I have a 2005 TL with Navi, very much less than satisfied with the product so I am going for a carputer install. I have purchased most of the parts for doing the OEM-Navi install except have held off on the scan converted until I figure out the screen issues. Forcing 640x480 would not be too kind on the eyes. A few questions:

1) Has anyone removed the OEM LCD and retrofit a higher resolution touchscreen? If I remove the OEM LCD I know I will lose the GPS interface (oh darn), and the audio/setup interface. Is there a way to simply *upgrade* the LCD and maintain the same functionality?
2) Is it possible to put the OEM LCD in the lower compartment space below the stereo system to free up space in the top panel for a better LCD?
3) Has anyone successfully removed the entire Navi setup and replaced it with a non-Navi setup? It was a total waste of money to get Navi integrated seeing how poorly it has served me compared to more cost effective Garmin units. Anyhow, the issue I would be concerned with is how to control the speakers (bass, treble, fade, etc) when there is no navi screen. How is this done with the non-Navi TLs as their audio systems are similar?

Any thoughts? Also, if I am left without a choice and have to go with keeping the OEM LCD in place I would need to know if anyone can make a USB touchscreen controller so I can have a setup like Met152 :-)

Thanks for viewing.

hsetty

 

hey Hsetty, what you can do is take the screen and fit into those compartments as you said. Then you can cut the stock navi bezel and fit in a good quality Xnarc screen. But with this setup, you will need to extend quite a bit of wires, for the A/C on both sides and the buttons on the bottom of the screen. I will check with the spare navi screen that i have to see that if it will fit in the bottom compartments.

EDIT: I am sure that someone would be willing to sell all the non-navi junk they have if they have done the conversion. I know one guy recently did the conversion. Ask him if he has the stock non-navi screen, if he does, you are golden, all you will need to do it extend the wires for the A/C and you are done.

Then you can sell the dvd drive, antenna and all the other stuff for a profit on ebay.

 

the stock screen won't fit to well, its an inch to large. I took photos:



edit: sorry for the blurryness, i took them in a hurry.

 

Has anyone gone the other direction? Converting RGB+S to VGA and using an aftermarket touchscreen?

 

cs,
That is an appealing option. The only thing I remember is another post that indicated there are five harnesses going to the back of the navi LCD and four harness connectors going to the back of the non-navi LCD. The "fifth connector" most likely took care of the touchscreen functions. If the non-navi LCD were theoretically placed into my car then would the system work? Is this a system that works in parallel (with the clock display above that also shows audio/temperature control info) or in series (which would require the stock LCD to complete the circuit)? If it is truly parallel then the stock screen removal would be appealing.

(If it is series, do you know anyone who has made a dummy loop-back circuit to bypass this?)

Finally, I talked with ITL and it looks like extending the wire harnesses is a beast. It does not look like there are mass producers of extended wiring, but if you know of one I am all ears.

Is there a difference between the audio system available in non-Navi Tls versus the navi TLs (2005)? Off-hand I would guess NO. Thoughts?

Thanks for the reply!

 

Have not seen an install like that. Here is a RGB converter I saw:

http://products.isc365.com/AVCat/ima...r_Brochure.pdf

But I thought the touchscreen matrix runs separately from the RGB connection. Anyone out there give this a try? It would seem that there are other connectors that have to be dealt with as well.

Here is a link detailing the OEM Navi LCD:
http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/lcd-...-acura-tl.html

 

The signal coming out of the navi controller is RGB+S.

But my thinking was to take the RGB+S signal, convert it to vga and feed it to a commercially available 8" LCD Touchscreen via a switch so you could have both the stock navi/audio controls displayed and a carputer display in one.

Then using MET's idea, take the 4 wire touch leads and run one set to the stock navi circuit and the other to a usb touch interface for the computer.

The switching circuit would toggle both the display and touch connections together.

 

The problem is that the after-market touch screen will not have the touch wires that met used. The screen in the TL is an LCD screen with a touch panel laid over it, and you have to be sure that the demensions and the coordinates will work properly as one slight error could mess everything up.

HSETTY, you would need to buy to non-navi clock display and that is self contained, The screen will connect solely to the radio and temperature controls, if anything, you could rewire the harnesses using a glasses-screwdriver to change the pins around.

 

I've got my 8" Dynamix apart and it's actually got a 4 wire touch controller that looks identical to the one he used. The LCD itself fits perfectly in the stock opening. The touch coordinates can be calibrated so that isn't an issue either.

That's what gave me the idea of going the other way.

But, I've done a couple hours of searching and don't see anything going from RBGS to VGA except for $10K upscalers used in home theaters.

 

One other option you have if you are into both software and hardware.

