meet "buntacar"

Alright guys, yeah it's a work in progress but it's far enough along now that I wanted to share it. While I could have done screenshots, i wanted to get the actual screen going into the car so it was more on par with the actual system. Thankfully, while a cheaper screen it came with rear video for a backup camera, hdmi and does decent 1080i, for a vehicle it's great.

I got fed up one day with crappy GPS and having everything on my phone and I was not intrested in getting an entune system or any other headunit so I decided to build my own. It's a minimal install of ubuntu with xfce as the environment. From there I cleaned it up, made a few changes such as burg and new images for plymouth to tie it into 'toyota land' (I'll share the image it's a good background if anyone else does something similar) and went through several setups for the media interface.

I started with xbmc then left it to try individual media for the music, and then video but decided it wasn't worth it. I wanted it to be in library mode. I know, I shouldn't be watching videos, BUT thanks to this being built off a pc (thin enough to hide under a seat or some fabing of the spare tire styrofoam as I won't be giving up my spare) I can add more monitors such as the one to a backseat so my son can watch video while I have the GPS on the one at the dash side, or I can have GPS on the front, and games in the back etc.

Video games are basic classics nothing heavy, and I've got a powered usb hub to add to it, with touch screen and a gps reciever taking up the only two I had I need about 4 more more, two for controllers for the back seat as well as two thumb drives one for music, another for video as well as being able to update video drive, copy files such as save locations to bring into the house for those really long 8 hour drives.

So, next thing was GPS system. Thanks to a bit of a google search I went with iGO as I can update the maps as need be and if I want I can do it via a small usb drive or wifi since it's built in as well as bluetooth. I'm waiting for a touch overlay (ebay about 15 bucks) for my 7 in screen as the usb overlays work decently enough on bigger screens. Last thing was on screen keyboard, which when I was setting up the system, I had the option to install the 'touch package' from the ubuntu servers. Included everything I need so I'm about ready to start installing into the car.

I'm still coming up with a decent mount system for the front as I'm keeping the stock head unit for now (in the future I will probably pull it and mount this in it's place) as I don't have a HD radio receiver for the pc yet. But when it comes there is a company that sells adapters for the steering wheel to pc controls so I can use it for volume, screen change etc. For now I'm thinking a flip up (from ciggerate lighter area) or even just a 'temp' mount that uses a mount such as those you see in police cars, they cost about 30 bucks and I don't mind, this way I can use it in the back after I remove the main radio and use it for a rear mount.

Comments and or suggestions? Especially for a temp mount!
If anyone ever wants, I can make a zip of modified xbmc skin and the startup scripts so everything just starts on login etc.

 

I'm going to be taking it back downstairs with me in a minute to take a look at a few ideas, that was one of them, another is inside the glovebox and a swing out mount, granted that might be more of a paint then I want but would be better hidden. The backseat one will when all is said in done be under the seat unless I pull it out via a swing arm type of mount, thats on the bottom of the to-do list though.

And yes, it's 7 inchs. They run about 56 on amazon I just got it shipped a couple of weeks ago and it came pretty quick.