entertaining

wow what dose that meen? i'm still tryin to get my head around ahk. edc.+vat. nice car though

nice one Ziggy

Check what OS the unit is running. If it is Win CE 5.0 then I can supply you TomTom6 which will work with that unit.

Here's my install which is similar to yours

Zitat von ziggystardust;58789

dvd , good 3d gps (you can play music while using), infrared camera when reversing, bluetooth, sd card, tv, ipod connection and the colors fits our display so it's not shockingly pimped.
for 260 pounds delivery included, i'm thrilled!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Looks good, except for my one pet hate: the blue illumination for the buttons

Not sure why these are so prevalent in modern electronic gizmos, but I find them really distracting and they always look out of focus due to the short wavelength.

If someone could change them to BMW orange, you'd be onto a winner! Looks like it gets most of the functions of a car PC, with a fraction of the installation effort and cost. Nice work

PS One thing I think is a big negative for the custom car PCs is the lack of a proper volume control. I adjust the volume quite a lot, and I don't think it's very safe having to do so using a touch screen with no tactile feel for where the button is.

The ideal solution would be to fit a steering wheel with controls and wire that to the car PC, but I notice this unit has proper volume controls so I'd certainly prefer that to only having software volume on the touch screen.

Ziggy, not heard of nav n'go to be honest. TomTom6 is good though in my experience. I opted for a 6.5" screen version in my van, with buttons either side. These were backlit blue and red, but matched the VW colour scheme perfectly. I notice that there are planty of other versions out now with red or orange lighting which would suit BMW better.

Did you enjoy relocating the HVAC ??? Plenty of wires to extend eh ?

Lack of dedicated volume control is the only drawback to my BMW install, That said, once you have used it for a while you do get completely used to it, andc it isnt as big an issue as I envisaged originally. I aim to use Ibus one day, like that pointed out to me by Martin a few months back, but got plenty of other projects on the go right now so the carpc thingy has taken a backseat.

I am looking at possible ICE solutions but not as sophisticated as yours but that looks very very nice and would love to have that in my 8, but with no electrical/technical ability I would never dream of attempting that.
I know this may sound silly but where do you insert the DVD/CD's/USB etc.

Nice job Ziggy.

And I see I'm not he only one that uses the ashtray as a phone holder

Deep.

Not intended as a thread hijack, but since he asked for other ways of doing this I'll post mine.
if you don't want to start cutting and relocaing stuff look at my install.
http://www.8er.org/forum/showthread.php?t=5726

Since this thread was made I have installed an Apline navi unit, and I have a USB port in my center console storage.
I don't have an Ipod, just use a normal USB stick. however the unis is also Ipod compatable.

I know many don't like the flip out screen, since it covers the OBC, but the unis can be fully operated with the screen tucked away, and there is a small display like on a normal head unit.

Have been thinking about mounting a cam in the rear bumper, but I'm not sure.

Zitat von ziggystardust;58925

thanks, you did a nice job too noggie..........the rear infra cam
is nice, but i dont trust it yet!!!!!!!! could't mount it in the perfect
gap there is in the non sport bumper as the camera would be too low, so its under the emblem to the right, just above the license plate, and the wire comes from the plates lightnings.............fairly easy mount

My system is ready for a cam too, but like you say... can you trust it?
thought about mounting it in the bumper gap too, as it would be out of sight.
I have also been thinking about an PDC system.
Have this in my other car, but I tend to freak out when it starts beeping.
Get this omg I'm gonna hit the wall feeling, but is still a foot away.

Zitat von ziggystardust;58986

maybe there's a way to change the stressing bips to a relaxing female voice telling you you got a little more way in.............go, a liitle more, o.k stop now................

Or a little rauncy'er one saying almost there..... come on, just a little more....... allmost there....

For me it's still just plans, the camera lacking depth perception is not a good option, more of a gimmick thing a "look what I've got thing"

PDC.... well I don't like cutting holes..... so we'll see.
I don't use the car that much, and I pay extra attendtion to what I'm doing... that sait I have touched the wall 2-3 times when parking, though nothing that a bit of polish wont clear.

Tony,
Is your car PC running Windows Mobile?
I haven't gone the PC route until now because I wanted to run Win Mobile 6.1.
For car use it's a much more convenient and quicker solution than XP/Vista - and I have all the GPS apps, such as TT Nav 7 for Win Mobile.
Until now I have only found how to run an emulator and not Win mobile directly.

Hi UKZero, my pc is running winxp sp2. I agree that WinMobile would be ideal for the car environment, but there is a problem. WinMobile versions, be that from the early days of wm3 right through to wm6.5 as it is now (awaiting a further upgrade to wm7 very soon) were developed to run on PDA/mobile phones utilising the ARM processors, and not the Pentium chips found in desk/laptops.

Whilst you can like you said run an emulator within the PC memory, it defeats the object because it is very processor heavy and runs slow on all but the fastest PCs. I'm no expert believe me, but I have read extensively on the subject within dedicated carpc forums both here and in the states and this is the general concensus.

There is has been much progress in carpcs since I did my install, but still there is not much in the way of 'off the shelf' solutions. Most installs require a certain amount of DIY and further more, to get Sat Nav and FM/AM radio working properly is not an easy task as these do not have much, if any, manufacturer support for the automotive industry.

I'll be honest now and say that if I had my time over again I may well have taken the easier option and used a Double Din WinCE device in my install, rather than a full on WinXP system. Yes they are less powerful, and you cant do all the stuff I can on on mine system, but to be honest, you really only need the basics in a car. The rest is just for showing off !

ie: Radio/CD/Mp3/Sat Nav/and video (for the kids). A chinese unit like the one Ziggy used, and like the one I have in my van, do all these things perfectly. The only problem is the generic UI not looking 'stock BMW' as mine does. But things are always moving on and sooner or later there will be a company that releases a unit that will blend in perfectly in a BMW, or any other car for that matter, depending on which factory the unit originates from. A search for 'Double DIN GPS' on ebay will throw up all sort of options that run WinCE 5.0

Trust me, they are also about 1/4 the cost of my set up which is another plus point for them.

Are you tempted ?

ziggystardust y TallTony os felicito por el entretenimiento, queda perfecto, me gusta.

ziggystardust and TallTony congratulate you for entertainment, it is perfect, I like it.

Thanks for the info Tony - was as I feared.
My current PDA has a WVGA screen.
If only I could get a remote 10" touch screen to run with it - would be ideal!

Brendan

is it a HTC Touch HD by any chance ? That's the one I'm currently playing with.

If you don't know about it already, have a browse around this site....

General Section
http://forum.xda-developers.com/index.php

Blackstone (HD) section
http://forum.xda-developers.com/forumdisplay.php?f=451

800000 members worldwide !!

I've successfully reflashed to several cooked ROMs and the difference in performance, and added features the chefs put in them, is amazing over stock. Like chipping the ECU in a car, and adding a proper hifi etc....

once the bugs are ironed out of Dutty's wm6.5 version I'll be moving over to that. His wm6.1 v3.9 is simply staggering over what HTC ship the unit with.

Anyway, enough acronyns and abvs for now

I agree it is a shame that there (seems) to be no way to get a custom Win Mobile GUI into a carpc. It is something that I would love to do. The boot times and speed of operation would suit the car environment perfectly. I'm sure it could be done, but you would need to be an expert programmer and be able to manufacture your own hardware to do it. Something I cant.

My carpc does boot from OFF to FE SW in 30 secs, which is rapid for a winXP pc, but that is still about 27 secs longer than iDrive in my wifes car. That said, she can't browse 8er.org in hers.....