OziExplorer - Page 2

rodweb · 07-22-2008, 06:44 AM

Justin,
Thanks for the feedback. I'll have a look at the download. I've had Ozie for a while but hardly used it in the car. I know what you mean about sinking cash into fourbys

The Car PC is quite an expensive project in its own right. Still working out how to tackle this Ozi thing. I have toyed with building an interface DLL or EXE file that links to the Ozie Explorer DLL. Not sure if that would give all of the features we need. Should not be too hard to do. If you have any thoughts on this or if you think it would add value, let me know.

I have got most of the software sorted and was planning on running Turn by Turn using Odyssey from here (it says it will embed with RR):
http://www.twig.com.au/store/odyssey...a712d396450703

I was also looking at the USB FM radio as the Instant FM USB stick is available here:
http://www.dvdirect.com.au/shop/prod...nstant-FM.html

Still not sure how much time to invest in getting Ozie going...

rodweb · 07-22-2008, 08:39 PM

Justin,

Thanks for the comments. I have got your skin up and running see below

I had to increase the timeout becasue embedding was intermittent. However, I can't switch back and forth betwen Ozie and RR. I can switch back to RR Ok, but when I click on the Ozie button again, it loads a new instance. Is there any thoughts on this?

Rod

happpyg · 07-23-2008, 06:44 AM

I ended up embedding mine with skinbedder a long time ago.

I found that Ozi doesn't really like being embedded natively, others may have better results. The extra dialog windows that ozi opens tended to disappear underneath everything. The way I have it now it embeds with skinbedder and as long as I don't leave any dialog boxes open, ie file-open etc I can swap between Ozi and RR, back to videos, music etc and then back to Ozi with no problems. I have just mapped a couple of skin buttons to the zoom functions and left it at that, Ozi starts in moving map mode when loaded so don't really have to change anything else.

Hope you have some luck!
Aaron

rodweb · 07-23-2008, 06:59 AM

Aaron

Thanks for that. I found out about the windows dissappearing too. The screen dump above is using Bugger's skinbedder skin. However, it won't let me swap between Ozie and RR which should happen if you click the top right button which I borrowed from the default Launch.skin.

I found some of your posts on the GPS Australia forum and visited your web site which I found very interesting. Is there any chance you could share your Skinbedder skin?

I am wondering if it is worth coding an interface between Ozie and RR so RR can send messages to Ozie. Zoom is not supported but saving and opening tracks is. Perhaps you could open a file list in RR and select a file. I think OZi should repsond to these commands if it is embedded with skinbedder to give the zoom support. Still a bit new to all this.

Cheers

PS Ordered my Silab radio today! You have sold me on the XenArc screens!

Rod

happpyg · 07-23-2008, 07:27 AM

Yeah, i've played with buggers too, he went further than I did and got some great results.

Here is the link to my ozi setup, it is using the old brushed metal skin that I don't use any more but everything is there to get you started I think, let me know if not
http://www.aznbec.com/carpc/ozistuff.rar

I got around the zoom problem by sending keystrokes to ozi, you'll see them in the ozi.skin file, that works great for me, just make sure that when Ozi is embedded it has focus (menu item text is black - not greyed out) when you use the keys.

I am looking into improving my radio setup but use it so rarely it is on the back burner at the moment.

Really happy with the Xenarc screen though!

Cheers
Aaron

rodweb · 07-23-2008, 07:43 AM

Aaron,

Thanks for that, I'll have a play over the next few days.

The Silab is coming from Farnells AUD $70.40 delivered in 7-10 days. There was an updated DLL posted for it earlier this month.... Have been deciding how to get sound out. Replace the factory headunit with one with a rear input at the rear, or bite the bullet, do what you did to the dash and slip an amp behind the back seat of my 4 door 2007 Hilux.. Blaupunkt have an interesting one with AUX inputs for the PC...

Cheers Rod

happpyg · 07-23-2008, 07:45 AM

No probs, i'll check out the radio, cheers!

I am happy having removed my head unit and never looked back, others may disagree, all personal preference I guess.

Bugger · 07-24-2008, 07:52 PM

HI Happy
I haven't yet taken the plunge of removing the head unit although I'm still looking at that... I guess i'm still not convinced that anything running Micor$oft is good long term

Rodweb
I can't say i've had the problem you're talking about... I have lost my ability to run RR at the moment but will dig out the config I was using and see if what the go is... I vaguely remember that button to be different to the normal one from the apps load area.

