ITL

I got mine in for $1k even including cost of the computer. Why were your costs so high if you already had the pc?

theklassic

1k? very nice. i broke it down in my head and while the screen was the most expensive at 400, the other misc peices added up to about just as much:

USB GPS $75
startup shutdown controller $150
(pricey, but it fit seamlessly into the shuttle)
wireless kb/mouse $50
P.I.E. X3 $75
(a few people had problems with bleedthru on the relays, so i wet the lazy and somewhat safer route with the X3)


and then about 50-75 bucks worth of random necessary items at radioshack... (cables, butane soldering iron, and etc.)

and some of that stuff i ended up not even using. doh!

theklassic

m,

your inbox is filled, i can't respond to your PM, man. any hoo, i think we need a few more practice runs of carputers before we start working on other peoples rides. friends are more forgiving if we F something up. haha.

ITL on the other hand seems pro gamer at this, he might be able to hook you up sooner than we can. but as a side note, have you checked out www.mp3car.com?

seriously take a close luck, you could save a ton of money and have a nice little side project of your own. if you can solder wires together and read a service manual you can do it. everything i needed to know i found on that site.

check it out,
collin

ITL

NY is a little far from GA, but if you're willing to drive to ATL we could make it happen. I had a guy come in town for the weekend. I started around 6pm Saturday and he was on the road at 1:30pm Sunday

saturated_fat

Damn nice times, I could say the same for us if SOMEONE :angryfire wouldve bought all the damned parts at once. Pretty much did each part 1 week at a time, so the TL was in pieces for 3 straight weeks. Oh how fun it was sitting in the back without a seat .

This board soo needs an RSX section, goddamn big ass TL's .

convenientstore

what are the best option for people with navi already on the car but want to achieve something like this without wasting too much money??

ITL

not sure, you'd be more limited by already having navi as the user would still need to interact with the navi screen...the non-navi screen is only used for output, no input; therefore, it is quite feasible to move it down below.

Perhaps the pc monitor could go below, but it wouldn't be anywhere near line of sight for the driver. Perhaps a monitor in the visor or some sort of custom work in the headliner. You could possibly even integrate it into the center console, by ditching the cupholders...maybe even a flip-down monitor in place of the map lights and sunroof controls. You can relocate just about anything

sangwl

any day time pics?

i'm still drooling

sang

theklassic

maluskills

Man ITL...if it wasn't a 17hr drive...I would seriously consider it
Any plans on coming to the NY area anytime soon??????

ITL

nah...no plans for NY, even if I did, I wouldn't want to bring the garage...lol

btw klassic, I see you put a hole in the dash for the remote. The remote will still work w/o the hole, you just have to point the remote down from above

theklassic

doh! i should've tried that. i'll probably take it out and patch it back up then. thanks!

convenientstore

can you please talk about why navi screen cannot be connected with computer? is it just matter of screen quality? is it not feasible to try to hook up computer and navi to that screen and have some sort of input switch to change the screen? or is it possible to replace it with better LCD to do that or it's just not possible?

tejesh83

You can hook up a carpc very similar to how people are hooking up their DVD players. A carpc with TV out should connect to the nav screen just fine. But the resolution may be too poor to make a good carpc screen (eg. blurry text). Also, it will be tricky to integrate the touchscreen. You can get around without a touchscreen, but its not as nice.

ITL

all about quality...the navi screen is nowhere near the quality of a VGA monitor like the Xenarcs we are using. I've seen text on the navi monitor and it is atrocious- I would never want to even try to operate a computer with it. It really IS that bad.

The navi screen is fine for a backup camera, DVD player, or video game console, but not high resolution text.


As far as replacing the navi screen with an aftermarket lcd, nothing's impossible. I'll leave it at that. First off, you'd lose touchscreen functionality on the factory navi...

saturated_fat

I can definatly vouch for the navi screen being crap when displaying text. One of our friends has it and its just horrible compared the the xenarc. Maybe I can get some shots of it to show as an example.

But hooking it up is pretty simple I think people over on the MDX forums use 4pdt relays with a switch to splice the input on the stock navi screen. But of course you wont have touch screen for the computer.

ITL

I'd really like to know what kind of relays they are using. I tried using a 4PDT from radio shack to provide aux-in for the audio. It worked, but the XM bled through. The only thing I could attribute that to was that it was a cheap relay. You got any idea where to find a good quality relay?

I have good soldering skills and this would definitely be much cheaper and more flexible to implement (b/c of size) than some of the aux adapters (i.e. blitzsafe, icelink, musiclink, tvandnav2go, etc).

convenientstore

another newbie question.. so suppose i changed the screen with Xenarc(better LCD) and put computer in there.. Are we losing touch screen capability because Xenarc doesn't do touchscreen or touchscreen technology is different and when changed hardware, it wont work.. can someone explain bit better for me please?

ITL

Xenarc does touchscreen, but the interface is USB to the computer. Not sure how you'd even begin to go about interfacing touchscreen to the Acura navi.

theklassic

from what i read, the acura screen is not exactly a touch screen. there is an overlay that sits over the screen that interupts touch and sends it back to the computer directly. its different from the xenarc in the fact that its not one singlular system, but two peices working together with the OEM computer. --- one for display, and one for input. i don't really doubt this as it makes sense when you consider repair and production cost for the device.

but because of this, we'll have a problem if we replace the screen; you can't keep the overlay, and you can't (easily) interface a xenarc to the factory setup. to make matters worse, the cabling is not documented, and like ITL mentioned the screen projects at a very very low res. anyhoo, this would be a very difficult job

there're problems all around with this setup. the easiest thing i would suggest if you'd like to integrate a pc into the navi TL, would be to gut the lower compartment and mount the screen there. of course, it would be out of the drivers line of sight, but it would still be somewhat accesible and accomplish the intended function of being a music player and internet device, etc etc.

