I have a vision for the Hondat (our 2001 Honda Accord, yes I know, original name). I see a GPS guidance system, voice activated environmental controls, and engine stats. I see digital maintenance logs, gigabytes of media, and integrated hands-free over bluetooth. I see…a carputer.
I am starting down the long (and potentially expensive) path of designing, installing, and implementing a custom carputer. I plan on using this blog not only to share my adventures, but to help organize all my ideas. Thus begins the feature list:
- 7″ Touchscreen interface
- Additional 4.5″ LCD monitor
- Micro-ATX form factor for the computer
- Bluetooth
- GPS integration
- Media player (mp3, mpeg, jpeg, etc…)
- Engine stats via OBDII
- Engine diagnostics
- Maintenance Log with reminders
- Digital Environmental Controls
- Voice activated controls
- Trip logs
All this will be integrated into one slick interface.
Other low-priority possibilities include:
- Door lock and trunk control
- Window control
- External sensors (ie. weather sensors, IR, tire pressure, etc…)
- External Cameras
- Wifi
- Car Alarm
- Customized profiles based on driver with some sort of auto recognition (keyed fobs, voice recognition, something…)
I know there is software already out there that does all of this, but I’m looking at this as a learning tool and an exciting hobby. I plan on using quite a bit of third party components, but I want to integrate them all myself. I plan on this all being based off of a Linux OS. Probably something like LFS so I am aware of every package installed on the system.
So here is the first draft of my carputer requirements. I will most likely be editing this page as new ideas pop into my head, or initial ideas are refined. I will also be using the tag system to expand on my adventures with each feature. OBDII will be first up on that list, since I already have an OBDII to USB connector, compliments of Sean (thanks for the birthday present!).