Custom Pie headboard for truck entertainment system

[Vkull]

I am utterly exhausted fighting with android auto and Apple car play devices. The apps are just plain buggy and I spend allot of time in my truck just sitting in a parking lot so I want to utilize my space with a standalone unit.

 

Needs: 

Integrated Spotify 

Integrated youtube 

Integrated gps

Integrated voice commands (hey Google, take me to McDonald's. Or, Hey Google, play I'm a loser baby on Spotify.)

Integrated sim tray (I don't care I will pay for the extra phone number)

 

Wants:

to be programed to turn on and off with my ignition. (Just a simple, if = 12v exit sleep mode)

 

Display to be highjacked via an external media device. (Screen input USB, hdmi, would suffice) 

 

How would you guys go about doing this? Any tips suggestions or advice are appreciated!

[kb5zue]

Just out of curiosity, what make, model, year, is your truck?  I have a 2001 Dodge Ram 2500 5.9L diesel that I have been trying to convince my wife to let me replace the original radio.  I don't need/want anything as complicated as what you're looking for but it woulld be really nice to use when driving the six hours south along the coast to the V.A. hospital in San Francisco for the appointments for my back.  Also, how much are you looking to spend for your new system?

[Vkull]

OK apparently I'm too stupid to up vote your comment lol . 

 

My trucks a 94 gmc.

 

There is a ton of aftermarket plug and play replacement radios. I totally recommend doing it. I honestly can't live without Bluetooth audio at the very least. Need my driving toons and hands free phone calls lol. Lots of cheap options available. 

 

My price point is honestly sky's the limit if I'm not compromising on my wants and needs. I'm currently looking at tablets that I could just mount on the dash but they don't allow me to highjack the screen for my MSI Claw for example. Plus they won't turn on and off with my ignition. So a tablet covers my needs but not my wants.

[Vkull]

1 hour ago, kb5zue said:

Just out of curiosity, what make, model, year, is your truck?  I have a 2001 Dodge Ram 2500 5.9L diesel that I have been trying to convince my wife to let me replace the original radio.  I don't need/want anything as complicated as what you're looking for but it woulld be really nice to use when driving the six hours south along the coast to the V.A. hospital in San Francisco for the appointments for my back.  Also, how much are you looking to spend for your new system?

My trucks a 94 gmc.

 

 

 

There is a ton of aftermarket plug and play replacement radios. I totally recommend doing it. I honestly can't live without Bluetooth audio at the very least. Need my driving toons and hands free phone calls lol. Lots of cheap options available. 

 

 

 

My price point is honestly sky's the limit if I'm not compromising on my wants and needs. I'm currently looking at tablets that I could just mount on the dash but they don't allow me to highjack the screen for my MSI Claw for example. Plus they won't turn on and off with my ignition. So a tablet covers my needs but not my wants.

[kb5zue]

2 hours ago, Vkull said:

My trucks a 94 gmc.

 

 

 

There is a ton of aftermarket plug and play replacement radios. I totally recommend doing it. I honestly can't live without Bluetooth audio at the very least. Need my driving toons and hands free phone calls lol. Lots of cheap options available. 

 

 

 

My price point is honestly sky's the limit if I'm not compromising on my wants and needs. I'm currently looking at tablets that I could just mount on the dash but they don't allow me to highjack the screen for my MSI Claw for example. Plus they won't turn on and off with my ignition. So a tablet covers my needs but not my wants.

 

Thanks for the reply.  Yea, bluetooth would be great since all I have now is AM/FM stereo.  Being able to put some great toons (70's and 80's) on a usb stick on my pc and then play them in the truck on the way down south would be unbelievable.

 

Take care and good luck.

[Vkull]

3 hours ago, kb5zue said:

 

Thanks for the reply.  Yea, bluetooth would be great since all I have now is AM/FM stereo.  Being able to put some great toons (70's and 80's) on a usb stick on my pc and then play them in the truck on the way down south would be unbelievable.

 

Take care and good luck.

Going off the logic of American stuff costing less than Canadian stuff.  I can buy a Bluetooth radio deck for 80 bucks and a wiring harness for 50 bucks. The installation is super simple on older trucks like ours aswell.

 

If you want to go even cheaper you can get the Bluetooth to radio adapters that plug into your cigarette lighter. I have bad experience with them though, and you're just blasting out a signal that anyone nearby with a fm radio will pick up.

[Beskar_Armour]

To me, this sounds like a relatively straightforward Raspberry pi project. The list of compatible apps would be easy to download on any raspberry pi linux OS, and raspberry pi touchscreens are relatively cheap, so you can navigate easily. For voice commands, I found a tutorial (linked at the end) to install google assistant, but there are also plenty of pi projects that are available to do specific commands via voice on the pi, I could help you find some tutorials if you need. A Sim card hat (board which mounts on top of the pi) is super cheap on amazon or Adafruit or something, so that's covered. for external display "hijacking", the pi uses hdmi, so you can run that through a $10 splitter off amazon, and then have another port exposed to the inside of the truck, there would be a switch to change between cables(There are more details I could go over for this specifically if you would want). To turn it on and off with the ignition is also straightforward. The pi doesnt even have a power button, so you can just provide or remove power and it will turn on/off. A 12v to 5v converter is cheap on amazon, so if you have 12v power cables that can power it (probably <1 amp, but I would make sure it can handle 2A just in case) you just power the Pi off that. If you would like me to go into more details, or would like some more help with specifics let me know, this sounds like a fun project, good luck!

 

 

Raspberry pi Google assistant tutorial https://www.instructables.com/Google-Assistant-on-a-Raspberry-Pi-1/

[Beskar_Armour]

Oh, you might have to buy an external gps module for the pi, I don't believe they have GPS built in, but that is relatively straightforward, and, from a brief google search, relatively cheap.

 

All total you would be looking at (very approximately, I haven't spent a ton of time looking through every detail, this is just the first somewhat similar part I see):

 

$70 Pi

$40 7inch touchscreen

$25 sim card hat

$10 HDMI splitter (plus like another $7-8 if you need an extra cable to put the ports in a good location,)

$10 12v to 5v converter

$15-$30 GPS module

$10-$50 cables, screws, and other extras.