www.newtriton.net

by **Austblue** on Wed Jul 02, 2008 9:52 pm

As a cheap alternative to a purpose designed carpc with a mini board etc.

I don't know much about them but from what I've read I thought something like this would draw too much power and have heat issues but it seems like you're not experiencing that so that's great.

by **smeghead** on Wed Jul 02, 2008 11:48 pm

Yeah the cost of those prebuilt units made it a no brainer for me... USD$2k+ for barebones...

And the best part for me is the building it yourself...

Henk - here is a grab of OziExplorer... sorry for the crap resolution, I only had my phone camera handy

I am happy to share the application... email me and I will get it to you...

Where abouts is the OBD connector located?

by **Austblue** on Thu Jul 03, 2008 3:53 am

You could diy using car pc components (mini itx board etc) and it'd still run you about $1k. mp3car.com has pre built units for around the $600 mark but that's without the screen or delivery.

by **King Triton** on Thu Jul 03, 2008 4:00 am

Smeghead

Nice job mate 8-)

Where did you get your version of Centrafuse from?
Had a look at their site $150 for standard and $250 with GPS Navigation.
Is there somewhere cheaper?
Do you know what the GPS program is like?

by **smeghead** on Thu Jul 03, 2008 4:37 am

Ah, fair enough austblue... I thought you meant the prebuilt ones like the Infill G4, with the screen built in....

King triton: I believe you can only get Centrafuse from flux media themselves... and maybe mp3car. The gps nav runs on the destinator engine using Sensis maps... its OK, not great IMHO... it doesn't seem to know things like 'no right turn' which was a real pain in the ass when I was in Sydney...

by **Henk Bos** on Thu Jul 03, 2008 6:10 am

Smeg, the connector is located just left of the center console (left hand drive vehicle). You should be able to feel it or see it when you stick your head under the steering wheel. No need to unscrew anything.

You can email the apps to hbos at emirates dot net dot ae
Thanks!

by **fixa** on Thu Jul 03, 2008 10:49 am

smeg.
that's brilliant, i've got my car pc 8" screen temporarily mounted near the trip computer, couldn't think of an elegant solution, but you've done it!!!
I'm also running centrafuse, can you send me the files for the logos? legend.
And also, how did you get ozi to integrate into centrafuse like that? the only way i can get it to run, it opens an instance of ozi, full screen, cannot contain it inside a centrafuse window.. any pointers?
Cheers

by **smeghead** on Fri Jul 04, 2008 5:48 am

fixa: do you want to PM me your email addy so I can send the logo's there is no attach functionality with the PM...

As far as embedding OziExplorer, you have to make sure that the Window Name exactly matches the title of the application window that you want to embed... in this case OziExplorer...

by **fixa** on Fri Jul 04, 2008 9:30 am

pm sent. cheers.
I've tried that, bloody thing won't work.. ah well...

by **KaPa** on Fri Jul 04, 2008 5:51 pm

nice job

I'm working on about the same for the last weeks ...

used an 8somthing inches 4:3 LCD, yours seems like 16:10 or 16:9, so I had to do some platic work to enlargen the whole in the dash board, but worked

your's seems like a Dbl Cab too, there is quite some room behind the back seat, that's where I mounted my PC unit
further 2 medium sized Amps, my PC does all the music too

so I got rid of the radio and refitted the factory display to fit into the radio bay

btw., the cover in the middle of the car, where the shift and hand break is mounted, comes off pretty easy, so should be no big problem to get your wire bundle in there

I have to do some photos of mine, maybe somebody is curious ...

by **Austblue** on Fri Jul 04, 2008 9:27 pm

What PC did you use KaPa? How do you get FM radio using the pc did you use a tuner card?

by **KaPa** on Fri Jul 04, 2008 11:47 pm

it's a jetway mainboard with a Via C7 1500MHz CPU atm

the whole compter incl. hdd, cd, wlan etc... and all peripherals draws about 20-30 Watt, or ~2A at 12V, excl. display that draws another 10 Watt or ~1A
and sure I have the huge amps that can draw 20A each if you try to blow your ears off, at normal audio level they draw another ~2A

you should not use any 'normal' CPU that alone draws 50 Watt or more and produces a lot of heat
if you want a cheap mainboard the Via C7 is imho a good choice, if money is not a problem an Intel notebook CPU (centrino, pentium M, ...) will have more computing power

yes, I'm atm using a PCI tuner card, an about 4 year old one that still has an on board RDS decoder (don't know if you'r stations use RDS/TMC down under)

what's common at your place, UKW with RDS, or DAB or DVB-T
you'll get USB tuners for all these nowadays, but UKW with RDS will be the most hard to find

here in germany we have UKW, DAB and DVB-T, but the later only have very few stations and do not brodcast any TMC

however I have TMC in the GPS mouse as well, so I act. do not really need it inside the radio receiver, so you might not need it either, dep. what you'r planning

I'm thinking about adding a DVB-T/DAB hybrid USB device that should give me a higher quality radio sound

by **Austblue** on Sat Jul 05, 2008 12:28 am

Haha I have no idea what you just said but thanks anyway 8-)

by **smeghead** on Sat Jul 05, 2008 12:40 am

Thats an awesome install KaPa... very, very nice...

