Just test fit it where you want it before you do any cutting/bondoing. LCD screens get progressively harder to see at increasing angles.

So far the PSU works fine. I haven't given it the full load test yet.

Here's how the CDRW/DVD drive looks installed in the center console armrest.

I deleted the pictures of the enclosure and drive uninstalled to save space on the forum servers. You can find pics of them at Newegg. The drive is the Panasonic CW-8123. The enclosure is the Mapower KC51SU2.

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Latest picture of install with PSU integrated into case and cleaned up wiring.

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Rando-

A couple more ?'s for you:

- I have been considering your new PSU. It seems like a lot of people are swearing by the OPUS 150w. What are your thoughts on the difference (since you've had both). I like the idea of integrating into the case.

- Have you measured the heat dissipation from your unit? I would think it would not get enough airflow in that compartment.

- You took apart your screen and mounted the buttons on the back. Given what you saw when it was taken apart, would it be possible to run the wires and mount the buttons in the center console? Or is the remote really all you need?

Thanks

BTW - Looking really good with all of the wires cleaned up.

Oh yeah - Also,

Have you used Centrafuse? I have all of these programs on my laptop, but it is hard to tell exactly how they will behave in the carPC environment. Centrafuse seems to be very well suited to touchscreens and quite versatile. Your thoughts?

The primary differences between the two are size and output power. The cased Opus is larger and includes an integrated fan. The non cased Opus is still a bit bigger than the M1-ATX. There output power is the same on every rail except +12V. The Opus can do 5A, the M1-ATX only 2A. Also, the M1-ATX draws power for its 12V rail from its 5V rail. That means if you use the full 2A on the 12V rail, then only roughly 5A is available on the 5V rail (instead of the rated 10A). If you want to run a P4 or Athlon, there's no way the M1-ATX is going to do it. If you run several desktop peripherals, it's also probably not going to do it. For my system, the only thing that uses +12V is the LCD and the case fans.

The two have slightly different timing options availabe for controlling startup shutdown delays. The M1-ATX also has an option to completely disable the +5VSB rail when the computer is off. The Opus doesn't do this so you have to hack around that problem if you want your battery to last. The M1-ATX includes a socketed flashable microcontroller on board that you can reprogram any way you want -- assuming you know how. This would give you the ultimate flexibility in making your system startup & shutdown exactly how you want it to.

The M1-ATX is less than half the price of the Opus 150W.

No, I don't have the tools needed to do this right. I can tell you that the previous setup (with the Opus) got wicked hot, especially last summer, but that never caused even a hickup. I just ran the new setup for 2hrs tonight and it was fairly warm but not as hot as before. Then again, it was probably 40 degrees cooler outside today than last summer.

Your observation is right though. A sealed compartment isn't the best for airflow. It would be hard to build a system that ran any cooler than mine however. The VIA boards, by design, generate very little heat. My laptop drive will run cool all day long. The hottest thing in my system is the RAM -- it runs very hot. The fans in there probably don't do much more than swirl the hot air around. There isn't much room inside the C134 for airflow anyhow.

I'll wait until something burns up before I consider making any serious cooling modifications to the storage cubby. One of my design goals was to do minimal modification to any interior panels. So far, that's been achieved.


The remote does everything the buttons do.

If you want the buttons up front you'll probably have to do some work. The buttons are attached to a seperate circuit board that is attached to the main board with a ribbon. There's no easy way to extend the ribbon unless you have wicked soldering skillz (or access to a longer ribbon). The easier thing to do is relocate the button board. You could then remove any buttons from the reloated board and reconnect them with wire extensions. In fact, you could replace them with any kind of button you wanted too.

There are many pictures of the internals of these screens posted at mp3car.com and elsewhere.

I've only played with Centrafuse on a laptop so far. I found it to be a bit unstable and not offering any significant advantage over Frodoplayer (yet). Also, it's still lacking the interlocking function that I need (in California) to make my system compliant with California law.

Rando,

I am finally beginning my carputer quest and have 2 questions.

I got the 7" Lilliput TS and every time I hook it up, I get major distortion. My DVD HU plays fine but when I hook up the video or audio RCA from the screen to my HU, it goes hissing on me. The picture is fine but that hissing noise bugs me. I also heard it's really bad for speakers. I thought it might be a ground issue, but there are no wires from the screen. It's all through the DC power supply that came with the unit. Any suggestions on a fix?

Also, how did you hardwire power to the Lilliput or is there another plug that you used?

