Ra_

Hey all, just wanted to introduce myself. I have a 2004 Mazda RX-8. Although I've done a lot of work on the car myself, mainly performance, and exterior aesthetic mods, I'm such a newbie when it comes to this car pc stuff. I do have some experience installing car electronics (aftermarket stereo, amplifiers, speakers, iPod adapters). However, the RX-8 is completely stock in the I.C.E. department besides the stock Bose system.

I've just acquired the stock navigation system for an unbelievable price and want to get started building my system up. My main goal is to keep the stock look. I don't imagine I will be able to install the stock nav with it's functionality so the only thing that I'll end up using is the nav hood. The nav hood w/display is $1200 brand new, but I spent a fraction of that for everything.

I will probably use my IBM Thinkpad T23 to power up the system. It's running WinXP, Pentium III, 1.13 GHz, 640MB RAM, and 40GB capacity. I'll use a docking station, and locate everything in the trunk. Also will be replacing the screen with a Xenarc or Lilliput. I hope this will be a good start, and I can always upgrade later. Still researching on a front end. I hope to have navigation, and bluetooth phone integration. I hope to retain the stock controls. The biggest challenge I foresee is being able to use the motorize nav hood to open and tilt. That's it for now.

Here are some pics of the car (I'm also a photo-newbie ):

DigitalScream

Hey Ra, I'm doing the RX8 carpc as well. If you haven't read Kimota's project on this site ( I think you can search on his name) or on rx8club.com (interior, audio, electronics section) , he has done some great work. There are also several post on rx8club that talk about the motorized nav hood and at least one that someone posted where he made a circuit to turn the screen on/off as the hood opens/closes.

Good luck on your build. I am in the parts planning phase myself.

~DS

Ra_

Thanks DS. Yeah, I've seen his threads, and he knows his stuff. I'm in the process of compiling all the relevant threads, and between mp3car.com and rx8club.com, the future looks bright! Good luck with your build!

guino

You can always just hook up everything you have and have it do just as the nav stock will do (open/close by itself with tilt controls and all -- I do not know how much trouble that is) -- there's also a possibility that (since you have all the parts) by just powering the nav hood, that it will operate as it should (open/close/tilt) -- I have never tried it (but I do know the board that controls this function is inside the nav hood).

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Kimota

Hey thanks for the compliments guys your gonna make my head swell . I'm far from an expert and have mp3car and rx8 forums to thank for all the knowledged they provided. I would never even attempted my install if it wasnt for these forums.

Concerning the IBM Thinkpad T23 it may be a bit underpowerd and and long in the tooth for your needs. Don't get me I LOVE IBM laptops (sorry they don't make them anymore Lenovo aint no IBM) but the T23 is a faily old model would be a shame complete your install and have the laptop fail soon after.

If you have any questions let me know I'll answer if I can.

P.S
Guino was my inspiration for my RX8 install now he's a guy who REALLY knows his stuff

Ride looks sweet love the rims, if I'm not mistaken thats not the stock body kit and it been drooped too .

Ra_

Thanks Guino. I have "most" of the stock nav parts (nav hood, screen, dvd-rom, nav buttons) however, I'm missing the all important and very expensive wiring harnesses. I did find the thread on how to get the open/close/tilt functionality using the board inside the nav hood. We'll see how it goes.

Ra_

Thanks Kimota. I imagine it will be as well. However, I have it laying around, and might as well test everything with it. I hope that by the time I install everything, I'll be able to get something more robust.


Thanks! It is the Mazdaspeed body kit, and has been lowered by Tein. The wheels are by Volks. It's going in the body shop this week to have some minor coloring tweaks. And that'll be it for exterior modifications (at least for now).

Ra

snowyslopes

Hi Guys,

I'm in the UK and have an RX-8 with the OEM Sat Nav installed. I'm also in the process of assembling a CarPC. I've been trying for weeks to get the PC to talk to the OEM screen, so far with out success. The best I've managed is to get 2 skinny images side by side. Does anyone know what the screen size, refresh rates, sync types etc of the inbuilt screen are? If not I'm going to have to replace the screen in the housing like Guino did.

Good luck with your installs guys.

Cheers

John

DigitalScream

Hey Snowyslopes
(I posted something earlier but I guess it got lost.)

I think there was some discussion on rx8club about the factory nav screen specs. I seem to recall someone coming up with a 30hz Hsync but I can't remember exactly. You should be able to search on the site and find the correct discussions

~DS

RedGTiVR6

Digital - your post was not lost, it's the fact that on this forum the first 5 posts of newbies are moderated, especially if they contain links...which yours did. In the future keep this in mind. Myself or another admin or one of the mods will be by soon enough to approve your post provided it doesn't include spam.

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snowyslopes

Thanks DS, I did have a look on RX8club but I must have missed it. I'll go and have another look.

Cheers

John

DigitalScream

Doh, forgot about that. Thanks for the reminder.

~DS

snowyslopes

Managed to find the post on rx8club. Says the settings should be 15KHz Horizontal and 30Hz Vertical Interlaced. Not sure if I can pursuade powerstrip and my Via on board graphics to do that - I'll have a go tomorrow.

Cheers

John

frollo

do you by chance still happen to have the link you mentioned ra? i have seen serveral posts about them all but nothing specific enough

Ra_

Sorry frollo, I prematurely sited this thread: http://www.rx8club.com/showthread.php?t=87146 . Which, as you know, replaces the stock board with a new one.

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