Instead of reposting everything here, I will just link to the www.mp3car.com thread that is my worklog. There is a bit about my audio install in there as well...

Any questions, feel free to ask, either here or there.


EDIT:
Ok, the final install thread is located here

It's all done, mostly...


Dave

 

Looking good!

 

Nice job - can't believe that guy commented about it being messy. It is really nicely done.

As an alternative to the "bottom" you made, I cut two acrylic panels using the carpet as a template so that the entire "bottom" is see through. It works well and one half can slide across to the other half so you can get to one part without taking everything out of the trunk (just move all crap to one side). It is supported by the spare primarily (my spare still sits in the middle and all my components lie around it - now *that* is a real mess of wires).

 

Thanks, appreciate the compliments. He is right, the wires are a mess, and will become more so when I patch in the soundcard to the amps. But I will come up with something to make them neater. Just not sure what yet.

Thats a good idea for the bottom; I just need to come up with something to support it, since my spare is no longer there. I don't know if I want the whole floor see through, though, no place to hide the messy part!

Dave

 

Minor update; cleaned up the wires. Click on the link in my sig for more info.

Dave

 

Well, got the CarPC working, still haven't got the sound in yet; right now, I have to run to a stereo store and get male to male RCA adapters, and then it should work!

Anyways, I finally got the screen installed, after waiting months for the 2005 screen, and it looks great! Very happy with it.

Now it is all a software tweaking issue.

Dave

 

that's cool....

 

Do you notice any RF interference on the radio with your gps antenna?

 

You know, it's funny you should mention that. As soon as I got my CarPC up and running, my radio reception went to sht. I haven't spent any time trouble shooting it yet (unplug one device at a time and see if that changes the problem), but when I do, the USB GPS will be the first thing I check.

Dave

 

My first install I got the same radio interference

Did some reserach and testing and the conclusion is that computers output a tremendous amount of RF mostly around the clock frequency of the front side bus and processor. Our on glass antenna is quite sensitive and having the computer in the trunk is likely to disrupt it

I remedied the problem by encasing the computer in an aluminum box and then burying it next to the amp bolted to the chasis

 

Well, I allready built the case out of plexiglass, so the aluminium is out of the question. I'll see what I can do to fix it.

Thanks for the tips.
Dave

 

Hmm, I wonder if using this stuff would block the RF interference from the CPU. It's basically steel mesh. Might make a good Faraday cage

Dave

 

I would get some brass mesh if you wanted a good Faraday cage

Would defeat the purpose of having that plexiglass case though and you could've just done metal from the get go

 

Well, the plexi was much easier to work with than an aluminium case would have been. I think I might go ahead and get some and try it anyways. It might look cool. Plexiglass wrapped in mesh...


Dave

 

I also moved from a custom case to a Travla C138 in large part because of the RF issue...