Hey guys! I just got my first subaru this saturday and immediately fell in love with my XV. It did not take long for me to start thinking of ways to mod/hack the head unit to extend some of the features (I'm a EE student with an interest in embedded systems).
It seems like the starlink system and the general infotainment system really grinds peoples gears. I have been inspired by this post on the outback forums to start some research and I wanted to make a thread to see what you guys think. Let me present my findings:
My XV has a head unit that says CM644UL right on the front and comes with the ever wonderful Starlink. I got to looking around and determined that this unit was made by Clarion (confirmed by this article). Assuming that Clarion was not about to completely redesign the internal hardware, my model must be based on one of the three models that support "Smart Access" (NX605, NX604, or FX503) because that is what Starlink is based on.
Now there are some interesting possibilities with this assumption that I would like to test out:
1) The XV hardware may be able to be extended to add the extra ports on the Clarion branded models. HDMI, SiriusXM, microphone jack, ect.. Check out this installation guide for a better idea
2)We may be able to install the OS from these Clarion models. This upgrade guide looks very similar to how my system would work. And I hit the upgrade button and it said no USB detected, so it may be as easy as plugging in a flash drive.
3) CUSTOMIZEABLE OS!! It looks like parts of the Clarion software are under the GPL/LGPL open source license. This is kinda the holy grail for me.
I haven't had much time yet to test these ideas but I thought it would be worth it to bounce it off the community. What do you guys think?
It seems like the starlink system and the general infotainment system really grinds peoples gears. I have been inspired by this post on the outback forums to start some research and I wanted to make a thread to see what you guys think. Let me present my findings:
My XV has a head unit that says CM644UL right on the front and comes with the ever wonderful Starlink. I got to looking around and determined that this unit was made by Clarion (confirmed by this article). Assuming that Clarion was not about to completely redesign the internal hardware, my model must be based on one of the three models that support "Smart Access" (NX605, NX604, or FX503) because that is what Starlink is based on.
Now there are some interesting possibilities with this assumption that I would like to test out:
1) The XV hardware may be able to be extended to add the extra ports on the Clarion branded models. HDMI, SiriusXM, microphone jack, ect.. Check out this installation guide for a better idea
2)We may be able to install the OS from these Clarion models. This upgrade guide looks very similar to how my system would work. And I hit the upgrade button and it said no USB detected, so it may be as easy as plugging in a flash drive.
3) CUSTOMIZEABLE OS!! It looks like parts of the Clarion software are under the GPL/LGPL open source license. This is kinda the holy grail for me.
I haven't had much time yet to test these ideas but I thought it would be worth it to bounce it off the community. What do you guys think?