midiwall

Another toy in the truck? Yeup... But I think this one's REALLY cool. (click for larger pics) This is mounted in my truck: It drives an XM receiver and knows MP3s/WMAs (and there's a USB jack cut into the center console where I can plug in my mp3 player!) Has WiFi support: Has GPS support: (note the Lat/Lon in the left pic, and yes, that's MapPoint) ...an OBD II interface and calculator: This is what's under the driver's seat to make it all work: left to right: OBD II interface, USB hub (under OBD II box), AtoZ PC, power controller in front of PC, XMDirect receiver (AtoZ has been replaced with a VIA M10000 - see links below) What it all is... Hardware VIA M10000 (1Ghz VIA C3, 1GB, 20gig, WinXP) 7" Xenarc LCD with touch panel, mounted to the dash on a locking swivel. XMDirect receiver (perfect reason to buy a scratch & dent!) D-Link 7 port USB hub. Have to run it _powered_! Kensington Bluetooth USB Adapter Netgear 802.11g adapter OBDPros OBD II interface Holux GR 236 GPS receiver M1-ATX Power supply/controller Boost Mobile w/ Nextel i455 gives me on-the-road Internet and constant tracking via Mologogo Software Windows XP Centrafuse WiFi Hopper MS MapPoint Xport3 General info MP3Car.com - THE resource for doing this! The whole system's been out on two rough dirt runs and has done GREAT. I tried doing this about 3 years ago but the technology just wasn't ripe yet. It is now. This took about 4 weeks to get to run somewhat smooth, and a weekend to install. There are still some glitches, but a lot of the UI software is beta so it's to be expected. WooHoo! update 5.30.2007: new GPS bug; new OBD II adapter; added Boost phone; added bluetooth & 802.11g

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__________________
~ Mark
'96 4Runner Limited S/C MI - 370cc injectors, Air! horns, Airaid MIT, ATS A-arms, 285/75/R16 BFG MTs, Bored TB, Brembo slotted, Cobra 75 WXST, Deckplate, Downey headers, Hayden cooler, IPT valve body, Level 10 torque convertor, Meanstreak exhaust, OME/OME rears, On-board PC (XM, Nav, WiFi, etc), Port 'n Polish, Remote Start, SAW fronts, Hilux console, SMT-5, Stubb's sliders, Supra MAF, TJM-17, 2.0" pulley, Viair 450c, Walbro 190, Weasy2k cams

Bob_98SR5

mark,

SWEET

and my feelings too: a few years ago, the technology was not quite there in terms of "plug and play". lots of booty fab'g (word ive learned from our SE members) and that is why i didnt pursue something like this.

it looks like your system is plug and play. am i right? and mark, please tell me there's a write up for this!

bob

Tofer

thats sweet!!!

__________________
94 4runenr: all the good stuff.......
89 4runner: 3.0, Auto, 5.29 lockright f/r. 31x10.5 wildcountry ATs.
81 2wd pickup: 22R | 5-sp | long bed |Civic SI seats | LockRight | Hella 500s

pacific-crawlers.com

For all your Trail-gear and HID lighting Solutions Needs check out yotaworks.com Online store coming soon :)

BT17R

Veddy interesting. Could you run a Firewire port for live video in to WiFi uplink (with conversion?) to make it smooth for www viewers?

__________________
'07 FJ Cruiser TRD SE 6M/T

SLC97SR5

Mark, that's rad! I'd like to see some daylight/whole interior pics. NICE!!

midiwall

There's gonna be extended babble on midiwall.com once it completely comes back on line. I didn't really take pics along the way, there was a LOT of trial fits, failed attempts to make a slider mechanism for the screen, a pile of cables ALL over, etc.

I'll babble about what ended up working and how it all works together, along with details on getting software loaded, finding the hardware, etc.



Well, yeah... Technically there's nothing stopping you from doing it, it comes down to "it's just about moving data".

There are a couple of thigs left to add into my system as well along these lines, and I may/may not do it.

