Thread: what are the odds I could screw this up!?

Hey all,

I am new, so go easy on me!

I am sure this has been covered a few times concenring this or that unit, and honestly I have done a a lot of 'ing about the place though am a little confused at this stage.

I am looking into building up a carputer based on the new nehemia 1200 and definately want it to be a full functionig system - gps - mp3 - video (sometimes) and most of all gps.

I am in IT and right into home cinema, so I am a little familiar with the ins and outs of the technology, though not really up with these little touch screens.

what I do know from HC and working with computers for the last 8 years:

a) A touch screen gives me my desired interface without keys and dicking about
b) a touch screen is likely to wear out in this environment, pretty quick
c) I can buy a lot of displays, and possibly convert to a touch screen via digitalww.com kit - with a bit of effort of course.
d) almost all screens only have composite in = crap pic for text due to colour bleeding regardless of resolution
e) ... almost all bar the xenarc and lillput which have VGA (RGB) in.
f) Just because an off the shelf unit ahs a touch screen, dosnt meen there is an interfae (usb or other) to the PC.
g) The higher the pixel resolution, the better the picture of course
h) Most manufacturers make thier specs look favourable by listing the total number of subpixel RGB dots on the screen, rather than true pixel resolution.

Right... now that I have that out of the way, and hopefully at least somones confidence that I nearly know something perhaps and have done a bit og 'ing..... here's some thoughts...

1)I dont trust Lilliput - if this thing busts, I'll be ****ed.
2)I dont believe in scrimping a great deal at the cost of quality = a xenarc is definately an option.
3) I dont like the look of the digitalww.com in dash manual fold out kit when closed - I want a very integrated look.
4)My Ford Fairmont AUII has a double din factory in dash 6 stacker CD unit (pic of a fairmont interior same as mine attached - from a the car classifieds)
5) I would greatly prefer motorised.
6)I've never picked up a sodlering iron in my life (though I do think I was given one when I was a teanager that is prolly kicking about here somewhere)

Now.. here's a theory...

I am thinking I MAY be able to use this particular unit (below linked) from kenwood, which is in dash DVD player amp etc integrated, motorised, "RGB" input and has an integrated touch screen
http://www.kenwoodaudio.com/common/p...45DVD&zone=au#

I am not certain what true resolution this unit is. It says 336,960 pixels, though I can't seem to come up with any resolution I am familiar with, if I devide that number by 800 or 480 (thinking it may be wvga or soemthing otherwise familiar) so I am not certain this is likely to be the true pixel or the sub pixel count... I am hoping some of the vastly more knowledgable people in here may know something about this unit or be able to make some sort of intelligent comment -as I am unable to draw a conclusion on this respect.

Secondly, yes this has an integrated touch screen, though I would be amazed if it has a PC output for the touch screen.... I am guessing that it is a 4 wire resistive system.... the golden question is - what are the odds I could "tap" into this through the ribbon cable and hook in the digitalww.com USB 4 wire resitive touch screen controller board? - I would mount the board on the outside of the unit's case - behind in the dash.

Ideally this controller would not interfere with the unit's own touch screen control, though presumably u can control all the unit's function via hard keys or the remote anywy, so that would not the end of the world if I lost unit control vy TS, though gained PC control when "splicing" in the TS controller...

so I guess after all this rambling I should recap to wake anyone up who might have bothered to read all this:

Questions:

a) Does anyone know the true res of this unit and providing we have decent RGB input, would this res be sufficient for fine text in a gps app or frodo player etc...

b) Do any of you elcronically savvy ppls out there know wether it would be possible to splice in a TS controller and what might be the consequences.

I can get this thing for just over 2k AUD, which when considering I would not necessarily have to buy and install an AMP (if I got no HU unit at all - factory is not an option), would ahve the convienience of an inbuilt TV tuner, would have the benefit of a dolby dsp and dual zone audio... and the whole lot would be integrated into a nice sleek looking semi inconspicuous HU..... I am hapy enough to pay... as long as I can interface it to my nehemia system...

Otherwise, I'll sit back and pray along with everyone else for the moto xenarc to eventually arrive - if when maybe...

Ok so thanks for reading all this if anyone made it through, sorry it's so long, just wanted to make sure I got it all out ad didnt waste anyone's time with half arsed info an spend the next 3 days providing info I could have set out up front.... (too many years supporting PC uses )

Thanks for your help in advance! I greatly appreciate it