Goodonebales

Hey guys, I'm seriously considering putting a carPC into my 3G TL. I've been reading a lot about them both on this forum and the mp3car.com forum. Few quick questions. A of all, how long do you guys think this takes once all components are assembled? My TL is my only mode of transportation, and I can't really do without it for terribly long. B) Start to finish, how much is it gonna set me back? I'd like something at least decent, that is fast enough that I'm not gonna be waiting around all day just for my PC to boot, and probably a 7" screen. And C) Since I have a non-navi, the AC controls are obviously integrated into the radio display, as you guys know. Is there any way to mod it so that it comes up next to the clock, such as in the navi TLs? I really would not like to move the stock display down to the bottom DIN area if possible. I'd like to have it look as stock as possible, as in, just looks like a navi display. Thank you for your help in advance! And yes, I have already used the search function MANY times. Thanks again!

King of Pain

A. Once all the components are assembled it took me a weekend to install it. I suggest you buy an extra display off ebay to work on. You can take your time cutting this up and making the touchscreen fit inside. Once that is complete it's just a matter of taking the dash apart, switching displays and routing cables. I also suggest you assemble your entire PC (including touchscreen) outside the car and have it operating so you can do testing.

B. Cost is really up to how much you want it to do. Figure at least 1k. More if you want to add DVD playback, rearview cameras, internet, high quality audio output. I do not shut my PC down when the car stops. I have it set to hibernate. I start the car and it comes out of hibernation. I shut the car off and it goes into hibernation. It takes about 20-30 seconds to boot up.

C. I beleive someone used the navi display and the navi clock to display A/C info in addition to the clock info.

Hope that helps

Goodonebales

Hey, thanks a lot for your reply! So, after installing, using, etc. Do you think the cost and effort was worth it?

King of Pain

Yes, definitely worth it.

Actually I'm getting ready to install a CarPC in my wifes 05 Honda Odyssey. She loves the touchscreen Navi in mine and wants one too. She does sales calls so it would be a big help to her.

SLAYER6669

Moahdib is the one who put the navi clock display in his non-navi car.. You will have to get the clock display AND the navi LCD though, since I think(?) he said the navi LCD unit is what sends the info to the clock display.. He tucked the navi LCD away and hid it.

CarPC is defintely worth the effort.. It's alot of work but once you have one you'll never wanna flip through CD's again

KN_TL

iTrader: (3)

I'm in the process of doing one myself.

So far, I've picked up a used non-navi display and have been working on the opening for an 8" widescreen (Dynamix).

Unfortunately, the touch controller is bad so I've got an RMA to send it back. On the bright side, this company responds on the weekend pretty much 24hrs a day.

I am debating on where to put the other displays. I might go through the trouble of trying to map out all of the outputs on the non-navi board and then map it to the navi upper display. This will take a while but I am looking at it as a winter project.

The other issue I am tossing around is the cold winters up here in the NE. We can easily get -30F in January and the HDD will have a problem with that. I'd like to maybe put the guts under the seat and then have a removable HDD tray somewhere easily accessible. Not sure yet how to do this.

Good Luck.

VmtSquad

iTrader: (1)

I have the same temperature issue. It can get -40C over here. I read somewhere that 3.5'' were better then 2.5 for low temperature because of physical components. Im planning on mouting the case in the trunk so it will be fully exposed to a cold temperature.

1.Isolate the case as much as I can
2.Control air flow by installaling a small heater in the trunk (not directly on the comp)
3.Install some temp sensors

That is a WINTER project for me 2, as in January I plan to be in "TESTING" mode.

I already have a post on my progress, I'll keep updating my thread and will give advice and test there... See ya!

Goodonebales

Hey guys, it looks like my dad might be getting a new laptop, and he might give me his. It's a Dell X1, super small, so it could easily fit in the trunk, external DVD/CD drive so i could run cables to the glove compartment, 1.0GHz and 1.25 gigs RAM. You guys think that's powerful enough? Good plan, or not so good?

KN_TL

iTrader: (3)

It really depends what you want to have loaded on it.

I would reload it, put on all the stuff you'd like on it and try it.

I tend to always go for the higher horsepower computing, but it might be fine for you.