The car screen and vehicle data

How DirtMap works on the Android Auto or CarPlay head unit, how to connect an OBD-II adapter and read fault codes, and what the Profile screen does with your subscription and your account.

DirtMap runs on the car’s own screen through Android Auto and CarPlay: the same map, the same saved routes, the same offline maps, plus convoy push-to-talk, SOS, competition and live OBD-II data. On the phone side, an OBD-II Bluetooth adapter turns DirtMap into a gauge cluster and a fault-code reader. This page covers all three, plus the account and subscription part of Profile.

Starting DirtMap on Android Auto

  1. Connect the phone to the car the way you normally do (USB cable or wireless Android Auto).
  2. On the Android Auto launcher screen, tap DirtMap.
  3. The map opens full screen. Along the top you get the HUD chips: SPEED, ELEV, DIR, DIST, ETA.
  4. You do not have to open the app on the phone first. DirtMap starts a headless engine when the car launches it, so GPS, routes, offline maps, convoy and OBD all work with the phone screen off in your pocket.

If the DirtMap icon is missing from the Android Auto launcher, see “If something goes wrong” at the bottom — it is a known Android Auto restriction, not a setting you can fix in the app.

The map action strip

The head unit shows two rows of buttons. The top strip carries the app actions (menu, map layers, Search, the push-to-talk mic when a convoy is running, and a red ✕ to end an active route). The map strip on the side carries the four map controls:

  1. + — zoom in one step.
  2. − — zoom out one step.
  3. The compass button — switches between North up and Heading up.
  4. The crosshair button — recentre: the map jumps back to the car and starts following it again.

Two things worth knowing:

  • Dragging the map with your finger stops the follow mode. Tap the crosshair to get it back.
  • Outside convoy view the zoom follows your speed (close in town, wider on the highway). If you set the zoom by hand it stays where you put it until you tap recentre.

Map layers and Map appearance

  1. In the top strip, tap the layers icon. The Map layers screen opens.
  2. The upper section, Map layers, lists the base maps pushed from the phone. Tap one — the current one is marked Active. You get a “Layer: …” toast and the screen closes back to the map so you see the new tiles immediately.
  3. The lower section, Map appearance, has the day/night override: Automatic (follows the car), Day, Night. Automatic is the default.
  4. Below that: North up and Heading up — the same switch as the strip button, in list form.
  5. 3D view (tilt) — tilts the camera into the 3D perspective. Tap again to lay the map flat.

Why the day/night override exists: many head units tie their day/night signal to the headlights, so daytime running lights flip the map into night colours in bright sunshine. Set Day and it stays light.

The Menu

Tap the menu icon in the top strip. The Menu list shows live state, so you can read it at a glance without drilling in:

  • Competition — only while a competition is running; subtitle shows the phase and your points.
  • Convoy — “n active” or “No active members”.
  • Routes — “n saved” or “No saved routes”.
  • Search destination — “Address or place”.
  • OBD-II — “n°C coolant”, “Connected” or “Not connected”.
  • Offline regions — “n downloaded” or “None downloaded”.
  • Record track — tap the row itself to start or stop recording; the subtitle switches between Tap to start and ● Recording.
  1. Menu → Routes — the list of your saved routes with their length. Tap one; a “Starting navigation: …” toast confirms it and guidance begins.
  2. Or tap Search in the top strip, type an address or place, pick a result. The Route preview appears; tap Start navigation to actually start.
  3. While a route is running, the top strip swaps Search for a red ✕. Tap it to end the route.
  4. If you leave the line, the banner YOU’VE LEFT THE ROUTE! appears over the map.
  5. Menu → Offline regions lists the areas you downloaded on the phone; tapping one moves the map there.

Search needs a working data connection (the address lookup happens online). Everything else — the saved routes, the offline maps, the recording — works with no signal at all.

Convoy on the head unit: push-to-talk and SOS

  1. Menu → Convoy. The header shows Convoy members, or “name is speaking” while someone is on the air.
  2. The first row is Convoy view. Tap it to toggle: On — your zoom stays, map flat, or Off — speed zoom and 3D. On is what you want as a guide: your own zoom survives, the map lies flat, and the cars behind you stay in frame.
  3. Below it: your convoy members, the leader marked with ★, each with distance, speed and how long ago they were last seen.
  4. Talk in the action strip opens the mic; it turns into Stop. There is also a mic button in the map’s top strip whenever a convoy is active, so you can talk without leaving the map.
  5. The alert button sends SOS. It asks first: Send SOS? — “This broadcasts your location to the convoy. No message is sent.” Tap Send SOS or Cancel. You get “SOS sent — help is on the way” or “SOS failed. Try again.”
  6. An incoming SOS from someone else appears as a toast and jumps to the top of the list (“SOS from …” with distance and age). Tap that row to mark it resolved.

Push-to-talk needs microphone permission (granted once on the phone) and a data connection — the voice goes through the server, not the Bluetooth link.

Competition on the head unit

Menu → Competition (the row only appears while a competition is live).

