if out on a long trip.

[IMG]

This thing is pretty small and neat so here are my pro’s and con’s (so far):

Pro’s

  • Small
  • power, AV out, optical out and HDMI connectors are all at the back
  • Powered by USB, comes with a mains plug and cable
  • Simple interface and controls
  • Remote control (ir)
  • Plays a lot of file formats
  • NTSC or PAL
  • Miracast and many more features

Con’s

  • SD card slot and USB port are on the side, limiting where it can be mounted. The front only has the ir sensor so I’m sure there would be room
  • Auto-on when powered up, stopping the Pumpkin playing music etc through the rear audio channels. A con for me but may not be for you
  • Curved bottom could make mounting to flat surfaces trickier
  • Generates noise through the AV IN line, making annoying buzzing sounds when navigating the menus
  • Can’t power up a 2.5″ laptop HDD, would need externally powered drives

I managed to fit it today and whilst doing so found a problem with my bus’s AV.

Previously I had just run a single RCA (yellow) to the middle row socket so that the Pumpkin could output video to the bus’s screens and drive the speakers itself. Worked fine, but with the Cyclone I thought I’d try to connect it directly to the sockets independently of the Pumpkin. Found that no matter what I pressed up front or on the AV remote I could get no sound from the speakers. The Cyclone was playing sound fine as I’d just connected it to the Pumpkin’s AV IN.

So my plan to just put the Cyclone in the back somewhere and plug it in when required went out of the window.

Now I have it connected to the Pumpkin’s AV IN plugs, and it works on all three screens. I’ve moved my camera feed to ‘CAM IN’ but it needs 12v to the reverse wire to switch to that input so connecting that to my video mixer’s trigger switch is a job for another day.

I removed the multiple power feed unit from the middle drawer in the console and put the Cyclone in there.

[IMG]

[IMG]

The wires come through the back of the drawer, along with the Pumpkin’s USB/iPod connectors. The power wire and my dashcam power wire both come through under the centre console.

I’ll sort out the position of the power unit soon, or come up with some solution that has several USB ports flushed with a panel.

My first job today was actually replacing the single AV cable with a three way cable which has now been a waste of time (unless I can work out what the heck is causing no sound to be played from that port).

Strangely whilst doing all this the only controls on the bus’s AV remote that work now are volume and power. I’ve lost the rear screen tilt adjustment and who knows what else that was working when I last used that remote.

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