ITL

actually, the xenarc has a touchscreen overlay as well...this is the way most, if not all, touchscreens work to my knowledge.

the navi screen has red, green, blue, and a sync line, which obviously, can't provide the quality that a vga screen can.

personally, I'd hate to have a touchscreen in front of my shifter; however, display only is just fine

triggle

Great install. I'll be considering this pretty soon. I can't make out if your screen is a perfect fit or if you must use the bezel of the Xenarc screen as well. If you can pull it off a high rez closup of the bexel at one of the corners would be very much appreciated.

How does it look with daytime glare ?

theklassic

its not a "perfect" fit in the sense that everything is flush with the screen itself. however, it does fit perfectly behind the bezel after some cutting and sanding of the back.

the xenarc screen is untouched from its case. the case is mounted right up against the original bezel.

take a look:

you can actually see where the original bezel ends and where the xenarc case begins. this is easily fixed with fiberglass resin and some paint. but i really need to get the trunk looking better and my body kit on.

more to come

aerocorp005

I am thoroughly impressed with this setup, what dollar amount is one looking at spending for one of these technologically advanced machines?

theklassic

varies from 800 to 1000; most of the cost lies in the monitor and computer. i paid $400 for mine, but my brother was able to snag his for $260. so you could come out even better than those quotes

italian_spak

this custom install takes my breath away, big time props to your bro for his great tech skills, it looks like a million buck to have ur pc in your car hehehe

GOOD JOB BOYS

KaMLuNg

iTrader: (5)

what USB GPS brand are u using??? my Rikaline 6010 crapped out on me... still haven't gotten it fixed yet... great job and welcome to the carputer club...

paparazzi

Cool install! Im still screwing around with my factory navi install dealing with flakey installers. Stop by a local tuner shop and found out they perform a ton of these carpc installs and he highly recommended that I do the car pc thing. It seems like a system could be expanded when budget allows or technology changes. My question is that the display that was moved to the lower section of the console, is it hard to read? Is it any big deal. Is there any way to use the factory navi clock ,climate, xm readout in the upper area and not have to hack your console?
I will have close to 3500.00 if I go thru with the factory navi install, that kinda money I could have a killer carpc system and not have my whole care rewired.

theklassic

BU-353. no complaints whatsoever. picked it up from mp3car.com for about 70 some. any links to your setup?

theklassic

honestly, i hardly ever look at that display. for us non-navi people, we really got screwed on our LCD. it shows too little in too big a space. basically, i look at it for see my temp settings and thats it. i'd be lying if i said i used it for anything else. and its ugly, but, yes, in its new location its totally readable.

once in a while its good so glance down at the XM titles, but its been weeks since i've even used XM. mp3s all the way

on a related note. you can't use the compact navi display unit. you need the main board behind the original LCD found on our non-navi. it controls everything; your entire hvac sys. the little headup display on the navi models is just an output device for a bigger component. it will only work with the navigation setup.

and lastly. skip the retro fit!!! why?! if you have the outlet to get a carpc installed, definitely go for it. it can do navigation, and a million other things. not to mention its cheaper.

if you have a skilled installer for the carputer, pass on the OEM navi... show him the stuff the we and the other guys have done, and he'll know how to handle it from there.

you won't regret it.

saturated_fat

Thanks

Ok Time To Start Doing It For Others , Lucrative Business Here We Come! PM Either Of Us If Interested...

MugenR

Did you use the Opus external power supply or the one that you can snap directly to the motherboard?
thanks

theklassic

we actually used two different ones: SFX.1215 for teh RSX and SFX.1215.XPC for the TL. Both are internal, 150w psu's, but the XPC one fits nicely in the Shuttle XPC.

collin

navicaph

Hey theklassic, I PM'ed you with a question about the Shuttle PC.

gucci_kid

i noticed that u had a bracket to mount ur screen in. did the mounting kit come with the screen or did u purchese it seperatly. i was thinking about a possible kenwood touch screen where ur screen is, but was having issues on how i would mount it and keep it in place.

theklassic

actually, the gray metal piece i used was the original metal bracket that housed the stock LCD. we all lucked out on the fit, the xenarc fit perfectly with no space to spare. you might want to measure up the kenwood with the 7" xenarc touch screen. you might be able to pull it off if they're similar.

and if not, there's always epoxy.

levon1830

DAMN GOOD SETUP!!

Since you have wireless internet in the car--and assuming you have a wireless network set up in your house--can you sit in your car with it parked in your driveway and download files (mp3, video, etc) from your computer in your house directly to your car?

ITL

yep, and even better is sitting on the couch with the laptop and pushin those mp3s to the car...it's a lot more fun that way.

another plus is hooking up with another carpc geek, forming an ad-hoc network with wireless cards, and sharing games and music

levon1830

That's awesome man, I didn't even think of the gaming aspect of it. Imagine going on a long road trip with a group of friends large enough to require you take two vehicles, both of which have a carputer set up. Your passengers could take turns playing Age of Mythology (that's what I would be playing anyway) while driving down the Interstate .

I would like to do something like this to my car, but I don't plan on keeping my car for more than another 2 years. How hard would it be to revert this setup back to stock?

theklassic

reverting back stock.

the wiring and all will work just fine, but we all hacked apart our bezels and compartment drawers. it could be done, but it'll take a bit of rebuilding to get it looking clean and untouched. i think as long as my TL holds up it will stay in the family for a long time.

when we were doing the mod, we had no intention of reverting back, but if you plan from the start to make a retro-fit of stock components you should be fine. just have to be a bit more careful on what and where you cut. when doing this install certain things just have to go, thats just the way it turned out for our cars.