Iphone Consult Software

[funkymonkey]

Sooo... I've been mucking around with my iPhone and been writing a couple of apps (one of them should hopefully show up in the iPhone store if its approved).

But I've been thinking... it'd be great to have a iPhone Consult port application. Basically I'm hoping to get a group of you guys who might have some background in programming, and interfacing with the Nissan consult system. There's two ways we can go... either legit and sell the application thru Apple, or go renegade and distro it for hacked iPhones. I'm personally in favour of the latter, but then again, there's always that lure of money and fame

Before we get carried away, a list of goals for the app:

Interface with the CONSULT port... easiest way would be to use a serial channel:

http://devdot.wikispaces.com/Iphone+Serial+Port+Tutorial

This kinda means that the application has to run on a jailbroken iphone though

Although I did come across this... a iSkin TX/RX (http://www.iskin.com/ceruleantx/) which is an official product that allows you to send audio over bluetooth... I'm not sure if its adaptable to serial communication, but with a name like TX/RX its quite interesting.

Has to show pretty gauges (something a bit nicer than Datascan does). Has to show data in realtime. This data can be in graph plots or in gauge form.

Has to be able to give the user a more human language translation of error codes, and switches available.

Has to be able to log the inputs received along with time and location. This would be a killer function for both tuning and datalogging on track days etc.

Has to make full use of the iPhone's accelerometer and pseudo-GPS. One for mapping G-forces etc, and the other for logging geolocation.

If you guys look at the app "Rev" that just got launched a little while back, they kind of do something similar with the OBDII port using a bluetooth signal. However they don't make use of the accelerometer, and they don't do data logging.

Anyways... I'm just putting this post up, so that if anyone who reads this forum is keen on the idea and can actually contribute, then they can make themselves heard. I'll be doing some more planning in the days to come, and probably try and put together a specification of some sort to work through. If you guys have any ideas, please post them up.

[NewKleer]

well the first hurdle is the physical stuff. i wouldnt toy with bluetooth if the iphone has an actual serial port (which is great if it does, as the tendancy these days is to just have mini-usb and thats all which blows)

if the iphone is 3v serial input then the consult cable for it would be even simpler than a normal consult cable as you just make it use iphones 3.3v as power supply, and you lose the rs232 level converter and 5v vreg

maybe drop the 10k down to 6.8k due to change in voltage from 5v to 3.3v (keep current the same).

once you can verify the serial comms (e.g send 0xff 0xff 0xff and get back 0x10) then at least we know its do-able. no having an iphone myself means i cant help much in that regard

[funkymonkey]

haha mate I was just reading over some of your posts to put together a consult cable the other day. The serial input is actually a hack, using the proprietary iphone port, and some base level interaction with the darwin based unix platform running on the iphone to get a TX and RX signal. Not too sure on the voltages, I'm waiting for my iphone port breakout circuit from sparkfun to arrive so I can toy with it some more.

[W0rp3D]

Any progress, might be worth me getting an iphone if you can get this to happen, would it be easier to do it on an n95 since the operating system is windows based?

[NewKleer]

n95 is symbian not windows. if it was windows it could use ecutalk. but then again it doesnt even have physical serial port, only mini-usb i think? so its fairly useless trying to do anything for it unfortunately

[linedup33]

use the serial port on the iphone as its bluetooth is crap

if someone does write the code for consult, can they add in the tilt sensor so u can display everything on wide view

[Vik]

True that, the bluetooth connectivity on the iPhone is shocking, ive done extensive training on the iPhone itself working at a Telco and working in a support role, so i need to know the iPhone inside and out ( not literally inside, if i ripped one apart i'd die )

The Physical port would be the way to go, or if they have some sort of " bluetooth connectivity enhancer " which plugs into the serial port and boosts connectivity to keep it constant and accurate, with less data loss.

The Tilt feature would be awesome, but im guess you have to build the base version first just like any new program / software. Then add on bits and peices as the beta versions progress, to a final public release i guess.

I would love to help, if i had any knowledge in programming or interfacing.

MRXTCZ

[gumflapper]

i wouldnt mind helping with this aswell... i have some basic understanding of delphi coding (similar to c) and im an electrician...

so whats so shit about the iphones bluetooth?

[funkymonkey]

its restrictive on what you can use to pair with it. to get around this you have to use a $90 dongle... kind of a fuckaround, and you still have a lag at the end of it. I've started working on a serial port emulation which runs on a jailbroken phone... but you'll need to jailbreak your phone first to use it.

[Vik]

Most people i know, have jailbroken their iPhones, because they say to enhance its real features you cant be restricted..

MRXTCZ

[Rekin]

Found this, not sure if you have already?

http://www.devtoaster.com/products/rev/

[funkymonkey]

Found this, not sure if you have already?

http://www.devtoaster.com/products/rev/

If you guys look at the app "Rev" that just got launched a little while back, they kind of do something similar with the OBDII port using a bluetooth signal. However they don't make use of the accelerometer, and they don't do data logging.

[Stagea_Neo]

forgive my iphone ignorance, do they have a mini usb connector?

i've got a hacked navman, and seen some other examples with cool

interfaces that hook up to obdii via the mini usb.

think people have been doing similar thing on one of the palm pilots linked via some other device.

Edited October 29, 2008 by Stagea_Neo

[funkymonkey]

nope.... proprietory connector, the supplied USB to iPhone connector cable can be used to connect the iphone to your PC, and access it as a camera... or with the itunes drivers installed you can access it thru itunes... or if you put it into recovery mode you can read and write from the firmware.

[Stagea_Neo]

I was thinking something along these lines in the supplied link, wonder if you could rig up something to talk to the iphone via the proprietory usb cable to consult port.

http://www.blazt.biz/products/images/usb_cd_large.JPG

[funkymonkey]

well all that does is send a regular RX/TX serial signal using the USB port. You can wire up an iphone to send and recieve this signal (uding the proprietory plug instead of the USB plug), but that level of interaction is not allowed using the factory software, you need to bypass the operating system and talk to the port directly... which you can only do in a jailbroken iphone.

[NewKleer]

and the usb would only be usb client, ie the iphone is a usb device to the PC, rather than a usb host, as in the iphone can use other usb devices like the usb consult cable.

but thats irrelevant given theres no drivers for the iphone for that usb chip (ftdi)

[Stagea_Neo]

Not sure if you need these or not, had them in my bookmarks at work.

AppleScript Documentation

http://developer.apple.com/documentation/

welcome to macscripter.net | applescript and script resource

http://www.macscripter.net/

Apple - Software - AppleScript

http://www.apple.com/applescript/

ScriptWeb - Macintosh Scripting Resources - Since 1995

http://www.scriptweb.org/

Scripting Information

http://www.latenightsw.com/scripting.html

[linedup33]

with rev, there's only a lite version out at the moment, which really doesn't do any consult features

[VLT025]

Anyone gotten any further with this? Would be great if you could get it to work