Cooperation required! Lollipop fixes available

[uudruid74]

I have the following Lollipop-based unit and have modified/rooted the ROM:
http://www.autopumpkin.com/car-dvd-play ... ntrol.html

I have a couple of issues with it, and since I have gotten nowhere with the seller (who I believe is an authorized representative but operates on Ebay) as far as actual fixes, I have taken the liberty of modifying the ROM myself to fix the issues. Please do not ask me for a copy (unless you are an authorized pumpkin audio rep). This post is not to distribute hacked copies of this company's property but rather a call for cooperation between the users and the ROM developers. I want this information to be passed along upstream so that all users can take advantage of the research I've made. Either that, or open-source the ROM and let the users and XDA folks take over!

First, the bluetooth support is iffy at best. The unit never asks for a PIN, so this company's own ODB2 dongle won't register. I am investigating this problem and have full logs of the transactions. I have rooted the unit and can get full debug information. All the commands sent to the bluetooth backend service are clearly logged. I would think the developers could do this part on their own, but its only a matter of time for me. It's just harder without source code. I have a feeling that buying a bluetooth game controller would be a waste, and it looks like the IR port is just there for looks??

I have a working ODB2 dongle from a 3rd party that doesn't need a pin. It is recognized as an ODB2 device by the system and the Bluetooth manager starts the HTC ODB2 service via an Intent (line numbers and function names avail on request). This service will cause the system to reboot every time the system is started. This means that when you turn the key and the unit is on stand-by, it reboots right then. If the system is not on stand-by, you watch it boot and then it boots a second time! I have modified the Bluetooth manager APK to remove the code that starts this service and the reboots have stopped. Luckily, I don't need the service because Torque doesn't need it and the other features it supports are ones my car doesn't have (yet). BTW, you can set Torque as your "Navi" app if you want quick access to/from Torque rather than your GPS. I have it start at boot as well and it reconnects from standby just fine.

The older models have longer stand-by times. I don't like watching the system boot, so I added back the 12 and 24 hour standby times. I think the users should have the options and if they experience battery drain, they can choose a lower standby. But, give the users the power to choose! And of course, my main reason to root the unit was Viper4Android and real backups to SD. Consider including Viper in your ROM for power users. It can be included without root if you pre-install the library to the ROM, but getting good backups and debug logs still requires a rooted unit. Maybe a special download for power users?

Another Bug: The FM radio is very quirky and needs a major overhaul. It should save the presets to an SQL database and should NOT mute the system volume. The text decoding puts the song name where the station name should be, interface is hard to use, etc. Muting the system volume makes Torque and GPS alerts and possibly other sounds almost impossible to hear. Don't mute system sounds!

Wish List: Music app is horrible, Make an option so that the MODE switch on the steering buttons can replace it with a 3rd party app like Poweramp. A music player with no search feature, no id3 support, and no playlist support is just ridiculous. I have thousands of mp3s. Worse, the random play doesnt work from the widget and selecting the previous track doesn't go back to the previous track in random mode, but to a random track (thus next and prev are the same in random mode). With Poweramp I can swipe the screen to change songs which doesn't distract me from driving as much as looking for the buttons.

--uudruid74

[Cryptic]

I have the same unit and the same issue with Bluetooth ODB2 adapter.

I tried flashing to this ROM from Malaysk dated 7/26/2016

Still doesn't work. From what I read, downgrading to 4.4.4 fixes the issue, but then you are no longer on Lollipop

I have a hunch is has to do with the implementation of BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) that broke something. I believe it was first introduced in Lollipop.

anyways, following this thread because I want to get a fix for this.

90% of the reason I bought this headunit was for Torque Pro in my dash, and that doesn't even work.

