NickT

Over the past year I have been busy writing some software to run in my 928. This is partly an inspiration by Mr. Ott and his "virtual dashboard", but I have taken it a bit further.

CarTrak5 can read a number of analog, digital inputs and a GPS dongle. I say "a number" because I have not really nailed down the exact amount as there is no technical limit really. Most likely it will be 32 analog and a 80 or so digital. It is then up to the user to display these in the layout of their choosing.. There is an editor for doing such. Layouts can be switched at will, and there is no limit to the number.

With the editor you have full control over gauge size, gauge properties, color, position and so on. Sky is the limit on how the layouts looks. I am no artist I must admit, but I hope the screen shots show you an idea at least of what can be done.

There is no limit to the types of sensors that can be read, temperature, pressure, on/off, voltage and so on. The software uses a translation file to convert what ever the sensor is outputting into something meaningful for us. So for each new sensor type only a new translation file is needed. (maybe some support electronics)

CartTrak 5 can log all activity to disk for later playback or analysis. At the moment I am working on the speech part of it so it will let you know when thresholds have been crossed.

Thinking now about making some of the digital ports as outputs to maybe control the HVAC and so on.

Some features:

• 4 Timers
• 0-30 times
• 0-60 times
• Average speed
• trip average
• Full GPS data
• Odometer
• 2 trip odometers
• Many different gauge types. More being added all the time.
• Editor for creating layouts.
• 32 Analog inputs *-see above
• 80 Digital input *-see above
• Plans to include OBDII later on.

I have this running on an Asus netbook with Windows 7 hooked to a lilliput 7" touch screen.

Below are some screen shots of a few layouts and some of the gauge types.

Let me know what you all think.. I have a month or so more of work to do, and then will think about making it available through one of our gracious 928 vendors. Might need a tester or two . CarTrak is not car specific and will run anywhere.

Enjoy.

jeff spahn

Can you say Lexus LFA dash for our cars! Get an LCD screen that will fit in our dash pod opening and overlay it over the exisitng dash. It can't be any cooler.

jleidel

NickT, sweet job. A few questions...

- what language is it written in?
- are you using a cross platform gui base? [eg, QT4, Java Swing, etc]
- which processor does your Asus netbook have in it? Intel Atom?

The reason I ask is I've been seriously thinking about building a similar system using a series of 7" LCD's hooked up to a Beagleboard [Arm Cortex-A8 processor]. The beagleboard has quite a bit of expansion capability and runs off of 5V at 2.4A [so I'm not chewing too much battery]. However, it runs Linux, WindowsCE embedded and Google Android [i had planned to use either Linux or Android]

blown 87

this should go well with the carputer.

NickT

I down loaded a screen shot of the lexus dash and was playing around with overlaying on it.. Pretty cool

NickT

Thanks!

I am using Delphi 2009, no not really true cross platform although there are ways to port to iPhone and Android..
My Asus has the dual core atom N570

NickT

I was playing around with some bezels I found on the internet...

neilh

Why? Just drive the damn thing :-)

ALKada

Nick,
Nice effort. Thanks for sharing. I can't wait to see if you or someone does write a customizable dash overlay to replace our pod gauges with an LCD screen and your software so that once could pipe these gauges into it.

jpNcos

An altitude reading could be handy for us in the mountains in my day I go from 4000' to 9500' a few times.

NickT

For one reason or another I stopped working on this for awhile, but picked it back up recently and really started to polish it up.

Been running it in my 928 for a few weeks now and am pleased with it's performance.

This is the first video to show the GUI:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNQkQ...ature=youtu.be

NickT

This is the results of a run to the store last night. Mostly slow roads but on the way back I did an 80mph blast down a bit of highway, that's the bit between 3301 and 3501. Interesting how engine temp also dropped, it was about 65F outside at this time.

Between 1401 and 2801 is the engine off, about 20 minutes.

Interesting to see how the external air temp and the air at the MAF inlet do remain fairly close while the car is in motion. The last bit where the MAF temp starts to rise is sitting in my driveway at idle.

ghinkel

Hi Nick, I've been interested in a "virtual" console for some time, and have been a Delphi developer since version 1. If you are willing to share, I'd love to have a look at your source code.

NickT

Hey Gary..
Not ready to share all the source quite yet but I can certainly talk about how it works under the skin. I use XE2 now instead of D2009. Just got XE4, some work to do before I compile it there.

Glad to hear from another Delphi guy..

-Nick

NickT

Here is an hour highway run the other day, little bit of traffic here and there.