UDOO as Car-PC with buttons

Im looking for a android board to use as a Car-PC and have been waching this project:
https://www.hackster.io/mdcostas/carpc-android1

This looks just like I want, but I wonder if its possible to use the integrated arduino board to use push-buttons to open apps in android or a potentiometer to adjust the system volume. (The buttons will act just as the buttons on the original stereo)

Can UDOO do the things I want?

Best Regards.
Carl

 

I am interested in doing this as well. However the project does not go into great detail on HOW he did it all which is unfortunate.

 

@dominique, you should consider to ask your questions to the author of the project on YouTube and on Hackster.io
The author is very responsive and answers all the questions on both these platforms.
Here for example: but there are tons of other videos, which you can find on the page of the project on Hackster.io

 

@Andrea Rovai yes I have seen those videos and they only show him showing it off and does not explain or show HOW he did it. I did reach out to him and unfortunately he did not respond.

 

Hi dominique, actually there's not that much. I've noticed that your comment on YouTube didn't get an answer from the author either. It's a pity.
EDIT:
I forgot to say that, however, the author is a user of this forum, his name is @mdcostas.

 

Thanks. I looked into it and he hasn't been on the forum since Dec 2016.

I will send him a message. I did find someone to help me with the project though. I just need this person to help me integrate the hardware. For example, fit Udoo in the stereo cage, integrate the GPS module, touch screen, and FM antenna module. I can handle the software portion of it all.

I am so looking forward to this. Once I have it all up and running I am going to conduct a really cool project.

 

As a suggestion, look into the CAN and LIN buses. The communication networks used inside modern cars.

Using an off the shelf CAN bus shield or designing your own, will give you a way of hooking into that network and obtaining information to show on the console touch screen display. Plus, with the embedded BLE on the microcontroller, you could make an app on your phone to control those features.

 

I wouldn't recommend doing this, firstly physically accessing the correctly CAN/LIN bus on a vehicle can be difficult. Even if you can tap into the CAN/LIN bus, the payloads are manufacturer specific propriety protocols which you need to decode yourself and this can take many months to do depending on your requirements. Instead depending on the vehicles type and age you can retrieve generic information from the ODBII port, however this is mainly intended for diagnostics so not all the data is useful.

 

The OBDII port is a link into the CAN bus. The basic parameters follow a standard. A list of them can be found on wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OBD-II_PIDs
Though, I do agree, it's a complicated setup and not recommended. Just felt it was worth mentioning the buses to @dominique in case it was something he might be interested in.

 

If anyone is interested in hacking their car, a good resource is the Open Garages website, who also have shared a handy book - http://opengarages.org/handbook/

Also, a currently active Kickstarter project that might be of interest to those interested in accessing their car's data buses - https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1029808658/macchina-the-ultimate-tool-for-taking-control-of-y