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

**mmk999** · 05-09-2006, 10:29 PM

Well that sucks! Solve one problem, find another! Definitely try a better ground. But I'm not sure about grounding back to the battery. Everything I've read on here seems to suggest that that's not the best idea. I think ground wires should be as short as possible. Check in the car audio forum.

I'm not sure if this will help, but you never know http://www.cardomain.com/item/PIELD1 ... maybe they'll know more in the car audio forum. Keep me posted.

I haven't done much more to my install. I'm waiting for the new version of Centrafuse to come out so I can try installing some navigation software. I'm also waiting on my OBD2 hardware to arrive. Other than that, I'm just planning on future upgrades. I guess I'll never really be done (until I run out of money!) ;-)

**thrrrive** · 05-10-2006, 01:01 PM

This is a great write up. I am working on a 2001 Maxima. Finding time to complete it is really difficult ( and having my car broken into did not help either). Anyway your project looks great.

**wasyed** · 05-18-2006, 12:58 AM

......saved for more pictures.......

**wasyed** · 05-18-2006, 01:11 AM

Originally Posted by thrrrive

This is a great write up. I am working on a 2001 Maxima. Finding time to complete it is really difficult ( and having my car broken into did not help either). Anyway your project looks great.

Hey thanks for the compliment. I'm having time issues lately too but I should be fine once finals are over. Good luck on your max, would love to see progress whenever you get a chance. sucks that your car was broken into, does that give you any doubts about doint the pc? hopefully not?

well for an update on my car I found out my alpine head unit has a high pass filter built in that sort of works well to get rid of the thumping sound but gets rid of my my bass as well but only a little. the good thing is it doesnt get rid of the bass as much as the radio shack filter I bought so this is a good temporary solution. I played around with the grounding in the car for the car pc. turns out I completely disconnected the computers power yet still get that same sound when the rca wire is plugged into the alpine, when theres no thumping sound anymore, plug in again (even when the comp isnt powered) still get the sound therefore I have atleast figured out its not my comps grounding. I'll have to investigate some more but in the mean time, back to my stinkin finals!
Oh and I bought a nice small cased computer off another member on the forums about the size of a vcr and it has a dvd slim drive and stil has the motherboard, 900mhz pentium, power supply, floppy, everything. This case is gona be tons better then the case I have and I can make use of the slimdrive dvd. So hopefully this weekend Im going ot swap out the parts and throw in my motherboard in it. best of all it only cost me 30 bux! awesome deal!

**thrrrive** · 05-18-2006, 10:41 AM

Yeah small form PC is the way I went. I bought the Compaq Ipaq SSF 1GHZ Pent III. I decided to go with Mobile Impact for my front end. I am having some issues with playing my video files that I am working to resolve. I decided that I am going to have to pull out the screen when I park the car in a not too safe area. The radio bezel is attached to the air vents. when the car was broken into the clips that locked the bezel in place were broken, however without the clips the bezel still fits snug enough to stay put when driving, but pulls out easy enough to make it portable. I only drive it about once or twice a week so it should not be a big deal. This weekend I plan to run the wires for power. I am going to go with the Opus 150 for a power supply but before I order it I am going to use the 200 watt inverter of bought from Radio Shack it worked well with my laptop. I am also debating how to mount it in the trunk. I was thinking about putting some insulation material under the unit to provide some shock absorption. Then using some mirror holders I would secure the unit to a piece of plywood. Pictures coming soon.

**wasyed** · 06-25-2006, 06:03 PM

wow, havent had any updates for a while... stupid rain! every weekend when I'm free to work on the install it rains, I have a garage but it gets dark in there and not to mention kinda tight space to work with the doors open.
BUT I did manage to get rid of the annoying thumping sound! lol all I had to do was screw in the dash... yeah one screw made a huge difference.. why??? i dont know I have no idea at all I guess its grounding somehow but whatever it works great now. when I first installed the system I kept all the screws off since i knew i would work on the install quit a bit so after screwing the whole thing in place everything was fine.
over the past few weeks I did run into the blue screen of death a lot so i had to redo the windows install and so far everything is running ok.
thinking about upgrading to the iguidance v3 that was released recently if anyone knows about this version any input would be great. Until i find/get some more input I'll probably go ahead and update it.
Also recently got a T-mobile MDA Vario which I'll get a bluetooth dongle for so i can integrate with my computer, pretty nice phone and a lot better then my previous mpx200 smartphone. hopefully this time I will try to update more pictures soon as I promised... i know i know i been pretty bad with that.

**mmk999** · 07-02-2006, 10:36 AM

Hey man - awfully sorry to hear that. Hope you can get some compensation from the security company! Best of luck.

**wasyed** · 07-02-2006, 12:36 PM

great my screen is trashed too i thought it would be working but its completely gone wont work there goes my money....

**wasyed** · 07-06-2006, 01:35 AM

ok for an update I been getting some info on the whole theft situation. luckily I think the parking garage will definately pay me for the damage. I just gotta do a little bit of calling around the the security office and parking garage manager. Looking for new parts for my car, I love alpine cd players but the new ones for some reason dont seem as well as the one I had I'll shop around a bit more and figure something out.
Another note I noticed theres a new lilliput touchscreen made to fit better into a double din. I think?
http://lilliput.com.cn/eng/content_products.asp?ID=239
thats the new 2006 model, and I think this is the one on ebay:
new 2006 model?
weird part is it looks exactly like the ex-audio monitor that people have been buying the past few months.... anyone have some more insight on this??

edit: did some research in the forums and it seems like other members are wondering the same stuff about this screen and wondering if its the same as the ex-audio branded version. according to extreme audios website they are now partnered with lilliput so Im thinking about getting the ex-audio branded version and save a good few bucks. Hopefully its definately the same hitachi screens used in the lilliput. still miss my lilliput though :-(

**Simy** · 07-07-2006, 12:25 AM

Hey man nice install, I was looking around to get some ideas, Just orderd my screen.

Found this to be helpful, got alot of ideas out of it, and refined a few. From reading yours, ill probibly go with an 8 ga wire. Never really knew i needed to go that big (I guess its a good thing im still reading

)

Anways keep it up man.