Thread: 2007 Mini Cooper Project

couple updates. so far the logitech premium 4-port usb hub did the trick. no more touchscreen, gps, or my treo connection flaking out. no issues with hibernation either. dedicated usb ports would be ideal, but my laptop only has 2 accessible ones. as i mentioned earlier, i keep the xmpcr to the dedicated one due to noise issues i was having. as for the xmpcr, i got rid of the sat radio extension cable since i was able to fit it under the passenger seat under the metal plate/carpet where i directly attached it to the oem sat antenna connector. that's where the oem sirius receiver box usually sits. it feels good to "save" the $800 or so it would cost for the dealer to install the oem stereo sirius module. also, having a 7" touchscreen interface is amazing. only thing i don't have is steering wheel control ability to change stations. next project.

someone was able to hack his 2007 mini cooper's steering wheel buttons to control his ipod. nice detailed schematics. seems daunting for a electrical newb like me.

http://www.aixmarseille.com/wiki/dok...6_bus_topology

it's been around 20 degrees F here and my lilliput screen and eee pc have been acting up. the lilliput screen washes out until a few minutes of warming up sometimes needing a reset via the on screen menu. my eee pc just is frozen. resetting it shows the boot screen sometimes but gets stuck. i figure it's the hd. i'm going to swap it for a 16gb SSD mini PCI drive and use an external USB HD for my multimedia files. my priority is for realiable XM radio, GPS, and internet mainly. i'm too lazy to amass mp3s. the external usb HD will mainly be for cartoons for my kid.

Wow great project. I just bought a 1000h today to start my carputer project. Hopefully I can learn from your post and thread about how to go about installng my own. Keep up the good work I'll be keeping an eye on your project and may have a few question in the future.

Originally Posted by alphaae

Wow great project. I just bought a 1000h today to start my carputer project. Hopefully I can learn from your post and thread about how to go about installng my own. Keep up the good work I'll be keeping an eye on your project and may have a few question in the future.

thanks. glad to help answer any questions if i can. if not, others here will i'm sure.

well, i installed a Patriot 32GB SATA drive ($80 after rebate). easy to install, just remove the back cover, unscrew the harddrive mount, replace with new ssd drive. beforehand, i used a sata-usb adapter to clone my old hd to the ssd drive with a trial of Acronis True Image. warning, to completely uninstall True Image afterwards, i had to use the Windows Installer CleanUp Utility.

my laptop now boots in about a third of the time. pretty amazing and eerily silent. weather has warmed up so i don't know yet if it will survive subfreezing temps better than my old hd.

i can't wait for SSD drives to get cheaper/gb. right now, i use an external drive for all my videos/mp3s.

well, my computer now works fine in 20 degree temps with my SSD drive. my lilliput 629 monitor on the other hand sometimes needs its settings reset. now that my boot times are pretty fast, i have my computer completely shut down now instead of hibernate. nice to have a quick clean start-up.

well, i've upgraded my power supply to the Carnetix 2140. the software interface is very cool. i still think it's like magic when my laptop automatically powers up/hibernates with ignition. i have the 12V primary output to my computer, screen, dashcam, backupcam, radar detector, and laser jammer. still draws only about 2amps. i have the 5V to my usb hub and portable dvr device. my system only draws around 24 watts total. the fan is noisy so i'm thinking of disabling it.

i fried my BU-353 GPS puck in the process. the eeePC as well as my office computer doesn't recognize it anymore. i stupidly plugged in the usb hub power adapter while the psu was on. all 4 other usb devices still work.