One happens to be that most of the car front-end UI's (and there are a LOT of them) support using a Webcam as a back-up camera, and some support multiple camera feeds, and some support recording those feeds. It's all about having enough CPU speed to be able to handle a frame rate to the point that it's full motion.

Upload wise... There are a couple of slick tricks that people are doing. One is to take advantage of a company called Boost mobile which - if you keep an eye on their contract - will give you UNLIMITED 'net access via cell for $6/month. Windows will make use of this by seeing the phone as a modem and... you're on!

Now, that speed isn't the best for streaming but... If you look closely at the above pics, and wander the software list, you'll find an app I'm running that, umm, "has the ability to" help out in that aspect.


Well, there may be a reason why I took them at night. Actually, it's not that bad - the one major exposed wire is the lead for the GPS receiver which is sitting up on the dash. There's some duct tape holding it in place right now. It'll get tidy'd up, but I need to pull the dash to get the cable behind it. That's now pretty low on my list of things to do.

I also have to sand down and paint where I punched in the USB jack in the center console. At the moment, there's nice tinge of "JB Weld Grey" around it.



Thanks for the thumb's ups guys! I'm pretty dern happy with it all. In practice, it works very nicely, and I'll tell ya' - it's purty dern cool to be able to plug my H10 into the console and play tracks right off of it!

__________________
~ Mark
'96 4Runner Limited S/C MI - 370cc injectors, Air! horns, Airaid MIT, ATS A-arms, 285/75/R16 BFG MTs, Bored TB, Brembo slotted, Cobra 75 WXST, Deckplate, Downey headers, Hayden cooler, IPT valve body, Level 10 torque convertor, Meanstreak exhaust, OME/OME rears, On-board PC (XM, Nav, WiFi, etc), Port 'n Polish, Remote Start, SAW fronts, Hilux console, SMT-5, Stubb's sliders, Supra MAF, TJM-17, 2.0" pulley, Viair 450c, Walbro 190, Weasy2k cams

SLC97SR5

Who cares about a little duct tape?? All the great pioneer mods stem from liberal use of the stuff and JB Weld?? Need I say more...Great job Mark

marko3xl3

One Word: Gorgeous. You've done it again.

Is it zero gravity proof?

__________________
:Marko:

midiwall

whoops... i kinda's skipped this.

Umm.. I would say that it gets to be more plug & play every time someone does an install. The whole community is continuing to learn about what's needed, the quirks of running an OS off of a spinning hard drive in a vehicle, power (as in... "what happens when you turn off the ignition?), etc.

People are also learning about things like redefining video requirements in these small computers. Right now, this machine "could" play a DVD, and the UI can handle that, but man it's not real pretty. But that's 'cause of the computer I chose. There are MUCH more powerful machines than I have being installed into cars.


From the time I had the hardware at home, it only took maybe 2-3 hours to load the core software. But then dealing with things like virtual COM ports, _mirrored_ COM ports (for when more than one app wants to see a serial device, like a GPS receiver), then input things (mouse? keyboard? touchscreen?), power requirements (some screens are touchy about things like alternator surging), etc... takes time.

Like I said above, it was about 4 weeks to get it to a point that I took it on a run; it was about 2 weeks before I even just threw stuff willy-nilly into the truck, ran it all off of an inverter and went for a drive. Right now, I'm still tweaking about 3-4 hours/week.

So I'd have to say - no, it's not plug & play. There _are_ companies out there that will sell you plug & play systems for a decent chunk of change, but I think most folks here won't be looking for that - they'll want to piece things together out of crazy eBay sales... ...like I did.

To do it all again though is just like anything else... It'd certainly be easier for me to do this a second time, but there'll still be tweaks for a given system. Each one is custom...

__________________
~ Mark
'96 4Runner Limited S/C MI - 370cc injectors, Air! horns, Airaid MIT, ATS A-arms, 285/75/R16 BFG MTs, Bored TB, Brembo slotted, Cobra 75 WXST, Deckplate, Downey headers, Hayden cooler, IPT valve body, Level 10 torque convertor, Meanstreak exhaust, OME/OME rears, On-board PC (XM, Nav, WiFi, etc), Port 'n Polish, Remote Start, SAW fronts, Hilux console, SMT-5, Stubb's sliders, Supra MAF, TJM-17, 2.0" pulley, Viair 450c, Walbro 190, Weasy2k cams

midiwall

Added a daytime pic to the first post...

