Dashwheel v1.0.763 (beta)

What's new in v1.0.763 (beta)

Unit keys: Home and screen off work again after using an app in a tile

• Home works again after you tap inside an app in a tile (YouTube Music, Waze), instead of doing nothing
• The screen-off button switches the screen off once, instead of off and straight back on, while the media keys turn the second screen's pages
• Home no longer acts like a long press while the media keys turn the second screen's pages

A music app in a tile comes to its player when a song starts

• A music app shown in a tile (inside it, or as a window over it) now opens its own player when a new song starts: YouTube Music's player, Spotify's Now playing. The player is the screen the app's media session names as its own. With YouTube Music in Video mode, the song's clip then shows in the tile.
• The app is left where it is when the tile was touched in the last 30 seconds (a library being browsed, a search), when the same song plays again after a pause, or for a window tile while another app covers the dashboard.

Changes since v1.0.760.

Dashwheel v1.0.762

What's new in v1.0.762

Unit keys: Home and screen off work again after using an app in a tile

• Home works again after you tap inside an app in a tile (YouTube Music, Waze), instead of doing nothing
• The screen-off button switches the screen off once, instead of off and straight back on, while the media keys turn the second screen's pages
• Home no longer acts like a long press while the media keys turn the second screen's pages

A music app in a tile comes to its player when a song starts

• A music app shown in a tile (inside it, or as a window over it) now opens its own player when a new song starts: YouTube Music's player, Spotify's Now playing. The player is the screen the app's media session names as its own. With YouTube Music in Video mode, the song's clip then shows in the tile.
• The app is left where it is when the tile was touched in the last 30 seconds (a library being browsed, a search), when the same song plays again after a pause, or for a window tile while another app covers the dashboard.

Second screen: its brightness lands on the level asked for

• The second screen's brightness now shows exactly the level you set, instead of one or two steps off
• After the Raspberry Pi starts, the first brightness change takes a few seconds longer, so that it lands exactly

Apps in a tile: a finger's tap reaches the app as one tap

• A tap with your finger on an app inside a tile (Waze's "Where to?" bar) now opens it, as it should, instead of being ignored by the app
• The head unit sometimes reports one press twice; the app inside the tile now only ever gets it once

Servicing: the mileage follows the GPS without OBD

• Without an OBD adapter or CAN box, the servicing planner's mileage now goes up with the kilometres the GPS measures, so km-based reminders (oil, filters, belt...) count down on their own
• With OBD connected, OBD still counts the kilometres, and the GPS takes over if it drops out mid-drive
• GPS reads slightly less than the car's odometer: type the real figure now and then (at a service, for example) to reset it

Lab: dead touch strip, for a screen that misses touches in one upright strip

• New in Settings, System, Lab: "Dead touch strip", for a touchscreen that feels nothing in one vertical strip
• Measure it once by sliding a finger across the screen: the strip found shows in red before you save it
• When it is on, the Settings side bar grows past the strip, so every setting on the right can be tapped; nothing else changes

Apps in a tile: text fields answer the first tap

• Tapping a text field inside a tile (Waze's "Where to?" bar) now opens it and its keyboard straight away, instead of doing nothing for several seconds
• The app you touch in a tile now always gets the keyboard, even when the head unit is busy

Second screen: the Pi's board in Dashwheel's language

• The board on the Raspberry Pi now uses the language chosen in Dashwheel, even when the head unit itself is set to another language

Second screen: no more seconds of delay or freezes on the Raspberry Pi

• Apps shown on the Pi (Waze, YouTube Music) are no longer 3 to 4 seconds behind the head unit
• The Pi's picture no longer freezes for a moment every few seconds
• When the head unit sends more frames than the Pi's screen can show, the Pi now skips the extra ones instead of falling behind

Build: 4 GB for Gradle and the Kotlin compiler, as the looks outgrew 2 GB

Every build of main since the new looks came in ran out of memory compiling the app (:app:compilePlayDebugKotlin), so no beta was published after v1.0.748 and the new Look page never reached the head unit.

3D models saved z up stand on their wheels

A model saved another way round than glTF's y up (z up and the nose along y, as Blender saves it unless told otherwise) was drawn lying down: from above it showed the front of the car, and the other views showed it on its side. The phone now works out the model's axes from its shape:

• The length is the longest side.
• The width is the side the car mirrors across.
• Up is the end where the car is smaller: the roof is shorter and narrower than the bumpers and sills.

Models already read right keep exactly the same axes. A ground plane under such a model is also left out, whichever way it lies.

Doors, tailgate and bonnet open as frames drawn from your 3D model

• Dashwheel Companion: "From a 3D model" now also draws each part a rigged model opens (Hinge_door_fl/fr/rl/rr, Hinge_tailgate, Hinge_bonnet), seen from above. For each part it draws the car without it (what it uncovers), then the part alone in 8 steps from shut to open, hidden where the car is in front of it. The frames go in the car pack as small WebP pictures: about 160 KB for a C4 Picasso.
• On the head unit, the door alert plays them as a part opens and shuts, in every design and in the car style chosen: what the part uncovers, then the part as far open as it is, in the warning colour. They come before a pack's still picture of a part open, and before the bonnet lifting out of the picture.
• The side panel and full screen show the car in 3D only for a part open that has no frames.
• The model's hinges are read with the parts hanging from them, and kept when the nose is turned around. The opening angles are shared by the phone's frames and the live 3D view.
• tools/mycar/bake_car.py says to open its pack in the phone app to have the parts opening drawn.

