Steering wheel controls/using as carpc...
 

I'm like 80% done planning the use of my touch pro as a carpc system that can move between my 3 vehicles with me. The one thing I'm a tad unclear on is......

Is there any kind of thing, say like a PAC adaptor, that can take factory steering wheel controls, and turn them into a bluetooth keyboard or controller of some kind?

I'm thinking it would be awesome to use the controls in my firebird to be able to accomplish very simple things, like media player track change and voice command activate, but I haven't seen anything like this in my searching.

Re: Steering wheel controls/using as carpc...
 

SOrry no answer for you but i'm definitely curious to see your setup!

Re: Steering wheel controls/using as carpc...
 

When I can get it hammered out I'll try to post pics. I'm an EXTREMELY uncompromising person, and also extremely cheap. I literally feel guilty if I have to spend more than like 200 bucks on a car stereo to get what I want, so sometimes I come up with fairly creative solutions.

I have figured out that some guys just flat out cut up a keyboard and wire the connectors to the contacts on the factory switch. If I could power a BT keyboard off the vehicle and accomplish this, then some hotkey mapping software should be all that I need......time for an experiment! YAY!

Re: Steering wheel controls/using as carpc...
 

Sounds like an adventure!

Keep us posted :)

Re: Steering wheel controls/using as carpc...
 

There is something that I'm hoping someone could shed some light on though....(long post ahead, sorry!)

My "proof of concept setup" is like this - I have a 7 inch motorized fold out screen deck. It's a Dual XDVDN9131, picked it up at walmart for 400 bucks. The hardware is decent to me, but the software has the typical cheap "unfinished" feel of lower priced units.

As it is, there are two funtions I use really, bluetooth and screen. The phone is generally used for ALL functions other than that.

Now, I velcro the phone down on the center console of my car just before the shifter, in the fashion of a touchpad. Also running a program that uses the dpad as an onscreen mouse cursor, and I'm setting up the phone with AEButton plus to give me instant access to media player and iguidance with buttons because those are the things I need right then with no hassle. Ran a hardwired charger buried under the dash to the side of the AV cable and sneak the AV cable just out from under the console for a pretty clean looking connection.

Now, I've found a terrible disgusting hiss and distortion when using a2dp, so wired connection it is for me. The video out is going to the 7 inch screen on the dash and the audio lines with it, looks good, sounds good, and I think the control should be pretty easy once I get used to it. Might even be able to use the steering wheel controls if I get fancy!

However - when using video out, the phone reverts to it's own internal mic which is just useless for this application, this is where the decks bluetooth comes in. And it works great for calls.....

But this is where I'm stuck - I'm terribly confused as to WHY voice command chooses to use the mic IN the phone, instead of the mic from the BT deck, since it's being recognized as a headset.

Searching hasn't yet yielded a solution to this, am I missing a software setting? I feel like this should be a simple question but I'm trying to figure out so many variables of this installation that it's becoming difficult to keep track of them all.

Or, is there something lacking in the deck? The deck itself has very simple software, cannot download the phone book, but it does support avrcp with the a2dp function, although I don't use that. I've noticed that there doesn't seem to be an equivalent voice command button on the deck either, although this isn't crucial to me.

Sorry for the long post, but I figured I'd throw my setup out there in case it would give anyone some ideas. I'm ultimately going to try and replicate what I learn from this project into something for my highway plow truck, having hands free calling and voice command is much more critical for me as the plow is a stickshift. Add the plow controls, CB radio, and the ice scraper 'cause my wipers never work and it's a party with not enough limbs invited.

Plus, my onboard "weather computer" makes me a valuble asset to the team!

Re: Steering wheel controls/using as carpc...
 

Under Settings -> Voice Command -> Notifications, make sure the proper button is selected for using the BT Handsfree unit only. That might help.

Re: Steering wheel controls/using as carpc...
 

Is there a usb plug in on your dual? That might give you another direction to go. My pioneer can charge and play my mp3's via the usb, and the bluetooth + voice command still works.

Re: Steering wheel controls/using as carpc...
 

The Dual deck does have a USB, but I'm unable to get it to read the touch pros memory card, which is kinda annoying actually. It reads my girlfriend's Motorola rival pretty well, and will read my own card if i put it in an adaptor, but for some reason can't see the TP as a flash drive. Not a big deal to me, as the sound quality is about equal between both the TP and the deck, but through line out I also get the mixed in voice nav commands from iguidance.

I tried the settings for voice command but they only pertain to the notifications. I'm specifically interested in forcing it to accept input from the "headset", IE, I want it to listen through the BT mic on the deck as it's much better suited to receiving the sound in the cabin for voice commands, but force all other audio that isn't call related down the hardwired lines. For some reason, it seems that voice command is actually reverting to the phones internal mic for voice commands, but will work properly in call.

