OpenElec with support for eGalax touch screen

Hi!

Lately I have tested OpenElec for Raspberry PI and found out that it is very very fast, very very small and also it has some great addons(wifi, bluetooth and more).
Speed/size features on an 512MB RaspberryPI:
  - a complete boot is less than 25 seconds
  - cpu is around 30% load
  - memory used is 32%
  - total system size is less than 300MB

Edit. You can download my build from here(contains eGalax module and XBMC patches).
Username is root and password is openelec. The touch screen calibration file should be put in /storage/touchscreen_axes_calib.

Next, I will guide you through the instructions for building(cross compile) latest OpenElec  for Raspberry PI with touch screen support.
For this tutorial let's assume that you have a Linux machine where you will work.

1. Get the latest OpenElec.
git clone git://github.com/OpenELEC/OpenELEC.tv.git

2. Add kernel touch screen module support.
Open the file OpenELEC.tv/projects/RPI/linux/linux.arm.conf and search for "CONFIG_INPUT_TOUCHSCREEN". Replace the whole text line with the following lines:
CONFIG_INPUT_TOUCHSCREEN=y
CONFIG_TOUCHSCREEN_USB_COMPOSITE=m
CONFIG_TOUCHSCREEN_USB_EGALAX=y
CONFIG_TOUCHSCREEN_USB_PANJIT=y
CONFIG_TOUCHSCREEN_USB_3M=y
CONFIG_TOUCHSCREEN_USB_ITM=y
CONFIG_TOUCHSCREEN_USB_ETURBO=y
CONFIG_TOUCHSCREEN_USB_GUNZE=y
CONFIG_TOUCHSCREEN_USB_DMC_TSC10=y
CONFIG_TOUCHSCREEN_USB_IRTOUCH=y
CONFIG_TOUCHSCREEN_USB_IDEALTEK=y
CONFIG_TOUCHSCREEN_USB_GENERAL_TOUCH=y
CONFIG_TOUCHSCREEN_USB_GOTOP=y
CONFIG_TOUCHSCREEN_USB_JASTEC=y
CONFIG_TOUCHSCREEN_USB_ELO=y
CONFIG_TOUCHSCREEN_USB_E2I=y
CONFIG_TOUCHSCREEN_USB_ZYTRONIC=y
CONFIG_TOUCHSCREEN_USB_ETT_TC45USB=y
CONFIG_TOUCHSCREEN_USB_NEXIO=y
CONFIG_TOUCHSCREEN_USB_EASYTOUCH=y

3. Fix ppl version in OpenElec.
Open the file OpenELEC.tv/packages/toolchain/math/ppl/meta and change PKG_VERSION from "1.1pre9" to "1.1pre10"

4. Put touch screen calibration file into the system.
Navigate to folder OpenELEC.tv/projects/RPI/ and create the file usr/share/eGalaxCalibration/touchscreen_axes_calib. This file should have the following contents:
calib_x_d=-21;calib_x_fact=0.658097686;calib_y_d=-50;calib_y_fact=0.408626561;swap_axes=0;click_confines=8
To set up these values please visit this post(at section 4).

5. Put XBMC 12.2 patch.
Get my latest patch from here, rename it to xbmc-300-eGalaxPatch.patch and put it in the folder OpenELEC.tv/packages/mediacenter/xbmc/patches/12.2-18397e1

6. Build OpenElec.
Navigate to OpenElec folder and type:
PROJECT=RPi ARCH=arm make -j3
-j3 option is to use parallel build(if you have more than one cpu's set this number as nb_cpus+1). This option will speed up the build process.
The build process will take couple of hours, but you have o come back once(in the first 10 minutes) and press ENTER for the kernel touch screen modifications to be approved.

7. Install or Update your OpenElec card.
Go to OpenElec build instructions page for RPI and follow the "Install instructions" chapter.

Have fun!

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Car PC project(August 2013 update)

This is an update for my CarPC project.
You can download the latest image from here (username:'pi', password:'a')

The main features are:
Hardware:

• Raspberry PI model B(256MB ram): ~35$
• 7 inch display with touchscreen for car rear view camera, from eBay(touchscreen is connected to one USB port): 80$
• HDMI male to HDMI male cable(golden plated):20$
• 8GB SDHC class 6 card: 20$
• 12V(500mA) AC to DC adapter for powering the display
• 5V(1A) microUSB AC to DC converter for powering the PI
• ST22 SkyTraq GPS Receiver Module: 25$
• Reverse Camera: 15$

Software:
[Operating System]
    - Raspbian Wheezy 9.February.2013
    - Custom kernel 3.6.11
        - eGalax touch screen module
        - si470x usb radio module
        - snd-usb-audio module

