Question on what i need...

Higgssauce · 12-27-2004, 09:21 PM

I want a carputer but dont know what i need. And also i have Alpine Navigation, alpine dvd player and indash screen and a touchscreen for my sterring wheel. just would like to know if i should sell that or just add on with a carputer. Please leeme know what you think and what i need.

Thanks

wizardPC · 12-27-2004, 11:02 PM

you gotta dump all that junk to get the carputer or you're gonna be real disappointed.

I'll give you the quick reasons because I know you'll search for more info.
1)That screen has NTSC inputs. The carputer uses VGA outputs. VGA on an NTSC screen looks like crap. Thus, you will be disappointed that your $2000 screen doesnt look nearly as good as my $275 Lilliput screen. And there is no way to use that touchscreen to control the computer.
2) Without that headunit, everything else is useless. You cannot (to my knowledge) use any of that stuff in our applications.

Now, I don't understand what you mean by "a touchscreen for my steering wheel," but the rest of that stuff makes for a pretty good system. You can sell it on ebay and build a pretty good system with the proceeds, BUT unless you are a geek like me and build computer systems for fun, I'd stick with what you got. This stuff is complicated and if you dont know what you're doing you can really get frustrated with all the fabbing and power issues and grounding issues etc.

READ UP in the various forums and try to find your answers before asking new questions.

mgithens · 12-28-2004, 11:41 PM

the popular options for hardware can be found in the Mp3car.com store, I have the 800MHz Via Epia motherboard and it is more than sufficient for mp3s and gps functions, wardriving is a total blast... video playback would be better with a slightly better board, but the Via brand/series are awesome because they are small... 7" x 7"... can't touch that with your desktop system... expect to spend $1000 to 2000 (hardware) for the mind blowing systems, but you can do a cheapo system for much less...

the parts you will be looking for... small form factor motherboard (ITX), power supply to handle 12v to 12v and boot/shutdown, VGA monitor w/touchscreen, plenty of hard drive, wireless network card, GPS, XM Direct Tuner, DVD drive... the list goes on and on...

if you have found this site, then you are already on a good start on your journey... read up in the forums as you research your items...

good luck... welcome to the crack house...