iBUS and CentraFuse

vinzer · June 2nd, 2007, 10:39 AM

I know I already wrote about this but still:

We have few people here with BMW's and with Centrafuse. But we can not control Centrafuse from steeringwheel controls. I know it is possible and even more - I had some luck in that. I have iBus to RS232 converter, have ibuscomm.exe software which simply transforms any button press on the wheel to keyboard button press. But until this moment everything works - I am pressing button on the steeringwheel - it goes to ibus to rs232, after that ibusscomm.exe converts my steeringwheel press to keyboard press.... and thats it - centrafuse doesnot accept any keyboard buttons send to it from my application ibusscomm.exe

DO not ask me if I put a correct screen name for centrafuse in ibusscomm.exe - yes I did. And ibusscomm.exe works perfect with RR or with some other fronends. Even with notepad - a can see keyboard buttons printed even there. Here is some strange issue - maybe anyone have some idea on how to resolve it ?

JAC · June 2nd, 2007, 12:56 PM

I'm with you cause I've had no such luck using the RS232. Next I will order the USB adapter and I'll try installing it as a hid device then maybe CF can recognize it. Wish me good luck and If anyone ha the USB and still haven't got it to work please stop me from wasting my money!

vinzer · June 2nd, 2007, 02:40 PM

Well all what I understand is: the difference between RS232 iBus decoder and USB iBus decoder is only 1 extra chip (similar to MAX3232 or some Prolific USB to RS232 converter). It means that you will just install the drivers but not for the iBus decoder it self but for RS232 to USB converter. So would I be you I would definately look for some other than usb solution.

As I understand: our problem is that Centrafuse for some reason does not accept keyboard buttons pressed or emulated thru iBusComm.exe software. All other applications I've tried it with (StreetDeck, RR, Notepad, Winamp, etc) accepting ibusscomm keyboard commands. So now I am trying to understand at what point and what exactly does not understand or does not receive commands.

Maybe we can find some "buffer" software which can receive commands from ibusscomm and rightaway send them as a keyboard keys to Centrafuse ? Does anything like this existed ?

And the last thing: in my case I've tried both - direct connection of the ibus decoder to COM1 port and connection to some other COM port using Prolific USB to RS232 adapter - both did not work.

Cheers

AnandP83 · June 2nd, 2007, 03:41 PM

Vinzer,

I have not yet looked at the sdk, so i am not sure what other ways CF takes commands, but i have a dirty work around if it takes commands from with the program.

pipe the keyboard shortcut to to a flat file with a time stamp (might want o use time passed since jan 01 1969) with the keyboard value (set up as a service on boot), then from with in centrafuse have a application that reads that flat file (would require it to be multithreaded and work in the background.... like the clock or something)...that wakes up when it sees activity on that port.. or something... you can AIM me at AnandP83 ... i think i will start to tackle this as well, for soon my parts will all be here.

my idea....just a quick thought (and yes i know its not efficient at all) until there is some sort of fix.

you would want all functions calls to be inline...

dotinga00 · June 5th, 2007, 04:55 PM

I hoped for an answer from David........

Marcel

David · June 5th, 2007, 07:26 PM

I still find this very strange, not sure how the device is sending keys... It has to be doing something different...

I have multiple other hardware devices that send hotkeys that work fine...

if someone can override WndProc and let me know the exact window message it is sending I might can track down why it doesn't work

david

AnandP83 · July 5th, 2007, 03:52 PM

any word on this...?

rtaxerxes · August 6th, 2007, 12:57 PM

Me too... This (and South African maps) is the only thing holding me back from going Centrafuse full time.

house98 · September 10th, 2007, 01:18 AM

free bump. Lots of people are interested in this -- including me. They just are not posting here to have a call for action :-)

I'm not sure how I can help David, but please guide me and I will.

I have the USB version. I'm sure others will be willing to give you feedback if you were to 'dumb it down' for us less technical folk.

Thanks

sedmonds · October 23rd, 2007, 09:20 AM

I have been working on this as I've seen the same problems, I have got a workaround, but as I'm not a fully proficient VB programmer its not the prettiest way to go and has limitations.

What I have found is that the process used by ibuscomm is sendkeys, this method which last I heard was completely broken on Vista doesn't appear to be picked up by Centrafuse even on XP. However, by modifying the code to use Sendinput, Centrafuse can pick up the commands.

The downside, is that due to my short amount of free time, I've been unable to re-code it much to take multiple keypresses, it will only take one keypress, so you'd have to change the hotkey settings (not too hard).

If anyone either wants the code, source, exe or even better can code it better to take multiple inputs, then please let me know!

P.S. I haven't yet tested this in my car, but by clicking the 'Simulate Keypress' button I can control Centrafuse... I'll install my car PC at some point!

Regards,