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Prototyping complete

A project log for carbt_v1

[DISCONTINUED] An inexpensive bluetooth music system for cars with lacking stereos.

hybridairHybridAir 03/30/2016 at 22:360 Comments

Since the last post, I have finished up the hardware prototyping stage for this project. The FM transmitter, audio output over GPIO, hardware RTC, button inputs, bluetooth, and external USB have all been re-added. I have only done enough software testing to ensure that everything works together, so there is not much to show for functionality. So instead, have a picture of what it currently looks like:

The LEDs at the bottom right are only meant for button illumination, they don't do anything else. I soldered some wires onto the USB test pads on the Pi, since I will be incorporating a USB Hub into the final design. USB hub functionality is needed for the bluetooth adaptor, and to support things like external storage or wifi. A DS1307 hardware RTC was added for timekeeping, since the device will not be connected to the Internet normally. The RTC is important for things like statistic logging, for example. Everything else has been kept mostly the same as before.

I am saving doing all of the actual programming for this summer, when I will be visiting my SO in Canada for 4 months. I will not have any of my tools with me besides the very basics, so all of the hardware stuff will need to be finished by the end of next month. I am at the point where I can start designing the PCB, so I'll update you guys when it's ready for manufacture.

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