Touchscreen Install

[socno24]

I'm putting a carputer in my 850. If I had my choice, I'd go without a headunit and simply drop a 7" screen into the double din slot. However, I'm 16 and my parents own the car (and pay for insurance and gas etc). They drive it from time to time and want a way to listen to the radio without the computer. I removed the stock radio and replaced it with a single din unit in the bottom slot. I have an 8" touch screen and I am having difficulty figuring out exactly how to mount it.

A member of a carputer forum who owns a v70 made this mock-up:

What I'm unsure of is where to screw the mount into in the dash. I was thinking of instead of screwing it in to use industrial strength velcro, but I am not sure where to attach that to either or even if it would hold up back there.

Let me know if photos of my specific dash would be helpful in determining a way to mount the screen.

[paulr]

What you're saying is you want to have a 8" touchscreen mounted to essentially a solid faceplate above the HU - with the touchscreen hovering in front of the AC controls? (It's hard to tell from this illustration, at least for me)

Personally, I feel this is a bad idea - the whole point of a carputer is for it to look slick, and IMO, that wouldn't be what would happen in this case. You have several options, however

• Double-DIN HU and use RCA inputs for the Carputer (better than nothing)
• Install LCD and put HU where ashtray is (requires custom glasswork)
• Relocate A/C controls (or rig up a computer interface if you're really slick) and put the 1din where they go, and the LCD in the 2-din holder
• Get a motorized 1DIN touchscreen (be warned the gears sometimes fail)

Carputers can be slick, but IMO they're rarely worth the headache - the Liliput / Xenarc screens aren't the brightest, don't do the best in the sun - even a optimized install will take 15-20 seconds to boot (10 seconds if you hibernate it) - by the time you add up an ITX board + amp for speakers + GPS unit + FM tuner + LCD screen + time, you're getting damn close to the cost of a high-quality 2DIN unit with all those features anyway. Now, if you can source some of those parts for cheap, or want one for mobile internet / PC games / engine management / etc, obviously the carputer is still #1.

Personally, I just recently had to debate between a Carputer and a 2DIN, and I ended up going with a Jensen 2DIN (I'm planning on making a post about it later). While I'm not using the internal amp, the SQ of the line output is surprisingly good (almost as good as my Mbox). Supports CD / CD-MP3 / DVD-MP3 (up to 999 songs) / DVD-video, as well as Mp3s and DivX movies off of a SD card or DVD. The resolution is lower than some (it's not a 480x800, I can't remember what it is) but for most purposes it's decent. I paid a little over $400 for it on Ebay, and considering that's in the range of premium 1DIN's (retail, at least), I'm pretty happy. Navi is an extra module that costs an arm and a leg, but I rarely need GPS features, and use my laptop whenever I do.

Whatever you end up doing, good luck

[Aequitas_Veritas]

something like this?

[paulr]

:unsure: actually no what I had in mind wasn't close to that hot.

I don't know who's car that is, but I stand in awe. Wow is all I can say.

Is there an associated writeup / webpage / etc ?

[rivfader]

All I can say is: WOW!!!

That's what I call perfectly integrated! I'd like to have more information about that...

[socno24]

I've seen that somewhere before actually. I originally was going to drop a 7" into the double din space and pay somebody to put my 1 din radio where the ash tray currently is (I have never used bondo/fiberglass and highly doubt that I could do something like that on my first try). The problem is that my dad will probably sell the car when I'm in college and get a used v70, so he doesn't want anything permanent to be done. I'll talk to him though. Anybody have an idea how much a place would charge to put the single din radio where the ash tray is?

Paulr - I was thinking that I would secure the gooseneck mount somewhere behind the dash, rather than on a faceplate covering the hole. Ideally the gooseneck itself wouldn't be too visible as it wouldn't stick too far out of the opening. As good of an argument that you make against the unprofessional way of going about it, it doesn't worry me too much. I will not be taking this car to college for at least my first two years (during which my parents might sell it). I only have this car for a year and a half.

Another idea that I had is that the head unit has a detachable faceplate. I've seen a write up of how to mount the faceplate several feet away from the head unit itself, using a cat5 cable. I could relocate it to up in the headliner, and then fit a 7" in the double din slot.

