Touch Screen LCD

[hannibal]

Oh sweet. You put it in the dash! Much props man. I didnt think there would be enough room back there.Where's the DVD drive? I didnt see it in the pics.

[burnin240sx]

It’s not there yet. I’m still debating on its location.

I could put it in the console and have it take CD's through a slot in the back of the console. Or in the glove box but I thing the glove box is tacky.

I’m leaning towards the console.

But I’m taking the whole dash off soon to re vinyl it and I’m hoping to find a spot that I con mount it under the dash so I can have it feed through the dash.

The only thing not installed is the DVD drive but it's not really necessary right now.

It’s a work in progress.

[hannibal]

AwesomeI agree the glovebox is a PITA. I like the console idea.I saw a BMW on mp3car.com with the DVD drive mounted in the headliner (top of the windshield, in front of the sunroof). Pretty trick, but not that convenient. The console idea sounds much cleaner.

Keep us updated...

[MR2NER]

About how much in total does a project like this cost?

[burnin240sx]

800 if you don't have any of the parts.

[nab911]

Hey burnin... that conZult software looks pretty bad *** but can it interface into an s13 system? Its a ka24de platform but its on an s13 harness... do you know anything about it?

[nab911]

After reading about it i just found out that Nissan has a conSult system that works with any obd-1/obd2 systems. They hooked that to a ka24de s13 and it worked flawlessly. If the conZult works the same as the conSult then we are good to go and im bout to find one .

Well not too sure if it would work and its not worth spending the money to find one so if you guys find a good system to tie into a laptop please post it up

[burnin240sx]

the conzult system would work but i p[lan on going the way of an after market ecu like tec3 or hopefully aem if they ever release it. aem would be a direct plug in as a tec would require other crap like sensors among other things.

[nab911]

well i not have an eprom burner and im going to get an emulator soon, and i want a way to interface and display all the sensors on the car.

[burnin240sx]

Though I’d update with a How-To

And here is my attempt at a how to guide.

Supplies needed

1. 7” touch screen LCD monitor2. Dash trim 3. Sandpaper 1 pack of each is good (150, 320, 800) maybe 600 in place of 8004. Fiberglass resin (1 can is way more then enough)5. Dremel tool and cut off bits (or something to cut the plastic trim)6. Paint (primer and color of your choice (non gloss))7. Plastic wrap8. Tar and wax remover

First I had measured my double din spot for my vision of a LCD media center. It measured up at 7" from corner to corner. That would be perfect for a Luliput 7" touch screen. So I bought one off eBay for $300 shipped



OK, now it was time to make sure it would fit so here are some shot of me test fitting the LCD in the car.





It almost looks like it belongs there doesn't it

All right now the fun begins

Now I took apart the LCD and removed all components from the front cover plastic piece of the LCD frame. Now I found a good spot that lined up nicely under the ac controls. I did this in the car to make the LCD fits nicely like in my test fit photo. This is the important part because it will slide in to the spot without any modification later.

Next I marked out the line with a sharpie but a pencil is fine. Next cut out the line the dremel tool.



Now it's a close cut but not perfect so I kept cutting until I could get the LCD front to fit in the hole I cut.

In this photo it's holding itself in place here



Ok now the hole is there the next step is to make sure it stays there and looks stock. So we turn to our friend Fiberglass resin because it says on the side it's made to use on plastic(this is why i didn't use bondo). If there is something better please let me know.

Now mix the resin according to the instructions on the can. And follow all instructions for best results.

Now take your mixture and fill around the LCD and the plastic trim. Don’t take to long with this cause this will harden in minutes. It maybe best to make small mixtures and work on small section at a time. This is what I did. Make sure that you give a smooth texture to the resin and cover it with plastic wrap. The smoother it is the less sanding you will have to do. It is better to have a little lump of resin then to have a pit to fill again later. As you can see I have ripples in the bottom part of the trim.

Now let this dry for about 30 minutes or what ever the instrustions say.



It took like an hour of sanding to get that smooth.

You also want to make sure to reinforce the LCD to support the electronics. Make sure to concentrate on the corners of the LCD and try not to get the resin inside the LCD frame because we will be putting this back together.

* Note this is just my first coat of filler for support and i had to take it apart later and put more on.

