DeadHorse

I'm wondering if anyone knows of a small wireless input button that I could attach to my steering wheel, since I don't have any factory wheel buttons? I plan to use this with voice recognition, so I would press the button to speak commands into the mic attached to a car PC. A search on google pulled up nothing.

As reference, here is a wireless controller for the Harmon/Kardon drive + play:

http://www.harmankardon.com/drive-2/..._overview.aspx

Something similar would be great, possibly bluetooth?

MP3Car.com

 

epod86

I'm currently thinking along the same lines and here is what I've come up with.

take one of these wireless remotes (or something similar):
http://www.amazon.com/Portable-26-bu...498622&sr=8-16

and hack into the buttons, rerouting them into some external push buttons that can be mounted to the steering wheel. I'm thinking of placing them on some sort of flexible backing, like a sheet of plastic, and then velcro taping them to the wheel. The remote itself would also be attached to the wheel.

let me know what you think.

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Planning: 90%
Parts: 90%
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OS: 60%
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DeadHorse

I'm amazed at how difficult it is to find a small bluetooth remote that does not require a dongle. Do you mean you plan on having the remote attached to the back of the wheel, with the buttons rerouted to other buttons, attached to the front of the wheel?

dyne

I bought a steering wheel for my car that had those buttons that tell your car when to shift, with the intention of using the buttons to control my car computer.

What I did was take the remote from one of those tiny, cheap remote control cars (like this one) and wire it up to the steering wheel buttons. For power, I hooked it up to the 12V line for the horn and stuck the PCB behind the airbag. I wired the receiver portion to a usb game controller.

It works pretty well, but I don't know if it could be used in your situation.

2k1Toaster

I bought that remote and it sucks. The buttons are so shallow it is horrible to press. I would try to find some with some umph.

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Kimota

I know this isn't what your looking for but here's my solution provided you have space for a touchpad. With the touch pad you will be able to control the PC without having to touch your screen. Secondly with the touch pad the upper right had corner (the light grey triangle) acts as a right click.

You can use a free utility autohotkeys to bind right click to emulate any key on the keyboard (i.e what ever key your front end uses to envoke voice command) then simply tap the upper right hand corner of your touchpad to evoke voice commands.

Works great for me

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epod86

Well, I plan to use the remote mostly just as a relay for the commands, I will wire in my own buttons to the buttons on the remotes keypad. I'll probably use a couple of pcb through-hole switches glued to soft plastic, and the plastic velcroed to the wheel.

__________________
Car PC Progress:

Planning: 90%
Parts: 90%
Fabrication: 10%
Installation: 0%
OS: 60%
Software: 20%

amiranda

here is what you need, i saw along time ago a thread that did exactly wht u want it to, so SEARCH

http://www.crutchfield.com/App/Produ...s&i=130CDSR100
http://www.buy.com/retail/product.as...385387&loc=111
http://www.buy.com/prod/designed-wit...203324728.html
http://www.crutchfield.com/App/Produ...8RMX4S&tp=2833
http://www.crutchfield.com/App/Produ...0CDVC1&tp=2833

hope this helps, last one include mic!

Edit:
Found the old thread
http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/inpu...-controls.html

stroths

I had that Pioneer one on a previous stereo. The range wasn't all that good. However, it did work with a MCE receiver (http://www.govistashop.com/catalog/p...oducts_id=1298) and Girder.

Any of the remotes above should work as long as you have some sort of IR receiver you can control with software like Girder or HIP.

EQNish

Wow, I just started working on this exact same idea, of those controls, how do I know if the reciever is compatiple with somehting like grinder, and how would one contect it to a PC?

I was thinking the PCB route might be better, using the one of those KeyWiz Contolers, with a series of momentary buttons would also work nice, But getting the buttons layed out in a decent way, adn looking as OEM as possible would be the tough part! I wonder how they would work with grinder.

I do some minor Resin casting, might try andcome up wuth some thing...


Also one could buy a newer Steering Wheel with one of those controlers on it, and then possible connect the wires to the KeyWiz to make it all work... I might hit the junk yards and see what I can find (assuming the newer Steering wheel, will work on my car)!!!

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SkaLou

This might be a dumb question, but why not a wireless remote like the ones used to control powerpoint, etc? I was thinking about down the road installing some buttons on my steering wheel as well, and that's what I planned on using. I guess not good for you because you're looking for BT and most of those use a proprietary USB dongle?

dyne

That's essentially what I did. The problem you'll run into is that your car likely does not have the connector needed to connect the steering wheel buttons to your car.

I hacked up a little remote control car and used the remote to send the input from the steering wheel buttons via RF to the receiver, which connects to the keywiz

MP3Car.com