My car PC installation has reached a semi-stable state and so it's time for some pictures and details. This is a complete in-dash installation, leaving the back seats for passengers and the trunk for scuba gear
Here's the stock radio- as you can see the second DIN slot is covered by the Tiburon logo:
And here's the result:
Now for some details:
The system is an Epia CN-10000 with a non-motorized (but very swivel-friendly) screen. Power is supplied by a M1-ATX. But first we need to get battery power into the dash. Starting from the + terminal the curious yellow wire snakes its way towards the window wipers:
Through a hole down into the wheel well (usually hidden behind some plastic) it curves towards the driver side door
and after going through a rubber grommet finds itself near the brake pedal :
Some zippies and a few inches of tape later it comes out in the center dash (lower left corner)
There's a chassis connector nearby (top center in previous photo) which we can tap to provide ground to the M1. A very annoying support beam is located in the top right- but at least we can use it to hold the M1 mounted by two screws onto some spare PCB (top right):
Another bar going horizontally across the dash is meant to support Hyundai's Infinity radio system. Since I don't have said system I removed some of the screws, tilted the bar down to get more space. As you can see above it provides a good mounting spot for the hard drive as well. The previous picture shows my first HDD mounting attempt. Unfortunately the fragile SATA connector extending upwards got decapitated by the mainboard later. My final install has the hard drive in the same spot, but mounted horizontally instead, so the cables and connectors are protected behind the bar instead.
Time for a quick detour; the screen when not retracted has "LCD Touch Screen" written in bright letters on its case. Not wishing to give thieves a reason to break into my car this lettering had to go. A few screws and sticky tape hold the front piece in place. The black backing got several Dremel sanding treatments followed by several coats of black spray paint before being reassembled:
The original radio housing looks as though it could hold the screen as well as the radio but unfortunately it can not. So instead I ordered Hyundai's Infinity mounting brackets. Of course they don't adhere to any standards and required significant modification. In the next photo you can see the right mounting bracket with holes added and several curved parts flattened out. The screws had to be sawed off so as not to interfere with screen retraction. Getting these parts just right took A VERY LONG TIME..
The stock Kenwood radio has an AuxIn connector but it uses a weird DIN connector. You can buy RCA adapters at BestBuy for $25. Rather than being robbed I bought the appropriate DIN plug on ebay and soldered a 10k resistor and mini stereo plug on it. Here's the $4 version prior to assembly:
Since we have very limited space in the dash and because of all these support beams the main board has to be in just the right position above the DIN slots. I took an old PC case and cut out its aluminium base which already has the ATX posts in the right spot. All it requires is drilling 3 additional screws into the screen housing like so:
Then we carefully slide the whole arrangement into place, while trying to plug in VGA and USB connectors on the right. Several bloody knuckles later it looks like this:
I want to switch the system with a nice OEM switch. Unfortunately those are not available in the US and I had to import one from Korea. When I finally got it, it turned out to be a push button instead of a toggle switch. So I had to design a PCB turning it into a toggle instead:
The button is a little too big and sticks out but at least it has the same look & feel as the rest of the car and spiffy lights when armed and active. (TBD: I don't have a photo of the final button installation yet)