Rubbing

The wheels were rubbing a little on the way to work this morning so I picked up some 5mm spacers from Carnoisseur and fitted them to the fronts this evening. Hopefully that'll sort it.

Fitted the wheels and gave her a polish

And this is the shiny result:
I also debadged the back (well, except the Nissan logo):

Software

When building a CarPC you need to consider the software carefully. Remember you will likely be using a far smaller screen than most operating systems are designed for. For this reason simply using Windows will be fiddly at best and more probably impossible.

There are several very good CarPC front-ends available and many are free. The one I have chosen is MediaCar. This is freely downloadable here http://users.skynet.be/media-car/software.html and is a very complete and user friendly system. It can be customised and skinned to suit your needs and has a winamp-based media player built in.

Once you've got the front-end sorted you'll need some software to handle other aspects of your build. I am still investigating these, particularly GPS as there is an abundance for pocket pcs and smartphones but little for the PC. MapMonkey is a free app using the Destinator SDK and can be downloaded here www.mapmonkey.net

For DVD playback I suggest PowerDVD as it integrates into MediaCar nicely, but any can be used really.

Finally, web browsing. This is tricky on a small screen but I have found Opera to be a good browser as it intelligently resizes pages. Alternatively if you choose to pay for a front-end Digital-Dash is very good and has a built-in browser. It's available here

Got bits together

I have ordered the last few bits I needed now and gathered the spares I had (a hard drive and a wireless usb adapter). I am just waiting for the case so I can build the new mobo in and start installing the software. I will then just need the screen and I can start installing!
For reference here are my suppliers:

• Motherboard and many other bits - www.linITX.com
  
• RAM - www.crucial.com/uk
• Monitor - Ebay user avShoppe
• GPS Receiver - A fellow NPOC member
• Consult - www.plmsdevelopments.com/consult_if.htm

All gone to bollox!

Well I picked up the pc and while I was waiting for the other bits, set about installing some software and a new PCI card. Unfortunately, I didn't disconnect the power before plugging in the card and blew the mobo!
Today I ordered a new one only to then discover it won't fit in the case I have or use the same RAM, so another few quid down the pan there!
The silver lining is that the new mobo is better with a faster processor, usb 2.0 (instead of 1.1) and capacity for 2 ide drives (not 1).
The moral here is definately to do your research before you start this kind of project!

Ordered the consult and monitor

Today I was a bad lad. I ordered the touch screen monitor and the consult (despite a severe shortage of money). They were very good prices but to be honest, would have to be free to make them good enough for my cash flow!

Anyway, the monitor is this one:

It is a 7" touchscreen jobbie from ebay and was £99 (plus £22 shipping and insurance). I also ordered the consult from an Australian guy (it was very hard not to mention the cricket). It came to a trickle over £60 including the software: http://www.plmsdevelopments.com/consult_if.htm

This will be my 'flagship feature' of the Car PC, having all this info available at any time:

Starting my Car PC project

I have wanted a Car PC since I first saw the price of those fancy in-dash touch-screen stereos. Sure they are cool and have sat-nav, mp3 and dvd playback etc but so do computers and you can get a good one for a lot less than the £1000+ those things retail for. So I wanted to build an in car system with a touch screen interface, all my mp3s, sat nav and DVD playback. The big advantage is that I can run a load of other stuff too including wireless internet access and a consult direct to my ECU so I can monitor the engine on the fly! So I rekon for the system I need the following:

• A reasonable spec base PC. Either a laptop or small-form desktop with around 1Ghz CPU and 256Mb RAM. (Estimate £150)
  
• A small touch screen monitor of about 6 or 7 inches (Estimate £150)
  
• A GPS device, probably USB (Estimate £50)
• A power regulator to maintain smooth power flow to the pc (Estimate £50)
• Wi-fi adapter. Either PCI or usb (Estimate £20)
  
• An external DVD drive which I can place for easy access, also probably USB (Estimate £50)
  
• Consult lead and software to connect ECU (£60)

I have today secured a PC for the purpose and it was only £70. It's an atx based small-form PC with 800Mhz CPU and 512Mb RAM. Should be ideal although it's only an 8Gb hard drive so won't take all my music. Still, I can upgrade later.

Modding on a budget

Well anyone whos read my profile will know I'm a recent graduate and 4 years of uni can put something of a dent on your finances! I am temping at the moment while looking for a decent career so modding is on a tight budget. Having said that, I just won these on eBay... a snip at £150 although they are in Oxford.
Looks like another eBay road trip then!

Welcome

This blog will document my attempts to mod my Primera. I want to create a unique car and have a lot of ideas.


The car is currently standard which means a 16v 2.0 fuel injection engine (SR20de) with about 138bhp. It is a very nice car, a comfortable ride, hassle free and very responsive; Perfect base car for modification!