This is a long term project for me, which actually started when my cd player stopped working and my ipod was sent in for service and I had no tunes lol. It was done more out of boredom and a drive to do something different. What makes it different? Well I use the stock navi screen as my display... but hold on, dont get disapointed thinking that its going to be another low resolution hack attempt that ends in utter failure. read on.

So far all the attempts using the stock navigation screen on the older g35s like mine have revolved around a yellow rca composite input adapters. This is hardly adequate for a higher resolution needs like a pc monitor. However the stock screen although not a great high resolution is capable of a higher resolution than a composite input. It uses an RGB-sync input configuration. For those who don't know, its a 4 wire Red Green Blue and a synchronizer signal. What I did was find a video converter that would take a standard VGA input and output an RGB+sync signal. What I ended up doing was modifying a chinese adapter that was manufactured for the purpose of installing PCs into old arcade consoles that use those old bulky tube tvs which take and RGBS input. I interrupted the factory navigation output with a 4PDT relay that allows me to switch from oem navigation to the VGA input converter at the flip of a switch.

Next I had to setup the PC to output a custom resolution and screen position using a program called color strip for two reasons, #1 I needed to run at 800x480 resolution and #2 the RGBS signal can cause the screen to appear in the wrong area and not center it straight or take up the whole screen properly. Colorstrip tunes your video card to output to fit your screen position.

Now that I have a screen to display on, I needed a good PC. In order to run colorstrip, I need a pc with an NVIDIA or ATI graphics output to display properly. I had a nettop PC made by Acer that would fit the build just fine. Its a 1.6GHz dual core atom processor with hyperthreading, 2GB of ram, windows 7 64 bit, and most importantly an NVIDIA GPU. I also added a 120 GB SSD which makes the pc fly.
The problem with this PC is that it takes a 19V DC input which means it can't plug straight into the car. Rather than take the cheesy way out and use an inverter, I used a DC-DC intelligent boost converter. What makes it intelligent is that it tells the PC to sleep by simulating a power button press whenever the ignition is turned off and turns on whenever your start the car. I used this one here: http://store.mp3car.com/Carnetix_CNX..._p/pwr-010.htm

Great so I have a PC and a display. Time for a front end for operation.

Although the screen allows for higher resolution than a standard composite input converter, 800x480 is still a low resolution and would make using the pc annoying if running standard windows 7. When the PC boots and wakes from sleep, Centrafuse front end loads and makes operation simple. Its like using a standard radio really just with many more options and features.

Ok so now that we have an operational PC, lets move on to some add-ons.

Although this is only phase 1 of the build I still needed 2 very important features.
1. I needed a way to quickly navigate the pc once playing music. (hey I don't want to hear every song I own all the time). I decided to tap into the cars steering wheel controls to allow it to skip tracks. I got a converter that reads the cars resisitive steering wheel controls and turns them into keyboard outputs over USB. It is hidden along with the video converter under my stock radio.

2. I also wanted OBD2 functionality. Centrafuse allows you to read trouble codes as well as some live data in the form of digital gauges over OBD2. Driving and check engine light pops up? Check it with your PC and decide if you need to stop or continue on knowing its just that you left the gas cap too loose.


As I hinted, this is only phase 1 of the project and is great for daily driving and long trips where I want my passengers to be able to watch videos or movies. However I plan to carry this on even further. Phase 2 involves a JDM DD adapter, a second screen in the form of a capcitive touchscreen that will display as a second monitor. It will be the primary monitor for control, and video and gauges will appear on the top stock monitor. This involves removing the stock radio which means I need to add a new amplifier and speakers to replace all the Bose crap, as well as a radio adapter for the PC so I can still listen to FM on occasion.


Now on to the pics. I am very sorry that these pictures suck. They were done with an iPhone and they came out terrible. They make the screen appear washed out and too bright. In reality it is actually very clear and nice looking. I will try to get better pics with an actual camera when I can.








Please note that I know this is far from perfect and I dislike quite a few things about it, such as the mounting location of the PC makes it stand out. It makes it easy to remove it and bring it inside for modifications and updates. I will probably paint it stain black and make a black strip to go across the bottom of the dash to hide it better. I know there are plenty of good options for aftermarket headunits that do the majority of the tasks I ask from this but nothing gives you greater flexibility than a PC.

