I\'ve got zRoadmap running in my truck (more or less: I still haven\'t figured out how to set it up with waypoints so it can play \"navigator\" and warn me of upcoming turns and such), but it\'s awkward, and downright dangerous, to try to control it using \"normal\" screen taps and such.
What I\'d like to do is connect a simple keypad to it, and hack the zRoadmap code so I can do common operations like \"zoom in\", \"zoom out\", and \"How far to the next instruction?\" with a a single push of a button I don\'t have to take my eyes off the road to find. I\'m thinking about 8-10 buttons max: more than that, and the problem of finding the right one crops up again. The minimum is probably about 5 buttons.
The serial port is already tied up with the GPS, so using it is out. I\'m thinking maybe IrDA, or a consumer remote with a few big buttons. Although this poses the challenge of mounting it so it can communicate reliably with the Z.
I could use something like a PocketTop keyboard for development, but that\'d be too awkward to mount in the truck, and having so many buttons makes it only slightly better than using the screen.
If necessary, I\'d be willing to desolder the IR LED from a consumer remote, and put it on a wire so I could mount the remote in a convenient location without having to worry about having it pointed right at the Z.
I\'ve thought about Bluetooth, but, while it would be be fun, I\'d rather do something that could be used by lots of other people. The extra $150 or so needed to for a Bluetooth link would probably turn most potential users off.
Has anybody successfully tried something that could be adapted to this purpose?
Thanks,
Ran
