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Quick thought for something a bit different from the normal headunit and speaker change.

In my next car am considering building in a small form factor PC into the glovebox and an 8" touchscreen into the dash, perhaps in a flip out tray where the headunit would normally go....

This would provide MP3 playback and GPS navigation and would have a wireless network connection so could park up outside the house and transfer music from my PC to the car.

Hopefully will do this after been working for a couple months (start my university year in industry with Intel in July) and will post up a guide with instructions and maybe even look into selling a few premade units (they'd cost about £600-700 to build inc screen by my estimate).

Only thing I'm wondering about is how to connect it up to the cars speakers, the output is just from a stereo jack so I'm guessing so kind of amp would be required to drive the speakers?

Also any other thoughts on the whole concept as I'm seriously considering working on it with maybe even the possibility to produce a small run of them for sale....

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I've just started a similar project. Using a 7" touchscreen with a mini-itx board in the boot. Wireless connection so can upload/download files from my house network when parked in the driveway.

Not thought about how I'll add GPS. Replacing the head unit soon with one that has a line in.

Also getting a wireless remote control (not IR) to control the PC from the rear of the car.

Microsoft did a similar project (http://channel9.msdn.com) but I'm writing my own software for it.

Should be good, but if nothing else, it's a learning project that can be used in other places if it doesn't suit the Audi.

Good luck Thorburn. 169144-ok.gif

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I have done this with 2 vans and 1 car so far, over the past 5-6 years the technology has moved on considerably.

You may want to visit www.mp3car.com for a start, there's a wealth of kowledge on this site and some pretty decent front ends for car PC's and touch screens.

www.digitalww.com have a 7" VGA touchscreen, motorized in dash with TV tuner built in for around £300 to the UK.

There are loads of galleries of people who have done car PC installs.

Craig

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I think you would have to set your budget a little higher that 500, maybe more like 800-1000 for a pukka system. The 150W DC-DC PSU is £100 + shipping etc. A decent touch screen from £150 to £350, cabling, GPS mouse, case, nemiah 1Ghz PC board, slim line DVD etc. all adds up.

The biggest issue with carPC's is the lack of a decent tuner, playing media is easy, mp3's and avi files, simple, but integrating an FM radio that works well is a nightmare. It's the holy grail of the carPC folks. Most people have a HU and screen so they can keep a decent radio. But you lose the voice commands for sat nav then whilst listening to radio. Some of the chaps at mp3car.com are building a bespoke FM tuner with RDS that can integrate with the carPC systems, but they are still in development.

As for NAV systems, destinator 3 seems to be the system of choice, with a nice TSK interface, I used a D2 version, but it always took me to the wrong place. Navigator 4 has a TSK interface, haven't seen it yet, but it's supposed to be good.

Of course if you get it all working ( mine was 80% ) you get a video media player, DVD player, CD player, mp3 player, navigation, web browser & email (via WIFI hotspots), BT phone interface, TV tuner, etc , in fact anything a PC can do.

Craig

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I've had a look at www.mp3car.com, but being a software developer, I feel I can do something a little more custom to my setup (read that as "better" tongue.gif)

I think mine will come in at around the £800 mark, but then I already have some parts which saves money.

I am also going for the most OEM look possible and therefore will be extremely fussy over the monitors. Cheers for the second link - I'll have a look at those.

We've done this project before in another car and it made a massive difference. Every still comments on what it can do, and upgrading it last year to cope with DVD playback has helped even more.

It's also quite fun to do if you like that sort of thing. 169144-ok.gif

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To get the OEM look needs some work on the dash, most people get another dash section and build the screen into the new dash using bondo etc. Have look at the gallery/installs on mp3car.com and it will give you an idea. Or you can do an in-dash pop out screen, less work involved.

Craig

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I would definately be looking for a DIN slot sliding screen as I wouldn't feel confident messing about with the dash on my car plus it would mean I can transfer the system should I change car.

Some nice ideas on that site though so will definately be looking more into it

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Features & Specifications:

-Screen Size: Diagonal 7" (16:9)

-Panasonic (EDTCB18QEF)LCD Panel

-Supported Resolution:

640x480~1024x768~1600x1200

-Dot Resolution:

2400 x 480 = 1,152,000 (dots)

-Brightness: 400 cd/m²

-VGA Input (1x 15 pin D-SUB)

-2 Video Inputs (2x RCA)

-Touch Screen (USB)

-NTSC / PAL Multi-System Auto Switch

-4 wire resistive Touch Screen

-On Screen Display Control -Auto power-on upon signal detection

-Automatic display adjustment

-Supports 11V DC ~ 14.4V DC

-Power Supply: DC 12V, 1A

-Power Consumption: <8W

I've got some pics, but my server is down at the moment

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If you could wait a month or so till I've got a little bit more cash then I'd definately be interested in that, coming up to the end of the uni year and I'm bit skint now + will be buying new car, but I start work for 13 months in July and that looks ideal.

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znaika.gif These guys have really cheap in-dash screens etc...

tgincar linky

Its straightforward to buy a touch-sensitive mesh online to make any TFT screen touch-screen compatible for an in-car PC by the way...

Gives you more flexibility over which screen to purchase 169144-ok.gif

also, you can use the secondary vga from a laptop as an in-car pc by hooking up to the touchscreen when in the car. its just a vga and usb connection, and gives you the best of both worlds.

is that on-topic enough? grin.gif

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Yeah but they are not VGA input, only XGA resolution, which is why my screen costs more, plus a tsk kit is around £50 for a 7" monitor and mine has it built in. If you want blocky graphices and fuzzy text you cant read, then go non VGA. it is cheaper and great for watching DVD's etc, but not for a PC screen.

Using a laptop is a good idea, my first in carPC was a laptop and it was the best solution as far as I was concerned, I could leave it on and it just flattened it's own battery, but powering on the laptop if it's in your boot requires some mods to it. Maybe if it's in a docking station it would be easier.

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