Computer installed in my 02 Avalanche

OK so I love my Avy.
I also love my computers and have to be connected at all times.
Now it is time to merge the two.
I will be detailing my biggest mod to date on my Avy.
It is a never ending project and since I am on a budget, the end looks futher than I care to think about.
So far this is what I've done during what little spare time I have


Hardware:
The Computer
Current Setup
Mo-co-so.com Black Box PCI Mini ITX Case for Carputer Car PC with PCI Slot
Zotac nforce 610i- ITX motherboard
Dual Core Intel Pentium Processor E5300
320 GB Western Digital Hard Drive
M2 - ATX power supply
3GB Ram




Future upgrades :

4GB Ram
Quad core Processor
1TB hard drive
PCIe 1x graphics card

Past iterations
Via M1200 motherboard
Via M1000 motherboard
160 Gb hard Drive
1 Gb of Ram

Peripherals:

12.1 Inch VGA touchscreen monitor
Space Navigator Mouse
2 4 Port Usb hubs
BU - 353 GPS receiver
USB AT&T Aircard
AT&T Mifi 2373
external DVD-RW drive
Mini Wireless Keyboard with built in touchpad

Future Additions:

3G mobile broadband Router
TrackPad
Tire Pressure Monitor Sensor Kit
Park Distance Control Sensor Kit
Relay Kit to control some vehicle functions via the PC


Software:

Windows 7 Ultimate
Centrafuse Auto Navigation
Dash Command
Garmin Mobile PC


Audio Setup:

Alpine IDA-X300 ( for my recently stolen iphone)
Alpine Type S speakers in all doors
Alpine 12 disc CD changer

Future Additions:

Alpine amplifier(s)
Alpine subwoofer(s)
Alpine In Dash DVD monitor

and the list goes on.........


All of this is now protected by a viper responder alarm that includes a Whelen 6 strobes kit ( 90 watt strobe bulbs) and a 100 watt police siren.


Thank You

The Truck:
Not much in the way of exterior mods yet but that will change soon. I intend to remedy that a bit this summer

To start off we go to the screen:

I didn't have my camera when I was putting it together - In fact I was sitting at work thinking of how I was going to get it mounted in my dash when an idea popped into my head. My goal is to have it installed in the dash but funds are in short supply right now. So I came across a temporary solution and I had to give it a shot so on my lunch hour at work I made a trip to Home Depot, got some black gloss paint a piece of wood, a saw and some screws and got to work.

Basically I pulled apart the factory radio and unscrewed the bottom of the chassis off because the radio mounting brackets was built into it.
I then cut the piece of wood to size and using the factory holes bolted it to the radio chassis. Afterwards I spay painted a first  coat of black paint on the new wood face. This would install into the factory radio location without a hitch. All of this was done during lunch. Later I sneaked out at every opportunity to paint a second third and fourth coat.

After it dried completely I took the Screen apart and drilled 2 holes in the backplate and through the wood face . I then mounted the backplate of the monitor to the wood with some spacers and added the factor bezel as the monitor was in front of the bezel and the radio behind. I then screwed the monitor together as soon as all was done. It took a lot of finesse to get the factory pieces to clip back in place with the bezel as one unit.

After all was done , It looked nice enough and it is very sturdy plus the added advantage that it will not be easy to steal. My one fear is that it looks tempting enough so that someone may break my windows but they will get a nasty surprise when they realize it cannot be unscrewed easily. Only caveat is that I'll have a broken window. Between that and the alarm with the police sirens , I don't think it is going anywhere.

I hope


Shot of my screen.
This is not a clear as i would like the pics to be so I"ll retake them and post when i can

As you can see I have moved the Alpine head unit  down a bit. I wasn't so sure of cutting into my console but it worked out nicely





And my CD changer



As You can see from my previous pic, I installed my audio head unit below the dash in part of my center console. I choose to go this route rather than have the computer as my only audio source for multiple reasons.
First I like t have options available to me (you will see more of that in my build)
I want to be able to play tunes from my PC. I also want to be able to have the capability of other audio sources as well. I wanted to still be able to play radio - although I hardly ever do that, play music off my iphone - all of it on CarPC anyway, Play CDs or DVDs - the CarPC can do both as well as play music from a USB stick. While the PC can do all of this, I did not want to saddle it with everything. Also knowing windows and its penchant for shutting down or freezing at the wrong time, I did not want to burden my CarPC unnecessarily.

