Designed with the supprot and feedback of our community, the fusion brain guys have done it again – At midnight EST today they released version 4 of their fusion brain control center.
Improvements over Brain v3:
16 Digital Outputs
13 Analog Inputs
Selectable Power Source (USB or 12vDC Jack)
30% smaller form factor (70mm X 45mm)
Better power filtering and protection
Ability to update firmware via USB
Ability to update firmware via ICSP header in event of bootloader corruption
Improved signal routing for analog inputs
Pulse Width Modulation, 256 steps with 42uS minimum pulse width (may need firmware update, provided free and uploadable over USB)
Previous versions of the fusion brain have been used for:
Some people call OLED the next best thing in display technology. Manufacturers report very high levels of contrast and lots of sunlight readability. What do you think? Is OLED the next home run in mobile car computing and telematics display technology? Talk about this on our forums here.
Even thought this isn’t super techie, we decided to take a few minutes to check out rescue tape since they won an award this year.
Where was wardrobe in this scene? My collar is sticking up and my shirt is wrinkled. Expect a blast of videos over the next 2 days. I slowed down editing a bit to attend a three day
wedding over the weekend.
Pete has spent 5 years building this show car and has used it to win many awards. Tour Pete's car and see how he integrated a car computer. Pete's website is here if you want more details. Talk about this on our forums.
To kick this off, we are going to start with our interview with Ben Harris about Ride Magazine's outlook on car computing as well as details about the tour through New York Apple stores with Ride's Mac'ed out Hyundai.
Expect to see some more video tomorrow from SEMA about this car and other topics:
How they made the Hyundai Genesis, an interview with the creator.
An interview with Michael Detiz, Product Planning, Hyundai America
Xohm's Baltimore Wimax hardware is working in Chicago, Boston, Dallas, Philadelphia, Washington DC, Northern Virginia, and Baltimore.
Solrackm’s previous comments and reports of Xohm working in DC inspired me to go down and hear it from the horse’s mouth. I walked down to Xohm’s booth at the Baltimore Fells Point Festival which happens to be steps from Michael Phelp’s new house.
Here is the technical dirt from Mike who works at Xohm (not Mike Phelps). Xohm networks are active in Chicago, Boston, Dallas, Philadelphia, Washington DC, Northern Virginia and of course Baltimore. Mike and his coworkers warned me that the networks will work but are “not supported” and are still being tested. They did say my Samsung expresscard wimax hardware which I bought last week will work even in Chicago which is using Motorola tower equipment. To my knowledge, no coverage area has even been posted for these regions.
For those of you broadband geeks our there, it might be time to UPS air your Baltimore wimax hardware in for your fix of wimax geekery.
I am flying to Boston on Wednesday with my Baltimore hardware. When we get there I will let you know how it works at the airport and surrounding suburbs.
Talk about this in our Wimax Forums where this was first reported by one of our users.
My friend Mary checking out Michael Phelps’ new ~1.4 million dollar house around the corner from Xohm's Booth.
Everyday, members of Mp3Car’s forum seem to come up with
some amazing solutions to everyday problems encountered in the car computing
world. Seeing that we have a pretty steady blog going on, I figured that it is
about time to highlight some of these solutions a little more publicly. This
gives opportunity for outsiders to see what we are all about here and give due
recognition to those who demonstrate their skills to turn something ordinary into
something extraordinary. In turn I hope this inspires yourself and others to innovate your own solutions to whatever troubles come your way.
Forum member AvWuff has come up with an interesting solution
to adding phone support to a CarPC . Handsfree bluetooth is a touchy subject
when it comes to car computers. There are so many complications. Software support only
seems to work half the time (if at all). Limiting factors include: Phone
manufacturer, Bluetooth stack, Bluetooth hardware, Microphone, Sound card, echo
cancellation, frontend integration… the list really could go on for a while. Meanwhile
AvWuff, dissatisfied with software based solution, went a slightly different route.
Using a Parrot Ck3000 evolution, an Adruino board and some
other odds and ends, Av hacked together a new system to interface with his
custom home-brew software. He took apart the Parrot device and soldered some wires on for relay control. Using the Parrot mute box, he used the speaker outputs to connect to the Adruino board to determine the state of the bluetooth and trigger commands on the computer. Though not as intuitive as the software, this rendition works. Read on to see the pros and cons.
To get the full explanation, read up on it here . Or check out his project page. If you're interested in this, I highly recommend you drop by Av's website to see some other stuff he has worked on. www.avbrand.com
Designed with the supprot and feedback of our community, the fusion brain guys have done it again – At midnight EST today they released version 4 of their fusion brain control center.
Point Festival which happens to be steps from Michael Phelp’s new house.
To get the full explanation, read up on it 
