Mac Mini setup ideas

simmo · 03-18-2007, 03:02 PM

OK so I have decided to go with Mac Mini as my carputer.

I will have the 1.66ghz hoping it will be enough for all my needs.
I have never used Mac OS X but heard only good things about it and would love to try it out.. However, I will be using Boot Camp to run Windwos XP due to incompatibility issues with some software that I must run. I am buildig a beast machine and will have both OBD-II and Greddy Emanage Ultimate hooked up to the carputer. Neither can I find mac software for obd-II nor does Greddy make one for the emanage. So I'm kinda stuck using xP.. However, after reading tons of threads here i didn't find any GPS receiver that would work with mac and win. Is there a GOOD receiver that would work with both operating systems so that if every now and then when im just cruising and dont need obd-II or emanage software, I could just use the NAV and music with AMP front end, yet when i do use windows it would have to work with streetdeck or w/e else i decide to use.

Other than that my setup would pretty much be similar to Nickmcgray's
7" lilliput
Carnetiz P1900
Boot Camp
Mini bluetooth or IR keyboard
RadioShark 2 am/fm antenna and possibly powermate.

He also listed this as power cable kit:

Can someone tell me other than being the obvious power cable, what do other wires do? And where can i purchase it. The URL from the pic points to the mp3car.com store, but i couldnt find one here.

Anyways, so once again my questions are :
Is there a usb gps receiver that would work both with mac os and win xp? OR do they all work ?
Could you also recomend me a software for OBD-II for win xp? If there is one for mac too that would be great.
And of course if anyone have any suggestions/advices about my setup please do share..

Thank you

doogieb · 03-18-2007, 04:00 PM

I'm a newb myself but I'm also thinking about putting in a mini, the details of the cable are here - the Y adapter for example lets the power button on the front of the mini work and the psu auto power on and off to work.

metalac · 03-18-2007, 04:07 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by simmo

Can someone tell me other than being the obvious power cable, what do other wires do? And where can i purchase it. The URL from the pic points to the mp3car.com store, but i couldnt find one here.

If you go to the store and look for p1900 that cable will be an option with it in the drop down menu. You add it to your cart with p1900. What it does is basically allows you NOT to cut your original power cable, but rather hook up all those bare ended wires to the p1900 and on the other side you have a nice plug that plugs right into your mac mini. Also there is that y-splitter that will allow you to control your mac mini power button from the p1900. So what you'll need to do is open the mac mini plug in the splitter into motherboard where the power switch is plugged into now and then plug in the switch to the splitter and then leave one end hanging out so that you can hook up p1900 to it, this way you can control off/on functions with either mac's button or p1900.

simmo · 03-18-2007, 04:50 PM

great thanks for the response.

simmo · 03-18-2007, 08:17 PM

So after more readings I'm a little confused.. Do all these frontend programs that support nav. have maps already installed? or does it just integrate with third party gps software like ms streets or w/e?
Also what GPS receiver/antenna would you guys recomend?

Bugbyte · 03-19-2007, 07:32 AM

http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/faq-emporium/51489-attention-newbies-faq-faqs.html

http://www.mp3car.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page#GPS

http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/gps/50579-attention-newbies-everything-almost-you-want-know-about-gps-part-1-a.html

simmo · 03-19-2007, 06:08 PM

i wasnt looking to be treated like a newb who hasnt done search. Like i said i did look and didn't find specific answers like GPS soft that would work both with mac and xp. And i havent found any obd-II soft for mac either, but thought maybe someone had any info even though its not on this forum.
but thanks anyways

metalac · 03-19-2007, 11:53 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by simmo

i wasnt looking to be treated like a newb who hasnt done search. Like i said i did look and didn't find specific answers like GPS soft that would work both with mac and xp. And i havent found any obd-II soft for mac either, but thought maybe someone had any info even though its not on this forum.
but thanks anyways

I think what you're looking for doesn't exist. As of yet there is really no plug-n-play GPS solution for Mac. There is some things that can be done though (Google Earth, roadNav, routebuddy) that will give you some GPS functionality but none of them are perfect by any means, but they do get the job done for the most part.

As far as odb-II Jirka has a software that's supposed to come out and deal with that as well as GPS, but he's been teasing us with it for the better part of this year

.

simmo · 03-20-2007, 08:31 AM

well.. here's what my setup is going to look like.

Still don't know which GPS receiver i will use.

pepsibobby · 03-20-2007, 10:21 AM

picture is broken.

simmo · 03-20-2007, 11:50 AM

pulls up just fine on both of my computers.. it is over 250kb so it might take a while to load.

mr2mac · 03-20-2007, 12:48 PM

This is my setup:

simmo · 03-20-2007, 01:25 PM

doesnt ur GPS refresh slower when you run it through a hub?
In overall though thats about the same. I just didnt include all the details on how power will run and all.

mr2mac · 03-20-2007, 01:30 PM

Yes it does, but not enough to notice. I only have 2 USB's on my mini so no choice really.

nick

Jirka Jirout · 03-20-2007, 01:49 PM

I have a GPS connected thru two hubs in series and there is no measurable difference in refresh rate when compared to direct connection to the computer... The typical GPS communicates at 4800bps and sends like 5 lines every second. This is something that even the old RS232 could handle easily. Even USB 1.0 can do 12Mbps...