Hey there,
I'm finding that I much prefer to use my EV Play as an Android tablet device, rather than messing with AA/CP.
My reasoning is that:
- it allows for a greater range of apps not available on AA/CP, such as home automation that I use to enable/disarm my home security as my Rivian departs/arrives, getting task and calendar reminders, dictating notes, etc. (heck I might even operate drones from my Rivian screen when parked).
- Doesn't require phone integration and specific audio settings and won't fight between AA and CP when both my wife and I are in the car with our respective phones.
- Allows playing MP3s from USB media plugged into the device.
I'm looking for best advice on making my EV Play the best possible experience. I purchased the GPS dongle for my gen 1 R1T and that is working great to allow location services.
A few challenges:
- The primary logged on account on EV Play comes from the factory set as a local Owner account. I'd like to set this to my Google account. Is it safe to do that? Is that advisable?
- The EV Play Android app continually pops up and covers the home screen or other android apps I'm using. I understand this app needs to run as it is probably doing important things like screen switching and system management. How can I tweak settings to make it just run in the background without interrupting?
- It sure would be spiffy to allow the system time to honor the local time zone as I travel, but I don't see an option to use location services for that. How can I accomplish that?
- Is it OK to rename the device, bluetooth and wifi names?
- Is it possible to allow more than 3 apps to be docked to the bottom menu bar? If so, how?
- Can I safely use a different launcher with EV Play?
- Still looking for a decent Android weather/radar app that displays well in horizontal orientation and has large enough fonts and symbols. Recommendations?
Guess those are enough questions for now. Other folks might add additional questions. Most will probably think I'm nuts for not just using AA/CP as primary, but to each their own.
Love the device! Amazing work, Alex!
Re weather apps : I installed radarscope which is pretty good. If I tap and hold it goes full screen and looks pretty good. I was having problems zooming out but I had connectivity issues that I plan to address this weekend when I have some time. I could zoom in but not zoom out...
@tbever thanks! I will give that a try.
Can see I also forgot to add pinch-to-zoom as an issue, but I did see someone else report.that.
Adding another question:
Is there a way to turn off the Auto box Wi-Fi host? I feel like that signal might interfere with connecting my EV Play to the Rivian hotspot (which often reports "no Internet access" even when the hotspot has a good signal).
Hey there,
I'm finding that I much prefer to use my EV Play as an Android tablet device, rather than messing with AA/CP.
My reasoning is that:
- it allows for a greater range of apps not available on AA/CP, such as home automation that I use to enable/disarm my home security as my Rivian departs/arrives, getting task and calendar reminders, dictating notes, etc. (heck I might even operate drones from my Rivian screen when parked).
- Doesn't require phone integration and specific audio settings and won't fight between AA and CP when both my wife and I are in the car with our respective phones.
- Allows playing MP3s from USB media plugged into the device.
I'm looking for best advice on making my EV Play the best possible experience. I purchased the GPS dongle for my gen 1 R1T and that is working great to allow location services.
A few challenges:
- The primary logged on account on EV Play comes from the factory set as a local Owner account. I'd like to set this to my Google account. Is it safe to do that? Is that advisable?
- The EV Play Android app continually pops up and covers the home screen or other android apps I'm using. I understand this app needs to run as it is probably doing important things like screen switching and system management. How can I tweak settings to make it just run in the background without interrupting?
- It sure would be spiffy to allow the system time to honor the local time zone as I travel, but I don't see an option to use location services for that. How can I accomplish that?
- Is it OK to rename the device, bluetooth and wifi names?
- Is it possible to allow more than 3 apps to be docked to the bottom menu bar? If so, how?
- Can I safely use a different launcher with EV Play?
- Still looking for a decent Android weather/radar app that displays well in horizontal orientation and has large enough fonts and symbols. Recommendations?
Guess those are enough questions for now. Other folks might add additional questions. Most will probably think I'm nuts for not just using AA/CP as primary, but to each their own.
Love the device! Amazing work, Alex!
A customer after my own heart (I really enjoy the Android side of things as well!). Answers below:
- The primary logged on account on EV Play comes from the factory set as a local Owner account. I'd like to set this to my Google account. Is it safe to do that? Is that advisable?
Probably not advised due to the "open" (read "rooted") nature of the device. I mean feel free to tinker, but be ready to troubleshoot if it doesn't work as expected. Also be mindful of the lockscreen which appears to be interfering with the EV Play switching functionality.
