Carputer -> iPad?

If it's anything like the iPhone, I think one negative would be having a $1000 bill sitting in plain sight

 

I think there will be a market for mounts and mobile holders/adaptors and such things. In my mind, it would be great for kids, passengers in the back for media and such as opposed to either GPS or rear seat DVD players. Some company will make a mobile mount and such as well. I am sure that there will be a corporate mount for those who need to have it front and center when driving...

 

You will need to upgrade you HU so you have USB connection or run the output (headphones) into your center console connector.
In all, a great idea!.

 

I think the iPad 3G would make an excellent carputer so long as you took it with you when you left. It should be able to connect to bluetooth and audio pretty easily. I am not aiming to buy the first revision of the iPad but if they add a camera or it gets a large enough wireless subsidy (in the USA) I would be interested.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Clarion-MiND-Internet-Navigation-Black/dp/B001LMB6M2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1264873226&sr=8-1

Or you can try this
Jim

 

I tunes has Google maps that provides navigation and that would work just fine on the Ipad.

 

Sorry, but a carputer needs to have an USB input and SW to support an OBDII interface. Neither is nor is likely to be available for the iPad.

JeffD

 

NOOOOO You will be likely to crash if you use this in your car. iPad and Prius do not need to be used together. Each in its own right is techy enough.

 

I didn't know about all those obd wifi devices.

Has anyone used one of them? The kiwi looks the most interesting. How much prius information isn't in the obd socket and requires additional wires tapped?

 

Actually, in Steve Jobs' Keynote Address, he outlined the cost options:

Apple - QuickTime - Apple Special Event January 2010

I forget how many minutes in, but he said there are two options:

$15/month -- 250 megs transfer cap
$30/month -- Unlimited data transfer rate

And the most important thing is *No Contracts*. You can go month-to-month as you please.

This is of course for Domestic US. It'll be a few months before any International Rates have been ironed out.

 

The temperature extremes here and theft would mean I'd have to lug it around. The size would be interfering with passengers' knee. It's not full functioned enough to be a laptop, too big to be a music server, and I'm not interested in mobile internet. I spend too much time on the cptr as it is I think I'll just get a 64G Touch w/ bluetooth for music.

 

I think it would be great for when you need to read while driving...just mount it up near the MDF...oh wait...


I personally don't need more distractions...my new stereo keeps me plenty busy!

Let us know if you end up using it. I'd love to see what that looks like.

 

In a fit of irrational geekiness, I actually bought the rev app and the kiwi wifi obd. They pair and work just fine, though I don't actually use it much. There's a teeny on/off switch on the kiwi, if you want to leave it plugged in to the obd port and avoid a minor vampire drain on the car battery.

I set Rev up to show a tach as the big guage, and engine coolant temp, air intake temp, fuel consumption, and fuel consumption average, as the 4 small corner readouts. I wasn't sure whether any of the other available info or guages would be useful to a hypermiler or other gearhead. It will supposedly read any codes that get thrown, but since nothing has gone wrong, I don't know how well that works. I don't think there's any way to program custom guages, as people seem to do with the scan guage.

I should probably get a proclip lefthand mount and set up my original iphone with the rev app, so I can use my 3Gs for other things.

 

After I get my nav and speakers installed in a couple of months I may get it and start geeking out. I haven't written an iphone app yet, but if the kiwi works well, I may write one for it. I'll just buy the rev app if it is a good one, but I bet there are some neat tricks we can do for the prius.

I'd like to see all the rpm information. That is tach, mg1 rpm, mg2 rpm. With the possible braking problems I'd like to also be able to see current to/from mg1 and mg2, and information from the brake sensors. I didn't really want to mount the ugly scan gauge, but I can see mounting my iphone. I may have my app output to video in of my new nav unit. Does your toyota nav unit have an aux video in?

 

REV doesn't seem to come with any hybrid or Prius specific guages or info. It doesn't seem to know what car it has been plugged into. It lets you label your car, but it doesn't ask you to specify a car and then pull info from a database or anything. There's a setup screen that shows the available info it is reading or seeing (car obviously needs to be turned on), and lets you set those up as guages. Anything it can't read or isn't seeing is simply greyed out. Like I said before, no apparent way to program in new discovered codes, like on the scanguage.

There's no direct aux video in on the Nav, but there are 3rd party solutions available (vaistechand another co.). They are pricey though, like in the $400 range, and that doesn't even include the override of the nav speed sensor, which is a whole other hardware hack (prestigious society, $250).