andrewt

Hi all,

I finished up my carpc a little over a year ago and never bothered to post it up. Here are the specs:

PC components:
AOpen miniPC M945-VX (1.7 Ghz Intel Core Solo, 1 GB RAM, 80 GB HD)
Xenarc 700TSV 7" touchscreen monitor
Startup/shutdown controller
D-link 5 port USB hub underneath ashtray, USB port installed in front of shifter (not shown)

Audio components:
Alpine DVA-9860 head unit installed in glove compartment
Alpine PXA-501 sound processor
Xtant 603x amplifier
JL Audio 10W3 subwoofer
stock front speakers for now, rear speakers disconnected

The optical out on the onboard sound card is connected to the PXA sound processor (has an optical in) which is connected to the amp by RCA's. The PXA is controlled by the head unit for volume, time correction, a parametric equalizer, a graphic equalizer, etc. The PXA is capable of 5.1 sound, but sadly my amp is not, so there's room for improvement. It sounds pretty good as it is...I originally had the line out connected directly to the amp by means of a headphone jack->RCA converter, and it sounded like crap. I probably could have improved the sound by just going with an external sound card, but as you can see I went for the go for broke method.

I didn't take any pics of the PC itself, but it is mounted underneath the passenger seat.

All the work you see here was done by me and a good friend of mine. Lots of fun times. The first time we booted up the computer in the car was at 4:30am after 14+ hours of working. The head unit and sound processor was added about a 2 months after that first boot up, and the box was added less than a year after that.

Here are the pics. Forgive the crappy quality, I am not a photographer by any means.
Monitor with custom bezel


Head unit installed in the glove compartment

Amp and sub trunk setup. I'm not 100% done yet. In the next couple pics you'll see the vinyl is pulling up on various edges. The glue apparently isn't good enough to deal with 120+ degree in car temps when it sits outside all day. It's a ported box that sounds a million times better than the $25 off the shelf plywood box i was using.


Here's the view of the inside of the box from the rear seat. It's my "Fast" sitting inside the box behind a plexiglass window.

Here's what it looks like at night.


If you guys aren't familiar with what a "Fast" is, watch these commercials:
VW sent everyone a little rubber Fast when you bought a GTI. It wasn't doing me any good sitting on my desk so I decided to make use of it.

Here's the car. Don't have any great pics of it, this is one from a show a month ago.


Open to any comments, criticism, questions, etc.

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azhagan

Hey I would love to see where you mounted the guts, because I have an MKV GTI as well and am looking at putting a car pc in. Also did you fabricate the bezel yourself?

eric_barcus

nice install, that bezel looks shiny, does it have alot of glare?

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Autockr989

I would suggest fabricating the bezel of what we existing have around the headunit to the casing of the monitor. That's what I did. See link in my sig.

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azhagan

Interesting...

andrewt

while that's one way to do it, i wanted my carpc to be 100% reversible, and i didn't want to deal with painting that entire panel to match the rest of the interior. there's probably no way to get a perfect match, so i didn't want to go that route.

i went and bought a kit for our car that fits a single or double din head unit into the space of the head unit. looks like this:

i then took the front bezel of the xenarc screen and cut up both the bezel and the dash kit (the top piece in the picture only) to fit them together. epoxy together, fill with bondo, sand sand sand, primer, and paint. sorry, i dont have any progress pics. it mounts just like the stock head unit, including the mounting screws and everything.

however, the dash kit really fit like *** (gaps between the dash kit and the dash itself), so i ended up just custom fitting it to the dash using bondo. there's one kit that's supposed to fit better, but i can't recall the brand of it.

re: the guts of the system. the startup/shutdown controller and all the wiring is shoved behind the screen itself. the computer is underneath the passenger seat, so all the wiring runs down behind the dash, down the center console, and out of underneath the carpet below the seat.

as for the glare, the paint is actually a flat black paint, so there's no glare from the sun at all. its just the interior lights shining directly on it in a dark garage making it look worse than it is.

Autockr989

Where you located. East coast? You going to Waterfest? I'd like to check out the set-up.

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andrewt

i'm in texas. i wish i could go to waterfest, it sounds like it'd be a blast.

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azhagan

I want to make this year my first at Waterfest.

craigblues

Hi,

How did you mount your radio in the glove box?

Craig.

andrewt

i dont know if you have a GTI or not, but the MkV GTI has a little shelf in the glove compartment to hold the owner's manual. i just cut that shelf out, and made two pieces of metal that fit the opening to cover the gaps on either side of the head unit. its held in place behind the glove compartment by bolting the head unit to a heavy wire mesh that is fiberglassed to the side of the shelf. its a little hard to describe, and i don't have any pics of the progress. needless to say, it just took some creative thinking. it aint pretty behind the head unit, but it works and it is really secure.

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