'03 Audi A4 - macmini install

Rocky388 · 12-27-2007, 10:24 PM

Well, today was day one and I figured I would post up some shots. Although I didn't work on it too long today, it was pretty productive.

For the people who may have read my other thread: my truck is now totaled, but at least on the bright side,I can carry over some of the same equipment (dc-dc psu, usb GPS reciever)

here's my first install with my truck: http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/work...rd-ranger.html

Now onto the audi:

This shot is before the tinted windows..the car is way too dirty to take a picture of now hahah

Rocky388 · 12-27-2007, 10:41 PM

now to start:

first pic: shot of the hardware - MacMini and Carnetix CNX-P1900 Ver. 2.2 DC-DC psu

second pic: cutouts in the glove compartment for the macmini and psu

third: test fitting the hardware in glove compartment

fourth: rear shot of the test fit

fifth: interior passenger side with the glove compartment removed. You can see the power wire for the carnetix coiled up in the back, it runs up to the battery, where it's temporarily coiled up.

sixth: Pretty much the same as the previous shot..just shows the headunit

Considering I didn't work on it too long today, I made pretty good progress. I ran the power wire for the psu, and made all the cutouts needed in the glove compartment.

Next, I have to come up with a way to secure both the macmini and the psu. I could bolt the psu down, but I'm not too sure about the macmini..I could weld up a bracket, but I'm sure there's a simplier solution. Any suggestions?

I mine as well throw this in too: My plan for a screen is to go with the liliputt 8" widescreen, or the new liliputt 7" that mp3 car offers. I'm undecided - again, any suggestions?

As for installing the screen: I just won an ebay auction for a broken audi headunit. I'm going to mold the screen into that. Being that the only way the screen will be secured into the dash is simply by pushing it in, I'm thinking of putting some security cable around the metal bar right next to the headunit (shown in picture 6) and around the chasis of the broken headunit with my screen with a lock. I work in a pretty rough area, so anything to at least slow 'em down isn't a bad idea at all.

But more importantly, I need some ideas on mounting the mac and psu. I'd like to knock that out tomorrow.

Rocky388 · 12-27-2007, 10:43 PM

Rocky388 · 01-01-2008, 10:24 PM

I drew up a quick diagram of the whole setup, just to lay things out and kind of follow.

The only thing i'm a little shady on is the external usb soundcard. It's one thing I haven't bought yet, and I'm looking for suggestions.

Also, I'm going to set the switched power on the carnetix to turn off the 12v rail (which will pretty much be just the screen) when the car is turned off, rather than turning off the 5v rail (the usb hub). When I turn the car off, I'm going to have the mac mini go into sleep. Are the usb devices going to still draw power while the computer is in sleep? Is this a concern? What should I do to avoid coming back to a dead battery?

As for progress - Today I started on the software side of things..I tried to at least. Being that I'm so familiar with XP, and that there's a much wider variety of software available for XP than OS X, I'm going to set up a dual boot, and just have the mac boot to windows.
I started by reading about boot camp. I saw that it was free.......until mac released their new OS - OS leopard. They took the free boot camp download off their site, because it comes with their new OS. So, in order to obtain boot camp and accomplish what I want, I'm going to have to buy leopard.
Also, I've also read that I need a copy of XP with service pack 2. My copy of XP does not include SP2, and it seems to be hit and miss with making a slipstream copy of XP with SP2 included. Which could turn out to be my next problem.

The only thing that really ****es me off about this is that the mac mini was bought after the release of leopard. If I had bought it off their website i believe it said it was shipping with their latest OS. However, this was bought at the store as a gift, and apparently did not come with leopard. Tomorrow I'm going to go to the store and see what can be done about this....probably not much, but I'll give it a shot.

justinwerden · 01-01-2008, 11:32 PM

Great schematic, thank you for taking the time to post it. I think I am ready to start my install of the mini too. Did you find idiosyncrasies to the install? What will you do about USB/Firewire ports not being readily available in the front?

Rocky388 · 01-04-2008, 07:47 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by justinwerden

Great schematic, thank you for taking the time to post it. I think I am ready to start my install of the mini too. Did you find idiosyncrasies to the install? What will you do about USB/Firewire ports not being readily available in the front?

Nice, so far I think it's a great computer to do an install with...seems to be going better then my other 2 attempts in my truck (first with a desktop computer than with a laptop). I really won't need any of the ports to be in the front..the computer will be connected to all the wires, than pushed back and secured into place.

I have a small update:
I went to the apple store the other day and explained my situation with not receiving the newer version of osX. They told me it should have been packaged in the box..being that it wasn't, i showed them my receipt, and they handed me a new copy of leopard. I was very impressed with the outcome of the situation and their help.

I proceeded to do a clean install of leopard, than install windows XP via bootcamp. The only major part about this was the fact that, as i mentioned before, my copy of XP doesn't have SP2. I made a slipstreamed copy of XP, which worked excellent. Than, I installed 'macdrive' a windows program that allows you to access, change, and move files on the mac partition from windows.

Next is to start installing more programs while I await the arrival of my screen.

btbe · 01-07-2008, 03:41 PM

For installing just Win XP you dont even need Bootcamp. Only for dual boot. You might also just throw you xp copy in the drive patition the whole hdd with ntfs and install windows...

