This isnt a WTB, just a general question

[POST]

How much is it to get an in-dash either flip up or stationary lcd screen and in-car PC unit all set up and how much to get someone to install;
this question is almost directly pointed to TJElite. How much in total would something like that be?

for a '94 Nissan Altima GLE.

I'd prefer flip out one because it just looks more gangster :nerd: :lol: ;) ;)

actually just because when its in its normal position it looks more like a normal headunit.

[VolvoBoiClw]

a good indash can vary from like 800-2000, depending on companie and such

the pc thing, is hard to do from my knowledge, because u need a actual computed and then a sound processor blah blah blah, i would go indash!

1100 posts

[Notladstyle]

1000$

[POST]

1000$
no?

i know just an LCD unit itself will cost around that much, im talking about an in-car PC setup, and installed -- total price?

[Notladstyle]

ooh I was thinking of an alpine all in one.

So, what you need is a touch screen, a 4 or 5 channel amp and a carpc or laptop

The flip out touch screen will run you from 200 - 400 on ebay depending on whether its motorized and brand. Ive even seen some cheap ones in the 150 range that were in dash but not motorized. I would look into one of those because there are less moving parts to break. Toby had a lilput touchscreen in his 240 and it looked to be decent quality - they are about 250 on ebay with DIN mount & touch screen

4/5 channel Amp between 200 and 400

Complete carPC will be around 500 - 800 for memory/hdd/software/power supply
Look into something like:
http://www.mini-box.com/s.nl/sc.8/category.101/.f

installation depends on the shop. Could be 200 could be 600 Id do it all for 175:D

[Skee]

i am able to get the car computer complete this is what i sell Includes
7" Touch Screen In-dash VGA Monitor.
AM/FM/XM Radio
45Wx4 Amplifier
TV Tuner
DVD/CD/MP3/CDR/CDRW Player
GPS Navigation
Bluetooth
IrDA
Features of UNIC 1500
DVD/MP3/CD Playback
GPS Navigation with Maps
Browse Web
Live Radio
Free Telephone Service
Live Video Chat
Video Conference
Home to Car Data Transfer
Geo-Force (restrict the car from going outside of given area)
Music / Video Downloads
Hot Spots locator (see where is the party in your area)
Live GPS Surveillance (watch inside and outside of your vehicle from your house)
GPS Locator (track location of your car from your house)
Online Update Service (don't worry about updating your system as system will download all updates and new services from our central server automatically)
AIM
Email
Word Processing
Bluetooth support
Wi-Fi modem built-in
GPRS / 3G slot for outside Internet connection
Car Tuning module (monitor your engine and make slight modification to your ECU) (future release)
XM and Sirius Compatible
so pretty much its what you are looking for my car computers do more then just a screen and keyboard
im not posting a prices cause this is not a sale forum..

[Notladstyle]

i am able to get the car computer complete this is what i sell Includes
7" Touch Screen In-dash VGA Monitor.
AM/FM/XM Radio
45Wx4 Amplifier
TV Tuner
DVD/CD/MP3/CDR/CDRW Player
GPS Navigation
Bluetooth
IrDA
Features of UNIC 1500
DVD/MP3/CD Playback
GPS Navigation with Maps
Browse Web
Live Radio
Free Telephone Service
Live Video Chat
Video Conference
Home to Car Data Transfer
Geo-Force (restrict the car from going outside of given area)
Music / Video Downloads
Hot Spots locator (see where is the party in your area)
Live GPS Surveillance (watch inside and outside of your vehicle from your house)
GPS Locator (track location of your car from your house)
Online Update Service (don't worry about updating your system as system will download all updates and new services from our central server automatically)
AIM
Email
Word Processing
Bluetooth support
Wi-Fi modem built-in
GPRS / 3G slot for outside Internet connection
Car Tuning module (monitor your engine and make slight modification to your ECU) (future release)
XM and Sirius Compatible
so pretty much its what you are looking for my car computers do more then just a screen and keyboard
im not posting a prices cause this is not a sale forum..

lol 3/4 of that list is software. I would be more worried about the hardware capabilities & cooling design. Post up your specs and prices so we can revel in the hardware capabilities.

[POST]

lol 3/4 of that list is software. I would be more worried about the hardware capabilities & cooling design. Post up your specs and prices so we can revel in the hardware capabilities.


Yeah i agree, I'm not a computer illiterate, i'm an IT manager... I care more about the specs of the hardware more than i ever would for software.
I would build my own stuff but some shops dont like to put in anything they dont provide on their own into cars. Toby gave great examples why, basically if the shit dont work (your fault not his), the shop gets bad rep.

