Pi-based CarPC using iPhone for control?

[DonnyBahama]

I have a couple of old Model Bs sitting around and would like to use one as a car PC. There's lots and lots of stuff on the 'net about RPi CarPCs using a touchscreen interface, but it's not practical for me to replace the factory head unit. I want to stick the Pi in the glove box and connect it to the AUX input and control all the media player functions using my iPhone.

If anyone has done something similar I'd really appreciate hearing about how you got it working. Did you set up an ad hoc network? If so, how? What wifi adapter did you use? Did you install a router? If so, which one?

It would be nice to be able to load up a flash drive with a bunch of music and be able to play/control it from my iPhone, but realistically, my usage will probably be mostly Pandora & Spotify. I'm not sure whether it makes more sense to run Pandora/Spotify from the Pi, using my iPhone as a wifi hotspot - or use Airplay - and I'm not sure how compatible that's going to be in an ad hoc environment.

Thoughts? Comments? Suggestions?

[fruitoftheloom]

I have a couple of old Model Bs sitting around and would like to use one as a car PC. There's lots and lots of stuff on the 'net about RPi CarPCs using a touchscreen interface, but it's not practical for me to replace the factory head unit. I want to stick the Pi in the glove box and connect it to the AUX input and control all the media player functions using my iPhone.

If anyone has done something similar I'd really appreciate hearing about how you got it working. Did you set up an ad hoc network? If so, how? What wifi adapter did you use? Did you install a router? If so, which one?

It would be nice to be able to load up a flash drive with a bunch of music and be able to play/control it from my iPhone, but realistically, my usage will probably be mostly Pandora & Spotify. I'm not sure whether it makes more sense to run Pandora/Spotify from the Pi, using my iPhone as a wifi hotspot - or use Airplay - and I'm not sure how compatible that's going to be in an ad hoc environment.

Thoughts? Comments? Suggestions?

If you use a KODI (XBMC) Operating System then you can control from iOS, this may give you a start:

http://kodi.wiki/view/Official_XBMC_Remote/iOS

[DonnyBahama]

Very familiar with XBMC. I've had an HTPC for several years. But controlling Kodi from an iPhone app requires both the Pi and the iPhone to be connected to the same LAN, so this doesn't really address any of my original questions/issues.

[jwatte]

You can make the Raspberry Pi be its own wireless access point with a $10 USB wifi adapter and running hostapd.
I'm using this one: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00H95 ... UTF8&psc=1
Works a treat!
I use Wifi-B to get more robustness to interference; throughput of connection is not important.

[DonnyBahama]

Thank you, jwatte! Just what I was looking for! Do you happen to know - if I connect to this from my iPhone (let's say this is wlan0) in order to be able to control Kodi (or Volumio), can I still use another wifi adapter (i.e. as wlan1) to connect to my iPhone as a mobile hotspot for internet access?

[jwatte]

I don't think the iPhone allows that (it had only one WiFi chip) but it you use it as a hotspot, perhaps you can already see the raspberry on that hotspot network?

[DonnyBahama]

I just ran a little test where my iPhone was connected to my home router and I connected my iPad (wifi only) to my iPhone as a personal hotspot.It seems to work so I guess I answered my own question!

[mischa72]

You can make the Raspberry Pi be its own wireless access point with a $10 USB wifi adapter and running hostapd.
I'm using this one: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00H95 ... UTF8&psc=1
Works a treat!
I use Wifi-B to get more robustness to interference; throughput of connection is not important.

Short question about this: In a few days I will have a Rpi 3, with wifi, will I be able to do this without the wifi-dongle then? If yes, that would be great, because I planned to do exactly the same with it.

Regards,
Mischa

[jwatte]

Yes, the RPi3 will not need a USB WiFi dongle.