Thread: Android Platform for the Open source on standard hardware

I came here looking for information on this very topic. So far I have selected the Pandaboard (http://www.pandaboard.org/) as my primary candidate (if I can operate it without being hooked up to a desktop, I am unsure as it is a development board). I have a black box N I will try to mount it in, and it apparently works with the Lilliput 629GL-70NP/C/T 7" VGA Touch Screen Monitor (according to a post here: http://groups.google.com/group/panda...0d7cf1b96b98e9 ). I may be able to use a camera add-in board for back up camera, or in car video calls or something. I am unsure if I wil be able to get GPS going with a sirf star but I think there is an add-on board for that too. It has Bluetooth, wireless N, dual core arm-9 1Ghz, 1GB ram, 3 USB, etc (http://www.digikey.com/us/en/ph/texa...andaboard.html).

I still need to research 5V power supplies. . . and I am sure there are other things I am leaving out.

Any comments would be appreciated.

Its also way cheaper than it would cost you to go with a standard nano-itx board.

Have you thought about using a TI OMAP 2430 platform? It seems to have a lot of what you are looking for. Dedicated camera support and dedicated 2D/3D graphics.

http://focus.ti.com/general/docs/wtb...emplateId=6123

Originally Posted by superart

Have you thought about using a TI OMAP 2430 platform? It seems to have a lot of what you are looking for. Dedicated camera support and dedicated 2D/3D graphics.

http://focus.ti.com/general/docs/wtb...emplateId=6123

I thought it looked a bit underpowered.

I prefer a pandaboard and a Lilliput 629GL I'll reportback when I have them.

Sent from my Desire HD using Tapatalk

I've ordered pandaboard and cant wait to get my hands dirty lol I'm quite impressed with meego 1.2 and will be developing further apps to suit my IVI ideas for my MG. I already have lilliput 669GL-HB with 450cd/m2 brightness, arduino controlls my heater valve and distribution lever. So it should be a nice mix of hardware.

Hi guys,

I've just posted this up at he Android forums and not had much interest yet... I suspect I might have more luck here. Let me know if I should cross-post to another forum area?

I've only just decided to register on here having poked about in a lurky way before, but it seems like the best place to get my ideas in order and look for folk who might have some ideas about a project I'm embarking on.

It's called Two Din Droid, and the aim is to create a fully viable android-based car head unit for music, media, gps, phone interaction etc. This would make use of an existing platform for running android but would include some PCBs for audio control & amplifier, power control, control interfaces etc and would try to avoid using too much 'consumer' technology (VGA interfaces for screens, USB devices etc.) in order to cut down the build cost and physical size. There will also be a need to come up with a physical chassis for mounting in, whether that's designed and made within the project or one of the commercially available 2-din chassis that take ITX etc.

It's the first thing of this scale I've tried and I'm still in the very early stages, but the more research I do the more plausible it looks.

Here's a summary of the features I'd like to see implemented:

Required features:
-Minimum android 2.3 (Maybe move to ICS when it comes)
-at least a 600mhz ARM cpu for responsiveness (currently looking at S3C6410 as most likely candidate. Beagleboard and pandaboard are better supported outside China, but less hardware-hack-oriented.)
-Built-in touch screen (at least 800x480)
-Customisable dashboard for car features, but full android functionality, nothing locked down.
-Radio - At least FM, fully controllable from an android app.
-Optical disc support (CD at least, preferably DVD - I still occasionally play CDs in my car, I'm sure other people do too.)
-Full GPS support
-At least 4-channel audio control (not necessarily 4 channels generated by Android - I'm looking a low-cost 4+1 i2c-controlled audio processor IC for front/back/left/right volume plus tone control and subwoofer output, the Princeton PT2348 - The UK distributor is sending me some samples!)
-Standard 4x50w amplification built in, plus line outs for external amps
-Interface for attaching to steering-wheel remote
-Mixer app for different audio sources
-Smart power management to minimise time between starting the engine and music playing
-USB host support


