2005 Volkswagen GTI - Page 7

kbyrd · 11-21-2005, 01:00 PM

I painted my WRX bezel. It looks much better (pics later) but still not a great fit. I painted it with Rustoleum black primer and flat black automobile paint. It's a good color/texture match. It's good enough that I'll wait for one of the following:
1) R32 Juhl's faceplate.
2) Convince Webdog to make/sell me one like his.
3) Get judoGTI's "Additional VW bezel for TMZ" made at a machine shop (or by a friendly forum member?)
4) Make my own solution.

For some reason I'm resisting #4, I've been ok with doing everything else so far, just not this. Dunno why. Eventually I'll fix it.

So, the immediate things to do are to skinbedder iGuidance into Centrafuse, a find a good mounting place for the gps mouse.

kbyrd · 12-04-2005, 07:18 PM

Long time, no post.

Here's the latest:

My painted WRX bezel:

Good match, right?

I've been screwing around with thr BU-353. USB and GPS are a bad combo for me. Every 5th time or so when I resume from suspend, I get "No VGA signal" on my lilliput. It started happening when I connected the GPS unit. When I unplug it for a few days, this never happens. Grrr. I've tried xport3 and Gpsgate, those didn't help. I'm trying to sell the BU-353. I've already got the serial port version (bu-355) ordered, should be here next week. I really HATE the fact that my system is unstable. It really bothers me.

I hung out with john94587 (what's up with that handle?) a bit today. We got his Lilli 629 mounted in a WRX bezel. While we had it, we sort of tested my 619 vs. his 629 in my car to test out the "shiny 619" vs. the "matte 629". It wasn't as dramatic a difference as I thought it would be and I we didn't have super crappy sun conditions so both looked ok. The key difference, as John pointed out, is that the chrome bits in my car (button on e-brake lever, button on auto-tranny lever, trim around auto-tranny selector base, quarters in my change holder under the armrest) are really clear and disctracting on the 619, but not so much with the 629. Details are pretty clear in the 619, and that's distracting when you're trying to read a map. On the 629, the shiny from the chrome pieces is dim, and you can't even make out some things like the quarters. So, I think we're going to trade for a week and live with each others monitors and see how it goes. One bad thing about the 629 and the WRX bezel, it's sort of a hacked up fit.

Finally, when do I close my "worklog" and open my "show off your project" thread? I don't think this will ever be done, I was thinking after I had nav stable, but I also don't really think my screen mounting is something to "show off", it's passable, but kinda ***.

Viscouse · 12-05-2005, 01:06 PM

If I were you, I'd wait for the screen & then answer these questions:
-Are your goals complete? The ones you wanted when you originally started?
-Are all your parts bought & installed for your current goals?
-Is the system relatively stable to use day-to-day?

That's just me though. Once I have my monitor back in (last part), Nav running, and my wires run (including my extra USB so I can sit in the driver seat without having to put my usb key into the trunk) I'm calling it v1.0. I will still have to tweak my OS, IG, RR skin, etc, but if I can actually use it day-to-day, I call it done. Doesn't mean you can't expand.

Good call on the BR-355. I never wanted instability issues at allo, so I just went with that. Check my worklog for posts 40 & 42 for some info about it.

kbyrd · 12-05-2005, 01:28 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by Viscouse

If I were you, I'd wait for the screen & then answer these questions:
-Are your goals complete? The ones you wanted when you originally started?
-Are all your parts bought & installed for your current goals?
-Is the system relatively stable to use day-to-day?

That's just me though. Once I have my monitor back in (last part), Nav running, and my wires run (including my extra USB so I can sit in the driver seat without having to put my usb key into the trunk) I'm calling it v1.0. I will still have to tweak my OS, IG, RR skin, etc, but if I can actually use it day-to-day, I call it done. Doesn't mean you can't expand.

Good call on the BR-355. I never wanted instability issues at allo, so I just went with that. Check my worklog for posts 40 & 42 for some info about it.

Thanks, I think we are on the same page. My friends say "that screen looks fine." and I think "it matches, but it looks like ***!". The instability is not excusable. I've pulled the BU-353, and I'm happy.

So, once mp3/nav/screen are working every time and look good. I'll call it done. What's the rule on "show off" threads, may I still post upgrades to my thread there?

Bugbyte · 12-05-2005, 06:13 PM

I think you're far enough along to post in the Show Off Your Project forum. Worklogs were created mainly to keep people from posting their planned or non-working installs there. Yours is working so, feel free to post there.

If you upgrade it, put it in your post. It will bump the thread.

kbyrd · 12-07-2005, 02:54 PM

I received and installed my BU-355 (it's the serial port + PS/2 port version of the BU-353). So far so good, no problems with the lilliput. As I said, it talks over the serial port and pull power from the PS/2 port. I'm leaving it that way for now, in the future I'll power it directly from the m1-atx or something.

Thanks to Webdog for showing me a good place to mount it:

There's a little metal ridge underneath that trim piece. It's a bit smaller than the GPS unit, but the magnetic base sticks to it just fine. From under the trim piece, the cable runs two the monsoon amp area, then to the PC with the rest of my audio cables.

