Help with decision, making custom dash board for my car

Technical Support
,
1

Hello,

I’m really in need of help, I wanted to build my own custom dash board for my 2001 audi tt. I’ve sent too much money on trial and error. I’ve purchased Dash command software and spent tons of time creating my own dash. But have run into problem after problem. Because this software is compatible with windows and Android I’ve tried Intel Computestick (no way to shut down with car), Respberry Pi 3B+ takes forever to boot and finally Odroid-XU4 but the damn this have problem after problem. I’m willing to scrap my custom dashboard work. I just want a solution that boots fast and works. Please help! I absolutely love the dash you have created but I’m scared to ask how much because i’m almost poor now lol.

2

Hi @lukobravo, welcome to the Toradex community and ecosystem.

Hardware-wise, I recommend you to take a look through our product list, which is basically divided between two families/form factors: Apalis and Colibri (Embedded Computing | Our Products - Toradex). I good starting point would be the Colibri iMX6.
Software-wise, you may look into Qt for designing your own GUI.

If you want to give another try to your implementation, I hope this helps you. And to really improve those boot times and get the best out of the hardware, it is very recommended to tweak the Linux image you will be using. Here I’ll leave you some links that I recommend taking your time to read.

Toradex Linux images are built using the Yocto Project building environment, which pretty much grants you any customization you want. I don’t know your Linux development experience but I would recommend you giving this approach a try.

Also, check this 4 part series from Qt’s Risto Avila for further improving this boot time (and specially oriented into Automotive):
Fast-Booting Qt Devices, Part 1: Automotive Instrument Cluster

Best regards,
Alvaro.

3

I’m trying to do the same thing. Is there a free alternative to Qt to develop the UI? With Qt you have to pay for a $500 subscription to use their framework on embedded devices.

4

Hi @Waunye11, I’m not 100% familiar with Qt licensing but Qt has an open source version. Are you 100% sure you have to pay to use it in any case? If you keep your code open source, maybe you can avoid the payment but you should double (and triple) check.

Also, have you checked our partner network? It should have the following results

Other option is to use WebUI or GTK.