A Hypothetical All-in-one Solution For The Tv/nav?

[Chris Rogers]

for IR - yes. for RF - no. whilst not in sydney - I have had a garmin unit in brisbane and it worked fine. mine (blau) never missed a beat in sydney and is quite consistent in brisbane.

part if the reason a portable is not the best solution in dense areas.

[Chris Rogers]

for reference:

www.topfar.cn

www.newteson.com

www.gyshine.com

http://www.hifimax.net/AIU-120.htm

those are a FEW of the ones I get daily.

HIFIMAX do a box that does what you want. they sell in 1000 lots at $1.5K+

(its a Car PC..)

[Samon]

- FM/AM tuner

- CD/DVD/MP3/MP4/WMV/DivX/Xvid playback

- Analog/Digital (DVB-T) TV Tuner

- GPS

- Bluetooth for phone (with external mic for car installation)

- USB/SD reader

- CD/DVD changer control

- Audio out (4ch + sub) + optical

- Video out (NTSC/PAL)

- Audio/Video input (at least one)

- Reversing camera input/sensor

- Remote control (with external IR sensor which can be installed in car)

Any other ideas? Maybe an interface with factory keys?

I know you've said you're not interested in a CarPC, but just hear me out.

I've built one in my R33, using a custom moulded touch-screen in where the double DIN headunit would be...

Using my custom-built "front-end" interface, I have almost everything that you've mentioned:

- FM/AM tuner Using a Griffin RadioShark hacked up to the standard skyline antenna

- CD/DVD/MP3/MP4/WMV/DivX/Xvid playback slot-loading (laptop) USB DVD drive mounted in the glovebox, and then anything that your PC can play!

- Analog/Digital (DVB-T) TV Tuner Don't currently have this, but could easily add a USB TV tuner if I so desired...

- GPS Have a USB GPS reciever (SirfStarIII) hooked up, and using a skinned version of FreeDrive GPS for navigation...

- Bluetooth for phone (with external mic for car installation) Yep!

- USB/SD reader USB: Yes (ports moulded into the dash). SD: No, but could easily be added if so desired

- CD/DVD changer control single CD/DVD, but with a 60GB HDD, I can put thousands of MP3's on there anyway!

- Audio out (4ch + sub) + optical Yep! running a Creative Audigy2NX USB Soundcard with up to 7.1 output + optical + coaxial... i use it in 4.1 mode

- Video out (NTSC/PAL) obviously... VGA (800x600) output up to the touch-screen

- Audio/Video input (at least one) Audio: Yes (USB sound-card Line-In or optical) Video: No, but could be added through a capture device if needed

- Reversing camera input/sensor Yes! I used a slightly modified WebCam with appropriate software... just gotta get it hooked up to the reversing switch..

- Remote control (with external IR sensor which can be installed in car) No... with a touch-screen I don't need to, but could if I wanted...

Basically it's a laptop I bought off eBay (Pentium-M, 512MB RAM, 60GB HDD, Bluetooth, WiFi, etc) that had a cracked LCD. It's mounted in the boot with a 12V power supply/charger, and then all the extras just plug in through USB (got two USB hubs). There's then a VGA cable up to the front where the touch-screen is, and USB for the actual 'touch'-ness and the moulded USB ports in the dash. I've got a Creative Audigy2NX USB sound card running in 4.1 mode connected up to my 4chn amp for the speakers and a monoblock for the sub.

I'm a software developer, so I built my own front-end interface, but there are a number of good open-source ones out there.

In total, I think the costs came to just over AU$1000, but that included me doing all the fabrication myself and buying lots of parts off eBay!

I have learned so much through doing this... and of course through reading through the forums at http://www.mp3car.com/. It certainly does the job for me!

[WazR32GTSt]

so what happens when you enter/exit the car..

do you have to start up / shut down windows on the laptop each time?

[Samon]

so what happens when you enter/exit the car..

do you have to start up / shut down windows on the laptop each time?

I've written a little script that hibernates the laptop 1 minute after it detects that it's running on battery power. When the car is switched off, the screen powers down, but the lappy is still running for an extra 1 minute... mainly so that if you stall or whatever and need to re-crank, it doesn't initiate a hibernation!

Anyway, I'm yet to build a startup controller... I've got a button on the dash to power-up... but I'm planning to build one that detects ACC power and fires the lappy up automatically. It sounds easy, but there are a few things to take into account (i.e. don't fire the trigger (hit's the power switch on the lappy) if the lappy's already running).

[WazR32GTSt]

and when you get in the car, do you have to open up whatever program you want to run, like on a normal computer, or does it startup with the CD player as default?

[Samon]

and when you get in the car, do you have to open up whatever program you want to run, like on a normal computer, or does it startup with the CD player as default?

