Car Project Home :: Projects Home

This page should be read from bottom to top… yay?

• r. d. 2010/07/17 20:01
  • My documentation on this project is piss-poor at best. All I can say is that I'll try harder next time? ;)
  • I am adding a VU meter to the audio output – two LM3915 LED drivers and these nifty looking LED light bars. Along with the 20×4 LCD and the indicator LEDs, the light bars are also green.
  • I am starting to think about v2 right now which will include a dedicated spectrum analyzer that will drive several of the LED bars. I'll be going lo-fi on this with some basic band-pass filters (a-la crossover in speakerland) and measuring output voltage.
  • GPS is officially out, as is a compass. I don't have the resources to handle that right now (just trying to get this all going will be a challenge as is)
  • Picked up some SOIC-20 breakout boards from SparkFun so that the soldering nightmare is eliminated.
  • Massive Digikey order arrived this week with all sorts of goodies – at the point now where I have a detailed-ish hardware schematic (still matches the pin config in the wiki) and can start prototyping different parts and slap em on the breadboard.

• r. d. 2010/06/01 21:20
  • I think I am settling a little bit. I found a great article here detailing using an RTC over i2c. I'm still having issues believing that it's really that easy. I guess I haven't looked under the hood of the wire library.. maybe I should be more trusting?
  • I've got a cart ready at moderndevice.com with a sanguino and headers. I'm still not entirely sure if i need the cpu or not. the extra serial line alone is what is drawing me in. Plus it's only a few dollars more. I may toss in a RBBB for grins.
  • I'm struggling to find a good temp sensor. I keep looking at thermistors, then LM335s, then other chips, and around and around I go. I don't like that a LM335 needs calibration (really?!?).. I thoroughly enjoy the simplicity of a voltage divider circuit with a thermistor… grrrrr….
  • Trying to create some sort of LED dimmer for the LCD backlight. I'm striking out on this one. I've found a bazillion hits using a 555 timer but was never able to dim the LED (could get it on and off with a potentiometer… makes sense!). A PWM dimmer with a trimpot is definitely on my list of things I want to accomplish on v1.
    • I definitely want the dimmer to be separate from the Arduino…. freeing up a digital pin is becoming more of a pain than anything.
  • I SOMEHOW FIGURED OUT HOW TO SOLDER A SOIC CHIP!!!!! I cannot believe how damn long that took, but I have two (of 6) audio lines wired. I realistically need 3 in order to begin the project for real (would like 4, and 2 extras pre-wired for future use). Pictures of this success (failure maybe? haven't tested anything yet) coming sometime soon.

• r. d. 2010/05/27 12:54
  • Still undecided on what to use as the core cpu… blech.
  • This project keeps evolving and unevolving but one thing is remaining constant: I still need something to switch audio sources and provide some sort of power for devices. I keep toying with the idea of a semi-navigational component to this computer (at the very least a compass) but am never satisfied with the available products and the pricetag that is attached.
  • GPS is an eventual addition.
  • I am starting to consider thermistors as a viable temp sensing solution. This alone is a reason to jump to a Sanguino or an Arduino Mega (need more analog IO).
  • Look how long ago the last update was… almost 2 months? I bought the arduino with the hopes of completing this project LAST SUMMER. Oh how far I've come?

• r. d. 2010/04/01 12:03
  • Wired up a solid 5V power circuit (7805), all I2C devices, and a 74NHC4049 inverter on the breadboard.
  • I need to figure out & code reading information off of the I2C bus. Will be reading signals from buttons on one chip. the other two expanders are output only and that's simple.
  • Starting on a block-level outline of what I want my code to do.
  • Items that have been shelved due to lack of interest/need right now:
    • iPod cable that will provide audio link and charging.
    • iPod communication via the same table.

• r. d. 2010/03/31 20:00
  • Rejecting the LCD4Wire library in favor of the built-in library in the Arduino IDE (saving the 1 pin is unnecessary).
  • Added in my massive ideas for the second version of the project on the carduino v2 page.

• r. d. 2010/03/30 21:12
  • Looking into this: http://www.ikalogic.com/debouncing.php
    • Need to find the trigger on the end of the circuit. I'm sure there's a DIP that has 8 on chip. I hope…
      • Here it is: http://search.digikey.com/scripts/DkSearch/dksus.dll?Detail&name=568-2753-5-ND @21:22
    • Need to buy more capacitors! :)

• r. d. 2010/03/30 20:50
  • Project wiki is up
  • Decided pin/hardware connections
  • Re-looked up the LCD library on Arduino that uses 6 DIO pins instead of 7. Still undecided on whether saving one pin is worth it (as it stands now I have 5 open pins… all of which are PWM which may be why I'm saving them)
  • Moving to analog temp sensors instead of serial. Should I need to expand, I may move to I2C.
  • Decided AGAINST Sanguino for this project – will prototype the build using my Duemilanove and then deployment with the RBBB kit from moderndevice.com. Sanguino still kicks ass for the price.. still considering it even though it's complete OVERKILL.