Thread: '97 5-spd Maxima, first carputer attempt...

just to avoid any confusion:


I switched out the 18 awg wire and put a 10 awg wire in instead because of length reasons. I have also put this inline fuse with a 20A fuse as recommended in another thread. Thanks gameboy for helping clear it up, and that site you sent me helped some more. I should probably switch the fuse to 15A instead or even better switch out the 10 awg and put in 8 awg from what I understand from that site you sent me.

Heres an update, took the car out for a drive for a good hour... everything is running great! (yeah I know, not the best time to take an hour long drive considering gas prices and all.) I have no problems with the system but do have an issue with the sound! ack! stupid thing is annoying me, when I raise the volume it sounds like anakins pod racer from star wars episode 1 when it got a little beat up. I think I need a ground loop filter? its a weird continuous thumping sound and not a whine. I know for the whine noise u need the filter but would it help my issue? or is it better to invest in a higher quality rca cable because im using a basic one right now? I'm wondering if grounding the system to the car had anything to add to the noise... aside from the noise my system is running great even when running movies off the 3.5" hard drive. WOOHOO!

Desktop:


Here's the shot of frodoplayer:


IGuidance navigation software inside the frodo:



Netgear WG111U 802.11 a/b/g 108MBPS wireless usb adapter for the wireless internet and home networking so i can transfer files between my car and home desktop:

by the way, only $21 at a computer fair (cogan computer fairs for anyone in the north east)

and mini keyboard for whenever I dont feel like using the touch screen on-screen keyboard for input:


system still needs to be cleaned up because I dont like how the case looks in the trunk, and I still have to clamp it down somehow so the case doesnt bang around.

Hey man - it looks pretty damn clean - and especially for your first time doing it! I have the same year, same color Maxima only mine's an auto. I have my PC mounted under the passenger seat but my next upgrade will be to move it to the trunk. Wires sticking out from under the seat have been bugging me!

Question for ya - how did you get the lilli mounted into the dash? I was wondering if you had any more photos showing how you did that. I'd definitely be interested in seeing your exact steps (if it's not too much trouble)!

Later!

Oh -also, how did you get your wires from the trunk through the center console? Just under the carpet & under the rear seat? Probably easier to feed the wires through once you remove the rear seat, huh?

Originally Posted by mmk999

Hey man - it looks pretty damn clean - and especially for your first time doing it! I have the same year, same color Maxima only mine's an auto. I have my PC mounted under the passenger seat but my next upgrade will be to move it to the trunk. Wires sticking out from under the seat have been bugging me!

Question for ya - how did you get the lilli mounted into the dash? I was wondering if you had any more photos showing how you did that. I'd definitely be interested in seeing your exact steps (if it's not too much trouble)!

Later!

Hey man Thanks for for the compliment and glad to see theres more maximas out there. I was looking for a couple of us, maybe we can bounce ideas off each other?? The lilli I basically had to cut some of the dash bezels top in order to make it fit properly (which is ok because you can always find more dash pieces). After filing and cutting some of the top of the dash opening I opened up the lilli and stuck the front of it on the dash bezel and kept fixing (filing) more of the dash in order to make it fit right. Basically all you have to do is sandwhich the lilli frame onto the maximas din. You'll need longer screws to make the lilli stay on because the stock screws on the lilliput frame are too small to go all the way. I did it this way so that the lilliput stays pretty much stock and I dont have to mutilate it in any way. well u have to a little bit, i think I took some clips off the frame of the lilliput because it kept leaving a gap between the frame of the lilliput and the din in the dash. I'll have more pics up of that for you or I'll send you the pics if your interested, maybe over the weekend.

Also I have to redo some of the wires so I can put better wires in so I'll take pictures of how I brung the wires from the trunk to the front. But yeah you're right just take out the bottom half of the back seat (its easy theres two tabs on the bottom you have to pull to release the seats) and then you'll see gaps leading out to the trunk and you just feed the wire through the gaps and now that you took off the back seat you can lift up the carpet and put the wires through below the carpet.

Don't know if thats clear enough, I'll have pics of it soon to help you in case you wanna know. Let me know if u need help, wish you lived around here that wouldve been cool.

Definately would like to bounce ideas off each other though, let me know!

Actually the wrx mounting kit was what I was looking into before. I backed out cuz of the price, this summer I think I might try to make my own kit out of the same aluminum sheets i got for the case I built. even better, I remember seeing the cad files somewhere for the wrx kit which would have all the dimensions of the thing, I know theres a couple of places around where theyll cut acrylic or metal in the shapes and forms you want and if you have a cad file sometimes they do it right from the file, thats another option I might do if I ever find those files they used to have up (think it used to be at that guys website). The best thing is it'll cost under 50 bucks for something that small. And thanks for the reply about the sound and filter, I figured that might be it but thought the pod racer sound was kind of different from what I normally read about. I just bought the same filter today from radio shack since I was near the mall today. Havent tried it yet but im confident itll help tons thanks!
do you have a worklog of your car by the way?

well tried the ground loop isolator today and got rid of the annoying pod racer sound BUT also took away ALL my bass. well this sucks.... anyways I think I'm going to try to exchange the filter because maybe it was a bad one and try again and if that doesnt work then I'm going to ground my system better. Maybe I'll just ground back to the battery and try that.