CarMinx

Front End Software for Mac Car Computers

I needed some car front end software for my own project, and since I haven't been able to find what I want, I've decided to write my own. I've already made a pretty good start.

The feature wish list includes the following:

Music playing
Movie playing
Photo viewing
GPS interface
Optimisation for smaller monitors and touchscreens
Multiple monitor support (eg 7" touchscreen on dash, another in rear seat)
Phidget control (www.phidgets.com) (allows display of sensor info such as temperature, pressure, bat. voltage, text on LCD screen, joystick input, control of servos, LEDs, RFID etc)
Internet browsing
Phone interface
iPod integration
Wardriving
Other application launching

System requirements: Mac running OSX (eventually, could produce MacOS 9 version, and even Windows and Linux versions)

Current Status

Basic music playing - scans the Music folder for mp3 and AAC files

Basic movie playing - scans the Movies folder for MPG, MOV and AVI files. Make sure you install DivX , AC3 , Quicktime MPEG2 codecs for maximum compatibility.

Basic Photo viewing - very basic scan for images in Pictures folder

Basic GPS interface - displays only the lat and lon and a marker on a world map!

Phidget control (www.phidgets.com) Supports one interface unit, reconfigurable display of 8 analogue sensors. Displays welcome message and time in LCD Text display!

Good Internet browsing - uses Apple's WebKit, so works pretty well. Allows you to define favourite buttons. Has basic onscreen soft keyboard.

Other application launching - allows you to assign any Application (including Dashboard) to a button for simple and rapid launching

Basic Wardriving - can now browse and join networks

It is the result of only a few hours of programming, and should develop rapidly over the next few weeks.

Please note that you MUST install the included Phidget libraries , even if you don't have any phidget devices. Sorry about that, but I have had to hard code the library references into the application.

You can download an early preview here

You can download the Phidget installer here . (If that fails you can also try here )

Once again, if you don't install the Phidget library, the app will just quit on launch!

Unlike other software which seems to focus on a pretty interface that has limited or no functionality, I am very much focussing initially on function - the interface, skinning, icons etc. will mature later, hopefully with feedback from you. In the meantime, you have to put up with a pretty rough and ugly interface, but hopefully one which is usable and useful!

If there are some features you would like to see incorporated, or for general feedback, send me an email at