|
|
|
|
|
OK, this is a bit of a thinking out loud type thread... I've been thinking about my next project, and I've got some ideas. About 6 months ago someone (AK?) asked about fitting modern features into an older car (aircon, remote controlling, power seats/windows, GPS, you know, lexus stuff  ) and also someone was interested in tracking car alarms and security in an older car. I've been thinking about all this anyway, I like a lot of the features you get in a modern, and I'm a total tech-head but I don't like modern cars per se. I want modern toys, but in a cortina (a black '72 2 door GXL to be precise). It already has electric seats (volvo S60) and central locking (BMW/toad alarm) and a zetec with megasquirt for management, and I've been playing with some aspects of computer control here with a view to making a portable car-pc. My (possibly mad) plan is to be able to access the car's systems from within a web-browser on a portable device (eeepc, iPhone, whatever..) to keep the interior looking un-cluttered. I don't want vid screens and touch panels on the car, everything needs hiding. I'll be using open source tools and second hand components (mostly) I'll move on to some possible uses in a while, but does this sound interesting (to anyone else..)? I mean, am I alone in wanting to do this (in which case I'll keep it to myself) or would it make an interesting build thread? |
| |
To get a standard A40 this low, you'd have to dig a hole to put it in |
|
|
|
Llewelyn_
Posted a lot
Hi everyone :)
Posts: 1,977
|
|
|
|
OE+  Sounds interesting! For me, everything would have to be OE - for instance, electric or not I couldn't put up with Volvo seats in a Ford. I would try and find a way of building motors etc into a pair of original seats. Thats just me though. With regard to what you were saying about control via a portable device, surely you would have to have some sort of dock in order to be able to control things on the move (ac, gps etc). It's certainly an interesting notion however! |
| |
"Back off man, I'm a Scientist" - Dr. Peter Venkman
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Sounds good to me, i'm transplanting almost the whole loom from a granny scorpio into my mk2 transit so that i can add the goodies as well, custom dash to take the grannies instrument pack and fuel computer, a dash mounted gear change and the heater controls, my Scorp isn't fully loaded though so will still be some bits to add later.
|
| |
Volvo back as my main squeeze, more boost and some interior goodies on the way.
|
|
namless
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 580
Club RR Member Number: 26
|
Techno Retro?namless
@namless
Club Retro Rides Member 26
|
|
|
|
how cool would that be.... a fully loaded Cortina ;D
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Yeah, cool as ICE Funkula, I'm thinking of passing everything through a wifi router running a custom OS, so the "mount" just needs to be a wifi enabled device. (laptop on seat, passenger's phone/PDA) keeps cabling to a minimum (cos I hate trailing cables..) and as for OE seats... find me some mk3 tina seats that arn't dead already... Popup, I did look at adapting the loom from a modern, but decided it is far to complex, and mostly (scorpio etc) several generations behind where I want to be with this. DIY CANbus ftw Cameras is a good example (although this will require embedding a small PC in the car too.. maybe beagleboard..maybe my old IBM thinkpad with teh bust screen..) I can attach several USB cameras to this, log their output (either motion based or continuous) supply webcam feeds to browsers/media players via a cat5 cable to the router and it's wifi beacon.... means I can look at my car outside from inside the house.. Remember clarkson and co playing with a rangerover that had cams front and rear? £40k car, or a couple of £10 webcams and an old notebook? Same goes for control circuits.. the router can do serial comms, so I can use this to talk to microcontrollers that either monitor and report status, switch stuff on and off or a bit of both. It's easier to build your own than it is to figure out how an OEM system does it, due to the lack of available data. I've picked on the atmel powered arduino range for this job (you could use PICs instead, I don't want to..) |
| |
To get a standard A40 this low, you'd have to dig a hole to put it in |
|
rtlkyuubi
Posted a lot
Low and Slow
Posts: 2,922
|
|
|
|
This would be awsome!! Ive got a spare laptop here which would be perfect for this and I would love a car computer to store all my music but I don't want a big massive screen just sat there. So any information you provide will be well read  |
| |
|
|
will
Posted a lot
Posts: 4,023
|
|
|
|
|
Sounds pretty cool. I must confess most of it goes over my head but I would do my level best to keep up and be edumacated should a thread commence on such doings.