[Media Center]
    - omxplayer
    - XBMC 12.2 Frodo
        - media formats supported:  listed here
        - sources with objects build on 27.July.2013
        - skin: CarPC-touch(download current version)
            - system shutdown button(safely stop xbmc and safely halt)
            - reload skin button
            - switch to camera view button
        - modified spectrum analyzer(OpenGL with no rotation)
        - eGalax touch screen calibrated
        - eGalax touch screen click&drag fix
        - black rectangle behind XBMC removed
        - patch to add getMousePosition feature to xbmcgui module(used to redirect clicks from the Navigation skin page to X11 using xdotool)

[Navigation]
    - Navit build from source
    - Zoom In, Zoom Out buttons
    - Click sent from XBMC to X11 (Navit Window)

GPS Setup
1. Connect GPS module to UART TX, UART RX, GND and 3.3V or on a usb port.
2. If you are using an UART GPS module, as I did, use this tutorial or any other to setup UART communication.
3. Connect GPS to gpsd:
sudo apt-get install gpsd
gpsd /dev/ttyAMA0

Adding maps to Navit
In order to add new maps to Navit, there is a simple process. First, go to Navit Planet Extractor and download your desired area file(this will be a .bin file).
After this, transfer the file to your Raspberry PI in the folder /home/pi/navit_export/build/navit/maps/. Here, you should also update the existing .xml file and add another entry for your new map. My .xml file is looking like this:

<map type="binfile" data="$NAVIT_SHAREDIR/maps/osm_bbox_11.3,47.9,11.7,48.2.bin" />
<map type="binfile" data="$NAVIT_SHAREDIR/maps/osm_bbox_20.3,43.5,29.9,48.4.bin" />

You can rename your .bin files for easier management

Car Modding
I had to relocate my original Radio/CD player in the trunk and keep it set on aux input source. This included buying about 60m of wires and also harness:
1. Metra 71-9003 Bmw Mini Factory Radio OEM Wire Harness
2. Scosche VW03B 2002+ Vw Audi BMW Radio Stereo Harness

 front without OEM Radio/CD player

trunk with relocated OEM Radio/CD player

Mounted Raspberry PI in the armrest

Safety:
    - The wires are 2mm in diameter with good insulation, resistant at temperature variations
    - I have added fuses(1.5A for the radio, 1A for Raspberry PI, 1A for display, 0.1A for reverse camera trigger, 0.1A for reverse camera video signal)

Bugs:
     - sound pops(will soon disappear by using this hdmi to hdmi and audio splitter)
    - Navigation is behind Video Player -> Navigation isn't visible while playing videos(this isn't a big issue)

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CarPC first build

Hi!

After working a lot at my CarPC project I have decided to take a break and post about it.

A short preview is here:

You can download my 4GB image from here
If you want to build it by yourself please follow my previous tutorials but replace the three patches with the single patch from here, which is for XBMC12.2. Also read my previous post to find how to calibrate the screen axes.

Features:

• auto start XBMC
• eGalax touch screen support with configurable greater area for touch event(8 pixels)
• improved skin with larger buttons and smooth transitions(link for the skin)
• System Power OFF button
• usbmount enabled(so usb MSD's are plug and play)

The new calibration file contains one more entry: click_confines which defines the area for XBMC to distinguish between click and drag actions(touch moves less than 8 pixels before release than action is click, else the action is drag).

Have fun!
Andrei

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Adding 7inch display with touchscreen to Raspberry PI

Hi!

First thing I got in mind when seeing Raspberry PI was "car PC project".
The targeted display was 7 inch with touchscreen. I have found a lot of displays on Ebay.

I have got myself one for 85 dollars with free shipping(this; if it is not available any more you can search "reversing driver board hdmi" on ebay and you will find others). The display driver board has hdmi input and an on board resistive touchpanel with usb controller board.

It took less than a month to receive it(in Romania). After unpack, it worked out of the box with Ubuntu 12.10(display + touchpanel) and with Windows, but for Windows I had to install some drivers also received in the package.

I have installed latest Raspbian image on a SD_Card and tried it on my Raspberry PI model B, but the touchpanel didn't show any input. After searching a lot I have decided that I have to recompile the raspbian kernel and add support for touchpanel. This sounded very new to me but it seemed to be an easy task.

First thing, I have run lsusb to see the touch controller type(on RaspberryPI):

pi@raspberrypi ~ $ lsusb
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 0424:9512 Standard Microsystems Corp.
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 0424:ec00 Standard Microsystems Corp.
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 1c4f:0002 SiGma Micro Keyboard TRACER Gamma Ivory
Bus 001 Device 005: ID 0eef:0001 D-WAV Scientific Co., Ltd eGalax TouchScreen

Last device is the touch controller, from eGalax.

Edit: If you don't want to build the kernel by yourself, you can download mine from here. After his, you have to replace file /boot/kernel.img and /lib/firmware and /lib/modules/ on the SD card.

