CaRadio is a DIY automotive head unit project combining Raspberry Pi, embedded software, vehicle electronics, CAN bus integration and Apple CarPlay.
How I implemented CarPlay audio playback through a PCM5102 DAC, mixed separate audio streams, handled music ducking during navigation prompts, and debugged the head unit during real drives.
Read article →How I adapted CarPlay touchscreen controls for my Raspberry Pi-based car head unit: handling taps and swipes, coordinate mapping, and switching between CarPlay and the CaRadio interface.
Read article →How I chose the software foundation for CaRadio, why I preferred C++ and SDL3 over Qt, what happened after experimenting with LIVI, and how I restored a stable Carlinkit connection.
Read article →How an iPhone, a Carlinkit USB dongle, and a Raspberry Pi work together in CaRadio. Why the adapter is needed, how video, audio, and touch input are transmitted, and what the custom application does.
Read article →How I explored Apple CarPlay on Raspberry Pi, discovered Carlinkit and open-source projects such as pycarplay, carplay-receiver and FastCarPlay, struggled with performance issues, and returned to development two years later.
Read article →How I built CaRadio using a Raspberry Pi and the original Volkswagen RCD510 housing, set up power management, and installed it in my Golf. The first months of real-world use and what comes next.
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How I tried to reuse the original Volkswagen RCD510 electronics for CaRadio on Raspberry Pi, found the power control signals, ran into endless reboot loops, and eventually abandoned the original mainboard.
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How Raspberry Pi, Linux, a Waveshare HDMI touchscreen and Carlinkit became a working version of CaRadio with wireless Apple CarPlay, Google Maps and YouTube Music.
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How my Raspberry Pi head unit project came back to life: a Nissan, early CarPlay experiments, a change of car, and a return to development with FastCarPlay.
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How an attempt to install a standard 2DIN head unit in a Volkswagen T4 turned into a project to build my own Raspberry Pi-based head unit with FM radio, Bluetooth, a rear-view camera, and a Qt/C++ interface.
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