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Help Car Dock Software Frustrations

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DrR0Ck

Newbie
New to Android, recently got the Droid 3 and so far really happy with it. However, I just got the official Droid 3 car mount, and have been really frustrated using the Car dock software that launches when the phone is in the dock.

I have been unable to find any documentation regarding the dock software.

I don't see any settings button or way to change settings for the software.

The built in Navigation software is incomprehensible to me - I see no way to add destinations or have it function as anything other than a live map. There is a navigation button in the interface, but this just launches the web browser or Google Maps.

The phone dialer provides no way other than voice commands to browse contacts, and the favorites button does not link to the same favorites I specified in the regular phone address book, but rather appears to be a dynamically generated list of recent calls. I don't see a way to add favorites beyond calling additional numbers.

There are 4 mappable buttons, and I have mapped them to contacts and Google Navigation as well as Listen and PowerAmp, but many of the built in buttons are basically useless to me and can't be changed (as far as I can tell).

So I'm wondering if anyone has experience with the built in Car dock app and can provide tips and whether any of the Car Home apps in the Market (including the Google Car Home-update-does not report as compatible with Droid 3) are more customizable and would actually replace the built in app on the Droid 3.

Thanks for any help you can provide.

Thanks for any assistance.
 
I'm frustrated with this too. Although you can rotate the mount, the screen stays stuck horizontal. This isn't the stock Android Car app, it's Verizon's and it's not too useful. I mapped one of the custom buttons to my Home launcher (Go Launcher EX) and I mainly use that instead of the Car app. Disappointing.
 
DrR0Ck said:
New to Android, recently got the Droid 3 and so far really happy with it. However, I just got the official Droid 3 car mount, and have been really frustrated using the Car dock software that launches when the phone is in the dock.

I have been unable to find any documentation regarding the dock software.

I don't see any settings button or way to change settings for the software.

The built in Navigation software is incomprehensible to me - I see no way to add destinations or have it function as anything other than a live map. There is a navigation button in the interface, but this just launches the web browser or Google Maps.

The phone dialer provides no way other than voice commands to browse contacts, and the favorites button does not link to the same favorites I specified in the regular phone address book, but rather appears to be a dynamically generated list of recent calls. I don't see a way to add favorites beyond calling additional numbers.

There are 4 mappable buttons, and I have mapped them to contacts and Google Navigation as well as Listen and PowerAmp, but many of the built in buttons are basically useless to me and can't be changed (as far as I can tell).

So I'm wondering if anyone has experience with the built in Car dock app and can provide tips and whether any of the Car Home apps in the Market (including the Google Car Home-update-does not report as compatible with Droid 3) are more customizable and would actually replace the built in app on the Droid 3.

Thanks for any help you can provide.

Thanks for any assistance.
Click to expand...

It's called the menu button. The sameplace settings for every other application are accessed. When you touch the NAV button it launches Google maps and enters you into the destination selection context menu. Hit the little address book button and select your destination. By the way you can either create a contact with the address before you leave home or type it in manually. Once you have either selected a destination or typed one in than hit the nice little blue navigation arrow and presto you'll be in Google Nav guidance mode.

You are making this harder than it has to be. Of course if you want go spend your bucks on another app than by all means knock yourself out.
 
jwish said:
I'm frustrated with this too. Although you can rotate the mount, the screen stays stuck horizontal. This isn't the stock Android Car app, it's Verizon's and it's not too useful. I mapped one of the custom buttons to my Home launcher (Go Launcher EX) and I mainly use that instead of the Car app. Disappointing.
Click to expand...

It's Motorola's and yes it's worse than the stock application.
 
I don't like how the default car dock app is either. it's not very customizable, so I went and downloaded CarHome Ultra from the market. It's 100 times better. It's trialware for 30 days and if you like it, it's 1.99 to buy the license. IMHO it's worth more... You should check it out.

