2005 Volkswagen GTI - Page 6

kbyrd · 10-25-2005, 10:20 AM

First off, no pictures (yet). Sorry. The only thing pic I would add would be a shot of the LCD installed in my dash.

After my troubles with getting an LCD mounted in the TMZ bezel without breaking it. I bought a Lilliput locally from www.case-mod.com. When you order from their website, they give you the option to pick it up at there store in San Jose. I did that last night, tested the screen, took it apart to mount it in my sawed-off tmz bezel, and solder some power wires on it. I had planned to just plug in a spare DC power plug I had already soldered onto some wires running to my dash from my PSU. But, the stock power plug does NOT fit on the LCD when it's in the TMZ chassis. So, more soldering practice for me. I did a good job, followed the instructions at: http://www.mechatroniks.com/wrx/lili-diy.html

In any case, the LCD is mounted in my dash, and everything is hooked up and working. The mounting is a hack. It's not secured but wedged in with packing foam. I'll take pics this weekend.

Version 0.9 is alive!

JorisC · 10-26-2005, 12:08 PM

Great install,

I've also an mkIV Golf but I've run the cables through the center console, see link below.

kbyrd · 11-04-2005, 12:23 AM

LCD pics

That's the Mechatroniks WRX bezel (you can buy it at the mp3car.com store). I cut off the back couple of inches, mounted the screen upside down and wedged the whole thing in. Theres a plastic tab on the back of the radio cage, the "bottom" of the TMZ chassis is wedged over it. It's been "installed" almost three weeks and it doesn't move. Notice the gaps on all around. I think the whole thing looks like ***. But, having the pc running is so much better than not. I'm really waiting on R32 JUhl's piece.

On a different note: I've decided to take a calculated risk and use S3 standby (suspend to RAM) pretty much all the time. I know there's danger of battery drain and all that. But I did some testing (see this thread for the complete story).

(These numbers may not apply to anyone else, YMMV)
- My VW has a 60 amp hour battery
- With the PC in suspend (I turned off as much as I could in the BIOS), the whole car is drawing about 180 milliamps. I measured at the battery.
- Forgetting the reality of a lead acid battery, that gives me about 13 days of time before I completely discharge my battery.

Now back to reality. I can do no more than half that with really damaging my battery, and the M1-ATX will cut out when the battery hits 11V anyway. So, I feel a safe guestimate is 4 days. I drive the car daily. Sometimes not at all on the weekends. I'm going to install a kill switch that cuts power to the M1-ATX. I'll flip it when I'm leaving the car for more than a day. Resume from standby rocks.

Finally, I installed a Buffalo PCI wifi card. It's not the best, but it's really low profile and it has an external antenna connector. The real solution is a USB or ethernet client like a Engenius CB3 (200mW transmit power). Those take external 12V of power, so it would complicate my setup a bit. But I need an excuse to learn about wiring relays anyway. So I might do that. In the meantime, I'm getting a file sync proccess in place, and shaking out bugs in Centrafuse 1.5.

0l33l · 11-04-2005, 12:49 AM

The m1-atx has flashable firmware. Maybe you could hack that to get it to shutdown at around 11.5v, so that a kill switch would not be necessary at all

kbyrd · 11-04-2005, 08:54 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by 0l33l

The m1-atx has flashable firmware. Maybe you could hack that to get it to shutdown at around 11.5v, so that a kill switch would not be necessary at all

Damn you putting ideas in my head! I'm under the impression that 11v is safe. Safe = I could still start my car and my battery isn't totally worthless.

Cris · 11-04-2005, 09:47 AM

Opus is supposed to have that feature, but it always stops the pc when it's too late...

kbyrd · 11-04-2005, 10:12 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by Cris

Opus is supposed to have that feature, but it always stops the pc when it's too late...

"which" feature? Changeable voltage cutoff point? The M1-ATX cuts out at 11V already, 0l33l was just saying I should change the point.

0l33l · 11-04-2005, 02:33 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by kbyrd

Damn you putting ideas in my head! I'm under the impression that 11v is safe. Safe = I could still start my car and my battery isn't totally worthless.

New idea: have voice recognition...

*shameless self plug*

Quote: Originally Posted by kbyrd

"which" feature? Changeable voltage cutoff point? The M1-ATX cuts out at 11V already, 0l33l was just saying I should change the point.

Yeh... I guess 11v is ok, but I'd do it at around 11.5v. Would probably be better for the batter IMO.

john94587 · 11-09-2005, 09:20 PM

Great Info. Very informative. I'm in the Bay Area too and in process of building my CarPC. I'm going the TMZ Bezel option too. Any help would be great.

kbyrd · 11-13-2005, 01:33 AM

...I smoke my m1-atx (thread is here).

