Versa Car PC Project

[Rand0m0sityxX]

nice set up!

You can legally drill into your plate?

[williamk10]

nice set up!

You can legally drill into your plate?

No. But with a small modification like that, I hope I won't run into problems. I've seen plates with the top and bottom cut off, plates with the insurance decal covered by license plate frames and plates that are actually just stickers around town..

Anywho, here are some first pictures of the carpurter itself. i ran into some problems fitting it into the glovebox. The Versa's glovebox is deep but for some reason, the back corner of the glovebox is cut at an angle so that forced the carputer to be moved slightly forward, which in turn made it impossible to mount it there as the glovebox door would hit the front of the carputer when closed. The only opther option was to mount it upside down on the roof of the glovebox.

[williamk10]

Carputer fitted. Tight fit

[iluvmyVersa08]

Ya you wouldn't believe how many 'fake' stickers I've seen on plates around here. And the cars are back and forth all the time ... clearly they have not been caught!

[Rand0m0sityxX]

Yea. I've seen some plates messed with here.

Oh and here's a guy off a forum i'm on. the first page has his car pc in his Cavalier. It's pretty neat. Can't wait to see your's finished!

http://www.gmscf.com/showthrea...hread.

[williamk10]

!@#$ you rebar, I win. However, my hole saw did get owned in the process



Grommet that runs thru the back of the car for the tail lights. Used it for the camera power and line in

[williamk10]

New automotive grade PSU arrived today. No wonder they call it a pico psu.

[Atx_Versa]

Very well done bro!

[ScottDoom]

That's some cool work you're doing there.

I've always wanted a car computer just for the storage capacity. I have tons of music and would love to be able to put it all in my car.

[KimberKenobi]

I think the nerd in me just peed a little...

I want one...

[GFresh]

Amazing.

[bazza236]

williamk10, good work!!!

you've inspired me to do the exact same thing!!

just a question, could you have left the dash as if (without cutting it) and still put the lilliput double din in, just behind the dash panel? Is there enough space?

I know it wont fit flush but that would still be ok wouldnt it?

[williamk10]

You could, but it would look weird. The dash panel is a bit curved, and the doubledin screen is flat so you would get a gap in the middle. You could do the opposite and have the screen sit on the outside. If you did that, the middle of the frame would be against the dash and the top and bottom would have a gap (because of the curviture of the dash)

I didn't really have a choice but to cut in order to have it sit flush. If I were to do it again, I would order the Tiida navigation dash and use the nav opening to fit a screen in there.

[williamk10]

Added this little guy. Hope he can help with the 50+ degree ambient temp inside the case.



Also ordered a molex to P4 cable for the new automotive PSU. Once that gets in, that'll be all I need to finish this installation

[williamk10]

Car PC IN



Mounted upside down in glovebox. When the power supply receives switched power, meaning the key is in the ignition, it will send an ON pulse to the motherboard to turn it on. When switched power is removed, meaning the key is removed, the power supply will wait 5 seconds, and then send an OFF pulse to the motherboard, turning it off.

99% done, time to actually start using it

[CrankyVersa]

I cant wait to see when you are all finished buddy!!!! Great and kick a** work so far!!!

[williamk10]

Not much of an update these days as the project is nearing completion.

Picked up this on sale, USB wireless adaptor so I can get wireless internets on the carputer



I also got my OBD reader back from the manufacturer. It now has the hardware to support being powered from the USB rather than the OBD port on the car. This is needed because the OBD reader will always be powered when plugged into the obd port but with the hardware change, it will now be powered by the USB port and will turn off when the carputer is off.

[ineptflux]

that is just sick.

[williamk10]

Tethering with my Blackberry Bold on my data plan. I now have 3g wireless in the car and able to surf the internetz anywhere there is wireless service...i'm going to need a larger data plan

[BWG]

My girlfriend would kill me if I did this. I do not even want to mention it to her lol!

[williamk10]

Post #50, last post for updates to the Car PC project.

Summer has been hard on the carputer, with Speedfan giving me 50c+ temps inside the case. I added a giant case fan to move air in the glovebox. Suprisingly, temps dropped a whopping 20c from 50c to 30c. With the AC on, it is pulling in cold air from the footwell and pushing it into the case. The case is actually cold to the touch! I can now run it for long periods of time without worrying about overheating the components and crashing the HD.



