Subarudude Posted September 10, 2014 Report Share Posted September 10, 2014 Hey I've just finished building a very small footprint mini pc for my subaru STI. It's running windows 8.1 and has i7, 8gb of ram, hdmi out and a 120gb SSD drive. Now I'm perplexed as to how I am going to use the nex8000 as the touch screen. Will I need a special driver to allow this? Does such a thing exist yet? Worst comes to worst ill use a mini keyboard/trackpad. Any guidance would be greatly appreciated and thank you in advance. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
joemamma1954 Posted September 10, 2014 Report Share Posted September 10, 2014 touchscreen would be cool, It would have to be able to communicate via bluetooth to the pc, similar to app radio. Since the hdmi output from pc and hdmi input on head unit is only audio and video. I have a mac-mini that is small form factor, and has i7, 16gb of ram, hdmi output, 1 480gb ssd, and 1tb hard drive. Your post made me think of hooking it up just for grins, to see if it was worth the effort finding a place for it and getting it powered, via converter. I have hotspot in the vehicle already, for streaming to google chrome cast. mirror linking the two like the android phones, if possible would be awesome. I realize mine is osx, and yours is windows8.1, but if you find out anything please share, I am going to do some research myself. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
joemamma1954 Posted September 10, 2014 Report Share Posted September 10, 2014 got this from another forum FAQ: Why you can't use your headunit or GPS touchscreen to control your PC This question comes up over and over: Can I use the touchscreen on my (AVIC, Headunit, GPS unit, dashboard LCD) to control my computer? Short attention span answer: No. Longer explanation Sure, it looks like a good idea. Why can't I use the touchscreen on my GPS unit to control my computer? It has a video input I could see my computer screen on. Or, your car came with a built in screen, say with nav on it or with system information on it like the Prius has. It has a touchscreen, why can't you use it to control your PC? The answer is that you aren't thinking it through very carefully. The most common type of touch screen uses a 4 or 5 wire resistive coating that produces a particular voltage when you touch it. There is a controller that measures this voltage and relays the information to a control device -usually a hardware based computer that interprets that information and processes accordingly. What that means is the touch screen is already in use by another computer -either your GPS unit or your car's computer system. In order for you to use it to control your PC, you are going to have to figure out a way to either switch the touchscreen connection or share it between your PC and the other computer. You'll have to open up the unit with the touchscreen - the GPS or the car nav system or the headunit, hack into the wires on the system, then connect those wires to your PC. Will it work? Maybe. Or maybe not. Or maybe you'll fry your headunit/GPS/car nav system. Or the PC. Or both. Is it impossible? No. It CAN be done. This guy did. But if you don't understand why you can't share the touch screen in the first place, you don't have the have the necessary skills to do so. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Powella Posted September 10, 2014 Report Share Posted September 10, 2014 At the hardware level I agree it is at best challenging, worst impossible. At the software level it is definitely possible, but not sure how that could be done in AVIC sw... Then send it out via bt/wifi... Why not just get VNC viewer to run on the avic? Ap Quote Link to post Share on other sites
jhren Posted September 10, 2014 Report Share Posted September 10, 2014 got this from another forum FAQ: Why you can't use your headunit or GPS touchscreen to control your PC... While that is reasonable assessment, the fact that the AVIC in app mode becomes a touchscreen with respect to a connected phone is an indication that the hardware and software is already there. What's left to surmount is compatibility (i.e. interfacing). Quite likely the reason supported apps are limited. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
jhren Posted September 10, 2014 Report Share Posted September 10, 2014 ...What's left to surmount is compatibility (i.e. interfacing). ... I have read on this forum that the HU uses BT to communicate with the connected phone for touchscreen control. If this is so, isn't there some sort of BT standard or protocol that dictates the communication between units. Can any remote BT device utilize that wireless connection? I'm basically BT illiterate, so I have to ask. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
jhren Posted September 10, 2014 Report Share Posted September 10, 2014 I haven't looked into remote controlling a WinOS system... but I have considered connecting an Android based mini-PC to my NEX. One interface I ran across was the MimicsX2. http://www.mp3car.com/android/149669-android-ultimate-in-car-oem-system-remote-bluetooth-touch-hdmi-mirroring.html Link to the manual is provided in the post... contains additional pertinent info. Seems a viable solution but I'd like to know if it works with a mini-PC and the 8000 before pursuing. The info provided is only regarding phones. Heck, I'm not even sure if it is necessary given the NEX can already control phone apps. And I know some of the mini-PCs I've looked at have RF remote controls (some furnished with IR, with RF available as separate purchase). Just none of them publish what protocol they use. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
