New project.

[Grims]

I have been wanting to do this for along time, and I'm starting to round up the parts for it.

I want to install a CarPC system, with a 8" touch screen molded into the dash in place of the AC and radio controls. The PC will sit in the cd changer area in the back.

It will have wireless broadband Internet, GPS, 20 thousand MP3s, voice activated and controlled, and will be used for tuning, and monitoring the car.

Anyone else ever done this?

[Grims]

Yep, the biggest problem I will have is the 93-96 dashes are 1 1/2 DIN size, it's not big enough to fit a screen with the AC, and is a little to big if you relocate the AC.

I have played with the idea of just sticking in a motorised 1 DIN pop-up screen...but I really wanted a clean factory look.

[Grims]

Well if you notice they had a custom bezel made...thats not the stock one...maybe you could do something like that.

That's the plan..but There still isn't enough room for a 7" screen with the AC below it.

[Grims]

I'm going to use a direct DC-DC power supply to the computer, not an inverter. Heat will not be an issue on the PC I'm building, it will use a carpc CPU that runs very cool and can run stable at extreme temps. It's going to use 2.5" laptop drives mounted vertically for their shock resistance, and be an open chassis to help it breathe.

[CamTom12]

Sounds cool!

[Grims]

try again....here is the link. It just shows someone putting ac controls in the glove box.

http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=63949

Yep, That's what I had in mind.

[Grims]

Okay Everything had been ordered.

I finally decided to go with a motorised indash touch screen, I really wanted a molded factory look...but pre 97 dashs are such a pita to do it on.

Now I need to decide on a amp to run all the car speakers, and knowing nothing about car audio I'm kind of confused.

[Grims]

Mostly on how to get the audio from the computer to the speakers. There is two ways I can do it.

1. I can go through the headunit AUX with a 1/8th to RCA adaptor. I hear you need a line booster or something to raise the voltage from the sound card to reduce noise in the line. problem with this is my Alpine CDA9825 with integrated XM does not have a AUX, but does have support for a external CD changer which I hear I may be able to trick.

2. throw away the headunit and hook directly to an AMP....problem here is the monsoon system may be difficult using this approach. I hear I may need to rewire the entire car to get it to work right.

[Grims]

How is this going to give me a AUX selection to switch to?

[Grims]

I had figured sense AUX wasn't in the menu I didn't have one...guess I should look into it a bit more :D

[Chris 96 WS6]

So what's the bare minimum price someone could get into a carPC system like this?

[Grims]

Ordered one, looks like it will do the trick! :D

Thanks man, I didn't want to have to rewire the car just yet.

[Grims]

So what's the bare minimum price someone could get into a carPC system like this?

I just pickedup an entire used kit for 450 that would retail for over a grand.

It really depends on if you already have a computer to run it off of, almost any PC will work. I planned on running it off an old P3 laptop 'till I found that deal.

But if you buy everythign you could do it for around 650 total.

[Grims]

Okay, now i'm looking into frontends. I would love to find something that supported OBD1 Diagnostics...but it seems OBD1 apps are hard to find because of how OBD1 didn't have any set standard.

I'm also replacing the stock radio antenna with a 7" WIFI one, it should get pretty good range.

I'm hoping the stock radio harness is long enough to move to the glove box where I plan to put the headunit...because otherwise that will suck to extend :D

[Grims]

Whats the latest? Did you get Aux option turned on your headunit? Have you started the install yet?

Yes I got the AUX on, but still waiting for the CarPc...looks like it will be Monday.

[Chris 96 WS6]

I have an old Dell 2500 Insprion lap top...but its slow (win 2000, 833mhz celeron).

I'd do this in a cold second if I had some cheap hardware to do it with. Maybe I can scrounge around for some spare parts on Ebay or something.

[Grims]

The laptop will run one fine, the only issues with laptops is that it is hard to get them to auto power on with the car. But, with some soldering and decent wirign skills it can be done.

[Grims]

I got everything yesterday. I'm going to put it in this evening. Something kind of strange I noticed when i replaced the two front speakers though..Each front speaker had a small circuit board mounted behind them with a couple of coils and one big 1ohm capacitor. I think they might of been little amps...the wiring going to them was tiny like 20ga, and the wires coming out were prob 14. I went a head and wires the new speakers to what ever those are...and it seems to work okay.

