My Carputer Build Thread v2.0 - Update PG 3 - Molding Monitor In-Dash Process

[BXX]

Ok... no go on the CF card as a HDD.. Im not impressed with the performance really. I would need a very expensive 60mb/s or faster CF card or a good SSD which is expensive as well.

 

The CF card works good in my Tablet, but I can deal with some lag in turn for 2 more hours of battery run time..

 

Im gonna download XPe and go from there. Thats a shit ton of downloads... Prolly start them tonight.

 

Im gonna play with XP some more tonight and see what I can do.. I know for know I can trim more services that arent needed for now (networking) and should shave a few seconds off.

 

And im gonna buy a cheap stick of ram off ebay tonight to add a bit more to this. Prolly just another 256 stick or 512, whichever is found cheaply.

[BXX]

Ok, with all network services still running, the speed is fast enough where im not gonna deal with XPe

 

31 seconds - time from when I turn the computer on to the point Centrafuse starts loading

48 seconds - time from power on to Centrafuse finished loading and up and running.

 

 

Well, gonna eliminate network services, prolly shave 3-5 seconds and that will be great for now.

 

 

 

 

 

[bodeen2007]

if i can find a screen i have a eeepc to use that is collecting dust

[BXX]

if i can find a screen i have a eeepc to use that is collecting dust

 

Thats a start. But you gotta deal with having the pc close buy so you can turn it on with the power button.

 

I prefer the method im going with, more expensive but better results. Of course your route lets to do a setup and see if a carputer is for you, like I did in the past, and then later on you can do it big!

 

Plus having everything in the trunk done custom will look cool, and its kinda one of those, install it and forget it kinda things.

 

I got my GPS maps downloaded, copied them to the HDD where they needed to be and they work!!

 

Now I need a SIRF III usb GPS unit.. They are only like $30.

 

And with my boot time pretty quick, im wondering if I should even go with a 7200rpm HDD. Guess I should wait until a get a better mobo with SATA2 and spend the money on a OCZ SSD.

 

Right now im close to having the major things to do the install. Just need the PSU. The minor things are the GPS unit, custom do the monitor in the trim panel, and some cables.

 

Told my GF I would buy her a Wii before I get anything else, so I will just tinker with what I have until after we move..

[Jonpro03]

Are you getting a shutdown controller?

[BXX]

Are you getting a shutdown controller?

 

Im buying the M4-ATX.

 

http://store.mp3car.com/M4_ATX_250W_Intelligent_DC_DC_PSU_p/pwr-031.htm

[Dirty Rockstar]

I'm watching this thread now.. This is something I have been wanting to do for sometime now. Great work thus far

[BXX]

Well now that the move to the new house is complete Ive been able to start hitting up my garage to get some things done.

 

Started getting the monitor molded into that factory radio/hvac bezel.

 

What I am doing with this is taking the existing radio bezel and cutting the cutout larger. I took the monitor apart and took the front piece, cut off where the buttons were (they are on a seperate board so I can relocate them) and molding the front piece into the bezel with ABS paste to secure it and then using some body filler to fill in the gaps and give the contour I want. FYI im using USC Chromate Light filler. So far its been great to work with. Dries quickly and easy to sand

 

Once its done, all I have to do is screw the actual monitor screen to the front trim panel that I molded into the bezel and then put on the rear of the monitor housing and it all screws together.

 

Here are some progress pics. Not much done so far really. The most of the time will be spend sanding it down to where I want it and smoothing everything else. Im gonna have to get some glazing putty to fill in any pinholes and such, some primer, and the paint im gonna use.

 

The last pic is after I did part of a rough sanding so I can see what other areas need to be built up. I didnt take a pic but I applied the last layer of filler that I will need.

 

Maybe tomorrow after work or within the next couple days I can level everything out and finish the sanding and have it ready for paint on Sunday

 

[BXX]

And another update!!

 

Got everything sanded, looks pretty damn good (im no expert though) but it isnt perfect. Not really looking for perfection on it.

 

 

Here the sanding is halfway done on the one side and the other has a black spray paint that I was using as a guide coat to see my high and low spots.

 

 

Both sides almost smoothed out 100%. I did some sanding and shaping, applied a guide coat to check my progress about 3 times so I didnt have tons of waves

 

 

1 coat of paint applied

 

 

2nd coat on, looking better!! (the lighting makes things look so uneven btw)

 

 

Since I cant just mount the LCD to the trim panel and get the board and back on there without HVAC control interference, I had to get a bit creative (well sort of) The LCD attatches to the trim, while the circuit board is velcro'd very securely to the LCD. Since nothing will really be anywhere near behind it, im not worried about the circuit board being bare.