The Alpine IDA-X300 supports my Iphone directly. I just ran a USB cable from my Iphone to the head unit and it plays my music files. It also plays music from a usb stick. In addition , I can stream Pandora from my Iphone directly to my car speakers. Also I have tried a couple of the navigation software out there and they all stream to my head unit from my Iphone. I particularly like the AT&T Navigator for a couple of reasons, It gives me live traffic as well as takes up less space on my Iphone. I should add that I use the Iphone video out feature to output video to my screen. While the video quality by no means compares to an ipad, I still have a larger image.

My Iphone also has a data only sim from AT&T with the grandfathered unlimited data plan so I use it for nothing else but to play music, video and secondary navigation in my car. The CarPC will be primary. Again as I stated earlier I love to have options so if I can make dual options for everything, I will go that route.

Lastly I added a 12 disc CD Changer to the mix. This way say I am burning a CD or DVD using the RW drive and doing something else on the Iphone, I can still listen to a CD. If a friend gets into my car and say hey lets listen to this CD, I can just pop it in the changer and call it a day.

Or when a certain lady friend happens to borrow my car (hardly ever happens) she can listen to the radio or a CD when she's having problems with it even though it is the most user friendly interface I can come up with.


This also frees up some buttons for me on my front end as I do not need radio or satellite radio on my front end and lastly as a redundancy measure, If I decide to take the CarPC out (I'll be doing a lot of that) for tweaks or upgrades I will still have tunes in my truck.

I will also upgrade the head unit in the future to another Alpine unit with a flip up screen to get more features. Alas my audio system is not complete as I do not have amps or subwoofers yet. That has been held up due to funds as well as the fact that I want to take my time and get this build done right as space for subwoofers, the computer, CD changer and Amps is hard to find in this vehicle.

The CPU

The CPU has been through a number of changes. They way I see it, it will be constantly evolving.
I originally started off with a VIA M10000 Mini-ITX motherboard. I went through 2 of these and they just stopped working. I have never figured out why. I then upgraded to the Via M12000 motherboard. After I installed it, I decided I wanted to use windows 7 instead of windows XP. I installed Windows 7 and was extremely disappointed with the performance. I had yet to install any programs on the CPU and it was already running slow. Took forever to open anything in windows 7.

Old Setup

VIA M1200 MB



Bench testing





At this point, I had already been looking into getting something with an Atom processor. After further investigation I decided why not go with a Dual or Quad core processor and then I won't have to worry about major upgrades for a while. With that in mind, I took the plunge and bought a new motherboard and processor combo. My only concern was that it should take a DIMM module as I have a lot of those knocking around from my other computer projects and I am on a budget. It also needed to have a built in VGA port as DVI monitors in the size I wanted were just not available. Now that I think of it and I plan on having a second monitor, I should have gotten a mobo with both a VGA and DVI connector and just get a DVI to VGA adaptor for the DVI output. Oh Well. Anyway I have to work with what I got. The Zotac nforce 610i-ITX is a great board. My only gripe is that it has one video output. I want to add a graphics card to the set up since my case has a slot. Unfortunately This board has PCIe 1x. I managed to find a PCIe 1x graphics card however I cannot find a PCIe 1x flexible riser. The only ones I have come across on Ebay are all located in China.

Current Setup
















My Desk @ Work

Peripherals:

As far as peripherals go I have not purchased all that I want to add to this build. But with proper planning I hope to have a minimum of re wiring as I add on more pieces to my build.

Space Navigator 3D Connexion mouse
I was lucky enough to get this at a reasonable price off ebay. My plan is to use it as a secondary input for controlling the Car PC. so far it works ok but there are a few things I need to work out. It works well enough in Windows using the RBC 9 drivers however I am having issue getting it to work with my front end of choice. I use Centrafuse as my front end. I never tested Ride Runner so I cannot say why I favor Centrafuse over it. It just happen to win the luck of the draw.
I am please with the mouse as it is so far so I have not really bothered to get it working in Centrafuse 3.1. when I get to the phase where the major stuff is done and I have to iron out all the bugs, then I'll worry about it.

