gjuu 
A write up of my CarPC instal
Progress to date......
Prologue:
CarPc builds are really for computer type geeks as there are numerous other options out there that would work out cheaper and easier in the end I guess. This is for people who like to play with computer hardware and software and are interested in finding out what can be done instead of accepting an off the shelf product.
I did one in my E30 BMW and loved it so much that when I got the polo I starting planning one straight away knowing that other modifications (suspension, brakes, chip, etc) would not be happening in the first year as I just wanted to enjoy the whole new car thing with out having to work on it.
Another great thing about CarPC builds is that you don't have to lay out a lot of cash in one go - you can just buy parts as you go along.
I don't go over the top with these things but if you want to see some real fanatics visit mp3Car. These guys are crazy and everything I needed to learn I found there.
My opinions and thoughts here may not be the same as the fanatics but here goes.....
Episode 1: The Screen
Whilst I was planning this I had been taking note of how the sun affected the screen on the std radio. As the centre dash is on an angle there is the opportunity to have the bottom of the screen angled and the whole screen set back a bit - this will help with the sun problem
The screen is a Lilliput EBY701 - with an auto reversing switch - this means that you can just plug your reversing camera into it, apply power to the wire (from reversing lights etc) and the screen will change from PC input to camera input
To mount the screen I chose the easy route and used a removable insert. I bought a spare dash piece so I could have a play in the workshop and I have been thinking about doing a conversion to a black centre dash anyway.
I got a stereo fitting kit from liquid ice - comes with double din insert, harness adaptor and aerial adaptor - means no cutting of standard wiring to instal.
I got one of these from bybyte.com - it is a mounting kit for the lilliput screen.
This makes life easy as I attached this to the double din insert at the correct angle etc and then filled in the gaps and painted it without having to worry about damaging the screen while working - then I just removed the screen guts from the original case and mounted it.
Whilst the other stuff is important - the positioning and mounting of the screen is what causes the most angst - it is what everyone sees, it is your way of comunicating with the pc, and it shows you whats going on. So if you cant see whats on the screen because of glare or its angled wrong, or doesn't look integrated then everytime you hop in the car it p's you off.
Episode 2: Front End
Whilst it is jumping the gun a bit - whats on the screen is just as important as the screen itself.
I use RoadRunner (or riderunner) as it is free and well supported with heaps of ppl with great knowledge and are willing to share. I designed my own skin - there are hundreds of freely available skins but part of the whole carpc thing is the diy and I only have a few features that I use. (Note: on the screen shots the reason some buttons are red is they change colour when you press them)
I wanted to have both gps and music control on the main screen so i went for a ipod/gps look. The ipod allows usual control of music, fwd, rwd, pause, repeat, shuffle, volume, etc
I use a menu/play list combined to control basic functions - music selection, database update, mixer, video, radio etc
For music selection i use RRMedia plugin which is a database program using the mp3 tags to store by genre, artist, album etc
This is a bare basics skin as other have all sorts of features - phone, tv, web, weather, etc - check out mp3car for the fully featured ones.
I add things as I go along instead of trying to do it all at once. This way i can get it up and running and have music, videos, gps straight away and can progressively add features.
...more to come
next episode - the pc itself and integration into the car.....
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Originally Posted by Preen59
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