Thread: 2006 Infiniti M35 Sport Carputer

Originally Posted by InfinitiPC

Nice install! I have a G37 with no PC yet. I am thinking I will mount the screen at the bottom center in front of the gear shift. That curved silver part is removable, so if I cut off the doored ash tray and cut slots in the side rails I should be able to have a touch screen go from the shift-boot lip up to the dash above the curved part. I was then going to use a dual-monitor set up with video-out to the stock screen (non-nav has a/v inputs).

That's the plan, I'm still waiting to get the OEM interior part that includes the shift boot, ash-tray, and that silver curved part (since I'm leasing).

Oh, that would be great project to see, the first G37 that I know of.

Keep in mind though that the location you're thinking off probably will reflect a lot of sunlight, specially if you have sufroof. So a transflective screen might be the ticket. You should test the location with a small monitor (mobile/mp3 player) to see if it gets a lot of glare in that position (the correct angle/position makes a lot of difference, so wait untill you dismantle the dash to reach the right spot). If not, then you're safe with a regular monitor.

Originally Posted by Caelric

Good work so far, and good logging, as well! I'm interested to see this, since I will eventually upgrade my G35 to a G37 or something, and since so much is integrated into the stock monitor, you have to keep it. I never thought about relocating it, though. Nice!

Thanks! It was scary at first, but it's working wonderfully now. It never gave me any problems, it's actually the smoothes mod of my whole install. I can't say the same for the Xenarc, though. THis auto on/off switch sucks big time. I'd love to get hold of the service menu and disable all that stuff.

Installation is actually quite easy. It needs steady 12v, plus ACC and ground for power. I hooked it to the LINE IN in the computer, and then there is the antenna problem.

Nobody sells and antenna adapter for the M35. No aftermarket solution for that. There is two in-glass antenna in the M35, one of them is powered, so I'd have to check on the service manual which wire is it and use a relay to power it instead whenever the HD radio is powered.

So I bought a brand new powered Hirschmann antenna for $11.00, see details on this post: http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/1205030-post19.html. It is due to arrive from Germany mid May, of course I'll post the results as soon as I can.

This is the Trendnet 7dBi gain Wi-Fi antenna, to catch all the wireless network signal out there, stronger, and faster than my stock antenna. It has to stay on the vertical, and it's fairly big, shouldn't be around metal ideally, although it works inside the trunk.

As I said before, everytime I park the car in the garage, I can hit SYNC and it synchronizes the media folder contents from my home network. But I have 10min for that, before the computer shuts itself off. So the faster the connection the better. I can also use "remote desktop" feature from my office, and I avoid to work on the car as soon as possible. If I leave the ignition on, I can keep the computer on for hours...the DSATX PSU I use will turn off the computer as soon as it reaches 10volts (8 volts is enough to start the car).

The problem with this is that is too much convenient: yesterday, when the computer turned off, I forgot to go back to the garage and turn the ignition off, so this afternoon the battery was dead! Stupid me.

Anyway, here is the Trendnet antenna. It got good reviews, if you know what to expect from an Omnidirectional antenna, which is what you need in a car environment. It not pretty though, and it's velcroed in there. Easy to remove if I want to. But it did improve reception, and that is what matter for now.








It does look dirty and soiled. The flash just made things worse (maybe just more real! . It is probably hastly applied Lexol leather care. Have to do a better job next time...The little square marks below are from the base of a baby cam. It didn't work as I expected, too sensitive to day light. But I figured out a better solution, I post it later.

I took the strong magnet inside the Trendnet Wi-Fi antenna and use it on the antenna that came with a portable USB HDTV Tuner. I put the Fusion RT 5 Gold PCI on the car, only because it was laying around the house, and I wanted to check on the reception. I live around moutains so I knew that close to home it would be hard to get HD anyway, but I manage to get one station, poorly. I bet that close to San Francisco I'll get better reception, but I'll probably ditch this anyway for a SlingBox solution, if and when I get internet in my car at all times.

Anyway, this is how the antenna is fixed on my rear deck:

The board itself is fine, I used an ECS and had lots of issues - very peeky with memory. This one is very stable, I already tested all the memory banks I have and pretty much could use every combination.

I like the fact that you can limit the graphic subsystem power consumption, I've never seen that before in a mATX board, maybe the more powerful one does have it. You can limit the board to 100w, 75, 50w (my current setting), 25 watts, etc.

I play .mkv (h.264) files, 1080p/720p, flawlessly, with very little cpu use. That's a bonus, I though I would have to downconvert everything (again) to play on the car. This way, although I have large files, still, less time converting things specifically for the car. I'll probably think more about that as the need arises in the future.

It only has only one serial port, on board, that I have yet to make it work. It has lots of USB ports, which is useful for one side, but I suspect it also increased my boot times, apparently it takes forever to double check if there is something connected to each of the 10 ports (I'm using six of these currently).

It also defaults to the DVI-D/HDMI output, so it gets a little more time to detect the analog VGA/S-video/Component side (I have to use the VGA with the Xenarc). This wrecks havock with the Xenarc's auto detect signal sometimes. If you use the auto av-2 for the backup camera, you might find that the drivers thinks that the vga was disconnected (since the Xenarc is displaying the AV2 input), and then goes to the dvi/HDMI. I'm still strugling with that, but I cannot say for sure it's not my particular setup, or if is a board issue.

When I add more monitors for the back seats I'll probably buy a converter (DVI-D to VGA), a simple dongle won't do.

hey, what's up... first I'm seeing of this thread, looks like you came up with a good solution for your screen loking good man, keep up the good work

That HDTV antenna, it came with your HDTV USB tuner, or is it something that you bought separately? I ask because my HDTV PCI card that I use did not come with an antenna, and I have not found a decent antenna yet that isn't too big for my needs.