In-Dash OEM-like touchscreen...failed... :)

[Jon K]

FAILED!




not...




Haha martin you're too fun to mess with.

So yeah today my sister and I worked on it all..


Today we:

1) Extended my A/C, Defroster, and Recirc. buttons up to the foglight dummy switch location

2) Extended the blower driver wires about 6" so I can remove my whole trim without being able to access the backside of the blower motor control. Typically, you can remove the headunit, pop out all the temp control trim and undo the harnesses with the main trim in the car.... but for obvious reasons i can't pop my headunit out.

3) re-wired the OBC so that it doesn't lock itself in

4) Set the defroster top vents, passenger center vents, and foot vents to 100%, 100%, and 50% respectively.

5) Modified the temperature cluster further because it wasn't clearing the backside of my LCD controller board.

6) Buttoned her all up, epoxied and such all misc. bits of trim on the backside of my temperature controls...

yeah thats the boring ****. There was more to this project than just the aformentioned steps, but it would take days to type that out... here's what everyone has been waiting for... so....

http://e34.digital7.com/LCD%20Project/final1.jpg

http://e34.digital7.com/LCD%20Project/final2.jpg

http://e34.digital7.com/LCD%20Project/final3.jpg

http://e34.digital7.com/LCD%20Project/final4.jpg

[Jon K]

http://e34.digital7.com/LCD%20Project/final5.jpg

http://e34.digital7.com/LCD%20Project/final6.jpg

http://e34.digital7.com/LCD%20Project/final7.jpg

http://e34.digital7.com/LCD%20Project/final8.jpg

[Jon K]

http://e34.digital7.com/LCD%20Project/final9.jpg

http://e34.digital7.com/LCD%20Project/final10.jpg




The end

There is a little piece of plastic glue stickin' out, so its a little imperfect right in that crack, but im on that... i just wanted this thing finally in... tired of being "ordinary" if you can say that!

[bahnstormer]

oooo u got me good

[infinity5]

thats pretty damn cool. good job :)

[Qube]

Nice work! ... if not for the little bit of roughness around the climate controls ;)

[Scott C]

Very nicely done!!!

(Check your oil level though ;) )
Scott

[632 Regal]

Awesome job Jon, not my conservative taste but a nice mod in my oppinion!

Conservative hehe...

http://www.bimmer.info/~regal632/Can%20am%20top.JPG

http://www.bimmer.info/~regal632/canamfrt1.jpg

:D

[bofh]

What's the software setup on the car PC? That's the really the big thing keeping me from doing somethign like this in any of my cars.

[Kalevera]

Hahaha....For a second, I was wondering. But, the man came through and took care of business, as usual!

Nice install, and I definitely appreciate the switch placement/creativity. Everything looks very clean and "in place", except for the buttons (what happened there? I guess they're needed at that angle for the ergonomics, but it doesn't quite integrate with the ashtray....still --- a minor issue).

Thank God for the sistahs, huh? :)

best,whit

[Jon K]

Hahaha....For a second, I was wondering. But, the man came through and took care of business, as usual!

Nice install, and I definitely appreciate the switch placement/creativity. Everything looks very clean and "in place", except for the buttons (what happened there? I guess they're needed at that angle for the ergonomics, but it doesn't quite integrate with the ashtray....still --- a minor issue).

Thank God for the sistahs, huh? :)

best,whit

The buttons arent there for ergonomics, the screen is actually angled about 4 degrees upwards and toward the driver. If I kicked the bottom of the screen inward so the buttons were flush with the sill of the stock trim, the screen viewing angle would be awkward and the top 1/8" - 1/4" of the screen would be unviewable because the trim itself would block it. The air controls are a little rough yet, i just had to get it in soon and i wanted to take pics, i will touch it up and you'll not know the difference ;)

It's probably difficult to actually understand what went into getting the HVAC into that location. The 3 stock knobs sit on a circuit board. I actually turned the circuit board upside down and cut it in half and jumped the dead connections. it took a ton of cutting and half the thinking...wait....ton of...thinki... i dunno it took a ton of headaches. I really like where the defroster buttons ended up. The screen looks VERY clean in person. I am not entirely done... in the somewhat near future (near being a relative term) I am going to integrate a laptop DVD/CDROM drive into the sunroof control panel upside down. The laptop CD drives use a spring bearing clip that holds the CD in the tray, thus can be mounted upside down, so when you hit eject it will spit out the tray and you will just press the CD to the ceiling and push it back in, doing all this while still being 2/5" thick ;)

[PhilipJCaputo]

looks good............