Bonnet open: it lifts instead of a still picture, and opens on your 3D car

• Your car from above, when its pack has no picture of the bonnet open: the bonnet now lifts out of the car's own picture on its hinge at the windscreen. It gets shorter as it rises, uncovers a dark engine bay, springs a little and shows in the warning colour. Before, the whole car only turned orange. This is in every door alert design, and on the Motorsport look's car.
• The door alert's side panel and full screen show your car in 3D when its pack brought a model with hinges (Hinge_bonnet, Hinge_door_fl...). The camera turns to what is open: into the engine bay for the bonnet, to the door or the tailgate, or the whole car from the corner most of them are on. Everything open swings open on its hinge and glows in the warning colour. The car from above shows while the model loads, and instead for a model without those hinges.
• The 3D car's loading is shared by the Car problems card and the door alert.

Companion: From a 3D model also takes a car pack (.dwcar)

A car pack chosen in "From a 3D model" was refused as "can't be read as a 3D model": the screen took only a bare .glb, and a pack is a zip. The model inside the pack (model.glb, else any .glb in it) is now taken out and drawn as a .glb would be.

Ambient's turn glow no longer cut square at the tile's edge; Spatial keeps its apps on the bar only

Companion: its own message when a model can't be turned around

A turn that fails keeps the car as it was and now says the model is too big to turn on this phone, instead of "Try again in the car".

Companion: turning a big 3D model's nose no longer closes the app

• "Nose the wrong way? Turn it around" read the whole model file again while the car already drawn was still kept. A big model (24 MB) twice did not fit in the phone's memory, and the app closed. The model already read is now turned in memory: only its corners are new, so the turn is also quicker.
• The nose found by itself when a model is chosen turns it the same way, instead of reading the file twice.
• Reading a model takes about half the memory it did: the triangles are brought to the car's frame where they were read, not copied.
• The app may use more memory on phones that allow it (large heap), for models up to 64 MB.
• While the car is redrawn, "Drawing your car" shows above it. The spinner no longer turns in "Send to the car", which looked like it was sending to a car that was not even connected.
• Choosing another model lets go of the one on screen first; when the new one can't be read, the car kept before comes back.

Terrain: no lone chip on the 3D car, and its description says the landscape is drawn

Terrain look: your car on a contour landscape, problems pinned on it

• New Terrain look: your car stands large in the middle of Home on a pad in a landscape of contour lines, dark olive at night and sand paper by day, with a faint amber pulse running out across the lines while parked.
• The car is live in 3D when your car pack has a model, else its picture, else a drawn MPV, on its own soft shadow. A problem the car reports glows on the part and is pinned there with its name.
• Over the car: altitude, position and heading from the GPS when there is a fix, and the range with an amber bar.
• Smoked cards with mono labels: the next turn as a big amber arrow block, the weather for the next 6 hours with when the rain starts and one bar per hour, the music with its cover and three round keys, the engine readings, speed and clock.
• Choosing Terrain arranges Home around the car, with the side rail as its dock; a slim smoked bar when the rail is off.

Windshield look: a road at dusk, the turn's arrows on the lane and a glass band

• New Windshield look: the dashboard is the view through the windscreen at night, a drawn road under an indigo sky with street lights, your car seen from behind with its tail lamps glowing (your own car's back view when you imported one).
• While a route is guided the road bends toward the next turn, more sharply as it nears, and cyan arrows lie on the lane pointing into it. They flow toward the turn when a new one comes, then hold still.
• A black glass band along the foot of the screen holds what you glance at: speed and limit sign, the next turn, arrival time and outside temperature, with Apps, Talk, OBD and the menu small at its ends.
• Widgets float over the road as tags: the next turn in cyan, the weather with the rain to come, the r...

Dashwheel v1.0.761 (beta)

What's new in v1.0.761 (beta)

Second screen: its brightness lands on the level asked for

• The second screen's brightness now shows exactly the level you set, instead of one or two steps off
• After the Raspberry Pi starts, the first brightness change takes a few seconds longer, so that it lands exactly

Apps in a tile: a finger's tap reaches the app as one tap

• A tap with your finger on an app inside a tile (Waze's "Where to?" bar) now opens it, as it should, instead of being ignored by the app
• The head unit sometimes reports one press twice; the app inside the tile now only ever gets it once

Changes since v1.0.759.

Dashwheel v1.0.760 (beta)

What's new in v1.0.760 (beta)

Apps in a tile: a finger's tap reaches the app as one tap

• A tap with your finger on an app inside a tile (Waze's "Where to?" bar) now opens it, as it should, instead of being ignored by the app
• The head unit sometimes reports one press twice; the app inside the tile now only ever gets it once

Changes since v1.0.759.