I've had the navi electronics only attached to the existing non-navi harnesses and with the navi sub display, I get the HVAC information and an uncontrollable clock (starts @ 1:00 when it's powered up).

There is an activity in the audio and video folder that is sniffing the IEBus that is used to communicate from one unit to the other. You could build the sniffer, then write code that will display the missing information on you computer, and probably control that clock in the sub display.

I was actively working on this until I found a sealed remanufactured navi unit for $85.00.

Now I am trying to do the full navi conversion first with the ability to go carputer next. But I don't have a oem lcd so that's why I mentioned using the aftermarket unit.

 

There's a guy of the forum who did it and look verry good.
Go check him out.

https://acurazine.com/forums/ramblings-12/looks-like-music-industry-doing-just-fine-133072/

 

Would there be a way to switch out that clock on my non-navi for the navi one and have everything work? If there is, I'd love to swap plus cash! I want to eventually do something like a carputer altho I'm a bit wary of it not working.........

Sorry to half-hijack the thread

 

The non-navi clock is just a standalone unit that has constant power, switched power and a line from the dash cluster to control the intensity at night.

 

Good thoughts, here are some problems I ran across. I decided to go ahead and start pulling panels out of my car so that I can prep for when my carputer finally arrives (tomorrow by UPS). I already had the iPod adapter so I figured I would go ahead and install that today. Here are some pictures from my installation with some commentary:

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

Anyhow, one thing worth discussing is the wiring for the display. You will notice that the main harness for the stereo and navigation has 5 connectors, 3 that go to the unit and two that go to the clock display above the vents. All of the connectors have to be connected in order for the set up to work. To test this, I intentionally left the navigation component unconnected but connected the remainder of harness. Surprisingly, I could only see the clock display, had no AC controls, and the vents automatically defaulted to the highest blower setting. This system is definitely expecting all the connections to be terminated.

Given this reaction, I am not optimistic that purchasing a non-navigation LCD display would work here. It looks like I will have to definitely go with the really switch to toggle the display between the navigation and carputer. I will put up more pictures as the installation progresses.

One question I have is, where do I interface the power supply for the carputer? Should I just disconnect the front cigarette adapter and connect that?

HS

 

It looks like Angrycamel has made quite a bit of progress for the control module. Anyone know how to contact him/her?

http://angrycamel.com/projects_page/...erface-module/

Very impressive.

 

That's the project I was talking about. He's really snowed under with work and is looking for people to forge ahead.

I don't know if you have the service manual, but the connections are identical between the non-navi and navi for connectors A, B, C and D. The only thing different about the navi unit is connector E which goes to the sub display and navi controller (DVD drive).

I made up a connector to go from connector E to the sub-display and everything worked including the correct hvac info in the sub display. I just couldn't see the info from the head unit.

 

Wow, so it's not as easy as getting the unit, and plugging something in....

No constant power, and the HVAC goes nuts. Not sure if full coversion to a Navi would be worth it for me. I'll definetely keep tabs on how you guys make out. Good luck!

 

In order for everything to work, all of the components in the system have to be connected.

But for sure, the conversion is more than just plugging in connectors. Do a search, people have done it but it requires obtaining or building wiring harnesses and running them to the correct places.

Going navi to non-navi will be easier.

 

Let me explain this problem:
The HVAC is connect to the navi screen. From the navi screen, the info is relayed to the navi drive, then back upto the clock display. This is how the navi can control the HVAC using angrydad's hacks. If you get the non-navi clock and screen, the HVAC will be isolated, therefore causing it to work.

Hsetty, I do have a good propsition for you, why not trade in your car with someone else on the board who wants a navigation system and has a non-navi TL. You can then do a carputer easily. Look at the one KING OF PAIN did on this fourm, it is simply amazing.

 

So you can confirm that connecting my HVAC to a non-navi LCD will still function? If so then buying a non-navi LCD is not a bad option.

I wish trading cars were as easy as baseball cards. But after changing registration, changing insurance, paying assoc. taxes/fees with title transfer, etc, I would have been better off with hacking the touchscreen :-)

My new plan is to find a USB touchscreen overlay and simply place it over the frame. That would be the most painless but a little more expensive than ordering the parts met152 did...

 

Why would you want to put another overlay on top of the oem one? The oem touchscreen overlay is already a 4 wire resistive type.

You seem sceptical of everyone saying that you can delete the navi system without doing major rewiring, so take a chance and find a non-navi display for $100-150.

But I'll tell you, I just spent the last 4 hours creating the harness to convert a non-navi to factory navi and none of the existing harnesses were altered. Wiring is added, but not changed.

As I said earlier, you'll simply need to wire up the standalone clock in the sub-display area above the vents.

I've already gone through the trial of complete carputer with the non-navi displays and was discouraged by my ability to make the non-navi frame look perfect with the aftermarket monitor. So I knew relocating the existing displays would be worse.

