DIY: BMW E46 In-Car PC Project (Carputer)

You along with LAFENGAS inspired me to do a similar project. Thank You

Does anyone have any links to a Linux based CarPC which integrates with iBus?

I've found the following which I need to read through...
http://projects.tevs.eu/OpenBM

Anyone have any others? My Raspberry Pi should be delivered this week so hoping to hook this up to the stock nav unit (via RCA inputs, this is taken care of) and also to iBus so can use steering wheel and radio controls (hoping this will work - did some research many years and it *should* be possible - I has a USB connector board already)

thanks

Holy **** nice work!

Wooooooow!!! What OS is that? (User interface for all sources).... Pretty cool.

Sent from my PG86100 using Bimmer App

This was a great project by in the days .. today , you can just buy a netbook , hook it up at the back , remove LCd and sell on ebay. Use another external HDMI to hook on another LCD , wireless mouse + wireless keyboard + hdmi cable + usb or bluetooth GPS receiver

Wtf did I just read

Originally Posted by ayashifx55

This was a great project by in the days .. today , you can just buy a netbook , hook it up at the back , remove LCd and sell on ebay. Use another external HDMI to hook on another LCD , wireless mouse + wireless keyboard + hdmi cable + usb or bluetooth GPS receiver

Might as well put a laser printer on the dash

Originally Posted by paraklas

The screen is simply amazing. Pictures in daylight and under direct sunlight:

Does the same Bezel work fine with really any touch screen ? I assume you do not have any need for access to the buttons which are along the bottom of the screen frame ? Or do you remove the screen from the manufacturers frame and mount onto the back of the Bezel ?

Thanks and well done on a fine job. I have a Raspberry Pi arriving in a few weeks and the Pi seems like the perfect device for a project such as this although support for the OS could be difficult until more people get access to Pi's

I have used this bezel with the Xenarc, Lilliput and Inelmatic 7" LCD. A good body shop can paint it whatever color you like. I prefer matte black or gloss black. On all of them, I removed the frame for proper fit. Xenarc and Inelmatic also offer their products as "frameless" versions, so removing the frame afterwards doesn't impact functionality. I use a thin strip of foam at the perimeter of the bezel LCD area so that the screen sits on an even, cushioned surface. Before installing the screen, I also apply a hard screen protector as well. All screens come with an infrared remote control (hence the holes on the bezel bottom) so all functionality is there.

For Xenarc, I disconnected the PCB with the buttons completely
For Lilliput, I had to enable the auto power on when VGA signal is received, then tucked the PCB with the buttons behind the bezel on the right side
For Inelmatic, the button PCB is still connected and tucked behind the bezel bottom as I ordered the remote-less version. I have used the buttons one time only to adjust the brightness.

Due to each screen having different layout on the back, you may need to fabricate a bracket or two to properly secure it, not something complex. The bezel I have comes with 2 mounting brackets, and a big steel cover for the rear part of the screen. For the inelmatic, I used the rear steel cover as a heatsink as well, as it touches the screen's IC in combination with some heatsink adhesive pads (like the ones we used to cool VGA memory)

Thanks for that, that makes more sense now removing the housing.

I'm having a re-think of the Raspberry Pi idea given the arrival of the Android based APC

Today I just finished another Car-PC upgrade:

M4 DC-DC Power supply installed in external housing
http://www.mini-box.com/M4-ATX?sc=8&category=981

OCZ Vertex 120GB SSD Installed, Windows XP SP3 with Centrafuse 4.1

Short video demonstrating resuming from hibernation:


Full restart cycle takes around 25seconds, most of the delay in BIOS

Video was taken on my office screen hence the resolution is a bit off.

Wow, really great thread. Read everthing.


A question though, ordered all my part from ebay today. Do you think the elm327 bluetooth interface will work? Also, do you know where i will find the right hand drive climate control relocation unit?

Alao, what other screen do you suggest? I cannot find the inelmatic 7"

Originally Posted by Pho3NiX90

Wow, really great thread. Read everthing.


A question though, ordered all my part from ebay today. Do you think the elm327 bluetooth interface will work? Also, do you know where i will find the right hand drive climate control relocation unit?

Originally Posted by Pho3NiX90

Alao, what other screen do you suggest? I cannot find the inelmatic 7"

ELM327 does work, tested.

Climate relocation unit from ebay.co.uk, quarry motors uk, or dealer

Lilliput, Xenarc and some others also make sunlight readable screens, see mp3car.com store what you can find

Originally Posted by paraklas

ELM327 does work, tested.

Climate relocation unit from ebay.co.uk, quarry motors uk, or dealer

Lilliput, Xenarc and some others also make sunlight readable screens, see mp3car.com store what you can find

Great thanks. But was talking about the bluetooth version of odb, is it reliable. Was maybe thinking of taking of the plastic cover and connecting/soldering it in the back of the orriginal connector to make the odb completely hidden.

Originally Posted by Toxx

Wtf did I just read

That just made my night.