Dashwheel v1.0.759 (beta)

What's new in v1.0.759 (beta)

Servicing: the mileage follows the GPS without OBD

• Without an OBD adapter or CAN box, the servicing planner's mileage now goes up with the kilometres the GPS measures, so km-based reminders (oil, filters, belt...) count down on their own
• With OBD connected, OBD still counts the kilometres, and the GPS takes over if it drops out mid-drive
• GPS reads slightly less than the car's odometer: type the real figure now and then (at a service, for example) to reset it

Changes since v1.0.758.

Dashwheel v1.0.758 (beta)

What's new in v1.0.758 (beta)

Lab: dead touch strip, for a screen that misses touches in one upright strip

• New in Settings, System, Lab: "Dead touch strip", for a touchscreen that feels nothing in one vertical strip
• Measure it once by sliding a finger across the screen: the strip found shows in red before you save it
• When it is on, the Settings side bar grows past the strip, so every setting on the right can be tapped; nothing else changes

Changes since v1.0.757.

Dashwheel v1.0.757 (beta)

What's new in v1.0.757 (beta)

Apps in a tile: text fields answer the first tap

• Tapping a text field inside a tile (Waze's "Where to?" bar) now opens it and its keyboard straight away, instead of doing nothing for several seconds
• The app you touch in a tile now always gets the keyboard, even when the head unit is busy

Changes since v1.0.756.

Dashwheel v1.0.756 (beta)

What's new in v1.0.756 (beta)

Second screen: the Pi's board in Dashwheel's language

• The board on the Raspberry Pi now uses the language chosen in Dashwheel, even when the head unit itself is set to another language

Changes since v1.0.755.

Dashwheel v1.0.755 (beta)

What's new in v1.0.755 (beta)

Second screen: no more seconds of delay or freezes on the Raspberry Pi

• Apps shown on the Pi (Waze, YouTube Music) are no longer 3 to 4 seconds behind the head unit
• The Pi's picture no longer freezes for a moment every few seconds
• When the head unit sends more frames than the Pi's screen can show, the Pi now skips the extra ones instead of falling behind

Changes since v1.0.754.

Dashwheel v1.0.754 (beta)

What's new in v1.0.754 (beta)

Build: 4 GB for Gradle and the Kotlin compiler, as the looks outgrew 2 GB

Every build of main since the new looks came in ran out of memory compiling the app (:app:compilePlayDebugKotlin), so no beta was published after v1.0.748 and the new Look page never reached the head unit.

3D models saved z up stand on their wheels

A model saved another way round than glTF's y up (z up and the nose along y, as Blender saves it unless told otherwise) was drawn lying down: from above it showed the front of the car, and the other views showed it on its side. The phone now works out the model's axes from its shape:

• The length is the longest side.
• The width is the side the car mirrors across.
• Up is the end where the car is smaller: the roof is shorter and narrower than the bumpers and sills.

Models already read right keep exactly the same axes. A ground plane under such a model is also left out, whichever way it lies.

Doors, tailgate and bonnet open as frames drawn from your 3D model

• Dashwheel Companion: "From a 3D model" now also draws each part a rigged model opens (Hinge_door_fl/fr/rl/rr, Hinge_tailgate, Hinge_bonnet), seen from above. For each part it draws the car without it (what it uncovers), then the part alone in 8 steps from shut to open, hidden where the car is in front of it. The frames go in the car pack as small WebP pictures: about 160 KB for a C4 Picasso.
• On the head unit, the door alert plays them as a part opens and shuts, in every design and in the car style chosen: what the part uncovers, then the part as far open as it is, in the warning colour. They come before a pack's still picture of a part open, and before the bonnet lifting out of the picture.
• The side panel and full screen show the car in 3D only for a part open that has no frames.
• The model's hinges are read with the parts hanging from them, and kept when the nose is turned around. The opening angles are shared by the phone's frames and the live 3D view.
• tools/mycar/bake_car.py says to open its pack in the phone app to have the parts opening drawn.

Bonnet open: it lifts instead of a still picture, and opens on your 3D car

• Your car from above, when its pack has no picture of the bonnet open: the bonnet now lifts out of the car's own picture on its hinge at the windscreen. It gets shorter as it rises, uncovers a dark engine bay, springs a little and shows in the warning colour. Before, the whole car only turned orange. This is in every door alert design, and on the Motorsport look's car.
• The door alert's side panel and full screen show your car in 3D when its pack brought a model with hinges (Hinge_bonnet, Hinge_door_fl...). The camera turns to what is open: into the engine bay for the bonnet, to the door or the tailgate, or the whole car from the corner most of them are on. Everything open swings open on its hinge and glows in the warning colour. The car from above shows while the model loads, and instead for a model without those hinges.
• The 3D car's loading is shared by the Car problems card and the door alert.

Companion: From a 3D model also takes a car pack (.dwcar)

A car pack chosen in "From a 3D model" was refused as "can't be read as a 3D model": the screen took only a bare .glb, and a pack is a zip. The model inside the pack (model.glb, else any .glb in it) is now taken out and drawn as a .glb would be.

Changes since v1.0.748.