Carputer Using Oem Screen

[vee35]

I have had this running for a while, so I thought i should put some PICs up. And now I know I need to get a steadier hand... Sorry about the blur caused by a shaky hand. You can see how much is due to my technique, by looking at the blur on items not on the screen (eg the clock). (I will update these first couple of post with more as I remember to)

Specs:

2.8Ghz P4,

2GB RAM

16GB Solid State drive (DOM)

Soundblaster Live value 24/96 Audio Card

ATI Radeon 9500 Video Board with S-Video TV Out, and S-Video to Composite plug, running 640x480 NTSC, 16mil Colours

O/S

Windows XP Profetional, 32bit, SP3

Media Centre interface

MediaPortal (Freeware / opensource) with personally customised skin (I couldn't believe there was no Car PC specific skins!)

Audio

BOSE Audio from premium pack

Using Audio / Video cable plugged into TV, from Chris

Reversing Camera

NTSC, CCD

Auto switched when placed in reverse; using 2 relays, one for video signal, the other for grounding "Cont1"

Screen

Standard Navigation screen

Controller

Bluetooth mini Keyboard; has mouse and keyboard, which fits in the front mini compartment of the centre console (with the drink holder moulding removed)

Navigation

"Remote desktop" (using freeware app My Mobiler) onto smartphone (windows mobile 6.1), which has Tom Tom and GPS

[vee35]

oooo.. couldnt edit the first post. The actual video card is a HIS Radeon 9250 AGP

Some (blurry) photos.

One of the standard screen (for comparison):

The basic "Front End" starting point (Video, Pictures, Weather, Music, TV):

The front end starting page, while playing back music: :

The front end when selecting songs / albums (similar for videos):

THe front ends weather page:

My default entry point for the Web (using my phones internet connection)

TomTom on standard nav screen:

Playing a video back (in this case a looney tunes from YouTube):

Edited July 25, 2011 by vee35

[jrm]

What are you using for the touchscreen?

[vee35]

Some other things.

I have a Blazt cable, but its not working, so I need to send it back and get a new one (they are more than happy to sort this out). This means I will also have the multi dials of all the engine details on my nav screen.

I have an app on my phone (which can be displayed on the nav screen as I have for TomTom), that plots and records the G-Forces. This will be interesting to have with the Blatz stuff, when I finally get around to the plenum spacer and Z-tube (before & after)

The Audio has a digital 31 band Eq (this is a screen shot from my desktop PC, so is not the actual filter settings used in the car). Things to note are that it goes from 20Hz to 20KHz, you can have up to 24dB gain/cut and because its digital, there is no added hiss.

Although I always suspend it (a 12v DC to DC , 250w power supply unit. ie no inverter, automatically turns it on and off), I have also replaced the standard windows boot screen to a Nissan emblem (its also my windows wallpaper as in the next shot, ie the grey line on the bottom is not visible on boot)

My next step is to have an overlay installed to make the standard screen a touch screen. This step will really lift the usability of it. I have found one actually sold here ion australia (a little bit big) for around $55

[vee35]

What are you using for the touchscreen?

I can only type so-fast... The screen is the standard Nav screen in the V35. I am currently using the bluetooth keyboard which has a mouse pad on it as well. One of these, about $90

My next step is to get a USB Touchscreen overlay to convert the screen to touchscreen (about $60, uninstalled) . Its pretty bad right now in that I am soo tempted to simply lean over and touch the screen to do something (especially in Nav). But of course I have to pull over and use the mini keyboard, or set everything up before I go; which is what I normally do.

Edited July 25, 2011 by vee35

[jrm]

Be very careful with getting a touchscreen overlay - this is the reason I haven't used my R34 MFD screen with an overlay. The MFD is sunlight readable and very clear - if you add the wrong sort of overlay (and most will fall into this category), you'll destroy the sunlight readability.

Edit: Chris Rogers might be able to offer some useful advice here.

