Husky Posted April 8, 2014 Share Posted April 8, 2014 (edited) Hi Guys, I thought I'd share this thread on a project I've had planned for a long time, I'll be keeping it updated elsewhere but I'll copy it over to here as it may be of interest to you guys too It's for a Toyota Celica GT4 ST205, not a 350z, hence being in the off topic section. I'm planning on taking out the stereo, heater controls and clock and replace them with an integrated system run through a raspberry pi. I know this really isn't going to be of any interest to a lot of people as it'll end up getting quite in depth, so look away now if it isn't your kind of thing. It's going to take a long time to do as I can't give all my time to it's development, but I'll get there in the end There are various parts of the build I need to complete to get this all working. Functionality: A few things that I want it to do (in the order I want to accomplish them) : - Satnav - Clock - Music/video - Heater controls - Simple system controls: Sunroof, interior lighting, glovebox lock, electric window control - Remote start, remote windows. The screen: I have just ordered the touch screen for it from here: Link Looks like this: It's quite hard to get hold of this screen, it's the best one I can find around as it only requires hmdi and usb connections to get it working. As far as the controller is concerned it has a screen and a mouse attached to it which is a lot less work than some other systems. The controller: Currently I'm looking at using the Raspberry Pi for this. A few reasons; it's low power use, small size, good support, and it's low cost. Controls: I'm not a fan of touch screen in cars on the move, fine if sitting there at lunch time but I don't like the way it forces you to take your eyes off the road on the move. This is why I intend to have much of the main functionality done via tactile buttons (one's that you can feel without looking over). It's a pain to find good quality nice looking buttons/switches though! You'd think it'd be as easy as going online and googling it, but it turns out that most nice switches are custom jobs from switchgear manufacturers. I'd rather not get into manufacturing my own switchgear but I might have to, to get what I want. Programming: I'm going to get the satnav set up first and have that running, I'm planning on using Navit, someone's blog about it. My first big obstacle I see is combining various functionality into one screen... What I would like is a small overlay at the bottom or side of the screen for other functionality, like a menu or taskbar. You would be able to select the menu you wanted (music, climate, GPS, environment) and then it would be maximised over the screen. We shall see. Currently my backup solution would be running two Pi's and having an hdmi switched input to the the screen. One Pi would run the GPS, the other would run the other functions. Fitting to the vehicle: Initially this will all be done in a prototype box to test everything out, I want a good level of functionality before I fit it to the car. once I have it to a level I'm happy with, I'll be getting hold of a spare centre dash plastic and reworking the entire thing. My plan is to remove all the inside plastic, only leaving the rim as this gives the flush, stock fit to the car. The new dash layout will be set out and then made into a mould, where I will then fibreglass the new part. Once complete it'll be carbon pattern dipped via hydrographics to give it a nice finish. Obviously the head unit will go from it's stock location, the heater controls will go from their location, the clock will be changed too, finally there is the possibility that the vents will need moved to give space for the screen, we shall see... Clock Compared to the rest, the clock is a fairly simple thing, the main choice is whether I make it a stand alone clock or integrated in the rest of the system. Having it integrated has the benefit of the time being set by the controller which would be via GPS, so never having to set the time. Down side is the extra complexity and may limit my choice of LCD clocks. I plan to mount the clock flush with the new fibre glassed section. It'll be fitted and resin coated (waterproofed) before the whole thing goes to be dipped. The dipping will cover the clock with a thin layer of carbon print and then it'll be lacquered. The clock will then shine through the carbon overlay making it invisible until it is turned on. Power I'll likely just power it via the cig lighter socket feed as that should provide all the amps I need. I might have to put on a voltage regulator circuit to protect the devices, depends on what they have on board. Heater controls and Climate The stock heater controls for the most part appear to be just simple switches, by keeping the boards behind the switches I can just control them via relays/transistors. The only thing I can tell that has a physical control is the heater dial, it feels like this is via a push pull cable. To convert the heater control I would most likely install a servo, after measuring the force required to push/pull the cable I'll spec the servo appropriately. I might put a home micro switch in there too so it can calibrate on start up. I'll be putting temperature sensors in the various vents for cabin input temperature information. I'll also put temp sensors around the cabin to give current cabin temperature information, finally an external air temperature sensor will give outside temp information. The climate system will take input from the various sensors, compare it to user requested input and make adjustments to the heater controls to react to this. It'll be controlled via the screen/buttons through a custom GUI Edited April 8, 2014 by Husky Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grundy Posted April 8, 2014 Share Posted April 8, 2014 Ooo, I'd be interested to see how the PI Performs! Good luck 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Husky Posted April 8, 2014 Author Share Posted April 8, 2014 Thanks! It might not handle it if I'm honest, which is why I have the backup idea of two Pi's and finally I can build a small linux based car pc system if it just wont work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grundy Posted April 8, 2014 Share Posted April 8, 2014 Yeah, I'd love to have a little in car PC setup - The Pi is a great bit of kit, should be able to have some real fun with that! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Husky Posted April 8, 2014 Author Share Posted April 8, 2014 I've got two of them currently kicking about, one was set up bolted to the back of the TV as the home theatre system running Openelec. It was great but had it's flaws so we just replaced it with an old media PC we had spare. It's going to be recycled as a NAS as my PC is getting a bit full of hard drives these days. The second one was always destined for this and I got it quite a while back, but it's been shelved until I had the time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grundy Posted April 8, 2014 Share Posted April 8, 2014 Get a Synology box, awesome bit of kit! Been meaning to get one for quite some time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Husky Posted April 17, 2014 Author Share Posted April 17, 2014 So I had some spare time and started mocking things up on the layout and coding side of things. I'm not going to photoshop any of the nice graphics (buttons, headers, etc) until I'm happy with exactly how it's going to look. I have VBA to hand within excel so I drew some screens up on there and added some simple code to switch between them SatNav: Climate: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grundy Posted April 17, 2014 Share Posted April 17, 2014 Impressive bud! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flex Posted April 17, 2014 Share Posted April 17, 2014 Why do all your pics all have the spoiler button Husk? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Husky Posted April 17, 2014 Author Share Posted April 17, 2014 Why do all your pics all have the spoiler button Husk? It's much nicer to people with slow interwebs and people on mobile. This way the page loads really fast, then you can load only the pics you want to see. Also it makes it much easier to scroll through the thread (and is more stealthy to browse at work ). 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike_89 Posted April 17, 2014 Share Posted April 17, 2014 Hi Bud, This sounds right up my street, I would recommend downloading the free version of VB.NET as you should be able to build nicer looking GUI than you can in VBA as its very limited to what control you can use. I fancy building something similar, but struggling to get the time as I am building my own desktop application to carry out various engineering tasks such as safety calculations etc. I will keep up-to-date with this, if you require anything regards to programming I may be able to assist Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Husky Posted April 17, 2014 Author Share Posted April 17, 2014 (edited) Hi Bud, This sounds right up my street, I would recommend downloading the free version of VB.NET as you should be able to build nicer looking GUI than you can in VBA as its very limited to what control you can use. I fancy building something similar, but struggling to get the time as I am building my own desktop application to carry out various engineering tasks such as safety calculations etc. I will keep up-to-date with this, if you require anything regards to programming I may be able to assist Thanks for the info I'm not going to be building it in VBA, not to worry The work laptop has excel on it so nice and easy to get access to, just at the planning stage right now, so nothing flashy required. It'll be built for the Pi in TkInter or similar. I'll let you know if I need anything thanks! Edited April 17, 2014 by Husky Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flex Posted April 17, 2014 Share Posted April 17, 2014 (edited) Why do all your pics all have the spoiler button Husk? It's much nicer to people with slow interwebs and people on mobile. This way the page loads really fast, then you can load only the pics you want to see. Also it makes it much easier to scroll through the thread (and is more stealthy to browse at work ). Ah I see. Or should I say I see after clicking the show button. Edited April 17, 2014 by Flex Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve916 Posted April 17, 2014 Share Posted April 17, 2014 I've seen this type of project talked about on other car forums too The Pi is a neat bit of kit to incorporate. I look forward to see how it evolves Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike_89 Posted May 31, 2014 Share Posted May 31, 2014 Is there any updates on this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Husky Posted June 3, 2014 Author Share Posted June 3, 2014 Hey guys, So it took a long time for the screen to arrive (as expected) and after that I had to find a US plug adapter and the time to fiddle with it. First up I simply wanted to check it wasn't DOA and all the functions worked as expected. So I whipped a Pi together I've had hiding in a box and booted it up withe the Raspbian OS. Everything worked perfectly and I'm really chuffed with the screen. However... I took it out to the car for an inevitably failed size test as it is rather large! Big surprise. I'd like to hear peoples opinions on which way to go I have four options: 1 - Mount the screen in portrait. Changes from a 10 inch screen to much smaller for lanscape uses (such as films) Will look very integrated and clean could easily have two things on the screen at once (film and climate, one above the other) 2 - Build a mount that brings the screen out from the centre console with extra moulding around it. It will look very aftermarket. will stick out quite far. extra moulding required. 