My media system - OTR truck driver

Malaki86 · 10-18-2006, 01:08 PM

I just felt like posting here the current setup I have in my truck. Mind you, I spend 24hrs a day, 28 days a month in the truck, so I use it quite a bit.

HP DV8113cl laptop - AMD 64 Turion, 1gig ram, WinXP MCE, dual 80g drives, 17" widescreen display
Hauppauge USB tuner
2 USB drives - 200g and 250g
Lilliput 629 7" touchscreen monitor
USB keyboard with touchpad
Microsoft Streets & Trips 2006 w/GPS receiver
CoPilot 9 Truck
HP 895cxi printer
Wireless MCE remote control

I just ordered the 7" display (it's at my house waiting on me). When I get home on the 1st of the month, I'll be installing it. The plan is to mount it to the sunvisor, so when I need the display, I'll just flip down the visor.

The dual usb drives has my media collection - right now there is something like 300 movies & tv shows stored on it (all in divx/xvid format). I play the movies and tv via the MCE interface.

I'm playing around with StreetDeck, which I love. That may be my next purchase. If I do go the StreetDeck route, I may end up getting a carpc system and an xm tuner for the pc, and tie it all into the trucks audio system. That's down the road though (still paying for everything else).

Anyone else here drive trucks and have a system setup in theirs?

Dragonknell911 · 10-18-2006, 01:17 PM

what kinda truck is?

Malaki86 · 10-18-2006, 04:30 PM

2007 International 9400i

I'm going to be checking into buying a Volvo 780 - probably a 2004.

Malaki86 · 10-31-2006, 04:12 AM

Well, I got home yesterday and the 7" monitor is sitting here waiting on me. It took all of about 15 minutes to get it hooked up to the laptop. I initially wanted to use a true 'multi-monitor' setup, but that isn't going to work. CoPilot's guidance mode will only use the primary monitor. No problem, I'll just do the 'mirror' with UltraMon.

The 7" monitor is going to fit perfect on the sunvisor. It looks like the thing was made for it - lol. I made a mounting plate that I cut 4 slots in. I just have to go pick up some wide, heavy duty velcro to attach the plate to the sunvisor. I also have to make a couple of spacers to drop the sunvisor down about 1/2" so I can flip up the visor/monitor when I don't need it.

I am disappointed that I can't get the audio inputs to work on the monitor when in the VGA mode. I tried changing the factory programming (which I was able to do), but even when the option is turned on, there's no audio unless I go to one of the AV modes (but then no VGA display). I may end up just getting an FM modulator/transmitter and have it go through the trucks stereo to fix that issue.

The hard part is going to be hiding the wires. I've got a 15' VGA ext cable and a 15' USB ext cable to hide.

The keyboard seems to be pretty good. It's labeled as a 'mini' keyboard (no numeric keypad) and is similar in size to my laptops keyboard. The touchpad works good, as well.

After I get the install finished, I'll take a few pics of the setup to post in here.

Dragonknell911 · 10-31-2006, 08:06 AM

Quote:

I am disappointed that I can't get the audio inputs to work on the monitor when in the VGA mode. I tried changing the factory programming (which I was able to do), but even when the option is turned on, there's no audio unless I go to one of the AV modes (but then no VGA display). I may end up just getting an FM modulator/transmitter and have it go through the trucks stereo to fix that issue.

Did you see the thread about this? If not, that would be a good place to look. I know some people got audio to work in VGA mode.
The thread that discussed getting the audio to work in VGA mode, was mentioned in a thread about auto turning on lilliputs by changing the factory settings. I don't remeber if it was a 619 or a 629.
good luck

edit: btw are you a children of the corn fan?

PSYKO_Inc · 10-31-2006, 02:49 PM

I always had a feeling the in-vehicle PC thing would probably eventually catch on with truck drivers, much like the Sirius/XM sat. radios did. It just seems like something that would be really useful when you're in the driver's seat 12-14 hours a day.

Malaki86 · 10-31-2006, 04:18 PM

Well, after about 8hrs of work today, I got my GPS/computer/media center finished in the truck.

As of right now, I have this in the truck:

HP DV8000 17" AMD 64 laptop w/Windows XP Media Center Edition
1 250gig and 1 320gig external USB drives
Wireless internet w/Sprint laptop adapter
7" touch-screen monitor
HP 895cxi inkjet printer
Hauppauge USB2 TV Tuner
Add-on mini keyboard w/touchpad
Wireless remote control for Media Center
25watt speakers (no sub-woofer)
CoPilot 9 Live Truck
Drivers Daily Log
Microsoft Streets & Trips 2007
Approximately 400 TV show episodes & movies

Here are a couple pics of the setup:

Wish the camera would take better pics...

The 7" touchscreen is mainly for using CoPilot. The display is fine for use while driving, but the text is pretty small. I'm not sure if I'll be able to read it when using Drivers Daily Log or not (I sure hope so). I'll try to get it all fine tuned after I head out on Friday.

I just know that I'm glad buying everything for this setup. It's taken me well over a year to finally purchase it all. I still have a couple minor things to pick up, like a better tv antenna (the built in one in the truck is horrible) and another external drive, but that's no big rush.

Dragonknell911 · 10-31-2006, 04:29 PM

It looks great!

Does that keyboard tray dig into your arms though, when you go to type?

are you a children of the corn fan?

Malaki86 · 10-31-2006, 05:01 PM

The tray digs in a little if you use it too long. For short periods, it's fine.

Actually, a Stephen King fan.

tdunn · 01-06-2007, 05:27 PM

looks great. How do you like the copilot truck. I am putting the same type of setup in my 05 star. Are you using any log book software?

themagicone · 01-07-2007, 10:06 PM

I drove OTR for awhile. Above the seat was a big self where I had a docking station. On the dash I had a 8" liliput mounted that ran to the docking station. Then a direct audio feed to a aux in radio, FM modulation in a semi doesn't work. I had my audio, navagation and misc other things at my fingertips while driving for 11 hours. Best was playing poker at 230am down a dark lonely road.