Chinese Ca-Fi knockoff has been rooted! Torque works!
 

Hello everyone! I know, I have a ton of Android head unit threads, but none were dedicated to the Ca-Fi knock off.

First and foremost, I would like to give a shout out to Hal9k from XDA-Developers for coming up with a very simple, flashable, root. Props to you if you ever see this thread.

Secondly, IM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANYTHING THAT HAPPENS TO YOUR HEAD UNIT. I am merely sharing what my experience was and how it worked for me. There is always a risk (even if small). Use at your own risk.

Now with that out of the way, here is the head unit I am using:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Android-6-2-...50942959362%26

It is very similar to the Ca-Fi unit, with the following differences:

• Resistive touch screen in stead of capacitive. (I've seen one with capacitive released once)
• No "pretty" ca-fi apps for FM, Music, iPod. There are apps provided for these functions, but they aren't as pretty.
• These have Live Wallpapers. The Ca-Fi, for some reason, does not.
• PRICE!. Ca-Fi wants 999$, these can be had for 350$ shipped.
• Up until now, Torque. Ca-Fi does allow you to use a USB OBD2 adapter, where as this is stuck with bluetooth... I am going to try to work with Hal or some other XDA developers on getting the USB API implemented.
• The LEDs are blue, instead of Red or Green. Anyone handy with a soldering iron can fix that.
• These come with Sygic nav, which is actually pretty damn good. Ca-Fi doesn't come with navigation.

Now let's get to the good part. Hal9K has made a set of update files for the MCU and firmware. You will need the following:

• 2GB (or larger) MicroSD card formatted in FAT32.
• A computer that can put files on said MicroSD.
• A bluetooth USB adapter. List of compatible ones here
• A USB splitter hub.
• A Torque compatible OBD2 Bluetooth adapter. I used [ame="http://www.amazon.com/ELM327-Bluetooth-CAN-BUS-Diagnostic-Scanner/dp/B0090ZJPMK/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1361748190&sr=8-9&keywords=bluetooth+obd"]this.[/ame]
• A bluetooth management app. I used this.

K, now onto the steps to make it happen.

1. Format the SD card in FAT32.
2. Copy the files from Hal's RAR file here (mirror, mirror 2) to the root of the SD card. If you have a capacitive version of the unit, use the u-boot-skip.bin.capacitive and rename it without the ".capacitive".
3. Insert the SD card into the right SD slot of the head unit.
4. Hold "Menu" and press & hold the volume knob. After a few seconds, you will see the update screen. Let it do its business, it will reboot automatically.
5. Calibrate your touch screen.
6. Go into Settings -> General -> MCU update. Click OK. Let it do it's thing. It will reboot.
7. Plug in your USB hub with the WiFi dongle and bluetooth dongle.
8. Install the bluetooth manager app and Torque.
9. Open the app and turn bluetooth on. Connect the OBD2 scanner as you normally would.
10. Setup the OBD2 scanner in Torque. You're now done. :-)

NOTES

This will reset your head unit to factory settings.

RECOMMENDATIONS

If you already have a rooted android device, download all the apps you plan on loading. Use a backup tool to backup the APKs to the device's storage. Copy the apks to the SD card under a folder like "Apps" or something. It's easier to side load them using Settings -> Applications -> Install from SD card on the head unit. If that isn't an option, you will have to set up WiFi and your Google Play account to download the apps.

Here is a video of the result.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pa8j7VAfH30"]Rooted Chinese Android Head unit with BT & Torque Pro - YouTube[/ame]

I have a copy of the Ca-Fi and the Chinese units system images. I'm going to see if I can reverse engineer the interfaces and APIs it uses to control the iPod and FM. Maybe then I can create a prettier app to use.

Again props to Hal9K for all his work on making this happen.

Sick!

Sub'd for when I buy this unit in a month or so.

Thanks @2forme! You are a treasure to this community. =D

Is this the capacitive screen version you were talking about?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Android-7-HD...item43b7034069

@2forme If you have root, there's so much I can get done on that. Unemployed right now so I have a ton of time to play with stuff like this. If I can afford one of these units I might have to hook up with you.

Seriously man! I have root and full system images of both head units. You got my number, just hit me up!

Shoot me a text man. I can't find your number in my phone :thumbdown:

no, thats something different. I only saw the capacitive one once.

Is there anyway to update to a newer version of the Android O/S?

Amazing work BTW.

Not yet, but it might be in the future. The root in itself is a big step.

Oh I don't doubt it! It's giving me a ton of hope. To be honest, this plus Dezoris's interface is what I always invisioned for my ideal head unit. Android O/S, non propriatary nav, and all-in-one solution with hardware buttons, and bluetooth Torque support.

Yea. I'm going to develop my own apps for the launcher and hopefully ipod, FM, and music apps. But this definitely a step in the right direction. I'm gonna get my buddy to solder color matching LEDs on it. Maybe i can sell a package of apps and led change

Is this the unit you showed me that doesn't require the ugly little abs filler pieces on each side of the deck to fit the wider double din openings in our cars? That's the chassis I like the best so far... We need to get 4G LTE running next. Since you're the android expert...is there a service like iTunes Match available for android? I have over 100Gb of music alone and iTunes Match gives me access to all my music via the cloud without wasting valuable storage space on my iOS devices. Just thinking if we can have 4G built in that a service like this would be awesome.

Again, great work bro!

No, that unit was windows CE and android. This is the cafi knockoff. Willing to bet that its possible to create a unit like the one you're talking about with the guys of the cafi knockoff. I don't like having my stuff in the cloud, much less a cloud controlled by apple Lol. I run a media server at home and can stream all my music and movies over tmobiles 4g through an app called PLEX.

Looking good!! if you wanted to you could basically offer a pseudo "ca-fi" at half price :-) . thanks for posting as DIy!!