The Mp3Car Blog

We haven't tested this yet, but felt this was worth blogging about.  Monkeyracer, EL CAMINO , and ThunderStick  using a mash up of their plugins and design skills have created a plugin linking the open source in vehicle Infotainment software called RoadRunner to Garmin's Mobile PC application which I have reviewed in the past. Talk about it on our forums here

 

After a summer learning about Mp3Car and the Mp3Car forum community, I've finally finished up my largest project to give back in some fashion. My project is a method for easier searching of the Mp3Car meets. Here is a quick picture of it:

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The double din Guru car computer has hit the shelves . A quick overview with the subject of a previous blog post.

We are supporting Special Edition, Inc on a car computer engineering project. The goal is to get a car computer in a 1955 Porcshe 550 Spyder replica that they build out a “piece of bare ground” Here is a quick shot of the what the dashboard will look like without the monitor.

Over the next couple of weeks expect several blog posts explaining the details of the car computer's integrated features.

I am going to kick this off with some interesting information we obtained about hacking the Andrea's super beam microphone. To maintain aesthetics we wanted to expose only the microphone portion of the superbeam and just place the mic pickups right in the dash. This would effectively leave just two black “dots” on each side of the speedometer.

Here is the information we obtained from Andrea’s acoustical engineers:
3.5" spacing = approximately 30 degree beam or cone shaped pickup.
6" spacing = approximately 20 degree beam or cone shaped pickup.
8" = approximately 10 degree beam or cone shaped pickup.

Here are some photos of the unit when we hacked it open. Microphone extension wires can just be soldered in place to the appropriate length based on your installation.

 

We were also cautioned by Andrea to make sure to expose in the passenger cabin the rear slots of the microphone as well as the front slots of the microphone. Unfortunately this will make the mic stick out about a ¼ inch, but at least we can hide all the other electronics.

This microphone hack has coupled with a new external USB echo canceling sound card that is amazing for Bluetooth calls which will be the subject of a future blog entry. Talk about this here on our forums blog talk section. Check out the breif work log here.

 

8,29,2008 Update - Here is a photo of the microphone installed in a dash.  For more picks checkout the work log.

 

Today there will be a few updates made to the Forums to improve usability. Hopefully it will help solve the scattered errors that people were having in replying to threads and other parts.  Please pardon the downtime, as I am working on it as quickly as possible.

-Nick

Weather is forecasted to be 85 degrees and sunny for tomorrow's Washington, DC MP3car BBQ.   Post in the forums and tell us you are comming by 10am, MP3car will bring some food for you.  Also let us know what your shirt size is and we will try to bring enought mp3car shirts for everyone (free). 

For full event details, see W3bMa5t3r's post (Forum Link)

Scott and I (Rob) are both comming.   We will be bringing the recently blogged about Guru Car computer and some other interesting things.

Introducing a new all-in-one Car PC solution!

For the last 6 months MP3car has been testing the Guru PC. The Guru is a new double din sized car computer that packs a serious punch. My review of the Garmin Mobile PC software was actually implemented using this hardware. This product is a significant step forward from previous “all-in-one” car computer offerings. We have decided to sell this in the store within the next 2 weeks. As with any new product, there are a lot of exciting things about this unit plus a few drawbacks.

The Good:

• Easy to install
• Fast. Really Fast. Garmin, StreetDeck, and Centrafuse fly. We might test Road Runner this weekend.
• Stable; It has only crashed twice in 6 months of testing
• Very nice sunlight readable screen. This isn’t quite transflective grade but it is better than most
• Tons of features packed in one box - Dual core CPU, Wifi, GPS, Bluetooth, PCMCIA, Amp, array mic, 120gb HD, 2gb Ram, shallow profile, low power, AM/FM hardware integrated, volume knob, programmable buttons, ambient light sensor, optical drive and more.
• The PCMCIA slot is a nice expansion option for high speed internet, more sound cards, CAN bus, MOST bus, or ther add on hardware. 

