XOOM tablet based carputer project (work in progress)

[theksmith]

going to take the first little trip with the setup this weekend (going to Old Dale Mining District in CA).

the shutdown/lockup the other night does not appear to be from the cold. i had accidentally enabled some Tasker profiles that i wasn't done configuring and they crashed it. i finished beefing up the main mount and widened my CB & HAM mic mounts.

so, the only current problem (till we see what shakes out!) is the audio. i bought a different line-driver (JL Audio) that got rid of the RFI from the 4G connection, but still isn't producing very dynamic sound or bass punch with the factory Infinity amp. i think i'm still under-driving the factory amp, though it could just be the bluetooth receiver. anyway, i bought a very tiny amp to drive the Infinity, it also has basic tone controls - that should be more like what it was getting from the factory radio. however that experiment will have to wait till next week to try. if it doesn't work, then i'm going to buy a half-din EQ and an aftermarket amp.

 

[theksmith]

the tablet setup performed pretty darn well on it's maiden voyage this weekend!



the audio wasn't loud enough, but i knew that was still a problem going in. i worked on that a bit today and i think i'm getting it closer to being dialed in.

i used Copilot Live just a bit to test it out, but since I had 4G most of the freeway part of the trip, i just used Google Maps (seeing traffic ahead of time is great!). Backcountry Navigator worked very well during the off-highway portion of the trip. the recently beefed up mount was perfect - solid as a rock through all the whoops, ditches, and rock-strewn-washes. the Tasker profiles i setup for when the Jeep was on/off worked as expected too. having 10" of a map screen is friggen fantastic, i can reach this thing easier than the previous touchscreen, and it works in direct sunlight a million times better - i can't believe i didn't do this project sooner!

 

[X-plorenow]

fantastic project, watching closely.

 

[Finlay]

Nice work. I used my wife's XOOM and it worked well. I'll be following this so I can steal your ideas.

 

[theksmith]

thanks guys!

all the audio issues are fixed, sounds at least as good as the original radio + factory infinity amp, probably a little better. i'd like to replace the factory amp and speakers one day, but that's another project.

main item left todo from my original goals is the steering wheel remote control buttons... then i can move on to experimenting with some random other things like sensors, cameras, etc.

 

[Topher1044]

Subscribed.

What fixed the audio problem?

 

[theksmith]

Subscribed.

What fixed the audio problem?

so most of my audio issues came down to the PAC line driver being a POS. it was picking up and amplifying most of the RFI noise even with plenty of shielding, and it was giving me a thump on turnoff. i replaced it with a JL Audio CL-RLC that has differential-balanced inputs which seemed to kill most of the noise. i also used ferrite beads on both RCA inputs going into it.

so with the noise fixed, the audio was still very "flat" sounding and i couldn't get enough volume. it seemed that neither the PAC or the JL Audio was driving the factory Infinity Amp hard enough. since the factory amp was really designed for speaker level inputs, i bought this tiny Lepai amp for $20 from Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/LP-2020A-Lepai-Tripath-Class-T-Amplifier/dp/B0049P6OTI/

with that little Lepai amp in place, and after playing with both the tone knobs on it and with the EQ on the tablet, i was able to get the "punch" and volume back. it now sounds at least a good, actually a little better, than the factory radio and amp did originally. i had to run a noise filter on the power lead for the Lepai, it was picking up alternator whine (but for $20, what do you expect).

eventually i want to replace the factory amp with an aftermarket one and all new speakers. then i can get rid for the Lepia junk, and maybe even the JL Audio preamp. that will be a simpler/cleaner install, but i didn't want to get into all the money and wiring for a whole new amp & speakers right now.

 

[theksmith]

steering wheel buttons working!


edit: fixed video link

 

[theksmith]

someone on another forum asked me "Which apps do you feel are necessary on a Jeep mounted tablet? Which are you running?"

