At least this1 will be the next thing I buy for myself. It's a USB FM Transmitter1, an itrip type thing that plugs into a computer. Anyone remember the itrip? I had one that I imported from the USA in the early days, it was for playing music from the ipod through your car stereo if you didn't have the inputs on the stereo to plugin direct. Well, I still don't have the inputs on the car stereo, but I do already have an itrip type thing that I have on a long term loan from Dad. So what's this one for? Aha, it's for my plan for the in car raspberry pi, I started work on the code for it yesterday. What I'm planning is a raspberry pi based song queueing system, like the auto dj thing on itunes. If I build it on the pi, and I can plug usb fm transmitter1 in, then the pi will be playing a radio station of my own devising that the car stereo just tunes in to.
I have plans to make the in car radio station take requests, maybe via text, or by also being a wifi hotspot (that a phone app can talk to), or I could also add real buttons and a screen to the pi to take input directly. Lots of possibilities. Then the pi should also be able to connect to the house network when the car is parked on the drive, and download more music.
This is a reasonably ambitious plan for me. The best thing to do would be to connect the audio output of the pi direct to the car stereo, but as I don't want to mess with the car too much, or replace the factory fitted stereo, then this fm transmitter1 is just the job. Plus I can develop on it in the house too. The hardware barrier is low.
It's from keene.co.uk2, who make some other lovely stuff I would like. This is one of their cheaper options...
raspberry pi: Credit card sized super cheap computer, awesome.
Paul Clarke's weblog - I live in A small town. Wed to Clare + father to two, I am a full-stack web developr, and I do js / Node, some ruby, other languages ect ect. I like pubs, running, eating, home automation + other diy jiggery-pokery, history, family tree stuff, TV, squirrels, pirates, lego, and TIME TRAVEL.