The Adventures With The EVO 4G Continues: Heads Up Display

As I continue to discover the powers of my magical phone, here is my latest experiment: a portable heads up display for your car!

GPS Data Logging on the HTC EVO 4G

A while back, I swapped in my old Nokia 3390 for an HTC EVO 4G running the Android OS. Since then, I have been trying to figure out some of the various capabilities of this new phone (other than making fancy phone calls) and the different things I can do with it. This is the first major capability experiment for the phone.

Specifically, it is a test of the phone's GPS data logging abilities. Using the GPS capability embedded within itself, it can log speed and elevation, along with latitude and longitude. There is a bit of lag between the actual speedometer and the GPS speedometer due to the refresh rate of the GPS unit. I think excessive vibrations also affect the way it is reading. The car vibrates like crazy at high speeds. Due to the refresh rate and vibrations, there seems to be some sporadic spiking in the data readouts when I introduce drastic speed changes. Overall, the GPS data logging capabilities of the phone works great.

This was also a test of my external microphone, piped from my on-board camera directly into the engine compartment. This is what the raw sound of a 1.5L 1NE-FE Toyota engine (pushing a bit over 100HP) sounds like at full power!

Vroom...Vrooom.... :^P

My next big experiment will be using the accelerometer embedded in the phone to measure lateral G forces acting on the vehicle during a high speed turn. I will also try to add this to the overlay.

For specific technical details on this experiment, feel free to ask and I will explain it over a cup of coffee....