I thought it would be really cool if you could take out the oil, gas, temp, and battery gauges and the Stereo, then put a 17" inch flat screen with the touch screen ability into the place were the stereo was. This flat screen, with its own custom made program, would show all the gauges and control the stereo digitally. So in short it the car would have its on little computer inside. Although people already put laptops into there cars that would control there computer systems and what not but I just thought that it would be creative to have this. Anybody have any thoughts?

 

.........WHY ? This would cost more then your car, especially if you're talking about making a custom program that somehow will communicate with the car/ and or read in the information from all the gauages..... Just my thoughts

 

Yes your right about the cost. It would be pricy. But then again, there have already been programs made to control these functions. So either I could make my own, or get one. Again just a thought.

 

Where at ? I would like to see them..... I have seen all digital ones before, or custom digitat ones.. But there are probably some cars that have laptops and such that display info..... So is all that you are saying is add a touch screen ?

:lala: :lala: :lala: :lala: :lala: :lala:

 

Well I'm having a hard time locating a program that can do those things. I assumed that there was one already created from watching fast and furious. Oh well still looking though......................

 

actually I had 7 inch screen there for a while with a computer in the back. The computer had a tv tuner a radio tuner and mp3's of course the main reason I had it in there. I thought about making some serial outputs that would engage some servos to control the ac etc where I could put a bigger screen in there. I had like 300 in that set up. the servos would of cost around 3-400 and I would of wrote the software to run it all, but decided not to do it just because it would be so likely to get stolen. You could add voice commands with something like dragon natually speaking but you would need atleast a 1ghz computer, at the time I had a 500mhz in it. If you look around for robot control programs u could find an open source program to modify to run it all.

If there are alot of interest in this I would write the program to do it all with diagrams to build the hadware however I would probably charge for the program because you are talking several mounths of development with just me programming it. Special hadware controls should be in the realm of my ability, I am a senior in Computer science

EDIT if you wanted to use a real radio instead of a tuner card in the pc you would just need one that has a remote because there are programs to control an infrared transmitter that could be set up to act as an remote control, i built on for physics class as a project one time to show signal wave carry.

 

You can run the motec Telemetry setup and run that from a pc in the car hooked up to an LCD screen. that would give you your guages and then you can use the infrared software that Aviator mentioned,

 

Here is a photoshop I did with my dash in my 86,

 

Life Tip: don't assume anything based on the Fast and the Furious.

I think Analog gauges are just fine. I don't want to get rearended by some guy behind me scrolling through the menu on his touch screen.

And Zepher: everytime you post that interior pic I can't sleep at night because I have nightmares about wiring.

 

It's not as bad as it looks. 80% of those wires are not going to be used. I just need to get motivated and start to work on them.

 

Zepher post a link of that software, all I am comming up with is a robotics company.

 

http://www.motec.com/home.htm

 

They have cool steering wheels too, but they start at $2900.00

 

looks like video game steering wheels!

 

Wow, looked at that MoTech site. They have some fun stuff, but jesus. expensive! Would be fun to have, but impractical for a Daily Driver, or even anything not really racing related. Goodies like that would be aswome, but the wiring harnesses for 8 cilinder cars are like 1800 and up. for some stupid wires !

if you have the money and a race car, then go for it. But i dont think that is anything to have in a normal car.

Zepher, what did you use your setup for ? A race car, or your regular car... If you dont mind clarifing, what did the system in your car mesure, and how much did everything cost ? Sure is neat tho

 

My car is a weekend cruiser/auto-x/road race car, but it's not done yet.

I am still waiting to win the lottery so I can get the motec setup, the image above was from the Motec Telemetry Demo software I downloaded.

 

you guys missed on the easy out.


all anolog -> Digital conversions have been done and put in a PC friendly format...

use winALDL or some other program like that, and it has a "digital dashboard" right on it...

dont like how it looks? the ECM output is open source.... you take in your variable string... parse it out... say get it so your variables are set.... like MPH = 64.... then just call a lil drawing function and have it draw out the gauge needle at 64... or put 64 on the screen..



i did a lil Visual basic for CE thing based on Craigs Quickbasic DOS ECM scanner, but i stopped messing with it after my handheld broke..

handheld computers already have touch screens..... and you can get touch screens for PCs... everything is there if you have the money for the hardware.

 

Ya well visual basic is not as great. It doesnt nearly come close to what C++ can do. Try using that to improve your program. I have a friend who can really cool programming. He's jesus F-bird on thridgen so talk to him about programming if you have any questions.

 

i dunno it looks way to "import" for my liking

 

I just want my bird to have the best technology there is so its up to date with todays technology.