If I could, i would build myself a small pc for a couple hundred less than 800, i dont need phenominal PC hardware to run some mp3 decoding software and maybe something simple like Cyberlink PowerDVD..., that can be done on under 1 GHz machines easy, so i dont care. I'd just need to know what kind of sound card to drop in there that'd be compatible with the car's speakers.

I was looking at the Panasonic CQ-VD7003U if anything, I dont exactly prefer panasonic but that screen looks awesome; something like that.

And yeah i saw the system in Toby's 240, I like it a lot, i just dont like the screen always being visible, to me I feel that the touch-screen flip out is a bit more hidden so i feel a fraction of a degree more secure about it.

Plus i kinda like my little pocket so my crab sits in there. :nerd: :roll: :cool:

[Notladstyle]

Yeah i agree, I'm not a computer illiterate, i'm an IT manager... I care more about the specs of the hardware more than i ever would for software.
I would build my own stuff but some shops dont like to put in anything they dont provide on their own into cars. Toby gave great examples why, basically if the shit dont work (your fault not his), the shop gets bad rep.

If I could, i would build myself a small pc for a couple hundred less than 800, i dont need phenominal PC hardware to run some mp3 decoding software and maybe something simple like Cyberlink PowerDVD..., that can be done on under 1k GHz machines easy, so i dont care. I'd just need to know what kind of sound card to drop in there that'd be compatible with the car's speakers.

I was looking at the Panasonic CQ-VD7003U if anything, I dont exactly prefer panasonic but that screen looks awesome; something like that.

And yeah i saw the system in Toby's 240, I like it a lot, i just dont like the screen always being visible, to me I feel that the touch-screen flip out is a bit more hidden so i feel a fraction of a degree more secure about it.

Plus i kinda like my little pocket so my crab sits in there. :nerd: :roll: :cool:

Any soundcar will do for a average car PC, if you want 5.1 surround I would use power DVD like you said and get an Audigy USB box from Creative - they have 8vRMS line outputs that can be directly connected to the amps and it has all kinda of tweak features and an upgradable 32/64MB sound buffer.

I'm lookin at one of those japan made indash flip out screens because it could be easily replaced if stolen and the hardware(as in the toshiba touch screen itself) is almost identical to a name brand one.

Right now I run the old style winamp with the AVS center running full screen piped into my 6" LCD.

[TJElite]

There are a couple ways to get an in car PC. If you want to build one, I'd suggest you check out MP3car.com They sell the small form cases, the smart 12v power supples, etc. While there, you can check their forums for front end softwares. I like frodoplayer. Its easy to use, skinable, and free. My first car PC was built like this. I would think with the lilliput flip out, vga, usb touchscreen piece (has a built in amp, as well), you'd probably be in the $1300-1500 range, once you add all the goodies. This will be a functional piece, and probably work fine, especially since you have a computer background. What I was looking for, however, was more of an AV system, that was also a PC. In other words, I wanted it to look and act like a full function car stereo (AVIC N1, for example) and also have PC capabilities like wireless internet, etc. I ended up writing a bunch of macros and adding a griffen powermate knob...I was very close, but I still had a couple issues like startup time, stability, etc.

Now, I use the Drivesoft product. Its more expensive ($1800-$2200) but for my purposes (mainly, selling it to the masses) it is much better. This guy has optimized everything, including the bios, to be an in car PC. For example, start up time. From hibernate, this thing is up and playing music in less than 30 seconds. From standby, its like 6. And I have yet to have any issues with it from a stability standpoint. In contrast, my home built piece didn't like to come out of hibernation...USB stuff wouldn't come back on, etc, and would take well over 1 minute to start playing music. Jack (Drivesoft guy) has come up with a custom power sensing usb hub that seems to eliminate all hibernation issues. His system also has a very clean, easy to use, menu system, remote mountable slot load DVD player, built in 5.1 capabilities, and wireless remote. And since it runs on XP, you can add just about any software you would want. He does recommend you only use his software, as its been modified, or at least certified, to work properly with his bios.

Long story short, since you're in IT, you would probably be very happy with a piece you build yourself. You'll have no problems dealing with the occasional screw up, and you'll probably do better than I did working out some of the bugs. If you want something more turn key, look to drivesoft. I have pictures of both on my website. My piece is under the InCar PC tab, the drivesoft is on my 240sx page.

I suspect that this will be a growing field in the future. There were at least 3 'newcomers' displaying PC's at SEMA last year. So, like any other technology, stuff will get better, and cheaper.

Toby

[POST]

Yar, last night i was "putting together" some hardware from an online site i like to buy from and i got it pretty packed down to about 400ish for a brand new system and about 300 for using a few spare parts i have.
The only thing I would really like is to have a sound card with RCA outputs for my amps but usually everything is stereo mini-jacks..
Using hibernation i could get it down to about 30 seconds as well but i've never had problems with USB not coming on after Hibernation... I dunno, i guess we'll see when i get there.
I'm concerned about the power consumption since I'm not good with all that power load stuff... I'm actually worried my battery would crap out on me...

