[Phase V: Physical Car Install - 2008/08/06, 2008/08/07, 2008/08/08]
The first thing needed in the car was the cabling of course. The design is to have the data, video and audio cables run down the passenger side and the power cables run down the driver side.
The cables were fairly easy to run from the dash into the the footwell of the passanger side. An easy to remove panel is the only thing in the way.
Suprisingly there is plenty of room under the side kick panels on both sides, there are rings that are in place to guide cables and luck enough only one small bundle of wires not even coming close to filling the rings. The rings were not big enough to allow the vga connector to fit through though.
Did the same thing with the power cables on the driver side. I hid the cables underneath the backseats bringing up just enough cables to reach where the carputer sits.
With the computer in place, I put the GPS and WiFi antenna on the rear deck.
The XM antenna on the roof and cable fed along the side of the back window. Currently electrical tape is holding it in place. This is temporary until I find a better substance.
The only physical parts left at this point is to run the power cables through the firewall and attach it to the battery and also attach the XM radio adapter somewhere and run the cables for it.
I tried to run the power cables through the firewall myself and failed after 6 hours of trying nearly severing important wires. I've decided that needs to be done by a professional. The dates booked for that is September 5th, 2008. Such a long time....
The XM box I will install after I make a new XM -> serial adapter. The one I have is too short is made to connect to an internal COM port. The Intel Atom board doesn't have that. I have a Mac Serial Printer cable on order from my University's computer store. Unfortunately they don't know how long it will take to come in.
[2008/08/10 - Second Power Wire Attempt]
I tried installing the power cables for the computer today again. With my frustration of the last failure gone and a good 14 hours of sleep I really wanted to try again. This time was a success. Took two and a half hours, but I was able to get the cables in.
