Thread: 1998 Pontiac Trans Am Carputer Install - Many Pictures

I <3 carbon fiber

very nice indeed, sir

do you plan on axing the hvac controls for automated climate control one day?

nice work man. Not really a fan of the giant hole for your backup camera. But otherwise it's impressive.

2 thumbs up to a fellow pontiac!

Originally Posted by Belo

nice work man. Not really a fan of the giant hole for your backup camera. But otherwise it's impressive.

2 thumbs up to a fellow pontiac!

Thanks Belo. It's not that bad with the camera. The hole is about 1/4" larger than it used to be stock and the camera fits flush against the outside of the panel. To me it's hard to see unless you are looking for it, but maybe I'm just used to it already . A camera without the IR illuminators would likely fit through the stock hole...

Originally Posted by Sleepyz0mby

I <3 carbon fiber

very nice indeed, sir

do you plan on axing the hvac controls for automated climate control one day?

The thought has crossed my mind, and it would be nice to have all that controlled through the touchscreen, but it's not in my plan at the moment. From what I have read it would be a bit difficult in these cars. If I am not mistaken one of the controls uses a mechanical cable, which may be more work to interface with than regular electrical cables.

Originally Posted by Felix1701D

Thanks for the kind words. I am glad the information is proving useful.

Snootch - I'll look into that delay circuit, thanks for pointing it out. It may also help with a side effect of my current rear camera set up. Since the camera powers immediately, the monitor switches to the secondary video input when powered on as it takes the computer a second or two to activate its own video signal. A short delay to power the camera would allow the monitor to detect the computer video signal first and stay on that input.

FYI... Only thing that I have heard of people doing, is connecting the power for the camera to the reverse lights. That way, the camera only comes on when the car is shifter into reverse. As far as the A/C controls... If you have seen my system, I relocated the controls to the glovebox and researched doing them using the T/S, but it would be a total pain in the ***, because the temp knob uses a cable. You could do it using servos I guess, but It still seems like a massive waste of resources and time trying out to engineer something that would do it.

Um, wow! I can not find the words!

I keep thinking, Night Rider! LOL!

Originally Posted by Snootch

FYI... Only thing that I have heard of people doing, is connecting the power for the camera to the reverse lights. That way, the camera only comes on when the car is shifter into reverse.

Powering the camera only when the car is in reverse would be one way of preventing the monitor from switching the video source on power up, but it would also mean that I would not be able to access the rearview video at any time regardless of shifter position. The way I have it wired now I can have the car in Park for example, select video input 2 on the monitor, and I am able to see the rearview image.

At this point I would consider it a "minor" inconvenience to have to manually switch to VGA input every time I start the car. I think delaying initial power to the camera for a few seconds while the VGA output of the computer goes live should fix it. I was re-reading the manual for the Opus and it looks like there are some selectable delay options built-in that might be useful for this...

Originally Posted by leo_bergamo

I keep thinking, Night Rider! LOL!

I am afraid I have to admit that show is one of the reasons I became interested in electronics, and in Firebirds in particular. Perhaps a Virtual Reality HUD like the one from the Knight 4000 should be up next in the upgrades list

Originally Posted by Felix1701D

Powering the camera only when the car is in reverse would be one way of preventing the monitor from switching the video source on power up, but it would also mean that I would not be able to access the rearview video at any time regardless of shifter position. The way I have it wired now I can have the car in Park for example, select video input 2 on the monitor, and I am able to see the rearview image.

At this point I would consider it a "minor" inconvenience to have to manually switch to VGA input every time I start the car. I think delaying initial power to the camera for a few seconds while the VGA output of the computer goes live should fix it. I was re-reading the manual for the Opus and it looks like there are some selectable delay options built-in that might be useful for this...




I am afraid I have to admit that show is one of the reasons I became interested in electronics, and in Firebirds in particular. Perhaps a Virtual Reality HUD like the one from the Knight 4000 should be up next in the upgrades list

Yes I think when most people start a project like this Kit has to of crossed their mind at one point. I love the embedded displays I see in a lot of setups. It is too bad I do not have the skills (or the gull) to hack my dash up in my van.

I have been contemplating the idea of a HUD in my vehicle. I think one avenue would be to embed one of those micro LCD projectors you see used on cell phones into the dash and having it point to the area of the windshield in the lower half of the drivers field of view. You could even use some type of translucent laminate applied to that area of the windshield to enhance the visibility in the daytime. This would be hard to pull off once you have things in place.