This is still in the planning stages, but wanted to bounce of a few ideas with people who know about the NAV, xbox, and products such as navbox, av etc...

1. My assumption is that the LCD in our cars uses the component in RGBS, red, green, blue, sync.

2. If the above is correct, then we need to some how find a way to get RGBS from xbox.

3. However xbox does not send RGBS by its standard cable, hence the need to split the signal, using products such as navbox.

4. But there is the SCART option. SCART is a standard (french) for cables/connection the is widely used in europe/austr. You can google to find more info about it

5. There is a XBOX scart cable, that will take the audio/video signal from the xbox and breaks it into the individual signals, ie audio left, audio right, red, green, blue, various syncs, etc. there are 21 connectors in the scart adaptor.

6. There are scart to RGBS cables.

7. Therefore, one can get xbox-SCART CABLE (10-20$ depending on kind), and scart to RGBS cable ($10+, again depending on quality), and then connect the RGBS from SCART to the RGBS from the NAV LCD, therefore creating a connection from XBOX to LCD.

Please read the above and see what you all think, if there are any major holes..

As for audio, thats a seperate issue and I think for the most part has already been worked out, but I will start a seperate thread if need be.

Below are some valueble links re above:

http://www.syncblaster.com/gtmfytv.htm

http://www.xbreporter.com/xbox_rgb_scart.php

http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.p...ic=213487&st=0

http://www.xbreporter.com/xbox_scart_cable.php

More info to follow as I implement my mods

 

isnt there a guy on here who sells something to hook the xbox into the nav screen?

 

Ya, its called NAVBOX and it works great, but it costs 150$

 

Interesting

so does our navi lcd have Red, Green, Blue, and mixed sync?

Wut kinda of sync do we have??? Is it 5V TTL level syncs (TTL stand for Transistor Transistor Logic) or 0.3v negative sync???

can GENERATORLABS answer this??? Anyone?

 

$150 isn't bad when compared to AvElectronic's $450

 

Ya, but 30$ is even better

 

Its not a negative sync, I'll tell you that much.

 

Hmm, I think it's prob the TTL 5v...

Check this site out for the detail specs on the XBOX SCART, fascinating. WHo has all this time???

http://www.gamesx.com/avpinouts/xbox.htm

 

Can u please keep us updated. This is exactly the affordable solution i would want for my navi.

 

I will. I think that I might have to add IC's go increase the sync sign and for other reasons, most likely a LM1881 (costs about 2 bucks). So far, this will run me about 40$, I don't understand how solutions like navbox cost so much....

 

Then you do not understand business. Cost always comes down to supply vs demand. And if you look at other solutions to bring video into the NAV screen, the navbox is a steal. While Generator labs appears to be a one man operation, he has every right to sell this product for as much as people are willing to pay. You are not just paying for the parts. You are paying for his time and expertise. The expertise is key here. Few of us here will have the knowledge to tackle a project like this. The amount of time to research something like this may not be worth it for us either. It's certainly more cost effective for me to buy an existing product then to develop my own in this case as I would make more money working my job than trying to figure this out.

If you think you can do it better and cheaper, feel free to invest your time and money into developing, marketing and selling a similar product. Competition usually benefits consumers. And unless you are a company that is designed to mass produce these items, it probably won't be worth your time to sell these things with a low profit margin. IIRC, Daniel at Generator labs does this on the side and it started out as a side project for his own car. I doubt that sales of these products alone would support him, so he still needs to work a regular job. I doubt I would want to spend much of my off hours working on this unless the money was actually worth it. The demand for these items are not extraordinarily high. If it was I'm sure some of the bigger manufacturers would be developing their own. But for them a combined product that is more versatile is probably the better option for them as people are willing to pay a pretty penny for them and it consolidates their research and manufacturing. Unless the navbox starts to steal a ton of business from them, It's doubtful they will spend the time and money to develop a product more similar to it.

Lastly, while it sounds like the solution you've posted will bring the signal to the screen, how do you switch it? The Navbox allows you to switch between the Xbox and Nav signal. And all this in a fairly compact design. From my understanding, he has IC boards printed and then is assembling the product himself. But as I've said, if you think you can do it better and cheaper(keeping in mind, he does seem to be building quirte a few of these regularly), feel free to try. If you can be happy doing this at the volume you are producing at a lower profit margin, then more power to you. But if you end up pricing yourself too low, you could easily burn yourself out of it.

 

Ya, you are right... I guess I see the simple solution to this which should not cost that much money. I kown that he can charge whatever he likes. His product is good, and I think he is a great guy from what I hear.

I am just doing this as a side thing, I am not going to make this for sale to thers. Whatever I find out, I will post with DYI for others to try make their xbox work with NAV. I am not trying to start a business here, I'm pretty happy with my job.

As for the switch, it will cost you like 50 cents to put in a switch to switch signal back/forth. Like I said, I will put a DYI for the whole thing if I feel up to it.

 

xraymiantor you u think ur solution will work for the 2005 G's? Beause the NAVBOX gives us a rolling screen on the 2005s... But good find and keep us updated. Please post DIY if you get it to go.

 

I tried building the circuit you are talking about, a few weeks ago I get a nice clear stable picture working, but the screen has a rolling black bar and I get repeated slanted vertical lines almost like pusalting ac flickering on the screen, I got the same results when I tried installing the pioneer gex 7000 this give me reason to belive that it is not just a csync signal, but a different sync, I tried my modded cable on many rgb csync =monitors and I get a nice picture with no problems, but when I hook it up to the car navi it is not completely in sync I need help on this one

 

Yes this is whats supposed to happen. According to my engineering background, this leads me to believe that there is a ground loop problem, meaning the signal is somehow not being pulled completely to ground.
Also, if you notice, if you hit the night/day swtich, the screen gets even worse (more black randomness lines) rather than just the black bar and the sideways vertical lines...