There are a good number of apps available to turn old android device into a Smart Infotainment device on car's dashboard. But with Automagic we can make one ourselves!
100% Customized for our convenience! So Get a car mount for the phone and make the most out of that old pal.
The following are the flows i created for my old Smartphone to be used in my dashboard.
1. Greeting
How about your phone greets you while you hope into the driving seat and starts the engine? This flow enables the phone to greet you according to the time of the day (Good Morning, afternoon, evening...& Welcome back alternatively). The Trigger senses the engine start from power source connected twice in 15 sec period - as conventional key started cars The power comes first while key in ON mode and cuts off for a second while starting the car.
It also shows a custom widget (not included in the link - bypass the corresponding action for successful flow execution or make a custom widget of your own) as welcome screen for 5sec and then displays the next custom widget which is the 'Dock Menu' (see sec 2.) and also switches on Bluetooth & GPS which is a requisite for other flows discussed below
2.The Dock menu
Since i intend to use the smartphone as Dash device i thought of using a custom menu screen for easy access to the only apps i need while driving. The custom widget (Widget8) is clickable and launches corresponding apps through excuting corresponding flows for the same. As of now included apps are: Here Navigation, Walkman music player, Google Maps, Fuelio cost management app, DSP manager and a home button to exit the Dock menu
- dockmenu.png (238.08 KiB) Viewed 15694 times
3. Music Menu
Controlling music playback on a touchscreen device is quite tricky and dangerous when you are driving, especially when you have the play/pause buttons in some corner of that small 5" screen. This thought made me to design a Music Menu which overlays over the music player with enlarged playback control buttons. This widget is customized for my choice of music app which is the Sony Walkman and so placed a transparent window on the right side showing the Track name which being played on the Walkman under the widget overlay. Just modify the widget according to the layout of your music player app. The enlarged buttons controls music playback as indicated and rightmost yellow 'eject' button would exit the music menu
- musicmenu.png (391.53 KiB) Viewed 15694 times
4. The Switcher
The Switcher is a floating widget which gives easy access to return to Dock Menu, Music Menu & Walkman when we are accessing other apps or functions of the smartphone. The widget size is 300x130px and position is set center to screen and just under status bar which i found convenient to my device's UI
- switcher.png (131.94 KiB) Viewed 15694 times
Monitors the instantaneous speed of the Car with GPS and warns to slow down on crossing the specified limit through Speech output - As Monitoring GPS activity drains significant amount of battery
the flow is linked in Flows 'Greeting' and 'Screen OFF' to enable/disable respectively So that it runs only when you are driving 6. Screen OFF.
So you are back home after the drive and its time for your smartphone to wish you goodbye and go to sleep
- When the power source is disconnected - i.e. engine turned off - Stops music playback if active, Exits to Home screen,Hides all active widget overlays,Switches off Bluetooth,GPS nd all then Greets you with a Goodbye and turns off the screen.7. Music Play/Pause While Phone Calls
This set of flow comes handy when you use separate smartphones, one for the Car dock and other as your normal smartphone as in my case (and off course your car's HU doesn't have hands free facility
). This flow set avoids need of manually controlling music volumes every time making calls on the move. This is how it works
-- You receive or make call in your Smartphone A
-- Smartphone A turns on bluetooth and connects to Smartphone B on car dock which is playing music (this is why bluetooth is turned on in the Greeting flow)
-- On bluetooth connection from A, B pauses the music playback
-- On disconnecting call A disconnects bluetooth connection with B and turns off Bluetooth
-- On losing bluetooth connction with A, B resumes music playback
To make this work download these flows to Smartphone A : http://automagic4android.com/flow.php?i ... 76bcc926f8
and these flows to Smartphone B : http://automagic4android.com/flow.php?i ... fcb0e25531
assign Bluetooth device names appropriately
Links for Flows from Sec 1. to 6.
1. Greeting Flow : http://automagic4android.com/flow.php?i ... c7acfb1803
From 2 to 6 : Total 12 Flows & 3 Widgets http://automagic4android.com/flow.php?i ... a9e934a49b
Flows : Exit music menu, Launch clock, Launch dsp, Launch fuelio, Launch gmaps, Launch Here, Launch Home, Launch music menu, OFF, Speed Limit, Switch dock menu, Switch Walkman
Widgets : DockMenu, MusicMenu, Switcher
Note: All Widgets & Flows are customized for my personal taste and settings are set suitable for my device so i request to review and modify them according to your need
Tested Devices: Sony Xperia P & Samsung Galaxy SIII - CynogenMod11 Rom Android Versn 4.4.4
Am still thinking about more car related ideas to get the device more functional
, Please share your ideas here so that i can make more flows 
, but you will need an extra Sim card for the phone, won't you?