[kg]

OK, I don't want to hear "you are missing the point etc..." if you think so go to the next thread

Anybody plan to put an aftermarket navigation system? I have looked at Alpine and Kenwood. The Kenwood seems a little better on paper.

 

[Goose]

This thread can go into electonics forum...

 

[zerepjd]

I was looking at those also. I probably will get one eventually. I wanted one for the STi but my wife brought up to good points. One was that she flexed enough with the finances in my getting the car, and the fact that the stereo that I want to put in the car is $1500 in parts alone not including installation. I'm probably getting the stereo. To include come sort of monitor and navagation also will be pushing it, and I will end up with some sort of crystal diode radio that I have to build myself.
Second was that in all reality I pobably won't take the STi on vacation or anything like that. We would more than likely take her Sport wagon and the navigation should go in that. Which I fully agree. But navigation would be cool though

Jared

 

[TaoKane]

Front End 'Clunk"?

not that this is useful to you guys, but I just use my STI as a weekend cruiser and I've found navigation both highly usefull, as well as entertaining. I'm fining new shortcuts around the city I never knew about! (LA). I actually built a small PC for my car and purchased a 7" touch LCD for the dash, I run Delorme earthmate GPS.

 

[mx270a]

TaoKane:

Do you have any pictures or specs on this system? I would like to pursue a PC based system like that myself.

Thanks,
Lance

 

[ldivinag]

garmin will be releasing a new unit that had a touch screen.

gigantic screen. street price of around $800...

http://www.garmin.com/products/sp2610_2650/index.jsp

granted it's still a portable type mount setup but still costs a lot less than a full blown one...

 

[mx270a]

4 seconds in an F1 car gets you to 105 mph...

gigantic screen. street price of around $800...

Who are you kidding? Its a 3.3" W x 1.7" H screen. I was just talking with a friend about the nav system from pioneer. It has a 6.5" touchscreen. Sounds like the nav part of it is much nicer than what comes stock in a Lexus or BMW too. Of course it has a heavy price too.

-Lance

 

[wi77iam]

TaoKane,
I'll have that same setup - small PC in the trunk, 7" VGA touchscreen LCD in the double-DIN space, Earthmate GPS. The voice commands for it are really great. You can just ask it "Where am I?" and it will say "You're heading North on This Street, approaching That Street."

Plus the PC will be my MP3 player, FM radio, and OBDII connection.

All that for not much more than the cost of that StreetPilot.

 

[gforced]

I am sorry if this is a stupid question, but what kind of computer did you build and how are you powering it? It sounds like a great idea though. Thanks

 

[mx270a]

gforced:

Seems like a lot of people are using the Mini-ITX motherboards such as the Via EPIA series due to their small size and low power requirements.
http://www.mini-itx.com/store/default.asp?c=2

For really low wattage computers, a home made DC to DC power supply can be made cheaply, but there is the Opus one that has a shutdown controller built in. This is the one I've been planning to use.
http://www.opussolutions.com/150watt.html

You can also check out the MP3 Car for more info on this....
http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/index.php

-Lance

 

[gforced]

Cool, thanks. I was looking around on the web and this looks pretty cool. Are you going to run Linux or Windows. What about the hard drive, I thought that the jarring would damage it?

 

[mx270a]

gforced:

I am planning on WinXP so I can hibernate it when I power it down. This should allow for a pretty fast startup time and winamp will continue to play exactly where it left off, just like a CD player.

I have a strong background in windows, otherwise Linux would be a good choice. Many are using it because it can easily be stripped of unnecessary apps for boot speed. Since I will probably remote start the car most of the time, boot speed isn't as critical to me.

I am going with a laptop hard drive mounted vertically so that the head won't crash into the platters when I hit a bump. It may have to re-read some data, but shouldn't be noticable to the user. Some have started using lite copies of win98 or linux stored on a flash card. These have no moving parts and read pretty fast too.

We probably ought to start a thread on the Car PC stuff here.

-Lance

 

[STIml8n]

Just went to my Stereo Installers yesterday to price out a system. BEST Show quality install with Touchscreen DVD Navigation SYstem, Dolby 5.1 Surround, 2 10W7 JL Audio Subwoofers, 3 Apms (1000, 425, 300), MB Quart Q Series Speaker, all custom mounted with Plexiglass covers with WRX and STI logos that light up Pink like the STi Logo... $17,000, just the touchscreen out of that is about 5000 for the top of the line one. If you get a screen in the car, its worth the extra money to get the Navigation. 2 Months and i'll have pics for all of you...

 

[t00h0t]

Lance,

How do you propose to control the computer? Have you found a touch screen LCD monitor that can work with it? I have seen a few touch screen monitors that have a usb connection so you can use the touch screen as a mouse. I too was looking into a Nav system, but I think I can put together a computer for a lot cheaper and have it do much more. Also have you looked into the Radio tuners for computers? I was thinking the computer would run everything (radio, mp3s, navigation, dvds&cds)

I was looking into systems like this.. http://www.logisysus.com/product/smallest-pc.htm

 

[cann]

i have a usb GPS for PC for sale if interested, it's Rand McNally NAVMAN GPS System, comes with the USB self powered detector, GPS Software w/ maps, tripmaker and all that, comes with mounts as well

$120 shipped
very new condition. works very well if u go to trips often.