Building a new kernel(in UBUNTU 12.10).
Get kernel sources.

wget https://github.com/raspberrypi/linux/archive/rpi-3.6.y.tar.gz
tar -zxvf  rpi-3.6.y.tar.gz

Install some dependencies.

sudo apt-get install git libncurses5 libncurses5-dev qt4-dev-tools build-essential

Install toolchain.
The best way to do the kernel compilation is on a Desktop/Laptop machine, which will be much more fast than on the Raspberry PI. I have did this in Ubuntu 12.10:

sudo apt-get install gcc-arm-linux-gnueabi

After download of the kernel archive has finished unpack it and then navigate with terminal to the extracted folder.
Be sure thaat the sources objects are cleaned. Type:

make mrproper

Create a folder for the generated kernel:

mkdir ../kernel

Generate the .config file:

make O=../kernel/ ARCH=arm CROSS_COMPILE=/usr/bin/arm-linux-gnueabi- bcmrpi_cutdown_defconfig

Configure the kernel:

make O=../kernel/ ARCH=arm CROSS_COMPILE=/usr/bin/arm-linux-gnueabi- xconfig

In the opened window press the | button to collapse all items. Then, navigate to Device Drivers->Input Device Support->TouchScreens and select it. Here, be sure to check also your touch screen controller if it is other than eGalax, or if it is not selected. Now press save.

With the changes being made you can now compile the kernel:

make O=../kernel/ ARCH=arm CROSS_COMPILE=/usr/bin/arm-linux-gnueabi- -k -j3

Note: -j3 option from the end means to enable parallel build. The number should be number of cpu cores + 1(I have dual core cpu).

The build took about 20 minutes on my PC. After the build completes, you will have the new kernel in ../kernel folder, created above.

Create the kernel image:

cd ../
git clone git://github.com/raspberrypi/tools.git

Note: You need to have git installed.

Navigate to tools/mkimage and then run:

./imagetool-uncompressed.py ../../kernel/arch/arm/boot/Image

This command will generate the kernel image(kernel.img file).

Build modules:
Go back to the linux-rpi-3.6.y folder.

mkdir ../modules/
make modules_install ARCH=arm CROSS_COMPILE=/usr/bin/arm-linux-gnueabi- INSTALL_MOD_PATH=../modules/

Replace the kernel:
Get latest firmware:

wget https://github.com/raspberrypi/firmware/archive/next.tar.gz
tar -zxvf next.tar.gz

In the small partition(/boot) do:

• replace /boot/bootcode.bin with firmware-next/boot/bootcode.bin
• replace /boot/kernel.img with the previously created kernel image
• replace /boot/start.elf with firmware-next/boot/start.elf

In the big partition(/root) do:

• replace /lib/firmware with <modules_builded_above_folder>/lib/firmware
• replace /lib/modules with <modules_builded_above_folder>/lib/modules
• replace /opt/vc with firmware-next/hardfp/opt/vc/

Now your card should contain the new image. Safely eject your SD card and then unplug it from the card reader and then put the card in Raspberry PI and start X(startx). Plug the touch controller in one usb and check if you can move the cursor(or you can start with he touch already plugged in).

After I have started X, my touch input was working but the axes were switched and also not calibrated.

Calibration for the touchscreen(in Raspberry PI). 
Note: The next steps are performed in the Raspberry PI's Debian Wheezy. This is a method for calibrating the touchscreen which will work just for Xserver and Xserver based applications.

Install xinput_calibrator.
Install some dependencies:

sudo apt-get install libx11-dev libxext-dev libxi-dev x11proto-input-dev

Download xinput_calibrator somewhere in the Raspberry PI's folder structure.

wget http://github.com/downloads/tias/xinput_calibrator/xinput_calibrator-0.7.5.tar.gz

Unpack it and then navigate to the unpacked folder and then install it using:

./configure
make
sudo make install

After this step you should run xinput_calibrator(from Xserver terminal console: first startx then open console and then run it).

xinput_calibrator

Follow the on screen instructions(touching some points on screen) and after calibration is complete you will receive a message like this:

Calibrating EVDEV driver for "eGalax Inc. USB TouchController" id=8
    current calibration values (from XInput): min_x=1938, max_x=114 and min_y=1745, max_y=341

Doing dynamic recalibration:
    Setting new calibration data: 121, 1917, 317, 1741


--> Making the calibration permanent <--
  copy the snippet below into '/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/99-calibration.conf'
Section "InputClass"
    Identifier    "calibration"
    MatchProduct    "eGalax Inc. USB TouchController"
    Option    "Calibration"    "121 1917 317 1741"
    Option    "SwapAxes"    "1"
EndSection

For Raspbian you have to create a file:

sudo nano /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/01-input.conf

Add in this file the content above(starting with Section "InputClass" line) and then save it(ctrl+O).

Note:
Please make sure that you don't have sections like
MatchProduct    "eGalax Inc. USB TouchController"
in other files from /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/ folder(highest number files are processed last, thanks to Jasmin).

Now touchscreen should be calibrated and after reboot it will keep the settings.
Once, I had to run xinput_calibration again in order to have the pointer to the desired points. You can update the numbers given by the xinput_calibration utility in the
usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/01-input.conf file in order to have the best calibration at boot.

Soon I will add some pictures.

Andrei

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