Research and Learning

For those of you that check out this blog and have been waiting for something new and exciting to pop up... you'll have to keep waiting. I'm taking some time to actually learn as much as possible about iOS programming. I've started a small library of books and found several other resources that I'm using to develop my skills to produce this app.

Books

iOS5 Programming Pushing the Limits
iOS5 Programming Cookbook
iOS5 App Programming Guide
iOS5 Developers Cookbook
Programming iOS5

Online Lectures

about 40 hours of lectures from Stanford University that I found linked in iTunes... I feel like I'm back in college.

I do believe that after familiarizing myself with the above information I'll have a pretty decent foundation to continue building this app.

Off to the books I go!

Still A Lot to Learn

So as you might have noticed updates are getting a little further apart. It was pretty easy to through some stuff together and get a good feel for how the GUI was going to look. Making things work like I want them and not having an extensive background in programming is proving to be a bit difficult at times. I spend most of the available project time reading now and the todo list is still pretty much the todo list from the last post with one exception. I was finally able to figure out how to make my app download information from wunderground to give me the current temperature, humidity, and an nice little weather icon. At some point I'll setup my app to do this when its first started and then it will updated periodically afterwords.

Screenshots

Working Weather Addition

Now back to reading so I can get some more things finished up with the GUI before I get into the serial communication between the iPad and PIC16F887!

Its been a while...

So the last few days have not been too productive. I'm still a bit new to all the programming and the more complex things get the more I find myself reading! However, I made some small improvements to the navigation part of the app. I can now easily switch between the 3 view types without problems, I've also got it set up for category searches via a toolbar located at the bottom of the screen. Its all functioning about as far as I might take it. although it would make for a pretty sick app if it was all self contained.

Short Video

Still To Do's

Although I like the idea of doing color coordinated background to match the cars interior lighting I believe it will be better to set the UI up with the selection of 2 color schemes (one for day time and one for night) I figure I can make a switch in the setup page of the app to switch between an auto mode that will be time driven or manual. At night a super bright iPad might not be the best thing to have so with a second scheme it can be color matched and not nearly as bright. I think that will make driving with it much easier!

I've also been working on setting up the weather info on the main page of the app. I'm getting close but having some issues with the API call to wunderground and getting my information back and usable in my app. I'm getting close though so maybe late tonight or tomorrow I'll have that finished up.

I've been communicating with someone about the Redparks serial cable for iOS and I believe I'll be able to mod that cable a bit to get everything I'm going to need! Will be a bit of a tight fit though but all and all its the best thing I can find that will allow me to do all this without JailBreaking the iPad.

Probably still have a few weeks of tinkering with the GUI to get to a level of satisfaction before I'll move onto getting it closer for the install. Might have to see what kinda strings I can pull to get a redpark cable for my b-day!


Thats all for tonight!

Let there be Music!

So all weekend long and I've only seemed to complete one thing. I've got the Ipod page of the app able to link to my music library on the iPad to select songs, load them into a play list and play them... I'm not entirely satisfied with the way this part of the app works. I just wanted to make sure I could get it to work at a barebones level. Well after some brief tutorials, some light reading, more tutorials, more reading, and finally arriving at what I have I do feel partially accomplished...

Short Video of latest updates

Other items that I did this weekend include:

• locating my pickit 2 programmer 
• putting MPLabs on the mac.... (only to find out the pickit 2 is not supproted... brief waste of time) 

*although there is a workaround using the terminal window to write the code to the chip... I'm not that up to snuff with my mac to spend the time learning how to make this work...

• located my old evaluation/debug board with a pic16f887 chip on it... 

Photo of Dev. board

Hopefully soon I'll start working on the iPad to picmicro connection!

Birthday Gift Early...

So previously I was debating on if I should fork over the money to apple to become an iOS developer... This is no longer a debate! My wonderful wife made the decision very easy. So as you can guess I'm now a iOS developer member and I can start testing the code out on my iPad!!! Perhaps one of the best birthday gifts ever!

Short Clip of iPad interface IN CAR!

To do items

• Link weather info information back up so it updates and test it out on the Ipad with my actual location
• Finish Navigation portion of the app. Right now its just a map with my location... pretty boring I know
• Revamp the ipod music page to something a bit more 21st century and get it all working with my current music library

Then for the fun part... pulling out the old assembly language part of the brain to get the iPad talking to the PicMicro to make things really interesting  (this part might take a while... haven't worked with the assembly code in about 3 years... hoping it all starts coming back though)

Yay for another day of progress and an awesome wife!!!

Audio Features

Think I've located some products to start planing the audio section around. I've added an advanced audio settings page based on the features available on the TDA7718N. Basically this is a nice little DSP chip that has an IC2 interface that I'll be able to use the PicMicro to program the settings of.

