Carputer *probably Been Done But Throw Some More Ideas At Me

[loymclure]

Ok so i started messing around with a really smart windows CE compact computer that has serial interfaces, usb host and client interfaces, can interface and a couple of digi ports for N/O or N/C data (relay status).

The pc its self was awesome. However Windows CE is useless for this unless you are some sort of programming wizz most of the software out there is shit or cant be interefaced with our cars (ODBII reliant)

Ive come up with a new project -

PC - http://www.mini-box....Slot%20DVD.html

TouchScreen - http://www.mini-box....ouchscreen.html

(the reason i chose this screen is the viewing area is 152.4(H) X 91.44(V) mm should be pretty close to what your stock screen is now and will make it easy to swap it out.)

Being that this PC has a few serial port aswell as USB there are an infinate number of interfaces we can connect to this box for Consult readouts and diagnostics aswell as trying to get some of OEM screens functionality back like GPS or fuel Economy or some added funtionallity like bluetooth hands free voice commands etc.

a few of you will ask what software I think im going to use and thats simple - Centrafuse as the front end this will allow me to run any other 3rd part software and create short cuts for it on the frontend desktop, controll the bluetooth hands free mobile phone connection and it already supports voice command. 3rd party software could be any thing from your current ECU software for tuning or just something that interfaces with consult so you can get you diagnostics and clear your fault codes, digital guages etc.

Ive already been in contact with a chinese mob to see if i can source a consult 3 cable (bluetooth capable) and software and have been informed it will cost $359 delivered (im guessing its a reverse engineerd cable). Once i get this cable and test it with the PC i should be able to post up some pics on install and interfacing etc.

The price of all these parts is fairly expensive and will take me some time to get them all together as i will be working away most of this year and next and using my off days to play around with it so dont expect it to happen over night or even in a months time.

What i will say though is if i can do this and work out exactly what is needed i can start to simplify and buy cheaper parts so by the end of it im hoping to have a fully functional replacement for out stock useless screen for around $500 (cheaper if i have any thing to say about it) that if any one is interested in they can buy off the parts list and install it them selves.

The things i want from this are -

Fully funtional media centre

GPS with australian maps

Bluetooth hands free w/ or w/o voice command

Diagnostic read outs and resetting

A/M ECU tuning

and a bit of Blang Blang eye candy.

If there is any thing else you guys can think of that would make this project a bit better or any thing else you would want out of it please feel free ask and once i have it all setup ill test it out.

There is an example pic i flogged from someone else's install pics of what centrafuce can do and the Chinese consult III cable

Edited September 7, 2012 by loymclure

[0t1]

Orsum idea, will keep an eye on this thread

[KiwiRS4T]

Canman on SkylinesDownunder made a computer with a touch screen for his R34 GTR which controlled the stereo, displayed all the paremeters of the engine (yes I know the GTR does some of that already) and had SatNav and the radar detector built in. I'll put up a link when I find it.

[loymclure]

OoOoOoOoooo radar detector lol sounds interesting, but only legal in WA. most claim to be undetecable but i think only 2 are really undetecable and those 2 can fetch up $2000. and wont interface with a windows system.

http://www.delonixradar.com.au/radar-detectors/tests/2009-spectre4-rdd-test.php - Results

http://www.dontgetcaught.com.au/radardetectors.html - products

[GTRNUR]

I'm working on something similar at the moment using a zotac box. The quality of the unit is pretty good, 1.8ghz atom, 4gb ddr3, ssd, wifi. Im using windows 7 at the moment, but the new windows thin/windows 8 embedded operating system shows primise being that its a tablet focused operating system. It runs off a 12v-19v power supply. The unit comes with a dock that it locks into, and ejects with the press of a button. Its thinner than a carputer and is more eaisly mounted under a seat.

http://www.ebay.com....tm/370636018698

Im using a 7" 1080p hdmi touch screen with it. It seems to work pretty well too. The only thing thats annoying about it is that the plugs hang out the side of the screen a little.

