Raspberry Pi Van Projects

[tintim]

I wouldn't live without it now, amazing how far its come. My old model B struggles a little with the updates so decided to build another in a vm on my freenas box, at least I have some resilience now. It blocks just under 40% of DNS traffic and if it interferes with anything I just whitelist.

I've seen Retropie on a few YT vids by ETA Prime - something I've pondered over quite a few times. I'll probably end up putting an emulator it on my Nvidia Shield TV eventually

 

[Robert]

And this is my attempt .

 

[DaveyB]

You lot might as well be speaking Venusion for all I can figure out from your conversation. I would never have previously thought that (a) I was old, and (b) that I was a luddite. Clearly I am both..
What on earth are you going to use that contraption for @Robert ? It looks as though it has an OBD connector on the end.

 

[Robert]

This is going to be effectively ECU firmware reading & writing dongle .
But a lot of Phyton is required .

 

[DaveyB]

This going to be effectively ECU firmware reading & writing dongle .
But a lot of Phyton is required .

Yep, confirms my previous statement. Haven’t understood a single word of that.
I read Phyton as python and couldn’t figure out what a snake or monty had anything to do with electronics.

 

[Ads_Essex]

You lot might as well be speaking Venusion for all I can figure out from your conversation. I would never have previously thought that (a) I was old, and (b) that I was a luddite. Clearly I am both.View attachment 68002.
What on earth are you going to use that contraption for @Robert ? It looks as though it has an OBD connector on the end.

Same here. And I thought I understood tec.

 

[DaveyB]

Same here. And I thought I understood tec.

Thank god it’s not just me. Phew.

 

[Sabre]

More details @Robert ?
What's the piggy back board with the OBD plug?

 

[Robert]

More details @Robert ?
What's the piggy back board with the OBD plug?

It is a CAN header board .

 

[boopzz]

If you have any projects that would be at risk if you lost power (not such a concern in a van with a massive battery!) Take a look at tinyCore Linux.

It boots and loads into RAM and doesn't write to disk unless you tell it to. So you can happily switch it off with fear of borking the SD card. I've used it in a few smart speaker projects.

Its also super lightweight so sips the power as most of the time isn't doing anything (apart from the modules you load for your app)

 

[specialcircumstances]

Has anyone played with either AutoPi ( IoT platform for your car, built on the Raspberry Pi - AutoPii ) - the DIY version, or CarBerry ( Carberry.it ) ?

They look like good ways to integrate a Pi into a van, and they include many useful elements...

I'm trying to decide between them - unless I find a better hat

 

[mr.needs]

And this is my attempt .
View attachment 68001

Hi @Robert, is that the PiCAN 2? Can't quite make it out in your photo.

Do you know if it would be possible to connect the PiCAN directly to the convenience CAN bus? Or does it need to connect through the OBD port?

 

[Texxaco]

After consuming a bottle of red wine tonight there is bugger all point in trying to read any of that. Perhaps I shall try and school myself on the subject tomorrow.

Which tomorrow though?

 

[Robert]

Hi @Robert, is that the PiCAN 2? Can't quite make it out in your photo.

Do you know if it would be possible to connect the PiCAN directly to the convenience CAN bus? Or does it need to connect through the OBD port?

Yes it is.
Actually it is this one ---> Pican 2 CAN-BUS Board for Raspberry Pi 2/3: Amazon.co.uk: Business, Industry & Science
I always used it connected to OBD-II port, but @dnoermann surely will be able to advise much more

What are you tryig to achieve?

 

[mr.needs]

Thinking of building a controller for my recently converted auxiliary/parking heater. I've added the Telestart+remote, but would like to be able to do a bit more with it. Control it from my phone, on a schedule, for a longer duration etc.

There's an (expensive) off the shelf solution from Danhag that looks good, but as I already have the Raspberry Pi lying around I thought I'd have a crack at doing it myself. I'd also like to add a thermostat/PWM blower control for my manual climatic A/C, which I wouldn't get with the Danhag unit.

First thought was to go down the W-Bus route. I bought a W-Bus convertor off eBay, which would have allowed the heater to start with a plain 12V signal. But that's not working with my heater/Telestart.

So next idea is to get one of the OEM overhead control panels and sniff the convenience CAN bus to try identify the communications between the overhead panel and the heater, and then program the Raspberry Pi to do the same job plus more.