[onetwentie]

Hi Guys

new to the forum, so hello to all!

Got myself a nice E91 M sport with all the toys, and have been planning a carputer install for a while now.

It has the iDrive and the 8.8" screen, which I am going to leave functional within the car. At the same time I am looking at implementing a carputer with a touchscreen and on that subject I was wondering if you guys have any ideas as to which size to go for?

I have a choice of two, and they are as follows:

LinITX Sunlight Readable 8"

and

Sunlight Readable 10.2"

both are good screens but I'm wondering if the 10.2" would be too big? I've checked the interior (where the stock CCC currently is) and there is enough room to get the 10.2" in, but it would be at a push.

Also I want to try and keep it factory looking, so maybe the 10.2" would 'give it away'?

Also on a side note, i'm looking at trying to relocate the CCC to either the glovebox or the rear of the car - I have found a thread which details the use of the METRA 70-9003 and the 71-9003 to extend the cabling from the front to the back of the car.. however I wanted to ask you guys if anyone had done it and if so:

Did you have to run a fibre optic cable (s) from the front to the back?
are there cables already there which come from the back which you just uproot?

Any advice, thoughts, comments would be greatly received.

thanks

onetwentie.

[TheDonClark]

I would look into the many tablet options out there - Samsung makes android tablets in a wide range of sizes and the iPad is 9.7".

You get a complete package with an excellent touchscreen and touch-OS with all sorts of navigation apps, music / video apps, etc already pre-made with gorgeous UIs made for a touch-screen.
IMO hang a separate computer and screen in the car is soooo 2005 ;-)

[onetwentie]

I did look at that briefly, there was some guy who did that with the iPad one, custom tabbed it into a car dash (think it was a Toyota) - deffo an option but if I'm honest I've kinda been wanting to do this whole thing SINCE 2005! Lol

If only I'd have bought the E46 it would have been soooo much easier, but there has to be someone out there that's done a car pc in the dash?

Anyone...?

[TheDonClark]

What are you planning to use for an OS? Just run a windows PC? The advantage of using a tablet is that there are Tons of apps that are specifically designed for touch-screens and are regularly updated. Beautiful navigon/tomtom apps and radio apps come to mind for in-car use - among all the others. If you're worried about size you know they make andorid tablets in all different sizes Samsung makes some good 7.0, 7.7, and 8.9" tablets that may fit well. The point is that you'll have a top-notch touch screen experience with a capacitive touch screen, verses a non-touch OS on a resistive touch panel. Will cost much more and be a much worse experience.
Just my .02

[darkrom]

I did the same thing with my last car. Spent close to a grand. In the end it was stolen overseas when I sent it out for some custom work...long story.

My point is, buy a tablet and get a much more "pre-integrated" experience that you now just need to power and mount!

[onetwentie]

Originally Posted by darkrom

I did the same thing with my last car. Spent close to a grand. In the end it was stolen overseas when I sent it out for some custom work...long story.

My point is, buy a tablet and get a much more "pre-integrated" experience that you now just need to power and mount!

I do buy into the whole tablet/android topic, but then on the flip side, how easy/difficult would it be do add a usb/reversing cam and integrate that to a tablet? with a pc it wouldn't be that difficult.

Its things like this that make me fair with the carputer.. also and i guess its a biased one, I had pretty much bought and researched (stacks of reading) many of the core components, and as such am more inclined to go down this route..

update: 8" sunlight readable screen purchased and initial testing phase complete.

current - working on trying to relocate the factory headunit/CCC to the boot/trunk - something which i'm having difficulty with - to start off with I have iDrive, so it would mean extending the LVDS cable from the front of the car to the back - how would I do that??

[Concentric190]

With the new CIC & combox I really don't see the benefit of a carputer anymore. What do you plan on doing on it? A factory retrofit can play mp3's, dvd's, videos, displays iphone display, have a web browser, pandora, FB, email, etc....

[onetwentie]

Originally Posted by Concentric190

With the new CIC & combox I really don't see the benefit of a carputer anymore. What do you plan on doing on it? A factory retrofit can play mp3's, dvd's, videos, displays iphone display, have a web browser, pandora, FB, email, etc....

Can it do reversing camera..? Or maybe voice activated web browsing?