ECMlink PiLink - Owners Thread

[Justin DuBois]

Install is complete: Got to say, having a lot of fun with this. I set up the Mitsubishi "Drive your Passion" startup screen fading into a spinning circle - and a fair bit of color scheme and background updates for the carbon fiber look.- Now running OAP 11. iPhone 14.1 iOS is working correctly now with the "recents" and "address book" phone feature. Backup Camera is working great and John worked out a nifty 12v signal input to trigger it.

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[Ludachris]

What a great looking set up. Well done.

 

[Justin DuBois]

Oh, look - I put the gear shift to reverse, and a camera turns on

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[marcman804]

This is sick! I think Im sold on this now, I have to order it. Are you able to play audio thru this as well?

Oh, look - I put the gear shift to reverse, and a camera turns on

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[Justin DuBois]

Yes - Audio is handled through the OpenAutoPro interface, along with hands free phone integraiton. The USB audio card provides the 3.5mm headphone out and 3.5mm Mic input. I connected to my aftermarket amp driving aftermarket speakers to the headphone jack. No factory speaker setup here.

There is volume control in the OAP interface - rudimentary, but functional. I'm looking for ways to improve this as the built in EQ and pre-amp quality is "OK". True audiophile will likely be disappointed.

 

[Justin DuBois]

Game on!

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[GST with PSI]

Install is complete: Got to say, having a lot of fun with this.

Where did you get all the little indicator lights?

 

[Justin DuBois]

Made them - Inkjet print onto backlit material in reverse. Attach two sided adhesive to the back, punch out the circles, and then peel and stick them to the flat face of a panel mount lamp.

 

[Justin DuBois]

John has been busy - he added some code to make a manual override. Now the video feed is on demand!

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[Justin DuBois]

I've been busy, trying to make RetroPie work really - really well. (Pro Tip - don't run a VNC session, or record video while playing emulated games.) Also - for the really old ones, you need to find the sound samples that go with the rom and install them in the correct MAME samples folder.

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[Justin DuBois]

Regards improving audio - I did replace a decades old RCA cable from the sound card to the AMP (12ft) with a twisted pair continuous run taking care not to run along side the high amp power lines, and crossing at 90deg where necessary. The faint high pitch buzz I was hearing with the engine running is much improved, if not gone. 30mv is not much line level in car audio world, and I'm curious to add a line level booster so that I can set the Alpine line level input back to 4v to see what that does.

 

[Justin DuBois]

Fan Control:
First - A transistor circuit to protect the Pulse Wave Modulated GPIO pin

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Q1 - BC637 transistor
R1 - 1K resistor
D1 - 1N4148 diode

This is what it looks like in the real world:

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Then - a program to control it:
All the fancy formula do not work well for the tiny little fan in Pilink. I ended up using a simple 5 second interval temp check, find the difference between target temp and actual temp, and then adjust the fan speed based on fanSpeed=fanSpeed+Diff. This dampens the adjustment so that it slowly increases or decreases. I also ended up with a super low pulse frequency of 15hz. The result is an idle state running the fan at about 35% to maintain 45deg C. and it sounds sorta like a car from the Jetsons.

Another handy feature for bench nerds like me - when running on a USB-C power supply (outside the car) the fan now shuts down when the CPU shuts down.

PWMFanControl.py

I just need to install the file, and run it silently at boot time.

Justin

 

[Justin DuBois]

I’ve tried a couple different wireless keyboard/trackpad options and game controllers looking for a nice feeling and working option. There is always something off about these things. Examples: a power button right next to the left mouse button ( god why ) or Blue Tooth vs dedicated dongal. And for game controller, wired vs BT, and if BT does it connect quickly, or do i have to pair it again and again or do the lights blink even though it’s connected etc..etc..

Here is an option that I do really like: Feels good in the hand, has a dedicated dongal for instant connection, is two devices in one, the game controller has three chipset modes, (I like the xbox mode) fits in the glovebox with the Pilink.

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https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07STY21PS/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_imm_t1_CM9UFb1WCRG37

 

[Justin DuBois]

Regards improving audio - I did replace a decades old RCA cable from the sound card to the AMP (12ft) with a twisted pair continuous run taking care not to run along side the high amp power lines, and crossing at 90deg where necessary. The faint high pitch buzz I was hearing with the engine running is much improved, if not gone. 30mv is not much line level in car audio world, and I'm curious to add a line level booster so that I can set the Alpine line level input back to 4v to see what that does.

