I have been looking into this for a while now and definately want to do it. Especially with the Xenarc 16:9 touch display. However, I have a few questions I was hoping soemone could answer.

1. How does the sound card hook into the existing system? Are there some type of free connections on the back of the head unit.
2. How does the system get powered on and off? Does it turn on/off automatically or does it need to be shut done manually.

These are the only two questions I need answered before I build my system. Also, could someone tell me where to get the G35 refrence manual on cd?

 

While the price performance of the laptop is quite poor there are also advantages. The thing weighs a whole lot less & consumes less power.

As far as remote power goes assuming your using a switched DC to power the laptop you would just set up the laptop to suspend to disk or hibernate when power goes out, this would be done on the laptops battery power so there would be no problem there. All the options on the desktop power supplies listed require you to use the cars battery during the shutdown/suspend period this is probably fine but not real good for the cars battery, they are simply using the switched power to determine when to enter into shutdown mode.

The main thing that you’d want to PC to be able to do would be either playing DVD’s or decoding MPEG4s. Either of those could be done with a relatively low-end laptop especially at the resolutions that most small LCDs are currently displaying. The nice part would be adding a wireless Ethernet so that you could put the PC on a LAN with out removing the PC. Not sure where you would put the antenna though I’d imagine the trunk would probably block the signal quite well.

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Kyle:
there are some disadvantages to a laptop though...
1) price
2) they suck (slow+crappy durability)
3) Cant power it on/off remotely like with a desktop you can get a powersupply from here: http://www.opussolutions.com/
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2003.5 G35 Sedan

 

You could run it off a cig lighter plug, and set the laptop's power properties to auto-shutdown in 5 minutes when on battery power, and stay on when on "AC" power (the cig plug).

2003.5 G35 Sedan Desert Platinum/Graphite Premium/Sport/Aero/Nav/Winter

 

Geranimo,
Here are your answers

1) There are not connections in the G35 to easily hook into (i.e. no RCA hookups). You can either use an FM modulator, a tape adapter, wait for BlitzSafe to finish making their adapter (no ETA) that allows you to use the satellite input as an AUX input with RCAs, or get and EE degree and a wiring diagram and DIY (btw, if anyone has a wiring diagram let me know as I have the EE and would love to take a look and will of course share anything I find).

2. Depends, in a laptop system you can get it to auto power down (just tell it to power off when the battery goes to xx% of battery life), however I never came up with an elegant solution to power up. Best I ever came up with was to somehow trigger the cover sensor that will hibernate some laptops with the ignition. This is definitely doable, but I am going to do a desktop if anything. For the desktop take a look at www.opussolutions.com, they have a fantastic power supply for car computers, does everything you need.

 

http://www.mp3car.com

 

Also regarding condensation, warm things in cool places DO NOT condense water, they give it off. So the warm CPU would be condensation free. If you had a refregerated CPU in a hot humid trunk, that would be a problem. Otherwise this looks really cool.

The RX is just about sold, I have been driving the G for about a month!!!!

 

Also, Greg40md, if you don't mind if you pull off the computer installation (or if anyone does), laptop or desktop, please post pics and instructions. I will make sure to do the same when the time comes.

BTW, if anyone is interested the pic attached is of an excel file I have that shows all the components that I have picked out for when I get to install a computer. A decent amount of research went into this so I believe it is about the best computer I could build for the money (could lower price by reducing processor performance, I have some RAM laying around so I needed to match to that which limited my choices).

Some mistakes are too much fun to only make once.

 

Problem posting pic

Some mistakes are too much fun to only make once.

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