CarPC ver.2 in August 2012

I decided to revise the complete CarPC setup after one year of usage.

The ver.1 setup was simply too distracting in my opinion, because the monitor placed on top of the dashboard did not blend well with the shape of dashboard.

The 7 inch LCD monitor's dimensions fit very well into a 2DIN opening. After taking a few measurements I decided to swap the head unit with LCD monitor.

First I had to fabricate a new fixture that would hold and fix the monitor in place.

The fixture consists of two pieces. One fixture part holds the monitor with 4 small screws. Another fixture part is bolted onto the console metal brace. Both fixture parts are tied together with two screws from behind.

Fabricated fixture for monitor (first fixture part).

The second fixture part with two holes.

The monitor is installed using two
screws from behind.

After a year of using the custom trackball I found it not very precise and uncomfortable. Totally useless during driving because the interior is sometimes heavily shaking on the bumpy roads. An upgrade was needed. For replacing the trackball I decided to try out a touch pad ring mouse, which I have customized to suit my application.

After customizing:

Custom parts before assembly.

Assembled custom touch pad ring mouse. 

Front view.

The mouse pad is suspended on a small spring thus making the controlling of PC comfortable even during riding, and because the laser is tracking the finger movement directly, the accuracy is better. 

During the first two years of ownership I have found myself a few times in situation, especially when parallel parking, when I could not precisely judge the distance to the car behind me because of the big Type R wing in the rear and narrow rear view. Having a car PC on board made me think about adding a reversing camera that would be very useful in these situations. The reversing camera had to be small, light with no more than one cord. These criteria were met only by web cameras. For my project I purchased a generic webcam and replaced the lens with a wide angle lens, that gives a nice 140 Degree view.

I installed the camera during the car restoration period, when I had the rear bumper disassembled.

The camera is watertight thanks to the silicone sealant. 

This is how the camera is fixed behind the bumper. The USB cable goes 

through the rubber grommet inside to the car.

Reverse camera installed.

The next question to solve was how am I going to play the video from camera automatically when selecting the R gear. The solution is hardware and software based. When selecting the R gear, the back up lights go on. The 12V source from lights is the input to trigger the camera. To convert the analog voltage to digital input I needed some sort of data acquisition device (DAQ). For this purpose I have purchased a simple DAQ DIY kit consisting of all electronic components and main pcb. After assembling it together the DAQ pcb worked perfectly. The board can read up to 4 analog channels and one temperature channel. So I added an external ambient temperature sensor as a bonus. The 12V voltage has to be first reduced to approx 3.5-4.5V using a simple resistor bridge. This voltage is interpreted as binary 1 (lights on). Everything below 2.5V is binary 0 (lights off). These states can be read through USB via sending commands from a custom software periodically.

Data acquisition electronic board.

During browsing the web I discovered a simple DLC diagnostic interface with software, which was able to read data from the stock Honda ECU, OBD0 and OBD1. It worked fine but it was a very simple software, and the interface worked only with an old COM port on the pc or laptop.

Simple DLC diagnostic software.

It wasn't enough for the purposes of my CarPC project and certainly not very attractive as digital dashboard.

Therefore I decided to do my own app, the Hondash, which is now available to download. For more details
click on Hondash developer's blog.

Hondash prototype 2013.

Swapping the head unit with monitor made me think where to put the head unit. I found only one good place, underneath the glove box. The problem is that the radio is too far from reaching in this position, thus making the controlling during riding impossible. Fortunately I needed only two functions, the volume control and on-off control. This is done by only one button so the solution was simply to relocate this button. I decided to swap the button with the cigarette lighter socket. Worked like a charm.

Swapped radio control button.

Currently I am working on project plans for CarPC ver. 3, but this will be done in summer 2014 at earliest. Stay tuned.

CarPC youtube video:

CarPC software youtube video: