PocketPC FrontEnd in the making!

mrobert · 02-18-2006, 01:21 PM

Hello everybody,

I am new to this site, but not new to car stuff and programming.
Since I love to customize my car, and make software in general, I decided to make a custom Front End for my PocketPC which I will mount in my car.

Why do I post this here?
Because I am looking for suggestions and ideeas of what else to add to this software.

Basicly, what I have is :
HP Ipaq h6430 (PocketPC with Bluetooth, WiFi, IrDa and built-in mobile phone).
Bluetooth GPS receiver.

These are the features I consider adding :
- Trip computer (current speed and related stats, distance traveled, etc)
- Media playback (video, audio, etc)
- Live weather forecasts and conditions over internet download. This will be coupled with the trip computer to give out warning if the weather is bad or about to go bad.
- GPS navigation

Any thoughts, wishes and ideeas are very welcomed.

ccsnet · 02-18-2006, 01:30 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by mrobert

Hello everybody,

I am new to this site, but not new to car stuff and programming.
Since I love to customize my car, and make software in general, I decided to make a custom Front End for my PocketPC which I will mount in my car.

Why do I post this here?
Because I am looking for suggestions and ideeas of what else to add to this software.

Basicly, what I have is :
HP Ipaq h6430 (PocketPC with Bluetooth, WiFi, IrDa and built-in mobile phone).
Bluetooth GPS receiver.

These are the features I consider adding :
- Trip computer (current speed and related stats, distance traveled, etc)
- Media playback (video, audio, etc)
- Live weather forecasts and conditions over internet download. This will be coupled with the trip computer to give out warning if the weather is bad or about to go bad.
- GPS navigation

Any thoughts, wishes and ideeas are very welcomed.

Just subscibing - very intrested in the concept...

Terran

mrobert · 02-18-2006, 01:32 PM

I will be rolling out an interface design shortly to get a "view" of the whole thing.

It's not my purpose, but the last game I wrote for a PPC, only needed a few minor changes work on a PC, so this should work on a PC aswell.

2Fast · 02-18-2006, 01:40 PM

I would love a PocketPC front end for my motorbike but i haven't the programming skills (+ i'm too lazy to learn em

)

I think the idea would be popular, especially for people that want to remove it for security and/or don't want to cut up thier car.

GPS and Music is a must (obviously)
Phone control would be nice
Weather would be a bonus
It would be great if it was skinable (i'd need big buttons for use with gloves)

Andy

ccsnet · 02-18-2006, 03:21 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by 2FastMR2

I would love a PocketPC front end for my motorbike but i haven't the programming skills (+ i'm too lazy to learn em

)

I think the idea would be popular, especially for people that want to remove it for security and/or don't want to cut up thier car.

GPS and Music is a must (obviously)
Phone control would be nice
Weather would be a bonus
It would be great if it was skinable (i'd need big buttons for use with gloves)

Andy

Voice control I think is a must....

Terran

Anakin78 · 02-18-2006, 05:34 PM

JuJuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!!!!!!!!!!

I'm very interested in this proyect!

In my opinion it could be:

- Scaning wifis in order to import how PDI to TOMTOM.
- Integration of TOMTOM

Come on you can!!!!

ccsnet · 02-19-2006, 06:30 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by Anakin78

JuJuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!!!!!!!!!!

I'm very interested in this proyect!

In my opinion it could be:

- Scaning wifis in order to import how PDI to TOMTOM.
- Integration of TOMTOM

Come on you can!!!!

Wififofum....

Terran

Anakin78 · 02-21-2006, 02:20 PM

what about this??

mrobert · 02-21-2006, 02:28 PM

Anakin78 : What, about "what"? ... your question is a bit confusing.

devious · 02-22-2006, 10:43 PM

mrobert - great idea, think you're onto something

I have ipaq 3715 (i think that's the model - hard to tell...) - 802.11b, BT, IR - I velcro to my dash in landscape mode with audio out interface to alpine hu aux in. interfaced to etrex gps via ups & power cord, running mapopolis, that worked good (til dog stepped on power adapter and broke it). I run Conduits' Pocket Player 2, which is skinnable, great UI, includes equalizer, overall very good player imho, will pay for this one when free period expires. I take ipaq out of car at night, just to play with in house, including synching up any rips or updates from base system in house. It goes back into car in about 2 seconds. It's always on in the car, even if car is off. I don't have to worry about power surges and gently powering down after car is powered off. I don't have to worry about setting up touchscreen to work - all this stuff just works.

In my prior car setup, I had epia-in-the-glove-box mobo, lilliput touchscreen velcroed to dash, powered by opus 90w smart psu (which they now tell me is obsolete after what, 6 months!?), and plain ol' harddrive hanging out in glove box near mobo. wifi in pci slot, antenna with magnetic base, whoever was riding shotgun had to stick out the window (this was during warmer months last spring) - was advised not to drive by airports with this setup

- it was fun, til I shorted out the hu one day, but it was always a lot of work ...

But now that I've had some experience with PPC, I'm hooked. I mean think about it - under $300 and you get a complete, functional, turnkey system, with integrated touchscreen, wifi, bt, good set of windows apps, battery power, and decent extendability. You can do GPS, Audio, Internet, Video, Wardriving (WiFiFoFum is a neat little tool). And I don't spend any time fussing around with it - it just works. I'm now focused much more on audio quality, better amps & speakers, etc - instead of tweaking XP and installing drivers etc. Seems like a better place.

So what would make it better?

1st, a clean interface ala roadrunner or any of the others. big buttons, prob no more than 6 or 8 per screen. Easy navigation screen to screen. etc. Ability to add user apps. Prob need both landscape and portrait modes - I prefer landscape in the car.

Second, some way to more easily and reliably connect to outside world. wifi on this thing seems weak - not sure if it's the 802.11b, or the hardware in device, or the absence of antenna, or the software, or all of above - but it's definitely worse at snagging and keeping signals.

Third, interface to bigger device - use PPC as front-end to Windows based device that's tucked away somwhere. Things I've tried so far in this vein include MSTSC (sucks), VPN (good for file access only), UPnP style media interface (works pretty reliably, but the user interface is clunky at best). There's prob a bunch of ways - I know Winamp has a Web plugin, so you could control via browser. You could run winamp on "server", then control from IE on PPC. Again, might be clunky.

4th, bigger screen. Understood not your problem. But a bigger footprint would be awe-some. Like even 25% larger. Have looked into tablets - not the same.

Well, I guess you have at least one fan here - let me know if you need anything tested, happy to try any software.

mrobert · 02-24-2006, 06:55 AM

Hey Devious,

You sound pretty much like me.
I also don't feel like stuffing a ton of cable and hardware in my car when I can get EVERYTHING on the PocketPC.

I just received my Bluetooth GPS receiver so I am all set to start development on this.

As I said, my setup has EVERYTHING.
- Built in GSM phone (and GPRS internet connection anywhere)
- Wifi (with a nice antena and strong signal)
- Bluetooth, IrDa, memory card
- I also got a cable and nicely hooked it up to my Pioneer head-unit.

The first step I will make this weekend, is to design a nice user-interface so we have the feeling of howit will look.
The first functional part will be a trip-computer based on the GPS (speed, distance, and other stats).

Some questions/issue I have, and I will post them below.
If anyone has answers, it is highly appreciated.

- Could you suggest some "plastic material" which can be cut? Basicly, I don't want to use a cheap plastic holder, but I want to build a nice place for it in my dash. Basicly, I want to build my own dashboard kit.

- Anyone know some free maps that are suitable to be used for navigation/GPS?

That's it for the moment, and I will try to come back as soon as possible with something to show off

devious · 02-24-2006, 07:45 AM

mrobert -

See fabrication section for all tips on plastic / dash issues. You'll find lots of experience there.

GPS / maps - Mapopolis gives you free software, and temporary free maps. You can try any map for a week or so, maybe 10 days. Software loads up clean. Go here: http://www.mapopolis.com/getmaps.jsp...3841312&p=&q=5

They had voice directions which were ok. It'd give you like 3 warnings for an upcoming turn. On screen directions are usable while driving. Menus / interface not well suited for car. Recovery from "wrong" turns - which I kept doing just to see how it handled - seemed pretty good. They'd give a little sad tone, and then in a few seconds give you fresh directions. Once in a while it'd be "turn around", but usually it was better than that.

I'm very interested in your experience with GPRS and internet everywhere. Who's the service provider for that? What's the plan & are you happy with it? etc Any suggestions here very much appreciated.

Also, what BT gps device did you get?

Finally, what programming tool(s) are you using for ppc?

OK - off to day job ...

D

mrobert · 02-25-2006, 04:30 AM

Hi,

Thanks for the suggestions.
I got a no-name GPS, but it cold boots in less then 1 minute from my office window and works very great.

Here is a preview of the front-end.
I did some basic work.