[nabilt]

Great project. Offline mapping is a great feature addition. I'm working on a similar side project using C++ and Qt. I tinkered with Qt maps for a bit, but found it was sucking up too much of my time building a navigation app with all of the necessary features so I scrapped it. I will probably try to integrate an open source mapping app later on to make life easier.

So far, I got music streaming and voice calls working over bluetooth and I'm currently working on cleaning up the UI. I'm also considering upgrading my board to the i.MX8 which recently came out. Next I''m planning on adding an LTE modem, OTA updates and some kind of basic music app.

[elboru]

How do you handle aesthetics? Sounds like a really fun project but a big challenge, at least for me, would be to make it look pretty and not like a Sunday hack.

[nabilt]

Hardware is the biggest challenge and what I assume you are asking about. My first approach was to get a double din computer case, which gives you an aftermarket look. The better option is to go to the junk yard and get a stock head unit and replace the internals. The problem here is finding an LCD that fits the dimensions. Another thing I've been thinking about is using a larger LCD that sticks out of the dash like the Tesla Model 3. Downside here is there is no space for physical buttons which I really like.

[akhenakh]

Agree, creating something nice is challenging, 3d printings may help but I haven't started it yet, waiting to evaluate different screens first. I've decided not to dismount the car block but using a phone stand modified for my screen. It's full of ugly cables, the challenging part was to route a cable from the rear of the car to the front :)