darkfrost

iTrader: (1)

I don't know about the actual screen, but on RoadRunner (the front end) you can adjust the brightness setting by a preset amount at the push of a button. Extremely useful. Would be nice to have it triggered off the headlights though.

Manntis

gotcha. Might have to add that mod, if possible.

dj55b

iTrader: (2)

if I recall thing correctly, the screen has 3 preset light outputs

Manntis

what triggers them?

bliffle

You need to bash the windows system out of that 'puter and install Ubuntu. That's what the hammer is for: glad to see you're ready to go.

I like the idea of a carputer. That way you can instrument the engine as you please and have utter control over your displays and show what's appropriate for current driving conditions, issue special alerts, etc., without having to clutter the interior with dozens of guages, most of which you regularly ignore. Until something breaks, of course.

dj55b

iTrader: (2)

If you look at the screen picture, the second and fourth button from the left, when you're just viewing things and not in the menu control that. So its nice and accesible.

Manntis

so you trigger them with a button push on the screen unit, as opposed to an auto-dim when you turn your headlights on, yes?

dj55b

iTrader: (2)

yes, I'll try to take a video ... I need to get another one uploaded anyways to show boot time and stuff along with the other gadgets. I'm actually going to try to take like a sound test of some sort too to show you the difference between a soundcard and not ...

QuiescentWonder

I would imagine that whatever software you are running would probably just have a dark background... or be able to change brightness by the time on the PC itself.

--

Actually, I was talking about getting a PCI riser for a TV/Radio tuner. But of course also for a sound-card, if you want to run that test, just turn your speakers up all the way while your computer is booting up, you'll hear all kinds of noise. It really all depends on the quality of your motherboard/other peripherals and your power supply, you can have on-board sound that doesn't output all kinds of noise, but it's generally best to go with a third-party sound card if you are looking for quality.

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Also, what make and model LCD touchscreen do you have? Or what size is it? If it fits nicely I'll just get one of those instead of just trying to find one.

dj55b

iTrader: (2)

Lilliput Gl-629 can be found on ebay and a few sites. Its a 7" touchscreen

Manntis

I think I'm going with the 702 - it's got the plastic surround to integrate it into the dash, but is otherwise much like the 629.

dj55b

iTrader: (2)

I liked the look of the 629 better, but this would be an interesting build too. post up pics when you get it and to show how much needs to be modified

QuiescentWonder

Oh, I thought that was a touchscreen. Does anyone have any good suggestions for touch-screens that fit right in? Or is it a touch-screen? Lilliput's website isn't the best.

Nevermind, I see that it is. If you end up trying out that headrest mount 702 model post back with pictures and let us know how it fits. This is the one that I think I'm going to get.

dj55b

iTrader: (2)

the only thing that i see about the 702 besides the look is that you will have to sand away more than you would need to using the 629. not to mention that you will need to paint it to color match or it would just look out of place.

QuiescentWonder

I didn't think you would have to sand away anything with the 629, can you show pictures of what needed to be modified? I was hoping the 702 would fit in through the front and no modifications would need to be done. I was under the impression that the 629 just fit in the back without any modifications. If anything I'd rather cut into the monitor than the car if it's just the casing that won't fit.

Also, how did you mount the 629? It looks like it could just fall out the way that it's in there.

One more thing, you can buy USB OBD-II adapters so that RoadRunner (the website is down right now) can show you all of the info from the OBD. I know OBD-II was standard starting in 1996, are there any onboard diagnostics in my 1985 RX-7? If so, are there any PC adapters for them?

Manntis

I'll need paint either way - my dash isn't the dark, dull silver of stock but a lusterous shining black metallic with clearcoat, just like the exterior.

Manntis

Nope. OBD-I was just for showing problems with the emissions systems, and was crap at providing real-world data even in a simple go/no-go readout.

dj55b

iTrader: (2)

My Screen is not fully mounted yet its just tight fit in there right now, I will be showing how its mounted as soon as i do so, been too busy working on other things right now. But as far as sanding, if you look at the bezel, you will see like a little lip around all that area correct? The one thats about 1/16" all around. Both the top and bottom of that needs to be taken out to make it slide in there. Also just a bid of sanding on the side to take a bit of stress out unless you want to crack it while going over a bump or something.

The best way that i found to take it out thanks to Martin is take a small angle grinder, i had just a grinding wheel on it, and within 30 seconds the whole thing was basically in place. THen just took one of those rubber blocks with 320 grit paper and sanded it to a smooth finish, along sanding the sides.

dj55b

iTrader: (2)

I really need to juice up my car battery to get more results, but this is what i've found out concerning current usage.

The computer and screen with its power off state but still hooked up(So basically LED Drain) is about 0.21A (.17A for the computer alone, .4 for the screen)

The only other one that I could see was the highest in the boot/DOS mode was 4.8Amps for both the screen and the computer.

Thats as far as i got because the power wasn't suffiencient to fully run the HD and stuff. I will be doing more testing of just windows fully loaded, with video play back, just audio playback, audio playback with screen off, peak Amp reading recorded, and what ever else I can think of. But I actually don't think that the whole thing would draw more than about 8-9Amps. Also all the testing would be done with all accessories connected. I will list what all was connected once full testing is done.

I would imagine playing movies might result in the highest reading, since it should use up all the pixels on the screen, use up the HD pretty good along with the Memory, and full use of the sound card all simultaneously. But only time will tell. I will try to have the battery all charged up tomorrow and should have a report of that by the end of the day.

Sam

dj55b

iTrader: (2)

So just wanted to update this thread a bit since I haven't done so in a while. But the case is basically busy. I have drilled all the holes for the fan, Hard drive, Extra USB, just need one more for power supply if I can figure how to hang that thing. the whole thing has been sprayed flat black to hide a little of the defect, its not really a show item as it would be hidden under the dash and tucked away. All the sides have been JB welded together. I'll get some pictures posted up as soon as I find out which one of my brothers took my camera.

I might get another video to show features but that won't happen till I can get Road Runner up and going. It giving me some error messages. Haven't had the time to look into that just yet.

jfachner72

I am working on something similar with a Mac Mini....

Great ideas!

dj55b

iTrader: (2)

Not a big fan of Mac's in general just because of compability issues. But props to doing something similar.

QuiescentWonder

So how's this project going? I'm looking to get mine started sometime soon.

dj55b

iTrader: (2)

The computer is all up and running as mentioned ... i'm still awaiting my shell to arrive so that I can fit it in the car... as soon as that happens i will have tons of updates on everything.

dj55b

iTrader: (2)

I thought I'd update for futher reference of others. I have a found a better thing to use as my computer case. This is only for the people that wish to remove their AC. What you do is remove the whole box from under the dash, gut out all the AC cooler stuff, and if you have any motherboard like my size, or smaller that will fit in there. Also the case can close easily with even a big sound card like mine if you wish to go for an upgraded one or anything else similar.

Now for the neat part, since the case is inbetween the blower and the heater, even if you have your heater on your will have cold air blowing through it, and the computer might even double up as a secondary smaller heater . In the summer if you just have the option on "ac" it will just allow the air to pass through as in just the blower so you still retain some cold air or if you watch your temperatures rising a bit, just turn it on to that setting on low speed and should be more than enough air to cool it down. Because there is a filter, you shouldn't get much dust in there and moisture should not be a problem taking into factor that the air feeds in from the passenger side under the wiper cowl area.

All you really need to do is cut out a hole for all your I/O to go thru. Anyways enough talking and onto the pictures.