NEW Car2PC Plugin under development

[Nerve]

Centrafuse Car2PC Plugin
Description: Plugin to allow a headunit to talk to Centrafuse using a USB device called the Car2PC available from In Dash PC.
Latest version: 0.61 download
Status: Development (beta)
Requirements: Centrafuse 1.20 (should work on all later versions)
Features:

• Press buttons on your headunit or steering wheel to control Centrafuse
• Display song information in Centrafuse on your headunit*
• Control what the buttons do by pressing them and assigning actions (some buttons on headunits have an on/off so you will need to press them twice to configure each state (on and off)
• Restores connection to car2pc when car is turned off then back on again (may still be some issues with this)
• Context dependant headunit/wheel buttons. Control what they do depending on where you are in Centrafuse
• Customise the headunit display*

*Will be available in a future release

Any buttons that Car2PC can read will be configurable.

Issues!
When selecting a port the port is not opened correctly. To work around this Save settings and exit Centrafuse then go back in to settings and you should then be able to add your actions.

Some Windows themes are causing dialogs to be displayed behind the main window. Symptons are that the dialog displays briefly then seems to disappear. Watch out for this.

I chucked ALL the actions in and some of them may not need to be there while others have some dodgy names. This can be customized though in the English.xml language file. Entries can be removed and description can be altered if anyone fancies.
Centrafuse does not have any actions for Forward/Rewind and Playlist manipulation but these are on David's list to add.

What's Next?
Still would like to do headunit display. Now I have my car it should be easier!

[nintwala]

Hi there...

I would be more than happy to test it out for you.

I dont know if you are the same guy that I PMed my email, but I will send you my email again. Check your PM.

Thank you so much for working on this plugin. I cant wait to test it out.

You can post your codes here too instead of emailing it. Just zip the plugins and attach it. Mark the file Car2PC-test.zip or something, that way people know its not fully working.

[Nerve]

Yes that's me!

Here it is then version 0.2! (see first post).

If anyone has suggestions for how they want to see this developed then please let me know. For example I could use one button to cycle between different modules. Or the number buttons could be used for different modules. Once I've played around a bit I might attempt to allow it to be customized but it depends on how many people find it useful.

[nintwala]

Hi there,

Just tested the 0.2 version. Its working pretty damn well. The previous and next track is working fine. The Repeat button is working as random right now, but it is working fine too.

I am not sure what exactly what the Random button is set to do, but freezes up CF. I have to press it a couple of time for CF to respond back. Its almost like it gets stuck somewhere and doesnt know what to do until you press it again.

Also its showing up as a blank in the Settings menu. It should be a minor thing to fix. Take a look at the screenshot below.

Log file is attached too...

[Nerve]

Hey that's great!

The repeat button is mapped to shuffle but it's an on/off button so that's why you were seeing it seemingly lock up. There is currently anyway to repeat (I don't think) in Centrafuse but I could probably make the plugin simulate it. I should be able to hook into an end of song event or something. I'll see if I can do this.

The blank settings is because I don't have any settings but I'll make sure the text appears at least. No problem.

Let me know if you have any more suggestions especially what do you really need to have next. What Car/headunit do you have?

I might also be able to turn on a debugging for the Car2PC which may give me even more commands to map. If this is specific I might have to create a separate app to help with the mapping.

Thanks for testing nintwala. Glad it works

[nintwala]

I have a 2003 Honda Accord.

This is what my headunit looks like

Honda Accord 03 touch screen install

I am not too worried about the repeat function, but I am sure few people would like to have...

What I really would like to have it the ability to change loaded playlists by press Next/Previous Disc button. It should basically simulate what happens when you press the stack button in media. So it switches to the next/previous playlist in the stack.

In the previous plugin the settings had options to choose what each button should do, so people can customize the buttons. Maybe that can be added eventually too. I used the Prev Disc button to shuffle/unshuffle because the RPT button didnt work in it and I used the Next Disc button to load the visualization.

[nintwala]

I have a program that reads the COM port. It can read the Car2PC adapter and it displays what commands are sent. Like PL, RT1, RT0... something like that.

I will try to press every single button on the headunit and see what command it sends to the computer. This way you can have a list of all the buttons that can be simulated in CF.

Stay tuned...

[Nerve]

nice one. I'll keep a look out for the results

[nintwala]

Ok, This is what I found

PD = Previous Disc
ND = Next Disc
RP1 = Repeat On
RP0 = Repeat Off
MX1 = Random On
MX0 = Random Off
NT = Next Track
PT = Previous Tack
FR1 = Press and Hold Rewind
FR0 = Release Rewind
FF1 = Press and Hold Forward
FF0 = Release Forward
SC1 = Scan Radio On
SC0 = Scan Radio Off

Attached it the log file that it produced when scanning the port. I copied and pasted it into a txt file.

Notice when I pressed Rewind it keeps sending FR1.. When I let go, it send FR0. Same for Forward, when pressed it repeatedly sends FF1 and when I let go it sends FF0. So I think if you check for FF1 or FR1 and start the forward/rewind and look for FF0/FR0 and resume regular play.

I know there was an issue before cause CF didnt have any command for forward/rewind. I am not sure if that has changed, so you might have to do some work around.

Let me know if you need anything else.

[Nerve]

Yea I know about the forward and rewind buttons and no there aren't currently actions for this or for changing playlists but I'll about getting these added.