I want to put a pc in my 2000 coupe

I do not want a flip up screen that blocks anything and it doesnt look like there is a 1.5 din solution. This leaves me with a couple options as I see it...maybe I am wrong I have been searching for the past week so please feel free to mention anything I missed.

1. Mod my dash for the double din screen. I really dont have the skills to do this so I would probably have to buy a oem replacement and pay someone to mod it. (I dont want to ruin the original).
But as I was looking though the tutorial on this I wasn't sure if you had to mod the housing behind the dash ...definately dont want to do that.
Maybe there is some place that sells premade double din for c5?

2. Make a carpc that hooks into my existing 12 disc changer and put the display someplace like under the armrest and use the in dash headunit to control wmp or winamp.
This solution would work for storing my mp3s but not optimal for the other functions of a carpc.

If anyone has any suggestions or links for me I am mostly doing research. TIA

 

what do you mean by the housing behind the dash? are you talking about having to remove the mounting bracket for the a/c controls? all you have to do is drill out the rivets and you could always put it back if it came to it.


i'm confused. do you want to retain your existing 12 disc changer? you can't keep a 12 disc changer while using a car pc. or did you mean that you'd hook up the computer through the 12 changer input on the h/u. if that's what you are considering i would suggest just going with an ipod as the pc will be overkill. I guess you could get a text vfd (or lcd) and put that under the ashtray lid and use winamp or centrafuse to pipe music info to that but again...overkill.

side note:
i do have a modified bezel that will fit a 7" xenarc and a 1 din h/u or alpine pxa-h701 display that i would be willing to part with.

 

Yes I dont want to do anything that cant be easily reversed back to stock.

Yes there are diagrams of mods hooking up a mp3 player with a switch to the existing cdchanger.. and yeah using a screen in the ashtray would be cool. I guess I could hack up a old mp3 player and hook up a 500 gig drive...but I wanted it to be wireless so I could move my cd's from my house computer to my car.

No offense ment but I dont like the pics I saw ... I dont want my eviromental controls that low.

I haven't ripped apart my console yet I am still gathering ideas which way to go...I would really love to have a full blown carpc but with the 1.5din limitations I dont know if its possible.

 

well looks like you have a tall order here. you are going to have to compromise somewhere. you could lower your a/c controls about 1/2 din and have a blank plate below that. there are a few people on the forum that have moded their bezels this way and it looks good, but you are still going to have to hack off those brackets (if you don't want a flip out screen) the car pc and vfd display is probably your best option in my opinion. you'll have access to all of your music, no screen to clutter up the dash (mount it where the ashtray is) you can tap into your existing sound system (via the cd changer bypass mod) and can sync wirelessly


HOW DARE YOU! DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM?!

do a search on here for double din, avic and eclispe head units and you'll see some other ways of modifying the dash bezel. and as i said you can always drill out the rivets and the brackets will still be useable if you wish to reinstall them

 

I have read all your posts and know that you are very knowledgeable on this and appreciate your help. Do you think there is enough room between the brackets and the faceplace to put in the screen? I wouldnt even mind loosing a bit of the screen on the top and bottom depending on the actual dimensions of the opening vs the screen.

I just hate having to resolve to going with a mp3 player And yes I realize fitting a 2din into a 1.5din is a tall order But from the looks of alot of installations there is alot of extra space around the edges of their installs

 

well there is an alternative. going non touchscreen and making a custom interface using a 4 button mouse, an alps rotary encoder, and a program called girder (or was it grider?) you could shoe horn a 6" screen (possibly a 16:9) in the 1.5 din space and then mold the rotary encoder and buttons into the area where the cupholder is. this isn't a huge compromise though, your screen will stay cleaner, be brighter and you'll be able to keep your eyes on the road as you scroll through songs. you'll also be able to use the gps functions of the car pc because you'll have an actual screen instead of a text display.


do a search for "idrive" in the mp3car forums or even google to see what i'm talking about.
for instance:
http://www.bmwworld.com/technology/idrive.htm

 

 

oh well I guess I will just buy a different console face plate and try moding it

anyone know where you can get a oem replacement for the centerconsole for cheap?

 

fredbeans has good prices

 

do I have to call them? is there an estimate?

 

i think you can do a parts search on there website. they are a supporting vendor and their link is on the side bar

 

I shot him an email...I couldn't find it on the site.

I also want to be able to put everything back to stock if/when I sell the car.

I have a 12 disk changer...I am just wondering how many wires I will have to run back and forth and if I can use the mount from the changer and power etc.

I plan on running a vga/usb cable up front then put powered usb hub up behind the tft. Then run a slot load dvd, card reader, usb/serial for the obdc2, and what ever else...Then I will put the gps, bluetooth, wifi, sirius in the back.

I am thinking 8" touchscreen transflective display. Not sure what software yet. I would like the fastest computer available. I have a few dell 1.4 pentium m laptops I could probably use.

 

Scott FX is absolutely the man when it comes to car pc's!!! His setup is what I will one day model mine after... just make it better though...

 

I think he has to much time on his hands

 

If all you want is music playback then one of those Fosgate Omni-Fi's might be a lot easier. It's got a dash board controller that you could mount where the ash tray is. It has built in Wi-Fi for loading the 20gig hard drive remotely. And... There are hacks avaliable to use larger hard drives, so you aren't stuck with just 20gigs. Check out this site, or google for more options. I have no idea how reliable they are and they aren't in production anymore, but they are always on that "auction site." The DMP1 is the car unit.

It's no where near as cool as a CarPC but if its just music you want, it might me worth checking out as an easier and cheaper alternative.

 

nice find


an 8" transreflective display may be a bit hard to find. I had my 7" xenarc upgraded to a transreflective but it was a special a company in cali was running. now they are only modifying screens in lots of 10, and they have to be the exact same model. you can purchase a 7" from the mp3car store but going this route is pricey. I think it's well worth it though.

as far as getting a powerful computer...it's definately not needed. my 1 ghz proc does everything perfectly. (unless you plan on playing video games while driving) you don't want to run anything but 512 mb of ram. anything more will give you longer boot times with little added benefit (for what we use them for) and anything less will make things clunky.

if you go the laptop route, definately research how you are going to start it up and shut it down. the via epia mini-itx boards have been road tested and by far the most seemless and straight forward system for the car environment. they can be powered by a low wattage psu that includes a shutdown controller that will shut everything down safetly and correctly.