Thread: Scion xB '06, in-dash Atom 330, Lilliput 889GL; details, pictures, links. Index: pg 1

Originally Posted by Xygar

Thanks for the very detailed log, it's great to see how the work is progressing step by step. I think one of my favorite things about this install is the pluggability of it all, what with the server power connector, and the molex connectors etc., should make it much easier to take out and fix any problems/make improvements. Hopefully I can replicate some of that in my install.

Thanks, Zygar. One of the goals I set was to make this movable. I like this '06 xB well enough that I might wear it out and look around for another low-miler like it. Or I might want to move the PC to another car. In either case, I'm shooting for about an hour or two of work to take the xB right back to stock, leaving me with a pile of parts, good experience, new skills and ideas for the next round. So far, so good . . .

It helps to be an inquisitive scraphound. Whenever I find some interesting machine being discarded, I'm likely to disassemble it and look through it for parts and ideas that might be useful. I've found some interesting electrical connectors and oddball fasteners; I keep a few of the oddballs, and I keep a supply of the regular ones to go in my bank of small parts drawers.

But the real insight comes from seeing the design techniques others have used. We can learn a lot just from watching how others do things. Whether it's parts, ideas or tools, I'm probably pretty typical of engineers: the most common question I ask myself is, "How could we use that?"

My favorite part of this build, so far: discovering the low-cost punches and the rivet nut tool (about $20 apiece). They make sheet metal work a joy, and they make the resulting product better.

Originally Posted by Xygar

Love to see some updated pictures.

Pictures coming up -- that's one of today's tasks.

Pictures Are Up

I went back into posts 690 and 691 and put in the pictures of the revised end panel and revised top panel.

New Mount for the Touchscreen

When I build the bezel, I'll want to change the vertical position of the screen a few times to get it to a place where I can make the bezel as OEM-appearing as possible. The original touchscreen mount I built held the screen fine, and it allowed vertical adjustment. But it didn't allow easy adjustment: I had to remove the PC from the car and get a nutdriver or socket wrench all the way from the open front to the end panel, just to change the height of the screen. That was way too much work for what should be a simple adjustment.

The new version does what I want. It has a horizontal support for the touchscreen made of 1-inch (25mm) aluminum angle, and a homemade knobhead fastener that attaches it to the bottom of the screen. The system uses the existing slot in the chassis end panel that I made for the original screen mount. The new screen mount is fastened by two screws through the end panel to a backing plate with rivet nuts in it, and the slot is just wide enough to accommodate the heads of the rivet nuts. The three rivet nuts keep the mount aligned vertically, and tightening the countersunk screws locks the support to the end panel at whatever height I choose. I used serrated washers on those screws, and they're positioned between the support and the end panel to make the height adjustment stationary wherever I lock it.

Here are the parts, ready to assemble:

Click images to enlarge.

You may notice that the screws are slotted screws. I prefer Phillips-head or Torx-head fasteners, but these were the only long 6-32 screws I had on hand. I'll get some similar Phillips-head screws to replace them so all the fasteners use the same head.

There are three rivet nuts in there primarily to give it more guidance in the track. I could also move the bracket up into the top two holes if I wanted to adjust the screen to ride even higher, but that won't be necessary for this install.

To mount the screen, I determine the height I want, and tighten the two screws to lock the position. Here's how that looks:

Then I fasten the bottom of the touchscreen to the support with the knobhead fastener. The fastener is just a very deep rubber washer with a place cut out for the head of a 1/4-20 machine screw:

This design means I can adjust the touchscreen position without removing the end panel. Realistically, I'll probably just need to refine the screen's position within a 1/4 inch (6mm) range, but this system is capable of much more adjustability than that: over an inch (25mm).

At first, I thought I should make two slots -- one on each side -- to provide total tilt stability. But I already had the slot; a little widening to accommodate the rivet nut head, and I was done. It's very stable as it is now.

This is a mechanism I'll use only a few times as I set the system up in the vehicle. Once I've determined the touchscreen's final position and built the bezel around it, the adjustability isn't necessary.

In fact, once I have the screen positioned in its final location, I could simply drill two holes through both support and end plate, and permanently lock the mount in position.

One Last Tweak

The chassis was done. I was taking the pictures of the completed system when I remembered that I'd been frustrated with the mainboard mounts. Those original mounts used screws and nuts, which made mainboard installation an "I need more than two hands" trick. I thought there had to be a better way to make them.

But the chassis was done. Assembled. Ready to go.

Nope, I couldn't leave it alone. And there I was after midnight, in my bathrobe, building better mounts.

The better way to make them is to use those terrific little rivet nuts. I took the mainboard out, took off the mounts, and drilled both of the mount holes to 13/64 inch (5mm). Then I squeezed rivet nuts onto them. I had to file a couple of them off a bit for clearance, but they still work fine.

Here's one of the rear mounts, the way it was with "loose" nuts, and the way it is now with rivet nuts:

___

Click images to enlarge.

A hexhead machine screw with a built-in washer still holds the mainboard to the standoff.

