Another Prius CarPC

ibcs · Feb 21, 2006

Thanks for the pictures. I just ordered the motorized screen from Short-Circuit.com. I ordered the touchscreen and the computer parts from them.

I searched every web site and as of today, they do not make a Monitor with touch screen that includes a DVD player. I'm going to get an external USB drive to hook up to the computer to play DVD's. I wanted the touch screen for safety more than the DVD player.

I already have the Verizon wireless Internet card from work, so I will add a external antenna along with an amplifier for the wireless Internet to maintain connection throughout the state. Yes, I like the Internet.

I'll send pictures once the weather breaks.

I also purchased the Kenwood KSC-SW1 sub-woofer to be installed into my baby.

squirrelal · Feb 22, 2006

Originally posted by ScubaX@Feb 20 2006, 03:49 AM
squirrela,

How is the LCD working out for you? Any problems?

mrbigh, where are you planning on putting a 10" monitor?

[snapback]212933[/snapback]
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Except for some glare during the daytime, everything works pretty great. Hopefully I can figure out how to program a day gamma, backlight setting, or something with the xenarc to make things more pleasant.

When the car starts in below 40 weather, it seems like the boot time increases quite a bit: about a minute, instead of about 35 seconds. The GPS sensor also (maybe obviously) starts up faster depending on the weather.

Above all, everything so far has made the driving experience much more pleasant!

DocToss · Feb 22, 2006

One suggestion for a car computer may be the new dualcor.com computer. When it comes out I may try it and see.

Presto · Feb 22, 2006

^^^
That is a slick device. It would work nicely as a basic all-in-one carpc. You'd just need to hook up power and sound and mount it. Great option for people that don't want too much setup hassle

ilusnforc · May 7, 2006

Has anyone found any other solutions for the touchscreen? I just picked up my '06 yesterday and I want to install a voompc with a touchscreen in the map slot. I like that the door can still close to conceal the screen, but I do not like that it does not slide in and out smoothly.

Travisx2 · Apr 20, 2007

Has anyone had any luck patching a carPC like this into the MFD? Utilizing the touch screen functionality also?
(Other than the mac mini car PC thing)

gbrrs · Jun 3, 2007

This is my first post at Priuschat. I was wondering about the Skin that your cousin Presto was working on. I really like how it matches the Prius GUI! Your post was the main inspiration for me to put a carpc into my prius. The install is clean, stealthy and seems to be quite functional. I've already made a few mods to my prius: Lockpick, Valor iLink L2 and a hitch. Here's the rundown on the new carpc install.

Vista C7 1.5GHz MB
M2-ATX 160W DC-DC Pwr Supply
VOOM PC Enclosure
P0701 Touch Screen (7-inch)
Garmin GPS18
SW: XP, Roadrunner, Garmin nRoute and City Navigator
[attachmentid=8467][attachmentid=8468]
I'm not sure if any of the previous mods will be helpful to the carpc install. Is there anything else that I need for the carpc system? I'm still waiting for the components to arrive so I'm looking for info before I dismantle my dash.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(squirrelal @ Feb 7 2006, 12:19 AM) [snapback]204995[/snapback]</div>

Here it is. Another 2005 Prius install. I looked around on the Net everywhere for the right parts, trying to find other Prius or similar installs that might help. Crazily enough, the only one I could find on the Net was my cousin Presto's install. After a month of research and sucking it up, I got all the parts in time for his visit last week. I suspect we got right to business more because he can't live without a computer in the car than anything else! Just kidding.

I ended up buying the following parts based on looking around the mp3car.com boards and reading up on Prius Chat for which auxilliary input adapters to use. Ultimately, I went with the PAC Aux-Box, which I will go over later. I think I did a thorough job finding things for the best price that was out there; let's just say all told, this project set me back almost $800. Here are the parts:

Essential Parts:
VIA EPIA MII12000
M1-ATX
DigitalWW DWW-7VGA
WD 160gb PATA HDD
512mb Kingston RAM
PAC Aux-Box
Peripherals PXHTY3

Stuff I Had Already:
Delorme Earthmate GPS
Motorola Wireless Card

Wires, etc.
RCA 6' 1/8"-RCA cable
Belkin VGA Extension Cable
USB extension cable
USB 2.0 non-powered mini hub
electrical wire, fuses, banana plug jacks

The Install
This is the computer and its "case" that my dad helped me assemble with a few scrap pieces from one of those fake laminate wood bookcases. It's an H shape case with the mobo and power supply on one side and the HDD mounted on the underside. Very nifty.

