If you're interested to see what I have done with my audio system install thus far, you can check out the first half of the saga here

My 80PRS decided it was tired of its servitude after only four months and went to the big ol' scrap yard in the sky. Amazon was kind enough to refund the full purchase price of the unit and I have decided that ultimately, a head unit (even a fancy one) is not going to satisfy my quest for the ultimate audio experience. It just so happens that last week I ordered a Raspberry Pi to use as a media center for my house. Naturally, my gears started turning.

As for the interface itself, Linux is a non-issue as I'm very familiar with it. The problems I will be facing is getting a clean audio signal to my amps. I am trying to avoid buying a DSP but I may end up doing so anyway. The main issues I feel I will be coming up against is whether or not I can find a USB sound card with a decent DAC, with six RCA outputs, and Linux-based DSP software. I will be ordering another Pi, a Liliput 7" HDMI touchscreen, WiFi dongle, shock-resistant hard drive, and a few other peripherals this coming week. As I start getting everything together I will document everything I do here to pave the road for anyone else wanting to follow such a project.

Thoughts?

 

Now you are talking my kind of ideas!

I was searching for an LCD/digital dash for my car this week and the best I could come up with was some old style 80's digital dash. Then the thought of transplanting a Chevy Volt dash into the car hit my brain so I started digging deeper. The closest I came was a forum in Austria or some other country talking about using a Raspberry Pi to drive the LCD but it was an older forum and seemed outdated (2010 I think was last post in thread)

If the Pi works as a touch-screen audio system there's no reason it can't work as a dashboard. Linking a couple of Pi's together in an Ethernet network should give you the ability to link the audio and dash gauge systems together. At that point its a matter of programming a couple of touch screen buttons or a finger swipe gesture to be able to slide your gauges from your dash to the "radio pod" and vice versa. How friggin kewl would that be!

I'm sure there are plenty of people out there that can program python or another ARMv6 language into doing what we are brainstorming. A couple of OLED screens strategically placed around the dash could act as infotainment. Maybe enven incorporate a head-up display. The hardest part is getting the senders for the gauges ported to USB from Serial connections. I'm sure finding a coder on Freelancer.com or Codango or some other code bid website would be pretty easy.

 

I'm not a programmer but what you're suggesting would be more easily implemented by using the x86 architecture and CAN bus. The older ARMv6 architecture that the Pi works on would have a hard time keeping up with even the rudimentary ECM system that our cars use. I thought about something like this but the ultimate fact of the matter is that I am not rich and coding is expensive

As for an update on the new system design I am doing, I have decided to ditch my 4 channel amp in favor of using the JBL MS-8. This will solve most of the problems I faced with having to use extra peripherals with the Pi i.e. sound cards. Essentially all I wanted to use the Pi for was to select and play music, not handle all the processing too as while it's an awesome piece of technology, you can't really drive a UI, play music, and perform DSP operations on a CPU with a clock rate of 700MHz. I should have the MS-8, additional speakers, and screen by the end of next month so any further posts on my part til then will detail my endeavors to find an interface to use with the Pi that frees up as much clock time and memory as possible while still looking halfway decent.

Stay tuned.