The only update of the week is that I tested the composite output in a Toyota Highlander’s entertainment system. It booted fine. The fonts are not as crispy as I wanted, but still readable. I didn’t have a chance to test the XBMC however web browsing was acceptable with an open wifi around the campus. 🙂
I’m also waiting some batteries for my old Voltmeter 🙂 Once it’s working I can start some prototyping.
Hopefully more updates in a week.
I got myself a raspberry pi couple of weeks ago. First I tried to make a HTPC out of it using XBMC but the interface was too slow for my taste. So I decided to build a carputer. 🙂 I have very basic electronic knowledge, so this will be a learning process for me too.
So far what I need is this list below:
- a car (Check)
- a 12V to 5V converter: I have cheap lighter to USB adapter. I’ll start with that but I’m thinking about this in the future.
- a 5V power source activated when the car power is shut: For this one I’m going to start with a circuit I had in hand that I was using to charge my wifey’s phone using a small solar panel. It has a 2000mAh Li-Po battery on it. (That battery is most probably flat. I’ll need a new one)
I will need this power source for only maybe 1 min. Read next bullet point.
- a relay circuit that will detect that the car power is shut off and will send a GPIO signal to Rpi to shut itself off. Otherwise there will be corruption at some point of time. 😛 I believe I should write a simple script to shutdown to tie it to that GPIO signal.
- a 7″ touchscreen screen (possibly with an HDMI input. I have couple of candidates.)
- a software to play music and video. Biggest candidate so far is XBMC.
Nice to have:These will require a USB hub since I only have 2 USB inputs. (I need to look at the power requirements for the USB hub)
- a wifi/bluetooth solution for phone interaction.
- a GPS interface.
More update weekly. (hopefully!)
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