[Cobey]

Dude! that is awesome!

how much has it set you back?

where are you located? i wanna see this!

[vee35]

Be very careful with getting a touchscreen overlay - this is the reason I haven't used my R34 MFD screen with an overlay. The MFD is sunlight readable and very clear - if you add the wrong sort of overlay (and most will fall into this category), you'll destroy the sunlight readability.

Edit: Chris Rogers might be able to offer some useful advice here.

Thanks for the heads up. I never really thought of the sunlight readability in particular, the one I am looking at currently had an optics clarity of 85% which concerned me as being pretty high. I do have 35% tint on all glass except for windscreen, and most of my driving is probably at night, and the touch interface is hard to resist.

how much has it set you back?

where are you located? i wanna see this!

So far, in short (i will edit this as I remember)

The motherboard $30 (eBay second hand)

2Gb memory (ebay) $60 (I think 1Gb would be better for faster start up, but its OK now)

$50 for the videocard with NTSC Composite, TV-Out

The soundcard I salvaged from another computer (prob $20-$50 on ebay, the onboard sound had a little interference, this card is dead quiet)

A case fan $12 (much cheaper on eBay, but easier from local computer shop)

16GB Solid state disk (DOM) $80 from eBay

Monster composite cable $80 (I had some interference in video that the cable cleared up some, but that wasn't cheap, and there is still some interference in the video)

Wires, fuses plugs etc etc from Jaycar probably $50 would cover that easily)

250w DC-DC power supply, I think it was $110 (I originally bought an 80 buck one from ebay, but it was crap and died, this one is seriously better quality, and sold in WA Australia)

The keyboard, about $80 from computer store, but you can get one for half that from the web

Couple of 5m shielded USB cables (not really used yet) about $10 off ebay

A short 1M usb cable for phone I already had (Microsofts active sync does not appear to work on anything longer....)

Video converter cable from Chris (ask him for price)

Hey, thats adding up...

XP operating system is hard to find now, but its about 100-150 ("with hardware purchase")

OK, now I am scared to add it up....

It would of bean cheaper if I had a spare computer with soundcard, OS and video board lying around, but thats my home computer, and its seriously over speced for a "sound system".

I am located in Sydney, so I think it may be a looooong drive for you (QLD?). I will post more pics and maybe do a video later.

[jjjones]

Hi Mate,

Just wondering how you wired up the power supply to the car?

Cheers,

[VNS 24]

Very nicely done, John.

I don't know crap about audio/electrical part of the V35. I would love to do a similar setup like yours with the help of Mr. Chris Rogers. Ahem....

[Charles89]

Dang.... Would love to have something similar with my MFD...

What software are you running on that?

[vee35]

Just wondering how you wired up the power supply to the car?

12v DC-DC adaptor. http://www.mini-box....w%20output.html

The power unit has three connections.

1. Constant +12v,

2. +12v on ignition

3. -ve / Ground

For 1, I have a 20A wire running from the battery to the boot, with a 20A fuse a few centimetres from the battery.

For 2 I have a wire from the TV, fused with the smallest fuse I could find (0.1A or something I think). Didnt want it pulling power from the TV box

For 3, I simply used a wire to the car body in the boot itself.

I have hooked up these three into a single plug, so I can unplug the computer, and take it upstairs for any work.

[vee35]

What software are you running on that?

OS is Windows XP prof (personally "cut back")

Media-Centre is "MediaPortal 1.3" with a customised skin I made for it (opensource/freeware)

The Eq is freeware 31 band VST plug-in called "KarmaFX Equalizer" (a single DLL KarmaFX Equalizer.dll)

I use freeware MS sofware that gives me multiple "virtual desktops" ie like switching between multiple screens / computers (1 for nav, 1 for media, 1 for OBDII etc etc, future mod is to take over the buttons already on the dash)

I use freeware software called "MyMobiler" to put my phone on my screen

The phone has a GPS with TomTom for Navigation, with all "safety camera's", school zones, public toilets, post-office's etc etc

I also use MS RoboCopy to create a "Ghost" of my Carputer, so if it starts playing up or dies, I reformat the drive and image it back. Already tested this process, and it didnt skip a beat. ie bye bye any BSOD's

I also have Nissan Datascan installed, but my cable is faulty, and I forgot to take photos of it running a demo file. Now thats a sight.

