Hello Everyone. Just another New Person.

wildfire20_00 · 09-18-2007, 10:59 AM

Hello everyone. First I have to say that you guys have a nice place going on here. I spent alot of my freetime (What little I have) surfing around the forums and been getting some great ideas. My thanks to everyone who participates in the forums making this place great.

Now down to why I decided to join in on the game. About a year ago I left the USN (after 6 long years). I was an Aviation Electrician. Well, lets say that slowly I been losing all my knowledge and decided that I needed to get back into it. I also just bought a 2001 Trans AM WS6. I decided that building a car pc would be a great way to rewelcome myself to the world of electronics.

Just to introduce my idea and goals, I am going to show what I got planned right here and definitely would like everyones ideas and suggestions as well. After I get my plan more concrete I am definitely going to start a worklog and go from there.

Rough Diagram (I drew this up at work with MS Paint when I was bored one night)

Sorry, got a little blurry after the resize

My first plan is to create a trim to house the Touchscreen in the dash of my car (Many thanks to Curiosity, your guide gave me alot of ideas and I hope mine turns out half as nice as yours)

This is a list of items that I have prety much decided on for now and will add to later.

LCD: Liliput 7' Touchscreen. I found a model that is a little wider and not as tall that will make the fabrication of a bezel a little easier when i get started.
http://cgi.ebay.com/Lilliput-7-NEW-T...QQcmdZViewItem

Motherboard: None really picked but will be Mini-ITX due to the size since its going in my dash behind the LCD.

RAM: just a 512 stick should be plenty

Hard Drive: 40 Gig Laptop HD (May upgrade later)

Sound: A soundblaster live card will fill my one PCI slot and i will use that to send the signal to my two amps.

GPS: Will have GPS but have not researched it to much yet (Least of my worries).

DVD: I will probably end up getting this and mount it in the glove box (Since its powered by USB)
http://cgi.ebay.com/External-Slot-Lo...QQcmdZViewItem

FM: This is looking very promising if combined with the ant. mod. (Thank you BjBlaster and the others who researched this item and topic)
http://www.silabs.com/tgwWebApp/publ...USBFMRadio.htm

Network: I will definitely run wireless so I can communicate with my home pc network. I havn't researched it fully but will probably run a wireless off of a USB jack and mount an external ant. somewhere.

Front End: Definitely RoadRunner. I been playing with it on my home PC and it is unbelieveable and with all the work other have done to make it so universal.

I am sure I forgot somethings that I have been pondering but I will stop now before this becomes a novel. The only other thing is that since my Car is a Trans Am, I am going to be doing some odds and ends to the interior during this project to make it simular to KITT. I am going to play with some voice recognition software and add this little guy in there for looks. Right now I am planning to place it where the traction control switch is and I believe I will still have room to have the traction control there with a little work.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Knight-Rider-MIN...QQcmdZViewItem

Ill stop now

thanks again everyone. (I'll add pics of the project car if anyone would like to see my new toy).

wildfire20_00 · 09-18-2007, 03:45 PM

I did forget to mention a couple things,

I also plan on getting a bluetooth adapter for it to automatically connect to my cell phone when I am in the car. I know all the bugs are not worked out of it yet but from what I hear, there is an app that works pretty well with the Palm Treos so I could work it for true hands free phone and also light internet surfing.

I also plan on getting a OBDII adapter to connect it up so I can see what my car is doing (What makes my Bird play so hard). I probably will spend the extra cash and get the HP tuner module which would also allow me to tweak a few of the sensors on the car. I am going to be doing some upgrades to the car and being able to change the settings myself will be alot cheaper than having a dealership do it for me.

I know I have big dreams for this machine. With the little time I do have (being full time work and full time College) i am sure I won't be finishing this project for a long time........

DodgeCummins · 09-18-2007, 08:12 PM

I would like to say, congrats on the hobby...thanks for searching and reading...and thanks for trying software for yourself to see if it fits your needs!