|
| |
|
|
|
|
Techno Retro?BenzBoy
@benzboy
Club Retro Rides Member 7
|
|
|
Sounds pretty cool. I must confess most of it goes over my head but I would do my level best to keep up and be edumacated should a thread commence on such doings. I'm with you there. Modern electronics make me uncomfortable! ;D It would be an amazing thing to do, and I'm sure you're up to the task! I'll just stand here and watch if that's OK... |
| |
|
|
Llewelyn_
Posted a lot
Hi everyone :)
Posts: 1,977
|
|
|
|
Yeah, cool as ICE Funkula, I'm thinking of passing everything through a wifi router running a custom OS, so the "mount" just needs to be a wifi enabled device. (laptop on seat, passenger's phone/PDA) keeps cabling to a minimum (cos I hate trailing cables..) and as for OE seats... find me some mk3 tina seats that arn't dead already... I understand that but what I meant was it may be quite difficult operating heater controls via an iPhone behind the wheel! (type thing). How about controlling it using a tablet pc (or iPad?) which can (if necessary) attach to some sort of concealed swing out bracket? Made to use if you are ever driving alone etc. |
| |
"Back off man, I'm a Scientist" - Dr. Peter Venkman
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
I cant find it and cant remember then name of the company either now but when i was building my 24v cortina i was planning a digital dash to make use of the info the ecu could put out. I found a company stateside that made displays for powerboats, basically an LCD screen with some very nice looking dials that displayed on it, and you could configure it how you liked, for instance a large rev counter and speedo and a couple of smaller dials, but when you hit a switch it could swop to another configuration, for instnce 8 smaller dials, or text display etc etc. designed for boats they were vibration and water proof and about half the price of the units my mates were buying for their cars, as well as looking much better when working, they alsi had usefull add-ins like GPS and radar and were able to deal with multiple engines and sensor inputs. I'll keep hunting for the manufacturers site. |
| |
Volvo back as my main squeeze, more boost and some interior goodies on the way.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Well, the modular aspect of all this means you only have to use the bits that interest you.. Jukebox, for example, that's pretty simple to implement, I'd use (for example) XMMS on a laptop (with wireless, set as access point) connect the soundcard to the stereo (maybe a nice retro headunit hacked for line in) and then you have volume etc on the set, but track control etc is set via a control socket and a web interface, so you can point your phone's browser at your music collection and off you go (of course, you could also transfer files to/from this way with ftp) Anyway, highlights of the ideas so far (lifted from eeepc thread)  Megatunix... provides the control interface between PC and megasquirt, more logging options than enough, lol.  TangoGPS... logging, tracking and googlemaps  obdgpslogger.. combines GPS and OBD (car) data, lets you output googleearth KML files (this one is height=speed, colour=fuel economy) motion captured camera jpeg pics turned into a movie.. Plan is to overlay the GPS/engine data on the picture so I can make "playstation" style road trip films ;D |
| |
To get a standard A40 this low, you'd have to dig a hole to put it in |
|
|
|
|
|
|
I've always wanted to do this, but i am unable to get my head around the techy computery aspect of anything. I'll be learning how to wire stuff up at college in the next few years, but I'm no buff when it comes to programming, which is why even though i can wish as hard as i like - i'm never going to be able to go 'techno retro' on my own  |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Volvo back as my main squeeze, more boost and some interior goodies on the way.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Funkula, I see what you meant.. I want all the controls in their normal places, operated in the usual way by the driver There will be the option to control stuff via remote though ;D Popup.. a digidash is ridiculously easy to build. I made a GPS speedo from my GPS, an arduino and an old 16x1 lcd display (out of an old laser printer). Total cost about £20 (if i'd left it together..) and total time to build about 20 mins including the code. In fact, pretty much everything I'm doing is already out there (for cost..) I'm just doing it Blue Peter style.... |
| |
To get a standard A40 this low, you'd have to dig a hole to put it in |
|
|
|
|
|
|
i have looked into carputers, tried a few out in various cars in various guises (laptop on the passenger seat first off, much like you did) and was collecting the bits to get one up and running in my car, they always seemed to be a work in progress though and never felt (to me) like i'd want to trust them with anything important in the car so i gave up and bought a dvd player instead. |
| |
Volvo back as my main squeeze, more boost and some interior goodies on the way.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Volvo back as my main squeeze, more boost and some interior goodies on the way.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
I did see that yes ;D (don't worry, eep posting. It's what I do, lol)
I don't want it to be that obvious, I don't think touchscreen displays and cortina dashes go too well together ( I have the pre-facelift slopeaway dash..) but I'm thinking of integrating a discrete digital display in the clock pod (clock never works properly..) and the speedo and revcounter may well end up with servos driving the needles.
|
| |
To get a standard A40 this low, you'd have to dig a hole to put it in |
|
|
|
|
|
|
fold out display in the armrest? you know you want a heads up display, plenty of room on top of the dash for a screen to lay flat. |
| |
Volvo back as my main squeeze, more boost and some interior goodies on the way.
|
|
Llewelyn_
Posted a lot
Hi everyone :)
Posts: 1,977
|
|
|
|
|
Amazing Mr. Two! Maybe an iDrive style control like that one could be a good idea?
|
| |
"Back off man, I'm a Scientist" - Dr. Peter Venkman
|
|
chevazon
Posted a lot
1939 Chevrolet 2 door coupe, `67 `Zon estate, `87 Ragtop Cavalier, 4 x 800 Drifters,(!) 1500 Drifter
Posts: 2,259
|
|
|
|
"Go for it Scarey"  Andy I know where you are coming from with this but why not combine your thoughts with the initial ideas for the Rover ? That would be something that would come from the mind of Mary Shelley. |
| |
|
|
|
|
) and also someone was interested in tracking car alarms and security in an older car. I've been thinking about all this anyway, I like a lot of the features you get in a modern, and I'm a total tech-head but I don't like modern cars per se. I want modern toys, but in a cortina (a black '72 2 door GXL to be precise). It already has electric seats (volvo S60) and central locking (BMW/toad alarm) and a zetec with megasquirt for management, and I've been playing with some aspects of computer control here with a view to making a portable car-pc. 
