I have made an interface car's media-buttons on steering wheel - Page 4

Mad Jad · 10-06-2006, 03:59 PM

yes, there is an initial investment for tools as there is with any construction project for anything. What about the soldering iron used for the prototype? Or the computer used for programming the PIC? His R&D cost should easily be over $1000 in parts alone so $93 is a bargain!!

This sort of circuit is incredibly simple and virtually identical firmware is freely available on the internet, so all he really did was package it up for this market and inflate the price by an order of magnitude. It wouldn't cost $40 at retail prices to build the first one and then less than a dollar per unit on 1000 scale. So I figure his cost is $5 each at the end of the day for small quantities.

Take a $3 USB joypad that doesn't require drivers and you're 90% of the way there. That's what I did and it works great.

AlCapone · 10-06-2006, 04:46 PM

hehe, thank you Kalt.

no, my low volume orders of components are a real shipping-expense-generator for me.

and the biggest cost on projects like this - (assumed that the programming I did was primary for myself and that time was "free") ... is the home-made PCB's.
they take time, and expensive PCB's + chemicals. Some goes bad, and it takes a lot time to drill them, because the orders are not big enough, it is not good economy to order produced PCB's.

I do not get rich of my hobbys, and I do not really try.

I do, however, think that it's cool if somebody else can be helped by the work I alredy done, and therefore try to make it avaliable to others.

BTW: many of the open source/free projects I published, generates many unneccesary questions when people don't have enough knowledge to accomplish them, and are stuck.. and expect me to find their mistakes via email. It is simply simplier

.. to provide the complete circuit.
Regards
André

hohenyi · 12-02-2006, 09:54 AM

Worldwide shipping included????

AlCapone · 12-05-2006, 09:35 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by hohenyi

Worldwide shipping included????

that's right, norwegian mail (monopoly) is expensive, but at least they have one price to any normal destination (maybe except south pole)

strvngartst01 · 03-05-2007, 01:51 PM

So are these still available? This would be a perfect solution for my first carputer project.

durwood · 03-05-2007, 01:57 PM

www.madhacker.org

AlCapone · 03-05-2007, 03:42 PM

yes, still available, please take a look at www.madhacker.org

strvngartst01 · 03-05-2007, 08:28 PM

Payment Sent.

Micv · 08-24-2007, 04:59 AM

Hi

I have 2 wires attached to 5 buttons via a resistive network, would this thingy work if i connect 1 wire to gnd inside the steering wheel and the other goes trough the steering wheel (the clockspring) and then connect this 1 wire to the input port and add a second wire to car GND as the second input ?

Drawing:
clockspring=0
Buttons with resistive network: -------0-----------Interface
Buttons with resistive network:----GND GND-----Interface

AlCapone · 08-24-2007, 05:54 AM

yes, if I understood your description correctly , it will work.

in other words: as long any or both the analog input lines senses some resistance in respect to the circuit's ground, when buttons are pushed, it will work.

SKiTLz · 09-08-2007, 10:59 AM

I shot you an email AlCapone. But incase anyone else has the same question. Is it possible to get a PS/2 connection for those of us with hard to come by USB ports on our CarPC's.

AlCapone · 09-08-2007, 11:44 AM

PS2 keyboard uses completely different signaling than USB, so I developed Carbuttons to be a USB device and I did not make an PS2 version.

However, you can connect it to PS2 using an intelligent adapter, (that translates the USB commands to PS2 keyboard signals) - such adapters exist, but are a bit hard to find, small KVM's do the job as well.

Regards
André

sanjaym · 09-10-2007, 08:39 AM

Is this compatible with bmw e46? If so do you know if it is the ibus wire that i connect?

AlCapone · 09-10-2007, 09:54 AM

no this is not an Ibus-device, if your car uses CAN or ibus for wheel-buttons - then it won't work, however, presence of such interfaces does not eliminate the possibility of plain resistive button-interface.

sanjaym · 09-18-2007, 03:11 PM

Can this device work with voltage wires? i have a constant 12v wire which changes to a differant voltage when a button is pressed. i cannot seem to find the resistance wire on my e46!