Hey guys, I am starting to piece my carpc together and I was wondering a couple things, any help/info would be appreciated.

1) frontend, which is the most featured packed regardless if its free or $$$. I am thinking of going with streetdeck. My friend was using a nice frontend but the annoying missing option is very important to me, when navigation is on and the lady is speaking for directions it doesn't mute/lower the music that is playing. I believe streetdeck does this? Also bluetooth? Is it working with Streetdeck yet specifically with a Motorola Q?

2) Internet, how do you guys go about with getting internet access with your carpc's?

3 Has anyone bypassed using a headunit and just going from carpc audio out to an amp? I am thinking of a 7" ws in the dash which would mean no headunit

Thanks in advance!

 

I've been working on piecing together my carputer for a couple months now....I'm just about finished with it. I did a double din in-dash screen, so I have no head unit anymore (I'm going to take a few pics and post tonight, but I saw your post, so I decided to reply now...). There are a couple tricky things about doing it this way. One is mounting the screen....and the other is that you need an aftermarket amp (something I wasn't sure about when I started). So to answer one of your questions, I have bypassed the head unit and gone from the computer audio out to an amp.

As for internet, I got a thing that does wireless. It looks very similar to a thumb drive, but it does internet. So now I can access internet when I'm parked near my house.

As for the frontend....I'm still playing around with them. I've tried Media Engine I think it's called. It seems pretty cool, but the maps that it supports are pretty crappy. I'm downloading some iguidance maps that I think it will support as well, so I'm going to be trying those out in the near future.

Anyways, good luck with your carputer! Have you started working on it yet, or just thinking about how you're going to do it?

 

Thanks for the reply, I have picked up most of my hardware

(2x) 4080 boxes
Double Din Kit
AC Controls
DLS Ultimate A7 amp
DLS Iridium 6.3i Mids/Highs
(2x) Elemental Designs 13Ov.2 12"
eDead

I didn't pick up a screen yet because I may leave that up to my stereo shop. I am not sure which 7"ws would mount correctly to be honest.

Still have to buy list.
CarPC (picking this up last)
frontend (not sure yet but, leaning towards streetdeck)
7"ws lcd
usb navi
usb bluetooth
usb network adapter
sirius sat addon
backup camera

I am going to speak with a local audio shop about the install tomorrow, I plan on dumping everything off and picking up my car after about 4-5 days. Hopefully they have some lcd suggestions. It should be fun

 

I have and really like a Lilliput 619-GL 7" touch screen. There's a code that will allow the screen to turn on as soon as there's power to the computer (i.e. I don't have to push a power button or use a remote to turn it on). If you haven't already, check out mp3car.com. There's a lot of really good info on there.

This screen, and I believe probably all other screens, do not fit directly in the DD kit, so I had to find a way to mount it. I had a guy machine an aluminum piece for me, and then I brushed it to match the rest of my car.

I'm happy with the way it turned out. Hopefully yours will turn out nicely as well! Post some pics when it's all done!

 

How's the carputer coming along?

 

It's all done and running great. I was to lazy to take a bunch of pictures but I have some pictures here. It took a week or so to get Streetdeck configured the way I wanted it but now that its done I am very happy I went with the carpc. Anyone that see's it in action is amazed by it.

The Ride:
2004 Infiniti G35 Coupe

The Audio/Video:
-Eclipse Head unit
-8" Touchscreen
-15" LCD
-Carpc
-JL Audio ZR-650-CSi mids/highs
-JL Audio 300/2
-JL Audio 2x10W6v2 in 4080's.
-JL Audio 1000/1

The Interior.




False floor which has the carpc mounted under it.


The Trunk..
Suede/Vinyl/Plexi/Neons








Streetdeck running on the carpc.



The Rims.. 20" Asanti MS-147's Color matched.

 

Beautiful.

 

Looks like you pimped your ride....haha

How do you like Streetdeck? I'm still playing around with other front ends. The one I'm using (Media Engine) does weird things, so I want to try some other to see how they work. If I can't find anything, I may consider Streetdeck, but I just don't want to pay for something and end up not really liking it....wish they had a free trial offer or something.

 

Thanks for the replies guys.

ligersandtions I like streetdeck alot I tried Road Runner, Frodoplayer and a couple others and SD to me fit my needs the best. The onscreen gestures are amazing and impress anyone who see's it in action. If you go to mp3car.com's store you can download a free trial of SD, the trial is completely unlocked but closes after 15minutes of use (you can reopen it again for additional 15mins) Bluetooth still isn't availalbe which stinks but so far I have no issues with it.

 

im putting together my carputer im getting the g35 enclosure to go in the compartment above my dash + im keeping oem bose radio and putting the carputer in the trunk i think i am going to run linuxice instead of windows much quicker...

Jon

 

Do you know anyone who ripped apart their coupes? The stock location for the screen is great but has its ups and downs. If you go touchscreen you may want to think about it some more. The reason I didnt go with the stock location and put my head unit there is because touchscreens are much more reflective then a regular screen and the glare was horrible to the point if the sun is anywhere near being out even with my window tint it was worthless to me. If you go without touchscreen its a little better but still not better then the lower location. But the up side is its much easier and cheaper to put it in the stock location. Just something to think about.


If you are sticking with he stock bose I would highly suggest looking into the jl audio cleansweep, its an amazing product. I have heard it with my own ears and it's great.

I was thinking about running a stripped down linux as my os but what frontend will you run? I tried about 5 different front ends before I finally settled with streetdeck. None of the front ends are perfect but for my needs SD was the most complete. They have repackaged versions of xp people made for carpcs thats completely stripped down but I havent messed with them yet, having autostart helps a ton with a carpc, it takes about 10sec for my pc to boot so i just hit my autostart as i am walking to my car, by the time i get to my car SD is loading. The upside with linux is you wont get the random windows quirks where it hangs up on a fresh boot every now and then but thats rare maybe 1:20 so I can deal with it for now.

 

Unfortunetly for my first carpc i am going to go with the stock screen location... Just seems like the cheapest/easiest route for my first carputer...

Which cleansweep would you reccomend? I was actually looking at them before you wrote your comment i love jl audio i have some of their stuff in my audi a4....

I have been looking around at differnt frontends but i think i am going to start with *nix + nGhost i have a few friends who currently run it....

Look forward to hear from you,
Jon

 

I haven't used jl cleansweap myself because i went with a head unit but the jl demo car i heard with the zr's in them had a cleansweap not sure which model (wasn't sure there was even more then 1 model to be honest) all i know it sounded amazing.

 

audiocontrol > cleansweap

 

Nice install. Do you have any pics of the carputer mounting? Without the carpet on top?