2005 Mercury Mariner - First CarPC install

**sciontC** · 07-10-2006, 10:28 PM

apparantly your still in your car and havent gotten out yet?

have you been sleeping in there too?? lol

**MileHighCFI** · 07-14-2006, 06:55 PM

Ok Ok Ok ... I'll post something ... I've just been living in the car and really have not taken the time to do anything with the pics, I've been too busy tweaking and playing. I would put the status of this project at 95%. I'm still tweaking software, and deciding on a skin to use, and integrating everything etc. but for the most part it is fully functional, just not "Done" yet.

So last week Saturday Doug and I went to town! He was hung over and I was really anxious. We got the computer installed (under the passenger seat and started running wires through my center console etc. After getting the computer installed we started in on installing the amp. Since I completely pulled the head unit out I would need an amp to power the speakers as the sound card would not do it. After ALOT of tweaking, sliding, pushing, pulling, and a **** load of swearing we decided the best bet would be to remove the drivers seat cut part of the floor vent out and install the amp sideways. We cut out about 3-4" of the floor vent and that gave us EXACTLY enough clearance to fit the amp under the seat, and not leave it stick out for people to rub their muddy feat all over. Plus the idea of this install was to be as factory as possible and have EVERYTHING hidden or integrated if I could do it. Also removing the seat made it quite a bit easier to run the wires under the carpet, and under the center console.

We also needed to find a place to install the DVD drive since the dash would not cooperate and let us install under the screen. In my center console I have a huge armrest pocket and we decided to go there for the install. We pulled the carpet out and saw that it would be easy to remove ... or so we thought and we got to work.

After about 20 minutes and another heavy round of cursing we got the pocket out of the armrest and drilled a hole for the wires to run out of. They run out the bottom of the pocket, into the center console and under the carpet, and out inches from the computer. We chose to run the drive enclosure on USB since my motherboard with the on-board fire-wire was out of stock. so we ran a power cable and went directly into the comp case for the 5v source. Then the enclosure was installed inside the pocket and it was put back together.

Then everything came together and the excitement started...

A few install things got overlooked and settings needed to be changed so we did not have sound for awhile... basically the sound card was only outputting from one mini jack and that was plugged into the RCA's on the amp that were not playing because we installed it in 2 channel mode instead of 4 channel... so after about 30 minutes of tweaking with the amp and the sound card I had great sound. I am not sure if I have ever smiled more at hearing the windows startup sound ... I played around with frontends and got frustrated and then happy and frustrated and happy over and over and am now starting to get a happy medium with everything.

A few nights ago Hallagan and I played with it for about 5 hours ... tweaking, playing and adding hardware. I added my wireless adapter which I rate at about a C which is a little disappointing since I got the Belkin MIMO wireless with nice dock and antenna... but it gets the job done, when I'm REALLY close to a router or hot spot. Then I installed my blue tooth dongle. This was the greatest purchase of all time. I hooked up my Samsung a900 through blue tooth and found that with a few tips and tricks I can get free phone as modem service that gets me great connection rates. Today I connected on a speed test a 309 Kbps thats almost 6 times faster than dial up. I will post more later and I will post finished install pics when I get EVERYTHING 100% and finish cleaning the car. But for now any input and or critique is appreciated!

**portabuddy** · 07-15-2006, 12:31 AM

lol your setup is almost the same as mine, only you done and im not.

i got a 10.2 that im putting in my new civic Si and 1.3Gh mono, 1gb ram, ect. i guess thats the way to go.

i love the install. looks great clean not over the top and the texture looks good too.

Edit: the only thing that i would change is... move the screen a bit. you know so you dont see the metal casing of the lcd, it looks a bit destracting. and BTW i love youe decition to chop the vent, but in your position i would and am moving the ir reciver frome the useles board and hiding it, you should (look capable) un solder the ir reciver track down the leads on the data cable and just epoxy it behind the vent, just so you dont see the green circut board. good luck bud, looks realy good

**MileHighCFI** · 07-19-2006, 10:51 PM

Actually its very much exaggerated in the pictures it looks nothing like that ... and its not the aluminum housing cause we didn't use it at all. Really its just the edge of the scren just past where the viewable section stops.

Anyone else Questions, Comments, Concerns, Deaththreats? Anything?

**MileHighCFI** · 07-20-2006, 05:48 PM

yep ... found the first problem ... I have not done the troubleshooting yet but my cell won't charge .... actually my accessory plug has no power at all... Chances are I didn't plug it back in ...