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ECMlink PiLink - Owners Thread

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For those that plan on trying touch screen interfaces out, or perhaps just a mouse, I did actually get the on-screen virtual keyboard working. It was something I worked on because it was... pissing me off and I didn't document it, but in the bottom right next to the Tuning Mode button (the gear icon) is a keyboard button. Simply hit it once to bring up the keyboard, and hit it again to close it.
 
John replies quick and helped me trouble shoot a couple of things installing the PiLink.

I have an old AppRadio 3, which outputs 800x480. I tried setting that on the video settings but for some reason it would not work.
I figured I'd connect my tablet straight to my radio via HDMI to see what my tablet automatically output to the radio, and it turned out to be 1280x720 @ 60 hz. So that's what I changed the settings on the raspberry pi to, instead of the custom Group 2, Mode 87. I went to "standard" settings of group 1 and mode 4.

After doing that, my PiLink output to my radio beautifully via HDMI. It's working flawlessly as seen in the pictures.

Thank you for making a great product!
 

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Pro Tip: If a configuration file setting has quotes around it, keep the quotes when you change values. They are not optional!

This came up with a customer that removed the quotes from the settings in wpa_supplicant.conf (the wifi configuration file) and couldn't figure out why his PiLink wouldn't connect to his WiFi network.

Right now I'm testing with a customer to run OpenAuto Pro on PiLink, which is basically Android Auto. Android phone users could basically use their phone for as a head unit, with touch screen navigation, phone calling, playing music, etc. I'm still at the outset of the investigation, and I have some tricky stuff to puzzle out like how to run and automate ECMLink behind the GUI, but if it works users can use their PiLinks as a head unit of sorts. Requires extra hardware though. Works pretty nicely on my touch screen. And on that topic...

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My touch screen generally works and I have a mostly final general case design for the general screen. In those large holes will be M3 screw inserts to make mounting easy. I have concerns though over installation high on the dash as that's a very high temperature zone and I found my current material deforms when left sitting on the dashboard directly under the windshield on a hot sunny day. Not an issue in other locations, or even sitting outside in direct sunlight, but I know some people may mount displays exposed under the windshield like I do in my race car so it's a concern. I'm currently testing an expensive but super high temp material and iterating over printing methods. Two failures thus far as this stuff is very difficult to print, but I'm making progress. Again, not an issue if you're going to put the screen in the OEM stereo location. And on that topic...

A customer is sending me an unmolested 2g dash panel so I can see if I can work out a flush panel for the display which I think would be pretty cool. Keeping my fingers crossed. If a 1g owner has such a panel they will let me work with, I'd greatly appreciate it.
 
I am about 95% done with integrating OpenAuto Pro with PiLink. I haven't connected to a car and need to make sure datalogging isn't going to have an issue with the new system, but otherwise I have everything working.

Here's a video (pardon the video quality, I had to take it on my old apple phone since I needed my android phone for the demo):
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This was done on my soon to be released 1920x1200 7" touch screen display. It looks way better in person, the phone's video makes it look all washed out but it's quite bright and vibrant. I also have designed a super simple snap-in case for the 2g dash. though that's not pictured here yet, waiting on some more hardware to assemble one.

One added bonus of this research with OpenAuto Pro is that I learned how to set up a hotspot on PiLink. OpenAuto Pro has the ability to set up a wifi hotspot so some Android phones (there's a small, though growing, list of compatible phones) can connect over wifi rather than needing to connect over USB. I found that with my leveraging of the Bonjour service (the software that lets you access PiLink on a network by the name "pilink.local" as opposed to have to figure out the IP address) you can simply connect to the PiLink's hotspot and then use VNC to remote desktop to it. Effectively this means if you have a laptop you can easily control PiLink for tuning your car without having to touch the ECMLink cable, and do this anywhere. I'll see adding this feature to non OpenAuto Pro builds.

The PiLink OpenAuto software update is free. Yep, free. It changes a lot though, so it's not much of an update and more of a completely alternative software build.

However, some additional hardware is needed
- usb hub, sound card, microphone, and bluetooth dongle
- OpenAuto Pro license
- Pi 4

For the Pi 4 I'm going to offer a free trade-in service for Pi 3 B+ model owners if they ship me a unit and pay a $10 return shipping/handling fee. The rest of the hardware and license are about $90 before taxes. People can order the additional pieces from me for $100 + 6% sales tax ($10 fee for assembly and testing) or I will just provide links where people can get the pieces on their own and they're left to do assembly (I will of course provide updated PiLink documentation for this).

So is anyone interested in using their PiLink as an Android Auto in-dash stereo replacement?
 
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Here are some pictures at various exposures to show both the 2g dash snap-in case option for the display, as well as some to show what the display actually looks like color-wise.
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Here are some pictures at various exposures to show both the 2g dash snap-in case option for the display, as well as some to show what the display actually looks like color-wise.
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Any chance that an Iphone would be able to work with this feature in the near future?
 
Any chance that an Iphone would be able to work with this feature in the near future?

Sorry John, zero chance as of now. This is just for Android Auto. The only raspberry pi solution I know for Carplay requires a totally different OS and software and that OS isn't going to run ECMLink. About the best I could do is build two systems, one with Ecmlink and one with the other Carplay system, and you toggle between them with switches (I'd guess an HDMI switch and a USB switch for the touchscreen).
 
