My daily drive has got more entertaining :)

[dw_uk2000]

Hi Guys,

I have done a fair few mods over the last few months: Automatic roof module, stubbie aeriel, Carbon badges all round and clubsport splitters to name a few, but I've been working on one mod since April, finally last weekend I had a free day to put it all together and have been happily testing all week.

Now I have more entertainment during my drive in the form of a CarPC, I'm chuffed with the way it has turned out. :D

Please forgive the pic whoring!

This is how it looked for a few months back due to me having little or no time to finish the install (Being smacked in the side didn't help the progress).

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r22/dwuk2000/325%20Vert/DSC02395.jpg

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r22/dwuk2000/325%20Vert/DSC02400.jpg

Front Screen:

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r22/dwuk2000/CarPC/CarPC011.jpg

Media App Skin ( ignore the xmas drink :D ):

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r22/dwuk2000/CarPC/CarPC012.jpg

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r22/dwuk2000/CarPC/CarPC013.jpg

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r22/dwuk2000/CarPC/CarPC014.jpg

Tomtom:

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r22/dwuk2000/CarPC/CarPC001.jpg

DVD's and Movie Files:

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r22/dwuk2000/CarPC/CarPC002.jpg

Music Videos on iTunes:

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r22/dwuk2000/CarPC/CarPC006.jpg

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r22/dwuk2000/CarPC/CarPC007.jpg


Bluetooth Phone Interface (shame I can't use it with my new Blackberry, but looking into getting a duplicate sim):

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r22/dwuk2000/CarPC/CarPC009.jpg

Albums in iTunes:

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r22/dwuk2000/CarPC/CarPC015.jpg

Overall I'm very happy with how it turned out.....

[huzi7]

that is awesome mate!

[TOO 4NOY]

looks the business...great work

[XKaLiBaR]

how do u get a pc in a 3 series?????? where do u put everything!!

[uberbmw]

Thats great dude, wish I went for a CarPC

[huzi7]

Thats great dude, wish I went for a CarPC

bro you were you not building one or did you sell it?

[AvusM3Dom]

That's awesome...

[adood84]

I would of gone with a CarPC in my car but the damn heat would fry everything up

looks really good :)

[Oz Striker]

how do u get a pc in a 3 series?????? where do u put everything!!

In the boot where the cd changer goes or under the drivers seat in the 1st aid box?

dw_uk2000 that install looks very neat. did you get your bezel/surround from mybimmer.net? And how fast are your boot up & shutdown times?

I'm still looking for a decent screen and a reasonably priced bezel, but ive got my Laptop ready, XP booting up in under 30 secs and running Centrafuse software. Best screen i can find is a £400 double din screen from US ebay, double din VGA screens with a DVD player built in are pretty rare:mad:

Drop me a PM if you would like a version of centrafuse, i'll see if i can compress it up and send it via email...... for evaluation purposes only ofcourse;)

[Chaos]

Dude, that's a cracking job. Half of the end-product is in the interface and you've really nailed a clean easy-access one there. Shame you couldn't get a slightly wider screen in, as the bezel looks a bit chunky on the sides, but hell it's being picky to pull that out.

Top work, seriously, I'm proper impressed.

[MARTY]

very impressive stuff. I couldn't even begin to think jow much time it's taken you to get that completed. top moddin! is that a first for an Evotechnik car?

[Black Sabbath]

Its not a first for Evotechnik,but its an awesome mod,big congratulations for an excellent job well executed :cool:

[Mah_c180]

Great job, moving LAPtop ey?

[gie0320]

Awsome work! Might be a silly question but how did you make the tomtom work with the pc?

[Moe]

First aid box should house ps2 imo, looks a good install if you files are in your car pc whats the headunit for :S

[Raja_SMGII]

That looks so good - well done indeed. Tell me, you're gonna find space for a 3G [PCMCIA] Data Card (or Wi-Fi) and enjoy Internet as well? :)

[dw_uk2000]

Cheers for the nice comments.

I'm happy with the way it turned out even if it was a bit of a mission to get everything working together.

I was going down the docked laptop route but decided to go for a Dell SX mini desktop, it works great with the Startup controller and automatically boots when I turn the ignition.


did you get your bezel/surround from mybimmer.net? And how fast are your boot up & shutdown times?


