Ipad mini in-dash installation

[BruceH]

Very nice! Thanks for posting the pics and video. I am hoping GoPoint has some sort of sale here soon. Otherwise I will just have to break down and order it.

[RaisedOnPorsches]

Just a random thought, but seeing how sophisticated the iPad is relative to the OEM headunit and climate control, might it be possible to design apps that would provide these functionalities for a Porsche?

There'd probably need to be some extensive hardwiring and custom dock interface, but these could be hid behind the iPad Mini so that only a single double DIN would be needed. Then a GT3 lower center console delete could be used with just an iPad up top.

Thoughts?

[Shehadehd]

Originally Posted by RaisedOnPorsches

Just a random thought, but seeing how sophisticated the iPad is relative to the OEM headunit and climate control, might it be possible to design apps that would provide these functionalities for a Porsche?



There'd probably need to be some extensive hardwiring and custom dock interface, but these could be hid behind the iPad Mini so that only a single double DIN would be needed. Then a GT3 lower center console delete could be used with just an iPad up top.



Thoughts?

I'm guessing you're talking about controlling the radio and climate control? The radio control won't work without a radio receiver but I suppose if you don't care for the radio, you can connect the ipad directly to the stock amp and remove the need for the radio.

The climate control is another story. Depending on how the climate control adjusts the temperature, fan speed, etc. (analog voltage or digital signals... I think the later) you may be able to connect a micro to the ipad dock connector and use it as an intermediate to translate from the ipad to the climate controls.

I imagine you'll have much better results using an android tablet since they tend to be better for interfacing with third party applications. But in any case, making this work for the radio shouldn't be too difficult, but for the climate control, you will need to know exactly how the climate control communicates your input. And of course, with everything on the tablet, you a restricted to only being able to control one thing at a time.


EDIT: thinking about the climate control, you are almost guaranteed that it is communicating withy the car through CAN bus or some other digital communication. I'd imagine, the only way to get that unit to work as an app would be by either getting a hold of the commands being sent and received by the climate control unit, or by probing each data and clock line with an oscilloscope and going through all the climate control settings and relocating the exact data stream using a micro controller. Most realistic way to do this, would be to have every command mapped Ina. Micro and have it connect to your tablet via Bluetooth. Then whenever you set a setting in your app, it'll communicate it to the micro, which will then send the right data packet over the wire. Sh|t load of work if you ask me.

A second, and pretty jerry rigged solution, would be to pop out all the buttons of the climate control unit, solder the button connections to output pins on a micro, then do the same bluetooth interfacing as mentioned above to the tablet. This time, when you send an input (say, turn fan up) the micro will effectively press the button for you on the climate control unit. If you do put the ipad or some other tablet in the car, you will have plenty of room in the upper console, behind the tablet, to hide the climate control unit. I know epapp will have a field day with this solution, but it'll get the job done.

[RaisedOnPorsches]

Thanks for the detailed thoughts. I was imagining something more a long your latter description. Having the iPad issue a signal that would then trigger the climate control circuitry. I agree that this would be a rather large undertaking anyway around it.

As for the head unit functionality, I pretty much only listen to streaming audio via my iPhone and AUX input adapter on the CDR-220. Since there are streaming radio apps as well, I could imagine effectively deleting the head unit all together so long as iPad interfaced into the amp correctly.

You clearly know more than I do about the technical aspects of this idea. It simply occurred to me as a next possible phase to iPad (or tablet in general) integration. The computing power within these tablets far exceeds anything in the cars electronic controls, it seems like it should be possible to leverage it. Just some random thoughts.

[Shehadehd]

Originally Posted by RaisedOnPorsches

Thanks for the detailed thoughts. I was imagining something more a long your latter description. Having the iPad issue a signal that would then trigger the climate control circuitry. I agree that this would be a rather large undertaking anyway around it.



As for the head unit functionality, I pretty much only listen to streaming audio via my iPhone and AUX input adapter on the CDR-220. Since there are streaming radio apps as well, I could imagine effectively deleting the head unit all together so long as iPad interfaced into the amp correctly.



You clearly know more than I do about the technical aspects of this idea. It simply occurred to me as a next possible phase to iPad (or tablet in general) integration. The computing power within these tablets far exceeds anything in the cars electronic controls, it seems like it should be possible to leverage it. Just some random thoughts.

I mean, the second route is definitely possible, interfacing with a micro wouldn't be terribly difficult. The bottleneck will be connecting to the micro. I'm not sure if ios7 allows for background bluetooth connectivity or if you will have to reconnect every time you open the app. Besides that, everything else is straight forward: wire everything, program a micro, create an app. DIYs will be everywhere to do this.