Posted by angrycamel at February 26th, 2008

I have put the firmware on sourceforge.net under a project aptly named, IEBus Controller. Its getting to the point where I cannot work on it enough nor make enough progress to warrant keeping it all to myself. This doesn’t mean that I wont be working on the project, but it does mean that I welcome anyone who is willing to help out in making this project a reality.

I decided to do this when I realized that a couple others are working on their own versions of the project and repeating work that I had already done. It’s simply not fair for me to hold out on my progress. I was hoping to get everything perfect then release it all at once, but I think at this point its best that I get more people in the trenches with me to help figure out the problems.

So checkout the project page over at the Sourceforge project page. There is no release just yet, but those wishing to work on the project with me should pull down the latest from the Subversion server. If you send me a message, I can give you access as a developer so that you can commit changes. You will need an account with Sourceforge.net in order for this to work. Also, I suggest tortoiseSVN, it has shell integration and has been very easy for a novice SVN user, like myself, to get used to.

Posted by angrycamel at February 23rd, 2008

I just finished putting together the prototype board with the relays all working as they should be. Its a nasty looking beast of a prototype board but its working. I will be testing out the features of switching the video and disabling the IEBus signal from reaching the navigation computer while in “PC” mode tomorrow afternoon. For now I have posted some pictures of the board below. Enjoy!

Posted by angrycamel at January 3rd, 2008

I have began working with the PD72042B again thanks to some chats with Slden over in Russia. He is not using it himself, but in talking to him he gave me some ideas. Now that I am working on a new schematic in the Eagle Cad software I need a library of the chip but one is not provided by EagleSoft (obviously).

I have created a library for the PD72042B in the past but it was not good enough to use on a real board. So this time around I decided I would take my time and really put it together as it should be. Its created from all of the package information provided in the NEC data sheet which can be found here:
http://www.necel.com/function/en/iebus/d72042b.html.

The package is a 16-PIN PLASTIC SOP. I have attached the Eagle library file below, named IEBus.lbr. Leave a comment if you get some use out of it or if you find any problems with it. I have not produced a board from this at the time of posting, so please pay close attention to the pads before sending off anywhere to be made just to be sure. I would hate for someone to waste some money on one of my silly mistakes.

Get the lib file here:
PD72042B Eagle Cad Library File

Posted by angrycamel at December 30th, 2007

With Dave’s help, the video switcher relay circuit is setup and working. I have not yet hooked up the actual wires that control the video toggling on Dom’s unit to the relay because its all pretty well installed in the car. I would do it tonight but its raining outside. For now (testing), the relay is hooked to an LED and will toggle on or off for each touch of the cancel button on the dashboard. That is working perfectly, so when the normal toggle switch for Dom’s unit is removed and the two wires are instead hooked into the relay (replacing the led), I see no reason why it would not work to switch the video over.

Going forward, I am thinking of making the button that causes the relay to flip, programmable on the circuit. I could modify IEBus Studio to handle talking to the unit to program the button sequence and write it to the internal EEPROM. Maybe even putting in a couple more relays that are controlled the same way. So basically you would program a button sequence into the module that will flip a relay to do whatever you want.

Hopefully this nasty weather and the cold I caught from it will subside soon and I can move forward with some more testing. I need to get a working PCB, this breadboard is a huge pain in the ass to lug around.

Anyways, thats all I have for an update right now. I hope everyone is enjoying the holidays!

Posted by angrycamel at December 16th, 2007

Well its been a long time coming but when I finally received the ‘C’ connectors this week, I made a harness from them to gain access to the ACC for starters. I had installed the PC in the trunk already but was waiting on these parts so that I could hook up the ACC line to have the PC start when I turn the key.

Once it was all hooked up, I connected the IEBus development board, started the Mouse Control test application on the carpc, started up Media Engine (a carpc front end application) and got my wife to test it out with me while I rolled the video camera.

Needless to say, everything is working well together. The firmware is translating the IEBus signals to text and transmitting over serial to the PC, the DLL (built from event discoveries in IEBus Studio) catches those signals and makes them available as software events. The Mouse Control test application has defined event handlers that will move the mouse and click on the location that came over the IEBus when I touch the screen.

Here are a couple pics of the setup:

I have put together a quick video of it that you can see here:

Posted by angrycamel at December 6th, 2007

I decided to go ahead and place the order for the C connectors. Due to a request I received in email, I will be selling both a harness that will terminate to a DB9 connector (just like the AH-20 harness) as well as a DIY kit that will come with a plug, cap, DB9 connector and 10 of the special metal connectors needed for assembly of the 8 pin plug (two extras).

I have also decided to offer a DIY kit for the AH20 harness. It will include both the plug and the cap connectors, the DB9 connector and 25 of the special metal connectors needed for assembly of the 20 pin plug (5 extras).

Contact me via, robbienewton [aT] gmail [d0t] com to place an order!