Viscouse · 12-07-2005, 10:18 PM

Awesome mounting locale for the GPS! I've learned that it's pretty hard to block the signal from this thing though.
I'm going to (haven't actually tested it yet, just run wires) power mine from the PS/2 port as well, but will use a keyboard splitter (2 PS/2s to 1 PS/2) so i can still use both ports if I need to.

drizzt81 · 12-16-2005, 03:05 PM

Nice thread, really makes me want to install a CarPC in my GF's Jetta. It seems that it may not be impossible after all, but probably rather expensive, we'll see. Isn't x-mas coming around soon anyway.

A couple of questions:
-Did you run power cables from the battery (?) to your M1-ATX or rather from the fuse-box? If you did from the Battery, I assume that there is a termination box there (I had not looked closely at it).

-You mentioned the 13-day Battery discharge time for your battery with STR, however that assumes that your battery is at full charge when you get out of your car. I am not sure if that will always be the case.

-Have you ever come up with a Volume knob solution?

Thanks for all the pictures and the rest of the worklog, it is truly inspiring. Oh, and if you are working for VMWare, thanks for Workstatin 5.5, runs like butter on XP64.

kbyrd · 12-16-2005, 11:27 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by drizzt81

-Did you run power cables from the battery (?) to your M1-ATX or rather from the fuse-box? If you did from the Battery, I assume that there is a termination box there (I had not looked closely at it).

No, I used the power port (cigarette lighter) in the hatch area. The common adivce on these forums is not to use these for power since the wiring and connections to them is crap and not intended to handle 100+ watts. But, my manual specifically states this will handle something like 120 watts and the fuse for it is a 30A fuse. The M1-ATX won't draw that much.

Quote: Originally Posted by drizzt81

-You mentioned the 13-day Battery discharge time for your battery with STR, however that assumes that your battery is at full charge when you get out of your car. I am not sure if that will always be the case.

For the most part, your battery is fully charged after running the car for some time. This depends on a lot of things (short/long trip, running lots of accessories like stereo, headlights, defrosters, etc), but I think I'm good. The 13 day estimate is an absolute worst case. It would totally drain my battery leaving it worthless (I probably couldn't jump it). What it does tell me is that I should be good over night (between getting home at after work and driving to work the next moring), or even for 24-48 hrs. I installed a kill-switch and tend to shut things down if it sits longer than that.

Don't take my advice on this, I'm probably damaging my battery and I'll probably strand myself someday. I'm investingating solutions (Optima Yellow Top battery or second small battery with an isolator).

Quote: Originally Posted by drizzt81

-Have you ever come up with a Volume knob solution?

No, I plan to tackle this after the holiday, I want "hard buttons" for all the basic functionality (volume, play/pause, next/previous, computer reset). I'll likely start with a PowerMate, seems to fit my cupholders.

Quote: Originally Posted by drizzt81

Oh, and if you are working for VMWare, thanks for Workstatin 5.5, runs like butter on XP64.

I do write code for them, thanks. I'll pass the "runs like butter" slogan on to marketing. If you've got ideas/complaints whatever, let me now. I did a bunch of the 64-bit work, mostly for running 64-bit VMs (I work mostly on the "guest" software features, like shared folders, drag-and-drop, VMware Tools). Try VMPlayer. It's free! If you own Workstation, you can author VMs, give them to your friends, they can "play" them legally.

kbyrd · 12-18-2005, 08:25 PM

I ordered a replacement touchscreen panel from digitallww.com, Armen confirmed that it was a "matte" finish and would fit my lilli 619 perfectly. Installing was easy, given his instructions. I haven't tested it in the daylight, but it sure looks better. We'll see if I like it after driving around in the sunlight.

(Sorry for the blurry images, I had to turn off the flash otherwise you couldn't tell the difference)

Before:

After:

kbyrd · 12-26-2005, 02:48 PM

During my wirlwind tour of California for the holidays, I got to see the new matte screen in a lot of lighting conditions. It's much much better than the shiny.

WebDog · 12-26-2005, 03:52 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by kbyrd

During my wirlwind tour of California for the holidays, I got to see the new matte screen in a lot of lighting conditions. It's much much better than the shiny.

I got a matte one to maybe i should install it. sucks that im going on a road trip today so i dont have time to fool around with it anymore today, Mammoth here i come. (i was having frontend probems needed to upgrade to 512mb)

morse · 01-02-2006, 07:53 PM

How long is your daily commute? It seems to me that a full power-down when you park in the evening and a cold boot the next morning wouldn't be too much of a hassle. XP's load time isn't much, especially compared to older versions of Windows.

This would essentially solve your battery problem, as you wouldn't drain much at all (gotta still run the clock, the onboard button battery is generally just for power outages and such--if you unplug your desktop daily you'll run the onboard out after a year or so). I imagine it would only draw a couple of mA, and it wouldn't add much to whatever the electronics are draining already; keyless entry, clock, etc.

sux89 · 01-03-2006, 11:44 PM

Just to let you know....I have an 04 VW GTI and yes the powermate CAN be taken apart....in fact its very easy it just requires some snipping of the wires and then re-soldering them.....which is VERY easy. If you don't mind ruining the case of it, then I'd say go ahead and do it. Now here's the part your REALLY going to like...the knobs on your double din monsoon just pop of (the volume and the other on the opposite side) and TADA they are the same size as the powermates "axle" for the big knob. I have a hole drilled in my center console behind my shifter but in front of my cupholder with the knob poking through. It looks COMPLETELY stock like it was meant to be there, and it is in the perfect place for access. If you want pics just ask and I'll try to get some together for you.

kbyrd · 01-04-2006, 07:53 AM

Of course I want picks. Post them in this thread.

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