[socno24]

I removed the ash tray to see how much room was behind it. The plastic of the dash tapers in and it is too narrow for a radio to fit. What I plan to do is mount the faceplate where the ash tray currently is and put the radio itself in the glove compartment. Then I'm going to purchase a 7" screen (and sell the 8" one) and put it in the double din slot. I think that everything will look much nicer this way.

[maiku]

imo, easiest would be getting a 7" single DIN motorized screen and putting it on top of the single DIN radio you already have

push the button, screen comes out

push the button, screen goes back

done and done

and looks much nicer

mp3car.com has a ton of stuff

and +1 for carputer

my whole setup was just the cost of the screen,gps and sacrificial volvo radio

and the laptop was free!!

[paulr]

(Pulled from a random Ebay page for effect - there may be better deals)

If you're going to sell your LCD than Atanium's probably right about the flip-out. However, I *have* heard some bad things about the lilliput gears - and like he said, if you're going to sell your existing screen, the flip-out is less of a PITA.

And Atanium your laptop may have been free you put a TON of time into your install IIRC, which IMO more than cancels out the cost savings of just purchasing screen + GPS + inverter / DC power reg (so, $350 - $450?).

Either way they're still sexxy once they're all set up right, so to each is own.

[socno24]

I just can't justify spending $400ish on a 7" lcd, no matter what futures it has, especially when I only have this car for about a year and a half. I spent $200 on the 8" and hope to spend about the same on the 7" replacement.

I currently have a storage pocket filling in the whole left by my 1 din radio in the 2 din slot. There is a trim ring/lip on that that I am going to sand down so that the faceplate fits into it. Then I am going to mount that right under the radio opening, where the ash tray is right now. I started sanding by hand but decided that it was time to invest in a dremel. After I get that done, I have to solder a network cable for the faceplate to communicate with the radio. I have zero soldering experience so I may pay a shop to do it and watch them so that I can learn how. After that I'll have a nice 2 din opening to work with.

[paulr]

Sounds like you have a plan, best of luck with it. I agree $400 is a lot for a screen, and you might be able to find them down to $300, but yes, still expensive.

Soldering isn't hard, but it takes practice. Pick up a 25-35 (no more than 40!) watt iron, and find some old electronic parts to practice on. The general process isn't hard - heat the component for .5 to 4 seconds (depends on component, iron - you'll figure it out), appliy solder, wait for a small size beat to form, remove iron and solder. Flux can help with tricky surfaces and wires. Most of it's practice, and it's really not that hard after a while (hand soldering SOIC or even TSOP chips does wonders for character). Don't hold the iron longer than necessary as you can damage things / melt plastic, don't use acid-core solder for electronics (it's for plumbing) - use silver bearing or roisin core. I think that's about it.

Also, don't use solid-core wire (which most cat5 plenum is) - make sure it's patch grade wire, IE stranded. Nothing sucks more than soldering up everything, getting all the wires ran, and then one of the solid core wires being bent too much and cracking right in half (had it happen a lot, when I cut corners and use solid core). Also, you can check to see if there's an electronics / surplus supply store in your area - we have one (skycraft) and they have all sorts of wonderful wire, like 12, 15, even 25 and 30 conductor wire - which could help you out if the plate uses over 8 pins.

Anyway take pictures, and good luck.

[maiku]

i recommend everyone trying to install a carpc

you learn much of patience, and new curse words

[socno24]

Thanks paulr for all the soldering advice. Now I just need a couple of free days to do it all. I've got tomorrow off and spring break is coming somewhat soon, but I'm going to be visiting colleges. I don't know when I'm going to find the time to do all of the fabrication.

[socno24]

I finally got around to starting this. I haven't gotten very far but here is what I have done:

I took the trim from a single din storage pocket and dremeled it until the faceplate fit within it. It was my first time with the dremel so it didn't come out exactly perfect, but for now I'm focusing on getting it all up and running rather than looking perfect. I can't do much else until I get a 7" LCD and a 2din Volvo radio.

[NGB]

Michael, can you host the pictures from your Carputer install somewhere and edit the thread so that they work? Please.