Car PC

[Tehnation]

Hey itsme, didnt i just see u in another thread . You are absolutely right, I was thinking exact same thing. You gotta mod the cubby, relocate the instrument thing, get touchscreen, build/buy carputer, get the bluetooth, gps, os, all sorts of god damn wires and heat. I'm glad u made that post, the more I think about it, why the hell would I want to keep the 6 cd changer?? since Ive had it I don't think I've loaded more than 2 cds tops. Its big and useless. With itsme's setup your spending about 800 bucks and getting a lot of bang for your buck. PLus you can still jack in a carputer if you get one with video in!!!! you keep your cubby , add something more useful like gauges. Edited July 31, 2011 by Tehnation

[executor485]

Just keep your eyes open for people selling whole setups on forums Like me

 

The whole reason I went with full factory integration is just to avoid the quirks that carPC's have. It really is nice to just jump in the car and it all works with little to no learning curve or hassle.

[f1anatic]

Hey itsme, I build my own PCs too. Anyways, that looks impressive. Who makes the maps for navigation on that unit ?

[f1anatic]

Has anyone tried this product before ?

http://www.nushield.com/lighting_comparison.php

[BAC5.2]

Never heard of it.

 

But when I saw the link, I thought it said "nutshield", so I hesitated.

 

I have ZAGG's InvisibleSHIELD on my iPhone and iPad. Works great. I wish Apple would use Gorilla Glass, though, so I don't have to use a screen protector.

[MatsuDano]

I may have to get this

[itsme]

Hey itsme, I build my own PCs too. Anyways, that looks impressive. Who makes the maps for navigation on that unit ?

I'm sorry I though I had replied. Its call Sygic and here is a link http://www.sygic.com/en.

 

I just upgraded my gaming rig for BF3. I got the Antec Nine hunder case for better cooling if I overclock my setup and 16GB of ram (it was on sale $60. How could I say no.) I may get a new VDO card setup since my dual 4870s don't do DX11.

[itsme]

Has anyone tried this product before ?

http://www.nushield.com/lighting_comparison.php

I haven't tried that. But I just got this one for my HP Touchpad and its get so far with a lifetime warrenty. I also got this for more protection and it's very nice. It fits perfect and is very well made $12.99 for pre-orders. It was suppose to ship 9/14/11 But, I got mine yesterday. [ame=http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005H476S8]Amazon.com: Poetic Slimbook High Quality Leather Case for HP TouchPad Touchscreen Tablet With 3-in-1 Built-in Stand (Black) Limited Time Sale !!!: Electronics[/ame]

[f1anatic]

I think I am going to order this screen protector...not so much for the "protection" but for the reported anti-glare anti-reflective properties that would allow better visibility of the CarPC screen (Xenarc 700 TSV).

 

I also managed to get HORM and EWF working (hacked from Windows XP embedded) , albeit on my home server/NAS which runs a full XP Pro SP3 software. But it freaking works: you can restart, you can hibernate, you can shut down the computer and it always starts up from hibernation. On the server's OLD 5400 rpm hard drive, resuming from hibernation takes as long as it takes the SSD of my CarPC to boot up (cold) and load Centrafuse (< 20 seconds). Resuming from hibernation my CarPC takes several seconds literally so I am looking forward to deploying it. If anyone is interested, I have the files and the instructions.

[ssbtech]

Resuming from hibernation my CarPC takes several seconds literally so I am looking forward to deploying it. If anyone is interested, I have the files and the instructions.

 

Oh that sounds good

[Zephrant]

I think I finally got my car PC setup to resume correctly. The key was to enable "Hybrid suspend" and set the power supply to never turn off. It only takes a few seconds to come back if the power supply has not shut it off. Oddly, a full resume can take me 2.5 minutes, where a cold boot only takes a minute (but the GPS and sometimes the touch-screen don't always come back up on a cold boot).

 

Unfortunately I've got the M4-ATX power supply, which has 6 mostly useless settings for how long it stays in standby then powers off. I'd like it to be in standby for one day, then hard-off. My choices are 5s, 1m, 15m, 30m, 2hrs and never. You'd think that with a USB interface, it wouldn't be hard to make those times programmable.

