CAR & ANDROID Integration (I) - Car USB Radio + Old Android Phone = Cloud Dropbox Music Sync

Hi!

Tired of having to drag your USB memory to update your music library between car and home?

Make a USB Stick simulator with auto Sync over the Cloud, change your music files on your Dropbox folder at your House's Pc and automatically you have changed your music on your car.

This works on my E92 BMW with Business Radio and USB Bmw option but may work with other USB radios, all you need is a (old) Android Phone and some software.

On the video the phone is Off and need some time to start, if you use the car several times at day you can program the phone to still maintain power on mode some hours after power of the Radio, in that case the phone use his battery and when you power on the radio is connected using usb mass storage mode immediately.

For the Android Smartphone I used a Xperia Active (Xperia have the option to automatically Power On if Usb charge is connected, perfect for car mode, if the phone power off when the battery is low when you turn on the car at next time the phone also turn on).. if you use a Xperia you can try this (to make this modifications you need some File manager with Root permissions to mount file system in Write mode like ROOT EXPLORER, ) :

If your Sony Ericson (Works on Xperia X10 Mini & Active) phone when is connected via usb plug to charge start to show one of those ugly battery animated symbols  is because the init process is interrupted by /system/bin/chargemon ... if you want a complete power on directly you need to delete (or rename) this file.

Another phone that can Auto Start on Usb charge is Samsung Galaxy S II & Tab , you can try this:

 The battery charging indicator that runs when you first plug in the Galaxy is run from the file /system/bin/playlpm. To make it boot automatically, delete the old playlpm (or better yet, rename it to playlpm.bak, just in case) and replace it with the following script, only with Stock Samsung Firmware (rooted)

/system/bin/playlpm

Code:
#!/system/bin/sh
/system/bin/reboot



You need Rooted Phone because for some reason if the USB in my BMW is powered on without the USB SHARER up  running the MP3 folder not is mounted (like when the phone is powered off and start when you come into the car..), to solve this we need to execute some shell commands using TASKER.

Programs you NEED:

Tasker - To automate the start of apps, to solve the usb start problem and some useful more things.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.dinglisch.android.taskerm&hl=es

Usb Sharer - To sharer a SD FOLDER with the music simulating a USB STICK

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=os.devwom.usbsharereval&hl=es

A Dropbox Sync App to maintain all your music Sync over the Cloud.(This a example, there are some other sync cloud options...)

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ttxapps.dropsync&hl=es


Install all Apps and choose a folder to Sync to Dropbox ( DROPSYNC) and share over the usb (USB SHARER),  i'm using a folder called MP3 on the External SD.

Make some scripts using Tasker for run apps on BOOT and make events when the USB CHARGE is detected..(I use WIFI to connect to Internet...)

Bootup, actions at bootup event:

Talk Aloud some Text... :D

Start USB SHARER

Wait 

Restart USB to Mass storage Mode " setprop sys.usb.config mass_storage,adb "

Go to home

You can IMPORT THE TASKER XML EVENT:

https://mega.co.nz/#!30wBiBiA!Xb3yGB20yulPfoOYETgYcgVGGmnDjF_65cFB7hVt3Bc

Cargando USB - Usb Charging Event. (Normally when you power on Radio or you come into the car (Bmw))

I use it to Activate Wifi and Bluetooth and Text aloud my daily Events on Google Calendar .. :D

Reset Usb Sharer - Usb WATCHDOG, to solve the problem if Usb mode is not correctly set up to MASS STORAGE, after detected usb connection make a check via shell if the MP3 folder is correctly shared and if not reset the usb mode to mass storage,

Import the TASKER XML EVENT:

https://mega.co.nz/#!b8wmFD7D!02KdLfnnRnnoE_k4siUaAVIhLc34zOLvx8ak-Te9CMk

Conectado a WIFI - Connected to WIFI, I make Sync by Wifi only, when the car is in the garage and detect the wifi start Sync.

Autooff - Power Off phone to prevent battery discharge, check every hour (to let time to sync if needed)  if is Wifi connected (= is the car in the garage) and not Usb connection (= Radio off, not in use) then Power Off.