Nice to haves:
-Bluetooth slave support - for built-in hands-free / dialing etc. (this one could be difficult.)
-Video input / display (parking cameras etc)
-Interface capabilities for OBD/CAN-bus etc for display/logging/diagnosis of on board diagnostic data
-AM / DAB / HD radio support.
-Built-in GPRS/3G support
-Wi-fi hotpot
-General purpose interface for other control projects (lights, other stuff)

The idea would be to come up with a set of designs and a few implementations, with all designs publish freely for anyone to build. In the longer term there might be potential for kits etc - maybe even some of the Chinese head-unit manufacturers would pick up the design and use it instead of the god-awful Windows CE stuff that's currently out there. (I have one myself, hence the project)

My intent is to build out the hardware in a rough form (modules and breadboards etc) and get the software stack up to scratch - this will involve some kernel fiddling probably, and some android app development. It's a good 15 years since I developed anything of any merit, but i'm going to give it a shot. Learning curves are fun

As far as I can tell, no-one else has a project going like this (apart from what you guys have already mentioned!), but I might have missed something - if so please let me know and I'll go help them!

I'm curious to know what you guys think of this project, whether it's worthwhile, feasible, am I wasting my time etc. Also, if you're interested in helping...

We'll see how it goes....

-GS


EDIT: to follow up with this you can see the thread dedicated to this here: http://www.mp3car.com/general-hardwa...ml#post1455352

There is Android ported to x86. I was wondering if anyone had tried it out. I download the .iso but haven't got around to trying to install just yet.

http://www.android-x86.org/


Anyone running this?

I have my touchscreen and my pandaboard and USB GPS are in transit and should be here by monday. Not sure what else I need beyond the cables/converters and power suppply to make the hardware compatible with the vehicle. Its unclear if the pandaboard does FM, I read the chip it uses can but its not listed on the site, so I will buy a FM tuner later on if I can't figure it out. I have a powered USB hub that I can use for my external jacks so they can power the ports for use with external drives, charging phones and headset, thumbdrives and whatever else without pulling more juice through the pandaboard (this is recommended).
Other than that it already has audio in for use as an aux jack for mp3 players, bluetooth, wifi, and hdmi.
I might see if I can hook up a USB CD/dvd-rom drive and mount it where the ****ty pop-out beverage holder is in my '02 jetta.

Once the pandaboard arrives I intend to mount it in the case and then spend the next week or two (maybe longer if it doesn't go smoothly) setting up android on the panda, making sure I can get the GPS going, getting all the apps I need installed and configured, and setting up some sort of dashboard type launcher if I can't find a good one to improve use while on move. I have a 32 GB class 10 SD card that I bought for my camcorder and is impractically large, so I am re-purposing that for this use and replacing it with a smaller one.

Total Cost so far:
Pandaboard with power adapter: $226
USB GPS unit: $35
Blackbox N case: $50
Liliput 629 Touchscreen monitor: $230

Cheaper than my original design using a nano-itx VIA board, SSD, lilliput, GPS, bluetooth adapter and usb tuner.

The pandaboard arrived and boots android and sees everything(wifi,GPS,FM,Bluetooth,keyboard,mouse) but the touch screen though it does display the android UI. Pretty happy with my choice so far. Tonight I will side load apps and begin testing.

Sent from my Xoom using Tapatalk

Originally Posted by salpula

The pandaboard arrived and boots android and sees everything(wifi,GPS,FM,Bluetooth,keyboard,mouse) but the touch screen though it does display the android UI. Pretty happy with my choice so far. Tonight I will side load apps and begin testing.

Sent from my Xoom using Tapatalk

How is the project going on? We are also interested in developing that kind of hardware. If you need any help about hardware we are ready to help.
We have an idea to make hardware around FriendlyArm, since we have a lot of experiences with it, but pandaboard is also great!
http://sourceforge.net/p/ddmc/discus...read/fa403455/

We are ready to make a test PCB board if anione is willing to contribute to software.

Simon