Hey everyone. I've had this car pc sitting in a box for two years but due to work blah blah blah and never got around to it until now. I bought all this stuff planning to put it into my 'fun' car, but then I changed my mind and decided to put it into my daily driver. Also, there's new stuff out there now I'd rather put into my fun car. So, my focus went from 'make it look awesome and spend lots of money' to 'put it in with what I got'.
Also, I kinda went at this as a learning project, so there are some thing I could have improved on if I had taken the time. But oh well, I'll probably be tweaking this system more and more, then I'll move onto my fun car.
Computer:
Jetway 1.5 GHZ C7
512 MB RAM
250 GB 2.5 in hard drive
Creative Labs external usb sound card
Voompc-2 case
M2-ATX
GPS Reciever
2007 Transreflective 7" screen from mp3car.com (yeah, it costs a lot)
Windows XP SP3
Ride Runner w/ LSX VOID 3.3 skin
Streetdeck (just for back up)
Audio:
Power Akoustics BAMF 1200 4 channel amp
Stock speakers
Car:
2001 Ford Ranger Edge 4x4 with 177,xxx miles (she squeaks)
Here are the before and after pictures:
BEFORE:
There's a lot of room back there, but just enough that I couldn't really work in there to connect cables and such. Besides, I had a working Voompc-2 case to put everything in.
AFTER:
The bezel is from a Ford Explorer that I picked up at the local junkyard. There were some extra switches, so I grabbed them too.
I turned the rear defogger switch into an on/off switch for the computer. I also have the power LED from the computer running to the LED in the switch.
As for the rear window wiper selector, who knows? It's got 3 positions and a push button in it. Maybe I'll buy a Fusion Brain and play around with it.
Oh and it's being held up by some trim adhesive, which I know looks bad. I've got another case and bezel on the way. I'll learn how to fabricate then.
INSTALL:
I chose this amp because of its small size and flat top. But it doesn't have any external fuses! The manual says 25A x2 but I don't see them anywhere, inside or out. Kind of makes me worried, but we'll see.
Fits perfectly on the small space behind the seats.
I had some spare sheet metal, so I cut up two pieces and screwed them to the amp using the existing holes holding the top down on the amp.
VoomPC-2 case fitted on top of amp. I don't like this case btw. I couldn't find any of the connectors to add more wires for power to the screen and hub. I also need to run wires out for the power switch. So, I just popped open the DVD slot and ran everything out through the left. There's also a 4 port USB extension directly connected to the mother board sticking out.
External USB sound card. Although I'm no audio guru, this sure helped out a lot with the sound quality. I was running the on-board sound with some Y-splitter before, but, wow, this sure made a difference. The best way I can explain it is that it gives the music depth. Also, I have a pair of RCA's running to the speaker in the screen for complete surround sound, but the quality of that speaker sucks so I disconnected it.
I don't hibernate, so I haven't had any issues with it except that now I need a delay for the amp turn-on because I get speaker pop when the USB sound kicks in.
Speaker wires running to the radio harness in the dash. Also, I tapped the IGN wire from here.
I extended a molex connector from the M2-ATX to the front to power the screen and the USB Hub.
USB Hub with screen and GSP plugged in. 7 ports.
This is a pic of the back of the bezel after I had glued the screen to it.
This is the reason why you want to test out all your equipment when you get it!! I never connected the touchscreen to a computer until now and it had been two years after I had bought it. It was wayyy off target. After calibrating and buying a new screen overlay with no luck, I finally pinpointed it by swapping out the controller board. So I made a hole for the touchscreen wires to come out the back and used double sided tape to mount the controller board to the back of the screen.
Everything in place. There's a distribution block there too. It has the power and ground together in one.
Fired up!
Ride Runner with LSX VOID 3.3 skin
Conclusion:
So I guess that's it for a while. Next on the list is to re-do the bezel and make it nice. Also, I need to choose a GPS program to intergrate with Ride Runner.
Street Deck is nice and the GPS layout is good, but that's about it. Music play is average, and you can't really do anything else if the car is moving. Not really their fault, that's just the way the law is. Maybe someday I'll pay for the upgrade to Streedeck 2 just to have it and check it out then.
So far the longest I've ran it was four hours straight. I've had no heat issues with the amp, but I'm getting slow start up times during some of the hotter days.
Well, I guess that's about it. If I think of anything else I'll add it in.
Thanks to everyone on this site! I sure learned a lot!
-Tien
NEXT PROJECT:
2003 Honda S2000
Linear Mode
