wkolodny

Well based upon the recommendations of others I went ahead and purchased and installed the USB version of Radio Xtreme. I had tried using a D-link USB radio which I would rate a D- in terms of overall performance. It had miserable sensitivity and reception.

I ditched the head unit so that I could install my screen in my dash and was without a radio. I was hoping that the Radio Xtreme unit would help fill in the missing part of my CAR PC setup.

I ordered it from the only place it is available (HERE) and it arrived in about 2 and a half weeks. It was shoddily packaged. Brown paper wrapped around the retail box which was slightly squashed. Upon removing the unit from the box I noticed a rattling noise coming from inside the sealed Radio Unit.



I saw no way of obvious was of opening it. It is either snapped or glued together and I didnt feel like breaking it open or going through the hastle of shipping it back to singapore.

I am guessing some plastic snaps holding the cable in place had broken so I bit the bullet and installed the drivers and then connected it to my PC via the USB extension cable it came with. The LED didnt light and the PC didn't see the unit. I figured it was broken but decided to toss the extender and plug the USB connector directly into the PC. That fixed the problem. After that, the installation was straightforward.

The unit includes a configurable IR remote. It would come in handy if I wanted to allow someone to control frodoplayer remotely. I have a touchscreen and Griffin Powermate so I wont bother with it.

The unit comes with a Bipolar antenna designed for home use:


It works only marginally well in a mobile environment. I went ahead and wired up a connector going from the mini audio plug to the external car antenna. Reception is considerably better than the D-Link USB but I only receive half of the stations I used to with get with my old head unit. There is also an extremely noticable whine coming from the engine when I accelerate. I have tried every conceivable combination of wiring between the mini plug and the various antennas I have lying around. The best reception I get is with the external antenna.

I am using frodoplayer as the interface to Radio Xtreme and it works reasonably well. I just wish it had a seek function.

One other very annoying issue I have had is that sometimes when I exit the Frodo Radio screen the Radiator program does not Mute the MIC-IN. There is an option in radiator that is supposed to mute the audio on exit:


This causes the annoying engine whine to bleed over when I am playing MP3's. I have to manually go into the control panel and mute it.

I would have to give Radio Xtreme a grade C overall. It is alot better than D-Link but still no where near as good as a real receiver. It is better than no radio at all. I may have to bring back the head unit though.

__________________
Don't Fear The Gurkey
Click here to check out My Setup

MP3Car.com

 

wkolodny

Ordered an OBD II interface cable from OBD Diagnostics. Quick and painless. Paid $88 via PayPal and got it in 3 days via USPS mail.

Installation was straightforward. Only gotcha I can warn you about is that it introduced an even louder thump when my sub's amp turns on. Gotta try one of those ground loop isolators.

I like the software from the site. Very Car PC/Touch Screen friendly. Here are some pics of the install:

Here is the box:


Connector fit plug perfectly:


Nice big fonts for displaying information:


And of course cool analog gauges:


Let me know what you think.

__________________
Don't Fear The Gurkey
Click here to check out My Setup

samc

does that obd II scanner read every code off the ecu?
I know some scanners won't pick up all the codes.

__________________
Mine needs to be updated.

wkolodny

As far as I can tell from this screen capture off of my pc it supports most of the measurable items:



The gauges that dont have white numbers around them don't seem to be supported by my explorer:



As you can see everything that is not greyed out is supported:




Only kind of wierd thing is the Fuel Sys messages. It doesnt measure it directly but rather by measuring the O2 sensor. Can anybody explain how it does that?

__________________
Don't Fear The Gurkey
Click here to check out My Setup

wkolodny

A member from the sporttrac website provided me with this breakdown if anyone is curious about what all of those readings mean:

OK, all the stuff on top in the Gray window is doing nothing more than "Monitoring" or reading the various sensors. It is these sensors that the ECM/CM reads and determines actions it needs to tell other components based on the information it gathers from the various sensors.

The Intake Guage area is monitoring the Intake Vacuum, as in the vacuum lines. It is reading the Air Charge Temp, (In take air temperature), and the Mass Flow Sensor.

Throttle Position is reading the location of the TPS which is in theory how far you have the fuel pedal pushed down.

Fuel Pressure, exactly that.

Fuel Trims are your Oxygen Sensors. Long term is how much they do over a long period of time (minutes to weeks depending on how well things are running). Short Term is what is happening right now.

Open and Closed loop. Closed loop, the thermostat is open and engine is up to temp.

Hope this helps

__________________
Don't Fear The Gurkey
Click here to check out My Setup

archimense

How do you like your iFree keyboard? I have heard some reviews talking about connection problems missing keystrokes and that the pointing device wasn't very good.

wkolodny

I have had very few problems with this keyboard except for the battery going dead. (My bad cause I had thrown it under the back seat and a key was pushed down)

I would highly recommend it to anyone looking for a compact keyboard/mouse combo that is RF wireless. That is a big advantage over the IR keyboards that require line of sight. The trackball pointer is very responsive and easy to use and I havent experienced the issue of missing keystrokes.