The front mounts are pretty conventional. The "before" pictures shows left side, and he "after" picture shows the right side (I didn't get a "before" picture of the right side). The "before" is poor quality because it's a major enlargement, but I hope you can get the idea: in the old system, there were two screws and two "loose" nuts; those nuts are gone, now. The "after" picture is shot so you can see how the fastening system goes through the side panel. That lump on the right side of the panel is the head of the 6-32 screw:

___

You can see how the rivet nuts replaced "loose" nuts, but this pair of rivet nuts provided a bonus: the flange on the lower rivet nut forms a washer between the mount bracket and the mainboard, eliminating a "loose" washer on each side, too. I did have to file away a little of the upper rivet nuts to get clearance so I could get the lower machine screws in, but there's plenty of thread left. In the new system, the machine screw goes down through the board and into the rivet nut, instead of coming up from the bottom.

You may see that there's a little gap between the mount and the side panel, now. That's because the rivet nut head has a flange on it. It's about .030 inch (1mm), and I allowed for that by slightly repositioning the holes for the lower rivet nuts.

The result of this after-hours project is that the mounts are much easier to install. I put the mounts on the mainboard first, then hold it in the case and put the screws through the side panels. Neat. One thing I really like about this is that there are no nuts to loosen from vibration and fall onto the electronics. That could smoke something, and I hate those expensive "Bzzzt!" noises.

And now the chassis really is done. . . unless I come up with another tweak that finds me back in the shop at midnight again.

A Second Attempt at nLite

The first attempt suffered from a bad source -- I apparently started out with a limited version of XP Pro, and the install went astray right after the drive partitioning and formatting. So I gave it another shot. I repartitioned and reformatted the drive, to be sure there's no vestige of the previous install on the drive.

I rebooted using the new nLite'd version, and off she went -- XP Pro installed just fine. I've put the Intel drivers and the Lilliput touchscreen drivers in, so far. I should get some more in there tonight.

It looks like a real carPC, now . . .

The CarPC is Up and Running (on the Bench)

So far, I've installed:

• WinXP Pro SP3 -- updated and activated
  
• Lilliput 889GL Touchscreen drivers
  
• D-Link DWA-140 Wireless N Device drivers
  
• AVG Free Antivirus
  
• Mozilla Firefox
  
• NoScript Firefox Add-On
  
• X-Marks (formerly Foxmarks) Firefox Add-On
  
• VersaPoint Wireless Keyboard / Mouse
  
• Foxit Reader for reading PDFs
  
• CutePDF for making PDFs
  
• 7-Zip File Compression / Decompression Utility

Centrafuse and Garmin MobilePC are next, I suspect.

Install Glitches

There were two interesting glitches in getting the software installed on the carPC:

Glitch 1 -- DVD Failure
The DVD unit that I installed from read my nLite'd XP Pro CD -- created in another machine -- just fine. It read the Touchkit drivers just fine. But it wouldn't read the Intel Atom D945GCLF2 driver CD. I had to copy those drivers to a USB stick on the laptop, then install from that. It appears to be just a DVD equipment issue, not anything related to the carPC. I won't be using that DVD unit in the car, so it won't create a problem there. I'll install everything else from USB stick or the network at the house.

Glitch 2 -- 800x480 Failure
Although the Lilliput 889 GL looked great when I first got it, it's fuzzy now. I suspect that's because, now that XP is installed, it's not running at its native resolution of 800x480, but rather at 800x600, so the image is scrunched vertically. After checking the Intel graphics drivers, I found I have the latest version already installed, and 800x480 is not a supported resolution. That's a Grade A Bummer.

So far, my research on this has been limited to the MP3Car site. I'll look around some more, but there answers available in this thread, in posts 398, 399, and 400. The answer there entails a simple registry edit, but they say it works. I'll test it and see. I'd like to get the resolution set before I install Centrafuse.

Originally Posted by rdholtz

Install Glitches

There were two interesting glitches in getting the software installed on the carPC:

Glitch 1 -- DVD Failure
The DVD unit that I installed from read my nLite'd XP Pro CD -- created in another machine -- just fine. It read the Touchkit drivers just fine. But it wouldn't read the Intel Atom D945GCLF2 driver CD. I had to copy those drivers to a USB stick on the laptop, then install from that. It appears to be just an equipment problem, not anything related to the carPC. I won't be using that DVD unit in the car, so it's not a problem. I'll install everything else from USB stick or the network at the house.

Glitch 2 -- 800x480 Failure
Although the Lilliput 889 GL looked great when I first got it, it's fuzzy now. I suspect that's because now that XP is installed, it's not running at its native resolution of 800x480, but rather at 800x600, so the image is scrunched vertically. After checking the Intel graphics drivers, I found I have the latest version already installed, and 800x480 is not a supported resolution. That's a Grade A Bummer.

So far, my research on this has been limited to the MP3Car site. I'll look around some more, but there answers available in this thread, in posts 398, 399, and 400. The answer there entails a simple registry edit, but they say it works. I'll test it and see. I'd like to get the resolution set before I install Centrafuse.

The Lilliput should automatically except 800x600, I mean all mine did perfectly until I hit that stupid self destruct button (auto adjust) on my screen. Mine is a 7 inch though, so maybe that extra inch makes a difference? My ATI card does have the ability to do 800x480 but it doesn't like it, and I have this weird bug were it will flip screen 1 to screen 2 and vis versa. I also have to run 800x600 because the 19 inch wants that size. I wonder if I will have to worry about this issue when I get my Intel boards. I really wish I could get AMD based boards but none have the slim form factor like to fit the cases.