330Ci - CarPC Work Log

I posted this on mp3car.com forums, but I thought you guys can relate better to this.

http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/fabr...-work-log.html

Awesome project........ Quick question, why cut up the factory nav bezel? why not fab a new one? Are you planning on routing the factory buttons on the nav bezel to be functional? I get the oem fit and finish, but you could have gone pretty stealth without......... Moot point now thought it's already done... Can't wait to see what's next! Good work bro, most won't take the chance! Glad to see someone like me who will!

Thanks a lot! finally getting some love - I mentioned the reason why I cut up the factory bezel but I'll tell you in detail what happened. A few months back I started getting what I thought was dead pixels on the screen and as the time went by, the area was getting bigger and bigger finally as I inspected it closer it looked as if the top film on the screen is separating from the LCD creating a "bubble" (its gotten about 3" in diameter") so I took it apart and after realizing I can't fix it, I was putting it back together and hit one of the ribbon cables with my screw driver...now half the screen was on and half was..not on...so that kinda worked out perfect because now I didn't feel bad ripping apart the screen...
About the factory buttons - I am still contemplating on what to do about them. I am leaning more towards sealing the whole area and getting rid of the buttons completely for a more sleep look.

lol.. you deserve some love buddy.. I know it takes balls to rip apart the oem navi. Keen to know how the bezel works out.

I need some love too... here's a pic of mine, bezel is from jannus designs, the screen is a no-name job from ebay. It's acceptable, but I have a CarTFT TMR screen planned for the future. http://img40.imageshack.us/img40/4521/img0008y.jpg

Keep us updated on your progress.

hey dazman thanks a lot! it made it a lot easier for me to rip apart the monitor after I killed the LCD. Do you have anymore info on your set-up?

No, unfortunately not.. and that's prob why I'm not getting much love. I've been meaning to create a thread about it, but never got round to it.

Basically its an old P4 laptop, 1.5GB ram, 80GB HD mounted in the trunk. I use a carnetix p1900 power supply, and run both the laptop and touchscreen off it. Also got a BU353 GPS, silabs USB radio, bluetooth dongle, etc. I'm running centrasfuse 2.1 as the front end, and I think its great.

It was a lot of work.. and I still have a lot to do.. but happy with the results so far

I responded to your post in mp3car, but it doesn't hurt to ask here too... Instead of butchering the factory screen bezel, you could have sold it as one piece and get a double din bezel with the touchscreen which has a better look too, and left with some change as well.. Why you didn't follow this route if I may ask?

Centrafuse is nice selection for front-end software, is your GPS working after 5-10 hibernations? Here's my car-pc install too

paraklas: I answered your question on mp3car. I really like your project as well! By the way when the time comes, I may have a few questions to you regarding the cd player faceplate relocation. Great Job!!