Friday, July 12, 2013

CarPC first build

Hi!

After working a lot at my CarPC project I have decided to take a break and post about it.

A short preview is here:

You can download the latest image from my Downloads page in the top right corner of this blog.
If you want to build it by yourself please follow my previous tutorials but replace the three patches with the single patch from here, which is for XBMC12.2. Also read my previous post to find how to calibrate the screen axes.

Features:
  • auto start XBMC
  • eGalax touch screen support with configurable greater area for touch event(8 pixels)
  • improved skin with larger buttons and smooth transitions(link for the skin)
  • System Power OFF button
  • usbmount enabled(so usb MSD's are plug and play)
The new calibration file contains one more entry: click_confines which defines the area for XBMC to distinguish between click and drag actions(touch moves less than 8 pixels before release than action is click, else the action is drag).

Have fun!
Andrei

15 comments:

  1. awesome! thx again for your time. the last think i am missing is the possibility to "right click". so actually just open the submenu if you presses more than x seconds. Of course you must not move your finger during that time.

    so when can we expect this change ? :-)

    thx again and best regards,

    max

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    1. Hi!

      I don't know what to say regarding right click, because I was busy setting up a Navigation system using XBMC and Navit on RPI lately(I will post soon).

      Andrei

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  2. Installed your image in my pi a few days ago. Everything seems to be working great. Except for WiFi.
    I've ruled out my adapter since it works on a fresh Raspbian image. So I'm wondering what you might have changed in this image that breaks it for me. It seems to be wpa_supplicant that's the problem. Any ideas? Your help would be GREATLY appreciated!

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    1. Hi!

      Please have a look in the file /etc/network/interfaces, as I have added an Wifi interface which automatically connects to the name, and password specified in this file.
      Thanks for the appreciation!

      Andrei

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    2. That's one of the things I've already tried. I've also tried a number of different guides for the adapter I have (ralink rt5370) and none of them seem to work. The strange thing is that it works out of the box when I boot with a fresh Raspbian image. Did you change anything other than the interfaces file? Wifi is the last thing preventing me from getting my car computer done.

      Delete
    3. I am sorry but I don't know how to help you more.
      As a last option, you can
      - use your Raspbian sd card which works with your adapter
      - replace my kernel files
      - build xbmc 12.2 with my patch(http://code.google.com/p/andrei-development/downloads/detail?name=eGalaxPatch.diff)
      - copy eGalaxCalibration file from my image
      - copy the skin from my image(/home/pi/.xbmc/addons/skin.CarPC-touch)

      Good luck!
      Andrei

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  3. Romanian's are the best guys..really!

    i have a question.. is it possibly to connect the RPI with an hotspot (like smartphone/tablet) and playing then youtube videos on the screen?

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    Replies
    1. Hi!
      You can achieve this very easy: just get one usb wifi dongle from http://elinux.org/RPi_USB_Wi-Fi_Adapters(I have on Edimax EW-7811Un which is working out of the box with Raspbian.

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  4. i also have a nother question.. your calibration is in my case inverted.. top left is left bottem and top rigt is bottom right.. how can i change it ? i tryed it to change it on ubuntu in the folder share/emachine and the calibrationpad.. but i am not allowed to do changes... i think just to invert the x and the y numbers.. am i right? or how can i do it? i am not a specialist at programming =/

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  5. now works via SSH but i dont know what i should change.... i have your settings:

    calib_x_d=-21;calib_x_fact=0.66013409;calib_y_d=-50;calib_y_fact=0.410724472;swap_axes=0;click_confline=8

    and what should i now change ? how i said the top left is the bottom left and the top right is the bottom right.. need verry fast your help pls =(

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    1. Hi!

      Please have a look at my previous post regarding calibration(http://www.engineering-diy.blogspot.ro/2013/02/raspberry-pi-raspbian-xbmc-and-egalax-7.html) on Paragraph 4(Touchscreen calibration). The formulas are these:
      pointer.x = screen_width - value_read.x * calib_x_fact - calib_x_d;
      pointer.y = screen_height - value_read.y * calib_y_fact - calib_y_d;
      From what I have understood from your issue you have only Y axis inverted. You just have to:
      - set calib_y_d equal to our screen height in pixels(in my case calib_y_d=720)
      - set calib_y_fact as a negative value(in my case calib_y_fact=-0.410724472)
      If your Y axis have an offset you can tweak calib_y_d value.

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  6. Great work! I put in my calibration and it worked perfectly!

    Any chance you could build in usb audio support? As the pi's sound is awful, I have a class 1 card which works great with raspbmc which has pulse audio support!
    But i need touchscreen for my car pi setup, I've got an 8inch screen I've mounted in the dash, and is fantastic to use!

    Thx Jazz

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    1. Hi Jazz!

      Thank you!
      If you have any instructions for building audio support, maybe I will find some time to build with pulseaudio. At this moment I am a little busy in integrating Navit in the system(just need to tweak the interface a little).
      I have tried different approaches:
      - I have put a new firmware with pop sound fix(http://forum.stmlabs.com/showthread.php?tid=4573&pid=59568#pid59568): this resulted in adding a black layer behind XBMC so I couldn't see what is behind -> no Navit
      - I have tried to continuously play a blank sound as her http://www.oxymoronical.com/blog/2013/01/Pop-free-sound-from-a-Raspberry-Pi-running-XBMC. This has the issue that sometimes, about couple a minutes some glitches are heared
      The best choice for me is to buy one HDMI splitter(http://www.ebay.com/itm/281035186817?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649) which has it's own DAC.

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  7. Hi,

    Thank you for the image for the xbmc touchscreen at first.
    I have a problem, I wanted to swap the axis via SSH but I dont know the SSH username and password, coudl you tell me which one you set?

    Thanks in advance

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    1. Nvm, I am just to stupid to read :)

      Delete