Carputer Upgrade - United Bimmer Community

**Chevell** · 07-10-2006, 12:15 AM

Hey guys, I have not even picked up my "new" '97 328i yet and I've already spent a few hours designing the carputer. I wanted to run everything by here first, as I have not even seen the specifics, such as stereo placement in the dash, speaker locations, wiring tunnels, etc. So here's what i have so far:

I'm going to strap a tiny Dell GX60 with 80 GB hard drive and USB 2.0 and a sound card with RCA audio out into the trunk and hard wire a 150 watt DC to AC power inverter to the battery. Then I'll run USB, RCA and VGA cables into the cabin.

For the monitor, I was thinking an in dash, 7" LCD touch screen placed in the empty spot at the bottom of the stack of stereo and A/C head units. This will leave the stock head unit, which, if it accepts RCA in, I could leave, or just replace with a lower end unit that does. I'll run a USB cable to the glove box for an external slim CD/DVD drive, the controls for the touch screen and maybe some sort of power switch to turn the thing off and on.

There will be a hub up front to plug in USB sticks with music or movies on them, a wireless KB/mouse hub and two tritton USB video adapters to run the rear monitors mounted in the head rests.

The addition of a bumper or under car mounted camera will be viewable on the monitor when activated on the touch screen and a SUB GPS module will aid with navigation.

All totalled, this should run me about $800 in parts, as I already have a lot of it. The pioneer deck runs $1800 at cructhfield, tho i am sure you can get it cheaper. But that unit lacks full PC compatibility, thus the option to add other PC compatible features and expandable storage for music and movies. Also, the service for navigation is $9.99 a month. Its free on a PC!

So, does any of that sound impossible to do on a 1997 BWM 328i? Thanks for your input!
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Chevell

witeshark · 07-10-2006, 12:20 AM

I expect it's doable. Can you use all that while driving?

**Chevell** · 07-10-2006, 12:25 AM

Well, the camera is for backing up only, so no.

and the MP3's are for listening to, so yes, and the navigation is for taking home the supermodels after I pick them up at some seamy bar downtown. The video will be for my daughter to watch Nemo on while I drive cross country to see just how far i can push the mileage envelope on this thing. the KB and mouse will be just for stationary use. So, in summation, yes and no. Thanks for the reply!
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Chevell

BTW, nice avatar, Macs RULE!

**xsperf** · 07-10-2006, 01:42 AM

actually, Komodo, the founder of this website had a 97 328i, and he did much more than just your everday carputer, you can ask him, however he has been busy lately

**Yatti** · 07-10-2006, 03:02 AM

An Xbox would do you well in this situation.. Modded or Soft(ware)modded ofcourse.. But it can do pretty much everything... I was planning something like this..With an xbox (as the PC)...

**Dudesky** · 07-10-2006, 05:26 AM

First off, I wanna say that I like Phoenix, although there's not much to do after 11pm. I stayed at the Hyatt downtown on business a few years ago, and mostly hung out & got drunk at Chuy's around the corner

A few things to consider:
-USB has approximately a 15ft cable run limitation; thereafter you will need a powered hub to run things reliably. It may work, but not very well.
-You may want to go higher than 150w on the inverter, that will just barely run your equipment. Give it some headroom. A better solution is to convert to a DC-DC power supply in the PC. Inverters drain more juice than a straight DC supply.
-Computer optical drives are more prone to skipping; they aren't designed for rugged use.
-You'll need a proprietary software interface to use the touchscreen, otherwise you'll have problems with the touch interface; i.e., icons and such will be too close or too small.

Hope this helps

**Chevell** · 07-10-2006, 09:47 AM

Hey, thanks for the input! Yeah, I'm aware of USB's run length, althought, you did remind me that i'd have to power the powered hub with something, so definitely I'll need a bigger inverter, or, as you say, DC to DC PS. The DVD/CD drive will be an external unit that is less prone to skipping, but it will be used mostly for ripping data in a one off situation from those times of disks, generally, while sitting still. I also believe the screen i have chosen comes with the softare you mention. Thanks for the input!
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Chevell

**Spieluhr** · 07-10-2006, 11:53 PM

try PMing Komodo (harry), he had a carputer in his 328 while he had it. and had to overcome a lot of problems he can probably help you with.