Something my wife and I hacked together this week- an Android app that acts as an instrument cluster

[osunick]

I will make a better video with a camera, but my solution was to have a live display of actual power consumption because it can plausibly range from 600 watts to 300000 watts. Number on the right end is max power, number on left is min. Tap either to reset, tap center to swap between watts and HRSPRS. Changed the BSM UI to be more clear this is for obstacles and not parking, and made some space on the right for google maps/waze picture in picture (can't do much on Android other than clear space for the PIP frame to appear). Car display only appears when an aperture opens and fades out when all apertures are secure.

New video by Nick Nguyen

photos.app.goo.gl

 

[osunick]

That link seems sort of broken, so check this out.

 

[MrJulian]

This is excellent work! I am following this topic. The biggest complaint from my wife after picking up an MYP was missing the mirror-based blind-spot monitoring. That visual indication without needing to change the direction she is looking was a feature she loved.

If there is the ability for the end-user to customize the UI to hide/show elements, I think that would be useful. With all of the signals you have access to, there is the potential of having a "busy" UI with all of the different information types. Which for me I love, the more information the better! My Wife on the other hand would get more use out of a simplified UI to not be distracting, mainly to show blind-spot monitoring.

 

[osunick]

This is excellent work! I am following this topic. The biggest complaint from my wife after picking up an MYP was missing the mirror-based blind-spot monitoring. That visual indication without needing to change the direction she is looking was a feature she loved.

If there is the ability for the end-user to customize the UI to hide/show elements, I think that would be useful. With all of the signals you have access to, there is the potential of having a "busy" UI with all of the different information types. Which for me I love, the more information the better! My Wife on the other hand would get more use out of a simplified UI to not be distracting, mainly to show blind-spot monitoring.

A goal of mine is to to get to the point where everyone has one thing they'd like to change, but that thing isn't unanimously shared. That way you know you're at a good optimization. What I will say is on a six inch display, the relative size of the UI elements makes BSM and speed by far the most noticeable, and everything else kind of fades away from your awareness unless you want to see it. I tried to make things fade in and out only if they were relevant, and actually having the display fade to a blue background when in AP and the car wants you to jiggle the wheel has been super useful as that has been the easiest thing to miss in my experience with my car.

Having said that, this is still changing, and I am toying with the idea of having a simple optimization where you can long press most of the UI elements to just make them disappear (and long press the center of the power meter to hide the real time power but keep the bar). At least for the initial theme there won't be options to move things around, however, as there's a tradeoff between flexibility of layout and the cohesiveness of design.

Also, night mode matches the car's mode and looks pretty great. Gonna toy with a setting to force night mode to always be on to see how it feels.

If you have a canserver and an android device to test with, happy to send an APK out for testing so you can check it out. This will ultimately be open source for people to do with as they please, if they so please.

 

[MrJulian]

Thank you for the offer! Looks like the Dual BUS version is currently OOS, I will monitor it and likely pick up one when it becomes available. This is awesome!

 

[osunick]

Thank you for the offer! Looks like the Dual BUS version is currently OOS, I will monitor it and likely pick up one when it becomes available. This is awesome!

Looks like they're back in stock now! (I have no financial interest in the canserver project but they are good people)

 

[osunick]

Spent some time on the 3d printed mount for a Pixel 2XL (these will all go in the repo).

 

[JHCCAZ]

Spent some time on the 3d printed mount for a Pixel 2XL (these will all go in the repo). View attachment 745925View attachment 745926

Is there any ventilation issue with this housing for the phone? Also to clarify, are you 3D‐printing the entire top section of the steering‐column housing here, or just the phone housing with some kind of attachment to the factory steering‐column housing?

 

[osunick]

Is there any ventilation issue with this housing for the phone? Also to clarify, are you 3D‐printing the entire top section of the steering‐column housing here, or just the phone housing with some kind of attachment to the factory steering‐column housing?

Obviously over there it will block some air if you aim the vent directly at the back of the phone, but splitting into two streams the air feels unobstructed. It's not something I am conscious of, so it works well enough. I scanned the top of the steering column housing, bought a replacement piece on ebay, drilled holes in that with a custom jig I 3d printed, and used body trim screws from a porsche with custom 3d washers to hold in place. There are other phone mounts you can by that keep the phone above the wood trim and a small enough phone will not block air to any significant degree, like the one from proclipusa.com.

My raw scan here: Tesla Model 3 Y steering column upper trim scan by osunick

 

[JHCCAZ]

Obviously over there it will block some air if you aim the vent directly at the back of the phone, but splitting into two streams the air feels unobstructed. It's not something I am conscious of, so it works well enough. I scanned the top of the steering column housing, bought a replacement piece on ebay, drilled holes in that with a custom jig I 3d printed, and used body trim screws from a porsche with custom 3d washers to hold in place. There are other phone mounts you can by that keep the phone above the wood trim and a small enough phone will not block air to any significant degree, like the one from proclipusa.com.

My raw scan here: Tesla Model 3 Y steering column upper trim scan by osunick

Apologies that I wasn't clear, but I think you mistook my question. In this case I am not asking about blocking the Tesla HVAC air to the driver (yes a common topic with these displays but you already covered it in another exchange). I'm asking about venting for the phone itself within the shell case that you made for it. Some phones don't really need that but I'm thinking it could be an issue with with some.

