Darunt

Now that my car is all paid off and the warranty is over, I wanted to finally get into some real modifications. Knowing the importance of a proper set of gauges on a modified engine, I started looking around for options for mounting them but was left wanting. A-pillar pods have never really been my thing and, although the other pods I found such as the one from CPE are nice, they didn’t really have that stock-like look that I was hoping for. Then I came across an old HKS C.A.M.P. system in my garage and knew what I wanted to do. After a little research and a fair amount of time scouring Ebay/Amazon for deals, here is the completed system.

Here are a few pics of the assembly/bench testing/installing of software.



Bench testing



Piecing together wiring



Power supply

The stock nav system was decent however there is a lot of new build-up around where I live and of course the maps on the stock nav were from ’08. Having to spend hundreds on the Mitsubishi update disks wasn’t really an option. The Sygic navigation program I am using now offers a lot more such as frequent FREE downloaded updates including maps not just for the US but Canada, Mexico, etc. It also has neat features such as real-time display of speed traps, traffic notices, and railroad crossing alerts, all via audio and/or visual prompts. My favorite part is the lane displays. When you are coming up to a convoluted junction or round-about it pulls up a visual display to highlight which lane you need to be in. It also has auto-switching to a different color palette when the headlights turn on/after sunset (based on system time) for night driving so that it doesn’t blind you. And of course shows all the normal stuff such as direction of travel, speed, etc. It even allows you to set up a warning when you are X mph over the speed limit (and can do different values of X for city and highway).



Navigation

Here is the glove box. There is of course movie playback but I have no pictures of that. Like any regular computer I can play movies in pretty much any format so I have some of my favorites ripped to the drive. I also added an external re-writable drive in the glovebox so I can play blue-ray, DVD, and HD-DVD movies if I wanted. No special hacks required either like the stock nav. You can also see the aux cord in there (black cord) in case the co-pilot wants to play DJ. It will reach to the back seats as well if necessary. Lastly there is a USB hub for the wireless keyboard dongle and whatever other peripherals I decide are necessary in the future.



Glove box

Music was the second biggest reason for this project. The stock nav system was just ok with its 40 gig drive but the search and sorting systems were pathetic and loading music was extremely cumbersome. Now I have my entire music library with me anywhere I go including all my playlists. I use ITunes since I am familiar with it (being an iPhone owner) and can automatically download purchases direct to the system or drag and drop from an external drive. I also have access to all of my podcasts for longer drives and road trips.



Music

This shows the dash cam system display. I set it up with a looping recording system that creates video files in 720p whenever the car is on. I have it set to only save the last 5 hours for hard drive space reasons but I also have a button that auto-archives the current recording. In the event something happens I just hit the button and it will save the last hour of recording to a separate folder that won’t get overwritten.



DashCam

Here is the back-up camera. It auto-swaps to the camera whenever the car is in reverse and back again afterwards. Pretty standard stuff.



Rear view camera

I wanted to keep the FM radio which was a sticking point until I found out about these little USB TV tuners. I lost AM radio but I honestly can’t remember the last time that I used it. I can stream that if I really needed to anyway. The FM radio works well, just about the same as stock. As a bonus, I am also able to watch over-the-air digital TV as well. The picture is actually pretty clear and most channels are in HD. TV reception gets spotty when moving but when parked it is good, even near tall buildings/dense tree coverage.



TV tuner



Live TV from '16 Olympic Games

And the #1 reason for the project, the gauges! I am using a Tactrix cable with right angle plugged into the OBDII port and wires run under the dash to the new head unit. It is all tucked away except for the unit itself so I can visually verify when it is on. I also have a Zietronix ZT-2 for the A/F and boost readings. It all plays through the regular Evoscan program. I took a gauge layout I found that someone else had made and did some modifications to make it match my preferences. Whenever the car is it is logging to file so if I ever wanted to check something from 3 days ago I can drag that log onto an external drive or upload it to my other computers for review. Since it is all hard wired in, I can also use EcuFlash at any time as well to upload a different maps etc.



Tactrix unit

From relative shady area with no direct sun.



Gauge display

This pic is showing the unit with direct sun. It is a little washed out, but even when the sun is shining directly on it, it is still readable. Only direct glare from the setting sun when driving due East will make the screen hard to read.