3 - Build a folding mount meaning the screen is hidden when not in use, but sits infront of the centre console when it is. A lot of difficult engineering. The screen may not even package in that space. Once folded out it will still be large and spill out beyond the centre console. May be difficult to make sturdy with zero shake. 4 - Get the equivelant 7 inch screen and use the 10 inch screen for development. less screen space to play with. will definately fit in the centre console with a stock look. lower resolution due to smaller size. Have to pay out for another screen. Have to wait for new screen to arrive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fodder Posted June 3, 2014 Share Posted June 3, 2014 Just my 2p but I think 4. The others seem to be compromise on the OEM look or function. Out of interest have you thought about glare from sunlight? It can be bad on sat navs and using it for all functions as you are planning could be a nightmare especially as it's not tactile. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fodder Posted June 3, 2014 Share Posted June 3, 2014 Oops sorry you already said that earlier Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Husky Posted June 3, 2014 Author Share Posted June 3, 2014 yeah, I'm going to squeeze as many tactile interface bits in as I can, the 10' screen massively limits this. I want to sink it back in aswel to try and shade from the inevitable glare. I'm thinking 4 tbh, I just can't see a way of it looking OK unless it's portrait. I think portrait would look fantastic, but it might annoy me to not be using the whole screen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mick-r1 Posted June 3, 2014 Share Posted June 3, 2014 Everything is relevant ive an st205 wrc sitting in the driveway beside the 350z. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike_89 Posted August 22, 2014 Share Posted August 22, 2014 Have you managed to get much further with this? I am currently looking at doing something similar to a spare set of gauges. I am looking at using an Arduino due to is compact size along with a number of 4D systems LCDs. Thought you might be interested in the Workshop4 software package from 4D Systems . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisB Posted August 22, 2014 Share Posted August 22, 2014 Have you managed to get much further with this? I am currently looking at doing something similar to a spare set of gauges. I am looking at using an Arduino due to is compact size along with a number of 4D systems LCDs. Thought you might be interested in the Workshop4 software package from 4D Systems . No way!! We are both supercharging silver cars - and doing a gauge projects with an Arduino Due? I thought this was going to be my sensors project I was going to have the Due provide A/D values mapped to sensor characteristics, then either output basic bar graphs on a TFT display or stay quiet unless out of 'normal' range values occurred. I'm not one for dash clutter.. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike_89 Posted August 22, 2014 Share Posted August 22, 2014 (edited) Have you managed to get much further with this? I am currently looking at doing something similar to a spare set of gauges. I am looking at using an Arduino due to is compact size along with a number of 4D systems LCDs. Thought you might be interested in the Workshop4 software package from 4D Systems . No way!! We are both supercharging silver cars - and doing a gauge projects with an Arduino Due? I thought this was going to be my sensors project I was going to have the Due provide A/D values mapped to sensor characteristics, then either output basic bar graphs on a TFT display or stay quiet unless out of 'normal' range values occurred. I'm not one for dash clutter.. I am looking at doing the communications directly with OBD-2 and using this data on a custom set of Nissan driver gauges, it is just something to fill my spare time, if all goes well I may install it into the car . I love to tinker with different hobbies from programming through to electronic circuit modifications Edited August 22, 2014 by Mike_89 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisB Posted August 22, 2014 Share Posted August 22, 2014 (edited) Sounds cool. The Due has a CAN interface hardware on board, although I wasn't sure if a Due variant library was ever finished - I must admit I've not looked in a while. I have seen a Leonard based CAN shield complete with library is available. I was going down an active monitoring route, with digital display - and perhaps an audio alarm if things went gnarly. I might add I'm JDM so JOBD - which rather obfuscates me with OBD II... Edited August 22, 2014 by ChrisB Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Husky Posted August 27, 2014 Author Share Posted August 27, 2014 Not got any further sadly, between renovating the house and building a palace for our ducks to live in I have had zero time for fun projects! I'm still pondering on it in the meantime, and i'm swaying towards just putting a carputer in instead. My worry is going far down the Pi powered route and then coming to the conclusion that it's just annoyingly underpowered/laggy. I did come to one decision in the meantime though, and that's to mount the screen in potrait format. It means less screen space for a film, which is a down side, but it means it will be really easy to display multiple types of information at the same time by treating the screen as two halves. eg. top half for nav bottom half for climate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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