I'm going to leave all this stuff for when I get a new car (hopefully a Z32) by the end of this year... and maybe even put a second battery on that, but i'm no good at that so i might have to ask you about that....

[TJElite]

Yar, last night i was "putting together" some hardware from an online site i like to buy from and i got it pretty packed down to about 400ish for a brand new system and about 300 for using a few spare parts i have.
The only thing I would really like is to have a sound card with RCA outputs for my amps but usually everything is stereo mini-jacks..
Using hibernation i could get it down to about 30 seconds as well but i've never had problems with USB not coming on after Hibernation... I dunno, i guess we'll see when i get there.
I'm concerned about the power consumption since I'm not good with all that power load stuff... I'm actually worried my battery would crap out on me...

I'm going to leave all this stuff for when I get a new car (hopefully a Z32) by the end of this year... and maybe even put a second battery on that, but i'm no good at that so i might have to ask you about that....

Power consumption should be somewhere around 100 watts...less than 10 amps. If you get one of the smart power supplies, it will shut the computer down if it gets too low.

I use minijack to RCA adapters on mine.

I am definitely no computer expert, and I'm sure prices have come down, but when I put the piece together that I built last year, the best I could do was about $1200 plus a monitor. I may have gone overboard on a few things, but $400 sounds a little cheap. I'll dig out the specs on the one I built, and the Drivesoft hardware specs, and post them later. Then, one of you computer types can tell me what it should cost.

Toby

[TJElite]

i am able to get the car computer complete this is what i sell Includes
7" Touch Screen In-dash VGA Monitor.
AM/FM/XM Radio
45Wx4 Amplifier
TV Tuner
DVD/CD/MP3/CDR/CDRW Player
GPS Navigation
Bluetooth
IrDA
Features of UNIC 1500
DVD/MP3/CD Playback
GPS Navigation with Maps
Browse Web
Live Radio
Free Telephone Service
Live Video Chat
Video Conference
Home to Car Data Transfer
Geo-Force (restrict the car from going outside of given area)
Music / Video Downloads
Hot Spots locator (see where is the party in your area)
Live GPS Surveillance (watch inside and outside of your vehicle from your house)
GPS Locator (track location of your car from your house)
Online Update Service (don't worry about updating your system as system will download all updates and new services from our central server automatically)
AIM
Email
Word Processing
Bluetooth support
Wi-Fi modem built-in
GPRS / 3G slot for outside Internet connection
Car Tuning module (monitor your engine and make slight modification to your ECU) (future release)
XM and Sirius Compatible
so pretty much its what you are looking for my car computers do more then just a screen and keyboard
im not posting a prices cause this is not a sale forum..

Do you have one of these installed in a car? If so, you should come to the next meet at my shop...May13th. I'd love to see how yours compares to the Drivesoft system I have. No, this isn't an 'I bet mine is better than yours' thing...I'm really interested in seeing what's out there. I'd like to see how you do the XM, and I've never seen AM offered on an in car PC before...not that anyone really listens to AM much.

I know I'm paying extra for some of the Drivesoft 'smoothness'...If I can get that somewhere else, I'm interested.

Toby

[POST]

Power consumption should be somewhere around 100 watts...less than 10 amps. If you get one of the smart power supplies, it will shut the computer down if it gets too low.

I use minijack to RCA adapters on mine.

I am definitely no computer expert, and I'm sure prices have come down, but when I put the piece together that I built last year, the best I could do was about $1200 plus a monitor. I may have gone overboard on a few things, but $400 sounds a little cheap. I'll dig out the specs on the one I built, and the Drivesoft hardware specs, and post them later. Then, one of you computer types can tell me what it should cost.
Toby


Heh, i didnt add a monitor, that would drive the price up a couple hundred more dollars, and i was generally going for "cheap stuff". Since most cheapass 400mhz 128 mb ram type comps can run the simple little car programs and winamp, i just went with getting --


These are general specs, not exacts

+ socket 754 800MHz AMD 64 with hypertransport
+ a small custom form-factor pc case with custom motherboard supporting my processor, these things are known to be quiet and relatively cool with low power consumption with custom PSU[power supply unit] (but i'd like to look into a smart PSU)
+ 512 mb ddr 2700 RAM 1 stick
+either going to get a small energy efficient geforce 4200MX or something or i'll salvage my ATI 9600SE
+Creative Audigy2 ZS sound card
+ and either steal an HD from my PC (it runs 4 HDs =/) or buy some cheap Western Digital.
+ as for a CD/DVD rom drive i have like 6 lying around that i randomly use for different projects so I really dont need to buy another one, but you can get most DVD drives for like 15-20 bucks, hell, they sell DVD burners for like less than 40 now.


again, there is no monitor, i'd really have to look into some 7" touchscreen monitor that isnt an audio deck player to cut back on costs. that should add another what like 300 bucks? =[

I dont really need anything else to run in there, it should be pretty self reliant, just need XP, some carPC software, shitloads of codecs, and some decoding programs and some other junk like MilkDrop for winamp for fun.