Sunlight readable

Here is a picture of the GPS dongle and camera on top of the dash. They are out of the way for the most part and I can keep an eye on the status lights if necessary. I am debating trying to remotely locate them to another position though. One of the benefits of the camera in that position is that I can turn it around for Skype calls for work or the like.



Camera and GPS dongle

With the use of a JoyCon unit, I am able to retain the use of the steering wheel controls including setting up the buttons with custom commands (like alt-tabbing through open programs). All of the buttons on the front of the unit are customizable as well in addition to being able to change colors between red/green/blue/white.



Programing front buttons

I have a wireless mini keyboard/mouse combo and the screen remote attached via Velcro to the cubby under the HVAC controls. They come in handy when browsing the web and such. For everything else I use the on-screen keyboard that I modified via the registry for size/position.



Keyboard/mouse and remote

I hard-wired in an extra charging plug/usb plugs to the center console cubby so I can keep the wifi unit charged. I am using an ATT portable wifi unit. So far the reception has been great even while in the cubby and I can just unplug the cable and take it with me. Has come in really handy on turn-around Vegas trips so that I can have my own personal wifi in the hotel room and just put it back in the car when I head home. With this I have full access to anything internet related including streaming music from Pandora, browsing the web, or watching YouTube videos. (Note: I do not condone doing the latter while driving… but if that is what the passengers want to do that is up to them). The only time I lost coverage was literally in the middle of nowhere during a trip to AZ but I didn’t have any cell reception either nor did my passengers on different carriers.



Center armrest cubby with wifi unit

Since it is basically a small computer with a touchscreen you can even play games. Here is a picture of the Blizzard launcher updating. Being the nerd that I am, I may have gone a bit overboard when piecing the parts together so the thing is a beast. Even without having a discreet graphics card, it still handles most of the games I have tried on medium-ish settings without much hassle such as Hearthstone, WoW, Witcher 3, Skyrim, etc. You aren’t going to play the latest Crysis game maxed out, but who really needs that in their car?



Gaming

The only feature I really lost compared to the stock nav was the Bluetooth calling. That being said, even when it was functioning property the Bluetooth on the stock nav system was spotty at best with lots of disconnects, time consuming to pair, have to be stopped to do anything, etc. My new HU has Bluetooth but so far I can only use for controllers (did I mention I have a ps4 controller for games hooked up via Bluetooth?) and streaming music from a cellphone. I am sure once better Win 10 drivers come out I will be able to make/receive calls as well like I can on my Win 7 machines.

If I had to do it all over again, I would probably consider one of those all-in-one android based units that have been popping up just for the plug and play nature/cost. But, overall, I am pretty happy with the setup. It can boot up and start playing music with 10-15 seconds of turning the ignition which is faster than the stock nav and it auto-hibernates when the ignition is switched off to save the battery. It also auto-dims the screen when the headlights come on. It has extra hookups for external video feeds if I ever want to add a 2nd camera or something. Really, it blows the stock nav away in almost all categories. While I will probably almost never use some of the features such as the TV, it is nice knowing that I can. The fact that it is a regular Windows based computer also means that it is infinitely upgradable with new faster hardware and software. And, if nothing else, it was a fun little project to put together in my spare time.

2015_MR

iTrader: (1)

Looks nice and some time well spent finding out how to do it. About how long did it take you to put this together?

bolothedv

Damn! Nice work man.

Darunt

Thank you. It definitely took a bit of planning but I think it turned out all right.

The building of the unit and install itself took about 2 days. The first day was spent putting all the parts together and installing the unit in the dash. The 2nd install day was cleaning up some of the wiring, soldering, installing the power unit in the center console, trim work, that kind of thing. It would probably have been a bit faster if I had a 2nd pair of hands but I was just doing this as a side project for fun. I also wasted a lot of time trying to figure out how all of the interior trim panels came apart to run wires.

The software was the most time consuming part. Installation of a fresh OS, downloading and trying out different NAV systems, drivers, windows updates, setting up equalizer preferences, etc. took quite a while. I was running it in my car for about a month playing with settings between the original install and when I did all the finishing work. I didn't want to finish up the trim only to have to take it back out again so I made sure everything was working the way I wanted first.