I decided to keep the pc within reach so I can put in CD's and DVD's...

Yeah, the wire bundle is a temporary measure until I can be assed removing the center console... I will get round to it one day...

We only have the old school, analogue radio down here at the moment... which is one of the reasons I kept the original head unit in...

You can get USB analogue FM receivers but I am not too sure how they would go reception wise, especially while moving...

My entire system draws around 45watts including screen, peripherals and reverse camera...

by **cyberhonky** on Sat Jul 05, 2008 12:48 am

jeez no shortage of TLA's is this thread

by **KaPa** on Sat Jul 05, 2008 2:02 am

UKW: what you guys most pr. call FM
RDS: radio data system [url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_Data_System[/url]
TMC: traffic message channel [url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traffic_Message_Channel[/url]
DAB: digital audio broadcast [url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Audio_Broadcasting[/url]
DVB-T: digital video broadcast - terretrial, often has besides TV a bunch radio channels too [url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVB-T[/url]

yes, reception is a problem smeghead, especially with plain FM radio, an additional antenna amplifier will give you an edge, but I'm still optimizing mine too

an other solution I'm evaluating atm is an USB controllable pocket world receiver connected to the soundcards audio in, - then you have police, air traffic, UHF and all these frequencies on hand too
something like this [url]http://www.radiolabs.com/products/radio/Kaito/KA1121.php[/url]
stuffed somewhere below the dash and only controlled via PC should allow you to listen to just anything
and the ebay price [url]http://cgi.ebay.com/DE1121-FM-MW-SW-SSB-RADIO-MP3-ENGLISH-EXPORT-VERS_W0QQitemZ260248324105QQihZ016QQcategoryZ15051QQrdZ1QQssPageNameZWD1VQQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp1638Q2em118Q2el1247[/url]
is about the same as an USB PC radio dongle that offers far less bands and worse receptionand thanks for the flowers 8-)

by **Greedy** on Sat Jul 05, 2008 2:30 am

Smeghead,
Does the screen have the sense wire to detect when you're in reverse or do you have to manually switch to the reverse camera?

by **smeghead** on Sat Jul 05, 2008 3:22 am

Manually unfortunately...
I have to touch the REVERSE button in Centrafuse...

The screen has an AV input but I input straight into the computer so I don't have to switch the screen input... I am not sure if you noticed from the photos, but I can't actually get at the controls on the screen, they are all behind the surround... but that's OK for me because the screen comes on with the ignition and I don't have to touch any of the screen buttons...

There are some screens (like Xenarc ) that can do some sort of auto-switching based on if an input signal is present (which requires powering camera from reverse lights circuit). I have also read about some people that use a thing called a [url=http://www.interloper.com/products/product-details.php?productid=54440003&cat=54&mfgn=&page=1&sec=1&od=]VideoView [/url] box and wiring the switch to a relay that is powered from the reverse lights that will auto-switch between AV and VGA...

Seems all too complicated to me... I am happy to touch the reverse button on the screen when I need it...

by **King Triton** on Sat Jul 05, 2008 3:26 am

Smeghead

Does it mirror the reverse camera image or is all arse about?

by **smeghead** on Sat Jul 05, 2008 3:28 am

Mirrored... the camera does the mirroring...

by **King Triton** on Sat Jul 05, 2008 3:38 am

Maybe you don't understand what i mean.

When you set up a reverse camers you need to mirror the image. otherwise left is right and right is left.

I did not know you could get a camera that mirrors the image first.

by **smeghead** on Sat Jul 05, 2008 3:56 am

The native image from the camera is mirrored... there is no need to use software or screen to mirror... When I first got the camera I plugged it into the telly and the image was mirrored out of the box (ie. the words and letters on my t-shirt where backwards, like looking into a mirror..)

by **King Triton** on Sat Jul 05, 2008 5:54 am

Thats good to know because i did not know you could buy a dedicated reversing camera that mirrors the image. That way you can use it on any screen.

by **smeghead** on Sat Jul 05, 2008 6:15 am

Yeah mate, I was surprised... I thought I would have to use software to reverse it but no... its a very cheap eBay one too and it is "pre-mirrored"...

by **GLX-RSilver** on Sat Jul 05, 2008 8:22 am

Great job looks great wouldn't mind doing it myself.
Great photos Cheers

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