Hey all! I was sitting at work admiring the new mustangs digital dash (very cool), then i moved onto Ashspecs new digidash (also very cool), and finally i got to thinking its been a long time since ive heard anything about people installing carputers! There was a real interest around... dang, 8 or so years ago i guess? It seems to me, with the tablet functions of W10, reliability of SSD's, and the ease building the actual PC itself that its never been a better time for a carputer. My missus father in japan has a new prius, and must admit, the tesla style large interface is pretty novel. W10 would only make it better. Hd screen nav, GPS, conzult ect. Think i might make that my next project on the old girl. hopefully i can take the dash fascia and enlarge it more than the doubledin opening by taking out the clock area as well. Maybe even fit a 10 inch? I really want to leave the AC Vents in place, so that limits me size wise. Anyone seen/heard about anything recently? be good to see some inspiration! Cheers all - Trent
Don't think a 10in portrait fits. I went with a 7in in the console. It's more of a dash display only currently, but the unit I use runs W10 (actually a dual boot). I am trying to decide if I change the unit to something twin display and run in car entertainment (gps etc) aswell, but there are so many good, cheap HU's that are purpose built it (with android auto/mirorlink/apple rubbish) is hard to justify the extra effort on top of the work I have already done. It does the functionality I wanted it to do, and doesn't look tacked on.
Oh wow. That looks amazing! It would be pretty awesome to have Nav as well, like the audi dashes, but still, that just looks awesome! Are the led/neons for shift lights?
The LED's are for indicators and high beam, as the screen took the normal real estate they use, with one spare for some other purpose, not yet decided. Shift light is covered by the RPM limit setting in the ECU (the display changes when RPM reaches a limit set in the software).
Very nice indeed. Be awesome to see it all finished up. Good luck with the install, should take 10 years off the car!
Do a video Mike, I would love to see it too how do you find it? What would you do differently if you did it again? I think I read Gavan was tinkering with a digital dash, do you know if it got off the ground? there was some discussion about this earlier, here is some pics of my 10 inch tablet for sizing reference
If I was to do it again, I rekon I could fit 2 screens in the dash side by side. One for data/dash and one for GPS/forward/reverse cameras, maybe like a night vision camera would be cool.
Thanks mate, G4+ ecu, PCLink software. No reason it couldn't be nistune or conzult etc Putting it in the cluster itself makes it more of a view only kind of deal, but I do run a mini keyboard/touchpad, and the actual unit that drives it is a touchscreen in it's own right, so I do have control over it.
You could mount a USB port in the dash and then run the cable in behind for downloading logs and installing updates. Bluetooth keyboard and mouse would be the go, but you should be able to do most of what you'd need to on touchscreen anyway? What is the unit itself? I assume it's running full Windows 10 (Pro?)?
The unit I use is a Pipo X8S in the centre armrest. I have a 4 USB hub for easy access to pull logs etc. The great thing about the PCLink software is the ability to setup different views on tabs, and can cycle through them. Very helpful in road tuning. Another trap for young players, that I didn't work out til after I was finished, was the fact that if I go to the dyno (or someone else tuning on the street with their laptop), the ECU can only output to one screen. So if I'm on the road, I don't know how fast I am going, or any other critical info that is normally on the dash! Can plug the display in to the laptop and duplicate the screen, but then reliant on the views to have speed/rpm etc, and scale could be an issue. Once I get the bloody thing tuned it won't be an issue tho
Man, got to admit PCs have come a long way in the last 10 years. You have given me some very interesting ideas, thats for sure. Think i will be looking for someone parting out here in WA for some bits to play with!
So after a bit of fluffing around last night, i found some cheap 8 to 9 inch W10 tablets, GPS, HD screens ect. Once works done i may go see if i would be able to fit a template.. However, the tough bit will be figuring out how to connect all speakers and my amp. Quite sure someone somewhere will make a little box that designed to do just that, but the fun bit will be finding it!
