Dracov's CarPC. Stock Navi replacement DIY. Status: in Progress
 

Ok, So I previously had built a carPC in my 05 Altima, and now since I have upgraded to g35 I decided that the stock Navi is not good enough for me and I would like to have more possibilities then what is available right now.

I had replaced the stock screen with the xenarc 700tsv touchscreen and Im planning on putting a mini itx pc above glove compartment, in the box that is currently occupied by navi dvd rom.

While I was replacing the the screen I took as many pictures as I could, or whenever I did it, hopefully someone will find it usefull.

See entire album at:
http://s999.photobucket.com/albums/a...0navi%20carpc/

Here are few steps I took to get it done.

1. In the car, before taking out the entire radio console I made sure that the navigation is popped out before I disconnected all the wires.

2. When the radio console is out, on each side of the navi screen there are two screws. Unscrew them all.

3. In the back of the housing there is 6 additional screws. Remove them as well.

When all of these will be removed you can just slowly pull the front of the housing towards yourself. It should come off without any major problem, if you dont have enough space to remove it, try removing the rubber thingy that is glued on in front of the screen over the navi controls.

When you pull it off you will see:
http://i999.photobucket.com/albums/a...c/IMG_1545.jpg


In the back there are three ribbon cables. Two can be removed without any issues as they go to the original navi screen. The third one is going to botton that pops out the navi. BE VERY CAREFUL, TRY NOT TO DESTROY THE RIBBON THAT GOES TO THE POPUP BUTTON. The popup button is screwed in with two additional screws, remove them, and later on remove the button.

When I opened it up again to take more pictures I have unfortunately destroyed the ribbon and had to send the cable and later on solder it back together.

http://i999.photobucket.com/albums/a...c/IMG_1565.jpg

There will be 2 screws at each side of the original screen, remove them all.
Take the screen out.

Now the fun part starts: Fitting in the touchscreen.

I have used xenarc 700tsv, it is almost the same size as the original navigation. However it is a little bit smaller, when installed you can see the wires responsible for the touchscreen:
http://i999.photobucket.com/albums/a...c/IMG_1550.jpg


MEASURE EVERYTHING THREE TIMES BEFORE GLUING ANYTHING IN


Basically Touchscreen and display fits with no problems whatsover. I used glue gun in order to align in and put it in place, and glued it in to the housing.

The hard part is to fit the gain board, since it is few millimeters too big.
In order to fit it in I used dremel tool and sanded of a little bit of the bottom of the housing.

Pictures of the screen in the housing:

http://i999.photobucket.com/albums/a...c/IMG_1548.jpg

http://i999.photobucket.com/albums/a...c/IMG_1547.jpg

http://i999.photobucket.com/albums/a...c/IMG_1546.jpg

http://i999.photobucket.com/albums/a...c/IMG_1566.jpg

http://i999.photobucket.com/albums/a...c/IMG_1567.jpg

http://i999.photobucket.com/albums/a...c/IMG_1563.jpg

http://i999.photobucket.com/albums/a...c/IMG_1561.jpg

When sanded off it will fit in the housing without any problems. Make sure to account for the two metal rails that have to fit in the housing when placing the screen and the gain board.

It should all fit without problems. Once done, connect the vga cable and the power supply and test it all before screwing it back together.
http://i999.photobucket.com/albums/a...c/IMG_1559.jpg

If works screw it back together, and make sure that the cables are running to the side, but they are not in the way of the rail that moves the screen.

I run it next to this side:
http://i999.photobucket.com/albums/a...c/IMG_1557.jpg

Hopefully it wall worked out and it all works just great like so:

http://i999.photobucket.com/albums/a...c/IMG_1553.jpg

Thanks for reading and I hope that it helped someone out there our.
If you have any questions feel free to pm me.

Thanks,
Dracov

And if anyone would be interested in donating PAC AAI-NIS2 or money for it, I would be thankful ;)

Just curious, how do you make sure it's popped out when the car is off? Did you pop it up and disconnect the battery?

popped it out and then disconnected the wiring harness

So you had the whole radio/nav console removed, but plugged in, then just unplugged it while in the up position?

Correct. Take all the trim off, unscrew all five screws that hold you radio in place. Popup the navi,and disconnect wiring harnesses

Hey guys im selling two seperate navigation systems...

one has EVERYTHING you need...the main wiring harness, DVD reader, GPS antenna, and complete center console with the screen... everything is in working condition and shows very little wear and tear... im asking 1600 or best offer for the complete package...The wiring harness alone if bought thru infiniti would be between 2500-3500 dollars

the other is just the center console with the navigation screen excluding the head unit. 600 or best offer... PM if interested or email me... mig392007@gmail.com trying to get rid of it soon as possible so any reasonable offer will be accepted... will only accept paypal payment...

nice

clean

DAMN NICE WORK. i just bought an 03 g35 coupe there is no navy or anything i only have the bose speakers. so i started to look on the internet to see what i can do for navi, music blue tooth and such, anyway i ended up here. i'm all interested in putting a carputer on my car now, the question is what would you suggest? how do i get the pop up mechanism? and what kind of carputer i should get, im a rookie on the modding game so any help would be much appreciated. thanks

you might wanna checkout ebay to see if there are any broken/ as is navi out there so you can get the popup mechanism. When it comes to the computer you can get any type, as long as fairly recent 2-3 years old. The smaller the better. You will need to buy power supply, i actually got one available if you need one.

ebay and other sites have pre built carPCs.. you can order one with upgraded parts

I think http://www.mo-co-so.com/ is a great solution for a custom PC. You'll still need to do your own thing with a display.

thanks for the tips, hey Dracov if i find the pop up mechanism im going the same route as you are with the xenarc touch screen. what are the specs on the computer? do you think this will run you less than $1000 w/o labor. i think this is a way better alternative than buying an expensive navy system.

w/o labor it should run you well under 1000.

I got aopen minipc of ebay (core2duo,4gb,120gb) for 300.
Xenarc is bout 300.
GPS receiver 40.
Power supply 90
misc cables 30-50
pac nis2 50
usb powered hub 15

So total between 600-800, depends what you will find or already have.