[BigKriss]

awesome jon - thanks for the ideas

[Jon K]

thanks everyone

[Paul_540i]

That's awesome... I've fancied doing something like this for a while; sat-nav, entire MP3 collection, etc all relatively cheap to add once the system is in place. Unfortunately I have neither the time nor the ingenuity to do it, so I'll be sticking with a good aftermarket audio setup for now (and still haven't even got that sorted out yet!).

Nice one :)

[Derek A.]

What does your dash display say "Engine Oil Low"

[grave77]

what would u think about installing the 540 97 model Screen and climate control into the E34? if thats possible... I dont know about the control unit it has ... but I would consider this a very lovely upgrade.

[Jon K]

what would u think about installing the 540 97 model Screen and climate control into the E34? if thats possible... I dont know about the control unit it has ... but I would consider this a very lovely upgrade. I have an external Creative Nomad 3 Juke box with 20GB hard drive it sits on beside the gear with a thin cable to the stereo. thats been since 2 years. and I don't think I would change this.

E39 nav and climate control will not swap over. period. different shape entirely, not to mention the electronic connectors (the climate control in E39 is digital) is completely different. Not an option.

A lot of people do the whole mp3 player/ipod/juke box thing, but i don't think it's clean enough. My car has two things in plain view. The keys in the ignition and the shifter :). I don't like cords sticking out here or there or things sliding around in the centre compartment or glovebox or having to reach down and hit "next" on a jukebox, etc. The less obvious benefit of the system i have is NAV and internet. I can pull the ETK down at a meet should someone have an issue. And when I go to DIY days with friends, we have resources at hand :)

[grave77]

nice job u and ur sis. but I think you would have saved ur self alot of effort if u bought the one with a flapping screen, ejects like a CD plate then flaps up. congradulations for ur automobile theater :)

[Jon K]

nice job u and ur sis. but I think you would have saved ur self alot of effort if u bought the one with a flapping screen, ejects like a CD plate then flaps up. congradulations for ur automobile theater :)


You mean like this?

http://e34.digital7.com/Cars/1.jpg

Been there done that

1) There's nothing custom about that. Every E36 and E46 has a flip out alpine.

2) Its not touch screen nor does it interface to my carpc. Sure i can do tv-out from PC to the headunit, but have you ever seen how shitty that looks.

Was like this for a while:

http://e34.digital7.com/Cars/car11[1].jpg

[grave77]

well the computer thing was the thing I missed ... I have My PDA with me .. it solves this problem for me ... I have net access there. but one question is ... how did u mount the system inside the dash ... I mean doesn't it fall out or something or u made it stuck inside. I liked ur work. I just dont think this would work on the newer type of climate control that comes all horiz. ( left and Right controls ) do u have any idea about it?

[Jon K]

well the computer thing was the thing I missed ... I have My PDA with me .. it solves this problem for me ... I have net access there. but one question is ... how did u mount the system inside the dash ... I mean doesn't it fall out or something or u made it stuck inside. I liked ur work. I just dont think this would work on the newer type of climate control that comes all horiz. ( left and Right controls ) do u have any idea about it?


The screens if bondo/fiberglassed into the stock trim, its screwed in and fastened just as the ordinary trim is. the computer is in the trunk.

My climate control WAS horizontal. It took massive amounts of fabrication to work. So, in a way, youre right it wont work with the stock climate control, i used to have DRIVER TEMP, BLOWER CONTRL, PASS TEMP dials, now i have a main temp dial and a blower control dial, the main temp over rides the passenger side, so the car works as one unit now. It was really hard and confusing. My climate control is the "newer" unit, but heavily modified from stock.

[grave77]

u mean the dial type i newer than the horiz. type? and do u have a pictrue for the computer at the trunk?

[Jon K]

u mean the dial type i newer than the horiz. type? and do u have a pictrue for the computer at the trunk?


I would think that the dial type is the newer. My sister has the same climate control as I do, and hers is a 1995, last year for E34.

The computer is out of site behind a feaux wall. Like I said, nothing in sight :D

[grave77]

well .. then I'm lucky to have the old type... I think the newer is lame but less faults that would be for sure. anyway ... nice work, I bet that ur enjoying the ride more ;)

but now I think I have a chance to ask our webmasters to create a PDA page for bimmer just like what Google made.

