The Mp3Car Blog

Thanks to Seagate - mp3Car had 3 EE25.2 80GB ST980817AM hard drives to hand out to forum members for their contributions to the mp3Car community. It was a hard decision, but the mp3Car forum moderators selected Malcom 2073 for his work on creating a Fusion Brain driver for Linux and DarquePervert for his valuable contributions across the forums.

Other members in the running for awards were:

Civic Modz for his creation of the EyeR

Clockwork for Open source FE Driveline

Chunkyks for OBDII GPS logger for OS X and Linux so thanks for your contributions!

Also - there was an open contest on the forums, for whomever could do something cool to support the community. GizmoQ plans to attend 2-3 meets per month this spring and summer - so look out for him at your local meet, he already made his way via plane to one here in DC.

There will be more forum recognitions to come so the mods are on the look out for contributions - not quite up to giving away a car yet, but just maybe someday we will get there.

Feel free to congratulate them HERE .

And if you have any suggestions for who deserves an mp3Car recognition award in the future - let one of the moderators know.

Our Spring BBQ is tomorrow.  Please come.  

Date: Sunday, April 26, 2009
Time: Noon (12:00) to 3:00ish
What: Mp3Car BBQ, Meetup and Moderator Mow down - BBQ on the grassy part of Fort McHenry – Bring your tricked out hunk of steel (or carbon fiber). If you don’t have one, bring your Frisbee, a chair, a blanket and an appetite for mind blowing geekery.  We will probably stream some video from our new Qik account

Click Here for details

Community development

IBUS interpreter - Community member Wanted has written a plug-in for Ride Runner that interprets BMW steering wheel button commands and relays them to your car PC.  The plug-in is an attempt to improve on some of the issues he's experienced with the IBUSCOMM plug-in.  It runs as a Windows service and allows the user to switch screens using the R/T key press.  Support for up to 255 screens is available.

Don't own an I-BUS equipped BMW?  You can build an IBUS-2-COMport adaptor!  Read post #8 for discussion and a link to how-to.

Mac front end.  The duo from down under, New Zealand brothers Stephen and Kevin Ramsay, have released ICE3 version 2.1, a front end for Mac that has quickly gained popularity on the OSX platform.  Version 2.1 brings improvements to coverflow, native use of iTunes library, better video controls, among other improvements.  The next version will begin to incorporate non-media functionality such as XM and OBDII.  Read about it here.  

One-click web cam recording.  Want to know how to record from  a web cam while on the go?  Capture! is a one-click web cam application by community member Prefect.  Currently, members are working on adding the ability to overlay information on the recorded video.  (See a similiar project in OBDII, below)  Read about it in a loooong running thread since 2005!  

DVR capability for radio.  Member Extide is working on a C# proof of concept application that allows DVR capability for radio or nearly any line-in source like XM Direct.  He's targeting the SiLabs tuner, since that's what he owns.  This is a work in progress, but head over and see what he's done so far. 

OBDII

OBDII gauges - Member malcolm 2073 has released a GaugeDisplay application here.   GaugeDisplay is a standalone app that provides gauges for frontends that may not have support for it but that do support external program embedding - like Ride Runner.  Users can configure GaugeDisplay to display numerous values by editing the XML file.

Overlay driving information on video - New member dirtysanchez from Poland scores on his very first post with an application that combines data from a VAG-COM OBDII cable and a webcam to record the RPMs, Throttle position, and speed over the video stream, allowing it to be played back at a later date.  Check it out here. 

Fabrication

New member lanceam24 is getting some tips on how to smooth out his fiberglas sub boxes over in the fabrication forum.  Want to know how to get a smooth appearance without wavy lines?  Check it out here.

Wanna get rid of the fan noise?  Watercool it.  Member WuNgUn is 95% complete with his water-cooled system and custom fab job on his front bezel.  Beautiful job and a nice, clean install.  Check it out here.  

New forums

Congratulations to Robby BMW!  His long running thread on a Tire Pressure Management System (TPMS) is a great example of the community coming together to bring a hack to product status.  The TPMS version 2.0 is available soon. The TPMS system is a wireless tire pressure monitoring system that integrates into Ride Runner via a USB receiver and plug-in, displaying pressures on the PC.  This device was developed by the mp3car.com community first as a project and now as a product for the community.

Here's a photo of version 1 and 2 side by side.

Driveline -  open source front end.  User ClockWork has released a functional frontend in VB6 with source code.  It uses VB.net 2005 and Win32API's.  No external components except Windows Medial Player.  A new forum has been created to allow bug reports, testing, news and notes.

OBDII GPS logger. 

Member chunkyks has developed an OBDII GPS logger for Mac OS X and Linux.  This is the first community developed and released software for OS X OBDII.  A forum has been created for bug reports and testing of the software.

The Unexpected

Proving that the car pc scene is indeed global, check out user mpower86's install in a Mitsubishi Pajero 2004.  The install is quite nice with double screens but the location is rather more unexpected - Iraq.  As far as we know, this is the first Iraqi install of a car PC.  mpower86 says he struggled to find all the parts he needed, but using an inverter and a Compaq Presario 2500 laptop, managed to make it work.  Well done!  

Rev App for iPhone is a really great App that allows someone with the right hardware to read OBD II data from their car to their iPhone.

Update: Rev app IS available in the app store


Pros:
- The app has a very clean, dark easy to use interface.
- After you connect once, it's pretty much automatic from there-on-out.
- There is little to 0 delay via the Ad-Hoc network, making the data realtime.
- You can read your engine codes. And reset them
- The community is growing every day so updates and new features will be coming all the time.