In retrospect, I wish I used a 32GB SSD drive which would survive the heat and bumps in the road, and used a 320gb external drive for media so I can move it easily from my home to the car. I don't really have a good way to move media at the moment since I only own a 4gb usb key. In the end, I am happy with the carputer. I may clean things up with the install, but for now, it'll stay the way it is. Thanks for viewing .

[NODES]

how hard is it to wrap using the Vinyl?

[williamk10]

Not bad, getting it around the inside edges were the hardest. Pulling it on the outside edge isn't bad.

[NODES]

Not bad, getting it around the inside edges were the hardest. Pulling it on the outside edge isn't bad.

Did you use a hair dryer?

I am debating of doing this to my hood.

[williamk10]

Doing the hood will be very easy. Yes, hair dryer will be needed to make it soft, like a cloth. With it soft, you can pull it around the edges and get rid of air bubbles.

[Eemrek]

HI williamk10,

Looks great! Very impressive!

I had a quick question since you put the 1-DIN in what use to be the "cubby" hole. I just recently purchased an XM Commander MT and it comes with a single-DIN opening bezel plate in which I can mount the control unit.

I couldn't tell from your pictures, but is the actual "cubby" removable or did you have to physically "cut" out the cubby + flip-down door? I was hoping it was two pieces so if I ever decide to sell my car and remove the XM control unit from it, I'd be able to restore the cubby hole without issue.

The bezel looks like this and is extremely shallow so I don't think I need to cut out the "back" part like you did to have the depth to install your HU.



Thoughts? Thanks in advance!

Cheers,
Eemrek (Kermee)

[williamk10]

The cubby hole comes out with a few screws so don't worry about breaking that part. As for the depth, it was only because my cd deck was standard size so it went deep. If your XM commander isn't so deep, then it will mount easily. Just use the mounting plates like I did so you don't have to hack anything up and you can return to stock easily.

[Eemrek]

The cubby hole comes out with a few screws so don't worry about breaking that part. As for the depth, it was only because my cd deck was standard size so it went deep. If your XM commander isn't so deep, then it will mount easily. Just use the mounting plates like I did so you don't have to hack anything up and you can return to stock easily.

Oy! Thanks for the reply!

Yeah... I noticed it was only two screws at the top that were holding it in. But it looks like the "bottom" part of the cubby had tabs that were "heat melted" together... in a sort of "permanent" install. -- They might of changed it in newer versions of the Versa since my '07 Versa was a "first run" vehicle out of the Mexico plant.

The XM Commander MT so-called "1-DIN plate" ended up being too small for the opening after I checked. So I kept the "cubby" there, drilled a hole in the back of it to route the wires for the XM Mini-Tuner which needs 12V (tapped off the ACC wire on the HU; it's in-line fused used too which was nice), the I/O port to the Commander's display which was routed down to right above the cup holders, and the XM antenna connector (which connects to the FM Direct Modulator, XM antenna, and the HU's antenna harness).

So the cubby now has a permanent hole in the back of it which... isn't too bad. But now my XM Mini-Tuner is hidden in there and when I get home, I can just pull it out and put it into my Yamaha AVR receiver which has an XM Mini-Tuner Home Dock in it.

But I definitely saw which part you had to cut to get the HU to fit. LOL.

Cheers,
Eemrek

[williamk10]

I suppose projects like this never end.

I added a Microsoft webcam, capable of 720P HD resolution. The main reason I got this was for it's microphone so I could use it for bluetooth calls but it is nice to be able to record video with it as well. Below is a sample video from a few days go. I still need to actually install it as it was just clipped onto the reat view mirror.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICRDi1xxoYQ

[OhSnap!]

@Will

Thanks for posting this great writeup with pics. I have been looking into carpc for quite a while now and have finally decided on what to get. I had a few questions:

1. How do you find the GPS unit? Does it work well?
2. Where did you purchase the LCD screen?
3. The OBD unit you purchased, you mentioned that you had to send it back to the manufacture to have it rewired. Can you tell me which company you purchased it from? Was it ScanTool? Also the software and the GTR skin, did it come with the unit?

Thanks,
Snap