i have the built in screen, and was wondering if there was any way to edit or reprogram the built in software for the radio,ac and all.

all google replies were related to ECU only.


im a coder, but i have no idea how to get to the program code, if possible.




Cheers,
Marwan

I'm also a programmer... I've been reading through the manuals to figure out where the brains are...

what i wanted to do was reprogram the intelligent key to unlock the doors when i walk up to the car, instead of having to push the button on the door.


What are you looking to reprogram?

that would be a nice touch.

porshes and mercs have that, so maybe you can read through some of their manuals ?


for me, im looking to make all the options available thru touch screen, not just the Nav.

radio controls, volume, and dvd controls.

plus maybe an option to tell the gf to shutup when a good song comes on

My background is as design engineering, and would definatly like to help. I dont have the vehicle you guys have, so im not sure of the setup. But some things to ponder.
1st-is the nav system/display a self contained computer module? if so this may or may not be tricky. first it is an integrated board, it may be proprietary technology, ie unconventional bus, mem management, OS, etc. If this is the point, it may not even be practical(you would have to map memory, discover chipset command sets, etc, then hack low level, ie assembly, and compilers)

2nd-chances are though it's build off standard ieee standards, such as x86, risc type command sets. if this is the case then access would be a little easier, once you issolated this, as well as OS, im sure you could quickly(months?) create/access the api.

now the way i would approuch this project would be to indentify a few things. such as communication bus between the nav unit and ecu(probably mod bus or sum such), and figure out if i could use the display, display drivers independent of nav system/computer. At this point i would just use a new puter(biscuit form factor or similiar) and code my own custom display. You would need the modbus command set to interpret incomming signals.

NOTE IN FACT.
on my wd21 im designing a custom dash, and am integrating a custom computer, with touchscreen, wifi, nav, and analog/digital I/O's it's a ton of fun. hopefully ill have it done within the next year.

my purpose behind this stemed from the "what if's" and in the end i will everything will be ran through my puter, including ECU. I want complete control over throttle curves, mixtures etc, plus i want video, mp'3's, itunes and wifi, Im using NI Labview, as well as custom c/cpp Dll's im coding out.

just have to find the time to work on this more, as well as multiple other projects

thats for that scaramoche.

for my car, i added an aftermarket nav system with an option for touch screen compatibility.

what im looking to do is add touchscreen for the radio and the ac controls u can vaguely see in the picture.

im not too fond of trying to program in assembly language, specially if its something i can live without lol.

i was thinking of connecting the touch screen output to the dash buttons directly. theres 3 main screen shots that i care to use the touchscreen for,

and im looking how i can interpret that that certain screen is now on for the touchpanel to send the signal.

any pros/cons/ideas for that ?

I just deleted a reply to this when i realized the the most current post in the forums has a need and easy way to do touchscreen using a netbook. Now if you want to controll the other devices, use this guys idea, do some custom code to drive relay( you will have to create some circuitry for driving relays, ie opamps, or transistors, and a circuit to decode seriel output, or you can find a digital io module). but his idea is alot easier than what i wrote hehehe

I love the simplicity, and lack of coding required heheeh, I see a ton possibilities with this, and my engineering brain is awash...

yes im more inclined to install a separate computer, just too lazy to start taking anything apart, and actually work on it.