My Custom Frontend

MOnline · 05-18-2007, 06:20 PM

UPDATE: CHECK 3rd page for new version information

So I was inspired by the Infill Station frontend and I wanted to have it too. But because i am not using infill stuff i will not get it do I

. So why not create my own. Inspired by infill I tried to recreate the frontend. Because all the lighting in my car is green I made it green

. So what do you guys think is it a good start. Do you like it ?

with kind regards,

FG van Zeelst

we87 · 05-19-2007, 01:21 AM

Looks awesome to me

A little constructive criticism, the font seems a little hard to read, but looks cool. And it has no clock, which to me is bad. Other than that, looks great.

2k1Toaster · 05-19-2007, 01:29 AM

Is this a frontend, or just a skin?

MOnline · 05-19-2007, 05:08 AM

It is going to be a complete frontend. Still busy programming it. Having a little problem getting destinator to work properly. It is not closing right and gives me a bunch of error because it locks my ini file and can not save it's ini data. But other then that its working nicely.

As for the clock it is going to be in there. I need it myself two. Still not sure if i am going to create an option to switch between a large clock and the speed thingy or just add the clock to the bottom of the screen any advice.

As for the font I guess the font for the buttons is going to change still not sure what font to use.

with kind regards,

FG van Zeelst

Borte · 05-19-2007, 01:24 PM

I think the destinator problem has something to do with destinator itself. I wrote a frontend in vb and it behaves like that the second time I try to run it in vb. If i close vb and reopen it it works fine again.

MOnline · 05-19-2007, 09:01 PM

Hi thanks for your reply I am indeed reopening it every time but still it sucks. It seems that closing visual basic is the only way to unlock the destinator.ini file. But still its getting developed. Only problem now is to find out how to substract the streetnumbers from destinator and speed ill do a forum search

.

Borte · 05-20-2007, 05:16 AM

As far as I know there is no way to get the housenumbers from Destinator (I guess you want to present it in a list or something), what I did was to search for the housenumbers. To do this search I started at the lowest housenumber and then keept looping up until the gps coordinated stopped changing (meaning this was not a valid housenumber).

I hope you understand any of this, if not I could probably give you an example.

As for the speed I don't quite remember but I think i used the gps data directly but I'll verify it and post it back here.

CdRsKuLL · 05-20-2007, 05:39 AM

The only way to get the speed etc is to control the gps data yourself.. goto www.freedrive.co.uk and download the source from the ftp.. in there you will find how I did it using the drumbuffer or whatever its called.. also be aware of it not routing to the street you input .. this is why I changed it back to using the address dialog input screen again

cdr

MOnline · 05-20-2007, 06:05 AM

Thanks for helping me out

,

I would definitly would like an example of that borte it would help me alot. Thanks in advance.

As for using the drumbuffer I will look in to that. Haven't used it yet because it wasn't really clear what it did. What did you mean by it not routing to the street you input CdRsKuLL?.

With kind regards,

FG van Zeelst

nikoo · 05-20-2007, 08:40 AM

Wow dude ... that was awesome configuration ..... and looks cool ... you man are really cool.....

MOnline · 05-20-2007, 04:23 PM

Thanks for your reply nikoo. I would like to ask people too advice me on what things I would definitly want to put in this frontend.

If it is any good I am going to release it too the public (for free offcourse). But I still have a long way to go. To create a very nice one.

My final question to you guys is what resolution are you running on. At the moment I am using 848 x 480 because it is a basic resolution for windows) I will definitly try to make a multi res app but I was just wondering.

Oeps forgot one :P Still need a nice name for my system any ideas was thinking of V.I.C.E.S. (Virtual In Car Entertainment System)

With kind regards,

FG van Zeelst

MOnline · 05-21-2007, 07:01 PM

So I have updated the layout of my frontend a bit. It's not that much but as promised I added the clock, date and day. (I forget what day it is all the time so

.

Still thinking what to add on the top bar. I am going to add the name of my frontend offcourse and I geuss I am going to add a volume button and probaly the song that is currently playing or something like that.

All feedback is welcome as for names and other things related too this frontend

.

UPDATE: So I added a volume button but am not quit happy with it. So maybe that is going to change. Also added a bar to display the current song playing. Tell me what you think.

With kind regards,

FG van Zeelst

OEPSS !!!!

almost forgot to attach the image

Borte · 05-22-2007, 03:51 PM

This is looking good MOnline! Is the interface hardcoded or using a skin interface?

Sorry for the late reply MOnline but here's the promised example (actually it's the full function):

This function returns an string array with the house numbers.
It's by no means perfect since it doesn't always match the actual street but it will give a pretty good estimate. But it only searches for 400 numbers. I figured I didn't need it any higher since no streets around here are longer. If you want it longer just change the 400 number to what you want. But be aware that this will require som more processing time.