Cons:
- I had to turn airplane mode on so the Ad Hoc network would connect.
- The hardware always pulls power from the OBD II port so you cannot always leave it plugged in
- The OBD II connector was angled to the right so the cable stuck out at my feet, in other cars it didn't even fit
- Price tag may be a little much for some people. ($150 - $250 for hardware alone)

Overall for any car enthusiast with an iPhone this is a really cool and useful app. You don't know how much fun it is to read your G-Force going around a turn till you try it yourself. Knowing your MPG on the spot helps keep yourself on track and can really alter the way you drive and push your engine for the better.

Talk about this in our forums

Mp3car’s Robert Wray, interviewed Mathieu Monney, creator of iphone navigation application XGPS.  We talk about his turn by turn navigation application which has been downloaded almost 589,000+ times in the two months since it left beta.   Don’t get out your calculator, that is about 10,000 times per day!

We expect the interview to be transcribed within the next couple of days.

XGPS, Mathieu Monney Interview Part 1 5.2MB (5:41 MIN)
XGPS, Mathieu Monney Interview Part 2 4.1MB (4:27 MIN)
XGPS, Mathieu Monney Interview Part 3 7.6MB (8:17 MIN)

Talk about this on our forums here

The best of innovation and development from the Mp3Car.com forums.

Fabrication

Want to see how to mold a dash in your Cadillac Escalade?  Member Brian at Nexations Creations has posted pictures of his latest work here .

Member WuNgUn is making progress on his bezel and paintwork and is asking for forum members to critique it.  The fab includes a Griffin powermate and custom gauges mounted into the bezel.  Nice work! 

OBDII

Finally, an OBDII implementation for OSX and Unix!  Community member chunkyks has created an OBD GPS logger application that does exactly what it says - reads OBDII data from any ELM 327 device and logs it to a file.  You can output the information to a visualizer like Google Earth.  A GREAT start to the OBDII issue for Macs and Unix systems!  We hope to see this implementation extended to provide full functionality on both platforms.  See more info at chunkyks website: http://icculus.org/obdgpslogger/

Member willmeyer has an OBDII plug that is big and ugly and sticks straight out of the socket into the footwell.  He found a solution to his problem form michbound, OBDPros vendor that keeps him from reorienting the car's OBDII plug.  Read about it here . 

Emerging technology

My quest to kill my car PC is investigating using a bluetooth touchscreen controller to control the iPhone.  Know anything about this hardware or software for the iPhone?  Head on over and give me a hand ! 

Community development

Community continues to work on Bluetooth integration - Standalone BlueSoleil wrapper from lambosprit.    Rather than continue to suffer headaches with integrating bluetooth into the PC environment for mobile phones, lambosprit has decided to fix it using the Bluesoleil bluetooth stack.  This week, he released a standalone BlueSoleil wrapper for Ride Runner.  The wrapper comes complete with a sample VB.net express 2008 project that demonstrates how to use it.  Developers can now use the wrapper to build their own custom bluetooth functions in RR plugins or standalone applications.

Interested in Bluetooth on the PC but aren't a coder?  Don't miss lambosprit's mobilephone plugin for Ride Runner.  The plugin is based on ANOTHER member's work (Lucifer) on a mobilephone plugin.   lambosprit has added the BlueSoleil bluetooth stack to the mix.  Several members, including tempgp are helping, offering, or testing the plug-in.

Excellent worklog and install - I rarely read people's worklogs because they usually depress me.  My car PC used to be a slick and well disguised OEM looking installation but lately it's looked more like Dr. Frankenstein's laboratory with cables all over the interior.  It's driving me nuts but that's the cost of experimentation.  However, if you'd like to see what a great install looks like, with TONS of detail and nearly 500 posts actively following the progress, check out member rdholtz's great worklog.  There's lots of advice and information.  You'll find plenty to learn and his detailed index to the thread on post 1 will save you reading the whole thing. 

Ride Runner

Love the iPhone interface and want it on your PC?  Member route78 has released  a beta.1 of an iPhone skin.  It handles music and video and next version plans to support external gps, web browser, settings, mixer, background changes and possibly phone.  Looks gorgeous!  Check it out.

Something different

Those crazy Aussies are at it again.  Member Abolition has been posting with questions about how to install twin spud cannons in his car.  So far, he's been dissuaded by forum members from his original plan to fire it using gasoline or LP from his dual fuel vehicle.  He's currently searching for the right materials to fire it using compressed air.  Check in on his progress here .

A blast of e-mail was sent out on Monday to all the car computer and telematics stores around the globe by some former employees of the now defunct Infill and Maxan.    Apparently they have formed a new company called HTS.  The e-mail states they are accepting advanced orders on their FunDi G7.  There are lots of concerns, but maybe it is just because they are still in stealth mode.

• *As of Monday 3/23/2009 their domain carpcmall.com points to a parked website.
• *Their PDF looks like CAD rendered image
• *“Accepting advanced orders” Hmm.  Have we heard that before in the car PC world?

See the marketing brochure and talk about this on our forums here.

Part 2 of 2 - We take our Do-It-Yourself wireless USB monitor into the car.  Talk about this on our forums.   (link to part 1 of 1 )

In this video blog we test out Dash Command Lite – an innovative way of displaying OBD-II data.   Talk about this on our forums in our blog talk section .   If you like the video, buy dash command lite  here and get 10$ off the final version when it comes out in late spring or early summer.

Community and Forum user Bugbyte (AKA: Tom Berry) explores more ways to connect your iphone to the screen in your car.     

Follow this discussion in our forums.