2003 E46 BMW 3 Series Ci Coupe UK Install Complete - custom dash/RR skin - many pics!

lloydy · 02-20-2006, 10:42 PM

After a few months of learning by searching through these forums, other forums and Google, I've finally completed my carPC install on my 2003 E46 318Ci M-Sport.

First of all - the car:
Since October 2005 I have been the proud owner of a BMW 318Ci M-Sport (BTW: My name is Lloyd Cody, hence the C8DY L). Here are some pics:

These are the features I now have in-car:
- GPS Navigation
- MP3 / CD / WMA etc. music file player
- DVD player
- FM radio
- CD/DVD / MPG / AVI etc. video file player
- Digital Terrestrial (DVB-T) Freeview and Analogue television
- Internet browser and email facilities
- Games and utility applications

Here are some pics of my interior and boot (trunk):

These are pics looking into my boot from the rear seats with the rear seats folded down. This way have access to all my amps, sub bass box and carPC. The PC is vertical and is velcroed onto the side of the subwoofer. My amps are also velcroed to it. The velcro is very heavy duty and takes a huge effort to pull apart so it is very secure. This then gives my the opportunity to take individual items out if I need to. (I apologise for the ****e photos):

Next, these pics are of the interior of the car with my in dash screen. I have moved the AC controls down into where a storage bin once lived, removed my head unit and put in a Xenarc 7" touchscreen with custom built surround that I ordered from Germany (details below). The bezel surround is from Janus (MP3Car.com board member from Germany - email kenischi@gmx.de for further details):

This is the main screen you see after the PC has booted. I am using the RoadRunner front end software (which uses WinAmp) with my own skin. I plan to make release this skin for everyone when I have completely finished it!

This is the shutdown screen:

lloydy · 02-20-2006, 10:46 PM

This is the audio player (and with visualisation playing):

This is the On Screen Keyboard (OSK) for character input:

DVD Player:

GPS Navigation. For this I'm using iGuidance. I wanted to use Destinator 3 with Map Monkey but the maps have errors where I live so it wasn't possible. iGuidance looks much better IMO anyway - working on a TomTom set up atm:

Video player (playing an episode of Top Gear):

Web Browser. I connect to the internet via a bluetooth connection to my mobile, which uses GPRS:

Utilities screen (other applications). Includes settings, windows explorer and games etc:

My carPC is running WindowsXP Pro with a styled windows appearance to match my skin. This is so that when error / message dialogues appear, they look as though they are part of the skin:

I will hopefully have some much better pics at some point. I just took these quickly while I was in the mood to write this!

This is my PC specification:
- OPUS case and 120W PSU from MP3Car.com Store with onboard 5.1 sound
- 512MB RAM
- Via EPIA SP13000 Mobo
- 100GB laptop drive
- Avermedia AverTV Hybrid DVB-T/Analogue TV + FM Radio PCI card
- Belkin Bluetooth adapter
- Netgear WLAN USB dongle
- Logitech USB noise-reducing microphone (for when I get my phone integrated)
- IBUS serial interface in order to use my car's steering wheel controls
- HOLUX GR-213 USB GPS receiver
- Xenarc 7" touchscreen

I've also installed a handy USB port and reset button just below my AC controls (see pics above) just incase the PC freezes. The USB port has been VERY handy. I can plug in a mouse/keyboard for when I need to change settings etc.

The install took around 3 days after everything was ready to go in - this includes installing a subwoofer and amplifiers.

LEFT TO DO:
- Get the FM radio working properly
- sort out my slight alternator whine - I have a ground loop in my speaker set-up somewhere that needs eliminating
- Mount my tv aerial in the rear in order to get decent reception without obscuring the view
- mount my FM aerial to get decent reception without obscuring the view
- Complete my RoadRunner skin and release it officially
- Find some damn way of getting tomtom onto the PC!
- Get PhoneControl.Net working with my phone (P910i) so that I have my PC as handsfree
- complete my PC car security system - I'm working on a system to use the PC to be able to use webcams / mics / gps to capture and track criminals in the event the alarm has been triggered

SOON...
This is what I hope to write-up in the near future:
X (NOW COMPLETE) All my expenses to the penny (there were a lot of them!) SEE LATER IN THREAD
- Full write-up of the install
- Many more detailed pics
- My experiences with skinning and a download of the skin I have made
- Links to all the posts on this forum I used and found very helpful
- Alist of the problems I faced (and am facing) and their solutions

Feel free to ask any questions - I will help you to the best of my ability.