kadernal Posted September 10, 2014 Report Share Posted September 10, 2014 If you are building a carputer why not just use a touchscreen that plugs into the computer? A quick search brings up this: http://store.mp3car.com/New_Black_Double_Din_Nano_ITX_Carputer_Enclosure_S_p/ENC-041B.htm?gclid=Cj0KEQjw7b-gBRC45uLY_avSrdgBEiQAD3Olxyd67jLID5sx7Fyp11A19FH3xISOi3PZaMcNpzbLr6kaAtGs8P8HAQ Thats simply a 7" touchscreen in a double DIN case. You can get a standalone screen that is of decent quality for under $50... what is the point of using an 8000NEX when you can get all the same functionality out of the computer itself? What are the specs of your PC? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
jhren Posted September 10, 2014 Report Share Posted September 10, 2014 ... what is the point of using an 8000NEX when you can get all the same functionality out of the computer itself? Audio functionality, mostly... from my perspective. You'll discover what I mean if you pursue doing it. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
kadernal Posted September 10, 2014 Report Share Posted September 10, 2014 If you build the pc yourself, you can get a soundcard with RCA or even digital optical out and route the audio through a DSP like the bit 1 or 10, or even a mini DSP. This would be cool because you could do all the tuning with your dash screen as well instead of using a laptop. He has the budget for it if he forgoes the 8000nex. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
jhren Posted September 10, 2014 Report Share Posted September 10, 2014 Not saying it's impossible. Your proposed method is an example. So where do your put the CD/DVD/Blu-ray* drive? *functionally exceeding the 8000NEX Somewhat a rhetorical question, but issues like this come up in the design. Another one is, I want the system to automatically start playing after I start the car... and turn off when I turn the key to off. I also want to be able to use my steering wheel controls. Hey, I'm all for it... if it were only a bit easier. My other vehicle's HU is a Kenwood DNN990HD. When it works like it supposed to, it's great. But it doesn' do that consistently. In fact, I had problems with it rebooting several times before it actually got up and running. Started last week and progressively got worse. Tried to update the firmware and it totally bricked the unit. Just shipped it out today to the repair center... so I'm without a HU for perhaps two weeks. So my next unit may just be PC-based. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Subarudude Posted September 10, 2014 Author Report Share Posted September 10, 2014 Yes I've been searching online for a week now trying to find a solution.. It all started with hooking my samsung galaxy s4 up to it via MHL rooted, and a failure at appradio unchained. It would just mirror and no control.. Then fuzzed out . This got my thought process going, so I built this pc. I can scale it fine to fit, but ultimately I think it's going to come down to some sort of driver that's going to exploit app radio functions as a full purpose touch screen.. Windows 8control would look awesome and be well worth the trouble. Ide even be willing to run a different OS if it worked better with the new android system on the nex8000 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
domdymond123 Posted September 30, 2014 Report Share Posted September 30, 2014 got this from another forum FAQ: Why you can't use your headunit or GPS touchscreen to control your PC This question comes up over and over: Can I use the touchscreen on my (AVIC, Headunit, GPS unit, dashboard LCD) to control my computer? Short attention span answer: No. Longer explanation Sure, it looks like a good idea. Why can't I use the touchscreen on my GPS unit to control my computer? It has a video input I could see my computer screen on. Or, your car came with a built in screen, say with nav on it or with system information on it like the Prius has. It has a touchscreen, why can't you use it to control your PC? The answer is that you aren't thinking it through very carefully. The most common type of touch screen uses a 4 or 5 wire resistive coating that produces a particular voltage when you touch it. There is a controller that measures this voltage and relays the information to a control device -usually a hardware based computer that interprets that information and processes accordingly. What that means is the touch screen is already in use by another computer -either your GPS unit or your car's computer system. In order for you to use it to control your PC, you are going to have to figure out a way to either switch the touchscreen connection or share it between your PC and the other computer. You'll have to open up the unit with the touchscreen - the GPS or the car nav system or the headunit, hack into the wires on the system, then connect those wires to your PC. Will it work? Maybe. Or maybe not. Or maybe you'll fry your headunit/GPS/car nav system. Or the PC. Or both. Is it impossible? No. It CAN be done. This guy did. But if you don't understand why you can't share the touch screen in the first place, you don't have the have the necessary skills to do so. Actually since appradio unchained works in rooted android phones it doesn't seem unlikely that you could port the drivers to a Linux system or even windows if some one was smart enough. I say someone because I'm not, nor do I know any one who is... But out there somewhere there are hundreds of people smart enough to do this. If android can do it im confident someone could get it working on linux and possibly win 8.1 or 9 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
joemamma1954 Posted September 30, 2014 Report Share Posted September 30, 2014 Mac mini hooked up to 4000NEX, via hdmi. 4g hotspot. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
joemamma1954 Posted September 30, 2014 Report Share Posted September 30, 2014 Pic of mac mini on 4000NEX Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.