Tinkla Buddy

What is Tinkla Buddy?

Tinkla Buddy Install Kit

Installing your Tinkla Buddy

Configuring your Tinkla Buddy

What is Tinkla Buddy?

Tinkla Buddy (formerly rPanda) is a nice solution for our Teslas to have Instrument Cluster [IC] integration without root.

If you don't have root access to your Tesla, you can now enjoy these benefits:

• OpenPilot Integration into IC for pre-AP cars.
• In car WiFi Access Point
• Remote App (work in progress)
• Vitals to Tinkla
• Factory mode
• and More!

The entire Tinkla Buddy install costs about $200 USD, depending where your source components. There will be a subscription of $150 for the first year and $100 for each subsequent year. Subscription fees will be used to maintain the remote access and licensing server for the Remote App and other remote services.

Software Design History

v1.36

• Fix screenshot capturing script
• Fix issues with detecting MCU1 vs MCU2
• Added sound triggering capabilities on CID
• Fix issues when running old firmware and cid-updater is not working anymore

v1.33

• Tesla 2020.24.6.1 compatibility
• Remote cron capabilities that allow you to run bash scripts on CID every 1, 5, 15 or 60 minutes (requires root persistence)
• Fixes for persistence scripts to work well with 2020.20 and newer Tesla software
• Speed/reliability improvements

v1.27

• Fully boot without being connected to either IC or CID
• Reduce number of QtCar restarts by detecting IC state
• Increase automatically switch back to analog to 5 min to allow for buddy reboots without changes to IC
• Increase number of checks for state of IC and CID before pulling Vitals

v1.26

• Allow Buddy to boot without IC/CID on
• Bug fix for IC not turning on after deep sleep

(Note: Vitals need to be re-enabled after each version upgrade)

v1.25

• Bug fix for vitals without root on latest versions (up to 2020.12.11.5)
• Bug fix with Factory Mode on latest versions (up to 2020.12.11.5)
• Detects automatically if cars has AP hardware (1/2/2.5/3)
• Detects automatically if car has MCU1 or MCU2 hardware
• Vitals checking is an option now in Tinkla Menu and is disabled by default

v1.22

• Fully redesigned networking stack for faster response on boot, activation and interaction
• Now Tinkla Buddy can be installed between IC and MCU (IC <--> Buddy <--> MCU) or between MCU and APE (MCU <--> Buddy <--> APE) allowing it to work on both MCU1 and MCU2 cars.
• Auto-detection of MCU type (Tegra vs Intel)
• Auto-detection of AP type (pre-AP, AP1, AP2, AP2.5, AP3)
• Auto-detection of installation location
• Improved WiFi stability

v1.21

• Fixes issue with starting persistence mode
• LEDs now show status of tinklaBuddy and availability of valid cert

v1.20

• Menu button trigger for Tinkla Menu for older (LIN based) steering wheel controls
• Fixes brightness control
• Resolves issue with crash when car would go in sleep mode