What to do next...Opinions please!

[nightfire]

Heh, girlfriend can wait til I'm actually making money. I don't want to spend 1-2k on a ring when my car could use the money first We're actually planning to buy a house before we get married anyway, haha. Priorities!

I have thought about just getting tires put onto the wheels I have currently. If I can confirm that they are indeed 7" wide like I think they are, this is an option. The wheels I have now are heavy though, and I wanted a lightweight performance wheel. Hard to have your cake and eat it too!



As far as HUD's...yeah, its tough. I don't want just a tach or speedometer, I'd want sat navigation too...so you're right, not too many options as of yet. I've been reading into someones "night vision" project, but my computer won't nearly have the processing capability for object/motion detection! I want a car that runs on OBD1 or before for the simplicity, but everything attached to it must be high tech!! Hahaha...I'm such a nerd.



What if I got a Carpc and then just tires? Skip the wheels and megasquirt until I graduate?

Have you thought about embedding a projector into the dash, aiming up at the windshield?

You'd need software to reverse and possibly stretch the image, but what reflects off the windshield should be recognizable..

Maybe add a second video card (USB video maybe?) to drive the projector.

[onlytrueromeo]

^Yeah, thats how the HUD would be. Multiple problems tho:

1) Need some sort of coating on the windshield or else ghosting/multiple images happen

2) Would need to be focused VERY short, which doesn't work for most "projector" applications..I'd need to do a custom lens change, and optics aren't my forte

3) Would have to be bright enough where ambient sunlight isn't going to render it useless. An Opaque coating on the windshield would work but I don't really want to have a big black spot lol

4) Would not want it too bright at night so cops pull you over for bright lights on your dash

5) List continues w/ software issues and finding things that can do this

[nightfire]

Sounds like a seriously interesting project.

If you make any progress let us know! I built a carputer last year and it's been totally awesome. I'd love to setup some kind of HUD.

BTW - if you happen to be using Linux and you want a media interface, let me know. I wrote one that works quite well, and includes a sound profile editor for software crossover filtering.

[onlytrueromeo]

I was thinking of cracking windows 7 so that it doesn't die in june/july. I havn't played w/ linux in a good 5 years, so I'm a bit rusty. For a front end, Ride Runner (formerly road runner) is looking to be my top choice because it's open source and free!

As far as digital crossovers, right now I'm running 2 JL amps that have active crossovers on them, but its not up to par w/ how far I'd like to go eventually...but all in due time. I'm only running a 2 channel amp (front speakers only) but I have been thinking about bi-amping them to split the tweeters/mids from the computer directly. There are some nicely priced Phoenix Gold Titanium's which I've heard many many good things about. This would allow me to get rid of my passive crossovers on my polk momo's. I would probably just use the crossover on my monoblock for the sub.

Still some rattles I have to take care of, which will be addressed this summer. Full matting and foam on the floors, still need a little bit on the headliner. The damn hatch is whats pissing me off Latch won't stop squeaking unless I make it so you have to SLAM it shut.


As far as the HUD, its a pipedream for now I won't be able to experiment with it for awhile - and would rather put money into lots of other ideas. Would be amazing though...if someone else figures out a way to do it though - wel that might be a different story. R&D takes up so much time and $$ that I don't have unfortunately.

[angrygumball316]

http://www.rolledon.com/projects-f2/92- ... t-t305.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;, i thought this was awesome im going to do it, so i think you should paint it!

[Flyer]

Use debian...solid support, easy to use, and free...

LIKE YO MOM!

[nightfire]

I was thinking of cracking windows 7 so that it doesn't die in june/july. I havn't played w/ linux in a good 5 years, so I'm a bit rusty. For a front end, Ride Runner (formerly road runner) is looking to be my top choice because it's open source and free!

As far as digital crossovers, right now I'm running 2 JL amps that have active crossovers on them, but its not up to par w/ how far I'd like to go eventually...but all in due time. I'm only running a 2 channel amp (front speakers only) but I have been thinking about bi-amping them to split the tweeters/mids from the computer directly. There are some nicely priced Phoenix Gold Titanium's which I've heard many many good things about. This would allow me to get rid of my passive crossovers on my polk momo's. I would probably just use the crossover on my monoblock for the sub.

Bi-amping makes a world of difference... best upgrade I've ever done. Even with electronic crossovers.. just getting rid of those awful high-current coils and huge caps cleans everything up so nicely. Have fun running the wires through the door into the cabin though.

Still some rattles I have to take care of, which will be addressed this summer. Full matting and foam on the floors, still need a little bit on the headliner. The damn hatch is whats pissing me off Latch won't stop squeaking unless I make it so you have to SLAM it shut.

Well, try some lithium grease on the hinge... it may help a little. Also, do you have a rear strut tower brace? That tightened up the back-end significantly for me and stopped most of the squeaks and knocks I was getting.

