I finally completed my Car PC this weekend. You'll forgive me for not posting the entire writup here. I am posting it multiple places so I'm just going to post the main pic here and link you to the full write-up with lots more detail and more pictures.

Regards,

eXe

 

I wouldn't do that to my car... My respects to your brilliant ideas but it does not work for me.

 

is there no cover behind the screen? otherwise, a nice install.

 

No cover yet. Long story.

Just curious Lschiavo: What didn't you like? The main reason I chose under the glove box and a small-footprint PC was to keep it as close to stock as possible. I still use the stock head unit, etc. Any ideas on how to improve it are welcome.

 

doesn't look complete to me.... otherwise a tremendous effort.

good luck on resolving the cover issue. that's really the only thing left to complete..

 

I just would not remove the nav to put another screen there.... Why do u want to have a pc in your car???

 

it doesn't looks as though he had Nav in the first place--it looks good tho.

 

I bet he is waiting for the r-magic piece from canzoomer...then it will look pretty good (1-din never cuts the cake)

 

DreRX8 is right. I didn't buy the stock navi. The reason is that I completed this whole project for about the same price as I would have paid for the stock navi.

As to why I would want a PC, there are several reasons:

1. Navigation. I can get much better PC navigation then is available in most cars. And all the maps are put on the HDD. I can easily download map updates when their available for my region. Plus, there is the option of real-time traffic alerts on the maps if I eventually get a cellular Internet hookup or use my WiFi connection before I pull out of the garage.

2. Music. I have 120GB of music and videos on the external HDD. That's every CD I've ever owned and plenty of demo CD's I've downloaded. The display swivels so the driver cant see it, which means passengers can watch music videos while I drive. They could watch a DVD too, but that would annoy me since I couldn't watch the picture and drive at the same time. At least with the videos I can still enjoy the music.

3. XM Radio. Sure I could have bought a Roady or other alternative, but I bought the XMPCR. It's a USB-based XM radio that I can take into work or into the house or - now - listen to in the car. I can change channels on the screen and no matter where I want to listen to it, I only pay ONE montly subscription.

4. Books on MP3. Again, I could have bought the stock MP3 player for the 8. But then I would have to keep up with at least one disc for every book. Now I can load several 'books' onto the HDD and just go from one to the next.

5. Entertainment. If I'm ever waiting for someone at the airport or any other place, I can connect a USB game controller and load up my favorite emulators.

6. Ease of use. My Car PC uses a 7" touch screen. No fubling with joystics (although I've heard the stock navi joystick is actually very easy to use).

A car PC can just do SO much more then a plain old navigation system. Not only that, it's been sort of a hobby project for me. There are whole sites dedicated to Car PCs, like www.mp3car.com. It's not for everyone, but I think I'm going to enjoy it. Especially since I spend nearly two hours on the road each day.