Now after all the fine sanding and making sure the trim is smooth, very smooth (fill or sand more where necessary). Now we move onto the painting

Sanding of the non filled parts are necessary as well as the resin so the paint will stick. Clean the whole piece with the tar remover after sanding and alow it to dry for like 15 mins at the very least.

I used duplicolor sand able acrylic enamel and did about 5-6 light coats or primer



Make sure it still looks smooth at this point because you can sand the primmer and fix your mistakes at this point. I did this about 3 times.

Next I repeated the 5-6 coats with semi-gloss black acrylic enamel. Satin is a good choice as well. Stay away from the gloss it's too shiny and looks ricey.



This is with my first coat



Now reassemble and install into car. You may have to sand down the holes for the buttons to make the fit/ work properly.

And here is the final product



Notice the corner of the LCD. There was no resin in that corner and that's what happened after about a week. This is why the support part is the most important.

[[Zero-S]]

Looking good...too bad that lower din is my afc slot.

[silkk]

that is awesome

[burnin240sx]

here is my current interface. I like this one better.



i have full eq in there as well as playlist support, gps, dvd, all video files, plus anythign that can run on a computer.

My next write up will be the install of the dvd/cd-rw drive in the dash and a re-vynl of the dash. not some bulky 5.25 drive either. it's a laptop slot drive like you have in your cars now.



that's her.

[hannibal]

Youre the man!Great write up. I cant wait to see the DVD install. Hows the Lilliput screen working out? Is it bright enough?

And the MediaCar interface looks nice...

[Rex]

Very impressive work. VERY impressive.

[burnin240sx]

thanks everyone. i'm happy you all like.

the screen could be a little brighter in the day but that's my only complaint. I'm thinking about tinting the windows in hopes that it will solve the viewing problem.

[92FstBKDriver]

man... way to bring that into the 21st century... thats f#%kin awsome!!

[Cyberkreig]

Wow. That is amazing. I have just been searching for a solution to my ECU tuning. Would you mind taking some time to talk to me about this off the board?

[burnin240sx]

sure thing hit me up on aimburnin221

i always have my away msg on just msg me

[hannibal]

Still waiting on pics of the DVD install...

[burnin240sx]

it may be a few weeks. but i will be buying te parts next week

[hannibal]

Cool.I'm working on doing something with an old eMachines Celeron 633 my cousin didnt want around his house. I'll save the full system for when I find the S14.

[burnin240sx]

my olny regret on my system is that i only went with 1ghz i may be swaping out the mobo for one of the p4 ITX mobo's

but it works fine now i just wish it was faster.

but then again when do i not wish my computer was faster?

[hannibal]

Are you trying to play Halo on this thing? lolI figured 1ghz would be plenty for video and audio playback. How much RAM are you using? VIA has a 1.2Ghz processor coming out soon (if not already available).P4 = power and heat. But your carPC would be faster than my PC at home!! I'm considering a Athlon XP 1700 and microATX board over the EPIA 1.0/1.2ghz boards. I wont be able to mount it in the dash of course. But it only uses 50W vs 85W for a comparable P4 and its cheaper. But the P4 may handle video (divx!) much better.

The Celeron 633 will only be for MP3s. I'm trying to decide how to control it. I plan on putting the tower in the trunk next to my sub and powering it with an inverter. I'll run the sound into the factory tape player with a cassette adapter. Cheap as hell, but it beats listening to the radio all the time...

power usagehttp://users.erols.com/chare/elec.htm

[burnin240sx]

just think about HD and sub. i'm not talking about magenits. cause my cd changer skiped hardcore when i had it in the truck with my sub's. but then again i was running 2 15" with about 1000watts

[nab911]

How did you interface with speakers from the board? Did you have an analog to digital converter?

[burnin240sx]

the out put is analog i just hook it up via mini-stero to rca on the amp.

[nab911]

ok, well how do you rca to the computer board? RCA's are 2 wire and most computer/sound card hook ups are single wire or single wire dolby 5.1 compatible.

[BaliLover]

Thats what a mini-stero to RCA plug does, its a single, smaller RCA type plug that all computer speakers use to plug into the back of the computer and converts one hole into 2, that are still stereo.

[nab911]

Oh, is that like a cheap walmart/radio shack thing? $5ish?