Jump to content
SAU Community

Summer head unit project

D0gg94

By D0gg94,
in Car Audio & Electrical

 Share

Recommended Posts

D0gg94 Enthusiast

D0gg94

Posted
Posted

Recently finished my little summer project.

 

Interested to see if there are others who have gotten sick of standard head units and hooked up a tablet or pc in their vehicle.

 

THE SCREEN:

 

This is a 7" touchscreen w/case for a raspberry pi (bought from jaycar) running off my Microsoft surface 3 that sits pretty in my glovebox.

 

Above the surface, I attached a powered usb hub (purchased from officeworks) that is powered by an inverter (jaycar). This is because the surface only has one usb port and that wasn't enough for my application.

 

The inverter is powered by the cigarette lighter socket. It also charges the surface tablet when the car is on IGN. It is mounted in the passenger footwell (hopefully far away from getting kicked, so far so good)

 

The screen requires a hdmi signal and a usb signal for touchscreen. I purchased an adapter (jbhifi) that converts the mini display port in the tablet to a female hdmi port. The micro usb output on the screen goes straight to the usb hub.

 

The tablet plugs into the hub via it's single usb port.

 

I have a VI-PEC ecu that plugs into the hub via the LINK tuning cable and the tuning software installed on the surface to get a live feed from the ECU.

 

The screen is mounted to a second head unit surround I purchased incase i wrecked it or it didn't fit. Minimal mods were required to get it sitting nice.

 

The other usb cable goes into the sound system.

 

 

THE SOUND SYSTEM:

 

My car already has an aftermarket sound system (amps and sub). My amps power the speakers so all i needed was something that was capable of accepting multiple RCA leads, and was usb powered/ usb audio. The ASUS XONAR U7 MKii external sound card fits these criteria. It's capable of 7.1 surround and is usb audio and powered. A couple of adapters were required for some of the plugs as they are 3.5mm jacks, not RCA. No biggie, jaycar has the goods.

 

The card is mounted behind the screen and plugs into the usb hub in the glovebox.

 

Utilising the ASUS software, the sound system could be tuned to a degree. I've found I'm now at the mercy of the quality of sound files I use for music on the tablet (mp3 etc etc) so the quality differs.

 

The main effort was the screen setup, music was just a bonus for me anyway.

 

 

CONCLUSION:

 

The setup as a whole is way better the my old single DIN headunit. I no longer have radio (what a shame) and have to make sure I turn the tablet on after starting the car and turn it off before switching the car off (just like you would a pc I guess) otherwise it has a s#$% fit).

 

My ability to view and even modify ECU settings is very useful when the car gets tracked. Live temps and values etc.

(I'm far from a tuner so I just peek)

 

I have all normal windows pc functions like Wi-Fi and internet browsing, bluetooth etc (obviously not while driving........)

 

I'm pretty sure you could even get Google maps to work as a navigator if you have the surface 3 with gps. Mine does not.

 

No r34 interiors were drilled into or hacked up in the making of this project. It's all removable and reversible incase it all goes to s%$^ lol.

 

The whole project cost me a few hundred bucks because I already owned the surface 3... I'm pretty sure all the newer surfaces are too big to fit in an r34 glovebox anyway. Smaller laptops may work.

 

 

Thanks for reading if you got this far!

20180103_100311.jpg20180103_100400.jpg20180103_100427.jpg20180210_172400.jpg1024x600-hdmi-7-screen-with-usb-capacitive-touchImageMain-900.jpgunnamed.jpg81YoykVzitL._SX522_.jpg200w-inverter-with-4-usb-outletsImageMain-900.jpgimages (1).jpeg232992-L-LO.jpg41qj-z572XL._SX355_.jpg

  • Like 2
Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/473299-summer-head-unit-project/
Share on other sites
Guilt-Toy Grand Master

Guilt-Toy

Posted
Posted

I did this about 10 years ago,  i used a Thermaltake 7" lcd motorised touchscreen that was made for servers that can sit in a pc case,  i mounted that in the dash,  and used a amd mini pc and a 12v power supply from jaycar.