As far as the HUD, its a pipedream for now I won't be able to experiment with it for awhile - and would rather put money into lots of other ideas. Would be amazing though...if someone else figures out a way to do it though - wel that might be a different story. R&D takes up so much time and $$ that I don't have unfortunately.

I may try my hand at this.

I'm big-time into flight sims and have probably logged >500 hours on Falcon 4 (F16 simulator). I'd love to have a HUD with optical road tracking/night vision enhancement, speed, course, and steerpoint information, collision alerts, etc.

[onlytrueromeo]

No strut braces yet. Had them on the old car but sold them w/ that. I'm not going to do more suspension mods until I get my bushings in. Then I might spring for a whiteline bar, and I already have wytlinks. Thanks for the tip about grease...lol for some reason I am stupid and didn't think of it.

As for running the wires - already done I mounted my xovers in the back w/ the intention of bi-amping sometime in the future. I only used 16 gauge though I am only running 150w speakers and fitting anything bigger than 16ga was an even bigger PITA. If need be, I can re-run some 10g wires by pulling the doors off. Would make for a cleaner install anyway. I'm hoping I can do what I want with "bi-amping" with a 4ch amp, rather than 2 separate ones...I already have 2 and don't want 3 total! (One monoblock) I'm also deleting my capacitor. It was fun for the "bling" in the old car, but it doesn't do anything besides blink and I think the auto-on is broken (it doesnt have a remote, but turns on when car turns on...but its broke) so now it comes on whenever ANY voltage changes - IE door opens, light on, or...connecting the negative battery terminal = sparks! Yes my grounds are good...so cap will be going bye bye within the following weeks.


^If you can get an HUD w/ stuff like that, that'd be amazing......until then if I get a carpc I will have either the knightrider voice or some swedish chick give me directions via sat nav. And I planned to install a voice monitoring system to play music on voice command. (Have that on my vista computer already, why not in a car pc?)

I don't know how voice commands works w/ most front ends though - if I can tie them in together that'd be better than opening up a separate program alongside the front-end client. I haven't done research into this yet.

[nightfire]

No strut braces yet. Had them on the old car but sold them w/ that. I'm not going to do more suspension mods until I get my bushings in. Then I might spring for a whiteline bar, and I already have wytlinks. Thanks for the tip about grease...lol for some reason I am stupid and didn't think of it.

Heh I just ordered the whiteline rear 22mm swaybar. I'll let you know how it works out.

As for running the wires - already done I mounted my xovers in the back w/ the intention of bi-amping sometime in the future. I only used 16 gauge though I am only running 150w speakers and fitting anything bigger than 16ga was an even bigger PITA. If need be, I can re-run some 10g wires by pulling the doors off. Would make for a cleaner install anyway. I'm hoping I can do what I want with "bi-amping" with a 4ch amp, rather than 2 separate ones...I already have 2 and don't want 3 total! (One monoblock) I'm also deleting my capacitor. It was fun for the "bling" in the old car, but it doesn't do anything besides blink and I think the auto-on is broken (it doesnt have a remote, but turns on when car turns on...but its broke) so now it comes on whenever ANY voltage changes - IE door opens, light on, or...connecting the negative battery terminal = sparks! Yes my grounds are good...so cap will be going bye bye within the following weeks.

Good thinking. I did the same thing when running my speaker wires - left another pair for future keyless entry, which I installed a few months back. I had actually forgotten that I'd done that, and prepared to tear that stupid rubber thing apart, when I noticed the wires hanging there.

Don't worry about 16ga speaker wires.. your tweeters won't draw more than 5-10W at peak, and your woofers will be so distorted at 100W you wouldn't notice the extra resistance anyway. If you're really worried about it, you can switch to 12 or 14 gauge for the woofer from the door to the trunk; a 1m segment of 16ga won't make any difference at all.

You can definitely find a 4ch amp that'll do what you want (including built-in crossovers). Take a look at the MTX C400.4 "Momo" .. it was designed around that, and though it's pricey, I've heard really good things about it. Disclaimer: never actually heard it in person.

Ya putting a big cap in the system is a total waste, given how crappy most consumer grade amplifiers' internal SMPSes are.

^If you can get an HUD w/ stuff like that, that'd be amazing......until then if I get a carpc I will have either the knightrider voice or some swedish chick give me directions via sat nav. And I planned to install a voice monitoring system to play music on voice command. (Have that on my vista computer already, why not in a car pc?)

Ya dude, options are limitless! You can do realtime engine monitoring with OBD-II or standalone, G-force analysis with an accelerometer for instant-dyno'ing, real GPS/Satnav, climate control, music and video, games.... it friggin rules.

I don't know how voice commands works w/ most front ends though - if I can tie them in together that'd be better than opening up a separate program alongside the front-end client. I haven't done research into this yet.

It's been a while but the old voice packages I played with used to have a mode for recoding macros the system could play back, so it shouldn't be too bad.