I'm looking into making a carputer and I wanted to run the wires from the headunit to the trunk and I dont really want the wires being obtrusive. I know I've seen someone who ran his carputer cables under his back seats and wondered how u take off the bottom cushions on the backseats? Also for those who have used the PAC-NAII can you instruct me on how to connect it to our SAT button? Thank you very much, All help is greatly appreciated

Ali

 

Anyone?

 

Pretty much standard, should just be plastic loops at just under the front of the cushions to pull out and then pull seat cushon up. At least it's this way on the sedan and my other past/currebt 3 Nissans.

 

The back seat bottom cushion is supported by two tabs about 12 inches from each side wall along the front of the cushion. These metal tabs made of thick wire are in the shape of a "U". They insert into plastic fittings in the body floor.

Pull up hard. You will worry that you are breaking it. You are not.

Once each side is loose, the seat cushion pulls out forward.

If you search the forum you might finds pics or another description. That's how I learned to take out the seat. I have removed mine and put it back no problem.

 

In the center of each seat, pull up HARD until it pops. Took me several heaves to get it loose

Theres a nice tunnel type thing for wires on both sides of the car. From the tunnel you can then run the cable through a hole to the trunk. The hole to the trunk is abrasive so Id recommend electrical tape on it or electrical tape on your wires to prevent chaffing

 

One thing to keep in mind though...if your going to add a sub in the trunk later on......you may want to reposition the carputer. Also what type of pc are you going with?

 

I have the whole setup in my head at the moment and on a few napkins

I ripped out my mother board from my dust collecting computer, PIII 800 Mhz, 256 mb Ram, 20 Gig HD.

Here is my Theoretical setup

PIII 800 MHz , 256mb, 20 or 40 gig HD (Free)
Linksys Wirelss G USB adapter ($20-30)
DigitalWheelz screen v2 touchscreen with VGA input ($700)
Iguidance navigation / GPS software ($100)
Sum sort of GPS mouse ($30)
Either an Audioforge Power supply ($70) or
An opus Power supply ($120)
PAC NAII Auxilary input sumthing or another ( $100)
Waterproof Rear View camera ($50)

Total thing shoudl cost betwen $1100- 1200, not bad for an alternative to the Stock Navi. I might add a bluetooth adapter to the computer so I can have a somewhat TL satisfaction lol. Anyone ever try the audioforge, I know opus is good but I heard audiforge is decent too. They have the same features

 

Looks like someone has been on mp3car.com

What about the case and pc mounting location?
Budget sounds pretty good..mine was about $1,500 after all the radio shack and pc store runs...(connecters, fuses, wires, hubs..etc)...they add on you.
As far as power supply, if the specs are similar....opus....for the extra $50, they are the premeir psu's out there and well trusted. A defective psu could cost you your whole project. Make sure the power is regulated and you have a shutdown/starup contoller w/ psu cutout (just in case windows freezes). Also how much power is your system going to use and how strong is the psu?

Pac aai-nis...best connection method.....my mp3's from my carPc actually sound better from the pac unit than my stock Blose cd player..figure that?

Camera sound sweet too....but where are you going to mount it and is it wide angle?

Last of all......what front end?

 

Good stuff man. Glad you took my advice to check out mp3car.com - You'll like IGuidance - I personally do. It embeds great in Frodoplayer so the question about the front-end, I love Frodo personally

 

I think im going to use centrafuse, Im going to keep the windows XP applications to a bare minimum though Services.msc and Msconfig. The camera I beleive is a wide angle camera although truly I havent researched them enough to know what I want, I just know the prices and its around $50. I just drilled the board to the wood plank that I had in the garage today so Im on my way. I will start saving up for the DWV2 Screen and the PSU and the PACNAA. The other stuff can come later and piece by piece.

Do you guys think a 90w will power a

USB Nav
Centrafuse
USB Wifi
20 Gig Western Digital HD
Sony DVD rom
I think it should be sufficiant although Im not that smart with this kind of stuff.,

 

Hey man. I do think the 90 watt Opus should be able to handle that. However, I do not think Centrafuse is going to work properly on your machine. Its coded in .NET and is very processor sensitive. I have some of the same specs (800 Mhz, 256 RAM and it didnt work - just too laggy). The code wasn't optimized very well (hopefully they've changed it but I cant confirm if they have or not). Thats why I went with Frodoplayer since its in C++ and can run on anything.

Also Chuck (god_of_cpu) is releasing his UbiquityV which is also supposed to be a great front end for the carputer.

 

Do you know if Ubiquity (SP) will be a freeware or $

 

$$$ unfortunately but I'm not sure how much. I cant really say to be honest but you'd still need your maps.

In the meantime though I dont mind using Frodo - it seems to work well and the skin I use looks really good to me. If you make it out to one of the meets I can demo it for you.

 

Definetly, Ive played aroudn wtih both a little, and Ill just have to see how they work on the system, Definetly go with the one thats less laggy. Although centrafuse is definetly a much nicer layout IMO. Since there are 2 video in's and 1 VGA, there is a Input controller tha comes with the screen right?

 

It sounds pretty close as far as power. If your using a home Mb and hard drive..., maybe just bump up to the opus 150w psu/controller. I am using a 80w myself and it works fine but I did not install the dvd drive and I am using a mini-itx board with a laptop hard-drive for reasons of power, size, & heat.
Here is a link to a power calculater
http://www.mini-box.com/site/resourc...simulator.html