The thing with the SP2 check out nLite. With nLite you can load your copy integrate SP2, drivers, etc. and throw stuff like the crappy search assistant and stuff out tweak some and burn a up to date lightweight copy of you windows to a cd... and be happy

I did a similar project on a friends car. but as it is not easy and quite expensive to get a carnetix for the mini, we just took a laptop car adapter for the power and a dual monoflop circuit for the auto power on/off. If you like I might post some pics, just don't wanted to hijack your thread...

PS: Nice install so far

Rocky388 · 01-07-2008, 04:15 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by btbe

For installing just Win XP you dont even need Bootcamp. Only for dual boot. You might also just throw you xp copy in the drive patition the whole hdd with ntfs and install windows...

The thing with the SP2 check out nLite. With nLite you can load your copy integrate SP2, drivers, etc. and throw stuff like the crappy search assistant and stuff out tweak some and burn a up to date lightweight copy of you windows to a cd... and be happy

I did a similar project on a friends car. but as it is not easy and quite expensive to get a carnetix for the mini, we just took a laptop car adapter for the power and a dual monoflop circuit for the auto power on/off. If you like I might post some pics, just don't wanted to hijack your thread...

PS: Nice install so far

Really? I was under the impression that the only way to get winXP on, is to have it setup as a dual boot, being that the BIOS' between mac and windows are different. Ideally, I would like to just have XP, the mac os is just taking up space. Nothing against osX, i'm just not familiar with it, and all the software I have is for XP.

I ended up making a slipstreamed copy of windows XP with SP2, which worked out great.

Post the pics! I can only benefit from them...I might pick up an idea or 2 ;-) haha.

btbe · 01-07-2008, 05:22 PM

Yes the BIOS is different... the mac has no BIOS. Newer macs use the EFI-Bootloader, which is kinda the new "BIOS". You can find more Information on this on Wikipedia. Installing Windows stand-alone is no problem as the new macs are intel based... you only need bootcamp to burn the driver-cd, but you should have this now... I love OS X and have a MacBook, but for a car-pc its no alternative because of the lack of a real navigation software. For a Multimedia only CarPC Front Row which comes with OS X would do a great job... but most people want navigation... back to topic, to install windows standalone, you should insert the install-cd press and hold the alt-key for boot device selection or c-key for directly booting from CD right after pressing the power button.

Here are some pics of the install we made ... quite simple and fast but works fine:

Some more pics can be found in my gallery!

Rocky388 · 01-07-2008, 09:40 PM

Hmm..now I don't know what to do if that's the case...haha. I have it setup now with an 80gig drive:
32 gigs alotted to the XP side with a fat32 partition (so that mac can access and change the files), with macdrive installed so i can access and change the mac files.
And the rest on the mac side, minus the 10 gigs that osX takes up.

Being that there's not much space on the XP side, I was going to put all my songs (about 20 - 30 gigs worth) on the mac side, and just access them via macdrive.

However, it'll probably be simplier to get rid of mac altogether and just install XP. All mac is doing for me is taking up 10 gigs worth of space.

I'll have to explore this option alittle further........

oldkenobi · 01-08-2008, 12:34 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by Rocky388

Hmm..now I don't know what to do if that's the case...haha. I have it setup now with an 80gig drive:
32 gigs alotted to the XP side with a fat32 partition (so that mac can access and change the files), with macdrive installed so i can access and change the mac files.
And the rest on the mac side, minus the 10 gigs that osX takes up.

Being that there's not much space on the XP side, I was going to put all my songs (about 20 - 30 gigs worth) on the mac side, and just access them via macdrive.

However, it'll probably be simplier to get rid of mac altogether and just install XP. All mac is doing for me is taking up 10 gigs worth of space.

I'll have to explore this option alittle further........

You dont need OSX installed, all you need leopard for now that the bootcamp beta is over is for the hardware drivers. Just boot from an XP disk and install like any other PC. Once installed all you need is the Leopard disk which has the drivers so you can get the hardware all working properly.

Rocky388 · 01-08-2008, 11:07 PM

Well, I went for it..I did a clean install of windows XP, formatted the drive in NTFS, getting rid of any mac files.......and it worked out great. Now my mac mini has just windows XP. Nice! Thanks for that tip guys..I think this will work out much better/simplier than the dualboot.

Still awaiting the arrival of my screen though. I ordered from digitalWW, since MP3car was out of stock at the time.....now I'm thinking DWW was out of stock also, just didn't have it posted being that it's taking some time. Hopefully it'll be here tomorrow..I ordered it about a week and a half ago.

sporty_drew · 01-09-2008, 03:04 PM

It's looking very nice. I've always been tempted to get a macmini.

Rocky388 · 01-14-2008, 10:49 PM

here's the next round of updates..

The screen never came from DWW..i ended up ordering from MP3 car late thursday and the screen came today (monday). It doesn't get much quicker than that.

the first one is a shot of what I'm working with..the Audi faceplate and the lilliput bezel

the second is just a shot of the 8" widescreen lcd taken apart..

Rocky388 · 01-14-2008, 10:54 PM

Pic 1: The whole setup plastic welded together. As you'll see later in this set of pics, being that the bottom edge is so thin, the heat warped it a bit. This is the first time I've tried plastic welding something...seems like it's pretty solid. I'm thinking about making up some ABS sludge and filling in the voids in the back also...just for some extra strength incase the plastic welding I did didn't fuse both pieces of plastic together in a spot or 2.

Pic 2 and 3: Shows how badly the bottom warped