  1. The top row is the live status: Waiting to start, Countdown, Racing or Finished, plus “Score … · Penalties …”, “Checkpoints 3/12”, “Position 4/17”, and for a TSD stage the target time and your live deviation.
  2. Next checkpoint — opens the pane with Distance, Bearing, ETA, plus Navigate (starts guidance to it) and Clear target.
  3. Standings — the leaderboard; your own row is marked You.
  4. If the checkpoint carries a task you have to finish in the app (a photo, an answer), the car shows Finish on your phone with the checkpoint name. Tap it to acknowledge; the task itself is completed in the phone app.
  5. Zone warnings appear as banners over the map: SPEEDING — SLOW DOWN! and NO-GO ZONE — TURN BACK!

OBD data on the head unit

Menu → OBD-II shows the live values coming from the adapter connected to the phone: RPM, Speed, Coolant, Load, Intake, Boost. The list is capped at six rows.

If the coolant temperature reaches roughly 110 °C (105 °C on CarPlay), a red ENGINE OVERHEATING! row jumps to the top of the list with the current temperature.

With no adapter connected you get “No OBD-II connection. Connect on your phone.” — the pairing always happens on the phone, never on the head unit.

CarPlay

CarPlay now matches Android Auto feature for feature — map, gauge row, menus, convoy, competition.

  1. Plug in (or connect wirelessly), then open DirtMap from the CarPlay home screen.
  2. The map fills the screen. The map buttons: zoom in, zoom out, orientation and recenter. The orientation button shows the current mode: N in a circle = north up, an up arrow = course up.
  3. In the top bar, Menu and Layers on the left, Search and Convoy on the right (with a live convoy, Convoy gives way to Talk — the push-to-talk). While navigating, Search gives way to End route.
  4. Menu holds the live status rows: Convoy, Routes, Search destination, OBD-II, Offline regions, Track recording. Layers holds the base-map picker and appearance: automatic/day/night, north up / heading up, 3D.
  5. The gauge row (speed / elevation / heading, with extra cards for OBD and competitions) follows the top bar: when the bar hides, it rises to the top of the screen.
  6. The map pans with a finger — recenter brings back following. If you leave the route, CarPlay shows its own alert: Return to the route.
  7. Turn-by-turn guidance on the head unit (the maneuver card, ETA, off-track warning) is a Solo-subscription feature — the map, your routes and the convoy stay free on the head unit.

OBD-II: connecting an adapter

You need a Bluetooth ELM327-compatible OBD-II adapter. This is a phone-side job — the car screen only displays the result. Not available in the browser version.

  1. Plug the adapter into the car’s OBD-II socket (usually under the dashboard on the driver’s side) and switch the ignition on.
  2. Classic Bluetooth adapters only (older HC-05/HC-06 based ones): pair the adapter first in the phone’s own Bluetooth settings. DirtMap lists paired classic devices only. BLE adapters need no pairing. Classic mode is Android-only — on iPhone/iPad DirtMap always uses BLE.
  3. In DirtMap, open the ☰ menu and tap OBD-II (it is also in the Profile tab).
  4. The OBD-II Bluetooth Connection sheet opens with OBD-II Live data, Search Devices and Dashboard Settings.
  5. Tap Search Devices. The Select OBD Device dialog runs a 15-second BLE scan and lists your paired classic devices next to the results. While it is empty you see “Searching…”.
  6. Tap your adapter. A snackbar shows “Connecting to device…”, then either OBD-II connected! 🏎️ or “Connection failed: …”.
  7. A connected device is shown in green and bold and can’t be tapped again. Close dismisses the dialog.

DirtMap remembers whether you used BLE or classic and which device, and reconnects automatically the next time the app starts. If the link drops mid-drive (you walk away, the adapter loses power) it retries every 5 seconds until it is back.

The live gauges

  1. As soon as the adapter connects, a compact gauge row appears on the map screen. It disappears again when the connection drops.
  2. OBD-II → Dashboard Settings picks which values are shown: Engine speed (RPM), Coolant (°C), Speed (km/h), Engine load (%), Intake air (°C), Boost pressure (Bar), Throttle (%).
  3. You must keep at least one and at most four — the app tells you: “At least 1 gauge must be selected.” and “Maximum 4 gauges can be displayed.”
  4. Tap Save. The gauges on the map change immediately, no restart needed, and DirtMap only polls the values you selected.
  5. OBD-II → OBD-II Live data opens the full-screen dashboard with the same values in large format. The dot in the top right is green when connected, red when not. Without a connection the screen shows No OBD connection and “Connect to an OBD-II device from the Bluetooth menu.”

Telemetry on the track

While a daily recording runs and the OBD adapter is connected, the recording stores the current RPM, coolant temperature, engine load and throttle position onto every track point. The exported GPX carries them — Garmin BaseCamp and similar tools show them per point. Nothing to switch on: it happens by itself whenever adapter and recording are live together.

Reading fault codes (DTC)

The check-engine light means the engine control unit has stored a code. You can read those codes before you drive to the workshop.

