AirDroid (prototype)

 Finally got a round-2-it from raxda.com in the form of their RockPi 4c.

Ok, truth be told, this little SoM has been sitting on my project bench for some months waiting for me to do something. What I finally got around to is putting their Android 10 image on and boot it up. Overall I'm very pleased with the result. This is my 3rd attempt at running Android on this class of hardware, Earlier attempts were Banana Pi's W2 (Android 7 + OpenWRT) and Raspberry Pi 4 B with Lineage 17 (Android 10). While both of the other 'Technically' worked the experience was unsatisfactory {slow responsiveness, graphics issues, several key features missing...)

For the prototype I've hung it on the back of an old HP monitor and plugged in a USB ASTM/FM  dongle. The only real set back is that it won't play audio through both the internal speaker AND a Bluetooth speaker. That seems to be an Android thing. The other set back seems to be availability, I was gonna get a 2nd one for development work but there are none to be found for sale.

The overall goal here is to create a custom system that does for my Airstream what Android Auto does for a car. 

Q: Why not just install an Android Auto box and be done with it?

A: because none will allow me to handle those things specific to an RV like tank levels, exterior lighting and audio, and campground WiFi Management. The latter being what's inspired me to pursue this whole project. Frankly, I hate those annoying captive WiFi routers that keep insisting I open a browser and enter a worthless password and yet again and again assuring I'll not abuse their terms of service... Yea, doing this is probably violating that agreement though I never read those.  TL;DR

The real goal here is to create a camper centric access point that handles the task of maintaining both a WAN connection and local firewall. It will know when WAN is down and automatically turn off the Alexa DOT so she stops whining about no access, It will provide local DNS so my cell phone can find and connect to the external cameras on the road, It will manage a digital media library so I can just select a play list and hear it inside and out or share with friends in neighboring camp sites.

To my knowledge, none of that software exists though every piece of those problem domains exists on GitHub. Ok, maybe not the RV tank monitor app. As I work through this I'll post my work here and on GitHub.com for others to follow. There are some parallel projects on my bench I'll post about too, like converting an old projector into an OpenElec media box for movie night. Still not sure how Wild Hogs got to be a camping tradition. <head_shake />