Also, does anyone know if I could disconnect the tweeters on the front doors, and wire them into the door speakers to increase the power?

[Chris 96 WS6]

You sure they're not just crossovers?

[Grims]

You sure they're not just crossovers?

Could be, I know next to nothing about car audio. If they are crossovers do I want them hooked up?

[Chris 96 WS6]

Yes, otherwise you'll probably get get nasty distortion.

Crossovers are used to limit the frequency out put of a speaker. Different sized resistors cut off different frequencies. So if you want your subs to only play bass and not get any mid-or high frequency signals, you use a crossover. You can also put crossovers on tweeters to be sure they aren't trying to pump out bass notes, and you can put low and high crossovers on midrange speakers to keep the cymbals and bass drums out of their input.

[Grims]

So I have a 1ohm crossover..I put in infinity Reference 3 way speakers, will that cross over send them the proper frequencies?

[Chris 96 WS6]

I have no idea...I'm way out of practice on my car stereo stuff. Should be able to google and find crossover frequencies though.

[Grims]

Finished!

It was a much bigger job that I was expecting, 90% of the time was spent on the screen.

At first it wouldn't open or close more than half way. Found out it was crooked in the housing. Took it a part and realigned it and it seem to be working fine.

I'm just using the horrible on board audio ...but it sounds amazing, I was expecting sub par...but this is really good. Screen is nice and bright...but I'll need to wait 'till day light to make the final call on it.

I still have a lot of polishing to do. The head unit harness wasn't long enough to move to the glove box...so tomorrow I'm looking forward to splicing a billion wires grr.

I'll get some pics up tomorrow.

[Commando]

very nice project.. i loved the photo's of what other ppl did.. awesome,, keep us posted too...

[Grims]

Still working out a ton of bugs, and it's starting to wear me down. Just off the top of my head.

Standby mode shuts down the computer for some reason, which makes me wait 1 minute or so until music is on.

Bad crackle and popping when the sound drivers load on the windows XP loading bar.

If I have the GPS module plugged in POST takes several minutes...no idea how to fix that, nothing in the BIOS helps.

Adjusting the volume in the frontend (roadrunner) is very strange, you hit volume down once and volume goes down like 100%, but only shows it going down 1%, then you hit volume up and it only sounds like it goes up 1%. You have to go all the way down and all the way up until it acts right.

Screen is a piece of junk...well The motorized enclosure is, the screen works great. If I tilt it to the side to far the screen goes bleach white and stays that way until I have it retreat back in the enclosure and back out...must be a loose ribbon cable it's pulling. Also, the screen wobbles back and forth...like gear slack or something. So every time you press the screen it tilts back an inch...very annoying when you're trying to do something while driving.

Routing wires is a night mare, I thought I was going to be able to fit It all under the passenger seat, but now that I look at it nothing can fit under there...so I need to move everything to the CD changer area.

Also, I need currently have the CD changer laying in the passenger seat because the wires were to short to fit it in the glove box...Guess I need to order a harness...or get to splicing.

[Grims]

Screen finally stoped all together, a stressed ribbon cable inside broke a wire. The ribbon cable its self is only 10 bucks...actually when you think of a 7" ribbon cable...that's pretty expensive...but anyway you need special tools to get the panel apart to replace it...so I think I'm going to have to send it out for repair.

I'm not buying one of theses again until a big company starts mass production...theses home brew kits are junk.

[Grims]

Fixed the screen...now the touchscreen is going nuts, losing calibration every 5 minutes.

If anyone decides to do this NEVER buy used, every part has some quirk with it.

[CamTom12]

fair enough

I'd like to see some pictures when you get it all done!

[Grims]

I still have wires going everywhere while I work out the bugs. Ends up the touchscreen issue was the panel coming in contact with the bezel after I put it back together.

[johntom]

Can I come over and radio Mars when your done??

[Grims]

The Marshins blocked my IP after I told them their queen looked like she had Don King in a head lock..

[johntom]

haha, they dont take no shit from noone

[ziptie]

So how is all this going to help the TA 60ft quicker??:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

[Grims]

So how is all this going to help the TA 60ft quicker??:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

Bah, it weighs maybe 5 pounds more than a stock setup.

