VW Pi

[geezbeez]

I been thinking about this too.
I wonder do you really need a screen at all.
If you get your PI working with a wifi adaptor, you can connect to your phone. so you can select playlist stored on the pi using your phone as remote control. you can attach a couple of buttons to the gpoi interface on the pi for simple functions like next track and play again and toggle through dab radio channels as you dont want to be messing with your phone whilst driving.
What I'd like is an invisible uprated media system that not only allows me to play music from usb, my stock head set will do that and play music stored on my phone over blue tooth (dont bother sound quality aint that good)
I want a dab radio that will record, say just records and records automatically what ever im listening to in a cache of say last 4 hours. Because what always happens is I hear something good on the radio when I'm in the car and by time I get home Ive forgot what it was or I missed what the track was introduced as before I realized how good it was. duh
Oh and a few more gizmos whilst I'm listening to the radio I don't want to be bothered with flicking the wiper switch and turning lights on and off so I think a couple of sensors connected to the pi allowing it to control auto head lights and wipers would be useful.

[cslowik]

Well, your idea is cool and it would probably work pretty well. The touchscreen is an integral part of my plan though.

Capabilities I want when i install or in the future:
-Movies
-Visuals for audio.. also maybe album art?
-on screen diagnostic ("track apps" type of thing)
-backup camera
-recording? dash cam? maybe..

[matt@shagshaw.com]

Hiya

I am doing exactly the same right now, without the touchscreen, on a mini-itx with composite display,
and mini wireless keyboard (credit card sized).

It will have currently playing info with cover art, speech, picture slideshow, karaoke, movie player, and sat nav coming soon

all free opensource.!!!!!

I have it all except the sat nav working on a virtual box debian build, and its ace !!!!

As soon as it is running on the actual mini-itx hardware, with a 2.5 or 7" composite screen (about 2 weeks away), my next goal is to port it over to my Raspi (1 weeks work max).

Keep your eye on these forums, I will share everything !!!

Cheers

Matt Shaw
matt@shagshaw.com

[cslowik]

i'd have all mine working if i had time to learn how to rebuild the kernel or whatever i need to do to get this touchscreen working haha

i've just been slammed with work and have had absolutely zero time for hobbies..

[caderoux]

I've just been handed down my wife's 2006 Jetta with only a stock headunit (AM/FM/6CD, double-DIN) and have been looking into car pc options, since I want to be able to have some more options.

I want to be able to:

• Listen to WWOZ and WWNO (either FM/HD or Internet streaming) and WWL for Saints Football (AM/FM only)
  Play my Google Music
  Make handsfree phone calls
  Have the audio for the kids' movies come though the car speakers (we jack the audio in from the DVD player in the other car) Right now the kids have a Micca with 500GB hard drive and remote which drives two 9" Philips DVD players/screens via composite output when we have road trips (although it is likely we will use the other car for roadtrips instead).

Doing this all with a Raspberry Pi gets pretty convoluted, relying on either a MiFi or the phone to get to the Internet, and moving the movies onto the Pi means adding a hard drive into the mix and figuring out how to drive the rear screens (composite with splitter, just like now, I guess).

The RPi doesn't have an audio in jack built in, so there would be that to add in via USB.

The problem I can see is that replacing the headunit already requires a C2R_VW2 data module to hook the new headunit into the existing wiring and an antenna adaptor - around $70 for that stuff.

The Raspberry Pi will still need an amp and all that, so just basing a system off the RPi at the core doesn't really appear to get to a reasonable price point.

I've found some sub-$200 headunits with 7" screens, DVD, USB, AUX, Bluetooth, etc, and sub-$100 headunits when you forgo the screen. Some of these are 1-DIN, so I'd have a whole other DIN to add an RPi or small tablet into that system.

Anyway, just trying to see what other people have put together and for what prices.

I currently have the following bits and pieces that can be repurposed to some extent:

• Raspberry Pi running Debian, with Logitech wireless keyboard/touchpad
  PogoPlug Series 4 running ArchLinux
  Micca SlimHD and 500GB internal drive
  Dual 9" Philips DVD/Monitors for rear viewing
  iPod Touch
  iPad
  iPhone (original)
  Galaxy Note
  Kindle Fire
  Nexus 7 on its way

I'm leaning towards a screen-less single-DIN headunit and the Galaxy Note (phone and google music) or Nexus 7 (GPS) with some kind of mount in the lower space

[cslowik]

Are you sure that the RasPi will need an amp? Isn't the factory amp separate from the stereo? I seem to remember it being under the seat or something.

Also, you're going for a lot of functionality that i just dont care about. I don't need the handsfree calling or the am/fm radio, so that simplifies things a lot for me =]

[joey7415963]

Two things before I spend to much time or money:

1) Will this type of convertor work for the HDMI-VGA? http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B007KEIRNG

2) Have you got the touchscreen working? If so, how? I don't mind learning if someone could point me in the direction of some reading about installing custom drivers, etc. I'm just completely bemused, there seems to be tonnes of information out there but I haven't found a starting point.

Thanks

[JeremyF]

1) Will this type of convertor work for the HDMI-VGA? http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B007KEIRNG

Thanks

That converter works and for the price is a great deal. However, some (a handful of the many that have bought it) that it draws too much power (up to 400ma from something that is designed for 50ma) and burns out a diode on their Pi.

[cslowik]

2) Have you got the touchscreen working? If so, how? I don't mind learning if someone could point me in the direction of some reading about installing custom drivers, etc. I'm just completely bemused, there seems to be tonnes of information out there but I haven't found a starting point.

Im kind of in the same boat. Swamped with work right now, but when my schedule clears up a little I'm going to try and spend some time figuring that part out. Its really the last thing keeping me from putting it in my car

[joey7415963]

Thanks for the replies both of you.

Joe

[caderoux]

Are you sure that the RasPi will need an amp? Isn't the factory amp separate from the stereo? I seem to remember it being under the seat or something.

Also, you're going for a lot of functionality that i just dont care about. I don't need the handsfree calling or the am/fm radio, so that simplifies things a lot for me =]

Pretty sure the amp is built into this headunit because there's nothing under the seat. That's pretty standard for non-premium audio. Tempted to get a quote from a car audio place to do the audio just to see (since it would free up my time to work on other projects which really just depend on getting external audio into it) - I did up my old convertible a few times way back with JVC head units and hard drive-based players (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_Jukebox http://www.omnifimedia.com/products/omn ... tNum=87055)

[doggy]

Did anyone manage to get the touchscreen working? I am new to linux, so I dont know how to use it to change, compile, and do other things mentioned.

[ghans]

Normally i'm not so speculative and mean , but this time i have to interject:

1) USB on Pi IS buggy (HW and SW) - really messy business
2) Kernel compilation is quite a big project for a newbie
3) Crosscompilation may be confusing
4) The touchscreen drivers , after a second look , seemed to rely on binary blobs (as usual ...)
5) All this is already complicated on a x86 - so on a Pi ...

So , yes, i'm thinking the touchscreen will / had become a showstopper issue for cslowik.
If otherwise , please come back , cslowik !

ghans