I feel like it’s been ages since I worked on my project. Well…I got married so the project was on chill mode until that was done. Now it’s time to start things up again.
In my original design I was working on mounting an Intel D945GCLF2D motherboard in my 2005 Altima center console. I have now decided to “Reboot” my CarPC project. I plan on using a tablet PC as my CarPC. I have found that thoughout the past few months my main concern in the car is music, some “human” communication and I have a interest in exploring ways to communicate with my car over OBDII. There are tons of OBDII solutions available now for Android. The tablet PC’s can handle these functions just fine as I am not looking into gaming at all in my car.
I have not used my car stereo headunit for anything other than connecting my Android smartphone to it for scrobbling my music as I jam down the road. With that said I am going to experiment with an Android Tablet PC. Nothing crazy like that Samsung Galaxy (although sweet hardware) because I think its crazy to have to pay that much for a mobile device when I can have the same functions at a lower cost or even free. If a unit has wifi capabilities…why would I pay extra for an additional data plan if I already have a device that is a wifi hotspot or has tether capabilities?? Don’t get me wrong..I’m not looking into those Android 1.6 tablets with VIA processor, 128 or 256 ram that you see all the time on eBay. My tablet must be minimum Android 2.2 with 1GHz. It must have bluetooth, wifi, multi-touch, integrated GPS, HDMI-out is a plus but not necessary, and expandable memory card slot.
I plan on modifying a double din dash kit and integrate it with a tablet car mount. I found a Bluetooth device that will enable me to stream sound/music to my car speakers using a bluetooth receiver that can connect with jack to RCA Y cable. I am going to play around with this a bit. I am replacing my radio headunit with a 40w x 4 RMS amp that has a remote and basically will perform the functions that I was using my headunit for only it will be mounted on the floor.
I have the BluBridge mini jack bluetooth receiver and PLX Kiwi Bluetooth OBDII device coming in the mail hopefully next week. I can’t wait to test my new gadgets!
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