http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/22/au...OMPUTERS.html?

A Computer in Your Car, but Not Under the Hood


REWIRED Greg Planthaber connected the touch screen in his 2003 Lexus SC 430 to the PC he installed in the trunk.

SILVIO FIORITO is the proud owner of a Subaru WRX and, like any engineer, he is happy when his hard work speeds up his car from 45 seconds to 5 seconds. A good engineer can always improve on what comes from the manufacturer.

He’s not talking about the car itself, but the PC he installed to link the navigation, music system and video playback systems. You can go get a cup of coffee while your desktop starts, but a car is different.

“If my girlfriend gets into my car, she shouldn’t notice,” said Mr. Fiorito, 29. “If they don’t even realize that I have a car computer in my car, it means it’s working properly.” So he tore apart his version of Windows, tweaked the start-up routine and ripped out every unnecessary part.

“You don’t need a printer in your car computer,” he explained and paused a second, perhaps imagining what he might do with a printer in the back seat, and then added a qualification to the next sentence:

“If you don’t have a network, you don’t need the Windows fire wall.”

Engineers like Mr. Fiorito, of Reston, Va., are just some of the car lovers who want an able computer in their vehicle to complement the turbocharged engine and the fat brake pads. They’re also wiring these computers into the stereo, the cellphone, the backup cameras, the Onboard Diagnostics Port (OBD-II), the navigation system and almost any electrical part. Then they tinker with the PC to make it easy to control everything with a few taps on a button or a touch screen.

While many car computer hobbyists speak admiringly of the commercial systems like Microsoft’s Sync available in some Ford cars, they like the freedom to experiment, and an open platform offers many options. The simplest do-it-yourself modifications take a few hours, but some people devote more in search of a computer that acts like a telepathic navigator with perfect taste in music.

Tom Berry of Corning, N.Y., an engineer who works on the air traffic control system during the day, started in 1984 with an Atari XL. Today, he has a Mac Mini in his 2001 Beetle and is working on replacing it with a Marvell SheevaPlug, a Linux-based computer smaller than a three-inch cube.

“The connection to the Web is a pretty big one, and then you can stream Internet radio and Pandora,” a streaming radio Web site, said Mr. Berry, 46. Adding a connection with a cellular modem lets him escape the limits of the AM or FM bands.

Greg Planthaber, 38, a government contractor in Falls Church, Va., has an HD radio and a Sirius radio wired into his system, but he also added his music collection to the disk of the PC he installed in his 2003 Lexus SC 430.

“I don’t have to worry about carrying around CDs,” he said.

Mr. Planthaber has added connections to other parts of the car, like the transmission and the car’s central computer, using the OBD-II plug built for mechanics. When he shifts into reverse, a screen on his dash displays an image from a camera hidden by his rear license plate.

“A backup camera wasn’t a factory option for my car,” he said. “I added it as part of the video interface I installed.”

The music and other options can be changed with a few taps. Mr. Planthaber rewired the touch screen that came with the car to connect to the PC in the trunk. He and many others interviewed for this article use a popular program called Centrafuse to control all of the wires. It runs on top of Windows and displays a collection of menus in a customizable array. Others speak well of packages like Ride Runner from Nisu Automotive.

“I’ve used my onboard diagnostic for more than gee-whiz stuff,” he said, and explained how he figured out that a loose gas cap was causing the check engine light to flash.

“I don’t even want to know what the Lexus dealer would charge me to tell me that the gas cap was loose,” he said.

While Mr. Planthaber diagnosed the problem from the car itself, others are hooking up a remote connection. Will Meyer, 33, another engineer from Arlington, Va., used artificial intelligence techniques to program his computer to parse questions posed in text messages. Then he taught his computer to recognize the names of all data gathered by the car’s computer.

“It knows all of the stuff in the OBD-II,” he said, “from the air-fuel ratio to the timing advance.”

Now he can track any detail about the car’s performance with any cellphone.

“I’ve left the realm of practicality a long time ago,” Mr. Meyer acknowledged. “I can instant-message the car and ask it how fast it’s going, and it will tell me how fast it’s going. It’s hard to justify, but that’s not the point. It’s kind of fun.”



This is probably as famous and I'm ever going to get so, I've posted this article here and in the SC430 forum, since the two groups rarely delve into the other forum. I hope the OP's don't mind. I hope both groups find it interesting.

 

great work Greg..maybe you should start building them??

 

+1

 

Almost everyone I've shown my CarPC to has said "I'd love to have that!"...then they hear what all it cost me to do it.

Oh, how they quickly turn and run!

 

Outstanding, Mr. Planthaber!

Nice article, and very cool mod to your Lexus.

 

Nice Greg! How much would you charge me to do that to my GS? Old navi is driving me crazy and all the options to upgrade make me loose stock touch screen, so I have to use a stupid remote to run it.

