well that radio thing IS a problem huh...

i scrapped the idea of trying to fit a monitor and a deck in a tib awhile ago.

could you give me even a little more info on the whole cliffnet thing, i think it's something i'd really like to consider..
you bought the cliffnet software, and installed it on what..your car pc? home pc? i don't understand how the software is connected to your car and also able to be controlled from home.
once you have the clifford alarm installed, then how do you install all those accessories? (like intellistart, blackjax, etc.) and how do you control them?

as far as installation, is there a manual/instructions you use to do it yourself? i don't think i'd be up for figuring all that stuff out on my own.

btw, i like the long posts laugh.gif


thx

 

God that's awesome. Any other sites that sell complete kits that you piece together?

 

This is the closest thing to a drop in, ready to go pc solution. You don't need a monitor to control it, however all you have then is a glorified MP3 box. And if that's all you want, then the Kenwood Music Keg or an MP3 CD changer would be a better choice for the $ IMO.

Here's a better choice. You're going to want a screen anyway, so why not get a real single DIN pc. That case might be too long to fit in our stock location though, I haven't measured but it looks long. You could put this together yourself for a bit less, but this way someone does all the work for you. You still need to power it though, so you have to wire it to the battery and to an ignition wire for the turn on signal (there's one in the radio harness for instance).

Logic Supply also has customizable car pc systems.

If you already have a fancy deck with motorized touchscreen, chances are it has aux audio and video inputs, so you could use that to control any of these items, although the picture won't be near as good as with a VGA touchscreen. I'd rather sell that deck and buy a motorized or non-motorized touchscreen, which would also be easy to drop right in. Molding one into the dash isn't that hard, but it means you have to do a lot more work, especially with computer placement and control. Our cupholder is perfect for fitting an optical notebook drive though.

Other issues to consider include boot up time and how you will shut down. I'm using a program caled XPLite to eliminate everything I can from Windows XP. The smaller the OS install, the faster you will boot up. Many people on mp3car.com can boot up in 15 seconds. I'm probably going to use Hibernation though. Using standby means your car battery could be drained in a few days, so that's a bad idea.

Also, with hibernation it's easy for the movie or mp3 you were playing to resume right where it left off when you turn your car on again. That can be done from a cold boot, but it gets very complicated. I'm not going to mess with it for now.

Edit: you don't have to manually shut down or hibernate every time you turn off your car, with a shut down controller wired in it will do that automatically, as well as cutting all power to the pc if you want, so your battery never gets drained. Endless setup options.

Zoned, I installed Cliffnet on a friend's laptop, then hopped in my car, plugged Clifford's overpriced proprietary cable into the alarms data port, and then into the laptop's serial port. That's it. Once my carpc is setup it will be installed there, and connected either through a serial port or with a serial-USB adapter. Just remember that you absolutely have to get the installer version of Cliffnet and not the consumer one. The consumer version doesn't let you do hardly anything except change a few settings. You can get the pro version online, Clifford retailers won't sell it to you.

From my home I then will simply log onto my carpc just like I would any other pc in my house through the network. Or, from another location if I want. I log onto my home network from my school's library all the time, so I can access files on one pc or check my IRC/azureus downloads on my dedicated file sharing box. B)

You can get install and owner manuals for just about every system and accessory. Many through http://www.the12volt.com, or here and here.

How you get things installed depends on what model you get. Some alarms have the Intellistart and Blackjax units built in. My alarm had Blackjax onboard (which I don't use), and a seperate Intellistart module is installed professionally. I installed other stuff like Smartwindows, digital tilt sensor, glass breakage sensor, and now the trunk pop myself. It's easy to program them after instalation. Future upgrades for me include an electric hood lock, backup battery for the alarm or a self-powered siren, and a pair of mini piezo sirens (aka 135db pain sirens) are sitting on my desk waiting to be put in. But I'm going to get a pulse timer for those, so I can give myself a 5 second delay to turn off my alarm if I accidentally set it off. I don't want to experience those myself.

Anyway, you can configure all your alarm settings through Cliffnet.

A lot of people have OBDII hooked up as well for real time information. GPS and audio/video will keep me happy for a while.

 

those piezo sirens f***ing hurt man.

i have one for my alarm and thought id test it out. i put it on my battery terminals, in the open, and it felt like my ears were going to bleed. i dont even want to know what it would feel like in an enclosed space.

EDIT -

moving back to interior. this thing has turned into a valid topic id say. laugh.gif

 

interesting..
so you're putting cliffnet on the carpc, and then gaining access to it [cliffnet] from your home pc via the wireless network [that your carputer is on]?
that's tight man.

are you putting your car puter all in the dash? when i do mine i think im just going to put a barebones desktop back by the spare .. ill probably have to dynamat the case because my subs will be right above it...hm

i can't wait to get all of this set up, i have a screen sitting here just waitin for the pc to be finished, then im gonna consider good ol cliffnet.

hey, what are the dimensions of our din? (<-lazy, and u said uve already measured..its late now im going to bed )