Thread: How do these plans sound (need advice)

Wow, pretty extensive and expensive setup. The touchscreen is a nice touch, very few people have it because of the cost issue behind it. If you have the room for a 10.4" TFT then it will make the GPS much more feasable.. You can run GPS on a 4" LCD but its mostly just good for roads and the large text...

As for the shutdown controller, I never really saw a point in this.. I've always just pulled the plug or turned the main power switch for the inverter off and computer still works fine.. Autoshut down just struck me as a longer, more expensive alternative.. but thats just my opinion.

By 'lcd support' on the system I assume you mean the controller card? You will need one for the TFT, which is usually a couple hundred bucks on its own...

is that a Single board computer? cause if it is, then a regular LCD screen wont work. I emailed one of the guys at advantech and he told me i had to buy one of THEIR screens for it to work. thats nice and all, but their screens were like 1200 bucks.

the best place for you to buy a power inverter is on Cnet.com's shopping channel (its a lot like pricewatch, the companies try to underbid each other). i found one for $42.06 with free shipping.

as far as GPS, what were you planning on using?

320kbps? Hope you plan on using a 40gig hard drive, kinda defeats the purpose of nice, compact mp3s. Funny, I can't even hear the difference at over 128kbps, lucky me huh?

I can't say you're right or wrong 'cause you don't have my ears. But when I actually sit down and listen to different kbps levels (which I can't imagine doing in my car) I can't notice the difference at all. Or if there is a difference, I can't tell if it's just me psyching myself out, wanting to hear a difference, or if there actually is. Maybe I'm blessed?

thanx for all the replies...

actually, my head unit does have easy eq and i've already replaced the head unit and will eventually add a sub..

..a big problem i'm having with the alltech lcd is that the included ISA controller only handles 256 colors..not enough for DVD..even though the lcd screen can support like 256,000...and the motherboards they sell that are compatible are not optimized for DVD playback(not pentium II+).
..ANY IDEAS????? where could I get a motherboard or controller that can shell out more colors on this screen?

thanx.

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---go terps

MykolJay

the guys at flatpanel tell me that if you buy their analog converterthen you can plug it in to your existing video card and i will support those color modes. the drawback, however, is that it can ONLY handle 640x480 resolution, but with a 10.4 and touchscreen you shouldnt need more than that.