 

 

Its attached and the upper thin board is theree LED and button board. I have a remote to turn it on and off and everything else so this will be hidden, I just need to reloate the remote sensor off the board and somewhere. Its easily removed and just need to solder on 3 extension wires.

 

[tdvs]

How well does this USC Chromate Light filler stick to the plastic, and where did you get it?

[BXX]

How well does this USC Chromate Light filler stick to the plastic, and where did you get it?

 

Pretty damn good as far as I can tell. I got it at a local auto parts store that sells PPG and other autobody stuff. They are a Federated Auto Parts store as far as I can tell. A lot of Carquest and Napa places have a nice line of autobody supplies

 

Ill update this when I get home from work, but the panel is in right now. :mrgreen:

[BXX]

Ok, time to update this a bit.

 

The monitor is done and installed with longer cable going to the trunk where the actual computer will be. See my other thread for the monitor build and install with tons of pics.

 

http://www.w-body.com/showthread.php/45873-Completed-Install-Indash-8-quot-widescreen-touchscreen-VGA-monitor

 

 

 

I got the M2-ATX power supply in last week, so all I need at this point is a 15ft USB cable to upfront with a 4 port hub that I will mount in my center console. Then to run wires to the trunk to power and trigger the psu.

 

Tomorrow I gotta fix my trunk leaks if I have time. I was able to pinpoint them today at work since I was bored. Just a bit of seam sealer in the rain channel and gotta adjust the trunk seal on one side where it has a 3" gap where it doesnt hit the trunk.

 

I have 2 more panels to finish this week for the trunk. The hard panel is already done. But I think im gonna go ahead and build the speaker box now since I will just integrate it into the trunk floor rearward mount panel. That will also make a cleaner look and make life easy. Ill just find dimensions for the cutout for a Kicker S12L7 (Which I will eventually get)

 

And for sound, I need to get an amp off a friend who lives in Mansfield. Its a 4-channel Infinity and then run speaker wire to my stock speakers. Down the road after my exhaust is fixed I will replace the speakers with Infinity Reference components and maybe swap out the 4-channel amp for a 5-channel unit.

 

So lots to do!! If I get out to the car tomorrow, ill take some pics of the trunk to give y'all and idea on what going down back there!

[GP1138]

How do you find the leaks? Fog/smoke machine?

[BXX]

Nope, I was at work. Had one of my coworkers hose down the trunk with a water hose while i looked between the rear buckets into the trunk with a flashlight. There are Vert rear seats but no backing panel in place yet since the vert one wont fit a coupe. I'll eventually source a coupe panel for the rear buckets.

 

Oh yeah, picked this bad mofo up last night from a buddy!.

 

Infinity 7540a 4-channel 111 Watt rms x4 @ 4 ohm.. CEA compliant.

 

 

So now its a matter of getting the trunk sealed. Picking up some wiring (amp, wire for the PSU and computer switch/leds, speaker wire) next week, I need to make sure I dont have any in the garage first or at my buddies. Hes gonna look for the 1/0 cause if he still does, it goes to me with the amp. Ill just use a distro block and relolate the battery at that time.

[BXX]

Well, with the help of my hammer to knock the lip in the trunk for the trunk seal back up and into shape and some seal sealer, all the trunk leaks should be fixed. Its supposed to rain tomorrrow as well.

 

And incase my spoiler was leaking as well, I removed it, and on both the outside and inside where the spoiler bolts to, there are now rubber washers that I cut out of a piece of rubber seal sheet. It should never leak now.

 

Worked on getting the board setup which holds everything, excuse the crappy cellphone pic, im still trying to get used to the new phone.

 

[BXX]

Still gotta straighten out some wires and such and make the GPS reciever look neater. And of course do the actual install which is still prolly 2 weeks away if it ever happens, im actually looking at a different car right now. Just depends on whether I get it or now which really depends on them giving me something for the Cutlass in trade.

[BXX]

Went out last night, picked up 100ft of speaker wire for cheap (aka Walmart Scosche) with will work fine.

