Tuesday, June 22, 2010 - 10:31 am, by: Aiden Cheese(Chillpen)
Chris Lock wrote on Tuesday, June 22, 2010 - 06:18 am:
and i can't fibrglass, so i'd need to source a decent suitable case etc..
What you never worked with paper mache in primary school? It's not exactly rocket science...
1) Mix some catalyst in resin 2) paste resin catalyst compound over fiberglass 3) place fiberglass in position 4) repeat steps 1-3 till done.
But you're right, if you don't have an old winxp cd hanging around, then you'll probably want one of those, and considering the cost of maps ($180 dollars for the pioneer??) i think you'll not find the cost for software really that expensive in comparison.
FreeICE: in 2006 this was developed as a free car PC frontend:
Also on the site is a bunch of stuff based on freedrive a open sourced GPS mapping software, though i can't recommend it because its out of date and relies on paid maps from destinator.. but it looks pretty enough.
And like i said if you wanted to go the fully paid route then you can just go centrafuse and make sure you get everything your expect (including australian maps): MEDIA PLAYER SAT HD RADIO AM/FM RADIO 10-BAND EQUALIZER FULL MIXER CONTROL BUILT-IN UPDATER BLUETOOTH HANDSFREE GPS NAVIGATION * WEB BROWSER WEATHER EMAIL CLIENT VOICE CONTROL TEXT-TO-SPEECH DVD PLAYER OBD-II ENGINE DIAGNOSTICS MP3 PLAYER SUPPORT IPOD SUPPORT TMC SUPPORT ** MULTIPLE MEDIA ZONES REAR CAMERA
Sounds like a pretty good deal for $129.99 (for the australian version).
I dunno, do you need any other software for that that costs money on your stereo?
Edit just to be clear - I clearly said "I'd get a in car pc" not you. I'm saying that its clear at that price point i can potentially make myself my own pc to do everything that i want to do and customise it to be perfect for my needs.
You don't need to debate the pro's and con's because I'm the kind of guy who tinkers with PC's. I have a 3ghz dualcore running at 4ghz. I'm working on two seperate car projects involving stupid conversions (like turboing a sera, and completing the 1jz powered nissan 260z). I've been involved in completed stupid projects like 1uz supercharged kit cobra.
Fiberglassing is just a form of crafting which makes me happy to add something to the car.
I'm all about the "Built it, not bought it from a shop, modified by a shop, designed by a shop" where applicable.
Tuesday, June 22, 2010 - 04:45 pm, by: Chris Lock(Sledge)
Yeah i know my way around a pc too E8500 running at 4.27Ghz atm on air..
I am tempted to do it, but i figured it would just be a hell of a lot easier getting a commercial car stereo product..that's just 'plug in' but i havn't been able to find any that play .mkv yet... Also, don't you need some sort of tuner as well??
Wednesday, June 23, 2010 - 01:02 am, by: Aiden Cheese(Chillpen)
Tuner? For what? Radio? If you want i guess.. 500gb of music/tv/movies etc should be all you need but i guess a tuner makes some sense.
I'm running on air too, i got my E8400 to 4.14ghz and benchmarked it on prime 95 but only testing the CPU and it ran fine, but once i got RAM into the equation it crashed out. Basically i knew the ram was the weakest link: before i started overclocking I just pushed the ram, dropped the CPU multiplier and upped the FSB with the ddr800 ram multiplier high, it got to 900 and something and wouldn't post so i knew i couldn't go too high. 4.14ghz CPUZ As you can see the vcore was pushed a tiny bit to get to that level but when i scaled it back to 4.0 i could pull that right back Been running on this for a couple of weeks now and hasn't missed any beats. Passed all tests. vcore is pretty much 0.03v over stock. So it runs pretty cool. I think if i wanted to have a cheap upgrade it'd be tough for me not to just get better ram instead of a new CPU. Though what i've got is pretty old compared to all the i series stuff from intel.
I went dualcore specifically to play PCSX2 (a PS2 emulator). I've actually done a mini tutorial for FFX settings written up on youtube with a 30second video (hard to capture using fraps and play a cpu limited game at the same time).
The game looks pretty good really - if you remember how PS2 games looked back in the day. Examples here and here.
Wednesday, June 23, 2010 - 10:08 pm, by: Aiden Cheese(Chillpen)
that'll lose all the digital radio quality wouldn't it as it re-transmits the signal to the head unit in regular analogue. The only benefit would be song names I'd think. (I could be wrong)
Tuesday, June 29, 2010 - 08:22 pm, by: Aiden Cheese(Chillpen)
Well anyway getting nearly back to topic I played today now my exams are over with my audio.
Previously I had my amps "mounted" with zip-ties to the CD stacker/changer bracket. I did reuse that bracket but I decided a rack style mount would make more sense with the amps.
You'll now see my amps and avert your eyes again if you dislike cheap things, but these amps have been working since 2003 and i've never had a good reason to replace them.
My Boot:
Cut a piece of MDF to sit on the bracket and the air flap under some neat very well placed tabs. Then cut another bit of MDF to sit on top of the levelling MDF. Screws to hold the two bits together (although only one in the pic) and through the holes in the bracket.
Now to mount the two amps on top of each other I bent up some aluminium bar to shape. (<$5 from bunnings)
With it all bent up I decided to put it into the car one plate at a time: MDF on the air box and bracket. The MDF over the top of that. Screw it into the bracket. Screw down the amp. Clip up all the wires. Bolt up the bracket aluminium 90+90 bends. More MDF. More screwing down the amp and then finally hooking up more wires.
