Hardware:
> New DWW-750FM 7" In-Dash Non-Motorized Touch Screen
> Carnetix p1900 140 Watt Power Supply
> Older Dell Inspiron 4000 PIII Laptop
Total Spent so far $490
Well all the stuff came in in two days as expected. Unboxed everything and was a bit intimidated by ALL THE WIRES, its not like hooking up a simple amp or head unit.. Im talking like airplane wiring. Thought I would "throw it in" but realized the sensitive nature of electronics and took a step back, and took my time going in phazes.
so
Phaze 1 The Screen (DWW-750FM)
This thing has alot of wires coming out of the back and no "harness" just bare stripped wires ready to connect. As I was searching and searching the internet for the scematics for my Toyota Camry factory wiring I just noticed (laughably) that the camry wires were MARKED! yes each and every wire had microscopic letters telling you what it is ACC, LEFT FRONT, RIGHT FRONT, GND, etc.. So it was just a matter of matching up the wires. I took the liberty of bringing the camry wiring harness in the house and doing all the taping of wires on my desk (as opposed to upside down in the car
.. I am using the carnetix's 12+ volt "Secondary output" to power the screen . This thing comes with its own "power filter" which looks like a couple of resistors and a fuse.
Well it worked out ok. Everything worked as it should. When turning the key to ACC, the thing lights up (Radio/HU Part) when turning the car on, the screen comes on and everythign is shut off during cranking as it should.
When I first shut the car off after testing, the thing stayed on, radio playing, and screen still on after I removed the keys? I though oh man, I wired it wrong!.. Then about 15 seconds later.. it just went off by itsself.. ** GRIN ** This is very useful because you can see the computer going into standby before the screen looses power.
OK now for the bad stuff
THE SCREEN
1) This DWW-750FM Has everything you could ask for
EXCEPT FOR RCA OUTPUTS! Yes, this truly sucks, more audio
inputs than one can ever use
but not a single output. Meaning you cannot send anything to external amp(s) via RCA, you cannot add an equalizer, crossover, etc. This is unnacceptable to me so I am no longer using the built in amp functions of this unit (means no FM Radio either
) . The only way around this that I can think of is to find some type of device that takes a 0-45 watt signal and makes it line level RCA. That would be great. Then I could use its switching functionality with multiple sources.
2) Buttons on front panel dont work.
All excited about their power and reset buttons until I went to hook it up realizing its just one wire.. Now im no electrician but I know you need two wires to complete the loop to the pc and back, there is only one. So I connected the other one to the ground and my pc began turning off and on by itself hopelessly. I am a troubleshooter and thoroughly tested this thing and the conclusion is THEY DO NOT WORK. I tested every aspect of these buttons. I think they are there for decorations only.. which is sad, i mean its only a switch! Make it work!
3) I had a hell of a time with the touch screen drivers. There are several post on this floating around but no solutions. When installing the touch screen drivers, it ask you a couple of questions, begins installing, gets to 100% then goes into TouchKit screen driver install and XP certification check and immediately crashes the PC.. Dead lock, tried up, down, and sideways, control panel, update drivers, manual inf's, nothing worked.. froze every time.. I was about to give up and re-install when I noticed another thread that had links to some drivers from I think egalax.com or something (will edit this when I get link) .. Their latest drivers worked flawlessly (9/2/06) finally got to calibrate the screen.
Phaze 2 The PSU (Carnetix p1900)
Make sure you read through the manual before connecting a single wire. And make sure you I read it several times as the p1900 is a smart device and not simple wire type of device. My laptop seems to be happy with the 20v its getting from the carnetix. Im not using the +5 yet until I get that audigy/usb hub. I also followed some directions for wiring the laptop switch to the carnetix.. This seemed to actualy work ok. And for a while it was working pretty good. No probs with the carnetix.
oh and for the record.
NEVER CONNECT ANYTHING DIRECTLY TO YOUR BATTERY WITHOUT A FUSE!!!! I accidentally crossed the + and - from the battery. Seems like a big (duhh I would never do that) but when your 4 guage fat wire turns into their 18 guage thin wires, its easy to forget the massive current that can go through them. I fried a fuse that took me 1/2 hour to find somewhere under the hood.. If It wasn't for that fuse, well big spark, burnt wires, fried electrical system, flames.. not good.
So with the whole setup, everything is actually working as it should.. Except for one small problem
The you have to "tell" The laptop that there is an external monitor (the touch screen) then it works fine.. until you reboot.. you have to tell it again (reaching under the passenger seat, pulling out the laptop, opening the lid, pressing FN-F5) every time I start. I read a post yesterday about the bios there may be a setting.. I will surely look into that...
But..
The VGA adapter on my laptop is loose and causes the screen to go purple, on, and off while driving.. looks like ill need that car-PC afterall..
Only other gripe is im trying to figure out (will prolly post this seperately) how to get windows to "Remember" my settings.. Like in iGuidance I set the GPS comm port to 10 (xPort) but after I reboot it goes back to 1.. XPort doesnt always use its assigned port 4 either.. hmm..
Linear Mode
