yep, i need to get somethign manufactured, it would be hard for a plug and play option tho.. ill see how much it costs me to get this put together... I will be contacting Xenarc to see what their thoughts are in the proccess and seeing if i can use their 7 inch touch screen monitors which are very reliable and connect fairly easy.

if i can get enough people to get interested i might get the whole set up with a 7 inch touch screen, so all u have to do is take out the HU and A/C and toggeles and just plug everything up..

Start a list and ill see if i can get something on the market.

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

 

Nice work! - I've got some questions

Why did you place the CD player at the bottom of the stack?
The CD player (loading slot) appears almost non-accessible directly in front of the shifter. Seems from an ergonomic perspective that it would have been more usable if it was directly below the LCD. Is there a depth issue from another component that fell into play?

Visually I think it would be more appealing if you painted the trim of the LCD to match the CD Player, HVAC controls, and the Console Switches and left the downtubes the original color.

What material did you use to fill the area between the section of downtubes you trimmed out and the edge of the LCD?

Great work! Have you tackled such dash modification before? Could you return the stock to dash if you replaced the downtubes?

 

I placed the CD there for the reason because there was more clearance for it in the rear. the A/C Controls i could only move so much do to the Machanicals in the rear of it would only reach so far. I placed the toggles next because they have a clip that clips right into the A/C unit which made life awhole lot simplar. The CD is more than accessible it has plenty clearance to put your cds in and to beable to push all the buttons on the HU. and No i tore out the plastic in the dash so if i wantd to go stock. Id have to take it to the MINI Dealership to replace the whole dash peice. The Plastic holding in the CD - A/C unit is all one big front peice part of the dash and everything else in the front hahaha.. so one wrong move and this would have beeen an expensive experiment. and Yes i have done this before in my 330ci
http://forum.e46fanatics.com/showthread.php?t=222965

 

Very slick setup. So your running this off a laptop? Neet. I've thought about doing this, and then desided not to, well not just yet, maybe.


Check out mini-itx or mp3car for some cool stuff. I am actually making a mini-PC for my living room out of an old 1940s radio. Maybe when I am done I'll make a MINI-PC not unlike this.

I learned the hard way not to drill/cut/chop/mangle my car. Just look at my Jeep and you'll understand. Either way, its looking good!

 

man, that is slick. I'm considering something very similar for my MINI. Thanks for the ideas.

 

This is a great idea! Now you've got me thinking about doing something like this as well. If the Mac Mini's get Front Row like they're rumored to on the 10th, I will be seriously considering this idea.

http://www.apple.com/macmini
http://www.apple.com/imac/frontrow.html

 

With these carputers, how do you deal with power ups and power downs? Do you handle that manually?

 

I think I would connect the Mac mini straight to the battery so it doesn't rely on the car being on, and I'd just set it to go to sleep after not being used for 5 minutes or whatever. Macs require very little battery power when in sleep mode...probably about the same as the alarm system would be using, and they can go in and out of sleep mode in an instant, almost like flipping on a light, so I wouldn't have to wait for it to boot up and down every time i get in and out of the car.

 

Very nice! Looks GREAT!!!

(Now you just need to change that PC to a Mac )

 

 

Mac? i dont think so.


PC 4ever

 

Streets and Trips 2006 DOES have voice prompts.

 

Holy Starbucks, Batman! You gave up your cupholders?!

All kidding aside - cool project.

 

I was under that impression up until a year and a half ago, but even if you hate macs, you have to admit that a Mac mini loaded with Front Row would be ideal for a car. Apple is supposed to release an intel-based mac mini that has Front Row installed on the 10th, in which case you would also be able to dual-boot OS X and XP, if for some reason you needed to.

 

Question: How did you mount the switch panel and head unit? I want to mount an in-dash screen under the switch panel.

 

MS Street and Trips 2006 now has voice prompts for turn by turn. Still nothing for the PocketPC, but stay tuned...

phil.

 

thats crazy good job, sir.

 

Do you happen to have a picture showing where you mounted the computer?

 

Any pictures???

I'm doing this as we speak and need pics

regards,
Charles

 

Looks good but theres one major problem. That screen is running XP and not MAC OS X 10.4. Wierd...

lol nice work, but how do you deal with power ups and downs?

 

great work here. well done

 

Streets and Trips has voice, but once you're off route it doens't recalculate on the fly to get you back on route. You have to look at the screen and figure it out. Or re do the route. Not bad if a co pilot is doing it but not so good on the road.

I like Streets and Trips for planning things.

I'm a big fan of Co pilot. I have it on both my Windows PDA and also the laptop version. It does recalc's if you miss an turn and VERY quickly. Some others like Pharos can take a minute or two to recalc a route on the fly. Co Pilot does it in a few seconds.

If you use these a lot it's REALLy nice to hav one that can adjust for missed turns quickly. Sometimes traffic doesn't allow you to safely make a suggested turn in time, or the route may still be unclear until the last second. With Streets and Trips there is pressure to make the turn or move because if you miss it all it does is say "You're off route".

Co Pilot and others just adjust on the fly and give you directions from where you are, however many turns you miss or skip.

Co Pilot is much more expensive, but often has $99 competitive upgrades. The MS Streets and Trops bundle is often the best way to ge the Pharos GPS hardware cheap.

 

I have been thinking of doing something like this, but I would use XP Media Center Edition for the interface.

All we need now is a good data collection system for the track! Maybe some GPS logging.. hrmms.

phil.

 

Go to MP3car.com and you'll learn all you need to know.
Minian.

 

They have released it and it is awsome, I have yet to install it in my Mini, but I will. MP3car.com has all the info you need. Go to "Mac mini Mini. Until the MacMini w/Intel I was a PC user but MAC OS 10 is sweet.