- The EV Play Android app continually pops up and covers the home screen or other android apps I'm using. I understand this app needs to run as it is probably doing important things like screen switching and system management. How can I tweak settings to make it just run in the background without interrupting?
Agreed that this is annoying, but currently as designed as customers have been closing/deleting the app so I had to make it very persistent. I'm working on moving a lot of the app functionality to the OS itself, and so this issue should resolve itself soon. In the interim, the next app update should be a bit better with trying to steal focus all the time.
- It sure would be spiffy to allow the system time to honor the local time zone as I travel, but I don't see an option to use location services for that. How can I accomplish that?
If you have Gen 2, set Android Settings → Date & time → "Use location to set time zone." The GPS antenna will then push its coordinates to Location Services and the timezone should change. Let me know if not.
- Is it OK to rename the device, bluetooth and wifi names?
Yes. - Is it possible to allow more than 3 apps to be docked to the bottom menu bar? If so, how?
Yes, by changing the density via adb: adb shell wm density xxx , where xxx is a number. EV Play is currently at 300 density -- try increasing or decreasing the number in increments of 5 or 10 to get the layout you like
- Can I safely use a different launcher with EV Play?
I haven't tried but others have with success.
- Still looking for a decent Android weather/radar app that displays well in horizontal orientation and has large enough fonts and symbols. Recommendations?
I like Breezy or Weawow.
It sure would be spiffy to allow the system time to honor the local time zone as I travel, but I don't see an option to use location services for that. How can I accomplish that?
If you have Gen 2, set Android Settings → Date & time → "Use location to set time zone." The GPS antenna will then push its coordinates to Location Services and the timezone should change. Let me know if not.
I have the gen 1 version installed in my R1T with your additional GPS module. Google Maps can definitely see my location. However in Settings|Time Zone there is only the option to set that manually. There is no Automatic Time Zone option as with my phone and other GPS enabled Android devices.
Finding also that the weather app installed doesn't seem to get location even though those permissions are enabled.
Thanks Alex,
FWIW, I did some more experimenting with the system and found that Google Maps may also not be getting location updates either.
In Settings|Location Services I can see that all of the apps I want are accessing location.
I have the GPS antenna located in the right corner of the windshield as recommended in your video.I may need to recheck that and see if it makes a difference.
Thanks Alex,
FWIW, I did some more experimenting with the system and found that Google Maps may also not be getting location updates either.
In Settings|Location Services I can see that all of the apps I want are accessing location.
I have the GPS antenna located in the right corner of the windshield as recommended in your video.I may need to recheck that and see if it makes a difference.
I have Gen 2 with GPS puck: it does seem to be sending location data to google maps, but not to radarscope. My main useability issue is zoom in and zoom out. Pinch to zoom does not work. Double tap zooms in but triple tap does not zoom out. I can't figure out any way to zoom out with touch screen or with the portable keyboard. Any ideas? I played around with accessibility settings but there is nothing specifically that could enable that. Any ideas??
Thanks Alex,
FWIW, I did some more experimenting with the system and found that Google Maps may also not be getting location updates either.
In Settings|Location Services I can see that all of the apps I want are accessing location.
I have the GPS antenna located in the right corner of the windshield as recommended in your video.I may need to recheck that and see if it makes a difference.
I have Gen 2 with GPS puck: it does seem to be sending location data to google maps, but not to radarscope. My main useability issue is zoom in and zoom out. Pinch to zoom does not work. Double tap zooms in but triple tap does not zoom out. I can't figure out any way to zoom out with touch screen or with the portable keyboard. Any ideas? I played around with accessibility settings but there is nothing specifically that could enable that. Any ideas??
I figured out the zoom issue if anyone else encounters this. To zoom in or out, quick double tap and hold, the swipe finger up or down while holding will zoom in and out.
Thanks Alex,
FWIW, I did some more experimenting with the system and found that Google Maps may also not be getting location updates either.
In Settings|Location Services I can see that all of the apps I want are accessing location.
I have the GPS antenna located in the right corner of the windshield as recommended in your video.I may need to recheck that and see if it makes a difference.
Well, I guess this doesn't always seem to be the case.
This morning I was able to use Google Maps (on EV Play Android) and it was able to track my location without issue. Concurrently, the weather app was not able to detect my location once.
Location services can be a little picky if it doesn't send the GPS is getting a really good lock. I'll try an improve that on an upcoming build.