Well everything is finally set up and working (Except for my rear-usb-cam which should be done soon). I made a small website with prices on components and installation pictures which i hope would make it easier than a huuuge thread...
All for under 500 bucks... this is for the pure DIY enthusiast.. thanks to leemik & others for help from the mp3car forum...

Click on the "Car-Computer Project link"
Website with Pictures of Car computer

Features :-
Touch-screen : DVD player : GPS Navigation (Routis 2004) with Voice : Bluetooth Phone-Integration : Internet (Real-time traffic data) : MP3/AAC/Wma player : Rear-usb-cam(installation pending)

Here are a few thumbnails for those who aren't thaaaat interested ...

 

Well done looks very nice and clean

Az

 

VERY NICE. Well done.

 

Dude thats awesome! I want one. I especially like the dodgeball video. I know its prob too much to ask but.. how about a write-up.

 

That looks nice. Please do a write up on how its done.

 

too few hours in the day... but if you have a list of questions feel free to pm me ... i listed prices etc & links on that website so that everyone can have one ... all you need is decent pc-knowledge.
Briefly:-
Took my old dell computer, hacked out the motherboard, mounted it onto the lower tray of the glovebox.Mounted the Hard disk there too. The power supply is connected via switches in my center console to a power inverter which is connected to my battery. See the pictures for each week and you'll get a good idea. For more information on GPS,power supply , Software, check out www.mp3car.com

 

Damn, all you cali folks do all the cool stuff.

 

here are the schematics i had drafted before i started building my pc ... (just in case anyone was interested)

 

Looks really great Warren!!!!

--mike

 

That looks great, I want to do the same thing but instead I want to keep the stock headunit, what is the best way to replace all the speakers and add a amp and have both carpc and HU go to the amp?

 

So how does it power up/down? Does it have to restart everytime you start your car? I know the answer is too complicated to list.

 

there is a low voltage regulator circuit that prevents restarting on enging "crank". but i wanted the ability to totally shut it off if necessary, that explains the little kill switch in the ashtray...

 

most likely you won't be able to that since the stock HU does not have any kind of input.. i may be wrong but i didn't get a chance to play around with the stock HU... that ol P.O.S. is sitting in my attic... lol ...

 

here's a screenshot of phone-control ...

 

could i use a y rca adapter to the
amp? would that sound good?

 

very nice!!!!!

 

here's what i used : -



this is connected directly on one end to my alpine and the other two rca inputs are connected to a stereo->RCA cable coming from the computer. Perfect mp3's ... can't tell the difference from my HU mp3 player

 

Exactly what I want. Except instead of using a PC Mother board, I want one of those small pc boxes you can mount in a car.

 

see i am sick of my stuff getting stolen so i want to keep the stock HU, so I was goin to get a line converter to RCA's and bring the carpc RCA's to a Y splitter and feed them to a 4 ch alpine amp to alpine R's, but will the sound be ok with the splitter or will i get feedback?? is there anyway to a switch or something to avoid feedback?

thanks

 

am not that much of an audio-guru... you'll need some audio-guru to give u a clue on that one.... anything computer-related, i'm here