Modder/Motorhead Nirvana: iPod Pontiac GTO Remote Control

[Paul Daniel Ash]

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOK-hqSMqKs]YouTube - Dave Phipps Uses RedEye to Control His 69 GTO[/ame]


It's always great to see an iPod remote control mod put to practical use, and even better when it's a thing of beauty. Dave Phipps rebuilt and completely rewired a 1969 Pontiac GTO, which is impressive enough on its own. But he then combined his love of cars with his electronics skills, retrofitting the classic car with a 21st century wireless network, and tying the whole thing together with an iPod touch. It's an impressive piece of work that's getting a lot of attention in the Italian geek blogosphere. I read and watched and translated. This guy is my new hero.

Dave Phipps is an electronics hobbyist and a lover of the classic musclecar, having owned and rebuilt a total of fourteen 1969 Pontiac GTOs. For this project, he started with a junker that he picked up for $400 US: little more than a frame with a passenger compartment clinging to it. He started by stripping the frame down to bare metal and completely rewiring the car, tying everything back to a 110 block of the type that's commonly used for structured wiring in office networks. Starting with a remote-control starter/entry system, he built a wireless control system from a 2.4 GHz cell phone, using the speed-dial to do things like control the convertible top and roll the windows up and down. Not satisfied with that, he added Bluetooth control to the cell phone so he could issue commands by voice.

Then, he took it to the next level.

He put a Linksys router in the trunk to create a WiFi network around the car. Then, he installed a RedEye control box from ThinkFlood and linked it up to a central relay box which links the infrared controls of things like the in-dash stereo to the other servo controllers. The RedEye box lets him use an app on his iPod touch to do things like turn on the ignition and start the car, pop the servo-actuated doors and trunk, roll down the windows and put down the top, control the radio, arm the alarm and even rev the engine from a distance. He's got macros like the "ALL UP" command that lets him tap one button and walk away as his car puts the top and windows up and locks all the doors. He's adding a command to set the alarm, too.

The project is just an over-the-top example of what a sufficiently committed electronics geek can do with off-the-shelf hardware, some creativity and a lot of OCD. He says his next project is to install a USB-tunable electronic fuel injection system on the upgraded 428 cubic-inch V8 engine, and set up a customizable heads up display on the windshield.

Knight Rider eat your heart out.

[Jayman11]

Wow!

[blkcadi]

This is so cool, being a car nut, this is a must have.

[Nick Hesson]

schaweeeeet

+10 for nirvana

[madczech]

Woow! This is just cool! Im a little jealous

[soulthoughts]

Holy crap that's sweet. It totally blows away the carputer I built a few years back.

[Nicholas Knight]

haha hey mentioned the nuclear power plant backup systems being a nuclear engineer for the navy, I know these all too well haha well done with the IR remote work

[symondavis]

God, I want to stab him so much for saying iTouch.

It's a freaking iPod Touch!

[Mike_7318]

i want one

[kingbijan]

amazing

[Bluprint]

any real news?

[rickybobby]

you know i always wondered how far you can go with a touch or a iphone now i see this is incredible wish i knew how to do it

[rhekt]

thats awesome! i wonder if it can be hacked

[johnr9412]

I wanna drive by him with my iPhone and start making his car go crazy

[ro0oney]

he can almost do anything with his car using his ipod touch
amazing how he did it!

[sziklassy]

God, I want to stab him so much for saying iTouch.

It's a freaking iPod Touch!

And it has been nicknamed the itouch by many MANY people...

[santaf]

i'm surprised only one person has sadi something about him saying iTouch hahah ithought there would be almost every post someone saying something.... though the person who did something, i'm sorry it's sad that you get so upset about someone saying iTouch instead of iPod touch it's so much easier to say iTouch and everyone knows what you mean so what's the big deal?

on the plus side of things this is ridiculously awesome i want it

[extremzocker]

thats awesome! i wonder if it can be hacked

isn't there a theory that anything is hackable but it takes it time!?