No wait! While bored and cruising Ebay one night, I impulse bought a 7" doubledin car stereo for $10.00. Not really knowing what I wanted to do with it, I had an epiphany to make it into an internet streaming infotainment device.
I have a few RPI’s lying around so I thought that the PI zero W should fit the bill nicely. Since the stereo is coming from China, I thought I would start putting the zero through it paces and see what it can do and what software/hardware combination I should use.
After installing a full PI install on the zero, I knew it would not do. It was sluggish with all the over head of the OS. I went through a lot of OS distributions trying to find a stripped down music/video OS for the zero that I liked. Most were meant for headless streaming and I wanted one with an interactive interface. I settled for LibreELEC. https://libreelec.tv/
With the OS settled, I now need to decide on the audio hardware to use with zero. I purchased a few audio DACs and have a few USB audio adapters that are RPI compliant.
The video input for the car stereo is a composite input. The zero actually has the ability to output composite video but has to be software enabled. I need to see if it will be usable or try an HDMI to composite adapter instead. All yet to be seen.(Oh! A pun!)
A quick test and it does what it is suppose to do. I might try it with a full blown RPI and see if it is more responsive or just live with the slower cheaper option.
I will update this thread as I continue to play with the combination of hardware and software.
I have been following the issues that have arisen from the RPI4 USB-C fiasco which has opened my eyes on USB-C implementation on other electronic devices.
Too good to be true department. Checking on where is Waldo er my car stereo, I asked Ebay to look into the situation. Well in less than a half hour, Ebay replied with a full refund! The seller is no longer registered with Ebay! Well, back to the drawing board looking for a cheap stereo to hack.
I purchased another cheap car stereo with video input for $30.00 off Ebay. It actually came in 3 days!
After playing with it, I realized that my idea was not meant to be. Yes there is composite video in the unit for a backup camera and an aux video input. There is not a way to have the aux input and audio at the same time. If you enable the backup camera, it will disable audio!
So I am back to using an Android tablet with my cheap car stereo. The combination is cheaper than using the RPI and actually more flexible.
Well it was a fun project while it lasted!