Thanks for the information about the modification to the top shell.

 

[osunick]

Apologies that I wasn't clear, but I think you mistook my question. In this case I am not asking about blocking the Tesla HVAC air to the driver (yes a common topic with these displays but you already covered it in another exchange). I'm asking about venting for the phone itself within the shell case that you made for it. Some phones don't really need that but I'm thinking it could be an issue with with some.

Thanks for the information about the modification to the top shell.

So, I haven't had issues, back of the shell is getting at most like 80-90F and I haven't seen evidence of thermal throttling. A tesla in some ways is great for an application like this because the air vents can cool the device directly, and cabin heat protection provides a ceiling for interior temp that is well within operating parameters for most electronics. Time will tell, and phones are different. For a Pixel 2XL it seems fine. The CPU utilization isn't high relative to other things it could be running, and with an OLED display in particular I imagine a fair bit of internal heat can simply radiate out through the screen. Phones are easily the most sophisticated devices we own and I imagine future devices will be even better from a thermal standpoint as my app isn't going to scale in complexity with device capability. My Pixel 2XL was $100 and I've tested this with 6 year old phones with no ill effects.

 

[Richster64]

This is mega - well done for doing this. I am researching all the various CanServer things for my 2022 MYLR and as soon as I have the hardware in place, this will be had! Thank you!

 

[Bluejug]

Wow excellent work. I have a cansever with readouts for energy use and instant Wh/Mi. Now if this could display the now buried trip meter stats it would be perfect.!

 

[osunick]

Wow excellent work. I have a cansever with readouts for energy use and instant Wh/Mi. Now if this could display the now buried trip meter stats it would be perfect.!

As far as I can tell that's not on CAN, unfortunately.

 

[Bluejug]

As far as I can tell that's not on CAN, unfortunately.

That’s a shame.Is any of the energy screen data available?

 

[osunick]

That’s a shame.Is any of the energy screen data available?

Not in the way you'd expect as a human driver. If you have a trip planned the trip planner does keep track of predicted energy use and actual for telemetry purposes. https://raw.githubusercontent.com/joshwardell/model3dbc/master/Model3CAN.dbc

 

[jabloomf1230]

If you have a canserver and an android device to test with, happy to send an APK out for testing so you can check it out. This will ultimately be open source for people to do with as they please, if they so please.

View attachment 740165

I have only one old Android tablet, a Samsung Galaxy Tab E SM-T377a, which runs Android 7.1.1:

Galaxy Tab E (AT&T) Tablets - SM-T377AZKAATT | Samsung US

Discover the latest features and innovations available in the Galaxy Tab E (AT&T). Find the perfect Tablets for you!

www.samsung.com

What are the minimum requirements for your app? I presently use this tablet to monitor the water chemistry in my home reef tank, so I know it works in general. Also, is this tablet too big? I sat it on the steering wheel panel and it seemed like it would partially block my forward vision.

In any case, you and your wife's work is most impressive.

 

[osunick]

I have only one old Android tablet, a Samsung Galaxy Tab E SM-T377a, which runs Android 7.1.1:

Galaxy Tab E (AT&T) Tablets - SM-T377AZKAATT | Samsung US

Discover the latest features and innovations available in the Galaxy Tab E (AT&T). Find the perfect Tablets for you!

www.samsung.com

What are the minimum requirements for your app? I presently use this tablet to monitor the water chemistry in my home reef tank, so I know it works in general. Also, is this tablet too big? I sat it on the steering wheel panel and it seemed like it would partially block my forward vision.

In any case, you and your wife's work is most impressive.

7.1.1 should work, but it doesn't support split screen. If you want to run a tablet, I'd recommend getting a mount like this and a AMPS complaint tablet holder to attach to it. That way it's farther from the steering wheel. If you do like what you see, I'd recommend getting a used smartphone with an OLED display. When I release this more publicly as an open source project I'll have a wiki where we can share what hardware works best as well as 3d printed designs for mounts.

The other thing you need is a CANServer, one that connects to both buses if you want some autopilot/blind spot data. CANserver It's pretty slick and takes about 30 minutes to install. Hardest part is really running power from the footwell to the steering column.

 

[jabloomf1230]

7.1.1 should work, but it doesn't support split screen. If you want to run a tablet, I'd recommend getting a mount like this and a AMPS complaint tablet holder to attach to it. That way it's farther from the steering wheel. If you do like what you see, I'd recommend getting a used smartphone with an OLED display. When I release this more publicly as an open source project I'll have a wiki where we can share what hardware works best as well as 3d printed designs for mounts.

The other thing you need is a CANServer, one that connects to both buses if you want some autopilot/blind spot data. CANserver It's pretty slick and takes about 30 minutes to install. Hardest part is really running power from the footwell to the steering column.

@osunick, Thanks, I think I'll wait until I can read the wiki. I looked at the CANServer when you started this thread but I really didn't want invest in another tablet also if I didn't have to.

 

[osunick]

It will definitely work on Android 7.1.1, unclear how long you'd have to wait to see if someone else has the exact same tablet as you to see if it works. It's very likely to work.