Here is a link to a more in depth review:
http://www.overclockersclub.com/revi...sskeyboard.php

That review is for the PS2 connected keyboard but my base unit has a USB connection to PC and doesnt require external power.

BTW these are hard to find. You'll see them come up on ebay every once and a while. There is a canadian website too: http://www.canadianpc.com/productdet...S&StockNo=1498

If you are looking for another alternative I also own an AVCAST PC Caster which is very cool. I use it for my home theatre PC. It has a built in mouse and a range of up to 100 feet. You'll see them come up on ebay once and a while too. Here is one that sold recently: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...=WDVW&tc=photo

You can get more info on it at http://crossbarmedia.com/html/pccaster_kit.html

Hope this helps.

__________________
Don't Fear The Gurkey
Click here to check out My Setup

Yuriy

LOL! I love your security system!

You know, this is crazy You can actually connect to somebody via the wi-fi (granting they also have a computer in their car) somewhere on the highway Now that's what I call hi-speed P2P file sharing!

__________________
00 Saturn SL2, boosted @ 8 psi - CarDomain
Newest install - my quickest ever
My 2nd carputer - b4 I broke the touchscreen
My very first carputer - voted the most ghetto

MP3Car.com

 

TheForce02

i am VERY interested in what you have done, because of you and FoxGuy2001 i think that i might be doing this to my 2002 ranger!!!
do you think that i would be possible to built something like this for me and i could install it? any ideas on pricing? if you have any advice or anything you can e-mail me at jahandzion@hotmail.com
THANK you very much for showing me what is possible on my truck!!!

Jacob

wkolodny

No problem. I want to help others out because I learned a lot from others on this site. Gotta warn you that this stuff can be addictive. Just when you think you've got it just right something will come along that makes you want to change it again.

On that note, I have discovered that there are times when I do not want the ITPS to shut down my PC or that I wanted to turn the PC on without turning the ignition to the accessory position.

I have an idea in my head for an ITPS override switch that will do 2 things. First it will break the connection (A) going to the PC power button and then it will throw a connection (B) from the Non-switched 12v going into my ITPS to the switched 12v lead coming out of the ITPS.

In theory, this should prevent the ITPS from pulsing the power button and also continue to provide power after the ITPS has cut the switched power lead off.

I just dont know if there will be an issue when the unswitched 12v and the switched 12v leads are connected together. Does anyone see a problem with this? Am I going to blow up my ITPS?

New Setup:

__________________
Don't Fear The Gurkey
Click here to check out My Setup

wkolodny

Well I guess no one has tried to set up an ITPS with this configuration so i'll be the guinea pig. I dont think there should be an issue cause the 12v all comes from the same place. Hopefully it wont feedback into the ITPS from the output side. I'll post my results later. Hopefully it wont be a picture of a smoking ITPS.

Stop me now if you think this is a bad idea.

__________________
Don't Fear The Gurkey
Click here to check out My Setup

Yuriy

The ground loop isolator is good, but it will get rid of only half the noise..

__________________
00 Saturn SL2, boosted @ 8 psi - CarDomain
Newest install - my quickest ever
My 2nd carputer - b4 I broke the touchscreen
My very first carputer - voted the most ghetto

wkolodny

Thanks to the guys in this thread. They have solved my problem. Here is the diagram MikeH made of how it will work:

__________________
Don't Fear The Gurkey
Click here to check out My Setup

wkolodny

Decided to add an LED to indicate when the ITPS override mode is active. I don't want to screw up and let my battery drain down.

The circuit will look like this:

__________________
Don't Fear The Gurkey
Click here to check out My Setup

wkolodny

Well I havent had time to add the ITPS override switch yet but I have an update for the Radio Xtreme:


I decided to go ahead and pick up an FM amplifier in my search for better radio reception. I was told on another thread not to bother because it wouldnt make much difference but I went ahead and bought this 20db amp from buy.com anyway. It was pretty cheap. Only 16 dollars shipped. The amp that arrived looks nothing like the picture.

It was easy to install. I just plugged car antenna plug into the amp and the plug that came out of the amp into my jury rigged Radio Xtreme connector. I then wired the red lead to 12v switched.


Not much in the way of controls. Just one big power button on the front and a red LED.



Here is the top side of it.



My results were great in terms of receiving previously inaudible stations. Go to this URL for a little audio visual demo:
http://members.cox.net/wkolodny/demo.htm

You will hear some garbled noise and then I press the power button. Pretty cool. Stations that had a constant amount of static became much clearer. Overall it makes for a much better experience in this regard.

The downside is that it had little to no affect on stations that I already received reasonably well. There are still random bits of static that have not gone away. Dont get me wrong though because I am much happier now that I can use the radio for most of the stations I used to get on my head unit.

Overall with the 20DB amp I would now give the Radio Xtreme a B- . I highly recommend this amp to anyone who wants to receive more stations.

__________________
Don't Fear The Gurkey
Click here to check out My Setup

MP3Car.com