It's been a while since I wrote a phlog, but sometimes I just do not have the
time, inclination or energy to write something. Well, today (Bevrijdingsdag
2022 / Freedom day 2022) I have something to write about: My new project for
a small carputer. I have been wanting to put a computer in my car for a long
time, and I was thinking about the purpose of that for a long time. I just
could not come up with a good application for a carputer, so I did not build
it. But now I have finally found multiple reasons that I deem good and
necessary enough to warrant the build.
Here in the Netherlands, the FM stations will be going off-air in the coming
years (could be as early as 2023). This means that the FM radio in my car will
then not be able to receive music directly anymore (except some crappy AM stat-
ions (AM is not really a thing anymore in the EU)) and I would have to put a
DAB+ receiver addon into my car to receive radio stations again. These are ugly
and have weird antennas that you have to glue to the windshield. Not nice.
But! When I put a small computer in my car, and connect it to the already pre-
sent AV connector of my radio, then I can use that little computer for recei-
ving via WiFi... Wifi can be provided by my phone (hotspot), and so I would be
able to listen to any channel I wish.
Further, as I am driving a 4x4 (and sometimes go off-road) it would be neat to
have a tilt sensor (both axes) for the car, and show the angles on-screen.
So, finally I found not one, but two killer apps that would make building and
maintaining a carputer worthwhile.
Therefore I will be putting a Raspberry Pi in my car, connect it to the AV
connection, write some software for the streaming and for the tilt sensor
(GY6500 type via I2C) and then have some awesome added value for my car.
I will write about this as I go, so expect a few updates in the coming months.