 

Yeah, that's the rub.

The article talks about me "tapping into the factory touchscreen"...that's a little misleading. I tapped into the video of the factory screen, but I wasn't able to use the "touch" part of the touchscreen to control the PC. I tried...I REALLY tried (and blew up a screen trying). I've done a lot of research...both before and since my installation. I haven't seen ANYONE who's been able to use the factory touchscreen for aftermarket devices (on a Lexus).

However, if you're not happy with your factory nav system, you could replace the whole screen with an aftermarket screen where you CAN access the touchscreen part.

On the GS, do you need the factory touchscreen for things like climate control?

On the SC430's, the nav screen is ONLY nav...the climate-control display & controls are on a separate module, so you can get rid of the factory screen and put a really-nice his resolution, high-contrast touchscreen in there.

The only reason I didn't do this is because I wanted to retain the stock nav system, which I'm still very happy with.

 

yep yep.... good job!

 

Thanks for the clarification. Yeah the climate control is controlled by the touch screen so Im kinda SOL. Thats why I was so excited when the article said it uses the stock touch screen. but oh well. =(

Ive talked to a bunch of stereo places and they said they can piggy back the screen. (ie i can have the screen show the new navi but have to control it with a remote then switch to the stock screen to control the hvac) didnt like that idea. hopefully you guys can crack the mystery of the stock screen access. you have a first customer waiting. lol

 

Good article..........I want one. ha

 

Good stuff Greg. I was thinking about your problem of not being able to use the factory touch option, but have you ever considered adding a transparent touch screen overlay?
something like these.. http://www.touchscreens.com/products-addon.html
Im not sure how bad they will affect the contrast or sharpness, but they look pretty neat.

I would like to get a hold of one of these stock touchscreen units and take it apart, but they are so expensive. im sure the signal can be hijacked with a little bit of rewiring.

Also aftermarket GPS software has also come a long way for windows based devices.

keep up the good work, I would love to do this eventually.

 

Ultra_VIP,

I use a controller called a "Space Navigator". The way I have it set up, it works very similar to the BMW iDrive system. It's installed on the center console, between the armrest and the transmission selector. I use it to select the various inputs, answer the phone, change radio stations, scroll through mp3 lists, etc. I have a mouse-pad and mini-keyboard installed inside the arm rest if I need it, but I can do probably 95% of what I need to do with only the Space Navigator. In many respects, I prefer it to using the touchscreen.

With any touchscreen, I have to LOOK at it...with the Space Navigator, I simply roll the **** to the left to select Sirus, or roll it forward to select mp3's, etc. Even if I've got the screen switched over and I'm viewing Navigation...if a song comes on that I don't like, I easily go to the next to previous radio station/mp3/whatever, without switching back to the CarPC video input...or even taking my eyes off the road.

And, with it mounted right in front of the arm rest, it's always right within reach.

 

I've looked at the overlays...seriously. It would give me touchscreen control over the CarPC. The problem is with the other end of it. While I'm touching the screen, controlling the CarPC, my touches are also being inputted to the Nav system (since I can't turn that off). I think it could get very messy.

I think the best solution is to replace the factory screen with a high-quality touchscreen, and go eventually with a CarPC-based navigation software solution. I just haven't seen one yet that really blows me away. Also, most of the GPS receivers operate at like 1 Hz. It works, but it still gives you the "chunk", "chunk", "chunk" as you move along and it updates. What I'm waiting for is a good hardware/software solution with "smooth scrolling". If anyone's seen the BMW navigation systems, you'll know what I'm talking about. The map just smoothly scrolls around, more like an animation.

Also, the factory-based navigation system uses speed sensors and accelerometers to help the system when it doesn't have a good GPS lock. I haven't seen an aftermarket system even have this option.

I'm keeping my eyes out...and my options open!

It's actually fairly simple to tap into a resistive touchscreen system. Unfortunately, Lexus uses a capacitive touchscreen system...not so simple. To be sure, anything's possible. But, without a schematic...and an Electrical Engineering degree...I don't know!

Thanks! I'm always tweaking on the thing, much to my wife's chagrin!

I just added WiFi to it last week. There's an application for my phone that turns my phone into a WiFi hotspot (using the phone's 3G data connection). I just turn the application on, and bingo, instant Internet, without doing ANYTHING to the CarPC.

 

Greg,

Ill have to check out your set up next spring when we all get together again. If I like the way your set up is how long will you need my car and how much would it be? pm me if you dont want the total being listed in open forum.

I can leave the car with you if you have a workshop to put it in. If all goes well I pick up my new daily driver in 2 weeks. whoo hoo! =)

 

Thanks for sharing Greg, the article is a great read. Now I can see why Car PC's are a whole other world!