I returned the dual branded unit, and am now going to look at the possibility of something that gives up a few of the dual's features for higher quality in other areas. Maybe the voice command issue is related to the software of the deck?

Re: Steering wheel controls/using as carpc...
 

Cool that someone else is playing with this...I will post pictures of my system later when I get a chance

I use a 7 inch screen device, and a video cable to attach my touch pro to the car stereo...

I have wired a USB charging transformer into the video cable, so when I attach my phone it charges it as well as connecting to the stereo..

I use the AUX in for the video and audio feed from the TP and this means I can plug it in and hear music / watch youtube / use the GPS / whatever on my 7" screen.

Now for the control part that you may find interesting..

I use a Bluetooth stereo headset for Voice comand, and phone calls. If you deselect Bluetooth wireless stereo in the bluetooth setup for the headset then it will use the wired audio out for stereo music, and only put out the phone audio and use the mic for voice command on the headset.

I would assume that you could set up you deck to be the bluetooth headset, and then deselect it from being stereo music as well. This would mean that you get the use of the car deck mic for voice command, and still listen to your music on the deck though the wired connection.

I use the headset, because I find the controls on my ear more conveneint, and I also find that voice command on my headset is MUCH better than the mic on my phone, or the mic on the stereo.

cheers!=D>

Re: Steering wheel controls/using as carpc...
 

An additional though...how are you triggering voice command...I trigger it with the button on the headset and then it uses the mic on the headset.

If you use a button on the phone it will use the phone mic....

Re: Steering wheel controls/using as carpc...
 

You might have hit upon my problem - i couldn't ever find a button that would seem to activate voice command from the deck, but i might have been missing something. wish i still had the unit to test with! But because i couldn't find that, Ive been using the phone send button to activate vc, and that must be the issue! i do have the phone setup as you described, with both services being available, i enable hands free profile and disable wireless stereo. I also learned a bit about bitpools and kinda wanna experiment with that some more So then the issue becomes....how can i enable a bt car deck to send the voice command trigger? How is this normally configured?

Re: Steering wheel controls/using as carpc...
 

UPDATE: OK - so, tried another unit, a Pioneer DEH-p6100BT.

The particular vehicle, BTW, is a pontiac trans am. It has a 1.5 DIN opening, but it can be hollowed out to accept a 2din headunit. After my experience with the Dual all in one unit which included a screen, it dawned on me that perhaps I could buy a cheap motorized screen in 1 din size and then place a second, much higher quality audio-only unit below it. This way, i still wind up with the investment of about 300 dollars, and a screen, but I can get some better audio features than something as cheap as the dual branded unit.

Initial impressions:

-The USB reader in the pioneer deck can read the phone, and despite having a cheap alphanumeric LCD display, and a much more confusing "multi function knob" interface, actually succeeds at making folder navigation overall better than the dual stereo.

-The bluetooth features seem to be stronger, overall. AVRCP works, as it did on the dual unit, and A2DP still sounds terrible/unusable, just as it was in the dual radio. More on these in a minute.....

Now, what the dual radio couldn't do was download the phonebook from my phone and use it. The pioneer did this right away and works awesome with it.

Also, with the dual, it seemed impossible to activate voice command and send the audio from the mic mounted in the actual deck as opposed to the phone. The Pioneer unit DOES have this feature, listed in the users manual, and it does actually work. However, the method for accessing it is a little annoying - you need to switch the deck to the phone source first, which is a press and hold method, and then activate the voice button, which is also a press and hold method. Then, after the command is issued, you need to switch back to the original source manually. I'm trying to find a way to jump directly into the voice command function from the starting point of listening to the hardwired source, and then automatically return after that point.

Now, to revisit A2DP and AVRCP........

I've noticed that the pioneer radio has a setting in the menu where you can choose which profiles are used with the currently paired phone......there are three to choose from, HFP, A2DP, AND AVRCP. You can disable and enable them individually. Since I have no use for a2dp and the associated quality loss, I leave it unchecked and go into the aux port on the rear. So......that leaves HFP, and AVRCP checked. The funny thing is......AVRCP still works, when you're in the bluetooth audio source, even if you've turned off the a2dp streaming. This begs the question.....is there a way that I can force the unit to allow the use of avrcp commands, while in the aux source mode?

If so, then I wind up with pretty nearly my ultimate dream, because this deck has an IR remote control. There is a universal adapter that translates factory steering wheel controls into an IR learning remote. Essentially, if I can get the pioneer to cooperate, I can feed the ir remote signals into the deck from the steering wheel and have the deck relay certain commands via avrcp. This should give me direct volume control of the deck, a means to trigger voice commands, and the track forward/back controls, all in a means that doesn't require me to change away from the display of iguidance on the screen in front of me.

At this point, it's becoming more an issue of which car audio deck is going to give me the power I need to accomplish this. More research is necessary, and I shall return with my findings!