Thanks for your help. You've been great.

I don't understand how your system is wired -- composite video/audio inputs from Lilliput hooked to HU outputs???? I'm pretty sure you'll never want/need to use the cheasy little speaker/amp built into he Lilliput. It's not meant to be good sounding nor loud enough to actually hear in a car.

Assuming your HU puts out a regular composite video stream, the Lilliput should display it just fine. Are you using the right RCA connector on the Lilliput? Two of them are video (yellow and one of the others). IIRC the yellow one is VIDEO2. The remaining connector is the audio input. The lilliput audio only works when the screen is in VIDEO1/VIDEO2 mode -- again I have no idea why you'd want to use that though or if I even understand what you're trying to do.

The little "egg" shaped DC-DC regulator that comes with the screen is known to be garbage. Like many car power regulators, it's not really designed to handle all the stuff that your cars power system will throw at it. Do yourself a favor and throw it away or sell it to someone on mp3car.com. You can cut the barrell plug off of it if you want. Solder that onto a standard 4 pin molex connector and then you can run your screen off of any ATX power supply.

My wiring setup is bit more involved than the description above. I completely removed the Lilliput connectors for power and video/audio input and direct soldered my own connectors (female RCAs for video, USB Type A male for touch screen, male HD15 with ferite bead for VGA, Power and Ground using a standard PC 4 pin Molex. I also brought out a second ground wire that is directly connected to my mounting brackets -- to elminate some noise in my display. Even having done all of that I still get a bit of flicker in the display -- but nothing too terrible.

I was just testing the white audio wire off the Lilliput since the yellow video wire was giving me distortion. Once the audio wire was hooked up, the distortion got worse.

I plan to take the Lilliput apart to custom fit that into my dash. I'm not good with soldering wires so I'll try to stay away from that. (ruined my PlayStation trying to solder on a chip...)

As far as trying to hardwiring, I was hoping there was a plug for the Lilliput with just power and ground wires so it can be connected with the HU wires.

I'm also having a hard time fitting the HU into the glove box. So, that might have been a bad idea.

Just so you know, I got a great deal on a DVD/MP3 Changer so now I have to figure out how this is going to go into my equasion.

Here's the link to my original wiring diagram:
http://www.bfjamz.com/movies/WiringDiagram.jpg

Sorry if I hijacked your thread.

You can get power/ground for either the USB shaped connector or the barell connector. As for the 'noise', I'm still not sure what you hooked to what. Do you mean you got audio noise while hooking a video signal to the video input? Or Did you get video noise while hooking video to video? You do know that TWO of the THREE plugs are video, right?

I do know that the red and yellow wires are both video from the Lilliput. I used the video OUT from my HU to the the yellow wire/video 2 IN on the Lilliput and it gives me noise distortion through the speakers (that hissing noise in the background when the engine turns on).

Wow, that's not good. Your HU should not let noise travel up the video output and into the audio section of your amp. That's fairly whacked! Did the video at least display?

Yea, the video displays fine except for several lines runnig across but I think that has to do with the sorry "egg" connector.

Another question:

I've been reading the forums over at mp3car.com and figured out that I need a regulator to hard wire my screen (I know that's what you've been telling me all along but now I know why).

What products would you suggest I need to hard wire my screen separate from the carputer power supply? I plan on wiring a switch to turn on/off the PSU to my computer when not in use. That way, it doesn't drain out my battery. I want to be able to use the screen when the computer is cut off.

You just need a good quality automotive DC regulator that puts out 12V. If you want it to survive engine cranking without your screen shutting off, then you'll need it to work with an input voltage range down as low as maybe 8V. On the high side, it should be able to safely handle upto around 16V continuous, 24V (i.e. double voltage used by some jump starting systems) for a few minutes as well as momentary "load dumps" in the 250V range. Of course reverse voltage protection is always nice.

Unfortunately, I don't know of any supplies that actually do all of that correctly. I think most people over at mp3car.com just use their PC supplies. Others just ditch the egg and replace it with whatever 12V car regulator they can find at their local electronics shop (Radio Shack, etc). Those will probably work fine ... for the most part. I mean you probably already use them all the time in things like your phone, pda, etc. Most of them don't mention it but really none of them should be left plugged into your lighter socket during engine crank or jump starting.

Maybe ask your question(s) over at mp3car.com. That way you'll get a few more responses than what you're going to get here. Other than just showing off what we've built, this forum isn't really the place for carpc discussions.