xGumbyx

intuituinsys, do you have any screenshots of your frontend? I am definately not a coder, but I might be able to stumble my way around things. I'm curious as to what yours looks like though so I can maybe get some ideas in my head.

MP3Car.com

 

intuitionsys

The site needs updating as I've added some rudimentary skinning, voice response, weather updates, and have a custom-built controller in the works (it uses a Lola X10 remote right now), since the last time I updated it, but the basics are there:

Silverwolf

If you have any suggestions, let me know!

By the way the "frontend" is a bit more than just that since alot of stuff is embedded and it's tied to some custom hardware (depending on what you want it to do of course). If you want I can outline some of the technical details...

The custom hardware is mainly related to integration with a car's existing audio/video systems which becomes unecessary (and cheaper ) with a custom system starting from scratch.

intuitionsys

I finally updated the snapshots (at least alot of them) on my site. They are here:

Silverwolf

Just ignore the sales stuff. Once it's open sourced, it will get it's own area without the pitch

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reece146

Is this the show and tell thread?

This is the general direction my "front end" is going. I'm a couple evenings away from doing the install once I finalize my hardware (read that LCD and power regulation) selection. There's some obvious graphics issues in terms of refinement but nothing major. The proof of concept works acceptably enough to install in a vehicle.

In-Vehicle Navigation and Entertainment Computer Project @ http://moose.ca

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intuitionsys

Took a look. Great job! Since you're still deciding on your power regulation, although the M1-ATX I have now works fine, I can't say I'd recommed them. I had a flakey one that killed a motherboard and (possibly) a hard drive. I haven't used the Opus PS(es) but that's probably what I'll use in my next project.

Are you using anything to play movies or are you mainly interested in the MP3 player, radio, etc.?

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pkg

About the M1-ATX. My only complaints are that the shutdown timer has odd settings, and that a "Suspend" instead of "Power Off" isnt an option. Other then those I have been happy with the M1-ATX.

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Check out my tC: http://publicjestering.com/tc
Check out my site: http://publicjestering.com

reece146

Thanks.

Also, thank you for the datapoint. What put you off the M1-ATX in particular - just the mobo killing or were there functional issues?

I wasn't sure about the Opus gear. Was also browsing the CarPC stuff. Haven't researched it thoroughly enough to start leaning in any particular direction yet.


I don't have any movie playing configuration desires at this point although it would be easy enough to plug in given my architecture.

My take on movies in car is that it is potentially too distracting for a cockpit console. The case/mobo combination I am using does not allow a separate secondary display card and monitor set to be routed to the back. As you know the EPIA has composite out. I may stick a display in the ceiling for the kids to watch the moving map setup. The kids can use the Powerbook for movies if they so desire.

Also, our road trips may have us travelling jurisdictions that have banned movie playing in vehicles. The last thing I need is to get pulled over and then detained by an unsympathetic police officer.

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intuitionsys

Well I can't complain about the one I've been using other than what pkg mentioned about odd timing options but I'm still PO'd about it frying a motherboard


One thing I can say in favour of the M1-ATX is that at least with my particular setup in a C137 case it fits like a glove (with some creative engineering )


I know Ontario only allows viewing movies on the dash (or anywhere visible by the driver) only when the vehicle is stationary. A few years ago I had a Pioneer system with a fold out monitor. I had a DVD going and got stopped but luckily I quickly switched it back to the Nav display before he got to my car so he let me off. He probably knew I was B.S.ing him about it just being a navigation system but he was mainly looking for speeders and at the time it was a very rare occurance anyway. From that point on I decided it was better to watch them stationary anyway - at least at night

My car already has a DVD system and overhead monitor for the rear but doesn't allow playing anything on the front screen. I got around that by tapping the composite signal from the harness under the console and feeding that to a Hauppage PVR card. I just pipe the MPEG2 stream to Xine and bingo, movies in the front. I usually play movies straight from the HD anyway (when stopped of course - really ) but it's nice to have the option.

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Silverwolf 3...?

MP3Car.com

 

TheLlama

intuit:

I like the appearance of your frontend. What toolkit are you using for your gui? Is it homebrew?

I'm just wondering because I had to develop a gui toolkit from scratch for mine (nothing else suited my purposes). After writing over 8K lines of code for the gui I'm finally ready to start working on the mp3 player :-/ Not something I would recommend doing unless you had to...

TheLlama

pkg: Hypnotoad rules.

reece146

I've never been able to discern what is the compelling reason to have DVD output in the front in a vehicle. I can't see why people would want to watch a movie while parked or otherwise.

Is there something useful other than "bling"? Maybe I'm just getting too old?

EDIT: Ugh, just re-read that. Don't mean to come off cranky, probably need another coffee.

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intuitionsys

Unless that's a reference to Futurama that went over my head...

I always need coffee But yeah there is the bling factor I admit but it is very handy when you have to wait for someone like your wife in the fabric store.


I'm using Qt but several things are subclassed and overridden, like the QListViewItem instances are subclassed with an overridden paintEvent() so I can draw them with fancier graphics.

Oh man you wrote your own GUI toolkit? Cudos to you my friend

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Silverwolf 3...?

phunkdup

All glory to the hypnotoad

intuitionsys

I guess I should have noticed the avatar. All hail the hypnotoad.

Beeyoreeroyeer...

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TheLlama

mmm... coffee. Coffee and beer control my sleep cycle.

About video in the car:
I suppose it all depends on what you build your carpc for. It's not a one size fits all sort of thing.


Yeah, I sort of wish I used Qt, but it is a little too bulky for what I'm doing. I would of had to do some strange stuff to get it to display on my vfd screen. Now, with version 4.0 it wouldn't be as hard. The toolkit is pretty full featured, but still beta. Once all the classes' interfaces are steady I will release a beta. The design hasn't changed much in the last month, but I am implementing it in an iterative fashion. It would be impossible to foresee every single design detail.

Anyways, it will all be released open source with a less restrictive license then GPL even. I want people to be able to tear it apart and use it for whatever purpose they need. It is designed to run on X11, Windows, Framebuffer, VFDs/LCDs, and SDL. Only X, FB, and VFD is implemented right now. It's worth it though, I got a grant for parts from my school to write the gui. I should have a project page up in just a couple of days since I got my webserver back up.

uuuughh, I'm tired.

MP3Car.com