Thread: Alpine AINet CRC solved

First Ai10+IBUS board is complete, testing it on my E46.
May I ask those who's looking for Ai10+IBUS controller to PM with with detailed specs of their BMW factory sound system (i.e. BMW chassis, type of HU/audio system, wheel button presence, etc.).
Need to know which firmware settings are most popular and should be prioritized.

I tried to reply to your latest PM, but your inbox is full.

That aside, I am wondering if this still retains the functionality of the original board: Can it also communicate with a pc over rs232. I am curious if I can have both my carPC and ibus peripherals communicate with my alpine equipment.

I cleaned my inbox, thanks for suggestion.

New board still retains the functionality of the original Ai10 board and could communicate with a pc over RS232.
However it couldn't communicate with IBUS and RS232 simultaneously. You'll have to choose between RS232 and IBUS by hardware jumper.
Reason is pretty simple: even Atmega328 used in new board supports only one hardware UART, so RS232 and TH3122 (IBUS interface logic) have to be connected to the same serial port.
You could however buy IBUS-RS232 interface for your car PC and control both IBUS and AiNet entirely by PC software.
Let me know what exactly you'd like to control on AiNet and I'll try to cook some special firmware for you.

P. S. There are four reserved I/O lines on new board which could be used to drive external relays/IR transmitters or set as input ports for hardware buttons, etc.

P. P. S. Attaching the photo of final board

I'm not entirely sure exactly what i want yet. I know for sure that I want to be able to control volume at least with steering wheel buttons. I am not sure what functions of the h800 can be controlled with ainet. It might also be nice to make the r/t button mute. Not sure about that yet though, as I may want to use that for something else. I have the resler IBUS interface for usb, but I have no software to really utilize it. It might be nice to make r/t send an alt-tab command at some point (i'd have to write some background software to interpret this though).

It would also be nice to be able to send a volume command from the pc.

Also, the 4 I/O lines you mentioned may prove very useful. One BIG nuisance I have had with the h800 so far is that if you plug in a usb cable before it fully boots up, then it will not communicate over usb (shows up as unknown device, and you must replug it to fix this). It might be useful to have this board have one of the I/O pins go high once the h800 is on (I would hope it sends some sort of ack when it turns on). Then I can use 4 pole relay to "connect" the usb after the h800 is booted up. Then I can control the system from the pc without physically replugging the cable each time.

Will there be any way for us, as users, to reprogram the board with new firmware? Will I need any special equipment, other than a serial port, to do this?

Thank you!

Hi Nik!

Returning to the project after a couple of years. Good to see your interface works with the PXA-H800, and now BMW.

On my trusty PXA H701, I'm interested in knowing what is the full list of functions is possible through your AINET controller.

Known:
Volume
Balance
Fader
Preset
Input

As I use the H701 for two optical inputs - music and movies, I am looking to control the rear fill mode (lower right button) from Stereo 2.0 (for music) to DTS/Dolby 5.1 for Movies (Shame you cannot save this within the presets). Is there an AINET control message for this? and any other not listed above?

In addition, is there a way of getting information back from the ainet? such as volume? I would love to display this on my PC screen!

Thanks again for the work you've done, and best regards


Tony

Dear Nik,

How to obtain a new Ai10 PCB? Like to build one.

Also wondering about the new 4 i/o, can I connect pushbuttons for volume up/down and source selection and scroll presets ? Is the firmware plug and play?

Like to build one to let it speak to a alpine pdx h800, and was wondering, when remote and acc is turned on, does the H800 turn on and un-mute automatically?