[Jon K]

well .. then I'm lucky to have the old type... I think the newer is lame but less faults that would be for sure. anyway ... nice work, I bet that ur enjoying the ride more ;)

but now I think I have a chance to ask our webmasters to create a PDA page for bimmer just like what Google made.


Thats the beauty of my setup, no PDA pages... full out webpages, AIM, nav, irc, etk, whatever you can run on your desktop will run on my car ;) Plus the resolution will go up to 1024x768 @ 32bit color... its a pretty large desktop for that size!


Also, Ed (the webmaster) won't be able to make a PDA-friendly forum, since no such thing exists. The dimensions of the vBulletin is too large to fit on a like 300x400 screen.

[grave77]

well ... then we'r unlucky ... but we will stay in touch ... so stop teasing us :p

what's the PC capabilities ( Processor, RAM ..etc ? )

[Jon K]

well ... then we'r unlucky ... but we will stay in touch ... so stop teasing us :p

what's the PC capabilities ( Processor, RAM ..etc ? )


Proprietary Via C3 CPU 1Ghz, 1GB RAM, 120GB hard drive, audigy 2 nx 7.1 ch surround (capable) USB 2.0 sound card, USB NAV, compact flash card reader for data/music transport and most importantly a custom made start-up/shut-down DC->DC power supply/regulator. No power inverters.

[peks]

wow.. nice jon.
what os does this car pc run?

[Jon K]

wow.. nice jon.
what os does this car pc run?


linux and winxp

[emw525E34]

Nice work, Jon. The liliiput screen was what model number if I may ask ?. I am surprised that it was touch-screen cos the Alpine flipout units just missed the touchscreen feature and would seem a little too big.

I am thinking of ditching the OBC and AC/heater dials towards the center console (near the shifter) as there are plenty of space below.
I would want all that space in the centre and make a tilt mechanism to manually angle the display at various times..... My Alpine HU with tilt spoils me!.

Also which carpc did you use ?. I was thinking of the VIA Centuar 1Ghz fanless unit and using 80Gb mobile drives to keep all parts small and durable. In XP, could you make auto-hibernate upon ignition off ?. ie used a serial trigger to detect then action Hibernate function, just like a UPS trigger in XP/NT systems.

I am concerned that if I had to manually turn the pc off, then it would waste a lot of time. But it can trigger auto-hibernate, it would do the trick.

Nice button design on the screen and color scheme.

[emw525E34]

Also, I am thinking of putting WiFi and automatic directory synchronization, so I can move music files to and from work seamlessly.
Meaning, in my office, hit my remote. That trigger an Aux line to switch on PC in the car for 10 mins (it will auto-hibernate after that time). Then use Wifi to sync the folders, disconnect.

When I reach home, carpc will aut sync with the home server and upload any new files it had there. This way, my home PC and work PC can be in sync most of the time. After the sync , activate auto-hibernate, so battery would not be drained. I am thinking of using a small Lithium-Ion pack as main battery and just use car charging to feed the carpc. How do you handle powering the car pc ?. Car electrics alone or secondary battery pack for pc ?.

[Interceptor]

1) Extended my A/C, Defroster, and Recirc. buttons up to the foglight dummy switch location

2) Extended the blower driver wires about 6" so I can remove my whole trim without being able to access the backside of the blower motor control. Typically, you can remove the headunit, pop out all the temp control trim and undo the harnesses with the main trim in the car.... but for obvious reasons i can't pop my headunit out.

3) re-wired the OBC so that it doesn't lock itself in

4) Set the defroster top vents, passenger center vents, and foot vents to 100%, 100%, and 50% respectively.

5) Modified the temperature cluster further because it wasn't clearing the backside of my LCD controller board.

6) Buttoned her all up, epoxied and such all misc. bits of trim on the backside of my temperature controls...

yeah thats the boring ****. There was more to this project than just the aformentioned steps, but it would take days to type that out... here's what everyone has been waiting for... so....
Dude, where is your low-beam height adjustment scroll-button? It should be right there where you installed the climate control buttons.

[Jon K]

Dude, where is your low-beam height adjustment scroll-button? It should be right there where you installed the climate control buttons.

US cars do not have adjustment in-car.