I know that was a long read, but it was a lot of work and creativity with this installation so I appreciate the effort from you reading to this point. I didn't detail it like it actually requires for DIY as I would not recommend anyone to do this as it isn't really a practical way of doing this. Its just a way to do it for almost no money. Other than the PC itself and software, I have about $180 into this installation and that is including the $100 power supply.

 

Oh and waking up from sleep takes about 3 seconds before its back up and running and resuming playback. From a cold boot windows takes about 8-10 seconds to load and its another 10 for centrafuse to load.

 

Very nice looking man. I had an 05 OB G35C and wanted to do something similar, but unfortunately I never got the cash up to make it up happen. Had to sell my G 2 weeks ago. Eitehr way, very jealous, nice looking build!

 

Nice! Looks like a cool setup. I've wanted to do a carPC, but just haven't tackled it yet. Can you put the pc under a seat, or in the trunk might be better.

 

original plan was to put it under the drivers seat but it didn't fit with the power supply there too. No room at all under passenger seat. Not a good idea to keep the power supply far from the pc so I didn't want to separate them. Trunk can be too far for reliable usb connection for one of my items that is attached to it. Also then you have to run other cables like vga, i would need a long rca for audio to the radio instead of a short one, etc.

I have a way to hide it and still allow easy access to it... I think.

 

what about putting the pc in the upper glovebox?

Looks great man!

 

don't have an upper glove box. The navigation brain and dvd-rom (still works at the flip of a switch) occupies that spot.

 

this is really awesome.

been thinking of doing something similar to this, but with a more dynamic twist. I have the Droid Charge (which has an HDMI out on it). When connecting my phone to a tv, the tv just mirrors the phones screen. I do this when I want to watch games that are only available on ESPN3, NFL network, movies, etc.

But it would be neat if I could just dock my phone in the car to get the display to show up on the monitor like that. I then turn on my bluetooth or maps, and I'm rollin'....

 

Hi, can you please give me some more details on your rgb converter and how/where you interupted the nav video info. if you could help with wire colours amd location i would be very happy. Im starting my setup at the moment and was just going to use the spare aux input in the boot which is just a rca plug. Your rgb setup sounds far better. btw im an auto electrician and i have pretty good electronics skills so any technical info your willing to give me would be appreciated.

ps. im in aust so mine has the *** tv in it with the *** nav dvd which doesnt work other than showing trip computer info.

thanks

 

I am actually afraid to just say what wire colors they are just in case they are different for your year or model.Your best bet is to get a pdf of the factory service manual. without it, this would not have been possible. It goes into extensive detail about how the signals are transmitted. I switch from vga input to factory nav uint by switching a 4pdt relay. It is tied in below the factory headunit which is where I interrupted the harness and also stashed my video adapter. It uses the rgb colors and the rgb sync wire to switch because i didn't trust being able to switch all the grounds.

The vga to rgb adapter is for putting PCs into old video arcade systems where you use the original crt monitors for the pc screen. They are cheap on ebay. However I wouldn't recommend doing this as I fought it for far too long. I had to install a program called colorstrip which allowed me to create custom resolutions and adjust position on the screen. It was a major pain.

If you are interested in the challenge then its not too bad since it can be fun but its a lot of effort just to get that little bit extra out of the screen.

 

How do you control the PC without touch screen? Any integration with the stock controls at all? Although I'm sure the video looks great not having an intuitive HID is a big drawback.

 

steering wheel controls are integrated in with a usb device. Also I have a touch pad in the cupholder and a wireless keyboard mouse combo when i really need control.

 

Nice setup! I'm about to start mine in a non nav g35. Bought a used flip out screen specifically made for the g35 03-04 but modifying it to fit my 05. So hard to choose what parts to get because I started with an atom processor and have shifted to an i3 2100t cpu and itx mobo with an ssd.

 

this is so badass, how did i miss this....so how hard was it to go from the computer to video into the nav? assuming you used a vga to composite adapter of some sort

 

no composite, too expensive for ready made adapters and resolution is sad with them. using a vga to rgb+sync input (same signal factory gps uses). Think of it like a component input, similar but not the same and still not quite hd since the screen cant quite do hd. basically somewhere in between. I switch between factory gps and carpc via a 4pdt relay and a toggle switch.