As for the missing windows, I though I had that one fixed a long time ago... can you tell me which ones exactly dissappear?

CHeers, Justin.

Bugger · 07-27-2008, 04:55 AM

Here's the button code I'm using for starting Ozi at the main menu page:
B05,011,300,369,116,"LOAD;OZI.SKIN;OZI EXPLORER;C:\SkinbedderV3P2\SKINbedder.exe;OziEmbed ded",

Here's the close button code (cross button):
B02,656,000,046,053,"ACTIVATE;OziEmbedded||CLOSE", "Close"

Here's the return/exit button code (return arrow):
B04,754,000,046,053,"EXIT","Exit"

Those buttons work fine in my installation... are they the same as what you have?

rodweb · 07-27-2008, 05:09 AM

Bugger,

When I was talking about the windows dissappearing, that was with the standard Roadrunner embedding (They are raised behind the app).

The problem I have with Skinbedder is that I made my Ozie skin that road runner uses based on the Launch skin. When you try to return to the Main RR menu with the button (the ENTER button symbol that looks something like <_|) Ozie stays running, Skinbedder closes but when you click on the main menu button again a new instance of Ozie is opened. Can this be fixed?

I have a copy of Photoshop here and I have been playing with redoing your original graphics (I happen to quite like the original brushed metal skin!) and have come up with these buttons so far but have not built the matching skin files:

Geez this is tedious work! and to think I used to employ a graphic artist to do this stuff! Wish I still did!

I have tried to make the buttons mirror the Ozie ones, and will probably change the GPS one (second last) to be the same as Ozie as I have just pasted in an icon I found ATM. I moved the exit button to the top and wanted to have a down button (last one) to take you to the second menu (which will have a previous menu button at the top and a next menu button at the bottom). The third last one (Map here) may not be intuitive, but if you look at the toolbar, there is an icon that has four arrows for (map north, map east etc) with a dot in the middle for "Map Here"!

I noticed the the "Map Here" button did not appear to have any active code. Did you get this going? (There is no short cut key in Ozie.) I know the Windows messaging API can send a message to another window to activate the window if it is closed, can this be done with Skinbedder? Or do you need to use AutoIT?

Let me know what you think of the buttons, happy to share these when I get them sorted. Not too sure if I want to redo your keyboard screens though!

Cheers Rod

rodweb · 07-27-2008, 05:11 AM

Bugger, we posted together, I will review the code you posted. Happy to work together with this stuff!

Rod

Bugger · 07-27-2008, 05:53 AM

Hi Rod

I love the look of the buttons... I too like the brushed metal skin look and would like to go that way. I have no idea how to drive photoshop, but if you're willing to do the graphics, I'll soon put them in the skin... I'm happy to work that way if you are

Cheers, Justin.

Bugger · 07-27-2008, 06:04 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by rodweb

When I was talking about the windows dissappearing, that was with the standard Roadrunner embedding (They are raised behind the app).

The problem I have with Skinbedder is that I made my Ozie skin that road runner uses based on the Launch skin. When you try to return to the Main RR menu with the button (the ENTER button symbol that looks something like <_|) Ozie stays running, Skinbedder closes but when you click on the main menu button again a new instance of Ozie is opened. Can this be fixed?

I remember coming across both of these problems... The first problem is to do with the way that RR embeds programs; hence I went on with skinbedder.

The second problem is quite simple actually. The return button should not close normally, that's what the X is for. In any case, it's due to skinbedder being closed as this is the program that is acually embedded by RR. In the skinbedder config you need to set up a script to force close Ozi when skinbedder is closed. Check out Ozi.ini in the skinbedder directory.

Bugger · 07-27-2008, 06:07 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by rodweb

Geez this is tedious work! and to think I used to employ a graphic artist to do this stuff! Wish I still did!

As I said... I have no idea how to drive photoshop...

Actually, in my current version, the "Map Here" button on the first menu has been removed and the "Exit" button is now a "Hide Menu" button.

rodweb · 07-27-2008, 06:37 AM

Bugger,

It might take some time, but I'll perservere with Pshop and make buttons for the other two menus and share them. Then if you wrap a skin around them, I can modify the icons to suit the functions.

When I downloaded the Photoshop .PSD files for the brushed skin, I found they had different effects for the three different graphics required in different layers. Once I got my head round them, it was a matter of turning off different layers to create the three different graphics from the one file using save as.

So if the Map Here button now hides the menu, how do you get it back again? Do we need to do that if I make the buttons transparent? Have not tried to do that yet.

Rod

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