Newbie Here - Welcome

bensewell · February 07, 2013, 12:05:54 AM

Hi everyone. I've got myself an A13 with Wifi and have big plans for it.

As its got Android on it I'm planning on installing it into my car and running a ODB2 reader to the screen.

So this box of tricks will power android as a media box.
Hopefully a GPS sat nav - what kind of GPS do I need?
View some web cams, one in the engine bay, one in the rear bumper as a reversing camera

I already have a flip out DVD player with touch screen but dont know how to adapt this to the A13 so will probably hook this up to a USB trackpad mouse hidden in the centre console.

So what do you think?

Is it do-able?

bensewell · February 07, 2013, 11:31:05 PM

Question. How do I wire the A13 up to a power switch? Theres the in built one on the board but I want to rig it up to a on / off button OR wire it up to turn on when my car ignition is turned on?

drspastic · February 08, 2013, 01:18:54 AM

depends if you want it to boot each time you start the engine, or go to standby when not in use. really for the power it takes you could just leave it on the battery without worry about drain, then you could access it remote via vnc on your cellphone while its parked so it acts as alarm, view cam of who is breaking in, gps of where it is, and even remote start like KIT in knight rider. dont forget the red led scanner in the grille!
if you run android, there are some good free apps that monitor camera and email you photos when zones are disturbed. i run motion detector on my cellphone to see if someone steals from me while i leave my stuff unattended. alarming and tracking your car are one thing, but getting a face shot of the thief so you can batter him later is so much more satisfying.

jwischka · February 09, 2013, 04:44:36 PM

Quote from: bensewell on February 07, 2013, 11:31:05 PM
Question. How do I wire the A13 up to a power switch? Theres the in built one on the board but I want to rig it up to a on / off button OR wire it up to turn on when my car ignition is turned on?

If it were me, I would get a separate power supply to isolate the electronics from the car's electrical bus. You should be able to find some sort of DC:DC supply - different suppliers depending on where you live. If you're US, Mouser is probably as good a place to look as any. You're probably wanting something that's either 12VDC->5VDC, but ideally something that will take inputs from 10-15VDC and give you a solid 5VDC output.

From there, you're going to need to decide how you want to access the thing - switch on the dash, etc. Hooking the power supply up to a switch is fairly simple... switch in series with the power supply going from +12 to ground. When switch is open, no current flows. When switch is closed, current flows.

JohnS · February 09, 2013, 06:25:24 PM

So long as it's not the A13 Micro you can just hook it up to any convenient part of the car.

You might want to contemplate a transient suppressor but you'll probably be OK without one.

Rather than reinvent the wheel I'd be tempted to connect for OBD via an elm327

John

jwischka · February 09, 2013, 06:37:01 PM

Quote from: JohnS on February 09, 2013, 06:25:24 PM
So long as it's not the A13 Micro you can just hook it up to any convenient part of the car.

You might want to contemplate a transient suppressor but you'll probably be OK without one.

Rather than reinvent the wheel I'd be tempted to connect for OBD via an elm327

John

Electrical busses on cars (depending on the age) are pretty messy - I'd at least put some sort of capacitive filter in front of my board. Having a separate supply, mainly for isolation purposes wouldn't be a bad idea, though.

JohnS · February 09, 2013, 07:41:22 PM

With the power circuitry on all but the Micro I'd leave it as is. A big cap wouldn't hurt, though.

John

bensewell · February 19, 2013, 09:13:27 AM

Cheers fellas now I've had a good tinker with it I was thinking of getting a battery to charge from the main car battery then rig the a13 to this. Just need to work out how to add drivers into android as I was thinking of connecting to the of odb2 / elm over Bluetooth I have a USB wire if not. Then last thing is GPS then I'm on a winner...

Anyone had their board in a case? I'm thinking of putting mine in a gap behind the dash but would prefer it in a case.

I'll put a writeup up when I get a chance and get the a13 on a multimeter it could send me a message if an alarm zone was triggered I'm getting very excited.

I want extra gauges as my car is very temperature sensitive (mgtf)