 

I know it's not a thirdgen, but check out this guys setup, and he made it all himself
http://ashleypowers.com/ZPCTour/300tour1.htm

 

Didnt the Buick Reatta's have a moniter sorta like that?

 

I emailed some programmer about making a custom program for the application to run the gauges and stereo. Havent gotten a reply back. I think he laughed

 

man that guy that made the computer stuff for the nissan is a freggin genius!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

what all are we looking for here,
AC controls
temp controls
radio control
gauges display
GPS navigation
touchscreen/voice input
remote control

How ever for the radio it would be easier to use a radio tuner card in the computer.

This isn't that hard but the software development will take time. The gauges should be easy to display from the port on the car, the ac/temp controls are going to require a serial interface with servos to actually move the controls.

Full set up could easly be done for under 2k, less w/o touch screen and using older computers.

 

Hey JimmyG-91Z, Who is that guy who made that? Wouldnt mind having one of those. Mabye have him make a custom dash.

 

how would you hook the computer up to an lcd screen??

 

by plugging it into the video card like any other monitor..

 

i hate the 300zx in general,

:hail:BUT MAN IS THAT A SICK SETUP!!!!!!!:hail:

 

How could you not know that? an LCD moniter is the same thing as any other moniter. Oh well, no harm done. Also you want the coolest video card to go with the moniter so you get top of line graphics. Plus hooking up a nice sound system, a couple subs mabey. Dont want to turn it into a *****. lol.

 

Actually there is several types of LCD's out there. You can get LCD tv screens that have a composit or s-video input, alot of video cards have this output. This is what I had when I had a computer in my car. The DPI isn't that good so you have to set the text real big. You can get a regual LCD monitor and you can just plug it up, problem is then you have to invert 12 volts to 110 volts to use desktop componets, which is a big drain on the battery. Also you can get LCD TV screens on ebay for under 200 but a LCD monitor cost 400+ for a good one you can see in the sun. I also had a lcd (like what is on a calculator but back lit) that would scroll the name of the song(MP3) that was playing across it, like some radios do.

At one point I had a LCD out of a old laptop there but could never get the home made inverter to get the colors right when hooked up to the regular desk top video card.

 

Theres some software you want to lookup called "media car" Its a "do everything" type software thats basically made for a car PC

http://users.skynet.be/media-car/software.html

This is a good place for LCD's, $380 for a 7 inch LCD and touch screen.... hell yeah
http://www.digitalww.com

 

The only real good thing with that program is the auto gamma correction. I have a remote on my desktop that will open/close 8 programs. It does give it a embeded look.

 

ok.. i get the whole everything.... but with touch screens, what connections do they use to input stuff into the computer? serial?... and then just d/l drivers from who knows..?

also, with amps... Um.. ok.. i have 5.1 digital sound, but.. how you gonna hook it up, doesn't have same hookups.. i mean.. you can get the red/white i know how to do that.. but.. the 3rd channel, that has to run from a head unit to the amp.. which output from a sound card would that be? or.. motherboard..

 

The touch screen input will connect to either USB, Serial, some even connect to parallel. Most modern will be usb.
For the sound card you will have to use a highlevel inverter (speaker wire to rca). If you want to use the 5.1 surround you will need 2 2ch amps, 1 for front 2 1 for rear 2 and 1 1ch amp for the center ch. You will split the sub chanel out to a amp to run the subs.

For a car 4.1 or 4.2 is going to work better.

You can buy sound cards that have low level output (RCA outputs), Music studios use these.

 

out of all the computers i've seen i have not seen one w/ rca jacks!

 

all 3 computers I have have composit(RCA) jacks, I use it all the time on this one to watch dvd's on the TV, just about all high end video cards have them, but you can buy lcd's that have regular vga inputs.

 

ya, usb. just looked like.. 4 hrs ago, rofl. home now, :-D. i looked when i was at work, lol.

 

Damn I cant wait till I get a LCD screen in mine but it will be awhile. Its going to kick ***.

 

Check this photochop out...


Oh my bad, that's legit However that one is long gone (along with ALL the 3rd gen interior, new bigger better plans for a in-car pc with 4th gen int).

[Sorry if this was off topic ]

 

His name is Ashley Powers, and yes he is a friggin genius, if you look at the rest of his site you'll see alot of the other things he's done. He's made a cpm,oter for his mazda truck too

This is the site for where he works at, you might be able to email him there. I imagine you could find his email fomr his site though
http://www.z1motorsports.com/

 

i thought this looked familiar... by the time that i got to the pic gallery, i realized i knew that kid. 12 second TT...not bad for a import. damn rich kids....he is a pretty smart guy tho.

 

Does anybody now who that guy was who did all his custom stereo stuff or electronics for his bird or camaro? Wanted to hire the guy so if you can tell me who he is and how I can contact him that would be great. thanks.