ON-BOARD PC DVD/NAVIGATION/ more

[WyrreJ]

Those displays are for direct sunlight out on the deck of a boat without any shade whatsoever. The VX cockpit has got a lot of shade, especially if the windows are tinted. Without a sunroof, you probably won't have any direct sunlight on the display's screen. Although it would certainly be nice to be able to crank it up to blinding levels if needed.

There are companies out there that retrofit extra back-lighting to standard panels plus there are a ton of raw panels out there that only speak LVDS. There is also a relatively new reflective technology for TFT displays called "transflective" which appears to make use of reflected light so the brighter the environment the easier it is to see the display.

So, tons of options, but like most things in life it comes down: Good, Cheap, Easy -- pick any two.

[Whaleboy]

Originally posted by Virus-VX
400 still not be enough. It should has at least 1200 - 1500 Nit.
Just an example of fully sunlight readable and nighttime dimmable monitors ->

PS: Look at their price! ;eekr;

Yes, and also make sure that LCD module is a real TFT Active Matrix but not an STN one like almost most of them on the eBay. :madr2:

I've seen the LCD industry make claims of the brightness of their displays two ways.. Sunlight (daylight) readable, and direct sunlight readable.

anyhoo, what i said was sunlight (daylight) readable, which starts at around 480-500 nits as i remember reading in a whitepaper somewhere. This would be a display recieving simply ambient light from being in around an outside type enviroment during normal daytime. Direct sunlight readable, as you said, is up there in the 1000cd/m2 range. This is when sunlight is spilling on to the module itself.

But like i said, 400 nits gets kinda close but isn't exact. But is sufficient enough for a car interior 85% of the time.

Having a direct sunlight readable display isn't only dependant on the luminosity of the backlight and films - it also requires extremely high contrast.

Their prices get insane - but there is a 3rd party backlight company that will install brighter backlights and films on your module (mainly they only do sharp modules) for considerably less money then those displays in that link are goin' for.

And Virus is right, better watch those STN's!

what color VX you drive Virus? do you have a system installed in your VX?

[valenki]

Wow. I should get that next as a second monitor!

[Virus-VX]

Originally posted by Whaleboy
.... And Virus is right, better watch those STN's!
what color VX you drive Virus? do you have a system installed in your VX?

Be honest with you I’m not VX owner.
The best friend of mine drives VX and he is an active member of this respectful community. I drive 2002 Jeep Grand Cherokee.
Here are some pics of my setup (see 2d page for details). I still work on GPS navi project. It’s not done yet.

http://www.pbase.com/neuronull/jeep

[SpaceTruck'n]

I love the back up camera monitors!
I love the DVD/ MP3 players!
I love the Televisions!
I’m planning on one of my own.
BUT...

Dude, don’t you think GPS and a PC BUILT INTO in a car is overkill? portable units work fairly well and are very reasonably priced. Seriously now, just in case the ADD is kicking in and you missed it the first time.
Listen: They have portable GPS units and laptop computers. Where are you planning to drive?
Peru?

[WyrreJ]

A PC built into the car is great for all kinds of reasons:

• More flexible GPS software than dedicated units
• Wireless Web Access that's bigger than a deck of cards
• Support for 7.1 surround sound processing
• Multiple music formats better than MP3 like Ogg, FLAC, etc
• Connect to your OBDII port and get all kinds of life and logged status info from your car and potentially tweak engine and other car parameters on the fly
• Games
• Video recording from multiple cameras simulatenously

The list goes on and on, only limited by your imagination unlike a dedicate system that only does one thing and often can't be upgraded.

[Virus-VX]

Guys, what navigation software and GPS receiver/antenna do you have and use in your VX?

BTW – Do you know any inexpensive and user friendly PC-based OBD-II software for Windows OS? Just recently came across AutoTap. Does anyone have an experience with this soft?

AutoTap
http://www.autotap.com

[SpaceTruck'n]

"Connect to your OBDII port and get all kinds of life and logged status info from your car and potentially tweak engine and other car parameters on the fly"

OOOOOooh! Now yer talkin! I’m not being sarcastic either, I mean it. That’s a excellent idea! You could recurve your ignition for variety of uses, set timing, trans shift points, fuel remap lock unlock torque converter...


But he rest is still crap though. None of that stuff isn’t anything you can't do with a laptop.
I remain unconvinced.
What’s next? A sonic fish finder?

PS. What does OBDII stand for? OnBoardDiagnostic???? Data, Doohicky? What?
See:

http://www.autotap.com/images/EFILive_rawdata.jpg

[Whaleboy]

Originally posted by Virus-VX
Guys, what navigation software and GPS receiver/antenna do you have and use in your VX?

BTW – Do you know any inexpensive and user friendly PC-based OBD-II software for Windows OS? Just recently came across AutoTap. Does anyone have an experience with this soft?

AutoTap
http://www.autotap.com

I bought some ODBII diagnostic adapter/software from ebay a while back, but haven't had any luck with it. Appears not to be compatible with the VX. I can't remember the name offhand, it was something obscure i had never heard of before.

Autotap was what I was thinking of looking into next.

The GPS I've been using is Copilot 2003, and it uses their proprietary GPS unit that comes with it only. It kinda sucks and it's refresh is slow - it's always having trouble locking. I'm probably gonna switch GPS software so I can use a different GPS unit, this is what I'm probably gonna get as it uses WAAS (accurate up to 3 meters).

http://www.garmin.com/products/gps16a/

For those of you who are actually persuing this. I found a really cool mini-itx case which dimensions almost fit underneath the front seat of the VX (with removing the foam cushion underneath the carpet like I had to do for mine)

http://www.caseoutlet.com/NWPc/Mini-...minicheck.html

I'd buy it, but I already fabricated my own out of an electronic enclosure - and also don't need a DVD underneath the seat. Eventually I'll flush mount a player into the side of the center console once I finally get around to getting a firewire player.

