Car2PC Text?

Installation of the Car2PC adapter went flawlessly.
There was a little bit of an issue removing my Ipod adapter (plugged into the EX port too) as the plug had been in there for over two years. But after a bit of fiddling, it came free, allowing me to plug in the headunit end of the Car2PC.

Success!

I ran Winamp on the EeePC, with the HUmp3 plugin that was supplied with the Car2PC, and I got sound from the car speakers!

More Success!

However, try as i may, initially, I could not control Winamp with the headunit controls. Next track and previous track did nothing. :(
I ran the grom_console application (also supplied with the Car2PC) to verify the commands coming out of the headunit. And sure enough, the headunit buttons were sending the expected signals ("NT", "PT", etc) but Winamp was not responsing to them.
Further research was required.

After a couple of days of reading the mp3car.com forums, I came across a reference to a piece of software called RoadRunner that can use the headunit via the Car2PC as a control source aswell as a text output. Turns out, RoadRunner is now called RideRunner (due to copyright) and is still available for download for free. Brilliant!

I installed RoadRunner on my EeePC along with Winamp, and set the configuration as per the documentation to support the car2PC. Then at 11pm, I wandered down to my car, plugged it in, and tested it.
I could load music into winamp, and then use the steering wheel buttons and the headunit buttons to control it.

Actual success this time!

Still not text though. Whats wrong? Is there a misconfiguration in the applications? Is there a problem with the Car2PC? Sadly, no. Everything is working as expected.
Further research led me to discover that the EX port on the MX5's headunit does not in fact support track information text being sent to it. Very frowney. :(