Parrot Asteroid - Anyone using?
Thread Starter
Pro
Joined: Oct 2013
Posts: 520
Likes: 31
From: Austin, TX
Parrot Asteroid - Anyone using?
http://www.parrot.com/usa/products/a...asteroid-smart
I like this device for a number of reasons, but was curious if anyone had any experience with this device?
- John
I like this device for a number of reasons, but was curious if anyone had any experience with this device?
- John
Instructor
Joined: Apr 2013
Posts: 180
Likes: 2
From: Charlotte NC
I just replaced mine with a pioneer avic X850bt, but I'll give you some info.
My car is a 2013 1LT. I put the Parrot Asteroid Smart in back in April or May.
The head unit is very shallow, and pretty easy to install until you get to steering wheel controls. I had to use a micro controller that plugs in USB to the smart to get SWC. I only had Volume +/-, Mute, Seek +/- programmed. The controller I have allows you to program multiple functions (single press/ long press) for each button but I couldn't get it to work 100% of the time. I've also seen someone that used an arduino controller and did the programming themselves, but I wanted to try a simpler solution so I found a USB SWC microcontroller on a Car PC site. When I bought the HU there wasn't a supported SWC for the corvette, but there may be now. I know one was in the works.
Now, after installation: I rooted the HU and installed the google play store, pandora, google maps and navigation, torque, and tasker. I setup tasker so that it would open google navigation, pandora, and an equalizer app I liked when the head unit made a hotspot connection to my phone. Torque works, but the OBD2 bluetooth adapter I bought doesn't always connect successfully. I was using a Motorola Droid Razr HD Maxx for my hotspot. This was the main problem I had with using the smart, my phone has known hotspot issues and it randomly drops the hotspot, doesn't start the hotspot, etc... This is pretty frustrating since I only listen to pandora in the car. There were many times I had to reboot my phone or at a minimum restart the hotspot several times. Sometimes it worked flawlessly, but I had issues several times a week. I can't blame this on the HU since I've read other people not having this problem. I've also read that the Kenwood DNN990 has issues with the Razr HD Maxx, so I'm almost positive it's the phones fault.
I liked the idea of using an android HU with a wifi hotspot, in practice it wasn't terrible but not great. I got the Smart before the Kenwood came out so there weren't many options, plus with the parrot being <500 and the Kenwood being ~1500 (when it came out), it was a no brainer to try the Smart out.
If you have any other questions let me know.
My car is a 2013 1LT. I put the Parrot Asteroid Smart in back in April or May.
The head unit is very shallow, and pretty easy to install until you get to steering wheel controls. I had to use a micro controller that plugs in USB to the smart to get SWC. I only had Volume +/-, Mute, Seek +/- programmed. The controller I have allows you to program multiple functions (single press/ long press) for each button but I couldn't get it to work 100% of the time. I've also seen someone that used an arduino controller and did the programming themselves, but I wanted to try a simpler solution so I found a USB SWC microcontroller on a Car PC site. When I bought the HU there wasn't a supported SWC for the corvette, but there may be now. I know one was in the works.
Now, after installation: I rooted the HU and installed the google play store, pandora, google maps and navigation, torque, and tasker. I setup tasker so that it would open google navigation, pandora, and an equalizer app I liked when the head unit made a hotspot connection to my phone. Torque works, but the OBD2 bluetooth adapter I bought doesn't always connect successfully. I was using a Motorola Droid Razr HD Maxx for my hotspot. This was the main problem I had with using the smart, my phone has known hotspot issues and it randomly drops the hotspot, doesn't start the hotspot, etc... This is pretty frustrating since I only listen to pandora in the car. There were many times I had to reboot my phone or at a minimum restart the hotspot several times. Sometimes it worked flawlessly, but I had issues several times a week. I can't blame this on the HU since I've read other people not having this problem. I've also read that the Kenwood DNN990 has issues with the Razr HD Maxx, so I'm almost positive it's the phones fault.
I liked the idea of using an android HU with a wifi hotspot, in practice it wasn't terrible but not great. I got the Smart before the Kenwood came out so there weren't many options, plus with the parrot being <500 and the Kenwood being ~1500 (when it came out), it was a no brainer to try the Smart out.
If you have any other questions let me know.
