LinkBack URL
About LinkBacks
As requested by Marcos in this thread.
Note: The following paste was written by my brother on our website.
------------------------------
http://www.cruiseblackpool.co.uk/old...UTER/car01.jpg
First thing i had to do was remove the head unit from this double din space and locate it further up in the subaru pod that i ordered direct from Subaru. You may also notice a red and white RCA wires poking out. These are there for the input wires from the PC to be connected so all the sound from the PC can be fed through the head units AUX IN connections. It also has the benefit of not having to re wire the amps to get some serious sounds out of that MP3 collection on the hard drive.
http://www.cruiseblackpool.co.uk/old...UTER/car02.jpg
^The pod here was originally made for the boost/oil/water temperature dials that are available from subaru but for my purposes it was going to be a better option to mount the head unit in its place as i will be monitoring temperatures and other parameters of the car with the ECUTEK software connected to the CARPUTER.
The pod is a perfect fit as you can see and replaces the space where the small clock was. There were other options i could of used but all the after market pods i saw were not the same colour as the interior of the car and as only minor adjustments were made to make it fit then it was the obvious choice.
http://www.cruiseblackpool.co.uk/old...UTER/car03.jpg
^Here is the software and hardware i received today from ECUTEK. It comes supplied with the cables to connect to the ECU port, the software itself, delta dash training program and USB dongle to get all of it working.
http://www.cruiseblackpool.co.uk/old...UTER/car04.jpg
^The scope of parameters the software can monitor is huge and can be things from the psi from the turbo to the heated rear swith or the IC spray switch turned on or off. Whats more you can have live user tune to modify some parameters and data log all captured data and review it later on at home or compare it to others to get the best ideas on what your car is doing.
More info can be found on the ECUTEK website: http://www.ecutek.com/products/deltadash/
http://www.cruiseblackpool.co.uk/old...UTER/car05.jpg
Now here is where things have been a little more difficult. I had to source a 19v power supply in the UK and as an invertor was not an option i wanted to use i thought of pure dc-dc power, much more efficient and i stumbled across this in car adapter made by FSP group which has all the required power levels i needed (120w 19v @6A max).
You see i chose the P4 as a base for the PC, and a pre made P4 board where others are using itx or the low powered 1Ghz cpu's with power requirements of 12v.
So in order to power the mighty power hungry P4 the voltage had to be upped from 12v to 19 and this in car adapter was the only way to make this project a reality.
Big thanks to Power Supply Sourcing for getting hold of a couple of these for the project work. They can be reached at http://www.powersupplysourcing.co.uk/
http://www.cruiseblackpool.co.uk/old...UTER/car06.jpg
^Now here was another minor headache because once i sourced the power supply i then had the problem of the power connection on the PC was totally different to the one that came with the FSP dc-dc car adapter.
Not sure you can make it out from the photo but the one on the right is the original connector for plugging the PC in at home and has a 4 pin din connection and the one on the left is a small 2 pin adapter and good for nothing for what i needed.
Some minor snipping and conections soldering and all is good.
http://www.cruiseblackpool.co.uk/old...UTER/car07.jpg
^A photo of the PC that will be bolted into the car, the specs on it are Pentium 4 2.8Ghz CPU, 512MB DDR 333 ram, Intel Extreme Graphics (on board), on board sound, 40GB Seagate ST94811A Momentus 5400RPM Hard drive 8 meg cache, Windows XP, Wi fi enabled, CDRW/DVD drive, 4x usb ports, 2x firewire ports, Navigator sat nav software and illuminated keyboard for night use.
http://www.cruiseblackpool.co.uk/old...UTER/car08.jpg
Just to give you an idea on how small this pc is, i took a photo of it next to my beloved Subaru cup and it really is no bigger than a 5 1/4 CD/DVD ROM you would put inside a desktop pc. Its small yet very powerfull and the only quibble i have with it is that the on board graphics could of been a little better but i have installed Need for Speed 2 and running that at 640x480 with medium detail and it runs flawlessly. Not sure how it would compare up against the next gen games though.
http://www.cruiseblackpool.co.uk/old...UTER/car09.jpg
Moving onto the display side, here is the screen i will be using. Its a Gains 700-Y-Y VGA touchscreen and althouhg i have no shots of the screen running it does have an excellent picture and for the price its the best out there.
I was thinking of a lilliput screen but i had heard so many bad reports of them from members on the http://www.mp3car.com/ forum i thought i better bite my tongue and pay a little extra for this better unit. Price was £259 from https://linitx.com/index.php website and is the cheapest i have found it at.
http://www.cruiseblackpool.co.uk/old...UTER/car10.jpg
-----------
Ok after a very long time (which would work out to around 7 months), ive finally completed the carputer project in the scooby.
Here are some shots:
http://www.cruiseblackpool.co.uk/old...UTER/car11.jpg
CARPUTER running ECUTEK tuning/dyno software
http://www.cruiseblackpool.co.uk/old...UTER/car12.jpg
Side shot
http://www.cruiseblackpool.co.uk/old...UTER/car13.jpg
Playing tunes direct off the HD
And ive made a little montage of the journey there:
SUBARU WRX STi CARPUTER Hi Res (15meg)
SUBARU WRX STi CARPUTER Lo Res (4meg)
------------------------------
I'm not sure on the validity of some of the links now, but any questions about this and i'll ask him.
Reply With Quote
