Upcoming Updates for my car.

[zboot]

So, I've been using my laptop as a GPS with MS Streets and Trips and also to play mp3s or my phone for that purpose. Making all this possible is a cassette adapter that plugs into the phone (through another adapter) or the laptop. My antenna cable is missing it's termination, so the radio is no good for AM or FM.

Anyway, I'm starting to want a little upgrade. I'm a little tired of using the laptop for a GPS (though it has a touch screen) and the phone as an mp3 player. There is also a slight annoyance when I get a phone call while driving. The mic on the adapter either doesn't work well or picks up too well on the speakers and people on the other end either don't hear anything, or just hear themselves being echoed back really loudly.

My solution, a Jensen VM9512 (dvd receiver) + a Jensen NAV101 (GPS unit that works with VM9512 touchscreen). The only issues is that the Jensen unit lights are blue, not orange. I like the orange glow that the stock unit has. I think I saw a kenwood or pioneer unit that has configurable led colors, but that one was a lot more expensive. What do you guys think?

http://www.crutchfield.com/S-zfD16x7...px?i=110VM9512

[DustenT]

Wow, that's pretty cheap for all it does. Post up some pictures and a review of it when you get it installed.

[ATF]

Well I bet that thing is pretty fragile if you decided to take it apart and change out the LEDs. I have plans to do a carputer using a 7" touchscreen and mounting it to the dash (because I need to be able to remove it when my car is parked) and I wasn't a fan of the DIN unit's I've seen around that have VGA. Right now I've been using the same setup, laptop with iGuidance (a carputer friendly GPS Nav Program) and a USB GPS Dongle.

Just recently I purchased a Mio C230 for $170 + Taxes over @ RadioShack (it's still on sale). It's probably the best entry level GPS unit. It sports a 3.5" touchscreen LCD and Text To Speech (it will say turn right on Main Street, as opposed to Turn right in 300 Feet). It's strictly Nav and less flare, the POI's is pretty outdated and crummy (Only 1 Million). It's exactly what I need, if I need to find out where something is, I have my phone w/ a QWERTY Keyboard + Google to find the address and phone number. Here's the kicker, it runs on Windows CE and it's been hacked so you can put your own user interface and apps on it.

When the carputer funds have been collected, I'll opt out of the Mio and use a GPS dongle on the carputer to do my navigation. Then I plan on getting a new headunit, with auxiliary inputs to hook up the various accessories (carputer, ipod, satellite, navigation)

I hope this opens a new door for you to consider as well.

[thesk8nmidget]

looks quite decent.
i have never ran a jensen personally but seems good

[zboot]

A buddy of mine has the vm9412 in his passat. An earlier version sans bluetooth, pip, and maybe a couple other things. Myself and some of the guys watched 300 on it. The playback was pretty good. Since he doesn't have the gps, I'm not sure how great the jensen unit will be. Music playback is also ok on the unit via ipod. I don't think I've ever been in his car when he had a cd or dvd playing music. I assume it's up to the same quality.

I've looked at that mio. . .man is it tempting. The reason I'm leaning towards the jensen unit is that I'd have one interface for all the media in my car and I wouldn't need to have wires connecting phone and laptop to the audio. In fact, I'd be able to stream audio over bluetooth if I did decide to play from my laptop. Another thing is that while the laptop touch screen makes using GPS on the go a little easier, when something happens and I need to reroute or put in a new address on the fly, that gets hairy if I can't immediately pull over to do it.

There are a couple other units out there that are cheaper (or you can get the combo of gps + dvd reciever cheaper) but the navigation is dvd based. So, I couldn't have the navigation and dvd player running at the same time. Also, I want bluetooth functionality :-).

Right now I'm in the seek best price stage. I'm hoping I can get the units for about $675 shipped.

[zboot]

holy moley! I just realized that I will be getting a check for the security deposit on my old apt. I'd totally forgotten about this. It's not even in my budget for 2008. That would just about cover the price of getting this! Hmm. . . now I'm feeling a lot better about this :-)

[ATF]

I haven't done much research into integrating a CarPC with BT but I'd imagine the possibility of pairing your phone to your computer to make calls is possible, seeing how Garmin and other companies do it with their GPS units.

I'm not sure what you're trying to get at with the whole new address on the fly bit, but there is an on screen keyboard so you can do just that (in iGuidance). I believe people also have integrated on screen keyboards into the operating system. There's a whole mess of the stuff @ mp3car and the possibilities are endless.

But in the end, it's your call The only thing that concerns me is that the Jensen may be low quality.

