Carputer Install

[davis449]

I am doing a compter install in my car this weekend. Plan on starting it tomorrow afternoon as all the equipment I ordered will be in by then. The specs are as follows:

Computer:
My Gateway 450SX4 Laptop
P4 1.6 GHz
512 MB RAM
32 MB Video RAM
12X DVD Drive
Windows XP Professional

Interface:
7" MP3Car.com MTS12000 Touchscreen VGA Monitor
Eventually a wireless mouse and keyboard for when I need to to realley techinical things to it

I plan on powering my laptop via a car adapter for the laptop plugged into an add-a-circuit with a female cigarette lighter end on the other side of the add-a-circuit. This way I don't have to use the cigarette adapter in the car at all and I can keep the power stuff in the trunk. The mount location for the Laptop wil be underneath the passenger seat. The power for the monitor will be via an add-a-circuit in the engine bay's fuse bax (there's already a hole in the firewall from my alarm system, so I will just follow that). I will hook that into an Opus 15w power supply so I can keep spikes in the electrical system from screwing up the VGA touchscreen. I will integrate with the sound system via Sony tape adapter and find a way to minimalize the wire exposure and/or eliminate it. I would buy a CD changer AUX-IN but I'm not spending $80 for use for three weeks. I may eventualy buy the fiber-op AUX-IN for the 99 later on for $250. But I don't know yet. I will run my DVD drive in the lower part of the center console with a USB enclosure and eventually buy a sot load to make loading a CD/DVD a little easier. There will be a power switch for manual power up mounted in the upper part of the center console. My friend came up with a genius way of trggering power-up through the modem port. A USB hub will enable me to use all of the USB peripherals I will need.

GPS will be available through a Destinator/Map Monkey combo and a Holux USB GPS antenna. I've already tested this out and it's fucking phenominal. It's accuracy is stupendous and it quickly corrects itself when you make a wrong turn and will often give you an alternate route when you make a wrong turn. Just like OEM navigation in most cars. It also have voice guided directions, points of interest, a restaurant index, and all the other bells and whistles.

The capabilites of the system immediately after install will include DVD playback, Navigation, and MP3. Later on I will add Sirius Satellite Radio and a slimline DVD/CDRW slot-load combo drive, but it's gonna be a little while before I do those things. I will do a semi temporary install in this car and take plenty of pics for you guys to see both installations. It will, however, be a pretty install with minimal wire exposure. I will most likely do a MUCH better and more permanent install in the 99 280 Sport later next month after I get it from Chicago. The cost to me so far is under $700. Wish me luck guys!

[vbrock1137]

Damn, you beat me to it. I've been dreaming of doing something like this for awhile. Hmm, maybe someday.

Sounds like you really know what you're doing. Can't wait to see pics.

[neema12]

I have had a computer in my car over a year...

[1998K]

Originally posted by neema12
I have had a computer in my car over a year...

yes I know

[davis449]

We're going to start the install today and take lots of pics for you guys and then when I get around to it, I will do a write-up on it for y'all. I went and picked up some of the last min. items this morning: the USB extension cables. cigarette lighter Y-splitter, switch for power-on, and 10' VGA extension cable. I still need to go pick up the add-a-circuit, lots of electrical tape, and the new Sony tape adapter (my old one is a P.O.S.). I'll update with my progress.

[neema12]

Why did you choose Holux USB setup and have you choosen the software. Where did you buy both?

[davis449]

I chose the Holux b/c that's what the majority of the people who have these installations on MP3Car.com have and they have nothing but good things to say about it. I'm using a Map Monkey/Destinator combo for GPS. It has voice guided directions and POI, which could come in handy. I have already tested the software and it works extremely well with the Holux USB antenna. I bought the Holux off ebay for around $65, Map Monkey's free, and Destinator...well...that's for me to know and you to find out.

[neema12]

I am looking to get a GPS very soon. I was thinking the BU-303 for $55 on ebay. I still dont know about the software, I like iGuidance but it cost more than the gps mouse itself.

[davis449]

I would go with the Holux, look on Amazon.com for it. I reccommend this b/c I know for a fact it works, I've seen too many others who have problems with other various brands. Avoid the hell out of Deulo and anything that won't give you details about the chipset and/or give you a brand name, they suck. I would also get one that's USB and not serial as it will save you a lot of pain. Like I said, I got mine for $64 shipped on ebay and that was with Express shipping, it got here in like 2 days via USPS Priority mail from one of the guys on Amazon auctions. As for software, you need to look into other methods (if you get my drift, that's why I included the "for me to know and you to find out") for getting the GPS software if you want to avoid a large expense. iGuidance was the first software I tried and I didn't like the 1980's-weather-radar look it had. Plus it didn't have POI. It did everything else nicely though, like route correction for mistakes and such. Touchscreen-friendliness seemed to be ok with it. I think you should give the Map Monkey/Destinator combo a good, hard look. Get on MP3Car.com and do some research, they have a plethora of info.

[neema12]

Yea, I am getting usb for sure, I plan on mounting mine under the rear window. Which holux did you get - http://search.ebay.com/Holux_W0QQsof...fsopZ1QQfsooZ1

Any idea on software to use thats free or low cost. What would you do in my situation as far as GPS and programs.

