# iPad and zilla dash board? Zilla config?



## Thaniel (May 25, 2008)

Anyone have any ideas on how to get a Dashboard, zilla config or similar, to work on an iPad? My brother gave me an iPad and I'm thinking this would be perfect for displaying the zilla data etc and play music at the same time.

Unfortunately I don't have the computer skills to wake it work.


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## TheSGC (Nov 15, 2007)

I have actually started to work on a gauge that will send data over a WiFi connection. I will create a post on it shortly as I just receive the components to start the prototyping yesterday and once my eyes stop bleeding from reading the data sheets.

The Zilla Conf, Dashboard, etc use either Serial or Bluetooth, none of which are actually usable on an iPad/iPhone/iPod Touch. The WiFi is the only connection that a end user can actually get access too that I am aware of when making APPs, but I have never made a APP for an apple product.


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## Thaniel (May 25, 2008)

TheSGC said:


> I have actually started to work on a gauge that will send data over a WiFi connection. I will create a post on it shortly as I just receive the components to start the prototyping yesterday and once my eyes stop bleeding from reading the data sheets.
> 
> The Zilla Conf, Dashboard, etc use either Serial or Bluetooth, none of which are actually usable on an iPad/iPhone/iPod Touch. The WiFi is the only connection that a end user can actually get access too that I am aware of when making APPs, but I have never made a APP for an apple product.


If you could please ad a link to your thread here when you start it. I would be very interested in your progress.

From the little looking i've done seems the iPad can do Bluetooth to serial if it is jail broken  wifi does sound like a good idea. 

no idea yet how to even begin getting the interface program to run.


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## TheSGC (Nov 15, 2007)

Thaniel said:


> If you could please ad a link to your thread here when you start it. I would be very interested in your progress.
> 
> From the little looking i've done seems the iPad can do Bluetooth to serial if it is jail broken  wifi does sound like a good idea.
> 
> no idea yet how to even begin getting the interface program to run.


Once I get my act together I will post a thing on my design intentions. There is also this in development that connected to an iPod/iPhone: http://www.diyelectriccar.com/forums/showthread.php?t=42406


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## Thaniel (May 25, 2008)

Spent the evening trying to recreate what Andrew Hazelden did in his blog

http://www.andrewhazelden.com/blog/category/dd-wrt/

Looked like it could be a great DIY start to an IPAD interface to the zilla. Though I think I'll start with a PC to my serial OBDII connector.

I have a wrt54g sitting in the basement not being used and my brother donated a second one he wasn't using. Spent the evening attaching the serial port the attempting to do the flashing and uploading programs. Couldn't get the software to work as described. Gave up and switched to using openwrt (which I read is easier to set up for serial ports) but it was late so went to bed. Don't know if it is working yet. More to come on this.


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## Thaniel (May 25, 2008)

Did some more work on the Serial port to wireless router connection. Ordered a serial port with a voltage equalization chip it is desiged just for this type of thing (A232DTE 3V RS232 DTE from http://www.compsys1.com/workbench/) An adapter could be made from scratch for only a couple dollars but decided to just buy the kit to save some time and frustration.

Managed to get some pins soldered to the router and attached a nice cord to the serial port. Looked like it should work nicely. Seems like it should work but can't get the traffic to flow yet.Could still be some settings and I'm not that good with unix or linux or whatever the heck the openwrt is running. Kind of stuck trying to find if the trouble is hardware or software at the moment.

Also have the router where we soldered a serial port straight to the router. Having trouble with the software on that unit. the router has smaller memory and it could be causing the problem.

Also for fun I downloaded a telnet program to the ipad and was able to telnet into the router (see pic). So if I can get the routers serial port working I could at least telnet from the ipad to the zilla. Seems from there getting a dashboard to work wouldn't be too much trouble for a programer type.

I'll keep poking at it. If anyone has ideas or tips (especially with trouble shooting the serial port) let me know.


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## sunworksco (Sep 8, 2008)

Just found this site.Hope it is helpful.Should be ready any day.
http://www.xenopi.com/?page_id=229
Regards,
John


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## gdirwin (Apr 7, 2009)

For an inexpensive, 4-port serial to ethernet converter, check out the following:
http://cgi.ebay.ca/Quatech-ThinQ-QS...tem&pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item5adadd5838

I believe it allows direct TCP/IP access (good for Apple stuff but requires custom apps), as well as virtual COM redirection on all major windows platforms (good for off-the-shelf existing software).

The company also makes much more extensive/modern servers, but cost a lot more. Seems to have modern drivers/support.

I have one on order and will post what I find - others have reported it works well (amazing for $25 - if you offer $20 it probably will be accepted to).


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## Thaniel (May 25, 2008)

sunworksco said:


> Just found this site.Hope it is helpful.Should be ready any day.
> http://www.xenopi.com/?page_id=229
> Regards,
> John


Thanks. That does look very promising. I think there is some discussion in this thread that said the project may be on hold http://www.diyelectriccar.com/forums/showthread.php/xdisplay-iphone-ipod-touch-based-ev-42406p3.html

Too bad as it looks like a good project



gdirwin said:


> For an inexpensive, 4-port serial to ethernet converter, check out the following:
> http://cgi.ebay.ca/Quatech-ThinQ-QS...tem&pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item5adadd5838
> 
> I believe it allows direct TCP/IP access (good for Apple stuff but requires custom apps), as well as virtual COM redirection on all major windows platforms (good for off-the-shelf existing software).
> ...