I'd say the benefits of this thing to one of the pre-made ones is the fact that I can upgrade and swap out crap as i need to and is easier to fix since it will be stuff that I put together. Also if I end up not liking the idea i can always use it as a home PC or just use it as both and move it around.



If i'm up to it i might buy the PC soon just to see how it works out in the extreme temps of my nissan altima! =X
If it sucks and it doesnt work out how i like, i'll probably end up giving the pc away or selling it on ebay or something and buying one of your prefab ones for simplicity's sake.


Also - I was thinking about those converter plugs from rca to mini, theres no loss in sound quality? if so its barely noticeable if at all right?

[Notladstyle]

Heh, i didnt add a monitor, that would drive the price up a couple hundred more dollars, and i was generally going for "cheap stuff". Since most cheapass 400mhz 128 mb ram type comps can run the simple little car programs and winamp, i just went with getting --


These are general specs, not exacts

+ socket 754 800MHz AMD 64 with hypertransport
+ a small custom form-factor pc case with custom motherboard supporting my processor, these things are known to be quiet and relatively cool with low power consumption with custom PSU[power supply unit] (but i'd like to look into a smart PSU)
+ 512 mb ddr 2700 RAM 1 stick
+either going to get a small energy efficient geforce 4200MX or something or i'll salvage my ATI 9600SE
+Creative Audigy2 ZS sound card
+ and either steal an HD from my PC (it runs 4 HDs =/) or buy some cheap Western Digital.
+ as for a CD/DVD rom drive i have like 6 lying around that i randomly use for different projects so I really dont need to buy another one, but you can get most DVD drives for like 15-20 bucks, hell, they sell DVD burners for like less than 40 now.


again, there is no monitor, i'd really have to look into some 7" touchscreen monitor that isnt an audio deck player to cut back on costs. that should add another what like 300 bucks? =[

I dont really need anything else to run in there, it should be pretty self reliant, just need XP, some carPC software, shitloads of codecs, and some decoding programs and some other junk like MilkDrop for winamp for fun.

I'd say the benefits of this thing to one of the pre-made ones is the fact that I can upgrade and swap out crap as i need to and is easier to fix since it will be stuff that I put together. Also if I end up not liking the idea i can always use it as a home PC or just use it as both and move it around.



If i'm up to it i might buy the PC soon just to see how it works out in the extreme temps of my nissan altima! =X
If it sucks and it doesnt work out how i like, i'll probably end up giving the pc away or selling it on ebay or something and buying one of your prefab ones for simplicity's sake.


Also - I was thinking about those converter plugs from rca to mini, theres no loss in sound quality? if so its barely noticeable if at all right?

usually the phone to rca jacks take an amped signal and send it to RCA plugs which can overpower the reciebing unit and also intruduce noise from the PC's amplifier. both can be worked around however.

[TJElite]

usually the phone to rca jacks take an amped signal and send it to RCA plugs which can overpower the reciebing unit and also intruduce noise from the PC's amplifier. both can be worked around however.

The line out jack on most sound cards is a very low level...I'm guessing 250mv, or so. The PC I built myself needed a preamp to get the amps anywhere near clipping, even with the gains all the way up.

My drivesoft unit is quite a bit more stout, but I still should add a preamp or line driver...high amp gains are not good.

To anser PO57's question...I haven't noticed any ill sound quality effects from the adapter. One nice thing about the PC is that its usually mounted in back, so RCA's get really short, making for less chance of noise.

Toby

[Notladstyle]

The line out jack on most sound cards is a very low level...I'm guessing 250mv, or so. The PC I built myself needed a preamp to get the amps anywhere near clipping, even with the gains all the way up.

My drivesoft unit is quite a bit more stout, but I still should add a preamp or line driver...high amp gains are not good.

To anser PO57's question...I haven't noticed any ill sound quality effects from the adapter. One nice thing about the PC is that its usually mounted in back, so RCA's get really short, making for less chance of noise.

Toby

I was speaking if the sound card clipping itself and sending a clipping signal to the amp regardless of hte output voltage. And any amped & then reamped signal will have some noise in the line.