Opinions on Honda Hack for Clarity
- Thread starter Cali65
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currypotter
New Member
Does it work glitch free? - Yes, sort of. The only glitch is just after installing it. It will hang with a message of "Software Update". After 30 mins, it goes away. It does warn you it may do this. I did have a moment of wth. Zero issues since.
Worth upgrading to Pro version @ $25? - It 's just $20 more.
Is the video playback (when parked) good quality? Yes. It will play when you drive too. I know, it's illegal. But when you get stuck in a 3 hr traffic jam on a holiday weekend and you use the stop and go cruise control, I say good. Otherwise you can get out of your car and play frisby like the people behind us.
But is it not dangerous to hack? You can reset the system while driving, so I am not worried.
Also, the creator built a back door that you can return the unit to factory looking for when you take it in for service and then restore it when you get it back.
This is a 360p video I downloaded using a plugin on FireFox. It will happily play 720p, but it does take about 10 seconds to load the video.
Worth upgrading to Pro version @ $25? - It 's just $20 more.
Is the video playback (when parked) good quality? Yes. It will play when you drive too. I know, it's illegal. But when you get stuck in a 3 hr traffic jam on a holiday weekend and you use the stop and go cruise control, I say good. Otherwise you can get out of your car and play frisby like the people behind us.
But is it not dangerous to hack? You can reset the system while driving, so I am not worried.
Also, the creator built a back door that you can return the unit to factory looking for when you take it in for service and then restore it when you get it back.
This is a 360p video I downloaded using a plugin on FireFox. It will happily play 720p, but it does take about 10 seconds to load the video.
HagerHedgie
Member
Absolutely. Li Batteries don’t like staying at full charge levels for long. Also the auto engine start is very annoying at times.
I would gladly trade 3-4 miles range for increased battery life and less auto start occurrences. I drive 80+ miles a day on average so I’m burning fuel anyway but if my daily use was less I think this feature would be even more important.
I try to time my charging so I leave with 90-95% SOC.
I installed it but found it did nothing I was interested in. I was thinking about installing CarWebGuru but the last was interminable and there were glitches and errors so often that it didn't make sense so I uninstalled it. I even bought the premium version. It may work better in other vehicles but it doesn't play well with the Clarity.
blastfurnace
Member
What is this Honda Hack you speak of?
2002
Well-Known Member
Do you mean you can't get Android Auto connected? You may know this already but for those who don't you have to connect the phone with the USB cable, and you have to use the USB port closest to the driver. Also make sure that the USB cable works for data. Cheaper USB cables are only good for charging, not data. To test the cable, plug your phone into a PC or laptop computer and the phone should appear as a device on your computer. Also you have to first install the Android Auto app on your phone. When it is working, whenever you connect your phone via USB the Smartphone Connection icon changes to Android Auto.
ClarityBill
Active Member
I started having problems recently with CarPlay on my Iphone. It does not connect. I found that rebooting the head unit will connect to the phone when the head unit restarts. (Just hold the audio button until it asks to reboot, yes or no.)
Dan Albrich
Well-Known Member
So this one might be highly situational. Imagine a town where one auto-group owns most all of the dealers. Imagine a dealer that has been proven horrible, ugly and dishonest but it isn't easy to drive say 109 miles to get to a good dealer.
So in my case, the way this works is don't do anything that might give cause (or excuse) to the dealer a reason to either not supply service or to blame you.
I fully realize this isn't everyone's situation, but I simply don't want any hassles.
-Dan
PS: Just by way of example. Last car was a new Subaru which we pre-paid for a few years of service. At the 30,000 mile, the service manager tried to bill me (again) for the air filter. When I said I wouldn't pay since I have a service contract, he told me he'd grab my dirty filter from the trash and put back in my car. I told him I'd write that in a letter to Subaru America, and he quieted down. This auto-group also owns the only Honda dealership in my town...
Anyway, that's the typical experience we get here.
So in my case, the way this works is don't do anything that might give cause (or excuse) to the dealer a reason to either not supply service or to blame you.
I fully realize this isn't everyone's situation, but I simply don't want any hassles.
-Dan
PS: Just by way of example. Last car was a new Subaru which we pre-paid for a few years of service. At the 30,000 mile, the service manager tried to bill me (again) for the air filter. When I said I wouldn't pay since I have a service contract, he told me he'd grab my dirty filter from the trash and put back in my car. I told him I'd write that in a letter to Subaru America, and he quieted down. This auto-group also owns the only Honda dealership in my town...
Anyway, that's the typical experience we get here.
I'm sure you already know that there is already a buffer built in, I've been reading around 20%. It's hard to tell if reducing 3-4 miles range does any good for long term battery life. If it only gives you extra 1-4 more week of battery life, would you still go through the hassle of micromanaging the charge levels? I was once obsessed with keeping my phone battery below certain limit. After a year, I don't think it helped. I don't care much about the phone battery nowadays other than trying to keeping it from getting too hot, as I know heat is the worst for battery. Clarity's Li batteries are cooled so I'm not too concerned about heat.
Does your head unit reboot every day? There's a menu somewhere, it was enabled by default on mine to reboot the head unit every day 2am or something like that. I tried setting it to not reboot for a week, didn't notice any difference though. I have no problem with Apple CarPlay or Android Auto. Android Auto shows turn-by-turn in the instrument panel while CarPlay doesn't.
One problem I have is that as soon as I plug in my phone, music starts playing automatically. I wish it didn't do that. Sometimes it doesn't. The infotainment system must have been designed by a Summer Intern, and then was discontinued. There's 6 pages of home screen with nothing you can add. It's hard to believe this is a finished product. It's like 10% finished.
2002
Well-Known Member
It wouldn't be a hassle at all if it let you set a maximum charge percentage, especially if you only had to set it once.
I don't remember seeing that, any chance you can find it again?
True you can't add things* but you can move things onto the different screens. I prefer a non-cluttered home screen with just the items that I use most often, I moved the rest to the other screens. That also better displays the photo that I use for wallpaper.
* You can add icons for the few apps that you can install via Honda Hack, but it really brings the system to its knees to try and run anything other than the built in Honda menu items.