The Bad:

• There is currently no software support for any front ends; however, several front-end developers are aware of the hardware.
• No software support means clunky control of the AM/FM Radio, some of the preset buttons have no function.
• There has been no firm commitment from any front-end developers to support this hardware. We are told software support is just a matter of writing radio and button control plug-ins.
• Power management for the device is also software controlled. We hope to have an application done to handle all this by the time it gets released in a few weeks.
• The Price – The price hasn’t been set yet, but it will be less than $3,500

The Install:

• Here is a quick work log of my install.
• Hover your mouse over for an image description
• A full version will be posted shortly in the Blog Talk Forum(Link).
• If you can’t wait until this goes on sale, get a sneak peak this Saturday. 2pm. Lat/Lon: 38.963228,-77.154204

 

One of our military customers who regularly installs MP3car's 7” transflective LCD product in Sikorsky helicopters was kind enough to share some photos side by side with aircraft instruments.  From what we are told this is as close as you can get to military grade sunlight readability without spending military amounts of cash. Very cool!  Thanks for sharing the photos.  Talk about this on the forums here. 

Check out the new AutumnWave HDTV tuner .

 

This USB TV tuner is different from all the others you may have seen or used before. The OnAir GT is a USB powered device that can receive and display television content. It is capable of receiving Over the Air signals (digital and analog), and of course feel free to plug it into your existing cable line at home. What sets this tuner apart from all the rest is a fifth generation LG Electronics tuner/demodulator which eliminates interference caused by multi-pathing; in turn it finds the strongest signal and latches on to it for the clearest possible picture.

The included software allows you to watch, capture, or pause live content. With the large interactive menu you can change just about any settings to fit your needs: Aspect ratio, viewing options like Desktop TV, zoom and many more. The EPG, or electronic programing guide, gives you a TV guide listing to set your recording schedule ahead of time or just see whats on. There is even software to burn a DVD of your favorite recordings.

 

Digital advantages:

- Clearest Picture - Take advantage of your widescreen monitor

- More Bandwidth - Allows for different languages, more captions, and tv guide

- Multi-Plexing - Get multiple channels through a single broadcast

 

After using this product for several weeks, I can honestly say that I am very impressed with it. The reception is spectacular, the picture looks just as good on my Lilli 619 as it does on my 42" Plasma. For in car use, the included antenna is probably not your best option if you plan on watching tv while driving. You might want to upgrade or engineer your own solution. The installation is quick and easy. I really like being able to switch the unit from my car to my laptop and then take it in at night and plug it into my desktop to watch High-Def on the big screen. I highly recommend this product for anyone searching for a computer TV solution.

 

In the box:

GT tuner

Carry case

Remote control

A/V input plugs

Software

Telescoping Antenna

 

More Information

 

My name is Nick or Reno91011 on the forums. I'm a summer intern with Mp3Car. Before hearing about Mp3Car through my brother, I had no idea of what was possible with an in-car computer, but after reading through a large amount of the forums during my research, I found out how creative one can be with a simple starting point. I was hired primarily for my software knowledge and to be a dedicated person to develop and analyze the online content of Mp3Car. I spend most of my days working in front of 3 monitors with headphones on and editing HTML, Javascript, PHP, MySQL, and vBulletin code. Much of the smaller and larger changes in online content in the past few months have been my work, such as this blog.

After starting working for Mp3Car, I have since begun work on my own car computer and am hoping to get it installed by the end of the summer. It will pretty much be an AOpen miniDuo 945-X, 512mb of ram, 80gb hard drive, a 7" non-touchscreen monitor, and a customized XP installation. I know that nearly everyone on the forums will ask "Why go with a non-touchscreen?" I have two reasons for this 1) I am cheap and the more money I invest now in a car with nearly 150,000 miles, the worse I will feel when it dies and 2) I like an extra challenge. ->->

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