Code:

Public Function Dest_GetNumbers(Target As DestPoint) As String()
    Dim Latitude, Longitude As Double
    Dim House() As String
    Dim HouseNumber As Integer
    Dim ArrayIndex As Integer
    Dim ConsecutiveHits As Integer
    Dim DestPointData As DestPoint
    
    Set DestPointData = New DestPoint
    With Target
        DestPointData.City = .City
        DestPointData.Description = .Description
        DestPointData.House = .House
        DestPointData.Latitude = .Latitude
        DestPointData.Longtitude = .Longtitude
        DestPointData.Street = .Street
        DestPointData.Telephone = .Telephone
        DestPointData.Zip = .Zip
    End With

    Call Dest2.GetCoordinatesFromAddress(DestPointData)
    Latitude = DestPointData.Latitude
    Longitude = DestPointData.Longtitude
    ArrayIndex = 0
    ConsecutiveHits = 0
    ReDim House(0)
    
    For HouseNumber = 1 To 400
        DestPointData.House = HouseNumber
        Call Dest2.GetCoordinatesFromAddress(DestPointData)
        If (Longitude <> DestPointData.Longtitude) Or (Latitude <> DestPointData.Latitude) Then
            If House(0) <> "" Then ReDim Preserve House(UBound(House) + 1)
            House(ArrayIndex) = HouseNumber
            ArrayIndex = ArrayIndex + 1
            ConsecutiveHits = 0
        End If
        
        If (Longitude = DestPointData.Longtitude) And (Latitude = DestPointData.Latitude) Then
            ConsecutiveHits = ConsecutiveHits + 1
            If ConsecutiveHits >= 10 Then
                HouseNumber = 400
            End If
        End If
        
        Latitude = DestPointData.Latitude
        Longitude = DestPointData.Longtitude
        
        DoEvents
        
    Next HouseNumber
    Dest_GetNumbers = House
    Set DestPointData = Nothing
End Function

As for the speed I used the GPS data. If you do some searching on google you'll find lots of info about this GPS data string. But to get you started, here's the one you need to work with:

Code:

 String: $GPRMC,<1>,<2>,<3>,<4>,<5>,<6>,<7>,<8>,<9>,<10>,<11><CR><LF>

Data:
1)     UTC time of position fix, hhmmss.sss format.
2)     Status, A = data valid, V = data not valid.
3)     Latitude, ddmm.mmmm format.
4)     Latitude hemisphere, N or S.
5)     Longitude, dddmmm.mmmm format.
6)     Longitude hemisphere, E or W.
7)     Speed over ground, 0.0 to 1851.8 knots.       <---- THIS IS THE ONE
8)     Course over ground, 000.0 to 359.9 degrees, true.
9)     Date, ddmmyy format.
10)    Magnetic variation, 000.0 to 180.O.
11)    Degrees
12)    Checksum.

Hope this helps.
If you have any more questions feel free to ask, I just completed an early but working version of my own frontend (using plugins for winamp control, powercontrol of the laptop and destinator).

Btw: Go with a plugin interface as early in the stage as possible. This will really make your frontend a LOT faster if done correctly.

Cheers
Borte

MOnline · 05-23-2007, 03:03 AM

He borte,

Thanks for the code it looks great exactly what I am looking for

. I will implement this as soon as possible.

The skin I am working on is going to be a blueprint for my skinning engine. Still not sure on what resolution to use I myself am using a 848 x 480 resolution in my car but I am going to build a minimum resolution of 800 x 480 and be able to strech it. But what I am trying to say is that is will have a skinning system so it will be able to create custom skins. Still not sure on the volume buttons though.

As for the navigation (for everyone interested) the top en bottom bar you can see in the image in my post above will be present there on the same place. This reduceses the time you will have to search for critical functions

. On the bottom right is going to be either a goto button or a home button still going to decide on that one.

What did you mean by plugin based borte ? Mean like using modules or people being able to write there own plugins.

With kind regards,

FG van Zeelst

PS
Next screenshot is probaly being posted on friday so keep an eye out

. Not gone tell you whats gone be in it though *Cough*Navi*Cough*

Borte · 05-24-2007, 08:29 AM

With plugins I mean that you should set your application to use plugins (dll's created by yourself and others). Here's how I structured my frontend:

Main application:
Handles graphical interface
Handles variables
Handles calulations
Handles text
Handles functions
Connects and talks to configured plugins

Plugins:
WinAmp: Handles all functionality for winamp (playing, browsing and so on)
PowerControl: Handles all functionality for powercontrol on the laptop
Destinator: Handles all navigation functionality

When the main application sees a skin command that it doesn't recognise it will pass the command to the plugins for execution.

This approach has a quite a few advantages:
It will make you application faster since it will give you multithread capabilities (If you program your plugins correctly).
It will make it easier for you to replace any of the plugins without affecting the complete application.
It will make it easier for you to replace the main application without affecting the plugins and functionality.
It allows you to customise the functionality (ie. using only the plugins needed).

My main application will not do anything useful (other than maybe building a calculator and displaying graphics) unless you configure some plugins.
With WinAmp, PowerControl and Destinator fully working the complete application starts up in about 2 seconds.

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