 

Bought off ebay a 15ft USB extension and a 4 port hub which will reside in my center console. My GF had be buy a hub shaped like a fish.lol

Also picked up 20ft of 8ga power wire for the amp of ebay for $10 shipped. Keeping costs down is the plan!! No use spending $30 on an amp kit loacally when all I need is the power wire.

 

The board that hold the computer and stufff is pretty much done. Just need to secure the wires underneath the board.

 

Gonna start the install prolly monday night after work. Im off tuesday and wednesday so I have plenty of time to get some install stuff needed if I realize I need something.

 

So im excited and really ready to this to go in. Once I get the USB cable and hub and power wire in, then I will get those in and everything will be done except buying the interace to the SWRC and a ELM323 OBD2 interface. Both of which really arent needed at this time. I may go with a bluetooth unit eventually and try to get my phone to work handsfree after I work the bugs out of the system.

[BXX]

Install was started as planned last night, about to go out there shortly and continue it.

 

Amp wire run, along with the door panels tore off and new wire run for all 4 speakers. Unfortunately I found Bose speakers in my doors. Date stamped 1/19/90. Prolly from a Vette or Caddy. Either way they are 1ohm and my amp is gonna hate them, so for the time being Im gonna run them differently at the amp to get the load up so my amp doesnt clip and go straight into protect. New speakers all the way around will be top priority in the following weeks.

 

Just finishing up touches of the computer board and its time to start putting everything in. For the carputer PSU, im gonna run the constant and ground jumped from the amp terminals. It will save on wiring through the car and the amp wire will provide enough current and the PSU is fused to so all will be well.

 

Just gotta run an ignition wire to the PSU. Not sure where im gonna tap into yet, Ill figure out an ideal location as I go. May just tap it off the HVAC control wiring since I already tapped into the radio wiring for the monitor.

[Jonpro03]

I was thinking about switched sources close to the trunk and the only thing I could think of was the fuel pump:p

 

So you'll prolly have to run wire. There's a switched line on the radio harness you could use.

[Addicted2bass]

Install was started as planned last night, about to go out there shortly and continue it.

 

Amp wire run, along with the door panels tore off and new wire run for all 4 speakers. Unfortunately I found Bose speakers in my doors. Date stamped 1/19/90. Prolly from a Vette or Caddy. Either way they are 1ohm and my amp is gonna hate them, so for the time being Im gonna run them differently at the amp to get the load up so my amp doesnt clip and go straight into protect. New speakers all the way around will be top priority in the following weeks.

 

Just finishing up touches of the computer board and its time to start putting everything in. For the carputer PSU, im gonna run the constant and ground jumped from the amp terminals. It will save on wiring through the car and the amp wire will provide enough current and the PSU is fused to so all will be well.

 

Just gotta run an ignition wire to the PSU. Not sure where im gonna tap into yet, Ill figure out an ideal location as I go. May just tap it off the HVAC control wiring since I already tapped into the radio wiring for the monitor.

The 1 ohm bose speakers were running off of the factory radio?? Wtf?

[BXX]

The 1 ohm speakers were running off the Blazer radio Rob (Venom) put in the car after the GP dash install. I was always wondering why the radio got so hot, dimmed every music note, and generally sounded like crap like it was clipping. Its because it was with those damn Bose speakers.

 

Im almost done with the install for now aside from cosmetic trunk carpet (need to paint my existing side pieces) and I still need to wait to get the USB extension and HUB to route that into my center console, Ill do that at a later date

 

Gotta get the rear seat back in, both door panels back on, and the center console back in. Im leaving the front speakers out for now, im not gonna risk trashing this amp.

 

I had everything hooked up and then had an issue. When I hit the brake switch the carputer and amp reset.. Fuuuuuuuu!!!! Not thinking, the wire I tapped into for the remote turn on signal to the carputer PSU and amp was the wire at the center console for the shift lock.. Hit the pedal and it goes to 0volt and the solenoid releases. Except 0V doesnt keep on my carputer:p Just found a different switched source and its all good. However im thinking of installing a switch later to 12V constant so I can manually control the carputer.

 

And heres a few pics..

 

 

[BXX]

And another thing I noticed.. A couple boot ups resulted in an error showing no operating system. I reset the system and all is well.

 

Either the HDD im using sucks, or its a mobo issue with the power system.

 

I have the bios set to turn the computer on automatically when power is restored. While it does that fine after the usual 2 or 3 'false boots' that may be causing the issue where the mobo isnt seeing my HDD..

 

Ill dig more into that later.