I seldom pass up the opportunity to buy a new tool, here we see a super basic palm sized digital o-scope showing me how much and where the USB sound card limits are for pre-amp line level.

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This signal was generated from a 400hz tone YouTube video playing in a web browser on my Bluetooth connected phone through OAP’s music feature. OAP volume at max, and OAP’s EQ - flat at 0db. If I increase the EQ more than 0, the signal starts to clip. Looks like this UGREEN sound card is good for 3.3v pre-amp line level.

 

[TSiAWD666]

Can anyone share some installation pics?

Also, for Thanksgiving there is a 20% code available through Cyber Monday. Just go to https://jfracing.net and use code "TURKEY"! The new backup camera upgrade is available for preorder (release in Jan 2021 at the latest) so you can take advantage of the sale.

 

[Justin DuBois]

I have enhanced the DashControl app with a day / night mode that sync's with the sunrise and sunset time that is in the open auto pro ini preferences file. Not satisfied with static sunrise and sunset times, I created a run on boot .sh script that calculates the sunrise and sunset time based on a local time zone and longitude and latitude coordinates - then writes the hour and minutes into the openauto pro ini file.

Upshot is, My car display will switch color schemes at sunrise and sunset every day of the year without adjustment. - science gave us the formulae to predict the future!

 

[gofer]

Finals are finally over so I have a few weeks between semester's to get this dust collector installed. I was excited to get this thing going but college kicked my butt this last semester and I couldn't find the time to install it like I wanted. Here's where it's currently at, still have to wire everything up but at least I found it a home. Hopefully by next weekend I'll have it wired in and I'll be messaging you for the software update, John.

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[Justin DuBois]

Finals are finally over so I have a few weeks between semester's to get this dust collector installed. I was excited to get this thing going but college kicked my butt this last semester and I couldn't find the time to install it like I wanted. Here's where it's currently at, still have to wire everything up but at least I found it a home. Hopefully by next weekend I'll have it wired in and I'll be messaging you for the software update, John.

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Oooooh, nice. what version of the setup are you running? and what options?

Also - I need to repair/replace my seats, and wanted to know more about yours. Can you PM some advice?

Justin

 

[gofer]

I'm just running the basic version of PiLink, the only upgrade I got was the 7" HDMI touch screen display and the 2g mount.

 

[TSiAWD666]

All, I've just released the Backup Camera upgrade for PiLink. Thread can be found here: https://www.dsmtuners.com/threads/pilink-backup-camera-upgrade-released.532793/

Also, v1.11 for PiLink Standard (i.e. not OpenAuto) has been released including the necessary software for the Backup Camera upgrade. v1.1 users can update by simply putting the update on their PiLink USB Drive, and v1.0 users will need to update their microSD card image to v1.1 then USB update or to v1.11 image directly. Details on the update can be found here: https://www.jfracing.net/p/pilinkdatalogger

 

[Justin DuBois]

Ooooh I want Race Capture in my OAP App shortcuts - SO much! (waiting for something to test)

 

[Justin DuBois]

The Beta of v2 RaceCapture app launches on OAP! That is very hopeful.

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[Justin DuBois]

I ran a full update with OAP 12, for this upgrade:
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.tomshardware.com/amp/news/raspberry-pi-widevine

YouTube, Disney+, Prime Video, and Netflix working in Chromium! (Hulu is blocked due to some Hulu specific limitations where it needs to know your location, which it can't get from Chromium)

Another benefit of the OS update is access to the GUI features of openbox, which allow me to launch the apps I want without a title bar. In the case of retropie, this really cleans up the screen blanking when launching games.

Generally things seem to be working, but I've also seen OAP crash, and I have to see what is causing it.

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[Justin DuBois]

OAP crashes resolved with a re-image of the chip, and some better attention to syntax on my app launching .sh scripts.

[cool]

 

[Justin DuBois]

Adding a USB to CAN bus to Pilink is kicking my butt. I decided to try a different adaptor with SocketCAN support so I can use Python-can libraries. That will arrive friday.

I’m also trying to use a USB SSD to see if there is any meaningful performance improvement. Boot from USB is working with current Pi4 firmware, but I have not worked out the changes needed for ECMLink to save files correctly configured this way.

Also - Wireless Apple CarPlay dongal is in hand! Now I wait for OAP 13 to be released for the software support. It strikes me as funny that my oldest car will be the 1st car I have with Car play.