deltabi

To anyone interested, I'm selling a few Carpc parts in this thread. Specially interesting is a complete cubby bezel with Xenarc 700TSV touchscreen monitor (brand new!).

Thanks.

Any idea's on what your gonna ask for your car PC setup when you sell it? I might be interested.

If this post is for me, then I have not yet decided what are going to be sold on which forum (here, MP3Car, ecc.).

Almost certainly I'll post a FS announcement for the Xenarc touchscreen cubby on LegacyGT for obvious reason: I've spent more than 700$ on this and I would like to realize probably 2/3 of the price (excl. shipping).

I just have to find the time the get some images and post them.

they are working on an itunes wrapper for roadrunner from what I read (FWIW in retrospect.) I agree with you I had a lot of difficulty with ease of use using roadrunner and winamp's cumbersome interface. It took a lot of effort to play things. I like being able to sort by genre and "play all." in all honesty, I like the factory systems better by a long shot because of this. But since I have an 05 its get a new car, do a carputer, or STFU.. and I just cant seem to keep my mouth closed.

 

I have thought many days that this is not a worthy project. Spend thousands upon thousands for a map with a "you are here" feature, an item which can be bought at the store for a few hundred bucks. Then use an mp3 interface when I already have an ipod. This is one of the reasons I took my system out and the biggest reasons I have hesitated to put one back in. Something about factory integration however always gets me.. its something I cant understand. Its like subaru is telling me factory nav is something I cant have and I'm determined to tell them to kiss my ass.

 

I would be interested if my 2nd revision was further along or if I had more conviction in the project, but at this time, I'll just wait and see what you have for sale and go "hrmm.. thats a good price, too bad I'm not in the market"

Darkfox1,

I understand your thoughts pretty well. Probably the only difference is that I could install the OEM NAV as an accessory (thank God!); I also found a place (just on the other side of the border with Switzerland) where I could save about 40% of the price of the original parts. This was what made me switch to the OEM solution.

For the MP3 I have an iPod, too, and the original AuxIn interface. I plan to verify what products Alpine and others are designing to integrate iPod with OEM systems (ie KCE-425i).

I'll do the FS post in a few days, anyway.

Why are you quiting your project?

Because the result does not completely satisfy my requirements: MP3 library, handsfree and navigation, above all others.

For the MP3 library I could not find any real and complete integration with my iTunes library; the handsfree is simply not usable (echo issues), and the navigation is probably just average quality. (I used Centrafuse 1.47/2.0).

Moreover I was not so convinced to hack the car in order to install all the pieces needed to run the CarPC.

Anyway it has been an interesting project...

Talking about quitting project, I have to say that this weekend I have officially quitted my CarPC project!

Friday I have installed the OEM Navi on my Subaru Outback 2.5i (I live in Europe) and I have to say that I'm happy with the result.

I'm going to sell the CarPC parts which never went in the car (and thus are in like-new condition), including a Xenarc 700TSV MY08 already mounted on a cubby bezel. I look forward to insert a FS announcement here before widening the selling scope (ie. MP3Car.com and ebay).

Anyone interested can show up... (remember I'm on the east side of the ocean!).

Thanks to everybody for the help I got in this months.

interesting.. if you find a location to receive the screen at a severe discount let me know. I want to take a different angle on things and need it a LOT cheaper than the $900 retail on the screen unit.

 

I want the button assembly and the screen housing/mounting bracket.

Unfortunately I can't be of much help: I'm based in Italy and I can get the discount I'm referring to because I discovered that in Switzerland (70 km from where I live) Subaru accessories cost 40% less than in my country. And because italian is one of the three official swiss languages I can get the navi unit in my own language.

Cheers.

...

I did the OEM navi conversion before I started work on my carputer, and to tell you the truth, i didn't like it at all. Subaru's system just looks sooo dated - if i could do it again, i'd just buy the subaru touchscreen and use the Garmin/kenwood brain as was done in this thread:

 

http://legacygt.com/forums/showthread.php?t=71423&highlight=navigation

Thanks for the link: I know it. Actually a few months before that thread I started this one http://legacygt.com/forums/showthread.php?t=67018

which grbspecb used as an inspiration, I suppose .

The only reason I started the CarPC project is because I tought I could have more spending less: now that I'm almost ready to install it in the car I've realized that I'm not getting (all) that I wanted and I spent almost 2.000 € in it. This is the money I'll need to install a factory navi (with 40% discount).

I really appreciate the factory look of the OEM navi: just add an iPod interface like the Alpine KCE-425i and a Parrot CK3100 handsfree kit and I've got all I need.

Maybe one day I'll upgrade the navi with the G510/G520 unit, I mean if I'll keep the car for enough time!

If everything goes on as I suppose, you'll see my classified in a couple of weeks, too. (That will include a nice cubby bezel complete with a Xenarc 700TSV touchscreen!).

Good luck with your sell!

For those of you that were interested, i'm posting a lot of my carputer pieces here, hopefully by the end of the night. Spent my memorial day uninstalling them out of the car I'll post a link to the classified thread here when i post it up.

Hey! What's going wrong with it ?

Actually, I'm abandoning the carPC project myself: I've found a way to buy the OEM navi at about 40% discount and I think I'll go that route.

Interesting...

My main concern with the GPS was the hibernation issue. I figured it was a trade off for the speed of USB compared to serial. If there isn't a huge difference, F-it, I'll go serial.

I use a BU-353 unit with the Mac Mini and I don't have any issue with hibernation (I use a Carnetix 2140 PSU). (BTW the BU-353 actually is a serial GPS with an embedded USB-to-serial adapter.)