Well because it's hibernated (like 'standby' but it writes all the contents of the memory to the hard disk and then powers down, when it is fired up again it puts it back into memory and it's like it was just before hibernation) , it's running whatever it was beforehand (my front-end), but if I ever shutdown or reboot, the front-end is set to automatically launch anyway.

Un-Hibernating takes about 25-30 seconds... powering up from a shutdown or reboot takes about 1 minute.

[MaXiMuS007]

I don't want to discount the CarPC completely - I'm a nerd like many of us here and would love the full PC functionality and customisability.

Having said that, my thoughts were to retain the factory Nav/TV screen, hence why it would need to be remote controlled, as it's not touch screen, and to make the install as painless as possible (in such a complex car).

If I can't arrange what I want, CarPC may be the next best solution.

[rs73]

Found this browsing on the net, has most of everything:

http://www.brashimports.com.au/BI6510BT.htm

Built in GPS, DVD player, 6.5" motorised touch screen double din unit, bluetooth interface that mutes audio during call, AM/FM radio, built in 5.1 amps, card reader (SD), TV tuner, etc - read for yourself, quite interesting...

[infamous_t]

If you don't have the time to put a car pc together yourself, the mp3car infill g4 seems to be the pick of the bunch.

Its a shame Alpine Australia dropped the ball, and were getting a down-specced IVA-W505... no GPS for us simpletons... otherwise it would of covered all your (and my) requirements.

They've got no excuse for no GPS, they source their maps from the same provider that supplies Garmin, grrr...

[Chris Rogers]

had a quick thought on this. (yet to look so I'll ask.) is there a software package that can do what the original system does. IE display fuel economy, error codes etc.

doing math on a touch screen version with nav,phone,dvd,tv off the one screen (car pc.) integrated back into the OE screen mount. have some of it figured out but missing that bit. I know the data stream can be read (blitz do a multiinfo unit.) its finding software that is user friendly and not service based.

thoughts??

[MaXiMuS007]

Does the V35 use ODB-II? If it does, you could use something like ScanTool... it's pretty ugly IMO but it does all that sort of thing.

And it's free

Digimoto looks pretty good - US$45 though.

Edited June 20, 2008 by MaXiMuS007

[infamous_t]

G35 interior the same as V35?

Guy did a install with photos of the system I mentioned before, looks good http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/mp3car-inf...finiti-g35.html

Chris, as they can be tied into the car with an OBD reader, you can set up fuel economy, error codes etc.

I've seen a few examples of this.

Most of the good front ends allow you to integrate other apps into the front end.

[MaXiMuS007]

Tristan,

I started this thread to find a solution which uses the factory TV. The double din conversions are pretty good, but it's a separate discussion.

-Max

[Chris Rogers]

Does the V35 use ODB-II? If it does, you could use something like ScanTool... it's pretty ugly IMO but it does all that sort of thing.

And it's free

Digimoto looks pretty good - US$45 though.

digimoto I like. to me it looks like what I would expect teh OE system to do but has more features. that one gets my thumbs up.

scan tool I'll probably end up buying to ut out lights o these cars.

[MaXiMuS007]

The scan tool software is free... you just need the tool itself. There are heaps on ebay for not too much.

Are you coming up with a carputer solution for us, Chris?

[Chris Rogers]

looking at the idea. if I do it the OE screeen and OE nav will go.

[maxr33]

If the main point is to use the stock screen, would it be possible to integrate a carpc - via the Aux in of the stock system, then rather than a remote, use a mouse to navigate the pc page(s)? I was thinking either a laptop scroll pad type mouse or even just a normal micro mouse, set in the centre console (or wherever) bluetoothed to the carpc unit. This would keep all the stock functions - even the ones that don't work - and allows the benefits of all the added goodies from a car pc. Doable?

I personally would prefer not to fit a double din unit - only other way I'd consider would be to replace the stock screen with a touchscreen and do it the same way - via Aux in - hopefully therefore keeping the stock functions and adding all the extras, however that might be way easier said than done/impossible? I really don't know much about how these things work and don't yet have my car to play with it

[MaXiMuS007]

Something like this would be good... but this seems to be for the models which don't have the stock (goes in the storage area) - I don't know if this is a direct replacement for the OEM Nav Screen?

[MaXiMuS007]

I hope you come up with something soon, Chris - else I might have to give up my quest! The car PC with all the monitoring info would be super.

The closest I've found in a mainstream product is the JVC KD-AVX44. Will do everything except Nav & TV, has rear-camera input, and can be gotten off ebay for ~$580. It looks too cool to be hidden away in the glovebox.

Everyone will have a 3G iPhone soon so in-car Nav will be redundant anyway.