[davis449]

I went with the model GM 210, it's magnetic too in case you want to mount in on the exterior, don't know if it's water proof or not. As far as software, all I'm going to say is, have you ever heard of bit torrent? Cause nothing is free.

[davis449]

Ok guys, here are the first pics of the install:

This is where we put the radio.






This is where we put the laptop in this car (It's go0ing in the trun in the '99. It's kind of ghetto-rigged in there, but it'll do for now.





This is where we put the inverter and concealed the power wires for the rigged- cigarette lighter adapter. I have a car adapter for the laptop coming next week so we can take the inverter completely out of the equation.



Ths is everything wired up for testing in the trunk




These photos shows how we ran the wire(s) that needed to go to the trunk. There a small hole in the upper right corner in the run (after you've pulled the lining back) that goes through into the back seat.





Here you can see how we wired the power for the laptop and the screen in the trunk's fuse box. Here's the negative ground for the add-a-fuse.



Here's the female cigarette lighter adapter wired into the add-a-fuse.



Here's the add-a-fuse for the power for the laptop. We addded the one for the monitor later in the same fuse box. The trunk is way easier for wiring power b/c you don't have to go through the firewall.





Heres the VGA cable for the monitor and the USB for the touchscreen run into the upper DIN slot where the head unit used to be.



Here's us tucking the VGA cable the same way we did all the others: power, USB, etc.



Here you can see everything's clean and concealed.



The run out of the center console was a bit trickier to find, but we just used the same track that the stock (optional) MErcedes phone wiring used...







...and moved it around

[davis449]

I do so apologize for the big pics, if you want to see them easily, just go to: http://thekremlin.net/~davis/ and you can see them there and save them if you like.

Essentially, the install went smooth. It took us the longest on Fri., we were up till 5:00 AM, because we had to solve all the little problems that came up. Now, when we swtich the equipment to the 99 in three weeks it will take us maybe three hours total, if that. This, in retrospect was actually a pretty easy install, but I would NOT reccomend doing it alone. We had three heads rather than one or two on this one. We ran into a few compications with the relocation of the radio. We couldn't find a dash kit that would fit where the coin tray was and so we basically cut the entire backing off the coin tray and just used it as a front fascia so it would flush mount. It sits pretty secure in there with the metal sleeve we put over it, but I don't think we would've really even needed that, so if you don't have it, don't worry about it. As you can see, we pretty much concealed the wire for the tape adapter, and the sound isn't bad at all. Hell it sounds pretty damn good when it's Equalized right with your software. Right now I noticed it sounds like I'm kinda in a tin can, so I have to jack with it, but that's probably due to something I did. after we hooked it up it souded fine, but then I had to mount it and I think I might've done something to screw with the sond when I did, so the tape adapter overall does sound ok. I'm SERIOUSLY thinking about droppping the money for the fiber-op interface though, just to clean it all up, but we'll see. I still have to get a Firewire card for my laptop so I can run the DVD enclosure in the center console. I will take pics of this part when we do it, hoever it's not more difficult than what's illisratied above. I would highly reccomend Firewire for you're enclosure as it has enough power to run a slimline DVD/CDRW drive without external power (which means you only have to run one cord out of the center console and you don't have to find another way to power it.).

Since it absolutely annoys the crap out of me when people say they did something and then don't tell you exactly how they did it, if anyone has any questions, I will be happy to take a picture and explain it to you if it's not well enough explained up there in my previus post. By the way, the power wires to the monitor up front are just medium gauge speaker wire. It is wired DIRECTLY into the add-a-circuit, no plugs needed. We will take other and probably better pics in three weeks when we do the 99 C 280 Sport.

[davis449]

Ok guys, we did a little modification to the install yesterday. We moved it into the trunk and changed the interface to a front-end call Roadrunner and I have to say it is AWESOME! My friend is brushing up on his VB skills so he's gonna make me a custom interface with a Mercedes theme. I will post it when he's finished. Check it out.

[davis449]

I have resized the pictures so everyone can see them better.

[davis449]

Here's a couple from the new car. Got a different monitor, went with a Xenarc non motorized. It has better construction IMO and makes the A/C controls easier to get to when the screen is up. Does anyone know what's behind that plastic wall the shallows the HVAC control's DIN slot? I was originally going to put the monitor where the HVAC controls are, but it wouldn't fit and I was thinking about drilling a hole just big enough to get the VGA cable in the back to stick through and then I believe I can put the monitor up there. More pics later.

[mayagman]

I had something set up like this back in the day, only mine used a Silicon Graphics indy... size of a pizza box. In my old subaru wagon I had a mobile command center with a NetBSD macintosh as a router, and two Silicon Graphics on the back. Mobile omnidirectional 802.11b antenna, scanner mast, and a pringles can 802.11b antenna. Insane.

[davis449]

Yeah...this is a little simpler setup. It works pretty well.

[MYMBZZL]

The A/C does fit in the lowest din slot maybe your wires are hitting something. But they do fit I kno plus other ppl have had this mod done as well.

[davis449]

Alrighty, we have updated pics finally. I've had this thing in here for a while now (in the 99 Sport, that is) and it works really well, thought I would share some pics of it working in the car with my deck.