$25 is a deal I would think. if you pick one up let us know how it works out. As far as my project.

SUCCESS!!!! Turns out on my router the 0 serial port was the rear pins and the 1 port was the front pins. This contradicted the documentation I found on others projects. Maybe it's just my router version. Who knows. Switched to the front pins and was able to telnet wirelessly from the Ipad to the zilla. Cool deal. (pic of it working attached). Is pretty funny to be sitting on the couch and changing the settings on the zilla that's in the drive way. Hi tech baby 

Now I need something like zilla config but on the Ipad. Anyone good at making apps for the ipad?


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## gdirwin (Apr 7, 2009)

Thaniel - can you get both serial ports to work with this method?

I have a Zilla and Elithion BMS, both of which have serial ports... 

I like the all in one router/serial interface with your Linksys router method - less stuff to stuff into the car...


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## Thaniel (May 25, 2008)

gdirwin said:


> Thaniel - can you get both serial ports to work with this method?
> 
> I have a Zilla and Elithion BMS, both of which have serial ports...
> 
> I like the all in one router/serial interface with your Linksys router method - less stuff to stuff into the car...


Yah one small box is nice and the linksys router is run off 12V so hooking up power to it is easy. The router does support 2 serial ports. One is typically for the console. From my reading it is unclear if it could be used as another DTE serial port. Most people are hooking up the serial ports to get to the console. I'm not very good with the operating system its running. My brother who is better with it believed the console port could be used as well as the other port if the software was configured correctly. I think it would be just finding the right settings. The hardware seems perfectly capable.


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## mhud (Oct 19, 2009)

I made a little web app to show PakTrakr output on iPad/iPhone. It is primarily for watching my batteries while they charge at home, so it relies on my wifi connection in the house. 

It would be simple enough to run everything on a laptop in the car, though. 

PakTrakr -> 
RS232 -> 
Laptop hosting a wifi network -> 
iPad displaying data from a web site running on the laptop. 

I take my laptop with me everywhere, and it's usually charged, so I wouldn't mind running it off its own battery while I'm driving. Still, the best way to go would be a microcontroller or this pretty cool linksys mod. 

I think you can get serial input directly into an iPad, iPod Touch or iPhone by building a headphone port adapter. You can't read the data from a webpage, though, you need an Obj-C app to read the signals from the headphone port.


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## Thaniel (May 25, 2008)

mhud said:


> I made a little web app to show PakTrakr output on iPad/iPhone. It is primarily for watching my batteries while they charge at home, so it relies on my wifi connection in the house.
> 
> It would be simple enough to run everything on a laptop in the car, though.
> 
> ...


Clever setup with the laptop and wifi. I've seen some premade wires for sale that look like the'd plug in the headphone jack. And the doc port has serial connections. Read somewhere that it's pretty straighforward to fabricate a cable to connect it. 

I kind of like the wireless set up. I could carry the pad in and just drop it in a holder than go (also no risk to damage the Ipad). Trouble is getting the program I like converted to Ipad speak (object c). Any one know some apple programmers . 

Been doing some reading on how to convert the program. Who knows maybe I'll get lucky. In reality it'd be way easier for me just to buy a PC notebook computer and leave it in the car. But where's the challenge in that


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## gdirwin (Apr 7, 2009)

Thought I would re-open this old thread to close the loop on my serial port to ethernet/wireless method - I used the Quatech QSE100D converter (4 port serial to ethernet converter), then added them to a wireless router.

I connected my Zilla and Elithion BMS to the serial ports on the converter. then a LAN cable to a wireless router. I then used a laptop (with wireless card) to connect. I used TeraTerm for raw serial port connections - Hyper term seemed to keep crashing on Windows 7. Other terminal software did not refresh the windows smoothly, so it was difficult to read the status information. ZillaConfig and ZillaView are also helpful and are used for digital gauges etc... while driving.

Some notes:

- The power supply on the converter is real fussy - 5V, 2A. If the voltage is too high or too low, it will not work. In the car I used a 12V to 5V regulated supply chip (MA010A) with good success. For testing at home I used an old computer power supply to get 5V out.

- I used a DLink DIR655 router - good range and worked well. It has its own ID, so from the house I switch back/forth to wireless router SSIDs.

- The router needs 12V - I still have to buy another 12V to 12V converter (to keep the output regulated near 12V as cars can get to 14V or higher).

- The software drivers for the Quatech worked well - they allow virtual serial ports (so normal COM ports work) as well as direct TCP connections. I used the COM ports so Zillaview and ZillaConfig worked.


As Thaniel mentioned, it is cool being able to monitor the car from inside the house or at the office - the onboard Wireless N router has a stronger signal and seems to have decent range. Thaniels conversion of a modified Linksys router has the advantage of 1 box and is probably the cleanest solution - the method in this post uses off-the-shelf components and gives 4 serial ports - a bit clunkier having 2 devices instead of one though...



I have not found any good software to take the Elithion BMS RS232 data stream and display graphs of the battery pack, individual cells etc... If anyone knows of such software, please post your experiences...


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## Thaniel (May 25, 2008)

Thanks for the update.

I'm still got my fingers crossed on the IPAD zilla config deal. My Brother is starting to get into programing for the IPADs. So maybe some day.

Thaniel


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