Someone asked how the screen looks in the sun. I took some pictures showing it but generally it looks great. Everything was quite visible in the sunlight, as good as my Durango's screen in my opinion. These pics were taken with my sunroof and front windows open on a very bright and sunny afternoon.

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Someone asked how the screen looks in the sun. I took some pictures showing it but generally it looks great. Everything was quite visible in the sunlight, as good as my Durango's screen in my opinion. These pics were taken with my sunroof and front windows open on a very bright and sunny afternoon.

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Looks like no real glare issues.
 
Owners, if in the future you need accessories I launched https://jfracing.net to make the ordering process hopefully easier.
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I'm currently exploring a backup camera add-on to PiLink (not the digital rear view mirror DMS that I already sell). If this is something that does interest you do message me as I'm not 100% it's worth pursuing.
 
I've been working on v1.1 of the PiLink software. Here are some features planned for the release:
  • Better on-screen virtual keyboard (way better than what I was using)
  • Splash video support. Add a video to your PiLink's boot process, and comes with a default video you can enable
  • Automatic cleanup of config files that are saved in Windows format (as opposed to Unix format). This is for those that forget to use Notepad++ (which not surprisingly is a good number of people!)
  • Hotspot mode. Enable a hotspot mode so that PiLink makes its own WiFi network and you can simply connect to it and then remote desktop into it for viewing, tuning, or whatever. Makes access super easy when away from your home WiFi network. Also will have an option to automatically enable this mode when your configured networks aren't reachable.
  • improved support for the John Freund Racing 7" Display. It had occasional hiccups with audio and sometimes would flicker during the boot process, and this has been addressed with various tweaks.
  • bug fixes (only major one was for the handful of Pi 4 owners that fixes the Status LED not working)
 
I did pre-work setting up WiFi, Google drive sync, and PiTunnel via desktop HDMI and USB Mouse and Keyboard powered outside the car by USB. John was SUPER helpful getting me over the bonehead text file line feed and file name pitfalls.

Here are some Installation pics:
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So, what about analog switch control from an Android app? Are there such things?

In addition to a single DIN stereo, I have a carbon fiber panel in the second DIN location with 4 analog buttons - which I need to navigate the Stack gauge cluster.

To integrate a touch screen I would need to replace a 4 channel pre-amp bluetooth stereo with something headless that connects to the PiLink stereo output, as well as integrate a 4 analog button replacement.

Ideas?
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Relocate them below the din slot in front of the shifter is one option. Looks pretty clean there.

The pi can control relays which can be used as switches. There also is an Android app that can control an API on the pi which could be used to toggle the relays. The piece missing is an Android auto compatible version of the Android app. I asked the writer of the app if this is on the road map or if it could be, and if I see a response I'll let you know.

Another option with using a relay system is to add software toggles for each switch/relay in the openauto pro system that toggle relay position. This is better because this will be accessible without your phone.
 
interesting I’d prefer a touch screen replacement, the BC and TT are leaving.
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It's all wired in and working great! I don't have to think about logging any more - It just takes care of itself and delivers them to my google drive for review.
 
Let's say I'm looking at my latest log that was uploaded from PiLink to GoogDrive - I've reviewed a local copy and made changes to SD or whatever. What is the easiest way to upload these settings? I VNC remote into the PiLink desktop and using a browser to DL the saved settings on my Google Drive and using ECMLink on Pi to open the settings and save to the ECU. It works fine this way - but wondering what others do?
 
Let's say I'm looking at my latest log that was uploaded from PiLink to GoogDrive - I've reviewed a local copy and made changes to SD or whatever. What is the easiest way to upload these settings? I VNC remote into the PiLink desktop and using a browser to DL the saved settings on my Google Drive and using ECMLink on Pi to open the settings and save to the ECU. It works fine this way - but wondering what others do?
I plug into ecmlink and save. The above method seems real annoying.
 
I can't run through a test now as I don't have my car, but I think you could
  1. save your changes in the log file on the USB drive
  2. put usb drive back into PiLink
  3. power up your car
  4. VNC into PiLink
  5. enable Tuning Mode
  6. open your log file. The location on disk where the USB drive mounts is /media/pi/PILINK, so if you saved it there you can open it from there, then save to your ECU.
  7. disable Tuning Mode
  8. power off your car
 
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Can you get the DSMlink stream/capture screen to display as gauges instead of the line graph? It would be much easier to view while driving.

Short answer: no, not right now. Maybe in the future, but that requires cracking the data stream first which I haven't really done besides poking around the convoluted java code. It's not easy as I don't have the source code (ECMLink doesn't share it as far as I know, and of course I don't blame them) and so I have to decompile the jar file to figure things out, and even if I do I would then have to try to recompile everything from what I decompile and change which... may run into problems (I have no experience with this yet). My java programming capability is limited, as while I can read and even hack at most coding languages, I haven't written Java in like 20 years. So while I plan to poke around with pulling the data stream to do things, it's all just an idea in my head right now and I can't promise anything as my confidence level is... like 50%.
 
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