Note: I think i blew up the stock sub (overpowered it when i bumped the amp and didn't notice it was sitting at max power. zzz) so a pioneer 10" is sitting in there (that used to sit in the charade). Hrm. Whoops. I've got a freeair amp sitting around somewhere at a mates. I found it in a ls400 that someone was parting out. It fit in the ls400 stock mounts so there's a good chance it'll sit in the soarer comfortably.
Friday, July 02, 2010 - 04:15 pm, by: Aiden Cheese(Chillpen)
I hate sub boxes sitting in the boot taking up all the space, so today i went about replacing the stock sub (which i found runs at 2ohm) with a 10" pioneer sub. This had to be done because I didn't want to cut any wires to the stock amps.
Now as you all know - the depth is kind of annoying so i mounted it a bit strange to make sure it cleared, raised it by cutting some mdf rings and bolting them into the stock mount and sub... then I made a piece of mdf sit between the base of the sub and the fuel tank to guarantee it won't hit.
First of all i tried mounting a 8" JayCar sub which was sitting in a LS400 thinking if it matched those mounts, it's pretty likely the soarer is going to be the same. No.
Then I pulled the 10" sub out that I had and compared it to the regular soarer one:
Mounted it in and as you can see it's tight. With the car moving and maybe some flexing of that thin rear tray plus the magnet basically pulling the two together i decided to make sure it wouldn't ground itself..
The cover for the sub now sits raised a bit which is annoying but better than having the sub exposed directly.
After that I got around to reseating the centre console.
It sits back another CM or so but it actually can't physically go back further - a big metal bar runs behind that. Bugger. Also that seems to be about as far back as it should go for the screen anyway.
I also made up a new gauge cluster because i accidentally broke my last one. Oops.
Tuesday, July 06, 2010 - 08:17 pm, by: Aiden Cheese(Chillpen)
That to me looks clever, although I couldn't presume to tell you that i'm an expert it does look interesting although expensive. I guess there's no avoiding that though when heading digital. Far wad cheaper than the Jaycar solution.
If/when i do evetually get the effort to go a carpc, I'd be very interested in that unit myself. There is a concern i have though, I'd like to be able to receive digital video channels too. I decided against installing the aerial for the TV part of my cheap chinese thing based on the fact that they're turning of analogue TV broadcasting soon. An all in one solution would probably be my go, if such a thing exists.
Whatever you do decide on Chris, do make a post about it. I'm looking forward to having a reference point to look on to when i move up from this.
One more thing - the cheap chinese unit sounds amazing (after it's been installed for a while and some minor tweaking at the amps). I have no idea how to demo it, but hopefully I'll get a chance on a cruise to show it off a bit
I've managed to reduce the engine whine to nothing. It's not audible at all anymore which pleased me a lot.
Wednesday, July 07, 2010 - 12:19 am, by: Aiden Cheese(Chillpen)
Walter Gillmore wrote on Tuesday, July 06, 2010 - 10:20 pm:
as for engine/ alternator whine. you can use filters from jaycar.
Those don't work. If the whine is a single audio frequency - sure. But usually the "alternator" whine will move up and down frequencies.
Walter do you work at a Jaycar? This is important information! I have bought hundreds of dollars of stuff from jaycar over the last few years lol. Friends too. It's usually the first stop when we're doing something like:
Lining speakers/footwells with LEDs:
Lining a boot with LEDs:
Making a plate change colours using LEDs:
Making tweeters change colours using LEDs:
Haha all that was done by my mate, I've mentioned it in a few posts, but he's got a very very good sound setup going. Of course all those lights are switched and the change of colours also switched.
Jaycar has also been what allows us to make wiring looms (generic plugs and lots of well priced wire) for stuff like emanage and the 1jzed project.
Sunday, July 25, 2010 - 02:49 am, by: Aiden Cheese(Chillpen)
I built a new subwoofer mount today to get it off the fuel tank. Now it actually sounds worse. The parcel shelf it sits on now vibrates!
yeah apparently the extra support with the wood buffering the sub from the fuel tank was lending enough support to actually reinforce the parcel shelf.
Now i'm trying to design some kind of support for the shelf and a small enclosure to sit underneath the subwoofer.
Not sure how i could have built something higher quality and ended up with something worse but I guess it happens. :|
Anyway
Warren Moore wrote on Monday, July 19, 2010 - 01:23 pm:
what exactly are you after bass wise? i doubt the stock parcel shelf could even bare an aftermarket sub.
I actually laughed at how stupid this sounded because I was replacing the 10" stock woofer with a 10" aftermarket 4ohm one (so i could drive it off the 4ohm amp).
Thursday, August 19, 2010 - 08:42 am, by: Steve Howard(Greentea)
hey matthew, i got one for my itouch and loaded navigon maps, works like a charm. its got audio out jack which plugs into the emv, so my tunes get piped direct to the stereo great !
Wednesday, September 01, 2010 - 07:22 pm, by: Aiden Cheese(Chillpen)
Michael Sinay wrote on Monday, August 16, 2010 - 11:03 pm:
So what is the GPS like in these cheap ebay units? Any good compared to stand alone GPS units?
The unit is on a seperate PCB and runs windowsCE and regular GPS software off a SD card.
There is no trade off in performance - because a GPS chip is just a GPS chip. Your tom tom or garmin or whatever you use runs on windows CE too. The problem would perhaps be the touch sensitivity of the different screens. Just find one with legit regular software (like tomtom or whatever) and you'll be fine.
Oh and for the record - I took http://a.imageshack.us/img32/8778/100429170652.jpg with a phone camera but i've yet to hear anyone complain nor have i heard complaints about people using their iphone as a ipod... etc etc.
What exactly do you think you'd be trading off anyway? It's not like the GPS runs at the same time, or on the same CPU that the rest of the hardware?