Mapping apps...
- Google Maps (street, online)
- CoPilot Live (street, offline)
- Backcountry Navigator (topo/satellite, offline)
- OruxMaps (topo/satellite, offline), better in some ways than BCN but has limitation on size of downloaded area currently

An OBDII app...
- I use TouchScan, Torque is more popular

Viewer apps...
- a general document viewer for excel/word/etc like OfficeSuite Viewer (i have a list of OBDII codes in excel format)
- Adobe Reader for a copy of the factory service manual

Lux (lets you set the screen backlight much dimmer than normal for night time use, not necessary if you have certain custom ROMS though)

An automation app...
- these sort of apps let you do basic stuff like tell the tablet to go into airplane mode to save power when external power is disconnected, or advanced stuff like start an FTP server when your near your house based on which cell tower it sees.
- Tasker rocks, but it's got a steep learning curve
- AutomateIt has a much cleaner UI, but i've not used it personally
- llama is a popular free one, but a bit limited

A media player app...
- I'm using "PlayerPro Music Player" with the Holo ICS skin, works for music and video

Streaming media apps (if you have a 3G/4G connection or can tether to your phone)...
- Pandora/LastFM/Spotify/Etc.
- Youtube/Hulu Plus/Netflix

Weather apps (if you have a 3G/4G connection or can tether to your phone)...
- i'm using HD Widgets
- i also have Weatherbug Elite for more detail

Some basics...
- a file manager, i like ES File Explorer better than ASTRO
- a backup app like Titanium Backup (not only making it easy to backup the entire config of the tablet, but also can get rid of annoying built-in apps from the phone company)
- maybe a task manager, but i rarely need it - depends on the device and the version of Android

i consider root access to be a minimum personally so i can do whatever the frig i want with it, but you don't NEED it. i actually like to run a custom ROM too, but that's definitely not needed.

in addition to all the above apps, i have my custom app for interfacing with the steering wheel buttons. i've also done a lot of customization with Tasker. finally, since i have root and am messing with behind-the-scenes stuff, i have SuperSU and Better Terminal Pro.

 

[theksmith]

i made the steering wheel button interface app open source, it's on github: https://github.com/theksmith/Steering-Wheel-Interface

it really would only benefit another developer - it's not setup as a full featured app, but more as a template/example.

i think my friend with a JK is going to work with me to see if we can get the same concept working on it though (and other newer CAN-Bus based vehicles).

 

[theksmith]

since i learned a fair bit while working this project in regards to hacking on a vehicle's bus, i wrote a couple articles that might help others:

• a complete guide to hacking your vehicle bus on the cheap & easy – part 1 (hardware interface)
  
• a complete guide to hacking your vehicle bus on the cheap & easy – part 2 (interpreting the data)

in other news, the whole tablet project has been working pretty darn well now. i've had 2 freezes while on the trail where i had to do a quick reboot (i was in the Backcountry Navigator app both times... hmm). i use the thing every single day with pandora as my main radio now, sometimes i even watch hulu plus while i'm sitting in the school pickup line to get my kid.

i've taken to loading my tracks/waypoints for a trip onto my phone as a backup just in case the tablet where to die. i don't bother to load maps on the phone, but the tracks are there for emergency navigation if i'm leading a trip. i've also found that using an ftp server on the tablet/phone is my favorite way to transfer files back and forth with the devices (i'm using the one built into the ES File Explorer app).

also i love using CoPilot Live navigation when i'm on my way to a trail. but it's making me lazy... the music fades out and a voice says "Turn left 1 mile ahead" whenever i need to turn, and it beeps at me when i start speeding more than 10mph over the posted speed, and when i get off the trail i can find the nearest gas station with a couple taps. in all seriousness, i'm the type of guy that always stores a mental image of the entire trip and trail in my head long before i ever embark, and i hope i never actually get too lazy and reliant on technology to stop doing that.

 

[reece146]

Very cool! Thanks for documenting it as well!

 

[Crom]

Congrats on the project. Your work looks super clean and very polished. Well done!

 

[theksmith]

Very cool! Thanks for documenting it as well!

Congrats on the project. Your work looks super clean and very polished. Well done!

thanks guys!

 

[theksmith]

every since i got this project up and running, i've had a random bug where the steering wheel control app stopped working. i spent a bunch of time this weekend flashing different roms, swapping kernels, and even refactored my app to use the newest usb-to-serial driver... in the end it turned out to be a hardware issue! anyway, you have no idea how happy i am that the silly little steering wheel buttons work 100% of the time now! as a side effect of all that troubleshooting i'm on the newer Android 4.2.2 (via CyanogenMod 10.1 rom).

also re-created all of my tasker automation and greatly simplified it.

finally, i've been checking out Alpine Quest as a newer offroad mapping app. i think it has room for improvement in the UI/workflow, but the main features are there and it is solid & quick (screen redraws and downloads are faster than Backcountry Navigator). a nice feature is that you can use any map as a layer on top of another map and adjust the opacity. you can also add your own map service definitions with xml files - i'm working on adding one that shows which agency manages any given area of land in the US (BLM, NPS, NF, State, DOD, etc.), should be quite useful.


updated shot of the home screen: