if you want a killer button check this out
http://www.griffintechnology.com/products/powermate/

 

here are some pictures...though the results are only temporary, i'm ripping out the radio surrond tonight and shipping it out to get retextured and dyed black. I also have to remount the a/c controls because they are a bit too high (you can see a gap below it)
installed:





unpainted


old amp rack with old motherboard.


new pc location...waiting for carpeting and new smaller power supply.
the sub box will be recarpeted too


The car is A MESS; take it easy on me, It's usually spotless but i spent the last 2 days tearing it apart.

 

That head unit is really starting to blend in.... so far so good! Keep us updated with your progress!

 

Thanks, the satin black monitor surround takes away from the whole piece. I think when the whole thing is back to the stock texture it'll look a lot better. The piece is being shipped out today, i'll take pictures when i get it back.

 

http://www.apple.com/macmini/

6.5" square and 2" thick...plus running OSX to boot...easy to hide being that small...and for those who need Windoze...it will run an XP session in Virtual PC for ya...

looks cool as well!

 

Scott FX you should be commended on the fine job you are doing

the fabrication of the dash area to allow the introduction of such a machine is first class - do you now possess a mold for this, could you produce these on demand?

Byte me nice to hear from a fellow UNiX appreciator
the -=Macintosh=- is the quintessential blend of reliability, and superior OS design

some of the things like the digital dials for the performance monitor type tools for the C O R V E T T E could well be the realm of winDoze only, however i believe there could be a parallel set of requirements that can sidestep that OS opting for OS X instead, ill start a new thread for this, as Scott FX really deserves a WAD of kudos for his physical goals kicked thus far!

Peace

FreeStyler

 

wow... thanks, that is a great compliment. i actually just hit a slight depression today...mainly because of how the painted console was a bad idea on my part. i'm pretty confident that the textured oem finish will tie everything in nicely but too bad i can't use the touch sensitive buttons that i designed.

I dont have a mold for it because this was a one off piece. if someone new how to make quality molds of this I would offer up my handy work for the masses. I did some research on this subject when i molded my rx-7's a/c controls into my armrest but came up short with people willing to help me manufacture it.

if you're a true Linux fan then i think you're in luck, there are a few of these car pc's running redhat 9. and since the introduction of the mac mini, there are a bunch of people starting to develop software for that. here is an install in a lexus: http://www.is300.net/forums/showthread.php?t=242507


I'm still unsure about the new pc location, it'll look stealth when it's carpeted (and not angled out like in that picture) but what i would really like to do is find a broken phoenix gold titanium amp and install the mother board in it's case.

one note about the nighttime driving/brightness issue. I drove home last night playing with the gamma feature and the middle setting was great on the eyes, it turned it down just right. if you had a long trip and were getting fatigued you can always go one notch darker or put on a black screensaver.

If anyone has any constructive criticism, ideas, or comments please let me know.


Oh...and the coolest thing happened last night. on the ride home i put on a rap mp3 with some heavy bass and i felt a considerable volume of air rushing past my head with every bass hit! i never felt that before, it was so cool!



(here is a little shameless promotion on my part.... the reason why i havent been making a lot of ground quickly on this project is because of my job... I work for a special effects house and we are in 'delivery mode' check out what keeps me here till 13+ hours a day: http://movies.yahoo.com/movies/feature/stealth.html)

 

Dude, you rock- you are totally welcome! .. also - awesome clip! thanks for sharing

Hey i used to own a RX7 myself, i loved it, also had a RX4 before that, (bridge port , front spoiler, subtle wing, tint, 245's on the rear...it rocked)

i know a guy responsbile for www.tkfpaintshop.org he said he used to do molds and glass stuff before painting... ill ask about making a reverse mold and then a final mold from your example (if you were up for it) - and dont worry i think the textured idea is the killer way to go with this thing...cant wait to see it...

what happened with the touch areas for the art work you submitted, ? didnt quite get why that wont work?...

FreeStyler

 

It was working and it was really cool! but the only stipulation for that was that i had to have the stereo surrond painted. The buttons were under lit by leds and that required a hold-out graphic that could be removed after painting. now that i'm going with the textured panel i cant have a fine graphic hold out that will allow the light to shine through (does this make sense?)

