Steering wheel controls/using as carpc...

[acslam]

UPDATE: OK - so, tried another unit, a Pioneer DEH-p6100BT.

The particular vehicle, BTW, is a pontiac trans am. It has a 1.5 DIN opening, but it can be hollowed out to accept a 2din headunit. After my experience with the Dual all in one unit which included a screen, it dawned on me that perhaps I could buy a cheap motorized screen in 1 din size and then place a second, much higher quality audio-only unit below it. This way, i still wind up with the investment of about 300 dollars, and a screen, but I can get some better audio features than something as cheap as the dual branded unit.

Initial impressions:

-The USB reader in the pioneer deck can read the phone, and despite having a cheap alphanumeric LCD display, and a much more confusing "multi function knob" interface, actually succeeds at making folder navigation overall better than the dual stereo.

-The bluetooth features seem to be stronger, overall. AVRCP works, as it did on the dual unit, and A2DP still sounds terrible/unusable, just as it was in the dual radio. More on these in a minute.....

Now, what the dual radio couldn't do was download the phonebook from my phone and use it. The pioneer did this right away and works awesome with it.

Also, with the dual, it seemed impossible to activate voice command and send the audio from the mic mounted in the actual deck as opposed to the phone. The Pioneer unit DOES have this feature, listed in the users manual, and it does actually work. However, the method for accessing it is a little annoying - you need to switch the deck to the phone source first, which is a press and hold method, and then activate the voice button, which is also a press and hold method. Then, after the command is issued, you need to switch back to the original source manually. I'm trying to find a way to jump directly into the voice command function from the starting point of listening to the hardwired source, and then automatically return after that point.

Now, to revisit A2DP and AVRCP........

I've noticed that the pioneer radio has a setting in the menu where you can choose which profiles are used with the currently paired phone......there are three to choose from, HFP, A2DP, AND AVRCP. You can disable and enable them individually. Since I have no use for a2dp and the associated quality loss, I leave it unchecked and go into the aux port on the rear. So......that leaves HFP, and AVRCP checked. The funny thing is......AVRCP still works, when you're in the bluetooth audio source, even if you've turned off the a2dp streaming. This begs the question.....is there a way that I can force the unit to allow the use of avrcp commands, while in the aux source mode?

If so, then I wind up with pretty nearly my ultimate dream, because this deck has an IR remote control. There is a universal adapter that translates factory steering wheel controls into an IR learning remote. Essentially, if I can get the pioneer to cooperate, I can feed the ir remote signals into the deck from the steering wheel and have the deck relay certain commands via avrcp. This should give me direct volume control of the deck, a means to trigger voice commands, and the track forward/back controls, all in a means that doesn't require me to change away from the display of iguidance on the screen in front of me.

At this point, it's becoming more an issue of which car audio deck is going to give me the power I need to accomplish this. More research is necessary, and I shall return with my findings!