Hey everyone,
I met up with ITL (and Phu) in Atlanta this weekend to help with instillation of the carputer. After a great deal of planning we finally got the show on the road. I would like to thank ITL, csmeance, KN_TL, met152, and others who responded to my posts, messages, e-mails, and phone calls. There is a great deal of information and experience on these message boards that made this possible.

If you are planning to do this I would strongly encourage reading other posts first. You also have to be very comfortable with pulling apart your panels (or you could pay somebody else to do it). If you plan this out on paper first it is not such an arduous task by the time you get around to execution.

At this point all of the hardware is in the car and functioning. I elected not to do a touch screen module since I do not have the wiring skills (of met152) to tap into the panel in the OEM screen. In retrospect I more than likely should have purchased a car without the navigation system and then used a touch screen with instillation like ITL's.

At this current stage I am merely tweaking road runner since there is a steep learning curve to figuring out how to configure all of the components. I just do not have as much time as I used to to tweak these all in one sitting.

h__p://picasaweb.google.com/hsetty2007/20080306_carputerInstallation

Total cost:
Carputer kit (PC, gps, dvd-rom, m2-atx, wifi, bluetooth, cables) - $475
Dom's converter - $110 (bought used on these forums)
Hon2y spec - $120 (ebay) - be sure to put back in hybrid mode!
iGuidance 4.0 - $92
USB touchpad - $41 (amazon)
planning time - at least 15-20 hours (i am a noobie to this)
install time - at least 6 hours
...
finishing the task - priceless!

 

Very nice!

What did you use for the computer and how is the performance with Windows, iGuidance, etc?

 

http://picasaweb.google.com/hsetty20...erInstallation


your link was not working.........fixed it for you

great install !!!

 

I bought a kit from an outfit called mobile computing solutions, a small outfit in philadelphia. It was the 1.5 ghz system without any pre-existing OS (used a dell OEM CD for that). The performance is VERY fast, boot time around 15 seconds (very watered down install, few programs). iGuidance works very will within the Roadrunner I am using as a front end. The GPS antenna sits on the dash in the right corner, ITL ran the cord through that end of the dash for me.

 

Wow...have you done a lot of car/computer installation work before? I could never even attempt that it looks so difficult and complicated...looks good though. Is there a way to get to a regular Windows screen like with a start menu and stuff? I don't know anything about these systems but that would be sweet if you could play games and stuff on your car screen.

 

Pictures are worth 1000 words

 

man you were lucky, you already have navi to start with, me....i gotta do a lot more. but i will be taking notes from your install. good job, hope you enjoy it.

 

nitropwd, i would be glad to share notes when you get around to your install. you will get a higher quality (i.e. 800x600) system if you do an aftermarket with xenarc/lilliput, etc. integrating into the navi oem screen limits me to 640x480. Probably the hardest thing for you will be moving the LCD and extending the wiring harnesses, but at least afterward your display will be better and without a clunky dvd-based gps system.

 

hsetty,

Your set-up looks really good. Congratulations on joining the TL CarPc club. I like your idea of using a touchpad. I thought about adding a touchpad or one of these to control my PC like an I-drive set-up. I would probably give up one of my cup holder spaces and place it there.

http://www.3dconnexion.com/3dmouse/spacenavigator.php

 

KoP,
As far as a touchpad goes I would go for one of the usb ones from Adesso, I got mine on Amazon. The connector you showed is pretty neat, kinda similar to the iDrive controller. Would using your connector be more intensive since you rotate fingers and your wrist? I went with a finger touchpad since I could keep my wrist fixed and only rotate my finger.

On a timing basis nothing beats a touchscreen.

 

nice job,

i had a carputer in my tsx and still have all the parts (except for the monitor). I hated windows, it would crash or hang all the time but the 40 gig hd was great for music and videos. also watching movies on the dvd player on long trips was a plus for my passengers.

btw, trying to play with the monitor in regular windows mode is dangerous while driving. i had an interface with an acura logo spinning to duplicate the type of screens that the navi's have. i like iguidance but there seem to be a little lag. wifi/bluetooth internet was definetly a plus when i didnt have my mobile device.

once again nice job!

 

Now here is a problem I am having. When I start up the screen in non-carputer mode (for those rare occasions), the screen is completely filled out. When I start the screen in carputer mode there is a ~1 cm black border around the windows display, meaning that the windows display is not maximized to the full dimensions of the LCD itself.
ITL and I noticed this problem last week when we installed it, and at the time he suggested a software package called powerstrip to tinker the display settings. I did use powerstrip but that did not take away the boundary. I even modded my registry settings to force 640x480, but the black boundary still persists.
I am under the impression this is an issue with Dom's TVandNav unit but have not found other documented cases of this problem. Has anyone else using the Dom system run into this issue? What did you do to correct this (assuming there is a fix)?

 

Oh, for my setup the PC has the composite video output going to Dom's tvandnav2go unit

 

is that strip just on the left side of the screen or all around? I had it only on the left side, but I really didn't mind it.

 

The border actually encases the entire screen. I thought this was something that could correct with power strip, but that has turned out not to be the case. I have updated the driver's to be the most current for the board. I used the on screen utility to try and manually expand the dimensions of the screen, however that did not change the presence of this border. I am convinced that this is an issue with the scan converter, or this could be an issue with doing television output from my computer. Since none of the utilities seemed to work I am convinced this is more the scan converter. Is there a possible solution to this? Otherwise I will have to wait until we purchase the next car for my wife with a next carputer :-)

 

Get a DVD player and hook it up to that RCA cable coming out from the PC, and play a DVD on the navi screen. If the strip still comes up, it is a problem with the converter. If its full screen, then its the PC.

 

sorry for the revival but any info on this... just installed everything for my carputer pretty much did exactly the same as met152 just used a different touch driver and scan converter if you would call it that. Bought if off of ebay for audi's I think but it was basically the only VGA to RGB-sync converter I found and I'm getting the same dead boarder as described above. I haven't tried powerstrip yet but if the above problem was solved it would give me some hope...

Also how is the resolution using Doms unit? videos enjoyable or blah?

Thanks in advance!

 

Great job doing this mod. I just installed Dom's unit in my car and DVD in the same location as yours. It was time consuming job.

 

What scan converter and touch screen interface did you use?

 

scan converter http://cgi.ebay.com/VGA-converter-AV...item335faf39b2

bought the 4 wire resistive usb controller from ezscreens but it works perfect... both on relays stock navi is still perfect just the converter is pissing me off... can it be hardwired just to work wit a 7" screen?

 

Does the scan converter itself provide adjustments ?? I know the ScanDo used by Met did allow this. Send (met152) an email I have been talking to him lately cause im getting ready to do the same thing. mike@mtatko.com

 

FIXED IT!!!! Powerstrip did the trick. Ive set the resolution on windows to 800 x 600 (or reverse) a billion times before but sense the screen is broken on the netbook im using I guess it would always revert back, and connected to the converter the screen was too small to make adjustments like that on the car. Not anymore full 8 in screen and I can navigate windows pretty easily when parked. Small text still is a hastle but you know where everything is, recalibrated the touch controls its a dream now. Im going to start a worklog when I have some freetime I took a lot more pics than met152 did, I think it will be very helpful. Only thing I am waiting on is an Isimple input... my blitzsafe never worked right but it's completely useless now... too many pins loose in the connector I think.

If you need help with anything I found a couple major shortcuts that would have sped up my install by days dealing with the touch controller. I will include them in the worklog but it might be a week or two so if your to that point before than PM me I will go into further detail.

 

^^ I sound excited... I am!