Thread: OziExplorer

Would you need regulated power when running off a dual battery? (I like cold beer too so I have one as well!) I would have thought the isolator would have kept all of the spikes etc at bay and a power brick would then provide sufficient regulation.

I run mine of a 12 volt brick power supply and have built a yet to be tested startup/shut down controller with a couple of relays. I was going to use Aux battery to power the Laptop but wire the relays to the igniton for startup/shutdown. I hacked the power switch and wired it to the modem port. The relays pulse when power is turned on and off and this closes the contacts on the laptop power switch to force a startup and shut down. The shut down is not really important as I can control that using power settings anyway. I will include an override switch to prevent shut down when the ignition is turned off.

I had not thought about regulated power for the screen either. Maybe I should!

Rod

One of the supplies on the way is a DC-DC power brick to run the laptop...

The second supply is for the LCD. I've heard lots of people loosing their screens due to bad power. In testing, I've found mine is a bit sensitive to it as well.

The dual battery setup in the 4by is just like any other charging circuit... They all have spikes of some sort, and the voltage has to be maintained higher to make the battery charge.

Hi Guys,

Just a quick note to let you know that Bugger and I have made some really good progress with these menus and it is looking awesome! He's been adding the Skinbedder skins as fast as i can make the graphics, well faster most of the time, 'cos this is hard work for somebody that nows nothing about Photoshop....

Too late now to show off, but will try and post some examples tomorrow, so you can see what the latest is.

Cheers

Rod

Well here is the first menu which is all pretty well final. Bit of a mock up as this screen has two submenus showing which does not happen when actually running.

Bugger is keping me busy, but he is getting all the menu files done as fast as I pump out the graphics and it is all coming together really well as a team effort!

Bugger's menus are working really well, everything is opening and closing nicely so the screen is uncluttered all of the time.

I have had some problems getting SB to emebed in RR, but I got that sorted now, and it is all working now.



Features on Left Menu:
1. Zoom in
2. Zoom Out
3. Show GPS Fix
4. Moving Map control
5. Add Marker (Waypoint) at position
6. Map here Menu (shown opened)
7. Track Menu (shown opened)
8. Next Menu

Map Here Menu
1. Map West
2. Map North
3. Map Here (at Position)
4. Map South
5. Map East

Track Menu
1. Show Track Control
2. Save track
3. Load Track
4. Show Tracks
5. Track 1 Quick Clear

The second menu is still a work in progress, but it will have options for Waypoints similar to the Track control and a heap of other stuff, including access to 5 function keys that you will be able to assign to your own favourite functions in Ozie.

Still a bit early to release this, but I think Bugger is keen to get an updated version out there as soon as he can.

Cheers

Rod

Thanks for posting Rod...


Can people put down their preference for the menu and Ozi positioning...
Options:
1 - Like Rod's. The top status/map bar showing from OziExplorer
2 - Like Bugger's. The top status/map bar does not exist and menu starts close to RR skin.

Please record your preferences in this thread

I would prefer without, again great wotk all

Bugger,

I vote for yours, go without the top line just like your current version. I only had the screen like that because that was how the earlier skin was I downloaded in the first place.

Been looking at the RR source and wondering how hard it would be to write an extension that allowed RR to acccess the Ozi API. Got to get this SB version sorted before that project.

Bugger, I noticed the Ozie API has a function that turns off the Save Waypoint flag so that Ozi does not prompt for Waypoint saving on program exit which could be handy...

Rod

Guys, check out the new thread I raised and introduce yourself "Aussie Offroad Carputers"
Aussie Offroad Carputers

I did this so hopefully Bugger and I and others won't get distracted on off topics on this thread again. We will try and stick to the SB stuff only here!

It would be helpful to introduce yourself on the new thread to kick start it!

Rod

Well if you have been followng this thread, you will have seen some earlier references to problems accessing OziExplorer via the DLL interface while the application is embedded in Skinbedder. I did some testing to confirm this was a problem. The reason for this is that SB hides the Ozie Window and the DLL can't find it

The good news is that I have developed some code that solves this problem using black magic! By opening a window that has the same class and title as OziExplorer, the DLL is happy to send data to Ozie again and the black magic window simply relays the messages to and from the Ozi DLL and OzieExplorer.

So if this technique is incorporatd into a DLL plugin extension to Roadrunner, all of the features and data feeds supported by the OziExplorer API will be available from RR. I will probably build this DLL, but not sure if I want to build the skin...

However, even a few features made available this way will solve some issues Bugger is having closing Ozie cleanly.

For those with a technical bent, more info posted here:
http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/rr-p...-new-post.html

Rod