  1. Connect the adapter first — Read fault codes only appears in the OBD-II menu while a connection is live.
  2. Tap Read fault codes. Reading fault codes… runs with a spinner and gives up after 10 seconds at the latest.
  3. Engine fault codes (DTC) lists what it found: the code (P0420, P0171, …) with a short description. Codes DirtMap doesn’t have a description for show as Unknown fault — the code itself is still shown, so you can look it up (obd-codes.com and similar).
  4. If the ECU has nothing stored: “No active fault codes. Engine is OK.”
  5. Close ends it.

DirtMap does not clear fault codes. There is no “clear DTC” button and this is deliberate: clearing codes is a workshop-level action and wiping them too early hides the real fault. Use a workshop tool for that.

To end the connection: OBD-II → Disconnect (the row only shows while connected).

Profile: subscription, restore, account deletion

  1. Open the Profile tab and tap your name, or Edit Profile.
  2. The Premium row shows the state: Active or Free. Tapping it while Free opens the Premium feature sheet with the Monthly and Yearly plans (the yearly plan carries a free trial).
  3. Restore purchases is on that same sheet. Use it after reinstalling or on a new phone: you get “Purchase restored.” or “No previous purchase found on this account.” Buying again is not needed and would charge you twice.
  4. In the browser version there is nothing to buy: “Premium is purchased in the DirtMap app for Android or iOS. Sign in there with the same account — your Premium unlocks here too.”
  5. The subscription itself lives with Apple or Google. Cancel or change it in your App Store or Google Play account settings — it renews automatically unless you cancel at least 24 hours before the period ends.

Deleting your account:

  1. Profile → Edit Profile, scroll to the bottom, tap Delete Account.
  2. The first dialog asks “Are you sure you want to delete your account?” — confirm with Delete.
  3. A second dialog, Confirmation Required, states “You are permanently deleting your account. This cannot be undone!” — confirm with Yes, delete it.
  4. The account is deleted on the server and you are signed out. Your data, saved routes and competition results go with it; there is no undo and no export afterwards, so download anything you want to keep (GPX exports) first.
  5. Deleting the account does not cancel a running subscription. Cancel that separately in App Store or Google Play.

If something goes wrong

DirtMap is not in the Android Auto launcher, but the app “resumes” on the head unit. This is Android Auto’s trust gate for apps that draw their own map, not a bug you can configure away. On a real head unit the icon only appears when the installed copy came from Google Play (a Play install, an internal test track, or an Internal App Sharing link all count). The “Unknown sources” developer toggle in Android Auto does not cover map-drawing navigation apps, so switching it on will not help — it only enables the desktop test tool. If you sideloaded an APK, or installed a build over the Play copy, uninstall it and install DirtMap from Play again.

The head unit says “The phone app isn’t running.” The bridge to the phone dropped. Unlock the phone and open DirtMap once, then go back to the car screen. The lists (routes, offline regions, layers) refill within a second or two.

Empty lists on the car — “No saved routes.” or “No downloaded regions.” These lists are pushed from the phone. Anything you never saved or downloaded on the phone will not be there. Plan the route or download the offline area on the phone first, then it appears in the car.

“Waiting for GPS…” on the head unit. No position fix yet. Location permission must be granted to DirtMap on the phone (allow it “all the time” so recording survives the screen going off), and the phone needs a clear view of the sky — a phone deep in a glovebox under a metal roof may never get a fix.

Push-to-talk or SOS does nothing. Both need a data connection: the voice message and the SOS go through the server. In a dead zone nothing is transmitted. The microphone permission also has to be granted on the phone — grant it there once, the car cannot ask for it.

The map goes dark in daylight. The head unit is reporting night mode because your daytime running lights are on. Map layers → Map appearance → Day overrides it.

The OBD adapter isn’t in the list. For a classic adapter, pair it in the phone’s Bluetooth settings first — DirtMap only lists paired classic devices. For BLE, wait out the full 15-second scan and make sure the ignition is on (many adapters only power up with the ignition). On Bluetooth 12+ Android also needs the nearby-devices permission; if you denied it, the scan silently returns nothing — allow it in the system app settings.

It connects but no values arrive, or the adapter freezes. ELM327 clones vary wildly in quality; a badly behaved adapter is more often the adapter than the app. Unplug it, wait a few seconds, plug it back in, and try again — if it keeps failing, try a different adapter. OBD-II is the least-tested part of DirtMap: it works on the adapters we have had in hand, but not every clone on the market has been tried.

No values on iPhone. Bluetooth Classic is not available to third-party apps on iOS at all. Only BLE adapters work on iPhone and iPad; a classic HC-05 adapter never will.

A fault code shows “Unknown fault”. DirtMap only carries descriptions for the common codes. The code itself is correct — search it online for the full explanation.

“Purchases aren’t available on this platform.” You are in the browser, or on a device without Play services. Buy Premium in the Android or iOS app, sign in with the same account, and it unlocks everywhere.