nickmgray

from what I hear, the the Crnetix DC-DC converter has been newly redesigned to work for the mac mini (they even have mini hook-up instructions that come with it).

I know what you mean about putting windows on a mac since my dad was a comuter programmer for years and I've always been anit mac for as long as I can remember. But since I'm not using it for "Real " computing processes I think it should work fine simply as a media interface.

The reason for leaving in the head unit would be to save a little money by not having to buy an amp and intall that as well.

NYNATIV

MountScion1,
Sorry, I didn't take any pictures while I did the fans. All I can say is place the fans so that they will not get in the way of anything under the carpet such as the amps or anything under their. I checked that mine weren't hitting the foam, pc or anything else.
I first cut out the wholes in the bottom part of the rear mats (the cardboard wood material). I used the fans as templates to cut wholes and made sure to leave material for the screws to fasten. Just made the round whole for the actual fan. Once you get those wholes set up, line up the carpet. Make sure you have it lined up perfectly or else it's going to be warped once you put the screws through the cardboard and carpet. You have to remember that its going to be one whole piece after this is done. Once you have the two pieces lined up, use the wholes in the cardboad wood thing as a template for the carpet. Mark the whole and cut it out. Don't worry if the whole is a little mess because the fan covers will hide that. Once you have the wholes cut out, place the fans and use some nuts and bolts to fasten. I cut the end of the bolts that stuck out passed the nut so make it clean and keep it from hitting anything. I'll try and take some pictures of the underside. I just need to remember.

Yanick,
Sorry, I just had surgery done last week and am starting to get back into my regular stuff. I took a bunch of pictures when I did the screen setup so I'll look for those and post them up here. I just need to find them. You'll see what I did in the pictures but basically I kept the front case of the screen, measured how much of it fit in the whole where the HU goes and cut the rest. I than epoxied the remaining part of the front cover into the whole and than bondo'ed it into place. Make sure that you do a lot of measurments before you do cutting or bondoing or else it will get very messy. Anyway, I'll post the pics up. It will be easier to explain that way.

I don't see the point of keeping the headunit behind the screen when you can't access it anymore. I guess you can save money on the amp but it will probably sound better with the amp. I liked having the headunit in my last setup because I was still able to use the radio if I ever wanted to.


Ok, that's enough for now.

Yanick

He took pictures!!!

I'm so excited. Thanks for the tips on the display. I can't wait to see those pics!

NYNATIV

Ok. Here's the pictures that I took. I hope that this helps. You have to be very careful when handling the screen. I only used the screen when I wanted to do some measurements. Other than that I just used the screen case.

First thing I did was measure the front part of the screen frame so that it would fit in space where the radio was. I measured so that it was just a little bigger than the hole and than trimmed it down to fit. This is the picture of the front of the screen after I got it to fit in the hole.


This is what it looks like with the screen in it.


So what I had to do next was to cut out the bottom of the whole where radio fits so that the screen would sit flush up to the front. Here's some pics..
With out the screen..

With the screen...

Shot from the bottom....


Next thing I did was I had to put back the cover for the climate control system. With the new setup, it will hit the back cover for the screen...

So I had to cut it and trim it down....


This is what it finally looked like...

One thing to try to do is leave some of the black cover that you cut so that it hangs over the rear screen cover. This will help give the bottom of the screen some support since you now don't have anywhere to screw in the bottom of the back cover.


Ok. I have to head out but I'll finish up the rest this weekend. Hope this helps get you started.

Yanick

This helps like no other! Thanks so much. It's exactly the pictures I needed to see. Give me a few weeks and you'll be seeing pictures of my carputer.

narcturus

Great work, looks awesome! I've been wanting to put together a carpc also, but one thing I wondered about is the screen size. It seems everyone's using a 7" 16x9 (either Lilliput or Xenarc). MP3Car.com now has an 8" 16x9, but since it's new there isn't much info about it.

I used to have a '98 Accord - like the tC, also popular for carpcs because of its double-din radio. I measured out that opening and it was *just* enough to fit the 8" screen by itself, plus there was some space behind the dash so the screen had room.

My question for the tC is: how big is the opening? Has anyone measured the factory Pioneer radio? I've got measurements for the LCD (no case) but I don't have it handy. Basically it's slightly less than 7" wide and slightly more than 4" tall (double-din size). I wonder if I could use the 8" LCD in there somehow.

Thoughts, anyone? Or measurements of the factory radio? Thanks in advance!

j3st3r

iTrader: (1)

I am getting mine mocked up as we speak here is some preliminary sketches as to how I am doing mine!

CAR PC Components!!!