Carmedia

Goal of the project is to build a DIY Raspberry Pi based car radio. The radio comes with it's own LTE connection & GPS module for navigation. The software is still under development. The Spotify integration is already fully functional.

Required hardware

• Raspberry Pi 4 with a microSD Card
• 7" Touchscreen for Raspberry Pi (eg. DFrobot 7" 800x480 TFT DSI Capacitive Touchscreen)
• HiFiBerry Amp2
• SixFab LTE Base HAT
• LTE module
• LTE antenna
• an angled micro USB cable
• Data SIM (with about 10Mbits speed)
• Mikroe GNSS 7 Click (GPS module)
• GPS antenna

Car radio connectors

There are two common car radio connectors. We recommend buying an adapter cable & cutting off the not needed end.

• Quadlock https://de.aliexpress.com/item/1005003791204676.html?spm=a2g0o.order_list.order_list_main.80.41f65c5fsUb2BG&gatewayAdapt=glo2deu
• 36Pin connector https://de.aliexpress.com/item/32984678591.html?spm=a2g0o.order_list.order_list_main.116.41f65c5fsUb2BG&gatewayAdapt=glo2deu

Car specific information’s

Toyota Aygo or Peugeot 107 or Citroen C1

The required connector is called Quadlock. If your car comes with a small 1 DIN radio, there is a possibility to replace a plastic part in your car, which fits a 2 DIN radio.

• car panel to fit a bigger radio: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4001163253040.html?spm=a2g0o.order_list.order_list_main.111.41f65c5fsUb2BG
• 3d printed mount: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:5810290

Connect the Pins of Quadlock to the following Ports on the HiFiBerry.

Please use this picture as a reference for the Pin numbers.

• Block B: Pin 1 = V+
• Block A: Pin 16= V-
• Block A: Pin 3= Speaker L +
• Block A: Pin 7= Speaker L -
• Block A: Pin 2= Speaker R +
• Block A: Pin 6= Speaker L -

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Installation

Connect all HATs & install Raspberry Pi OS Lite.

update / upgrade

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

install essentials

sudo curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_14.x | sudo bash -

sudo apt install -y git libwidevinecdm0 python3-setuptools python3-pip screen nodejs build-essential libasound2-dev pulseaudio libgl1-mesa-dri libgl1-mesa-glx libgles2 libgles2-mesa libsqlite3-dev

lte setup

sudo raspi-config

Interface Options > Serial Port login shell = NO / hardware = YES

Interface Options > I2C enable

System Options > Boot / Auto Login Console Autologin Text console

finish and reboot

git clone https://github.com/sixfab/Sixfab_RPi_CellularIoT_App_Shield.git

sudo python3 ./Sixfab_RPi_CellularIoT_App_Shield/setup.py install

git clone https://github.com/sixfab/Sixfab_PPP_Installer.git

cd Sixfab_PPP_Installer

sudo nano src/reconnect_scripts/reconnect_basehat

remove following lines: gpio -g mode $W_DISABLE gpio -g write $W_DISABLE 0

chmod +x ppp_install.sh

sudo ./ppp_install.sh

Select 6: 3G/4G Base Hat

APN Enter dr.m2m.ch

Username / Password Enter n

Port Enter ttyUSB2

Autoreconnect Enter Y

Press ENTER key to reboot

chromium setup

sudo apt install -y --no-install-recommends xserver-xorg x11-xserver-utils xinit openbox chromium-browser

sudo nano /etc/xdg/openbox/autostart

# Disable any form of screen saver / screen blanking / power management
xset s off
xset s noblank
xset -dpms

# Allow quitting the X server with CTRL-ATL-Backspace
setxkbmap -option terminate:ctrl_alt_bksp

# Start Chromium in kiosk mode
sed -i 's/"exited_cleanly":false/"exited_cleanly":true/' ~/.config/chromium/'Local State'
sed -i 's/"exited_cleanly":false/"exited_cleanly":true/; s/"exit_type":"[^"]\+"/"exit_type":"Normal"/' ~/.config/chromium/Default/Preferences
chromium-browser --disable-infobars --enable-webgl --ignore-gpu-blacklist --kiosk 'http://localhost:3000'

sudo nano ~/.bash_profile

screen -dmS ppp sudo pon
screen -dmS carmedia node ~/carmedia/.output/server/index.mjs
screen -dmS carmedia_update sh ~/update.sh
[[ -z $DISPLAY && $XDG_VTNR -eq 1 ]] && startx -- -nocursor

hifiberry setup

sudo nano /boot/config.txt

remove following line: dtparam=audio=on

change dtoverlay=vc4-kms-v3d to dtoverlay=vc4-kms-v3d,audio=off

add following lines: dtoverlay=hifiberry-dacplus

sudo nano /etc/asound.conf

pcm.!default {
  type hw card 0
}
ctl.!default {
  type hw card 0
}

fastboot

sudo nano /boot/config.txt

disable_splash=1
boot_delay=0
arm_boost=1
gpu_mem=64

sudo nano /boot/cmdline.txt

remove spash add quiet after rootwait

setup carmedia app

sudo git clone https://github.com/Ayax0/carmedia.git

sudo git clone https://github.com/Ayax0/carmedia-keyboard.git

sudo chmod -R 777 ~/carmedia

sudo nano /home/pi/update.sh

#!/bin/sh
cd ~/carmedia-keyboard
sudo git pull

cd ~/carmedia
sudo git pull
sudo npm i
sudo npm i --save-dev
sudo npm run build

sudo chmod +x ~/update.sh