peijffertje

Check this out.

http://www.maxivista.com/index_tabletpc.htm

MP3Car.com

 

turbocad6

wow, that maxvista is cool.

william, just seeing this post. the digitizer is not in front of the screen at all, the digitizer is actually BEHIND the lcd, so it doesn't affect viewability at all, there is a hard plastic overlay over the lcd to protect it while using the digitizer but this can be removed if a touchscreen is also added. keep one thing in mind though, to use a digitizer AND touchscreen, you will need a way to disable the touchscreen if/when the digitizer is used or a click will register as 2 clicks, one from the touchscreen & one from the digitizer, using anything but the magnetic digitizer pen though of course only the touchscreen will register so that's fine, but a touch from the magnetic pen if both is active will register as 2. you can easily just switch power off to the touch controller when digitizer function is desired. if you don't care for the digitizer just don't use it, no need to remove it really... of course the digitiser will only work when connected to the fujitsu board, if you want to use JUST the lcd you can do that, you will need a vga controller with the proper lvds output & that can run the screen as just an lcd for use with any computer...

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MY NEWEST INSTALL:modded infiniti fx with big screen

first windows carpc install........my liquid cooled LVDS screen :D

peijffertje

I'm thinking of using the tablet PC solution for my other car and Im thinking about using a dockingstation.

Thing is, the dockingstation's "foot" is too large to cram up the hole where my radio is. Are these dockingstations easy to hack?

GizmoQ

Sorry it's taken so long to respond, but the Road Runner standardization project is taking off and I'm having a hell of a time keeping up. Now let's talk about dissecting a ST4121 dock. The task is really not that complicated. The foot can be completely removed as I have done it three or for times so far. This is not a how to or documentary I have some pictures I put together with parts I had laying around to give you an idea of how I did it. Your results may vary.

If you already have a dock you'll recognize the outside of the base.

The inside of the base is mostly just metal shielding. Of note is the circled area where I had to make a cutout to safely remove the cable bundle from the top of the base and maintain the entire locking half of the dock intact.


One quick cautionary note: on my first attempt I cut some of the wires in the bundle because I rushed the cutout. Here's a closeup.


Be careful with that bundle - alot of the wires there are the same color and the cables are tightly fit into the shielding. Here is where the dock's circuit board fits into the casing.


Here's what the working part of the bottom half of the dock looks like (minus the casing, optical dive and unplugged from the top half of the dock)


The actual circuit board inside the bottom half is tiny. here are some rulers for good measure.

And the height is less than an inch.


In my Caddy, I wrapped the board in shielding, plugged everything in and just crammed it into a single din slot and covered the slot with what I created to hold the upper half of the dock. In my Mustang, I bought a project box from Radio Shack (which was three times too tall), cutout the holes for the connectors (power, 3USB, Audio out, Firewire, JAE50, video and upper dock cable), built an original base for the upper dock and just screwed the project box in place behind the upper half of the dock.

If you want pictures of the mounts an installs, you'll have to wait a week or two till I'm ready to install my fusion brain in my Caddy. At that time I'll take pics of how it all goes together.

As a final note, DO NOT DISSECT THE TOP HALF OF THE DOCK as I did. You're basically going to throw the bottom half away so you don't have to worry about what screws go where and what connectors go where and in what order should they be installed. I took one top half apart just to see if I could eliminate the bulky surround and just use the little connector that goes into the back of the tablet. BIG MISTAKE!!! I never did get it to go back together. There are five or six different sizes and styles of screws, eight or nine springs, levers, slides, and gears. If you look closely at the connectors depicted in the above pics there are a ton of then and they all must be fed through a 1.5" hole then spread out to the sockets in the back of the rotating part of the tablet holder - its a mess in there.

Let me know if you need more. Good luck.

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HARDWARE: Fujitsu Stylistic ST5031w/WiFi and dock, internal MP3Car 80G HD,, external 1TB HD, Sierra Wireless Aircard 550, DVD-RW, Silabs FM, WinTV USB, XM Commander w/Timetrax USB, Delorme GPS, Saitek X-52 joystick, BluSoleil Bluetooth, TPMS, FB, Elm327

peijffertje

Ow man! This is awesome!!
Thank you for taking your time for this detailed instruction!

Make sure you'll never meet me in person cause I will kiss you for sure, and I am one ugly dude!

Thanks!!!!!!!!

peijffertje

The dock is still way too big to fit in my car.
You really advise against taking the upper part of the dock apart, so I better not try that road then. Too bad that the whole dumb thing is needed to make the dock work.

Im now thinking about using a brodit proclip but I will have to plug in the power, audio and usb cables each time I enter the car.. Damn..

Do you have some good advise how I can get around this?

wi77iam

Actually, I just removed the digitizer and added the touchscreen. It wasn't that hard and now the ts works quite well. Thanks.

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peijffertje

My st4121 just arived and unlike my st4120, I cant use my finger to control the touchscreen. I get it that its got to do with the digitizer story you guys are talking about, so could you please tell me how you disabled the digitizer and enabled the touchscreen?

MP3Car.com

 

wi77iam

The ST4121 comes with the digitizer only, which requires the stylus. You would need to add a touchscreen, either in addition to the digitizer like turbocad6 did, or in place of the digitizer like I did. A 10.4 touchscreen can be had for about $60 from ebay IIRC.

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kellystewart

I have bought a HP TC1100 for my carpc install and would like to add a touchscreen overlay to it. I actually have a 7" indash screen and will use that mainly buuutt may be looking to use the tablet itself permanently once i can figure out how to mount it and make it look good!

