Thread: New Here!

For the most part, you can do anything you can dream up-- becasue it is a small computer, the only thing holding you back from controlling your entire car might be programming--and there are some members that are working on this .if you are interested in controling everything with the computer, you should take a look at the Fusion Brain-- taht would be the best way to interface that.

I haven't worked with t/a's or camaros for a while, so i can't say for sure if they will fit in the space you have, but it should.

you dont say anything about having any experience with computers, so, be forwarned, there really isn't that many 'plug and play' setups, that would be able to do everything(mp3 car offers a service to build the system for you, but you would be responsible for installing and adding anything to it, IMO the harder part).

While this might not be the best link for someone getting into car computing, both the OP, and the posts aftwards bring up some really good points about problems you will very likely run into: http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/gene...arpc-deal.html

moved to newbie section

For your digital dashboard question, check this out:

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5i8F4BH424[/media]

sounds good so far. i guess the hvac isn't that big of an issue. like i said, ultimately, i'm looking for something that could be confused for stock by the average person (obviouslly someone in the know would realize that NO 9 year old car CAME WITH a built in touch screen navigation system and bluetooth, and there are always people stupid enough to believe the 7 rockford fosgate amps that have taken over your back seat are 100% stock.) i've heard of some people putting additional batteries in their cars to suppliment the additional power requirements of these computers. i'm looking for something that has the navi, am/fm.hd/sat capabilities, blue tooth, backup camera...and maybe a wifi, because i read something about something someone here did so when he pulls into the driveway, the music is automatically updated. I'm not looking for an aircard or anything like that. and though not essential, if there was a way to hook up the radio functions to the steering wheel control, that'd be great. is what i'm looking to do...doable, from yous guys' perspective?

My personal suggestions (which others may or may not agree with):

To keep your steering wheel controls working, you'll most likely need to keep your headunit. There are a few companies that make Aux-In cables for stock head-units. I got a cable for my '04 Grand Prix from Pacific Audio for like 60 bucks. The PC audio plugs into that, and my steering wheel controls control the volume.

I think one of the toughest things is figuring out how and where to mount the screen. You'll want to start pondering this. The rest of the PC can be hidden almost anywhere. My PC is in the cubby of my dash. Lots of people go for the trunk too.

These things don't use a lot of power, unless you build a system out of an old Pentium-4. Extra batteries shouldn't be required.

Software is the other big question mark.. Lots of software can do a lot of the things you mentioned. There's no shortage of choices here.

You should be able to do OBD, GPS, Music, Video, WiFi, BlueTooth, and rearview camera without too much trouble.

Originally Posted by ClockWorK

My personal suggestions (which others may or may not agree with):

To keep your steering wheel controls working, you'll most likely need to keep your headunit. There are a few companies that make Aux-In cables for stock head-units. I got a cable for my '04 Grand Prix from Pacific Audio for like 60 bucks. The PC audio plugs into that, and my steering wheel controls control the volume.

I think one of the toughest things is figuring out how and where to mount the screen. You'll want to start pondering this. The rest of the PC can be hidden almost anywhere. My PC is in the cubby of my dash. Lots of people go for the trunk too.These things don't use a lot of power, unless you build a system out of an old Pentium-4. Extra batteries shouldn't be required.

Software is the other big question mark.. Lots of software can do a lot of the things you mentioned. There's no shortage of choices here.

You should be able to do OBD, GPS, Music, Video, WiFi, BlueTooth, and rearview camera without too much trouble.

i was interested in trying windows 7 beta. I've heard a lot of good things about it, and with it being free, it seemed like a decent choice. however, i've seen a lot of threads that are saying how much better linux is than windows, and nobody here seemed to be speaking to the opposite. plus, people say linux is faster. I heard that ?ubuntu? was the best for someone who was just starting out with linux.

It's not always easy to make a CarPC using the biggest/fastest parts. I mean, not many people (to my knowledge) are running a CarPC with quad-core CPUs with 4gigs of RAM and a discrete video card. And I don't know if Windows 7 will be any fun without those things.

Linux is regarded highly because it is free, it's lightweight, and it's quick. The turn-off is that a lot of people are not familiar with linux. Also, does all of the hardware out there come with Linux drivers? I'm not sure.

XP is a good balance of current software technology and hardware support while not hogging all of the resources in your system. Win98 would probably be very lightweight, but the drivers suck. I'm running XP Pro SP3, 2ghz CPU, 1gig RAM.

I would avoid any beta OS, even if it is just Vista-2.0, unless you're looking for something to rob you of free-time and sleep. Between beta drivers and a lack of other people using it to share experience, I'd hold off. Maybe try it on a spare desktop PC first?

Definitely look into linux. If you've always been curious about linux, maybe this is a good motivator to make the jump. But I would consider XP as a good fall-back. They all have their Pro's and Con's.