LLOYDY

xbi0s · 02-20-2006, 11:00 PM

Very VERY VERY nice setup my friend. Looks very OEM and very clean!!!

Escalade182 · 02-20-2006, 11:01 PM

beautiful car. beautiful instal. beautiful....everything. lol

lloydy · 02-20-2006, 11:05 PM

Thanks guys - that just put a huuuge grin on my face. Appreciate your comments!

LLOYDY

ramy_zohair · 02-20-2006, 11:07 PM

I want that skin

lovely setup

guizai · 02-20-2006, 11:39 PM

please do!! full details would be great, install looks perfect.

e39dream · 02-21-2006, 12:48 AM

this is a nice setup! one bimmer owner to another, can we tidy up the wiring in the boot? thats the only thing keeping this from being a perfect install!

lloydy · 02-21-2006, 01:07 AM

You are right about there been a mass of cables in the boot! However, there's not a lot more I can do:
- Most of the cables are going into the back of the PC - this I cannot avoid obviosly.
- The rest of the mess is just where some of the cables interconnecting the amplifiers to the PC. Some are too long for their purpose. Other than buying new (shorter) cables I also cannot avoid this (which I'm not prepared to do as I've spent enough already!)

I suppose I could cable-tie many of the cables so they look neater, though I don't want to do this just yet as I'm still unplugging and replugging things in all the time trying to improve the system (and find my bas**rd ground loop!).

Please bear in mind this is not seen in the actual boot. This is the "behind the scenes" wiring that you can only see if the seats are pulled down. The boot space itself is very tidy (well... as far as cables are concerned - junk is another thing!). I will try to get some pics of the actual boot space up as soon as I can.

LLOYDY

xtremak · 02-21-2006, 01:24 AM

Amazing work... Love the skin any chance or releasing the XP and Road Runner skins. Also, if you figure out a way to eliminate the speaker whine let me know. I have a similar problem with my install in my '01 E46 325i. Once again great work man...

CdRsKuLL · 02-21-2006, 02:45 AM

Nice job fella.. yeah I''m going to be installing a usb socket up front very soon as well.. I'm fed up of having to open my boot and put it in there. What gps software are you running there ?

CdR

dskias · 02-21-2006, 03:55 AM

Nice work lloydy! Congratulations! More photos and details would be great!Can you tell us more info about the i-bus? Which one did you buy? Where did you get it from and how did you connect it to the PC? My car also has steering wheel controls and I want my CarPC to use them.

LiquidKernel · 02-21-2006, 04:17 AM

Beautiful job! Definitely loving the skin, very clean, simple, yet looks intuitive.

0l33l · 02-21-2006, 04:47 AM

What kind of E46 is this? 325? 330? //m3? I see an //m badge on the back, but not the //m fenders up front.

lloydy · 02-21-2006, 05:21 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by xtremak

Amazing work... Love the skin any chance or releasing the XP and Road Runner skins. Also, if you figure out a way to eliminate the speaker whine let me know. I have a similar problem with my install in my '01 E46 325i. Once again great work man...

When I have the skin ready for release I will let you now how to change the Windows XP style. It is simply changing the colours of the Windows interface to the colours of the skin using the "Appearance" tab in Display Properties.

Quote: Originally Posted by CdRsKuLL

Nice job fella.. yeah I''m going to be installing a usb socket up front very soon as well.. I'm fed up of having to open my boot and put it in there. What gps software are you running there ?

This is simply iNAv's iGuidance. I'm not even using SKINbedder. I have the buttons of my skin mapped to the commands of iGuidance.

Quote: Originally Posted by 0l33l

What kind of E46 is this? 325? 330? //m3? I see an //m badge on the back, but not the //m fenders up front.

Ha ha. This is a 2.0Litre 2003 318Ci!! It is an M-Sport so came with that M badge at the back. I bought it like that - I reckon it looks much better than "318Ci". I know I only have a small engine but I'm a poor 21 yr old PhD student trying to pay for petrol and insurance in the UK! I get 38MPG on the motorways though which is lovely - got the looks and the economy without having a deisel!

I've completed my total expenditure excel sheet now. Turns out I paid a grand total of £2015.00 on the head. This includes my audio set-up (amplifiers and subwoofers etc.) and even the tools I bought - everything. Just thinking of a way to put the info in a post now as its a huge excel sheet!
I will be hopefully taking more pictures of the boot space etc soon (it's now daylight) so will get them up ASAP.

LLOYDY

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