__________________
~ Mark
'96 4Runner Limited S/C MI - 370cc injectors, Air! horns, Airaid MIT, ATS A-arms, 285/75/R16 BFG MTs, Bored TB, Brembo slotted, Cobra 75 WXST, Deckplate, Downey headers, Hayden cooler, IPT valve body, Level 10 torque convertor, Meanstreak exhaust, OME/OME rears, On-board PC (XM, Nav, WiFi, etc), Port 'n Polish, Remote Start, SAW fronts, Hilux console, SMT-5, Stubb's sliders, Supra MAF, TJM-17, 2.0" pulley, Viair 450c, Walbro 190, Weasy2k cams

Churnd

That is awesome! I'm jealous!

Thoughts:

Bluetooth capability? Would make it easy to add on stuff like a wireless keyboard/mouse

__________________
-Chris

If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough.

Click here to search!

My Website

midiwall

No Bluetooth... I grafted a USB port into the center console and have a small USB keyboard with a built-in trackball in the seat pocket. I carry a (very!) small 4 port USB hub as well. That lets me hook up things like my thumb drive and they keyboard to get data on/off the machine.

I thought about hiding a Bluetooth transceiver in an air vent, but the extra cost of doing that, plus a Bluetooth keyboard/mouse didn't make sense. You hardly ever use a physical keyboard with the system, so USB is just fine.


Each day that goes by I get more and more acclimated to having the system... It's cool. I got pissed at XM the other day, so I pulled put my H10, plugged it into the console and two finger taps later I had tunes happening that I wanted to hear.

__________________
~ Mark
'96 4Runner Limited S/C MI - 370cc injectors, Air! horns, Airaid MIT, ATS A-arms, 285/75/R16 BFG MTs, Bored TB, Brembo slotted, Cobra 75 WXST, Deckplate, Downey headers, Hayden cooler, IPT valve body, Level 10 torque convertor, Meanstreak exhaust, OME/OME rears, On-board PC (XM, Nav, WiFi, etc), Port 'n Polish, Remote Start, SAW fronts, Hilux console, SMT-5, Stubb's sliders, Supra MAF, TJM-17, 2.0" pulley, Viair 450c, Walbro 190, Weasy2k cams

waskillywabbit

Cool Mark.

But these days I just look at something like that as encouragement for a meth head to bust my window so he can get a fix.

Aren't you guys afraid fancy gadgets like that just encourages theives?

I mean if I was a meth head and I wanted to make a quick buck stealing audio equipment I'd look for cars w/ big screens on the center dash?

It is cool though! I'm just thankful these days to have a working radio.

__________________
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7th Annual South East 4Runner Jamboree, 2010

The toughest part of a Jeep is the chick driving it.

X-AWDriver

Sweet setup;what kind of security are you running since that's gotta cost at least a hundred bucks?

__________________
'99 4Runner Highlander 4wd
E-locker,rear diff and deckplate mod * 265/75/16 Nitto TerraGrapplers * Yakima Load Warrior rack * clear corners/signals * Tacoma skidplate * Silverstar lamps/fogs
Alpine CDA-9831,Bazooka EL Series 250w amp,MTX 10" sub

midiwall

It's a valid point, and one reason whwy I would have prefered to put the screen as a pull-out from the dash. I worked on that mechanism for a while but simply couldn't get it stable enough.

Am I worried? Yeah... Am I worried enough to pull it out? Not at the moment...


I run a spark coil with one end grounded and one end on the frame. If the alarm goes off, and you're touching metal - you're gonna know it.

No comment on price - 'cept that _this_ was cheaper than you think, I got a SCREAMING deal on the monitor and PC off of eBay. Real retail is insane.


edit: i was rushed and forgot my smilies!

