flyswatta

I've been a long-time DIY PVR enthusiast and have done about as much as I'd like with my [whole-house ] PVR. I stumbled across the 'carputer' concept and it immediately appealed to me. Being somewhat, uh, budget constrained, I decided to figure out what features I wanted, and what it would cost me to buy an after-market product before trying to build it myself.

1. GPS
2. Live Traffic
3. Play mp3's
4. play video
5. Integrate my Sirius radio (play/record)
6. GPS is somewhat portable
7. No modifications to the car

Using the mp3car store for the prices, the Stage 4 package comes to $1,000! (I consider having the LCD as part of a complete package).

Since I have a bunch of spare computer parts, I figured I'd give it a go for as cheap as possible.

I had an old laptop and a 150 watt power inverter to donate to the cause, I started looking for a GPS. A work associate had Streets & Trips w/ a GPS receiver and wasn't using it anymore (he won a car navigation GPS in a raffle). He gave me Streets & Trips in exchange for buying him lunch someday.

I got it all hooked up just in time for a family trip out to visit my Dad in New Mexico. We tested the laptop/GPS system on the way out and back and it worked pretty well - my son liked the 'Microsoft Anna' voice and named the system "Sally".

And so was born Sally 1.0.

I had an old 5" LCD TV from a refurbished VCR-in-a-bag car system that was retired a year or so ago when we bought a portable DVD player for the kids. Getting rid of the tapes saved a LOT of car space . The LCD TV had only composite inputs but had a 12v car adapter.

I invested $5 into an svhs to composite adapter and $3 on a 12v splitter, and was able to get the LCD TV workiing! I quickly noticed that the video was crappy - I could make out the street shapes but couldn't read the street names - it was obviously TV resolution - and messing around with the keyboard on the laptop just sucked. I need a touchscreen with VGA input!

I just located a 9" Pro Vision touch screen on the classifieds part of this site for $92 (w/ shipping) and am waiting for it to arrive.

My thoughts are to rig up some sort of flex pipe (similar to the Sirius radio flex mount that I bought) to attach the LCD to it. I'd mount the pipe to a 1x6x? board and set it on the floorboard on the passenger side under the floor mat. I'd also mount my Sirius radio on the board. I'm hoping that having it under the floor mat will prevent it from sliding around, I may have to get creative in order to anchor it.

flyswatta

Hardware:
Compaq Presario 900 - 1.5 GHz AMD, 256 MB Ram, 25 GB HDD
150 Watt power inverter
5" LCD TV (w/ 12 vdc adapter)
Pharos 500 GPS receiver
Wireless network adapter - Belkin USB 802.11g
9" ProVision Touchscreen LCD
Audio-out to tape deck adapter
Sirius Stratus w/ wired FM modulator

Software:
Microsoft Streets & Trips
RoadRunner
Google Earth 4 (free edition)
NetStumber
EarthStumbler
Geepeyes

Evaluate:
Google Earth Voyager
WinAmp line-in plugin
Cell phone stuff

Project out of pocket expenses (stuff I had to buy):
SVHS --> composite adapter - Altex : $3.99
ProVision LCD Touchscreen - mp3car.com classifieds: $92 (shipped)
Automotive inline power tap (box) - autozone : $2.99
Microsoft Streets & Trips: TBD - (lunch for co-worker)
PCMCIA USB 2.0 4 port adapter - ebay : $13.98 (shipped)

Total out of pocket: $112.96

Stuff to do:
- Figure out how to turn on laptop without opening it up. Maybe buy the gizmo from these forums, or just wire a remote switch.
- figure out RoadRunner or eval other frontends. It seemed to be running really slow today, maybe using too many resources?
- Can't get audio out with WinAmp
- Get google earth local maps cached (Google Earth Voyager?) for use with EarthBridge
- Get skins working
- Get geepeyes working
- get a virtual com port software working

flyswatta

I received the ProVision LCD Touchscreen yesterday and immediately opened it. It was advertised as 'new in box' but it had been opened before. That's okay, I was expecting it. It didn't have any power adapters, just a +12 volt and a ground wire.

I wanted to play with it in my office so I grabbed a 12 volt adapter out of my "adapters that I don't know what they go to anymore box", separated the cables, and stripped off 1/4 " of insulation on each wire. I then wrapped the wire from the LCD around the exposed adapter wires - and held my breath when I plugged the adapter into the power strip. It started up !!

After messing with the included mounting stands for about 1/2 hour, I finally figured it out I wanted to use my existing satellite radio mount and played around with various ways to connect it. After digging through bolts for a hour I finally settled on using a screw from a toilet mounting kit - surprisingly it fit quite well

I discovered that the power connectors behind some "blanks" on the console bezel are live - and wired to 12 vdc controlled by the ignition . I wired it up and ran it around the inside of the bezel and out the bottom so the alternate video inputs are accessible. I may run it all behind the dash, but it's okay for now.

I tried it all out this morning it works pretty well - it'll take some time to get used to the touchscreen.

Not sure yet what I'm going to do with my satellite radio - I might buy another flex mount just for it - I have to figure out where the radio will fit in, though.

Anyway, I have ordered a PCMCIA USB adapter since everything seems to use USB these days.

flyswatta

Here are some pics!

Attached Images

   

rdholtz

Yep, that's the mark of a tinkerer -- a box of this and a box of that, taken from previous projects and salvaged from dead stuff. Pack Rat. But it saves lotsa trips to the hardware store or Home Depot or Radio Shack.

Nice improvising.

__________________
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If just enough is really good, then too much ought to be perfect.

2006 Scion xB -- Worklog at http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/work...res-links.html
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flyswatta

Hey, thanks! Now if I coulda only found that box inline voltage taps that I KNOW is the garage somewhere....