[WrathOfSocrus]

This is great stuff! I too have been building a carputer, albeit at a much slower pace. I went with the M3-ATX. I'm using an old socket 754 AMD on and NF61S board slightly smaller than Micro ATX at 9.6" X 8.2". At first I was a little worried about the low wattage of that PSU but it works great so far. I have been using Crystal CPUID to underclock and undervolt my processor to keep temps down and reduce electrical draw (I think it only works to change speeds on AMD but ClockGen and other programs might be able to adjust FSB, multiplier, and voltage if your motherboard doesn't have those options in BIOS).

 

There are a lot of trick for reducing boot times. I shut off EVERYTHING in BIOS that isn't needed. Make sure the floppy drive is marked as not present and disable floppy seek (unless you need to use a floppy). I turn off the serial and parallel ports so the computer doesn't waste time assigning things to ports that will never be used. Making certain the actual boot drive is first on the boot sequence is also important (unless you need to boot from CD to load your OS or the like, in which case the boot sequence can be temporarily changed around to suit your needs). Most preassembled computers do not have great BIOS control of things like memory timings (or like Gigabyte boards that hide it until you hit ctrl+F1) but if you are able to change the settings to optimize performance it will decrease boot times significantly compared to the 'safe' default settings. You might have to read your RAM or check out CPU-Z for memory timings at certain bus speeds and voltages (I believe CPU-Z reads it directly from the RAM and displays suggested timings).

 

That's just on BIOS side of boot up. In windows you can pick a solid color background so it doesnt have to load a picture, disable all programs that load on boot (except your media player or other essentials) and also keep the quick launch clear. Unless you are connecting directly to the internet via wireless or plugging the car in at home, you probably wont need anti virus and such. There are tricks like unloading fonts not needed so they don't load, disable the windows splash screen, there are lots of books on 'hacking' the OS to suit your needs. I'm sure you already know most of these but I pride myself on quick boot times and these tricks have helped even the lowliest of P2's and P3's to boot XP in around half a minute.

 

Also on the random no OS issue, it could be the ATA controller. I have had a ton of older boards lose one. I was able to use the second ATA connector and run a hard drive on master and the optical drive on slave in order to do an install, connecting the hard drive like that slows it down but after the install you can unplug the optical drive and be set. You could try hooking the drive you have now to the other controller and see if the problem persists. You may have to readjust BIOS setting for this (in case you turned of the second ATA controller or to adjust boot sequence).

 

I'm jealous of your touch screen and mod skills to fit that up front without looking out of place. Excellent work man! Can't wait to see more!

Edited April 21, 2010 by WrathOfSocrus

[BXX]

Well the boot up is 100% correct now. Found the issue.

 

With the M2-ATX set in the prefered mode 2, it shuts down the 5-volt rails after 2 minutes. I had it that way, didnt have the wires from the PSU to the mobo that sends an 'On' signal and the BIOS set to boot upon power restore. Well aparently this mobo hates having the 5volt rail turned off.

 

I now have the PSU in mode 3, 5 second shutdown, 5volt rail always on (unless voltage underlevel) and I figured out the 'On' signal wire to my mobo. Works perfect everytime now. No more issues with it not seeing the IDE channel.

 

Im tired right now so im done in the garage, everything is together including my door panels. I decided to hook up the Bose speakers. I tested them for a few minutes and my amp didnt seem to mind at all. Damn things actually are really clear.

 

Tomorrow im gonna try the PSU in mode 2 again (better on battery drain) and see if just having the 'On' signal from the PSU to the mobo will correct it not seeing the IDE the first time.

 

I boot through BIOS within 5 seconds. XP boots up in around 45 seconds to a minute from there. I have it booting to Centrafuse as the default shell. I also have all not needed services disabled and no startup programs either, except Xport, I forgot to install so my GPS isnt working right now. Xport uses like nothing as far as memory..

[BXX]

The computer im using seems to perform quite well so far.

 

IBM Netvista 8303 Mobo

P4 2.26ghz Northwood core (533FSB, Socket 478, 512k L2)

512mb PC2100 Ram (OUCH!!!!)

10GB 2.5" 4200rpm HDD (Small and was just laying around)

 

It will work well for now. PSU seems to have no issues with the computers power draw.

 

The slow ass ram and low amount of it along with the 4200rpm IDE HDD are keeping things slow. Still a decent boot time however.

 

In the future i'll be doing a mini ITX setup with a SATA HDD and DDR2 ram.