Has anyone fitted a PC in their car as I want to know how to connect it to teh speakers and what did you use to change the power supply?

 

And do you know if you can get a retractable VGA touchscreen?

Mediacar - http://users.skynet.be/media-car/software.html

 

..and a custom skin for the Zed logo. Drop me a PM with your email address if you need the skin, and I'll dig it out.

Agreed - that front end looks quality!

 

Was thinking about this myself - if you have a wireless network at home, you can set it up to automatically sync your music (or any other data) with your home PC whenever you pull into to the drive/garage.

 

Very tempted to do one of these myself.

 

Rich

Looks like you've got the main unit in the boot - so what do you do about a spare tyre?

could any of this be run off a PDA instead?

 

Vijay

if the PDA runs windows CE i dont see why not, but you might have issues with VGA and memory

PDA's use a completely different processor to PC's and can't run PC software. There is however plenty of PDA software, especially GPS software such as TomTom.

where did you get the software for your touchscreen that looks amazing

 

for the music i just use playlists for windows media player

 

Now changed from using MediaCar to Frodoplayer (http://www.frodoplayer.com), and have customized it for the Zed :)

 

Screen in Car (Clarity is better than that, camera just reflects too much light)

 

 

FrontEnd

 

 

Media Playing screen (also has Visualisations option like Media player/Winamp)

 

 

GPS Navigation Screen (note customized Icon is a Black Zed :)

(Full address blanked out for security reasons on public forum)

 

 

Thats just a small sample of the screens available. Im Currently working on the Radio and TV section.

Before I changed direction and put the money towards bodywork and an engine conversion I was going to go down the In-car PC route. Not being very computer minded I found it a bit of a minefield sorting out exactly what I needed, trying to assess the best route to go down. Anyone fancy doing a FAQ outlining all the stuff you'd need and the different options available? I reckon people would be very interested! :)

 

Leigh.

just bringing this back to the top to see if anyone has any answers to Leigh's questions on what bits would be needed :)

 

Vijay

just bringing this back to the top to see if anyone has any answers to Leigh's questions on what bits would be needed :)

 

Vijay

 

Nice one Vijay, would be great if someone has time to write up an FAQ for this! ;)

 

Leigh.

ok...I'll see what I can do....watch this space.....

Legrath - you could go into business with this man - my local top end in car system shop is way behind you !

Legrath - you could go into business with this man - my local top end in car system shop is way behind you !

 

 

Ive worked out how and where to put my rig, how much its all going to cost, and the best part.....

 

Even a techno retard like myself can sort this on me own its that easy. As to teh front end, I dont care what it looks like as long as I can play me movies, sounds, radio and games.

 

all installed for........ £700

Ive worked out how and where to put my rig, how much its all going to cost, and the best part.....

 

Even a techno retard like myself can sort this on me own its that easy. As to teh front end, I dont care what it looks like as long as I can play me movies, sounds, radio and games.

 

all installed for........ £700

It might not be "rocket science" mate and good for you for sorting it out, but there are a lot of different options out there and as this subject often comes up for discussion a FAQ is still a good idea, whether you're a "techno retard" or not.

when i fit it Ill write a FAQ

 

but it will need checking as im ok with short bits but mr dyslexia comes along big time with long stuff

Any update with this guys?

 

Vijay

sory mate. been a bit busy.

 

As soon as I have better weatehr and a bit of time ill fit it, take pics and do the FA"Q

Just looking for a list of bits needed ;)

 

Vijay

Actually I'd be pretty interested in doing this. I've just bought my Z, and at the moment it has some after-market speakers. I'm assuming they're all Pioneer as these are what I have on the doors, but don't know about the others. I also have a CD / tape player but they're the world's worst (who the heck are Bijo?!?) and aren't wired in anyway. So I'm wondering what to do for ICE. I was just going to get a CD / MP3 / DAB player but I'd quite like sat nav as well, so now I'm thinking about this whole PC issue myself.

 

That said I don't want to lose my spare wheel (even though I think it's of a smaller diameter than the wheels) and can't afford to give up much boot space as I still need to be able to get my guitar in there. The latter is absolutely non-negotiable. But I will feel like a complete tart if I ever get a puncture and have to call out the AA or whoever to sort it out because my car is too bling for a spare wheel.

BTW. vijay, that's a nice car you've got there. Why don't you post a bigger picture. Looks a lot like a car I was thinking of buying from a dealer up Newcastle way around September last year.

Legrath, what are you using for sat nav software? Great setup BTW. Like your centre gauges very much. Do you have some sort of PCI card for the radio or something?

I'd ideally like to do something slightly different with the screen, in that since I'm just ripping out the existing system I'll have both slots free so what I'd really like is if I could embed the screen in the dash in this position and maybe have some sort of cover I could pull down over it.

Sorry for the delay guys, I just been soooo busy at work lately. Im back in the UK tomorrow, so will try and get a decent FAQ written up by the weekend.

I'd ideally like to do something slightly different with the screen, in that since I'm just ripping out the existing system I'll have both slots free so what I'd really like is if I could embed the screen in the dash in this position and maybe have some sort of cover I could pull down over it.

 

This was one of my original plans, and Autobeast has done something similar which looks really good.

 

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/edward.steele/website/my%20300zx%20twin%20turbo/ICE/ice%20center.htm

 

The problem is though the angle of the dash console means a fixed angled screen would not be viewable. You would need to be able to pivot the screen once in place.

Cheers Legrath. I can see your point about the fixed angle screen. I thought about it some more last night and also realised that you might end up with reflection problems as well. The one thing that does worry me with the non-embedded screen is that some little twerp might decide to do a smash and grab job on it because he quite likes the look of it.

 

The other problem with the fixed screen is that it doesn't fit so will with something else I'd like to do: cruise control. Turns out my Z doesn't have cruise control, and even if it did it'd be limited to 65 mph, so what I'd like to do is hook the PC up to the consult interface and implement some sort of cruise control software accessed via the touch-screen. Whether I'll actually find the time to do this is a whole different matter... but that's what I'd like to do.

 

Cheers,

Bart