couple people wanted to see my finished product, I decided to make a box out of the front middle seat, rather than cutting the crossbar under the drivers seat. I tried to upload the pics, but dont have time to figure it out right now. But you can check them out on my flicker page.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/49704854@N04/ ill add them to this thread tonight or in morning. I also recorded a little vid of it all put together, it shows the software I use.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWJIASlIQqs

 

That's awesome. I've debated for a long time whether or not to go ahead and do my truck like that.
How much do you have tied up into it and what purpose does your factory radio serve now and where did your blower controls go?

 

Freakin sweet yo! Wondering the exact same things, where did you blower controls go?

 

my blower controls are behind the cupholder flap, i cant put up my cupholder. I never do anyway. there is hardware called fusion brain that could control the blower by the pc and thermo censors. but im on a budget.

I wanted to keep the factory radio system, i can put everything back to stock in about 45 minutes. I have the original bezel and blower controls, I got a second set out of a junk yard. I thought about getting a second screen, and putting inplace of factory head unit and dedicating it to navigation. but that would cost too much to get in to amps and new wires/speakers. then trying to go back to stock if i ever trade her in. I'd go fusion brain first, it can work on any car. this would be the 3rd car this monitor has been in, 2nd for pc. i wouldnt have gotten the $1400 in hardware on a trade in. I only spent about 15 bucks in sheetmetal for the case and 30 on the bezel to get it in the truck(plus 50 buck for aux input for head unit). the hardware i bought on tax returns a few years ago. kids sucking up all the cash now.

 

my next thing ill do is get a "tegra 2" smartphone and teather it for mobile internet. as of now i only get internet at local hotspots(mc'd,starbucks,home,etc.) the computer gets all the news and weather automaticly when it starts(funny as it updates when im sitting at a light infront of my local mc donalds). also google earth is sweet for navagation! but needs updating every 100 miles or so. only takes about 30 seconds, smartphone would be key.

 

I want one.

 

Tegra 2 would be nice but not needed. There are several Android devices out there that can do wifi tethering and if you cant do that and the pc you have has a USB host controller then you can use any Android or WiMo device and use something like PDAnet via USB cable.

Nice truck though and those are some nice options it gives. How much do you have in hardware and what size screen is in that?

 

yeah but if im going to buy a phone and get into a contract, better off waiting the 2 months for the new chipset(which will consume less power and be twice as fast as current smartphones). supposed to be out around christmas.

I dont want to think about the money hole, im guessing around 1400. If i did all the math on the little things, gps reciever, power block, wire extenders,mini bluetooth keyboard, obd2 reader, id probibly be looking more like 1700. the touch screen is 299. its a xenarc 805tsv. the pc is a bit overkill. its a 2.33ghz quad core on a zotec mini itx motherboard w 4gigs of ram and a 360w opus solution dc-dc power supply. i wanted a fast pc mainly for boot times. which is another reason for keeping the head unit. i didnt want to be 4 miles down the road before i can get any radio. as my specs now i boot in about a minute. thats with the 20 second start delay(doesnt steal power from the cranking starter). the power supply is pretty neat, it will auto shut down the pc after the truck is turned off. i can set the time for up to an hour. it also shuts down the pc if the battery gets too low on power, so i can still start the truck.
obd2 told me i need a new egr today, nice to be able to read codes too. i got a 20ft cable atached to my obd2 reader as well, so i can plug into friends cars and read their trouble codes.

 

Interesting setup but yeah i can see some overkill in there......LOL

Tegra 2's at Xmas aint gonna happen. Im on several smartphone boards and have seen nothing slated to be released Q4-2010. MAYBE Q1-2011

VZW just anounced LTE to be released but no LTE devices yet. Sprint has 4G but only 2 devices for 4G with nothing I have seen yet to be release and AT&T is a joke.

AT&T sucks major ***** with their new tiered data plans and VZW just announced theirs and it is worse IMO.

 

yeah i have verizon now, "dumb" phone though. Ill get a discount for being a slave for the last 8 years. I also heard that motorola might try to release a new phone before the tegra 2 release, and might be pushed to Q1. but i like to hope it will be Q4. i also wanted to try to get on a data plan before the tier
B.S. And claim im grandfathered in. Ive already rehersed my wtf speech to verizon for the "unlimited data plan" which is not really unlimited. its like 5 gb a month. I look threw 5gb of **** a day(cheaper than more kids). i couldnt make that last a month. id go for killing the phone plan, and just having a data plan. I barely use my phone as is(40-60 minutes a month). i just know ill regret getting a phone now, just to see the clock speeds double in the next few months. I know it will always be a better one around the corner, but ill feel better waiting.

nvidia is already working on tegra 4