Posted by angrycamel at December 5th, 2007

I may be able to get some of the C connectors (8 pin) for the back of the navigation unit. Would anyone be interested in a harness to gain access to the wires on that plug without damaging anything?

So far I have had one person request it and have been thinking about doing it for myself to get to ACC, Power, and Diagnostics in the trunk. With a simple little harness for this you could make any solution involving those wires, plug n’ playable.

Let me know if it would be worth it for me to order some. It has to be a bulk order, therefore it would be quite an investment on my part, so if you care, please leave some feedback.

The reference to the “C” connector is from my 2006 ETM. Click on the thumbnail below to see a PDF with an image of the connector.

Connector C (8-Pin Navigation)

Posted by angrycamel at November 13th, 2007

I made a video showing a recent test that I did with the latest version of the mouse control software. The software shown in this video will cause the mouse to move to the touch event’s coordinate and click. This is triggered by the touch event handlers in a DLL which was produced by IEBus Studio. The grid application shown in this video is merely there to provide a visual representation of the clicks.

Here is an excerpt of the log file that I used:

~01013101830F0F37310D0001030A0600000000000092
~01013101830F0F37310D0001030A0600000000000092
~01013101830F0F37310D000103000000000000000082
~01018301310F08590D3102012101BE
~01013101830F0F37310D0001030A0600000000000092

~01013101830F0F37310D000103010100000000000084
~01013101830F0F37310D000103020100000000000085
~01013101830F0F37310D000103030100000000000086
~01013101830F0F37310D000103040100000000000087
~01013101830F0F37310D000103050100000000000088
~01013101830F0F37310D000103060100000000000089
~01013101830F0F37310D00010307010000000000008A
~01013101830F0F37310D00010308010000000000008B
~01013101830F0F37310D00010309010000000000008C
~01013101830F0F37310D0001030A010000000000008D
~01013101830F0F37310D0001030B010000000000008E
~01013101830F0F37310D0001030C010000000000008F
~01013101830F0F37310D0001030D0100000000000090
~01013101830F0F37310D0001030E0100000000000091
~01013101830F0F37310D0001030F0100000000000092
~01013101830F0F37310D000103100100000000000093
~01013101830F0F37310D000103110100000000000094
~01013101830F0F37310D000103120100000000000095
~01013101830F0F37310D000103130100000000000096
~01013101830F0F37310D000103140100000000000097

A video of an earlier version of the mouse control app can be see here. It’s a test that was actually performed in the car, live.

And here is the video of the test working perfectly with the IEBus Emulator. I see no reason why this won’t work perfectly in the car once I get the new motherboard for the carpc.

Posted by angrycamel at September 30th, 2007

I completed the etching process of my first printed circuit board tonight. It took a lot of work just to learn how to use the Eagle software to produce the board layout but once I had it done I printed it onto some generic glossy laser paper. Next I took it downstairs to the ironing board, and armed with a piece of cardboard to stiffen the ironing surface, the heat from the iron began to transfer the toner from the printed piece of paper to the blank copper PCB.

After about 4 minutes (read online that 4 minutes was a good time to ensure a good transfer) I took the board with the paper now stuck to it, and put it into a plastic container filled about an inch high with hot water. Immediately I began to see the paper coming away from the copper and forming little bubbles between the paper and the board. Finally, after about 30 seconds of watching the water soak into the paper, I grabbed the corner of the paper and pealed it off like a sticker. Most all of the paper came off leaving behind the toner and a little bit of the paper that rubbed off with my thumb very easily.

Next it was time to put the board into a bath of etchant. I went all cheap and purchased the little $15 kit from RadioShack to test all of this out, but I plan to put together an acrylic bubbler along with some of that nice Ammonium Persulfate that is see through. The board sat in the etching chemical for a little over an hours just because I didn’t feel like babysitting it and went to watch some boob-tube. When I came back the board was done and I transfered it back to the water to deactivate the chemical.

Now that the copper that I didn’t want is gone, all thats left is to clean off the toner. This was handled by some of my wife’s finely smelling Acetone (finger nail polish remover) and a good bit of rubbing with a paper towel. The finished result looks like this:

Now all that is left is to drill the holes and mount all of the components. Next time I do this, I think I am going to go with all surface mount components, so I guess its time to hit up digikey again.

Posted by angrycamel at September 24th, 2007

It’s been a little while since I updated everyone on the progress so I put together a quick screenshot.

IEBus Studio is definately one kick ass program, if I do say so myself. I wanted to take the time to do screenshots of all the features but its just too late on Sunday night and I have been writing code all weekend. So here is my one screenshot that shows just about everything there is to know about the test event feature.

I should have a video sometime soon of it working in the car. Cross your fingers! We have tested and confirmed that the firmware recieves the event message perfectly, so testing that the firmware can put it on the bus properly is all thats left.

Click on the pic for the larger view.