Everything detaches in a couple minutes, thanks in part to the very handy banana plugs that connect the battery and such to the M1-ATX. We used the male ends on the PC side and female jacks on the car/battery side.

After buying all the wires and cables and such, my cousin and I got off to a really fast pace around 3pm. The whole dashboard and stereo assembly was taken apart in about 15 minutes. Since he's done it so many times, the many times that followed after were also a breeze. As Prius owners may know, you have to pull out virtually every other part on the dash to get access to the stereo.

The goal and the only reasonable place to mount a screen would be in the map slot under the stereo. We removed this. Armen at DigitalWW was helpful in hooking me up with the DWW-7VGA, which after a lot of guesswork and referring to other installs, looked like it would clear the approx. 1.5" lip from the front of the map slot to the front of the stereo unit.

Unfortunately, we had to remove the faceplate from the front of the DWW-7VGA. The mounting system really needs that faceplate to stop the whole screen from coming out. Therefore, the piece with the map slot door had to serve this function. After several trial and error attempts, we ultimately found that the spikes holding the map slot (which needed to be removed for the install anyway) were the perfect place to drill holes that lined up with those on the screen enclosure.

As my cousin told me, getting the screen to fit in right is the hardest part. He couldn't have been more right!

The Aux-Box went in perfectly and sounds great. The difference in volume from CD/FM output to the MII12000's was only about 10 units or so higher, 20 in the case of video files. The Aux-Box seemed to create interference with a few radio stations when the computer was on, but I doubt I'll be listening to the radio much now with all my MP3s at hand.

My cousin handled the electrical quite well. The ignition switch came from the cigarette lighter inside the center console. The power came from the battery in the trunk.

We lost about two hours when we realized that there was no slack on the Xenarc ribbon cable for the extra 1/2" or so that we needed the mounting system of the DWW-7VGA to come out. The adjustment was fairly simple, but pretty complex to execute as the monitor was all already neatly wired into the car, and the housing had to stay mounted in the stereo.
Finally, everything worked out, and as you can see, the install is fairly discrete. Like my cousin's install, the computer is sitting under the driver's seat. We found that the Earthmate GPS fit and worked well in the little front corner window on the dirver's side.

Photo of that to come.

Conclusions On The Install
The car hasn't been optimized (to the max!) yet, but boot time is about 30 seconds. The total install time was probably about 6 or 7 hours to get everything in, and another 2 or 3 to get everything fine tuned. The powers that be did not leave us the good fortune of installing an EV mode button for the Prius... The re-adjusted monitor goes in and out somewhat well. It is just a bit tough to tuck back in at times. I may look into other options in the future.

The Software
As for software, I tested a bunch of different engines out from the mp3car.com boards and found that RoadRunner had all the features I wanted: separate and accessible video and audio libraries, access to iGuidance from within the front end, a scrollbar, and playback from the last position after booting up. I'm sure other front ends would've worked as well, but I chose RoadRunner.

To go with it, I created a skin that my cousin and I beta tested throughout the week. The skin is not quite done, and it doesn't completely match the color scheme yet. However, as you might be able to tell, the skin is based on the Prius' touchscreen design, blue setting. It's basically designed for somewhat intuitive control for my and my cousin's needs, but I hope that when I do share the skin, it could be the right choice for others (even non-Prius drivers).

I'm pretty happy with all the results. Using the aux input and map slot, I'm very pleased that the changes made to the car are still quite transparent.

Thanks again to Presto for all the great help and support! B)
[/b]
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Another Prius CarPC

ibcs New Member

squirrelal New Member

DocToss Junior Member

Presto Has his homepage set to PC

ilusnforc Member

Travisx2 New Member

gbrrs New Member

Attached Files:

P0701.jpg

VOOM_carpc.jpg

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Another Prius CarPC

ibcs New Member

squirrelal New Member

DocToss Junior Member

Presto Has his homepage set to PC

ilusnforc Member

Travisx2 New Member

gbrrs New Member

Attached Files:

P0701.jpg

VOOM_carpc.jpg