Once you install it, and dock your D3 it will (by default) ask you which app you'd like to use for the dock. Simply select the carhome ultra app and then you can customize 18 icons from 3 scrollable screens. 6 icons per screen. Plus it has your speed, direction, temp, and city location all on the main screen. Very customizable with voice support, wifi settings, gps settings, bluetooth settings. Day and Night displays, customize the colors etc.

over 100,000 downloads and it's #1 app in the travel category on market.

https://market.android.com/details?id=spinninghead.carhome&feature=search_result
 
Well I struggled with the Car Dock software for a while, and never got to like it. I only really used phone dialer and apps I set up on custom screen. I was never able to make sense of the Car dock navigation app. I had occasional force closes, performance just moving from screen to screen was never smooth, and I just didn't like being locked in to the apps that they had chosen for me.

I switched to Car Dock Home v 3 after researching the options available. I like that it is completely customizable and supports widgets, so I can have music/podcast controls on the main screens. I also appreciate the settings provided that can automatically adjust volume to max, turn on bluetooth, etc. While there is a donate version, the basic app is free. So far very happy with this.

On a side note, has anyone else noticed that when using the vehicle dock cable for both power and audio, that there is a fair amount of interference when audio is playing? I think this is related to when GPS is in operation, but I'm not 100% sure. Plugging in the audio separately to the headphone jack does not appear to be affected by the interference, but is considerably less convenient.

Thanks all!
 
DrR0Ck said:
Well I struggled with the Car Dock software for a while, and never got to like it. I only really used phone dialer and apps I set up on custom screen. I was never able to make sense of the Car dock navigation app. I had occasional force closes, performance just moving from screen to screen was never smooth, and I just didn't like being locked in to the apps that they had chosen for me.

I switched to Car Dock Home v 3 after researching the options available. I like that it is completely customizable and supports widgets, so I can have music/podcast controls on the main screens. I also appreciate the settings provided that can automatically adjust volume to max, turn on bluetooth, etc. While there is a donate version, the basic app is free. So far very happy with this.

On a side note, has anyone else noticed that when using the vehicle dock cable for both power and audio, that there is a fair amount of interference when audio is playing? I think this is related to when GPS is in operation, but I'm not 100% sure. Plugging in the audio separately to the headphone jack does not appear to be affected by the interference, but is considerably less convenient.

Thanks all!
Click to expand...


I have noticed the interference also when using pandora. But it does go away once the song starts. How can you play music without using the headphone jack ? Bluetooth?
 
katoom400 said:
I have noticed the interference also when using pandora. But it does go away once the song starts. How can you play music without using the headphone jack ? Bluetooth?
Click to expand...

The vehicle dock has a cable that plugs into USB for power and splits off to provide an audio cable output. This allows a single cable out of the dock to allow power via car lighter jack and audio through car stereo (aux input) or headphones. Much more convenient than having to hook up two cables to dangle off my dashboard.

I have only heard the interference when using the single cable - not using one cable for power and one for audio from the headphone jack.
 
thanks, I didn't even open that cable, since I don't have a vehicle charger that uses usb...I guess I'll pick one up and try it out, but as I said, I did get the interference with using the two separate cables only in between songs when pandora is caching the data, once the song starts, it disappears. If I unplug the power the problem goes away. I wonder if you can get an adapter with a resistor inline to clean up the power??
 
I REALLY like the car dock and the navigation capability. Voice prompts work great when I'm using the aux input on the car stereo via the combined USB/audio cable. I have noticed that audio is routed to the phone speaker when I'm not using the special cable (using a plain USB power cable and adapter from my Palm Pre+ plugged in to the dock) and this works well in my old truck that doesn't have an aux input.

I would like to find a way to route the navigation audio (all audio would be OK too) to the phone speaker even when the special USB/audio cable is in use for times when I'm listening to XM or FM (or even my iPod) via the car stereo. A simple way to switch between the phone speaker and USB audio output would be great so I can easily switch back to USB/aux input for Pandora or the music player. Any ideas? Any app developer feel like hacking something together? It'd be worth a couple of bucks to me and maybe others, too. Something that could be set up as a toggle in the Car Home or Car Home Ultra app would be great.

Dana
 
I've discovered that unplugging the 3.5 mm audio cable from the special USB cable causes audio output to be through the phone speaker. This isn't the best soultion because I have the cables routed under the dash (I added a concealed power outlet under the console), but it'll do 'til something better comes along.

Must be a ground sense on one of the USB pins that directs audio throught the USB cable. Unplugging the other end from the aux input doesn't have the same effect so it must be a micro switch in the USB cable 3.5 mm socket.

dj
 
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