[Westlock TA]

im running a poineer 8 inch LCD touch screen with there bluetooth setup, and a VDD(vehicle Dynamics Display) and its fantastic, you shoud post some pic's so i can see what you have done!!

[ws6_z28]

What ever happened with this Grims?

[Darkfusion42]

Yeah I'd like to know. Anyone got a link to where I can buy these parts new?

[Grims]

I ended up taking the system out. I really liked it, but the cheap setup I got was pretty finicky about powering on and off, and the screen wasn't very good.

It was more of a trial run anyway to see if it's something I would want to put a lot of money into in the future to do right. I've learned that in our cars you really need to use a solid state drive, or a laptop 2.5" drive because of the extra shock protection; I killed 3 hard drives with my stiff suspension. Also, to really enjoy it I think you need a trans reflective screen, otherwise the sun pretty much completely blocks it out. Trans reflective screens use mirrors to channel the light back through the crystals to enhance the image much more than a light bulb that gets out shown by the sun. Downside is they're rather expensive. That, and the only motorized in-dash VGA screens are home-built by people in their garages, and the quality control on them is horrible. Mine was one of the better units and I had to take it apart to fix it numerous times. I had to resodder all the wires, because they used hotglue to connect them...and the wires have to move a lot because of the screen going back and forth...it was a horrible setup. The normal DVD composite motorized screens from name brand vendors like Sony work great, but no one has really ventured into VGA motorized screens yet. So, that said my next project will definitely be fiber glassed into the dash.

When I have the money I'm going to invest a couple grand into it and do it right. I spent a total of about 500 on my previous setup used...and it just wasn't very reliable.

[Darkfusion42]

Wouldn't you be able to use a computer with a graphics card that supports s- video out, and hook it up to video-in on a normal in-dash screen?

[Grims]

Wouldn't you be able to use a computer with a graphics card that supports s- video out, and hook it up to video-in on a normal in-dash screen?

Yes, but s-video is very low res, and does not translate well to VGA based GPUs.

[Darkfusion42]

hmm... interesting. What do you mean it does not translate well? I mean, it seems fine hooking my computer to my HDTV with s-video...is it different somehow with in dash screens? If it's not that big of a difference, I'd still think it would be better than those ghetto homebrew screens. I may try it myself, if I could get a link to everything else I'd need to get this up and running....

[Grims]

It depends on your video card, but the aspect ratios are differen't. Usually text is very blurred and blocky.

TV and VGA work completely different, TVs are much lower res and display pixels on the screen in a different way.

It's to late for me to get into much detail, but I'll see if I can write something up later.

[Darkfusion42]

Hmm. So a screen on say, a Pioneer D3 unit wouldn't be the same as a tv screen? I figured they displayed the same. I'll have to do some research. I'm very interested in getting this to work well, without having to dump huge amounts of $$ into it. (But I'll dump enough for it not to be completely ghetto.)

[Grims]

Hmm. So a screen on say, a Pioneer D3 unit wouldn't be the same as a tv screen? I figured they displayed the same. I'll have to do some research. I'm very interested in getting this to work well, without having to dump huge amounts of $$ into it. (But I'll dump enough for it not to be completely ghetto.)

The D3 navigation system? I didn't know it took external hookup.

[Darkfusion42]

I'm pretty sure it does. I'll have to pull one tomorrow at work to see. At the very least I think it has 1 video in.....

But that was just an example. Not sure what unit I would use.

[Grims]

If it has video in it is more than likely RCA or S-Video. Those formats just do not look very well on a tradational AGP VGA setup. I hear that some of the late gen Nvidia high end cards handle it a lot better, but you wouldn't want to put something that big or power hungry in a carpc.

I am in Dallas taking MCSE exams currently, so I haven't had any time to write anything extensive up for you.

[Snigga]

WOOT! I'm taking MCSA courses right now. Just thought I would throw that in there.

[Darkfusion42]

Well I've been looking around and I think I found some pretty decent options. I'm at work right now, but hopefully I'll have some time when I get home to post some links and see what you guys think.

[Grims]

WOOT! I'm taking MCSA courses right now. Just thought I would throw that in there.

Dude, trust me take the extra courses for the MCSE. You have to do 290, and 291 for both courses which are by far the hardest. After that the other exams are push overs.

I just finished my MCSE/Security track and have two exams left for messaging.