http://www.ebay.com....tm/370636018698

[loymclure]

I'm working on something similar at the moment using a zotac box. The quality of the unit is pretty good, 1.8ghz atom, 4gb ddr3, ssd, wifi. Im using windows 7 at the moment, but the new windows thin/windows 8 embedded operating system shows primise being that its a tablet focused operating system. It runs off a 12v-19v power supply. The unit comes with a dock that it locks into, and ejects with the press of a button. Its thinner than a carputer and is more eaisly mounted under a seat.

http://www.ebay.com....tm/370636018698

Im using a 7" 1080p hdmi touch screen with it. It seems to work pretty well too. The only thing thats annoying about it is that the plugs hang out the side of the screen a little.

http://www.ebay.com....tm/370636018698

Looks unreal brother keep us posted on your efforts or send me a link to your build thread. You should check what size the actual LCD is measure across the viewing area of the LCD and see if its the same size as the factory screen and then maybe you can remove the outter shell of the screen and replace it with the pop up screen and have all the cabled hang inside your console. This was the sole purpose of choice for the screen i chose so that I dont have any thing mounted on my dash or on the console and it looks like it comes from factory.

Becarefull with the OS you choose alot of the old dianostic stuff runs on XP and even though you can install something in windows 7 and run it in XP mode thier might not be drivers for the OS you choose. I have a few DVD's packed with windows 7 drivers that ill be using to try get this to work, specially since i probly wont have an internet connection in the car and windows 7 relys on windows update for driver download. I'm not entirely sure how windows 8 embeded will work with drivers. hopefully the windows 7 drivers will be backward compatible. Should be good iether way.

The PC box that im looking at i probably won't use the case as im going to remove the gutz of it and try mount the motherboard and interface cards below the pop up screen (there is enough space to fit a Mini ITX board in a din bracket) the performance of the board and ram wasnt a huge concern for me it was more the fact of the interfaces - RS232 ports and USB for connectivity

This is the Board ill be running with

is 170mm X 170mm

http://www.mini-box....otherboard.html#

Features:

- Dual Atom D2500 2 x 1.86Ghz

- Intel NM10 Chipset

- 2 x DDR3 SO-DIMM (max 4GB)

- Dual Independent Displays

- 1 x VGA / 1 x DVI-I (Dual Link, Digital and Analog)

- 2 x COM

- 2 x Integrated Intel 10/100/1000 network connection

- 2 x SATA (3GBs)

- 1 x miniPCI Express

- LVDS for Embedded Displays

- 4 x USB 2.0

- Recommended PSU: picoPSU-80

IT should be more then enough to run every thing i want and more.

Cheers

Edited September 8, 2012 by loymclure

[GTRNUR]

Looks like you have a good foundation there. It takes forever to get somewhere with this sort of thing unless you can work on it full time (or are a much better programmer than me), but once you start making progress and have a framework built it becomes a lot of fun and can evolve very quickly.

I don't have a build thread for my project, but once im comefortable with how it looks I will post something up. If you start a build thread, please send me the link. Its always good for inspiration seeing what others are doing.

I am guessing you need RS232 for talking to an ECU or something? Old school style USB that is part of the main board and that which uses an 550UART standard for comms is the only way to go if you must use RS232. Most of the USB converts out there are crap, as they use a software based interrupt for handling incoming data. That is why they perform so slowly. I've gone down a different road and run my RS232 comms through WIFI with IP using a TCP/P to RS232 converter module. I initially trialed some bluetooth RS232 ports, but they have the same issues as the USB converters. As well as the other crap you have to deal with when using bluetooth.. (the will it work today or not situation...). IP jas very low CPU overhead, so everything is extremely fast.

I had the opportunity to play with a windows 8 tablet a few weeks ago, and the new Windows Thin os that is being released as a FREE OS will be pretty much perfect for this sort of R&D. Microsoft are releasing a basic shell version of their W8 OS to allow it to be installed on old hardware, to enable them to be used as thin clients for terminal servers and virtualised PC/APP access. The beta's are available for download already from MS.

