MAC running on a Prius MFD via CAN-view

that's pretty cool. can he really use the touchscreen as input?

oh man oh man.. it looks like he can for front row! I would definately put that in my Prius... Rox0rz my boX0rz

 

OK I admit it... I am a Mac Evangelist. Details how do I do this. I want to run a Mac Mini if I can. On the other hand I could use my PowerBook or say an old PowerBook like a 145? Details!!! Oh yes I am a Can View user. Will I have to give up my back up camera?

 

I too want details. Does he have a Nav system? How is the activation for it controlled etc.

 

Hey guys, I'm the one who did this. I've posted more details on my page if you haven't seen it yet (was just pictures and the quicktime)

I have the CAN-view for NAV. The main reason I went the CAN-view route was that you could get touchscreen coordinates through serial.

The software is actually very simple, although I'm still working on tweeking it. I know perl pretty well which why I wrote the serial reader in it. My problem is I really don't know Apple Scrip. I looked at the airclick hack which already had the apple script in it. I'm hoping eventually I an use Apple Script to figure out what application is active and setup reading the screen differently to work best with each application.

The software is the easy part for me. The hard part will be mounting the Mac MINI in a good location, and getting it powered up along with the scan converter. I'm hoping I can get it mounted in that compartment under the stereo. If not it will be going in the trunk in that storage area by the spare tire, and then run a USB cable to thin DVD drive to go in that compartment under the stereo.

I'm also looking into how to hook the mini up the the stereo. I have the 6cd changer already and from what I understand I may loose that with most of the AuxIn products out there.

If anyone has ideas for the next step or any other ideas I'm all ears! I'll be sharing the code I've written as soon as I'm happy with it and it's been cleaned up.

 

I'm the one who did the Mac Prius.

Do you have the NAV or non NAV version. I have the NAV version and yes I have to give up on the reverse camera. One SCART is the NAV Map passthrough, the other is what I'm feeding the the mac into.

But I'm hoping I'll be able to work around this eventually. I first though about maybe getting a SCART video switch. Not the greatest solution. What I hope to eventualy do is to figure out video in into the mini, and then use the CAN data being sent through the serial to the mac to launch a screen showing the video when the CAN data says I'm in reverse.

 

Hey lets work together and figure out some cool stuff to do! As you figured out what I've done isn't rocket science. I'm just sitting on top of all the awsome work Norm has done with the CAN-view.

 

oops old news... my post that is

 

I've gone ahead and posted my code. Still kind of ugly, but for anyone who is interested it's there now.

 

Hi. Have you thought of possibly using a remote rather than the touch screen to handle the interface?

There's a bunch of cheap IR solutions, but what I thought of was that if you have a compatible bluetooth enabled cell phone, and if your Mac mini has a bluetooth module, maybe you could consider Salling clicker to control your Prius's Mac mini...

http://www.salling.com/Clicker/mac/

Take care and nice work!

 

For audio, if worst comes to worst, you could get an FM modulator such as this:
http://www.crutchfield.com/S-pyMaL2MKwig/c...ut&i=142FMMOD01

Since it is hard-wired into the FM antenna input, the sound quality shouldn't be that bad.

 

the job you did was totally awesome. i know it would be a long ways, but there is an alternative fuel fair and electric car rally race in Lacey, Wa in may. a bundle of PriusChatters will be there. if you could be there, you will have a chance to show off your car and answer questions. it would be great to be able to display your mod. check out the thread in the WA State subgroup for details.

 

That's an interesting solution. Another one I've been thinking about, although I need to find more details - http://priuschat.com/index.php?showtopic=10877&hl=bazooka Basically atljam was able to feed the signal directly into the JBL amp. He had a switch to trigger a relay to switch between the head unit and his MP3 player.

I know the CAN-view supports a relay card, I'm wonder if Norm could program something to trigger a relay when it's displaying the Mac's video. I'm going to see if atljam has more details and if my idea is something that can be done with Norm's relay card.

Either that or I've seen projects to trigger relays through a computer's serial output, so it's something that I may be able to do when Front Row is activated.

I'm going to see if atljam can give me more details. If not it may be something I can figure out, it doesn't look too complicated.

Of course if I go this route I'm really limiting things to people who have NAV and JBL equiped 2004+5 Priuses.

 

While that would be cool, but it's kind of far away. I'm in northern VA.

I am planning on going to this: http://makezine.com/faire/ One of the guys from CalCars saw my stuff an invited me to go out there, there are supposed to be some other Prius hackers attending too. I was originally not going to be able to make it, but amazingly enough there is a conference 30 minutes away the following monday after the fair that I can get my work to send me to (and was thinking of attending anyway). Of course I won't have my car, but I'll be able to talk about what I've done. Maybe I'll be able to bring out hardward to work on someone else who has a CAN-view.

 

in VA? oops for some reason i thought you were in BC canada... ok... forget that idea

 

From what I've been reading, it seems the AUX-Box works... kinda. If I remember correctly, you aren't able to switch back and forth between the CD changer and the AUX-in. If you switch to one of them, you won't be able to switch back until you turn off/on the car.

FM is not a good way to go. The sound quality is really poor compared to any sort of direct connection. If you like, you can go really low-tech and get a cassette adapter. That would work without sacrificing too much sound quality.

 

The Vais Tech Aux in will work.
http://www.vaistech.com/home.html

It can emulate an MD changer that the 04/05 Prius will understand and not interfere with the CD Changer.
http://homepage.mac.com/brusso/PriusRadio/PhotoAlbum23.html

 

Yeah I saw that, it's kind of expensive though, $289. Right now I'm think I'm leaning towards direct iinput into the JBL amp. I'll either control the relays through the CAN-view, or I may just use the Mac to control a relay through the serial port.

 

here's a link....


http://www.kusnetz.net/prius/