 

I drive my car daily, so there is no chance of the standby computer draining the battery unless I let it sit for a week or more.

 

I'm really disappointed in the M4-ATX supply- Good potential, terrible software support. It has a USB interface (using a non-standard plug which is not included), but the software is a systray icon that you have to hover over to see the input and output voltages. Then it fades-in with old data, updates the data and fades out in about two seconds.

 

I don't know why I'm still amazed about crappy software... I guess because more places really get it right now days...

[NSFW]

I went with on of those $279 double-din 7" touchscreen in dash dvd, radio, tv, sd card reader, bluetooth for calls and streaming music, usd , and ipod setups. http://legacygt.com/forums/showthread.php/here-myebay-279-shipped-dash-7-nav-bluetooth-dvd-usb-161236.html It pretty much a carpc. It has a 400mhz cpu, 64 mb of ram and runs Windows CE 5.0 and no problems so far for $279 shipped.

 

I put one in my Xterra based on that thread, and I have very mixed feelings about it. It works, but it has most of the same drawbacks as regular CarPCs. The underlying problem is that the core features were written by 4-5 different teams of people who acted like they were working on the separate projects, didn't integrate until the last second, and weren't very good at writing software in the first place.

 

Some random quirks:

 

FM stations in the US broadcast on frequencies that are two tenths of a megahertz apart: 99.9, 100.1, 100.3, etc. When you click the up/down buttons, this thing goes in increments of 0.05mhz. 99.9, 99.95, 100.00, 100.05, etc. So finding a new station is about four times as tedious as it should be. You only have to go through that after a power disconnect though.

 

Wait, what? Nonvolatile memory has been around for years, why does a power disconnect cause any settings to be lost?

 

The USB music player uses light blue text on a white background. It also looks nothing like the radio player or GPS user interface. I found that the USB music player's colors can be changed, but those settings are in the main UI, which of course looks nothing like the USB music player, so it took me a while to realize that they would affect the USB music player.

 

There's a touch-screen calibration process for the main front end software. There's also a calibration process for the GPS software. But the main software puts a 'home' button in the top left, which prevents you from completing the GPS touch screen calibration.

 

So yeah, it's pretty much a CarPC.

 

...with the added bonus that none of them grew up speaking English or had their text reviewed by someone who did. The UI has three color schemes: Stander, Night, and Diumal. Perhaps they meant Standard, Nocturnal, and Diurnal. Or better yet, Day, Night, Auto.

[f1anatic]

The key is...it works. Hence I shall put one in the Forester. Never again a CarPC project even if I am rather happy with my current iteration.

[NSFW]

Thing is, the lack of polish is exactly what kept me out of CarPCs for a long time. And it's what stops me from hooking up my current CarPC in place of the factory stereo. I'm not going to take that step with my LGT's system until there's a front-end that I really like.

 

So I kinda feel like the no-name Chinese 2din thing combines the worst of both - the klunky UI of a CarPC with the programmability of an off-the-shelf system (I mean, none at all - what you bought is what you got). But it was cheap so I'm not going to complain too much.

[itsme]

Each Hu different. My USB menu black on light blue. I'm still happy with mine so far. It does everything I wanted my carpc to do except log my car

I put one in my Xterra based on that thread, and I have very mixed feelings about it. It works, but it has most of the same drawbacks as regular CarPCs. The underlying problem is that the core features were written by 4-5 different teams of people who acted like they were working on the separate projects, didn't integrate until the last second, and weren't very good at writing software in the first place.

 

Some random quirks:

 

FM stations in the US broadcast on frequencies that are two tenths of a megahertz apart: 99.9, 100.1, 100.3, etc. When you click the up/down buttons, this thing goes in increments of 0.05mhz. 99.9, 99.95, 100.00, 100.05, etc. So finding a new station is about four times as tedious as it should be. You only have to go through that after a power disconnect though.

 

Wait, what? Nonvolatile memory has been around for years, why does a power disconnect cause any settings to be lost?