Tentative Parts List

TDA7718N  (DSP Chip for sound/volume control)

Si4735 FM/AM Radio Receiver Breakout (am/fm tuner board with RDS support and IC2 interface)

Redpark TTL cable for iOS (cable and development SDK to get the iPad and PicMicro connected)

Sample Video of added audio settings

Its a bit difficult to make out what things are present on the advanced page but they are as follows:

Treble with -15dB to + 15dB range
Center Freq. selection of 10kHz, 12.5kHz, 15kHz, 17.5kHz

Mid with -15dB to + 15dB range
Center Freq. selection of 500Hz, 1kHz, 1.5kHz, 2.5kHz
Q setting of .75, 1.0, 1.25

Bass with -15dB to + 15dB range
Center Freq. selection of 60Hz, 80Hz, 100Hz, 200Hz
Q setting of 1, 1.25, 1.5, 2

Subwoofer cut off frequency 55Hz, 85Hz, 120Hz, 160Hz

Main audio settings page will retain balance, fade, subwoofer level and turning internal amps on/off

Looks like I will be able to get most of the audio features found on your typical headunit including controls for a subwoofer output! For this project I plan to use some of my old audio stuff! 

Items to still workout

• To go only with pre-outs to run to external amps or build/buy Chip amp solution to retain use of factory audio system. (or possibly both)
• To Sirius/XM or not... looking like it would require buying an add-on tuner for an aftermarket headunit and hacking it up to talk to the PicMicro to be controlled via the iPad interface...
• Pre-amp to boost up the audio signal from the TDA DSP chip to something around the 4 volt mark... would like to use some Burr Brown chips I have laying around from a past project... they seem to work nice!
• To get an apple iOS developer account or not... would like to do this without but the more I read the more imposible apple has made it to program in xCode and get it on an iDevice without... 

If anyone has suggestions for DSP chips well suited for car audio or some decent pre-fab preamp circuits to cut down on development time I'd love to know about them! This project scope is expanding rapidly and I'd like to be able to finish before its time to buy a newer car... lol

More Updates

Ok so I've been working a little more with how I want things displayed. Learned how to take screen recordings of the Ipad simulator so they come out looking a bit better than trying to record a computer screen with my phone.... anyways here is what I've gotten put together tonight. 

Short Video

Pretty basic setup. Gives easy access to each of the audio sources with some settings, Main screen has the basic audio controls that will function for each audio source. Going selecting an audio source then pressing the play button will make that source active and it will remain active in the navigation window, setup window and main window. 

Hope you all enjoy this short preview. 

Revamping the GUI

When I first started thinking about this I thought I would just create a simple app to control the climate functions and use the Ipad as an Ipad for music and maps.... Well that idea is out now and I'm going to try my best to incorporate everything I want into one app. Basically I'm going to turn the Ipad into a complete stand-alone headunit all powered by one app. I'm working on revamping the GUI to get set it up to have access to the climate control on the main page along with some standard audio controls. Branching off of the main page will be the more advanced controls for each audio input as well as a page dedicated to audio settings such graphical eq, balance, fade, ect... My plan is to keep the standard audio controls available at each page view so it is easily accessible.  Now if I only had 18 hours a day to devote to this... I'm getting excited about this! Also, ditched the landscape setup as my Forte doesn't seem to really have the room to support that without major modifications... so I guess I'll live with a portrait view :(

New Layout

Short Video

Teaser Install Pictures

Just had to get an idea of what this awesomeness will look like in the car! Must say I do like what I see! think I can probably do a bit better color matching of the red for the interior though. Overall I think this will make a nice home for the Ipad.

If you look at this let me know what you think...

General Schematic Overview

Schematic Layout

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-G-sWbC9-Gjo/UCBri8pP6OI/AAAAAAAAASk/yvnzNS_mlD8/w705-h545-p-k/Page-01.jpeg

Items I plan to design and build
Regulated Power Supply
Climate Control Interface
PicMicro Main Control Board

Items I'm undecided on
Audio Amp Board

Possibly HD radio module (just to be fancy)
Possibly Sirus/XM module (I'm kinda cheap so maybe not)


Items I Plan to purchase and incorporate
AM/FM module (for listening to local radio)

I'll create more detailed schematics once things get moving along.

Priority on work will be the following:

• Getting the IPad interface put together
• Climate Control wiring
• IPad to Pic Micro main board communication

GUI Updates

So things are a bit slow in making the updates I want to get incorporated into the GUI. Tonight I got the locations services up and going so it pulls the GPS data location in so I can update the Weather! Big step forward for me... as this is all pretty new! Anyways just wanted to show a short Clip of where things are standing from the user interface side. 

Things to still add:

Music

Nav App

*some way to do a sweet back up camera feed*

IPad Mount Rough Model

So many things to consider with this project... tonight worked out some modeling for the IPad Mount that will be contained in the dash. These are a bit rough and far from finished.


Back View

This shows a rough idea of the back where the main control panel will be that supports the audio/ climate control features. (all the factory wire harness will plug into this box.

Front View

A servo controled IPad dock/holder will allow for easy removal so its not left in the car.


Basic Exploded View

Just a random shot with the few pieces modeled up.

Brains of the Operation

Initial thoughts are the Ipad is going to communicate with a pic micro chip that will interface with the current car controls.

Chip Selection

2 x  40 pin 

PIC16F887 8 Bit Chip

Most likely to be used for this project as it has many input/output pins. 

Not sure exactly how many will be needed yet but will be putting together a wiring diagram in the coming days as time becomes available.  

3 x 28 pin

PIC16F767 8 Bit Chip

The electronics box for controlling the climate system will ideally leave all the factory wiring intact. The current plan to make this happen is to obtain a center control panel from a junkyard to harvest the plugs to allow for a simple plug in solution. 

Stay tuned for the progress…. this is not your typical weekend project…