You can only extend IDE to like 12 feet i think without signal loss (like VGA).

[Whaleboy]

Originally posted by SpaceTruck'n
"But he rest is still crap though. None of that stuff isn’t anything you can't do with a laptop.
I remain unconvinced.
What’s next? A sonic fish finder?

Ya know, you don't need to drive a vehicross from point A to point B - you could just drive a hyundai, its cheaper and has better gas milage.

[WyrreJ]

Originally posted by SpaceTruck'n
But he rest is still crap though. None of that stuff isn’t anything you can't do with a laptop.
I remain unconvinced.
What’s next? A sonic fish finder?

Well, with a laptop you can't have someone sitting comfortably in the passenger seat. It looks like crap, is easily stolen, may kill you in an accident or even just during intense braking, doesn't have a touchscreen, they tend to be more difficult to get running anything other than winblows, aren't nearly as flexible in terms of configuration -- you sure can't put one of those 8-camera, mpeg4 realtime compressing, security monitoring PCI cards in a laptop.

Seems like your imagination is pretty limiting.

[Virus-VX]

Originally posted by Whaleboy
....The GPS I've been using is Copilot 2003, and it uses their proprietary GPS unit that comes with it only. It kinda sucks and it's refresh is slow - it's always having trouble locking. ....

Andrey showed me recently his Co-Pilot 2002 and I was very impressed by its intuitive voice navigation feature. The only things that I really dislike in Co-Pilot are its map interface and receiver. Receiver “NMEA-compliant” but does not want to work with other NMEA comparable software. We tried to use MS MapPoint 2002 and DeLorme Street Atlas USA 2003 and got no luck. TravRoute Co-Pilot’s map software looks very “insufficient” to me and lack of details. But in generally, if you need just voice navigation, it does its work very well.

[Whaleboy]

Originally posted by Virus-VX
Andrey showed me recently his Co-Pilot 2002 and I was very impressed by its intuitive voice navigation feature. The only things that I really dislike in Co-Pilot are its map interface and receiver. Receiver “NMEA-compliant” but does not want to work with other NMEA comparable software. We tried to use MS MapPoint 2002 and DeLorme Street Atlas USA 2003 and got no luck. TravRoute Co-Pilot’s map software looks very “insufficient” to me and lack of details. But in generally, if you need just voice navigation, it does its work very well.

I haven't tried using their unit with other GPS software, but i'm not the least suprised considering like i said you can't use any other GPS unit with Copilot. You could trick 2002 into using a Delorme (i think that was the brand), but 2003 apparently not.

I do like the software however, oh well... I think MapPoint is probably gonna end up being the next best thing?

[Virus-VX]

Originally posted by Whaleboy
.... I think MapPoint is probably gonna end up being the next best thing?

The best GPS navigation software I ever saw (especially for in-town street navigation) wrote by Japanese company Xanavi ( http://www.xanavi.co.jp/e/products/index.html ) for Nissan/Infinity native in-car navigation systems. The only one problem - it is not PC/Windows -based software of course. But if you really want it you can buy aftermarket in-car navi unit with already build-in Xanavi's software ( http://www.autonav2000.com/Products/Voyager/Default.htm ).




I'm currently using RadioShock's DigiTraveler 16-channels GPS receiver and both MS MapPoint 2002 and DeLorme Street Atlas USA Plus 2003 ( http://www.delorme.com ). DeLorme much much better than MapPoint and even Rand McNally. But as every product it has advantages and disadvantages. The biggest disadvantage is that you cannot install map on your PC's HD. You need always keep map CD in the CD/DVD-ROM. But functionality, map visualization and general user interface are great. Also you can switch map to nighttime view if you driving during the late evening or night. It also has voice navigation feature with the ability to follow operator's verbal commands.

[SpaceTruck'n]

Originally posted by WyrreJ
Well, with a laptop you can't have someone sitting comfortably in the passenger seat. It looks like crap, is easily stolen, may kill you in an accident or even just during intense braking, doesn't have a touchscreen, they tend to be more difficult to get running anything other than winblows, aren't nearly as flexible in terms of configuration -- you sure can't put one of those 8-camera, mpeg4 realtime compressing, security monitoring PCI cards in a laptop.

Seems like your imagination is pretty limiting.

OK, Im sorry.
Your right, I’m wrong.
My imagination sucks.


PS. I love MY Sonic fish finder. I use it after I find my favorite fishing spot on Lake Tahoe via GPS. I just drive across the lake in my floating VX, just like “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang”. Then I Crank up the fish finder, and commence to reel em’ in. If I use my Sonic fish finder I don’t have to waste a lot of time sitting there for hours waiting for a bite. The Sonar capability also alerts me of water depth and rocks. I wouldn’t want to pop a hole in my dinghy! Of course sometimes I like to relax there. I just sit around floating, have a few ice cold sodas from my built in refrigerator and watch a DVD or a bit of satellite TV in THX surround sound. Perhaps even download a few MP3s and burn them to disc. The cellular coverage is excellent around Tahoe. I’ve also been thinking of upgrading my “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” floating car kit so I can drive to Hawaii. Its fine for lakes and around coastal waters, but its a bit inadequate for the high seas.

Dude, lighten up! OK? My fellow VX Brother?
Sheesh, I didn’t expect the Spanish Inquisition! I was just joking about driving to Peru and the fish sonar.

As far as laptops with Touchscreen:
http://msn.com.com/Fujitsu_LifeBook_....html?part=msn