dprothero

I'm planning on doing a dual zone setup for my Odyssey minivan. Normally, kids in back want to watch videos while adults up front want to listen to radio, GPS commands, MP3's, etc.

So, I'm sketching out how I think this would work (without a head unit). Here's what I've come up with:



So basically, you can switch the front speakers between soundcard 1 and soundcard 2, and separately switch the rear speakers between soundcard 1 and soundcard 2. So all the various permutations would be:

1. Radio/GPS/Music up front, Video in back
2. Radio/GPS/Music both front and back
3. Video both front and back
4. Video up front, Radio/GPS/Music up front (no use for this one for me)

Since the A/B switches are IR controlled, I can get an IR transmitter for my PC like this one and then figure out how to program a RR skin to allow switching the inputs using the touch screen interface!

Am I completely mad, or does it look like this would work?

Thanks.

David

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2000 Honda Civic Sedan
2004 Honda Odyssey: worklog

dprothero

Follow-up... here are some of the potential issues I see:

1. RoadRunner might get in the way. I know I can default mplayerc (the video player for RR) to output to a specific sound card. However, I'm worried RR won't allow playing MP3's and videos at the same time. I've got dualmon option turned on for dual monitor support, and it continues to play videos when I exit the video player to use other functions, but as soon as I go into another "media related" function (FM tuner, MP3 player), it stops the video. Maybe when I get a second sound card, this will go away. Otherwise, I'll have to figure out how to tweak RR to work around this issue.

2. A/B switchboxes may get confused when sending them IR signals (i.e. it will switch both switchboxes because they use the same IR signal)... I will have to either a) find switchboxes that have different "channel" settings for the IR commands, b) use different brand switchboxes (which presumably would use different IR codes), or c) use two IR transmitters positioned next to each switch box, but without the possibility of one bleeding over to the other. Option a is preferred... I'll need to make a shopping trip to Best Buy and/or Radio Shack to see what's available.

__________________
2000 Honda Civic Sedan
2004 Honda Odyssey: worklog

MatrixPC

Try to run 2 instance of RR. There is an option for it.

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2004 Matrix XR A7N8X-VM/400 AMD XP-M 2500+, DS-ATX
89 Supra Turbo P3 600E@750/Abit BE6 II, Alpine M-BUS Car2PC.
Y2K Accord Dell GX150
RoadRunner is the best FE PERIOD
EmoRebellion is a SCAMMER

dprothero

Struck out at both Best Buy and Radio Shack. Found this one online:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817707108

It takes 9V (100ma) for power. Guess I'll have to figure out how to supply that from my Opus.

__________________
2000 Honda Civic Sedan
2004 Honda Odyssey: worklog