My CarPC progress and request for advise!
Hi all!
1st post but have sent quite some time over the last few months trawling through all sorts of threads, don't know if it was a good or bad idea, as my head is now spinning.
I have been involved in car audio for a long time now but decided in the new car I want a carpc as none of the off-the-shelf double din units had anywhere near the feature set I was looking for.
History of Build
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Stuff I have:
BU-353S4 SiRF Star IV USB GPS Receiver (ebay) $55.60
fit-PC3 Pro 4GB (fitpc) $487
Samsung 830 SSD SATA3 128GB (msy) $115
Lilliput high brightness 869GL-80NP/C/T-HB 8" (mp3car.com) $314.90
RideRunner user interface - Free (bit of a learning curve but awesome!)
Win7 Home Premium 32bit $70
Intelligent DC-DC Converter with USB Interface & Box (mp3car.com) $138
Spare console (forum) $70
To order:
Creative SBXFI-S51-PRO Sound Blaster X-Fi Surround 5.1 Pro USB Sound Card - $70 from MSY
Odyssey Navigator $125 from TWIG Solutions (not sure about this one as my Samsung Galaxy 3 has awesome navigation)
Running total: $1180.50
(only includes stuff I have bought so far as wish list changes with progress!)
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To Come:
4 channel amp
New front and rear speakers
Now today I will be starting to install windows and start getting all the hardware to talk together hopefully before installing anything in the car.
But I have a few questions which I am hoping people can help me with or point me in the right direction...
Wants for the system:
Music
Navigation
FM Radio (potentially DAB but don't know what the reception is like here)
Movies (rarely)
Evoscan for engine diagnostics and data display
Bluetooth handsfree if possible
Front End
Initially I was going to use Centrafuse but after browsing around here RoadRunner gets rave reviews and I like open source stuff (my Andriod phone had the factory firmware on for a total of 2 days).
BUT I don't want to be fiddling with this all the time. Once setup I would like to just enjoy using it. How difficult is RR to get up and running given the list of functions I want? Centrafuse seemed to be a very easy install and use path.
Navigation
If I go the RR path, from what I can find, navigation isn't included. I saw iGuidance mentioned, but does this come with maps? If not where do I get them from and how often are they updated? Centrafuse maps don't appear to be updated very often... So any recommendations of navigation software?
USB FM Radio (maybe DAB FM??)
Can anyone recommend a product that will hook into my factory aerial? I only seem to be able to find fairly average or negative reviews of these devices...
Power filtering
The fitpc requires 10-16V DC unregulated, but I am worried about spikes and low voltage, especially when cranking at startup and general noise. Has anyone got any suggestions here? I sent an email to the mp3car store and they suggested the DCDC USB device which looks pretty cool and will do startup and shutdown ( http://store.mp3car.com/DCDC_USB_Int..._p/pwr-047.htm ). The fitpc can do auto startup on power on, but I may as well just use the supplies capability if I can figure out how to wire it to the motherboard of the fitpc. But any other options?
Location
I was going to locate it all in the boot (the screen in the dash up the front obviously!) but what is HDMI and USB like over those distances?
Phew that was an essay. Hopefully this is the right place for a thread like this, if not let me know.
Will keep you updated with progress as well!
Thanks in advance,
Pete
