Comma is shipping the Panda interface again. I received mine last week. It’s a wifi enabled OBDII interface. The Panda is more than just a reader though. It decodes and enables writing to the Media canbus. It’s going to make for some fun projects. Using Cabana I should be able to create a Database file of the Kia Optima’s CANbus protocol.

A few years ago, when gas prices were exorbitant, I started to build my own Ethanol Still. In light of the global energy crisis, I figured that being able to produce my own fuel was a useful endeavor. Creating ethanol fuel requires distilling corn (or other vegetables/fruits) and extracting its potential liquid energy. I did some research on the web and discovered the Charles 803.
I bought plans and began building the still. I’ve put this project on hold for now but perhaps one day I’ll complete it. Until then, here are some pictures of the project:

My carputer: The Dashboard PC
In 1999 (many years ago), I had the crazy idea of putting a personal computer into my car. After much though and some serious planning, I decided to do it. I started the project in 1999 and its been evolving ever since. A lot of people may wonder why I wanted to put a personal computer into my car. Well, back when I started the project, there were no iPods or portable music players. Navigation systems for cars only existed in specialty markets (military, super luxury, etc) and nothing provided useful information like traffic conditions. So, I set about installing the computer and customizing it for my needs / desires. The project became wildly popular on the internet and it catalyzed the carputer craze. I blogged about it as I built it and it developed quite a following on-line. It was featured on a popular technology website slashdot.org and later in two books:
Geek My Ride (forworded by Apple co-founder Steve Woz Wozniak) and Car PC Hacks. As I built the carputer, I had to develop my own electronic circuit to control power issues in the car. After an overwhelming number of requests to purchase this circuit, I began selling it (the DSSC startup and shutdown controller) via my company Dashwerks, Inc.

I created a website dedicated to the project, dubbed The DashPC where you can find more detailed information. DashPC is an amalgam for Dashboard Personal Computer.

Here are some pictures

Technology Used:

(add freshmeat link here)

In 1999 (many years ago), I had the crazy idea of putting a personal computer into my car. There were no frameworks or code bases available at the time because a project of this magnitude had never been done, so I set about writing my own frontend software: Dashboard Linux. The entire system was initially built around Linux From Scratch (LFS). I started the interface with Perl & TCL/TK, then later ported it over to C. On it’s final iteration I used C++ with Qt.

This post is mostly for posterity because the project has been abandoned and there are many newer projects that are much more capable.

Pictures / Screenshots

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