• Registered: 2010-09-03
  • Posts: 3

Topic: So I really put the infocast in my car.

Car is a 1999 Honda Civic SI.

I have been working on it off and on for about a month now.  I completely disasembled the unit from the case. Fiberglassed a shroud into my car, and mounted it. I use the headphone output to feed audio into an auxiliary input in my radio. I ran 2 usb extension cords into the center console for easier access.  I put a push button switch in the center console as well to go back a page, think using pandora and jumping back to the main screen.  Power is delivered by using a slightly modified XM Xpress satellite radio power cord.

I use Ken's Silvermoon to browse (mapquest, google maps, etc)
I have several USB sticks with videos and music.  Insignia says the infocast will support up to a 64GB stick and or 2000 files on one stick.
My phone is a wifi hotspot when needed so I can stream pandora anywhere.

I will have pictures of everything Thursday afternoon to show off. Its pretty wicked so far.  Ill give a teaser of a rough finish. 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v233/slosc2/2010-10-11155534.jpg

  • Registered: 2010-09-28
  • Posts: 6

Re: So I really put the infocast in my car.

Cool...I can't wait to see

  • Registered: 2010-08-13
  • Posts: 89

Re: So I really put the infocast in my car.

Now if this thing had a gps, it would be in every vehicle out there. Cant wait to see it. Open Source Hardware rules!

  • Registered: 2010-11-06
  • Posts: 11

Re: So I really put the infocast in my car.

Congrats on your integration of the Insignia into the Civic.  Can't wait for the pics.  I was interested in taking the Insignia product mobile as well.  I'm willing to live with a fairly good size battery size for the freedom of running Insignia on my classroom or my friends house with no wifi.  Can anyone suggest a battery pack that will provide enough power for lasting an hour or so?

  • Registered: 2011-03-01
  • Posts: 8

Re: So I really put the infocast in my car.

Any updates on this?  This is pretty much what I want to do.  The only additional is GPS.  Are you running stock infocast software, or have you put in another Linux distro?

Also, have you seen this page:

http://www.caliberforumz.com/showthread.php?t=31860

Similar situation.  Maybe we can work together to make this thing even more robust.

  • Registered: 2010-08-19
  • Posts: 13

Re: So I really put the infocast in my car.

jduarte3 wrote:

Any updates on this?  This is pretty much what I want to do.  The only additional is GPS.  Are you running stock infocast software, or have you put in another Linux distro?

Also, have you seen this page:

http://www.caliberforumz.com/showthread.php?t=31860

Similar situation.  Maybe we can work together to make this thing even more robust.

That is actually my project. I've been making some very slow progress on it over the months.  I really am terrible with putty & bondo so my dash isn't very pretty yet.

https://picasaweb.google.com/noobacide/ … Dashboard#

You can see some screenshots of the last version I did that still used the chumby flash player.  I've started over with Ubuntu and will probably use Qt direct on the framebuffer.

7 Reply by jduarte3 (edited by jduarte3 2011-03-02 07:58:37)

  • Registered: 2011-03-01
  • Posts: 8

Re: So I really put the infocast in my car.

GrizzlyAdams wrote:
jduarte3 wrote:

Any updates on this?  This is pretty much what I want to do.  The only additional is GPS.  Are you running stock infocast software, or have you put in another Linux distro?

Also, have you seen this page:

http://www.caliberforumz.com/showthread.php?t=31860

Similar situation.  Maybe we can work together to make this thing even more robust.

That is actually my project. I've been making some very slow progress on it over the months.  I really am terrible with putty & bondo so my dash isn't very pretty yet.

https://picasaweb.google.com/noobacide/ … Dashboard#

You can see some screenshots of the last version I did that still used the chumby flash player.  I've started over with Ubuntu and will probably use Qt direct on the framebuffer.