__________________
~ Mark
'96 4Runner Limited S/C MI - 370cc injectors, Air! horns, Airaid MIT, ATS A-arms, 285/75/R16 BFG MTs, Bored TB, Brembo slotted, Cobra 75 WXST, Deckplate, Downey headers, Hayden cooler, IPT valve body, Level 10 torque convertor, Meanstreak exhaust, OME/OME rears, On-board PC (XM, Nav, WiFi, etc), Port 'n Polish, Remote Start, SAW fronts, Hilux console, SMT-5, Stubb's sliders, Supra MAF, TJM-17, 2.0" pulley, Viair 450c, Walbro 190, Weasy2k cams

Tacoclimber

Awesome, Mark. You rock, dude. It's cool to see stuff that we saw imagined in movies years ago become real life.

__________________
CJ ...<><

03 DC TRD Tacoma 4wd with a bunch of junk. SOLD
1964 Chevy Biscayne, 230 I6, lowered, satin black, old-school legit.


Just wheel the stupid thing!!!
But do it responsibly, ok?

My band: Road Worn Saints

Churnd

I found this link:

http://sysbuild.corsairmemory.com/report.aspx?id=5

Is that pretty similar to your install, Mark?

__________________
-Chris

If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough.

Click here to search!

My Website

midiwall

Kinda'.. He's running Centrafuse for the frontend software as well, and it's the same monitor, but obviously I didn't do the build-in work, the PC I'm running has a lot less oomph, and my stereo install is pretty tame. (though there is an 8" Bazooka in the back! )

__________________
~ Mark
'96 4Runner Limited S/C MI - 370cc injectors, Air! horns, Airaid MIT, ATS A-arms, 285/75/R16 BFG MTs, Bored TB, Brembo slotted, Cobra 75 WXST, Deckplate, Downey headers, Hayden cooler, IPT valve body, Level 10 torque convertor, Meanstreak exhaust, OME/OME rears, On-board PC (XM, Nav, WiFi, etc), Port 'n Polish, Remote Start, SAW fronts, Hilux console, SMT-5, Stubb's sliders, Supra MAF, TJM-17, 2.0" pulley, Viair 450c, Walbro 190, Weasy2k cams

Blizzard

Very nice! Now I'm not the only carputerer here hehehe

Xenarc are good screens, far better than Lilliputs. Now I've a KL-301 In-dash Touchscreen and it's very nice hehe

David

__________________
'94 Toyota 4Runner 3.0 Turbo Diesel Intercooler Auto – Trail-Gear 4'' SAS front, Trail-Gear 5'' rear leaves swap, 35's, FR&RR E-Lockers and too many things more to write...

Churnd

Sorry, I meant the actual computer itself... not the sound system.

__________________
-Chris

If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough.

Click here to search!

My Website

Red3.slow

ok picking up in the middle. What did you have trouble with. I've built all of my computers so its kinda gotten to the point I can do it in my sleep. What specificly did you have troubles with.

__________________
-Miles

-Firefighter/EMT

T.E.A
Taxed Enough Already

midiwall

Well, first off, I think it's important to define the playing field. I too build all my own machines, as well I've been coding since 1976 (os kernels, device drivers, network stacks), designing analog circuits since 1978 and digital circuits since the late 80's. I WAY too well understand computers and interfaces.

There was nothing "hard" about doing the car computer thing, but it was time consuming to get things talking right.

You'll find trouble coming up with the answers to things like:

• How to get more than one piece of software to talk to a single USB device
• Dealing with Windows' buggy hibernate mode (more correctly, coming _back_ from hibernate)
• Power, as in "what happens when I turn off the ignition?"
• Handling clocking noise in your audio system
• Dealing with a device that REALLY prefers to run off of a switching power supply (your truck is effectively a linear supply)
• Power regulation. Many devices don't like seeing things go from 12.6->13.8v and back again
• Grounding. If you do run a switching supply, then the ground that the computer sees will be different than that of the truck. See above for "clocking noise". This can also wrek havoc with things like XM radio receivers and OBD II modules that are inherently on BOTH sides of the ground.
• Heat... Lotso stuff in a small space. You can run a fan, but if you off-road, that's a bad idea.
• Shock... See my avatar? Think of that landing while rocking out to an MP3 streaming from a hardrive.