[zboot]

I've paired the phone to my laptop before so that's not an issue. Here are the reasons why I like the idea of going with the jensen units over my current setup:

1) It looks cooler than having my laptop in the car connected to the radio through a cassette adapter.
2) I can pair the phone directly to the stereo rather than to my laptop or trying to talk through the crappy adapter.
3) Rerouting while driving or entering a new address is kinda a hassle. Maybe if I had a mount for the laptop it would be easier. But even with the touch screen and using the stylus or on-screen keyboard, it's not as simple as entering in something on the gps unit in my dad's prius. (Perhaps I need to lookup third party apps that integrate with MS Streets and Trips?)
4) I can connect the phone or laptop to the stereo via bluetooth. No more cassette adapter wire or having to find where I put the phone headset adapter when I'm using the laptop for GPS.
5) When I want to use GPS, I don't have to remember to have my laptop or pull it out of the bag or something.
6) I can keep a cd/dvd in the car for music. No need to powerup laptop for this or phone (though phone is less of an issue).
7) Did I mention how cool it is? I liked the passat's interior but watching 300 on the way to lunch definitely made his car cooler. (If anyone would have good quality audio/video equipment in their ride, this guy would, so I'm not too concerned about that being a problem).

I've actually thought about the car computer route with a touch screen lcd. The problem was how to interface to the lcd. Either I make my own custom unit (like you seem to be doing) or I buy one. The main issue with a custom unit is the touch screen interface and mounting everything in the car. Unfortunately, I have too many other side projects, otherwise, I'd be doing my own custom setup. I've thought about how to exploit a tablet pc or something for that. . . perhaps with Ubuntu I could configure my own UI that works for me to input stuff while driving. . . . but like I said. . I've got too much other stuff in the pipe to get started on this though I'm sure it will be a lot of fun.

After typing all this. . . I'm not sure if you've ever used MS Streets and Trips. The XP tablet on-screen keyboard is pretty nice and so is the touch screen interface. However, Streets and Trips seems to be designed for you to enter your entire trip itinerary once, then follow the directions or have a copilot that can mess around with the laptop while you drive. The menu system does not lend itself to single handed jabbing in new addresses or manipulation while keeping your attention on the road. So, it's more of a failure of MS Streets and Trips rather than the PC as an in-car GPS navigator concept.

[ATF]

Yeah MS S&T isn't "Touch screen" friendly as the mp3car crowd would say.
They break down just about every GPS Nav software known.
http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/gps/...-part-1-a.html

I used a.. non-authentic version of iGuidance.. if you catch my drift.. and if I had a tablet or touchscreen, it'd be perfect. Also they have premade interfaces that work with windows for your CarPC. Anywho, your arguments are all valid and I agree completely that a small tight package is sweet and an easy way to go. But the possibilities with a CarPC seem endless

[ChItalian1027]

go for it man!!!

or u could go with the garmin nav that just connects to the windshield and not bother with a dvd player but what ever floats ur boat!!

good luck man!!

[zboot]

Seeing so much caution over jensen. . . I called my friend to doublecheck on his unit. It's a pioneer avx-p8dvd. So, perhaps I won't go for the jensen and I'll start looking at what available with pioneer.

We'll see. Bluetooth and a non-dvd based gps is a must.

[thesk8nmidget]

there is one pioneer i really really like with gps built in! and i have quite a bit of experience with pioneer and like them a lot as long as you get a decent model

[zboot]

What do you guys think of this unit: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...MEWA:IT&ih=004

It's a refurb though. Adding bluetooth would be an extra $150. That would be $300 on top of the price of the jensen units. Though I wonder if I would end up spending that much anyway to deal with problems with the jensen. . .

[zboot]

After visiting a circuitcity that had the jensen unit in stock, I've made my decision. I'm getting it!

I was starting to worry about screen resolution since a previous jensen unit (discontinued now) had about 3x the screen resolution of this one. However, I was impressed with what I saw at CC. I found out about that higher res unit on a forum (pretty much people who bought it and installed in their trucks/suvs) from 2005 - 2007. Their main complaints were few and nearly identical, so I feel better about the quality as well as have a better idea of what is most likely to fail if at all in the first two years.

Pictures will be up in a couple weeks :-)

[zboot]

:-)

So, got the vm9512 yesterday. I'll order the nav unit towards the end of the month (and a rearview cam) and install those sometime around the first week of march. I've populated the vm9512's harness and bmw harness adapters with quick disconnects and went out to the car to test her out.

I'll test out some divx movies and a couple dvds later in the afternoon, but music playback is awesome from the sd card reader. So far, the sound quality out is better than the stock bmw unit. That's good because I'd heard some bad things about jensen sound. Hopefully, this will keep up!

I've already overridden the parking brake thing - not only does it keep you from playing movies while the vehicle is in motion, you can't view pictures either. It had no problem recognizing different folders with different media on the same sd card. hopefully, the same applies to cds and dvds.

I'll be burning a mega dvd of music for the car sometime after I wake up :-). I'll probably make another one with some test video and music too.

Fitment of the unit will be tight. However, that makes the job of securing it from vibrations easier.

Pictures of this and a couple other updates to the car will be posted later today!

A word about screen resolution. It hit me a few hours after I left the circuit city that I was being stupid. What's important is pixel density or number of pixels per square inch. 640x480 on a 3" screen is much better than 1024x768 on a 50" screen. I did the math, the pixel density of the lcd is better than the pixel density of my laptop (12" at 1024x768) so I expect dvd playback to be great as well. I just wish they took advantage of the great pixel density to make better looking menus, but all the units I've seen (including pioneer or eclipse) have underimpressed me with their menu system graphics.