For those unfamiliar with Reddit, Shower Thoughts is collection of all those ideas or philosophical questions that race through your mind while in the bathroom. Folks post literally everything ranging from, “The expression “Great Minds Think Alike” is the exact opposite of what we value great minds for,” to “I like to think money wouldn’t change me; yet when I’m winning Monopoly I’m a terrible person.”
While most people would simply surf Reddit on their phones or laptops, Harin De Mel decided to take a different approach. Instead, he managed to hack his vehicle’s dashboard to display some of the best thoughts from the last hour.
To accomplish this, the Maker sniffed the CAN bus on his 2012 Hyundai Genesis, and isolated the LCD from the rest of the network. He used Raspberry Pi and an Arduino, and interfaced both of them with two MCP2515s to keep the networks separate — one for the display, the other to receive signals. Meanwhile, a Wi-Fi dongle on the Raspberry Pi enables Internet connectivity to access the subreddit.
For his last challenge, De Mel was able to make the text scroll, which was achieved through the CAN bus. However, Python script on the Raspberry Pi provided more control on how fast or frequently the message would come across the screen.
As with any road-related project, it’s important to keep in mind that safety is paramount. Therefore, it goes without saying that you should always refrain from distracted driving. Although a feed of profound and hilarious thoughts may be a great way to pass the time in dead-stop traffic…
Intrigued? You can head over to the Maker’s blog, as well as read Make:’s recent writeup to learn more.