Raspberry Pi Car Project : DIN Slot Starter Guide

We have named the article as Raspberry Pi Car Project, but with the phrase Raspberry Pi, we want to mean the Raspberry Pi alternatives we talked about in old article as well. They are actually Single-Board Computers and there are Made in China Single-Board Computers which are cheaper than Raspberry Pi.

There Are Many Technical Matters Around Car Need To Be Known For Complex Project. Here is a Starter Guide For Your Raspberry Pi Car Project in DIN Slot. What we can do with our just ordinary car and Raspberry Pi Car Computers? More than you can imagine. All cars at present has an On-board diagnostics (OBD) port named OBD II port which provides self-diagnostic and reporting capability. The port commonly located below the dashboard end closer to the steering wheel. Now there are many OBD adapter systems which gives us the interface for Wi-Fi and wired connection. We can see all possible data collected by sensors including vehicle speed tachometer via this interfacing. OBD II has IEEE and ISO Standards. So as hardware, you need an OBD II adapter, which does not cost more than $10 – $20 USD. But you must make sure that it works with your car’s model.

Quite obviously, other common usage of a computer inside car includes entertainment, GPS navigation, data from the cameras and as much automation you want. You can see in this info graph many useful idea :

In this guide, we will talk about DIN slot of the cars. DIN slot are the slots or decks where commonly the car music system, car radio are mounted. They have ISO standard specifications.

Raspberry Pi Car Project : DIN  Slot Starter Guide

We really need lot of tools and instruments to realise this kind of project. Some of the needed tools we talked about in specific posts :

1. Cutting, Drilling, Casting and Molding Metals For DIY Project
2. Power tools for drilling, sawing
3. Rotary tools
4. Multimeter buying guide
5. Basic electronics components

There are really a big list of such needed guides for a starter.

Raspberry Pi Car Project : Learn About DIN  Slot and DIN Slot Mounting of Raspberry Pi

ISO 7736 defines standard size for car audio head units and enclosures. DIN stands for Deutsches Institut für Normung, who first set the standard. The slot size can be either single DIN (180 x 50 mm) or double DIN (180 x 100 mm panel). Actually working size is 7″ x 2″ for single DIN and 7″ x 4″ for the Double DIN.

There are known as various names like Car Stereo Installation Kit. If you visit a local shop, they will supply and set the proper frame so that you can secure a Raspberry Pi enclosure inside. I think, it is better to buy a cheap Made in China single DIN car stereo for this work. Because actually we need lot of things like stereo wiring harness socket to get the electricity from battery. For that reason, I have shown the connection of wiring harness socket in the info graph.

In my opinion, the audio, radio part better be the commercial, commonly used set. That will keep the system uncomplicated. Computers are not great for copiously running audio. It is better to use some other slot or glove box to mount Raspberry Pi. DIN  Slot is good because it has the way to mount in a way that the board will not face injuries out of vibrations.

We named the project as DIN Slot Starter Guide. So, we are ending this guide here.