I am thinking of doing another setup now,  where did you get the screen from?  how much was it?  I think i paid $600 for mine back in then.

 

i think i got a video somewhere of it working

 

Guilt-Toy Grand Master

Guilt-Toy

Posted
Posted

 

 

Cant see much,  but it was a awesome setup.  It eventually died because I used a conventional 2.5" laptop hdd in it and all the bumps and pot holes in The Republic of Georgia destroyed it...  I never made a new hdd for it as i moved engine from one car to another when the car got to the UAE

D0gg94 Enthusiast

D0gg94

Posted
  • Author
Posted
I did this about 10 years ago,  i used a Thermaltake 7" lcd motorised touchscreen that was made for servers that can sit in a pc case,  i mounted that in the dash,  and used a amd mini pc and a 12v power supply from jaycar.
I am thinking of doing another setup now,  where did you get the screen from?  how much was it?  I think i paid $600 for mine back in then.
 
i think i got a video somewhere of it working
 
Screen was from my local jaycar, it was $160
https://www.jaycar.com.au/1024x600-hdmi-7-screen-with-usb-capacitive-touch/p/XC9026

Very cool to see that this stuff was still do-able 10 years ago ! Although I suppose that was only 2008 now.

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share
Go to topic listing


  • Similar Content

  • Latest Posts

    • Shoota_77
      Shoota's R33 GT-R RB30/26

      By Shoota_77 · Posted

      They see me rollin' they hatin'....... Took me most of the day to make the necessary mods to the mounts to make them fit the car.  Fortunately I was able to just use the mounts that came with the rotisserie. The rear ones are really secure, the front I feel i might reinforce a bit more as it doesn't seem like enough attachment to the vehicle. I'm sure it's fine but better to be safe than (extremely...) sorry.  I drilled and tapped thread into additional M12 holes to each car mount where it attaches to the rotisserie as an extra fail-safe. Without them the side to side movement is just restricted by the allen head pinch bolts, nothing actually goes though the beam. Does now! I still need to adjust the rotisserie to get the car centred in terms of centre of gravity. If it's too high or too low relative to the rotational centre line of the car, it will be like a turtle and roll onto its back or as it currently sits, I dont think I'd be able to rotate it as it sits as it needs to lift the whole car up as it rotates. Ain't happening... I'm going to be nervous as hell the first time I go to spin it on its side...    
    • PLYNX
      BCNR33/ECR33 Door corner piece replacement

      By PLYNX · Posted

      Oh yes done this when the window started flopping around.  Turns out the guides that run along the rail chanel had crumbed way. Took off the door card and pulled out the window mech, then the window, which you have to pull out through the top. As said unbolt the guide rail and don't spend 30 minutes getting frustrated trying to find a way to slide it out upwards cause that don't frigging work. Drop it down and out through the door hole. All I did to repair it was slice some 10mm clear plastic tube, vertically, then screw it to the guide rail both sides. This tubing rolls inward on both sides and leaves a gap wide enough to hold the window. To finish all I did was lube the plastic tube with olive oil and Bob's your uncle . . . well if he has the operation he can be your Aunt ! !  10 bucks in plastic tube and another 5 minute job done again . . . . YEH BULLSH#T ! My love for Skylines knows no bounds !
    • BourneToLive
      R32 GTR Park lights issue

      By BourneToLive · Posted

      So was there a solution to this problem? I’m having this issue now. 
    • Duncan
      Beers and skylines Fatz style

      By Duncan · Posted

      not expensive, just irreplaceable if you don't go sub 60 at wakie in that thing people will start talking
    • Duncan
      BCNR33/ECR33 Door corner piece replacement

      By Duncan · Posted

      I haven't replaced that, but I have had the doors apart on the r32 a couple of times The door skin will be held on by a combination of clips and bolts, just take it slowly and make sure all the sneaky hidden bolts are out Once the skin is off you should be able to pop that piece off pretty easily, looks like there are only 2 bolts holding it on
×
×
  • Create New...