aggie300zx

Very nice! Glad to hear you have everything up and running!

Quick question, it appears that you are running Street Atlas 2003. If so, have you found a way to increase the font size and/or type for the street names. Also, what resolution are you running your PC?

Scott

all_bark

iTrader: (5)

my navigation is delome 4.0 with downloaded updates and I have no idea what size my resolution is!

I do not think the font is changable on the navigation.

chazzg

iTrader: (1)

I think his resolution is 800x600(that is the best resolution for TOPO 4.0). I'm not sure about Street Atlas but on the TOPO 4.0 there is a drop down box mid way up to the far right of the screen that reads Magnify and has some options(100% is default) increase to 150% or 200% and the street names become Very Readable

Zakira

Chazzg, where's mine????!!!!!

alphared

change the DPI settings to a higher number. This will increase font size (on a system level). You going to have to play around with it, cause bigger font size means bigger windows to hold the fonts.

aggie300zx

I adjusted the DPI, but it did not change the font size within the application (Street Atlas).

Dr Bonz

iTrader: (1)

Chazzz: Has mine shipped yet?

all_bark

iTrader: (5)

so today I finished all the stealth wiring so nothing can be seen.

two things extra that I did were this:

FM modulator needs a switch in the power input line so it can be shut off when you want to play the radio. When the switch is in the off position the sound in the radio is fine. If the switch is on the radio does not work, it is very staticy (sp). So I needed a place to put the switch in order to get at it. I decided on the change tray so it could not be seen and did not affect the factory stock look of the car.

The other thing I did was to correctly reposition the VDC to the middle of the seat heaters (easy job when everything is apart!)
Here is the link I followed for the repositioning of the VDC.
VDC Repositioning

Here is a pic of the switch install with the hot glue keeping it in place. And the repositioned VDC button. BTW - Both work great!

all_bark

iTrader: (5)

stealth view!

aggie300zx

Nice work! Do you have problems with accidently hitting the seat heater buttons with your elbow? I don't have this option on my car, but have heard people having an unexpected hot seat so I might be a little worried that you could do the same with the VDC button. Just a thought.


I have had so many ideas on what to put in the change tray and just not committed to any as of yet.

I can't remember, are you using the Opus power supply? If so, here are some of my ideas for location in the change tray.

1) Toggle switch for choosing not to boot up PC on ignition start (would go inline on ignition wire). Have confirmed this with Opus as the best method to do this.

2) Dip switch for choosing time delay shutoff setting (jumbers for 10 sec, 20 min, 40 min, and 1 hour). Opus is sending me some schmatics on how this can be done.

3) Run an additional Composite input for my Xenarc screen to use with my digital camera, etc.

Thoughts? Ideas?

Scott G

all_bark

iTrader: (5)

No, I do not have any problems with hitting the seat heater buttons. They actually are a toggle switch, forward, backward and center (high, low and off) the vdc is just an on/off push button so it should be not be an issue either.

yes, I do have the opus power supply set at 20 minutes. It has jumpers on it to save the setting you choose. How would you put a switch in instead of the jumpers? Good idea though because sometimes I would like the 60 minute delay shut off and sometimes the immediate shut off. your switch idea would work perfectly for that!

The switch for the accessory power also makes sense if you just didnot want the pc to boot up at start up. That would be an easy add on, I would just have to remove the center console again to wire it inline. (probably will not do it for a while though)

If I ran an additional wire it would probably be used for the ps2! I probably will wait on that as well.

BUT - all very doable and good ideas. Do you really think you can replace the jumper settings on the opus with a switch? That would definitely go in my car!

Zakira

all_bark, did you get the touchscreen xenarc? If so, how's it working? Also, did you get the Ultrabright option? How's the brightness, or glare? Thanks in advance.

aggie300zx

Word of advice, if you get the Xenarc non-touchscreen don't install the clear protective cover. I'm wishing I didn't because that is the main culprite of the glare. Now I will have to basically uninstall the damn thing to get it off.

all_bark

iTrader: (5)

I disagree. I did not get the touchscreen. I have the regular xenarc with out the ultra bright option and it is PLENTY bright, at night it is TOO bright!

The clear protective cover was also installed by me and I do not find it to be that big of a problem. Yes, if the sun is shining on the screen it is much harder to see but what TV screen does not become harder to see if the sun is coming in from behind? Personally I like the cover as the added protection that it was put in there for. (I do not want to F'up the screen by mistake because the plastic cover is gone.

If it gets unbearable (highly unlikely) I will pull the front stereo/screen console and remove it. I just may have to pull it anyway because my screen slid about 1/8 of an inch to the south so it is "slightly" off center. A thing like that bothers me much more than the small glare in the sunshine!

Zakira

All_bark, concerning your xenarc slipping south, you know the metal mounting bracket that was holding the cubby box inside the nav opening? I found that if you remount that bracket, with maybe some fiddling, it would hold the xenarc snugly. You might wanna give that a try.

aggie300zx

I have had mine in for over a month now, and I was fine with it at first, but after going through the same process with my big screen TV in my home (removing protective cover) I definetly will be removing the one from the Xenarc. It has gotten really annoying to me. To each there own, just something to think about when other folks install theres. Believe me, I went with it on at first for the protection side of it, but my concern is less on that after having it in operation for a little while now.


When you say "sun is coming in from behind" I'm not sure if I follow you there. I know people have talked about using materials such as aluminum foil back behind the LCD to keep out any unwanted back light...is this what you are talking about? I don't see that having anything to do with glare, more so it would lessen the backlight feature of the screen.

Bottomline:
There are obviously trade-offs to using or not using the clear protective screen. My advice is to think about it before you install, because it is a pain in the butt to have to remove it later...or at least how I installed mine...I like to make things permanent!

all_bark

iTrader: (5)

When I say sun coming from behind, I mean from through the rear window. (not behind the screen). You are right, to each his own. It all depends on what you think it should be! If/when I remove the front/center console to fix the south slide I will reconsider the front screen if it starts to annoy me.

I am going on a long road trip next week, from san diego to sun valley idaho for a wedding so I will see how it looks, holds up on this trip and then decide in a few weeks if I want to go back in and make the small adjustment and removal of the plastic piece.

Overall, the system is great, just a little slow at start up so I am going to have my friend go into win2k and disable all resources that are not needed to help speed up the computer at start up and while in use. I would definitely like the Nav to be just a touch quicker. It works well but could be just a tad faster to repond. (that is entire sum total of all my negatives for this system!) If the tweaking doesnot help I plan on upgrading to the 1 gig of ram to help (from 512k) speed it up!

Oh yeah, next up is the TV. Anyone have it and how does it work?

aggie300zx

I currently have a TV tuner card in my Auto PC and tried using an amplified car tv antenna without much luck. I never really got any good signals, which I have heard is much the case. I didn't mind giving this a try because it was cheap and the Tv tuner card will get used elsewhere. If someone else is successful, let us know although I'm sure it is dependent on your location with the signal strength.

Scafremon

I have my PC set to go into 'standby' mode when it shuts down. When I start my car, it takes no more then 10 seconds for windows to boot up and be ready for input. You might want to try this.

alphared

standby or hibernation? in standby mode the pc is still drawing power. in hibernation it doesn't (but it does take long to boot up than standby)