That's looking good hardware, AND interface-wise.  I'd help you with the Bondo & such, but I'm in Fort Myers.  I'm sure you'll get it though.  It won't be too hard in the end because the Caliber has a smooth finish already.  The hardest parts will be the inner corners.  Perhaps you could use a thin dowel with sandpaper glued on to it if you want them rounded.  In any case, sand, sand, sand!  You'll get it!  There's lots of great tips at mp3car.com.  You may not get anything about the Infocast, but lots of dash modification/bondo/painting tips.

So you got a dialer and the weather and all those cool looking dashboards working with the stock Chumby/Infocast software?!  It truly looked awesome, why did you end up changing to Ubuntu? Was the google maps working with GPS, or just the mapping info?

  • Registered: 2010-08-19
  • Posts: 13

Re: So I really put the infocast in my car.

jduarte3 wrote:

That's looking good hardware, AND interface-wise.  I'd help you with the Bondo & such, but I'm in Fort Myers.  I'm sure you'll get it though.  It won't be too hard in the end because the Caliber has a smooth finish already.  The hardest parts will be the inner corners.  Perhaps you could use a thin dowel with sandpaper glued on to it if you want them rounded.  In any case, sand, sand, sand!  You'll get it!  There's lots of great tips at mp3car.com.  You may not get anything about the Infocast, but lots of dash modification/bondo/painting tips.

So you got a dialer and the weather and all those cool looking dashboards working with the stock Chumby/Infocast software?!  It truly looked awesome, why did you end up changing to Ubuntu? Was the google maps working with GPS, or just the mapping info?

Its funny you should mention FtMyers, as my family used to have a condo on Marco Island.  The google maps was just me messing with the webbrowser (see the sticky).  I was quickly getting in over my head with interfacing the flash and backend stuff, and I am actually thinking about using XBMC for the frontend now.  The problems I was having with the stock firmware came in when I started adding programs and libs, things were just snowballing so I decided the larger base of ready to use packages from ubuntu (or any other full distro) would be helpful.  I don't want to spend the next several weeks compiling dependancies just to get my OBDII, GPS, and music players all going.

As far as the body work goes, I'm just impatient and need to get some better sanding dowels & blocks.  Right now I've just got putty on the bezel and it doesn't sand as well as the manufacturer claims.  I've actually got two different kinds of putty, JBWeld metalic automotive putty on the back for strength, and another brand of plastic putty on the front.  The bondo is supposed to work with the plastic putty pretty good from what I've been told by the local body shop. They use the plastic stuff for major fill, and then bondo for the final topper before paint.

  • Registered: 2011-03-01
  • Posts: 8

Re: So I really put the infocast in my car.

Grizzly, (no point in quoting since nobody else is posting)
My aunt/uncle have a old timeshare in Marco.  It's nice to go out there and rent a boat, and coast around the islands.

I bought this thing because is said Linux, so I figured it would be easy to hack stuff into it.  Unfortunately, I never got into Linux, so this will be an uphill battle for me.  Upon initial looking into all this, I don't think I would be able to get as far as you did without going to another distro.  However, I don't know the first thing about compiling, or how to make this thing run another distro.  So, I will be doing a lot of research on this subject.  So far, I've only found information from you:
http://forum.chumby.com/viewtopic.php?pid=35368#p35368
&
http://forum.chumby.com/viewtopic.php?pid=35417#p35417

Is there any chance you'd be willing to share an image of your build that you have going on this?  My wife already likes this thing in the kitchen, so I'm going to have limited time to work on it.  Looks like I may end up having to buy her another one, or build her something to replace it.

  • Registered: 2010-08-19
  • Posts: 13

Re: So I really put the infocast in my car.

Soon as I get a chance to polish it up a bit I'll post a tarball. It might be a few days though as I'm only able to work on this in my spare time.

  • Registered: 2011-03-01
  • Posts: 8

Re: So I really put the infocast in my car.

Well, I'll be slowly reading how to do this compiling thing.  I'll set up a laptop with ubuntu or whatever linux cds I have laying around so I can start figuring things out.

On a "side" note, any news on the original poster's project?  It was looking good, would love to see results!

  • Registered: 2010-12-04
  • Posts: 13

Re: So I really put the infocast in my car.

Any updates on how this turned out?