This is a LOT different than spec'ing a motherboard, processor, DVD burner, putting it in a case and installing Windows XP.

__________________
~ Mark
'96 4Runner Limited S/C MI - 370cc injectors, Air! horns, Airaid MIT, ATS A-arms, 285/75/R16 BFG MTs, Bored TB, Brembo slotted, Cobra 75 WXST, Deckplate, Downey headers, Hayden cooler, IPT valve body, Level 10 torque convertor, Meanstreak exhaust, OME/OME rears, On-board PC (XM, Nav, WiFi, etc), Port 'n Polish, Remote Start, SAW fronts, Hilux console, SMT-5, Stubb's sliders, Supra MAF, TJM-17, 2.0" pulley, Viair 450c, Walbro 190, Weasy2k cams

seanz0rz

after installing my computer in the car today, its my second install in a year. (first was in my honda accord.)

1, xport3
2, this is an issue, but if you stay away from usb devices, its better, ive yet to have any problems with this.
3, opus, m1atx and m2atx, etc. specific for car applications, dc-dc with a shut down controller.
4, not a problem... see above.
5, again, above
6, heat is always an issue, i worry most about parking, not about driving, fans and a strong AC work wonders, but what happens when its parked in the sun?
7, as for shock, my new setup has a memory foam shock mounted hd. it doesnt osillate like a rubber substance, and gives enough to cushin it enough to make it last a little longer. the other parts are built pretty sturdy.


i JUST finished the wiring, etc for my carpc, havent gotten my monitor mount quite yet. i love it and have greatly missed it having it between cars for nearly a month. happy to see it reinstalled in the vehicle.

a full write up will be performed soon enough, when i install everything and get it all good, ive been benchtesting it for 2 weeks now, tweaking it until everything was right.

i researched for a long time to do this, and spent alot of money on it, but it was less than a indash nav unit from pioneer or the like, and i can do SOOO much more with it, like surf the net with wifi, etc.

i would install it in the dash in place of the HU, but unfortunatly im forced to keep the headunit until i can afford amps (probably never).


any one in the socal area is welcome to come to the www.mp3car.com socal meet, saturday the 19th of august(one week from tomorrow) at cal poly pomona, parking lot f4. more info can be found here: http://mp3car.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=80900

__________________
1998 Toyota 4Runner SR5 V6 4x4 in Evergreen Pearl Metallic, Sonoran Steel #1, 285/75R16 BFG A/T, Elocker retrofit, Tundra calipers, brembo blanks, hawk lts pads, CarPC in custom center console with molded Indash touchscreen, KC daylighters mounted on Surco Safari rack, Custom sound system, 4xinnovation sliders, sleeping platform, Shrockworks front bumper, 1" 4crawler body lift, etc.
Pictures
Photobucket is being updated, if a picture i posted no longer works, please PM me.

midiwall

Yeup... you and I found similar answers.

I wasn't spouting based on these things still being a problem for me (they're not), but more of to point out the differences from building a desktop versus a car PC.

btw... padding wise, check out the "vibration pads" here:
http://www.surplussales.com/Cab-Rack...hockmount.html

I LOVE surplus!

__________________
~ Mark
'96 4Runner Limited S/C MI - 370cc injectors, Air! horns, Airaid MIT, ATS A-arms, 285/75/R16 BFG MTs, Bored TB, Brembo slotted, Cobra 75 WXST, Deckplate, Downey headers, Hayden cooler, IPT valve body, Level 10 torque convertor, Meanstreak exhaust, OME/OME rears, On-board PC (XM, Nav, WiFi, etc), Port 'n Polish, Remote Start, SAW fronts, Hilux console, SMT-5, Stubb's sliders, Supra MAF, TJM-17, 2.0" pulley, Viair 450c, Walbro 190, Weasy2k cams

Red3.slow

So what would you recommend for a budget system. I'm looking for a mp3 rig as well as something with wifi and a nav system and dvd's if possible

__________________
-Miles

-Firefighter/EMT

T.E.A
Taxed Enough Already