I installed it in the center console and I must say I am very pleased with the way it turned out.
There is very little wiring to be seen. I had to cut the usb cable off the mouse and run the cable through the center console. After doing that I resoldered it back together. It looks nice now and well worth the effort but if you are afraid of taking stuff apart then ...........




Close up showing the wiring into the center console

GPS

For my GPS, I toyed with the idea of using the Onstar hack for the GPS module that came built in the car. After all now that Onstar has gone digital, the analog hardware in my vehicle is now obsolete. I do not use my Onstar. Besides even if I wanted the cost of all new hardware that will not give me the full functions that are available to newer vehicles did not justify the cost. I want my install to look as close to stock as possible when all is said and done. I know it is a contradiction with a 12 in screen, but in my wild dreams it is possible - that is after I get the screen installed in the dash. I was worried about the work involved with the stock GPS and converting to usb for the computer. I also read some good reviews on the GlobalSat BU -353 and after a lot of thought I decided to use that instead as it was tried and proven with Garmin Mobile PC whereas I did not know if the Onstar hack would work. At first, I chose to mount the BU-353 outside the vehicle. On any other vehicle that would have been a feat to accomplish but with the Avalance with body cladding, It is a whole lot easier in my opinion. This worked for a couple of months but one day it just died on me.

I took the GPSS unit apart and found out the hard way that it is not as watertight as the manufacturer suggests. So I shelled out cash for a new one that is now mounted inside the truck.This time I installed it on dashboard where it still gets a line of sight. All in all I still get the same reception as well as fast GPS lock times as when it was outside so I am not missing much

GPS





Old GPS Install

Keyboard

Now for the keyboard had certain requirements. First it had to be wireless. It also had to look not so much out of place in the vehicle. It also had to be easy to use.
After a lot of searching and research I settled with this little gem.

The Magic Pro Mini Keyboard


In addition to having my basic feature set, it has other features that make it even better suited to my needs. As you can see it also includes a touch pad. That gives me another control option besides the mouse and the touchscreen. Among other notable features are the easy multimedia buttons that are integrated.  I have had occasion to use it to to increase and decrease the volume at times. Honestly though that is just a novelty because it is easier to just turn the volume control on the radio. What I do love though is the 1 key for "CTRL+ALT+DEL". As with any computer out there there are time when you have to use that combination and the car PC is no exception. An now the final feature set that sold me is the Illuminated keys. There are other features as well ( laser pointer etc), but these are the ones that I use.



Keyboard and mouse in the center console



Keyboard with illumination

very nice, although it defeats the midgate...but if you don't use it, no big deal, right?  Does the screen swivel/tilt or is it fixed?  The only thing I would change is to make it retractable.

Internet Access

Now another thing that is important for me is internet access. To make this different from all the high end head units and the new OEM ones coming out from Ford and others is internet. This opens a whole new world as far as programs I can run from the car. As I said this has to be better than the high end units out there.
For this I chose the AT&T Mifi wireless router.
For those who may think why this router?
Why AT&T at all?
All I can say is to each his own.
I am not here to advertise for them or anyone else for that matter but I chose this device because it is free.
I have an AT&T data only sim card that gives me unlimited access to the internet.  I got this before AT&T imposed the 5GB limits to their sims so I am not hindered by that limit. Also this is a corporate sim and I have other corporate devices that I use for work. So guess who gets the bil. All I can say is it is not me.





Internet connected apps include:
Web Access via browser
Hulu Desktop
Pandora Radio
Slacker Radio
NetflixOpentable - Reserve a table at some of the local restaurants
Garmin Mobile PC. - With Garmin Mobile PC, I can check flight departure and arrival times, search for fuel stations by price,etc
App to look up the weather
App for Google maps with traffic
Twitter
App to download and read my email through the car speakers as well as allow access to respond to email if I chose to.
Also I am currently working on a way to download and integrate into Garmin to warn of traffic camera like the AT&T Navigator on my Iphone4.