The serial port is not always present in carPC hardware: it depends on the motherboard and/or the case.

...

You're following the same exact train of thought that I am. I never really considered an Apple Mini. Are you going to to use OSX? Are the Mini's capable of booting windows? If so, that might be a solution for me as well.

OSX is a great software but in the carPC arena lacks a lot of possibilities... thus I'm using Windows XP. Yes, all recent Intel-based Macs can boot Microsoft Windows XP: you can choose between a dual-boot system (with Apple Bootcamp software) or do a single boot Windows installation simply booting from an XP installation CD and then adding the hardware specific drivers from a Mac OSX Leopard DVD.

The Mac Mini is a nice piece of hardware: it is very compact, supports hibernation (which is a great feature for fast booting carPC) and it has not a BIOS splash screen which can be annoying in the car.

I even streamlined my XP image by using NLite to remove non essential OS parts. Current boot times from cold are around 40 seconds and about 15-20 seconds from hybernation.

As frontend software I'm using Centrafuse XLE togheter with a few plugins (TPMS, FileSync, ecc.).

I am planning on going the Mini-ITX route. I want to put the computer in the glove compartment to minimize work and wire runs. I've built computers before, but I don't know poop about ITX boards, and there really isn't THAT much information out on them. I was looking at going the Intel D201GLY2, but I really not sure if it's the best route or not.

 

I'm really only planning on using the PC for GPS, Music (leaving everything stock), Videos (maybe DVD playback), and ODB-II stuff.

I had the same identical doubts and decided to buy an Apple Mini that a shop was selling on discount (not the latest model). If you add the cost of a motherboard with a case, probably there isn't much difference from a price point of view and anyway the Mini provide ample performance numbers (I bought a Core Duo 1.67/512MB RAM/60GB HDD).

My plan is to mount it in the glove box for the same identical reasons you explained; inside the glove box there there is a compartment for the manual which has the same identical dimensions of the mini (I own an Outback MY07). I think you can't find a smaller box than the mini, for what it provides.

About cooling I think that it will not a problem: I plan to open the glovebox in the back and let the air go out in and under the dash. The mini is super silent and does not produce too much heat.

Last thing: remember these are ideas/intentions and as I didn't yet realized them I can't guarantee they work!

Good luck with your install.

I really need to get on with installing the carputer into my car

Sharing the same feeling on the other side of the ocean...

Summer vacations are my deadline: I promised myself they will be done with the new carPC!

I'm just trying to do a phased roll-out to keep things simple and affordable, too.

Regards.

The insert "pops out" without any hacking. You can put it back at any time.

 

It will free up the back to pass you wire. But I didn't test it yet with the video cable.

 

I'll try to do that tonight and keep you updated!

Legz,

Any news on the topic? I suspect american Outback/Legacy have a different glovebox. Can you post some pictures ?

Thanks.

Thanks, legz for your comment, but from my measures it looks like the mini won't fit depth wise, especially considering the space for the video connector.

Did you already tried it ? Do you have a picture of it ?

Thanks in advance.

Thanks, F1.

However it looks like the cases for nano-itx cannot be installed in the upper right space of the glovebox. At least not without hacking it.

Moreover I'm not so sure about the performance of those boards...

Mac mini is really incredibly small for the computing power and storage it has. Maybe I can design a support to be used below the glovebox...

Thanks, Kelvrick, for your answer.

Could you please give me some more detail, esp. on the embedded board. Is it a commercially available product? How are the performance?

Yesterday I had a look behind the glovebox and is does not look like there is a lot of space in the upper part (behind it there is the cabin air filter). Actually it is just two or three centimeters, right enough for passing the cables, I suppose.

Anyone tried putting a mac mini in the glovebox ?

I'm planning my carpc installation and undecided between put the pc under driver's seat or in the glovebox. Personally I'm pending toward the latter because it looks easier (cables shorter) and more usable (DVD unit can be used).

However I'm not sure if the space behind the glove compartment is enough to host the back of the mini (it looks like the upper part of the glovebox can easily host a mac mini apart for the depth).

Thanks to anyone willing to contribute!

PS: I own an european MY07 Outback.

For those looking for custom bezels, ehemmm, I can do some nice work....

..and for those looking for Brian? Can you do something for them ?

Thanks, man.

I'm really interested in some more details, if you don't mind sharing them.

I'd really love to integrate that info into the CarPC frontend (esp. the temperature reading and fuel data)...

Does anyone here know BMac, or know how to get in touch with him?

He was going to make a bezel for me but I haven't heard from him in a while.

 

Thanks!

NSFW,

I'm in the same situation: actually he is making a bezel for me (since november!) and the last contact I had with him (via email) was the day before Christmas.

I tried several times in the last month to get an answer to my emails but without luck.

I hope he is reading at least this posts... Brian please let us know what's happening to you (and the bezels... ).

I can currently capture and decode the data from the clock/trip meter with my laptop. I just don't have a fancy way to integrate it into my UI yet.

That is great news, CombatCQB!

I'd really love to integrate that info in my upcoming CarPC project (BMac1203 are you listening? ). What kind of frontend are you using or intend to integrate the info with ?

Thanks in advance.

Diego.-

but do you know what sort of connection it has on it?

There is an old thread with the service manual of the unit attached. If you can't find it let me know... I'll do the search for you!

No, wait... here you are: http://legacygt.com/forums/showthread.php?t=36342

The attachment is in the first post.