I haven't posted much here lately, I've been busy with "the monsoon box"

I tested a prototype and it sounded great. I have yet to verify whether the monsoon head unit actually varies both the + and the - lines (probably balanced) or just the + lines. In any case this gets us closer.

While building a relay to control power to this monsoon box, I smoked my m1-atx. Lame. I had planned to get GPS working since my BU-353 arrived. Oh well , at least I didn't burn my car.

I met john94587 in person on Friday. He thought he had a problem with his Lilli 629, it turns out the 629 just has some diffuse anti-glare touch-screen and my 619 is shiny. My 619 looks brighter and sharper as long as there's not much light to pickup (overcast days suck). His looks a little fuzzy, but the anti-glare works well. I wish I could live with each for a while. Meeting him made we wish we had a Norcal meet.

Oh, I forgot to mention this, I got a buffalo PCI wifi card. It works fine. I've only used it in the garage. Eventually I'll get some senao/engenius stuff and a 24"-ish antenna.

kbyrd · 11-15-2005, 09:04 AM

I "met" WebDog over IM on Monday, we worked this all out together. I "finished" the "monsoon box". I scraped the "6V on all three conductors" circuit. Something about the diodes didn't let the monsoon amp turn off, I think it needs a clear path to ground thru the regulator. So, I'm using this:

Code:

Put a ground loop isolator between the source and
the monsoon amp, on the monsoon amp side,  inject 5V-6V
to the common ground audio wires.

I use a relay for mine. If you do this, be sure that your relay makes/breaks the positive connection to the regulator. If you break the ground, the 6V will go away but the amp will stay on.

So, I'm still waiting to here from mini-box about my smoked m1-atx. I know exactly what I did now, I reversed polarity to a relay which had a protection diode attached. Doing this creates a short in the control lines, which was being supplied by the 12V rail on my m1-atx. I expected it to blow it's 10A fuse, but I guess that just protects the input side. Zip-Lock confirmed the other rails are have output protection, but not that 12V, my luck.

Finally, I get an IM from a long lost co-worker/friend yesterday. He's got a GTI like me and is considering a car stereo upgrade. Apparently his google searches kept turning up my posts on this forum. Wierd.

I'm off to delve into the world of GPS. Here's a newbie question I wouldn't post in the forums, but this is my worklog so it's ok here: I'm going to look at the major GPS software packages, I want to try them out first. I use centrafuse, so I'm probably looking at Destinator. Can I try it before buying? Even with just a crappy *** map? How about the other packages out there? Is there some limited trial where I can at least try and use it in my car setup to see if I like it?

kbyrd · 11-17-2005, 10:06 AM

I bought a replacement m1-atx yesterday, john94587 suggested mitxpc.com as a local (They're in Fremont, CA) source for them. They were nice and I had the PSU a few hours after I ordered it. I'll add them to my list of "local places to feed my impatience."

Hooked everything up, checked and double checked polarity going into my relay control lines, fired it up. No noise at all! Perfect. Now, if I can figure out a more respectable screen mounting I'll close this worklog and open a "show off your project" thread.

WebDog · 11-17-2005, 11:24 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by kbyrd

I bought a replacement m1-atx yesterday, john94587 suggested mitxpc.com as a local (They're in Fremont, CA) source for them. They were nice and I had the PSU a few hours after I ordered it. I'll add them to my list of "local places to feed my impatience."

Hooked everything up, checked and double checked polarity going into my relay control lines, fired it up. No noise at all! Perfect. Now, if I can figure out a more respectable screen mounting I'll close this worklog and open a "show off your project" thread.

Cool! good news.

I'm going to send the dimensions to the member thats going to do the cad for the bezel tonight. Once i get that back from him im going to get a aluminium mold made. I think i have figured out how to mount the bezel to the radio cage.. .

john94587 · 11-18-2005, 04:07 AM

Glad to hear you got car working again. Let me know if you need gps softwares. It seems iguidance seems to be the best for the United States. Iguidance is part of iNav. iNav makes iGuidance, Socket, and Routis. They are all seems the same but sold under different name. I'm in the process of getting iGuidance 2.1. I'll let you know soon.

Bugbyte · 11-19-2005, 11:09 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by kbyrd

I'm going to look at the major GPS software packages, I want to try them out first. I use centrafuse, so I'm probably looking at Destinator. Can I try it before buying? Even with just a crappy *** map? How about the other packages out there? Is there some limited trial where I can at least try and use it in my car setup to see if I like it?

I don't think there are any trial versions out there. I've seen this asked before and don't think there were any.

User Name		Remember Me?
Password