Got the Bezel from ebay as it was for a good price at the time, to me it looks the same as mybimmer's. Not recorded the startup times as it has a base XP build on it, now that I know everything works I can start playing with settings. :D


Shame you couldn't get a slightly wider screen in

I know, but was limited in what screens I could get, went for a High Brightness one due to having a vert, with most touchscreens I wouldnt be able to see anything with the roof down.


Might be a silly question but how did you make the tomtom work with the pc?

Not silly, that was one of the hardest things to do. Basically it's TomTom 6 running on a PocketPC Emulator with it loaded on a virtual storage card. Is a bit slower to find routes but other than that is pretty spot on.


how do u get a pc in a 3 series?????? where do u put everything!!

Well at the moment everything is in the boot while I make those final adjustments, but hopefully at the weekend most of the kit (Startup controller, power dist box, usb soundcard etc) will go on under the floor on a custom shelf. I'm going to create a custom cover for the desktop and place it next to the cd changer.

[dw_uk2000]

That looks so good - well done indeed. Tell me, you're gonna find space for a 3G [PCMCIA] Data Card (or Wi-Fi) and enjoy Internet as well?


Ow thats already sorted, I will use my Blackberry as a gateway to the internet, already tested and wasn't too slow. Then I'll use LogMeIn to remote control the Desktop and do most of the changes.

And browse Evotechnik of course :D

[MEGA]

Mate thats so brilliant.

I was very briefly thinking about a PC for my 206 but then decided there waistes of money and then waistes of money :D

However in a deserving car, that looks fantastic. Very nice work with the Tomtom aswell, I wouldnt have thought of going that route.

I will look you up if I ever decide to get anything like this done :)

[Raj]

That is truely awesome. Very well integrated and the interface is just spot on. :cool: :cool: :cool:

[666 ACS]

Mate

That looks the business, I wish I had the time to do that, top work fella:cool:

[uberbmw]

bro you were you not building one or did you sell it?

Yeah I started to build it, got bored and the hassle and went back to my Alpine system lol! all done now.

[Bilal@Storm]

Brilliant! very neat install indeed. Love the Tom Tom and bluetooth integration!

[gie0320]

You're a genius man! thanks for the info

[mike 318is]

thats loos stunning

whats the cost for everything you need for that from start to finish

[Anees]

Big respect for your install :) Looks fabulous.

I had a Car PC in my last car with a 7" Xenarc Touchscreen, a pretty powerful shuttle PC and bluetooth, wifi, tv, Navigation via Destinator, reversing camera, 160gb hdd etc etc. I used Road Runner and when it worked I loved it. I even had a few PC Games on it and a wireless pad. COOL :)

Unfortunetly it never really ran reliably enough, with the Opus PSU causing me problems, sometime not shutting down properly and draining the battery. In the end a combination of annoying little issues meant that it just wasn't for me - it was just not reliable enough for me and I getting sick of it not being quite right. I was also shocked at how much I had spent when it totted it all up. Almost £1500!!!

I was thinking of doing the same with the BMW where the install should (in theory...lol) be easier but have decided against it and save up to just buy a decent Head Unit that will do what I want. I realise that a head unit don't have the flexiblity of the Car PC, but I think for something that you can get in your car and turn on and just drive with they are the best option for most people.

[asianjedi]

Outstanding work.

[330ci Assassin]

top job fella looks spot on
wish i cud do something like that

[ShaanK]

top job mate I really like that!

[Oz Striker]

Now what would be really cool is if you could get one of these :cool: to work as an input device as well as the touchscreen:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/3Dconnexion-SpaceNavigator-Space-Navigator-PE-USB-Mouse_W0QQitemZ180161847750QQihZ008QQcategoryZ1119 3QQrdZ1QQssPageNameZWD1VQQcmdZViewItem

[dw_uk2000]

I have a Griffin Powermate, its handy and looks like an iDrive controller. handy for tasks while driving ;)
Has a cool blue glow too

[M_Hunter]

wow! seems a fun project, and of course something to keep you entertained while your stuck in traffic ;)

///m

[sonny.j.h]

impressive, I like the fact that you can view your itunes with all the song titles