-
Notifications
You must be signed in to change notification settings - Fork 8
Home
This is designed as a beginner’s guide to accessories and modifications for Android TV boxes (ATV). If you have found this, you are likely using them for mapping in Pokémon GO using Map-A-Droid. Scrolling through past Discord posts is uncivilized at best, this document is meant to provide an easy and central reference to some of the many possible modifications one can make related to ATVs. Search in Discord is challenging, much like trying to find a needle in a haystack and not knowing what a needle or haystack is.
The goal of this guide is to provide beginners with ideas for creating a safe and efficient setup that works well. I started out figuring I would get by with a handful of phones, needless to say scanning progressed from casual to obsessed. I have wasted money getting to the setup that I use, i.e. 20+ USB A-A cables that I won’t ever use again. I would have bought USB-barrel if I was aware of them. If you have an idea, feel free to submit it via DM (as I am told wiki is just me editing), so that others can benefit from your experience. Your mileage may vary - it is up to you to research the products that will work best in your situation.
Beyond reasonable measures have been taken to ensure that information is accurate, please do verify that the parts will fit and work in your specific situation. Products here are meant to be examples, not endorsements unless specified otherwise, I receive no compensation from any source for doing this wiki.
Never forget the axiom of "happy spouse, happy life". Many tolerate our various levels of Pokémon engagement. Don't piss them off with a half cocked setup that is a mess in your home at best and a danger.
There will be no videos in this wiki. If you desire or need videos, you should reconsider your desire to build a scanner. This and related wikis have proven wholly sufficient to get people up and running for years now. They are literally copy and paste of the commands you need to build the scanner. If one can't manage copy and pasting, perhaps one shouldn't be building a scanner.
Before you purchase parts for you use, verify that they do fit or will work. If something is a generic link, for instance the POE adapters, verify what you are buying fits your ATV. A concerted effort has been made, but there is a wide variety of information. We thought we knew all ATV barrel connectors used 5v, but were wrong as a majority of them have a 12v power brick. You are the last line of defense before you press order on your cart.
Most item links are for Amazon USA - no slight is intended for those in other countries. You will need to do some googling and such to find links for your country and shipping time tolerance. I live in the USA, so it is the place where I buy 99% of my ATV related parts - the prices are normally good, descriptions are not broken english, the shipping times are fast with Prime and returns are simple.
An unsafe setup is just wrong. You will invest a substantial amount of time, energy and money into obtaining and maintaining a running setup. Spend some time to buy quality equipment that won't go up in smoke and burn your place down. Determine electrical requirements for your setup, don't just daisy chain multiple cheap power strips together and hope for the best.
Your environment can also impact your setup. Animals can do all sorts of silly things with electronics, i.e. get tangled in them, urinate on them and chewing on cords. Offspring of the two legged variety can wreak all sorts of havoc.
Since early 2020, the landscape for availability of ATVs has changed. One simply can't hop onto Amazon and order however many devices one wants. In an attempt to help, a page of compatible ATVs has been compiled.
The information within covers the three most common ATVs used with MAD, the x96 mini,the a95x f1 and the s912 variant the Tx9s. Some parts may interchange, some may not, please verify fitness for duty prior to purchasing parts.
If you have other ATVs, the concepts within and selected parts may apply, but one should expect to do their own research when procuring parts on less common devices. I can only buy so many devices, so if you have something esoteric and feel it would be worthwhile to have the information in an easily accessible format for others, bring it up on the ATV channel on the MAD discord.
There is a page dedicated to MAD user setups, head on over to the ATV setup page and have a look. The list is not exhaustive, but is illustrative of builds culled from discord.
Browse the wiki page links on the right for further documents. Do hit expand to see all the pages by clicking on show * more pages.