So yeah how do you go about installing the overlay, I've searched but can't seem to find out the specifics. I'm not scared to use a soldering iron and can build pc's but never fiddled with tablet/laptops before.

Thanks Guys,

Kelly

GizmoQ

Well Turbocad6, I finally pulled the trigger on the ST5031D. Its in the mail, paid $255. May need to pick your brain on the touchscreen that you bought and installed over the digitizer. Should have t in hand next week and start loading all my carPC programs on it. Luckily, my docks all support it so it should be a direct replacement for the old ST4121 (its going on the shelf as a last option emergency backup ). Now I need to clean out the other 5,6,7 (I lose count) Tablets off the shelf

Its a damn shame that I paid $400 for the 4121 when you bought your 5031 for $700 in 2007. Now the 5031 is almost half what I paid for the 4121 and the 4121 is worth just over $100. Yet, even after all this time there still isn't a decent transflexive dual-mode touchscreen tablet to replace them. I guess that just means I'll be getting a ST5111 in another two years cause I don't like the ST6000.

More to follow...

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HARDWARE: Fujitsu Stylistic ST5031w/WiFi and dock, internal MP3Car 80G HD,, external 1TB HD, Sierra Wireless Aircard 550, DVD-RW, Silabs FM, WinTV USB, XM Commander w/Timetrax USB, Delorme GPS, Saitek X-52 joystick, BluSoleil Bluetooth, TPMS, FB, Elm327

turbocad6

hmmm, & I just picked up a core 2 duo st5111... don't know why... just figured a refresh & upgrade I guess... this one


still think these are one hell of a deal as a carpc considering the screen & all else you get... but now I'm getting other ideas, like instead of using this 10.4 tablet installed the way it was, docking my p1610 in dash as a quick in/out docking araingement, but behind the bezel so when it's in it'll just look like an in dash 8.9" widescreen installed. that one is transflective instead of reflective though... & already touch... something I've been kicking around...


yeah, why are tablets something to collect anyway?, I got a few around too

__________________
MY NEWEST INSTALL:modded infiniti fx with big screen

first windows carpc install........my liquid cooled LVDS screen :D

GizmoQ

Figures.... Everytime I catch up, you step up


I agree. I have no interest in buying anymore desktops or laptops having adjusted my lifestyle to the tablets.

You keep coming back to that P1610 like you're trying to justify having it.


I hate to admit it but I've grown attached to them. I've also put them thru such abuse I'd hate to sell them to someone who doesn't understand or isn't willing to change in order to exploit their full potential. Also, by the time I'm ready to get rid of them they're resale value isn't worth the shipping cost. So I keep them.

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HARDWARE: Fujitsu Stylistic ST5031w/WiFi and dock, internal MP3Car 80G HD,, external 1TB HD, Sierra Wireless Aircard 550, DVD-RW, Silabs FM, WinTV USB, XM Commander w/Timetrax USB, Delorme GPS, Saitek X-52 joystick, BluSoleil Bluetooth, TPMS, FB, Elm327

bdknocks

Hello all, I'm thinking of changing my carpc to a Fujitsu ST4121. My questions are: how do you turn it on if you mount it all behind the dash?
Can I use the M2-atx start-up/shutdown controller that I have in my current pc?
Will the USB 1.1 work to add bluetooth and can I add 7-port powered usb hubs?
Will I be able to teather my smart phone to the bluetooth and usb 1.1 and get good speed?
Can I just disassemble it and use the screen with my current carpc and what would be involved?

The whole issue is that I customized my dash for a 10.5 screen but my screen is crap and can barely be seen in the daytime but I don't want to pay $700+ for a transreflective.

Thanks for any help you can offer and check out my Mitsubishi Diamante thread if you want to see my current setup.

GizmoQ

O.K. I guess I'll be the first to try tackling this post.


The easiest way is to solder wires to the motherboard where the power button used to be(you might as well remove it since you'll not have access to it once you mount everything in the dash). Then connect those wires to the controller ala the numerous laptop power button threads on this forum.


An M2-ATX will work fine as a startup shutdown controller, but you'll still need to get a Fujitsu auto adapter cause the tablet needs 16V 3.75A.


I ran 7 USBs for years on the Fujitsu 1.1 controller...including bluetooth. I will say that its very particular about which hubs it works well with. I went through three or four before I found one that was trouble-free, but my hubs were all unpowered.


This is the first of your questions that I don't fully understand what you're asking. Yes tethering a smartphone works, I've done it. Yes connecting to a smartphone via bluetooth works, but don't expect to be able to use the computer as a handsfree for the phone. No software exists to accomplish this - that I know of. If you're talking about using the smartphone for internet access over bluetooth, I'm sure it could be done but I wouldn't recommend it. Most phones burn through the battery super fast when used for internet access and/or bluetooth, so you're gonna need to have it charging when you do. Since it needs to be charging anyway, just tether using a USB. (OBTW, most phones can't charge as fast as internet drains the battery, so its gonna die eventually)


NO! not without a stand alone LCD controller with VGA input. Buying a Xenarc transflexive screen would be much simpler. If you do pursue this, you're gonna first have to find out if there's a controller available for this particular LCD(this is not a on size fits all adaptation and Fujitsu may have changed the LCD from the standard) and then source one.

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HARDWARE: Fujitsu Stylistic ST5031w/WiFi and dock, internal MP3Car 80G HD,, external 1TB HD, Sierra Wireless Aircard 550, DVD-RW, Silabs FM, WinTV USB, XM Commander w/Timetrax USB, Delorme GPS, Saitek X-52 joystick, BluSoleil Bluetooth, TPMS, FB, Elm327

MP3Car.com