[wedge_r34gtr]

SUBSCRIBED.

I've starting looking into a similar setup - so i'm interested to see what people have done

Edited September 8, 2012 by wedge_r34gtr

[loymclure]

Looks like you have a good foundation there. It takes forever to get somewhere with this sort of thing unless you can work on it full time (or are a much better programmer than me), but once you start making progress and have a framework built it becomes a lot of fun and can evolve very quickly.

I don't have a build thread for my project, but once im comefortable with how it looks I will post something up. If you start a build thread, please send me the link. Its always good for inspiration seeing what others are doing.

I am guessing you need RS232 for talking to an ECU or something? Old school style USB that is part of the main board and that which uses an 550UART standard for comms is the only way to go if you must use RS232. Most of the USB converts out there are crap, as they use a software based interrupt for handling incoming data. That is why they perform so slowly. I've gone down a different road and run my RS232 comms through WIFI with IP using a TCP/P to RS232 converter module. I initially trialed some bluetooth RS232 ports, but they have the same issues as the USB converters. As well as the other crap you have to deal with when using bluetooth.. (the will it work today or not situation...). IP jas very low CPU overhead, so everything is extremely fast.

I had the opportunity to play with a windows 8 tablet a few weeks ago, and the new Windows Thin os that is being released as a FREE OS will be pretty much perfect for this sort of R&D. Microsoft are releasing a basic shell version of their W8 OS to allow it to be installed on old hardware, to enable them to be used as thin clients for terminal servers and virtualised PC/APP access. The beta's are available for download already from MS.

lol you have me wrong im no programmer, Im an electronics technician and do interfacing for heavy machinary. Basically I take OEM code from the truck interface it to a comms mudule that then converts data from one stadard to another (can to rs232 etc) and sends it to a screen inside the machary and also over a wifi network to a control room where they use the data to dispatch the heavy machinary accordingly and monitor engine telemetry. me not being able to program is why i have to use other peoples software and am confined to stuff that already has drivers. This will be my build thread just thought id make a start on it and put up what i plan on doing so people can throw some ideas at me.

One of the biggest problems I have is that the OEM pop up screen is such an awesome idea but absolutely useless to me. a couple of things im going to look at once im done playing around and have it fitted is what am i going to do with the OEM button pannel .... i probably still could use the bottons and re-rout the wiring through to the new mother board or i can chop the dash and put some USB ports in the same place.... its all so exciting i almost wee'd my pants thinking about it.

Its great to have collaboration and ill probably be msg'ing you later on down the line for some ideas and problems you have over come if thats ok.

cheers

[import_zone]

I am running just a simple tablet with ecutalk, u can get programming ns the consult plug for $80 from the website and reads codes and shows gauges of most sensors the ecu reads. Will be securing it better if I get time if I don't get another car soon

[loymclure]

yeah i also emailed that guy peter from ecutalk and never got a response.

[import_zone]

I never emailed him. I just brought it online

[loymclure]

Progress so far

Its not much but im getting there.

[GTRNUR]

Pretty cool looking interface. I had not seen Centrafuse until now.

You have inspred me to put in some more effort with the icons and menus for my mfd. I've just learnt how to embed animated GIF images in code, so I can put them on top of tile style buttons much like the centrafuse system does.

Also, Windows Embedded Standard 8 CTP3 release was released today. Definatly worth a look as a touch screen based application that can stll run all your Windows apps.

How does your Garmin GPS product work and where can I download a copy? I've got a couple of Windows CE based GPS systems that were obtained from the last two sat nav systems I had in my car, but CE apps won't run on Win7/8.

Cheers,

Ian

[loymclure]

Cheers Ian,

man lots of stuffing around to get garmin to work. I cant help you with the pc version as you have to have owned it from garmin previously as the product is discontinued. But im sure if you google it you may find it.

[KiwiRS4T]

Here is a link to Canman's car computer:

http://www.gtr.co.uk/forum/100766-another-world-first-mfd-upgrade.html