The nice thing about using the stock navi frame is it fits a 8" widescreen almost perfectly. I lose about an 1/8" all around. But I can compensate with the sizing controls of the monitor.

I've got a broken oem monitor that I will debug my wiring with, but I am also working on fitting my 8" Dynamix monitor to replace it. I found a RGBS to VGA converter that will allow the stock signal to go to the aftermarket monitor.

I'm going to be testing things out soon, so I will take some pictures while I am doing it. I am still trying to figure out how to tie into the junction connectors so once that's done, then I'll be ready to start testing. That might help better than trying to read all this dribble

 

> Why would you want to put another overlay on top of the oem one? The oem touchscreen overlay is already a 4 wire resistive type. <

The purpose is to avoid having to tap into the bus already present. I simply need something to interface via USB with the carPC to allow touchscreen control.

> You seem sceptical of everyone saying that you can delete the navi system without doing major rewiring, so take a chance and find a non-navi display for $100-150. <

When I took off the fifth connector leading to the navi screen I was not able to get HVAC or other controls. Nobody seems to have successfully "deleted" the navi system so I have to be careful with what I attempt.

> I've got a broken oem monitor that I will debug my wiring with, but I am also working on fitting my 8" Dynamix monitor to replace it. I found a RGBS to VGA converter that will allow the stock signal to go to the aftermarket monitor. <

So does this mean you have found a way to get a generic aftermarket screen to interface with the OEM screen wiring (I assume this has full touchscreen capability)? That is aweome. I will wait to see your pics, can you post a link to any online photo albums you might have of work in progress?

 

I took some shots tonight all done with my son's P&S and they are pretty bad.

But here it goes.

Below is a snapshot of both units. The left one is the non-navi and the right is with navi. The only difference is that the right hand unit has the extra connector on the bottom, designated at Connector E.



The next image is of the dash all taken apart. The small blue connector at the top is for the clock, the middle two green connectors go to the non-navi display. Those connectors will also go into the navi display as is.



This is a picture of the sub-display connector (left), and Connector E which goes into the extra connector noted above.

 

Here's the other half of the project. On the left is the oem guts (broken touchpanel) and a panel I found for $10.

On the right is the oem navi frame with an 8" Dynamix LCD mounted and the associated vga, backlight, touch interface and cables.

I am going to mount the vga board inside with the other navi electronics and have the touch interface, backlight board and display control outside.

I am waiting for a RGBS to vga converter to arrive. I'll feed the navi controllers lines into the converter and feed it to this monitor. My only unknown at this point is if there are any functions within the display electronics that my not work correctly. We'll see. Having fun with this stuff while we get all kinds of crappy weather up here in the North East.

 

And if you really get bored, you can work on AngryCamel's project.

I've gotten as far as programming the ATMEGA8, but can't get it to wiggle with his software.

I'm still going to play around with this, but in the future.

 

If you want to make this easier, do this:
Take OEM screen and move it to the glove-box. This will require the extension of 40+ wires. This should not be hard and will allow room for a screen in the factory location.
Place the new screen with the factory and be done with it. IF you want to make your car a little more cooler, what you could do is fit the factory monitor in the rear console and use it as a DVD monitor for passengers in the back with dom's converter. Also they can control the factory radio too.

 

Thanks for the suggestion but my goal with all mods done is the ability to return it to bone stock, so I don't want to cut and splice any cables.

If I were to do that, I would buy the pigtails, but I don't think there are any female ones out there.

 

I think I will avoid removing the LCD. I will look into making a USB touchscreen module to minimize the time I would have to put into the project (i.e. wiring extensions, etc). Csmeance, do you still have leftover parts for making the touchscreen module? I would be willing to purchase them from you. Or, if you have successfully mass-produced the modules I would be more than willing to buy one of those too :-)

HS

 

If you want to connect your computer to the oem monitor, you'll still need to get a vga to rgbs converter along with the usb touch interface (if you don't already know that).

Good luck with whatever direction you end up going!

 

Any updates on this?

 

So after a great deal of dry erase board marking I am going to do the carpc with a usb touchpad instead. I will be going to ATL to enlist the help of ITL tommorrow to finish this out. All the panels are out of the interior once again so it is motivation to get this finished!

I will have pictures of the process and will put them in an online album, link to be posted after this is (successfully) finished.

[rant]
Oh yeah, and SCREW Acura for the sub-standard navigation system. After using iGuidance for all of a minute it is worth avoiding. Lesson learned? Why bother paying through the nose for a tech package that can be easily superceded by a PC based solution? I cannot wait for a car maker to integrate PCs into their interior, I will look towards that maker for my next vehicle (betting that Lexus will lead the curve)!
[/rant]