I should have taken a pic of it lit up...it was really cool

I have about 8 of those q-touch ic's laying around now with the keyboard emulator.... i may create something with it down the road... anyone want to purchase them?


I'm half looking for an rx-4 now for a daily driver...maybe i'll get one over the summer if i can find one at a good price. Rotary's are really fun in a gocart sort of way

 

Update?? How is the install going? I am anticipating the completion of your install. Post some pics when you are done so we can check it out.

 

the install is at a stand still. the car is up at A&A getting a clutch problem checked out and a dyno tune. The plastic surround piece is still at leather magic getting textured so i'm just in a holding pattern.

I did get a nice hour long drive with the computer running. There were no hickups (even with the ghetto monitor install...sitting in a big empty hole) The new power supply works great, it starts up and shuts down automatically with no problems. The system does need to be tuned though, there are some frequency gaps but i have a software based x-over as well as an x-over on the amps so that should be very easy to solve. The one problem that i had noticed was the fact that mp3 compression is mediocre at best. When i had my ipod hooked up to the bose system it sounded pretty good, but now with the better components i can hear where the compression falls short. I haven't listened to a cd yet but when i do i'll give a better comparison.

Navigation... I have the software sitting in front of me but i havent decided on a gps antenna/mouse yet. I am leaning toward the garmin line because they are internal and require only a small antenna (compared to the big usb devices) and they are supposed to be much better... wait, i think i just decided

 

Scott_fx where are you sending your dash panel to be finished?

I just completed my system as well and I am not happy with the way the texture turned out on the panel. I sprayed it with SEM texture spray but it is not anywhere close to the factory finish (which is the ultimate objective).

Here is a picture of the monitor and panel in the car.



TIA

 

hey that's pretty cool! you'll have to tell me your specs and what you have done

for the retexturing, check out this link for pics and info:
http://forums.corvetteforum.com/showthread.php?t=826508

 

Thanks for the link. Have you used these guys yet? What was the process?

Thanks for the compliment. Your setup is very well done too.

I am using a Xenarc 7" touch screen with a P4 2.8GHz, 1gig of ram, 80 gig HDD running XP. I am using a Key Span USB remote for volume control and some screen navigation. The system has USB GPS (Delorme), 802.11g (USB), and FM TV Tuner (doesn't work that well).

All of my music is ripped to MP3's so I do not have to worry about swapping CD's.

The system was only completed about three weeks ago so I am still tweaking the audio stuff.

Thanks again for the link.

 

i'm using them now. all i did was send them a sample of what they had to match and my credit card #

 

mac mini? ew lol! www.mini-itx.com you can make any custom box you want with the VIA EPIA mother boards .. around 80 dollars or less for 800mhz and mother board. That site has custom installs from Army Ammo boxes, to dreamcasts, Commodore 64's and anything you can think of wanting! Good way if you want to hide your pc and pass it off as something else .. that's what im probably going to do now...


kosta

 

I'm really happy with my epia m1000 board... as far as a case, you really dont even need one. there are tons of people on the mp3car.com forum that just have the components solidly mounted and hidden behind a panel.

What i would love to do is find another phoenix gold titanium amp case and mount my computer in that.... i keep my eye open on ebay but no luck :-(

 

thats what i actually did last night! i wasn't looking for anything in particular, but something that would be out of the ordinary ... got any ideas on what would be a kewl custom box for this application? I thought maybe something Corvette related but couldn't think of anything yet


kosta

 

well here is the finished piece...project is still being worked on, i'll be fabricating some volume and bas ***** in the coming weeks as well as maybe switching out the sqaure cut out for the dvd rom load and replace it with just a slot.


http://onfinite.com/libraries/384937/546.jpg


the dvd cutout looks lopsided in the picture but that is just because of the stuff behind the

 

Looks great...
Thanks for this thread... I've had CarPC's in other vehicles (before the advent of the iPods and Archos') for Mp3 playback.
Nice to see a diehard VettePC crowd...

Thanks for the link... spent two hours reading the thread and going to all the links/sublinks... rather than studying...

Bad boy! Bad boy!!!