OBD

What is the point of having a computer in the car if every feature that you have can be done by a after market high end head unit?
I cannot justify building a computer for my truck and it only does what most after market high end units do nowadays. I want my setup to do a lot more and so I will keep on pushing the envelop and adding new stuff even when this initial build is done.
With this in mind, I decided that I needed to add on-board diagnostics among other things to my setup. One reason is for the fact that I like to know what my engine is doing and I'd like a bit more information than what the gauges in the cluster and other info systems in the car provides. Another reason is so my boys who ask" Why do you do it will have a lot of answers to justify why. I'll simply ask. Can your head unit do this? and this? or that?
Here is my OBD Setup:

USB OBD Scantool


First thing I needed to do was turn my OBD port in the vehicle around. If I did not do this, the OBD connector would be sticking out from under the dash and that would look very unprofessional. After a lot of persuasion, I managed to get the mount for the OBD port at the right angle under the dash to plug my cable.
This is what it looks like now





OBD Unit connected and tucked away behind the center console.

someone here did a nice write up  on installing a screen there and moved their a/c controls.  It looked factory when they were done.

After connecting the OBD Link, I reached my first unexpected set back. Well not totally unexpected but a setback just the same. When driving with my test laptop and using the OBD Link I get the annoying ground noise in my radio . The moment I disconnect the usb cable the noise goes away. This leaves me to the point where, from prior experience I know I need a ground loop isolator. Easy right, but not in my case. I wanted to get the ground loop as close to the source as possible so as to prevent it from affecting other systems this means between the laptop/carpc and the head unit not between the head unit and amps. I suspect I will need another at that point but i'll cross that bride when I get to it. My problem was that they do not make or I cannot find a ground loop isolator for the 3.5 mm jack that comes out of the computer. I have to make my own or get a lot of connectors and adapters to convert from 3.5 mm to RCA and back again. I decided to go with the former.

Here is what I did.
I purchased a ground loop isolator and took it apart. No return policy if this doesn't work.
I also got a 3.5 mm to RCA cable. I cut that to the length I wanted so as not to have a mess of wires in the car and soldered the cable on the ground loop isolator. Went out to the car plugged it in, plugged in my usb to the OBD Link start up the car and the whine is gone. I drove around and there is absolutely no whine at all.





Finished Product

Install Pics







CPU and CD Changer screwed into the backs of the folded seats









Wiring made easy. It may look easy and streamlined now but believe me it took a lot of work to get it looking like this



1.5 Farad Capacitor
This will be to help with power issues for the Alpine Amp I'll be adding soon.



USB Hub in the center console



USB Hub when powered on

bad link

Now some images of the working setup:

Incoming Call.
Please don't call her guys. I left the number there so you know what it looks like.  







GPS with an active call in progress

Touch screen dialing..............



Browsing the web..................



More Web Browsing....................



On Screen Keyboard

Weather Info



Twitter



Engine Diagnostics

The Avalanche is not a vehicle for hypermiling but this sure helps save some gas on those weeks I am broke.



I have since changed the theme to the one that is up in the pics of the monitor.
I will update with pics of the new theme shortly

This really blows.
Garmin just announced that they will no longer carry the Garmin Mobile PC software I use in my vehicle for navigation. At least they released map updates for 2011.
Guess I have to start looking for a new navigation software to integrate into my vehicle.


Requirement:

Must be touchscreen friendly on a PC.
Must not be dying
If possible list speed cameras in the POI database

Here are some links to videos of my setup

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omi6gVPy2Vk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fn6ZSt1q-zg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7LswbC58G4

UPDATE: In the past few months I've done a little bit of work on the carputer but have been focused mostly on the exterior.

As for the CarPC I have upgraded the motherboard to the Zotac NForce 9300 ITX with wifi and that's it.
New mobo does have HDMI out as well as VGA so I am now looking into the possibility of an HDMI touchscreen monitor if I can find a 12 ft HDMI cable.

I have added microphone for voice command and control. It is not working 100%  yet but it is getting there.
I have also added 4 usb ports to the cpu for the extra devices that i am adding to this install

To the exterior of the truck I have done much much more.

I have repainted all the gray cladding on the truck as it was starting to fade like a few other here.
On a whim I also decided one weekend to paint the rims as well since a new set of rims are stillabove my budget.
I did all the work myself and being the perfectionist I am I must say I am happy with the results.
I also had the headlights tinted. Originally I had planned on having smoked aftermarket taillights but some jerk tried to steal them.
Now I have just tinted the new set of aftermaket lights so they look like tinted stock taillights until they turn on.

Here are some shots:

Dirty streets I know.
At least my car is one clean thing there at the time LOL.






These shots were taken before I decided to paint the rims.