Raspberry Pi / Arduino in a Taco

So, I still don't have a Taco at the moment, but this should change in the next couple of weeks. Need to return my X3 first.

I am getting one with Entune Plus/Nav/Etc. I also plan on wheeling the truck, so at some point I will get a mean black bumper, extra lights, a winch, etc., which will require switches. Girlfriend wants seat covers with heaters, so more switches. Switches everywhere! Have no idea where I will put all of them.

A while ago I helped a guy with couple of projects and now have both, an Arduino and a Raspberry Pi sitting around begging to be used somewhere, so an idea crossed my mind yesterday. Obviously, with Entune Plus and a Nav, I won't need an extra car-puter, however, why not use one of those things to control lights/etc?

Both of them have their pluses and minuses, but I am leaning towards Raspberry Pi for this. It already runs Linux, and I know a few scripting languages to make this whole thing work together. I just want to see if this makes any sense.

2 things that I need may not be possible:

a) A way to get video out (either HDMI or Composite) from Raspberry Pi to the head unit screen
b) Be able to control Raspberry Pi with Entune Touch screen.

After that I will need to get a small relay board and wire all the lights to it (easy part)
And since Raspberry Pi is a computer and may refuse to boot up for whatever reason, I still need a manual way to control the lights and everything else, so I plan on wiring a small project box with buttons on it to the relays and just keeping it in the glove box, just in case I need to turn things on and off when computer is not running.

If first 2 things are not possible, I can still get a small 2.8" touch screen and mount it somewhere (lets say armrest lid).

http://www.adafruit.com/products/1601

Another possibility is to abandon the idea of a touch screen and just use a 20x4 LCD screen with left/right/up/down/enter buttons (somewhat like ScanGauge II) that would allow me to select what I want to turn on/off.

http://www.bitwizard.nl/catalog/images/dsc04957_small.jpg

What do you guys think?


EDIT: Just found another interesting product. Kinda expensive though. Network relay board with a built in web server, so it can be controlled from any mobile device. This will still require Raspberry Pi to create a in-car network. to be able to access that.

http://www.controlanything.com/Relay/Relay/IPHONE_RELAY-WEB&CpField=relayamps&CpValue=Optional

 

sub'd

 

more than likely stock entune/touchscreen units will not play with arduino. Check out the link for an entire forum on car pc's.

http://www.diymobileaudio.com/forum/car-pc-forum/

 

Yeah, thats what I was afraid of. There is probably some way to make the video in work, since some Toyota vans use identical head units, but have RCA inputs.

There is also a kit you can buy, that replaces your AUX with AV. So it is possible to use it as a display.
http://www.prestigioussociety.com/?page_id=1223

Unfortunately there does not seem to be any way to get touch screen signal out, so it will either have to be some kind of external display or something else. I need to do more research on this topic...




Thanks for the link, btw!

 

maybe skip the entune package and just upgrade the stock radio with a touchscreen headunit, probably cheaper that way too. Plus it should have all the connections you want.

 

Did you ever get anywhere with this?