[Kolossus]

This is sweet as hell. Would love for it in my 300GT, where have you got the system stashed?

[vee35]

the boot

[Kolossus]

Cool, do you think a similar setup would work with a Laptop, or Netbook? and is the Sound card an essential item, as im pretty sure there are USB sound cards available as far as one for a Laptop goes

[vee35]

Cool, do you think a similar setup would work with a Laptop, or Netbook? and is the Sound card an essential item, as im pretty sure there are USB sound cards available as far as one for a Laptop goes

Yes, you could do a "similar" set up with a laptop. The problems I see are:

1. You have to find a laptop with a composite TV-Out in NTSC, or get a VGA to TV-Out adaptor for NTSC. The problem with these adaptors, is that every time you turn them off and on, you may have to reposition the picture on the screen. I do not know what the quality of these are either, I have tried my computer (which has a TV out) into a TV before.

2. If you use a laptop, you have to control the turning on and off of the computer. Using the 12v PSU specifically built for this purpose, means when I turn the car on, the computer starts up and when I turn the car off, the computer turns off; actually it hibernates for a faster startup and ready to go. Also, if something goes wrong, and the computer does not turn off, the PSU will shut the power off before the car battery is completely drained.

3. Although most laptops have a sturdier hard drive than desktops, its preferable to get one with a solid state disk. ie no moving parts. I think the DOM I got says its rated at 2000G for 2sec.

As for the sound card, I too could of gone with a USB sound card, but I had a good quality PCI card lying around. The only reason I did not stick with the on-board sound on the motherboard was that there was a small amount of noise coming through the line, which could of been either the alternator or the CPU itself. On another motherboard / computer or a laptop, you may find that it is dead quiet already. As I did, only buy the extra sound interface IF you have a problem.

[Kolossus]

Ah yes indeed, my laptop has a HDMI output so i don't know if a adaptor for HDMI to TV-out would work better, and i'm sure there would be some way of setting it to position automatically. Secondly, if I was to not use my laptop and go for the alternate (netbook) most come with SSD's anyway these days, but for the money (around 500) might aswell build a system like yours from scratch if im not mistaken, and as for the power issue I presume it would work better with a desktop sort of deal going into sleep mode, but does the sleep mode work correctly when the power is cut the way it is?

[vee35]

...i'm sure there would be some way of setting it to position automatically.

You would think, but the ones I saw, the people who sold them said that it would need to be set every time. My video card (and some of the convereters also) have an "overscan" mode which does not have to be repositioned for my card, but it means some of the screen is past the edge of the screen, which bugged me. My card also has a "theatre" mode which is a much sharper image, gut I think it has even more extend past the edge of the screen.

as for the power issue I presume it would work better with a desktop sort of deal going into sleep mode, but does the sleep mode work correctly when the power is cut the way it is?

The 12v PSU (linked above) is "intelligent". It sends the computer into hibernation (not suspend or sleep), which means all the ram is written to disk before the final power is cut off after a preset delay (DIP switch selectable). Under hibernation, you can cut the power off completely, take the computer to bits, re-assemble it, then resume it, and it thinks nothing has really happened. If you go into "suspend", you need to keep the ram powered. I hibernate, so its completely powered off. Laptops can do the same, but I have the PSU wired to the motherboard to enable all this (see the above link on the PSU)

[Kolossus]

Ah ok I see where you are coming from with that, I am truly considering that option now over getting the modified dash for a aftermarket headunit... can't decide lol.