 

The USB music player uses light blue text on a white background. It also looks nothing like the radio player or GPS user interface. I found that the USB music player's colors can be changed, but those settings are in the main UI, which of course looks nothing like the USB music player, so it took me a while to realize that they would affect the USB music player.

 

There's a touch-screen calibration process for the main front end software. There's also a calibration process for the GPS software. But the main software puts a 'home' button in the top left, which prevents you from completing the GPS touch screen calibration.

 

So yeah, it's pretty much a CarPC.

 

...with the added bonus that none of them grew up speaking English or had their text reviewed by someone who did. The UI has three color schemes: Stander, Night, and Diumal. Perhaps they meant Standard, Nocturnal, and Diurnal. Or better yet, Day, Night, Auto.

[f1anatic]

I personally like the centrafuse front end and I have it working decently despite it being a conglomerate of guidance Garmin treehugger and other software. I personally use the retro CF interface as I feel it is the cleanest.

 

I do agree that frontend software for as well as many other commercial units lacks the fitness and integration that we come to expect from an ipad or windows 7. It boils down to resources. Get a Sony Aviv n3 from 4 years ago and it will look and work better than the latest centrafuse. CF folks no matter how hard they try they cannot seem to get Bluetooth to work. Though CF has recently moved into embedded windows market working with mp3car so maybe there is hope

[ssbtech]

CF needs to ditch BlueSoleil and partner up with CSR or something. I think the costs are too high for that however for such a small market.

[MatsuDano]

google maps ftw

[f1anatic]

I wonder how AUDI 's system works: they have google Maps and Google Earth...but then they must also have maps on a hard drive for when people drive in the mountains or low signal areas

[MatsuDano]

it would be hilarious if it didn't and it just didn't work in no signal areas

[jabz]

Has anyone used this CarPC enclosure? It's basically a custom all in one.

http://store.mp3car.com/New_Black_Double_Din_Nano_ITX_Carputer_Enclosure_S_p/enc-041b.htm

 

I have a JDM 2006 Legacy GT spec B here in NZ. I am wondering will this fit into the original Double DIN factory position once I purchase the AV panel set from http://www.avojdm.com/product_info.php?products_id=123

Edited October 3, 2011 by jabz

[f1anatic]

Has anyone tried this product before ?

http://www.nushield.com/lighting_comparison.php

 

 

I had this installed. It seems to improve visibility in direct sunlight by about 60% and at very wide angles by about 10-15% In other words it works, when gauging from the driver's seat. If your eyesight is directly perpendicular to the screen, improvements are even better. I s'pose this is related to the way it polarizes light.

 

My biggest problem was whenever the sun was high up in the sky and rays hit the screen through the windshield. That is where the 10-15% improvement comes in, where as before, I could not see anything, now I can. Sort of. But the range of angles at which I would not see anything is smaller.

 

If sun is to shine directly through the front side windows (even tinted at 35% as mine), there is an improvement still, this time by about 60%.

 

Would I buy again ? Yes. Worth the money (i purchased the 10 inch Asus EEE-PC screen which I then cut) ? Probably not but it worked as advertised and improved the readability of my screen.

[ssbtech]

How about when the sun comes through the sunroof and is reflected into the driver's eyes?

 

It's like looking at the sun with a mirror.

[MatsuDano]

I've found it helps with reducing glare to the eyes, but it still washes out the screen something fierce. It makes it slightly more useable on my screen which came out as a very reflective surface.

 

I'd buy it again.

[EazyMoney]

Can Anyone help?

 

I am doing a Carputer install in my 05 Legacy GT. Why do people opt for the cubbi hole are vs just replacing their OEM HU with a single Monitor as a single source?

 

Ofcourse, you won't have the 6 disk cd changer, and possible am/fm, but that's nothing a Carputer can't do. Also when mounting it up above in the dash area, what happens to the clock display? Do you guys relocate that or just not evan use it anymore?

 

I would like to replace my OEM HU with a single source monitor (carputer) and run everything off of that source. I know I can get SoundCards, but how to get Audio to there? I assume using a regular Harness but to where?

 

Thanks! btw, I need 5 channels for my "audio" system (2 way active up front + sub)