-Cryptic

[Jammy]

Hi, you can connect the Bluetooth ODB2 adapter with your smartphone to check.
If it can work with your smartphone, it's possible that the Bluetooth OBD2 adapter is not compatible with our unit.
If it neither work with your smartphone, it must the Bluetooth OBD2 adapter is broken.
Regards

[Cryptic]

Jammy,

My ODB2 Bluetooth dongle works fine with my Samsung Galaxy S5. As I said before, if you rollback to 4.4.4 (from 5.1.1) the bluetooth starts working again. So it's not a hardware issue. It's a software issue. I need to do this myself yet and see if I can identify what is different about 4.4.4.

You need to change your position on the problem. Acknowledge there is an issue.

Basically we need to wait until the Android community or your company figures out a fix. At this point I don't believe Pumpkin themselves does any software development. It's just re-packaged opensource stuff. Pumpkin is NOT the only head unit company effected by this.

Last night I tried to figure it out. I was trying to see if there is a way from the command line (SSH shell) to manually pair a bluetooth device or statically configure it in a config file. I wasn't successful. In Lollipop is there is no "hcitool". It looks like it's using "Bluedroid" for the bluetooth management instead of "Bluez". I'm not sure yet if 4.4.4 is using Bluez or not.

-Cryptic

[uudruid74]

Cryptic,

I have tried forever to get the unit to pair with a device that asks for a PIN. I have never gotten this unit to ask for a PIN, ever. I have an adapter that doesn't need a PIN, and this works with Torque Pro. As I mentioned before, the stock ROM tries to restart an ODB2 service (not needed by Torque but for other software I can't even use with my older vehicle) and this service will crash on boot or when waking up from standby. When I complained, I had to send in a video and they told me I wasn't using a bluetooth adapter from them. So ... I bought one from pumpkin audio. The one they sell wants a PIN number and won't work with this unit. When I ask if they've got a lollipop unit that pairs with this device, they don't answer the question and offer a refund for the bluetooth adapter.

I believe the problem is that they use a replaceable module for bluetooth hardware. Its not part of the chipset and they are basically talking to the chipset over a serial link. This is done via a low-level service called "linlin" which sends the equivalent of AT commands. Luckily, linlin logs everything it does. But, with no source, its hard to do much to fix it. It would take someone really good at "smali" code (java assembler). And the decompiled source (which can't be recompiled - no decompiler is quite that good yet) shows that the authors are horrible at spelling! Anything that isn't straight from Google is a mess.

And yes, it needs to start with the company acknowledging that a problem exists. This is why I hacked it. The hack proves exactly where the fault is at ... now will they fix it or get the "factory" to fix it, or just keep sending me videos of how to plug in an ODB2 adapter?

[mustangsal]

Cryptic,

Did you get anywhere with this yet? I bought the same head unit so I could use Torque with my ScanTool MX while I tow. No luck getting them to pair however. I then bought the "pumpkin" bluetooth OBD adapter, which pairs with the head unit, but Torque doesn't see.

I now have 4 OBDII units and only 1 works with torque and the headunit, but only reads basic data and is way too slow to be useful.

How very frustrating.

[Cryptic]

I have made no progress.

I tried flashing to 4.4.4 (Malask rom) and it's basically the same behavior. So information I read was wrong. Which model worked for you?

[MiLe]

Come on Pumpkin,

these guys here try to make YOUR product better and to make the important features wich YOU sell functional - so it would be as nice as clever to support them a bit

[Cryptic]

[uudruid74]

I had a Wifi based dongle as well and didn't like it. It wasn't very reliable. Worse, Android wants to drop a connection if it doesn't see Internet access on it. It turned out to be problematic.

If the on-board CANBUS/ODBII service sees the WiFi device as an ODBII device, it may reboot just like the Bluetooth ones! Maybe I can get Pumpkin to allow redistribution of hacked ROMs? Anyone see any flying pigs?

For now, my only issues are that the bluetooth device I have goes into sleep mode and doesn't wake up. I just pull it out of the ECU connector and pop it back it, then restart Torque. Not sure of a good way around that yet. And Viper doesn't get reloaded when the system comes back from standby. I think they don't broadcast the BOOT_COMPLETED message and I'll have to see about hacking that in to get things working right.