Thanks.

Originally Posted by jammykam

Does anyone have any links to a Linux based CarPC which integrates with iBus?

I've found the following which I need to read through...
http://projects.tevs.eu/OpenBM

Anyone have any others? My Raspberry Pi should be delivered this week so hoping to hook this up to the stock nav unit (via RCA inputs, this is taken care of) and also to iBus so can use steering wheel and radio controls (hoping this will work - did some research many years and it *should* be possible - I has a USB connector board already)

thanks

I did some experiment with raspberry pi + OpenElec + XBMC + IBUS adapter and it seems to work quite well(some problems 12v->5v adapter causing usb to drop some times.. this did not happend wiht wall charger and powered usb hub).

I wrote a small linux C daemon which reads and decodes ibus and then uses uinput to inject key events to the system. That way this daemon can be used basically with any linux based sw(I think it should work also in android as a native component) which takes normal key presses. Because I wanted to keep the original navi,fm,computer etc working I wanted to use that similar way that the famous CarX used, i.e. hijacking TAPE or AUX state.

So in order to so, that daemon needed to also detect the state of the BM and you can tell it to inject key events only in certain state like TAPE or AUX. it also can handle the switching the video input only in certain state(using ibus adaptor ntsc). With those, you can hijack for example TAPE so that when you are in that mode, you see the video input from rasp and get the button presses sent to your app in rasp.

I did similar exercise few years ago with meego ivi & beagleboard but the problem with meego is that its designed for touch screen and controlling with keys was difficult. XBMC, being home theather sw, is designed to be able to control with remote control so mapping BMW wheel&boardmonitor buttons to those command should not be too difficult.

Originally Posted by karis79

I did some experiment with raspberry pi + OpenElec + XBMC + IBUS adapter and it seems to work quite well(some problems 12v->5v adapter causing usb to drop some times.. this did not happend wiht wall charger and powered usb hub).

I wrote a small linux C daemon which reads and decodes ibus and then uses uinput to inject key events to the system. That way this daemon can be used basically with any linux based sw(I think it should work also in android as a native component) which takes normal key presses. Because I wanted to keep the original navi,fm,computer etc working I wanted to use that similar way that the famous CarX used, i.e. hijacking TAPE or AUX state.

So in order to so, that daemon needed to also detect the state of the BM and you can tell it to inject key events only in certain state like TAPE or AUX. it also can handle the switching the video input only in certain state(using ibus adaptor ntsc). With those, you can hijack for example TAPE so that when you are in that mode, you see the video input from rasp and get the button presses sent to your app in rasp.

I did similar exercise few years ago with meego ivi & beagleboard but the problem with meego is that its designed for touch screen and controlling with keys was difficult. XBMC, being home theather sw, is designed to be able to control with remote control so mapping BMW wheel&boardmonitor buttons to those command should not be too difficult.

Hi Karis

Just read your message fully, I've moved to Canada for about a year so my car is now tucked into the garage

But that is brilliant. It's pretty much what I was looking to so as well. I'd be very interested in the daemon that you wrote. I don't know C unfortunately, I'm a C# developer though so should be able to follow the code at least! I'd be very keen to try/install the code, if possible. Do you have it hosted or available?

I didn't know the beagleboard had been around for that long... but I've looked at a couple of other altrnatives, mainly the Gooseberry but that does not have TV Out (only HDMI). But since I do not have my car with me here I'll have to wait a while till I can do something with it.

thanks
Kam

Originally Posted by jammykam

Hi Karis

Just read your message fully, I've moved to Canada for about a year so my car is now tucked into the garage

But that is brilliant. It's pretty much what I was looking to so as well. I'd be very interested in the daemon that you wrote. I don't know C unfortunately, I'm a C# developer though so should be able to follow the code at least! I'd be very keen to try/install the code, if possible. Do you have it hosted or available?

I didn't know the beagleboard had been around for that long... but I've looked at a couple of other altrnatives, mainly the Gooseberry but that does not have TV Out (only HDMI). But since I do not have my car with me here I'll have to wait a while till I can do something with it.

thanks
Kam

Its not yet available but I'm going to put it somewhere(most likely to github) after I find just little bit more time to fine tune and clean it up.. the key is the time . Its written with very basic C so its easy to follow.

I installed it in to OpenElec XBMC build by creating the scripts for my component and building it with these instructions: http://wiki.openelec.tv/index.php?ti...r_Raspberry_Pi. I can also share these scripts if you want to try it with openelec. (you might want to wait until turbo mode is included in openelec build: http://www.raspberrypi.org/archives/2008)


I had the beagleboard rev c which was introduced May 2009. I tried that at the beginning of 2011 so less than couple of years

Hi. sorry for my english.
I have Raspberry Pi.
I want use Raspberry Pi in my BMW E38
I connect Paspi with video, audio and install xbmc, but i have problem with connect to car controls
i have ibus adapter.
can you share linux daemom?