aaronmihe Upstanding Member Member 759 Member For: 21y 2m 23d Location: Canberra - ACT Posted 04/12/03 09:47 AM Share Posted 04/12/03 09:47 AM Time for an UpdateThanks to the hard work of others it has been established that we can easily get our hands on suitable plugs for the ICC end of the deal. I won't bother you all with details but there's at least one definate used source (EF/EL Falcons) and a possible new source from a company called AERPRO ..There are at least four people now at the phase of having the wiring in place - or made up ready for installation into cars for testing various steps in the next phase.Our common goal is to establish what we need to do to manage the video Sync issue, establish the best display resolutions to use and for the CarPC people maybe finish up writing drivers for it. Once we're over the Sync side of things I'll probably be diverting my attention away from the CarPC side and looking further at the Entertainment system side, that includes developing the IR remote controlling of input selection, the integration of XBox style stuff and all that. (funds and time permitting)A. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trumpy What's happening? Lifetime Members 1,605 Member For: 21y 11m 24d Gender: Male Location: Steel City, NSW Posted 08/12/03 04:52 AM Share Posted 08/12/03 04:52 AM Just noticed an interesting post over at FordForums. A member there has managed to get DVD/PC to the ICC screen. Check this page outVery clever. This could be the start of something very interesting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aaronmihe Upstanding Member Member 759 Member For: 21y 2m 23d Location: Canberra - ACT Posted 08/12/03 05:22 AM Share Posted 08/12/03 05:22 AM *nods* Basically between the four people working on the project (sharing info via e-mail and Fordmods.com) DGROMS got it running first. Great effort by him and the other working away on the project.Overall in summary assuming you can get the software side of things going this is what it would cost a DIY'er: * PC to BA screen $25 in parts and a small circut to make * X-Box to BA Screen. $30 in parts and some basic soldering to custom make loom * AV input to BA screen... How long is a piece of string? You'd looking at a 4-input switch unit, that does audio and all that giving you 4 inputs to use for about $110-$150 linked into the BA Single input much much less. Needs some circutry to do Sync properly.I'm sure by the time I get back from some holidays in January someone will have fully documented the whole project.... If not that's what I'm doing from then.In general terms I belive the terms is:"BA Premium Sound ICC "The screen appears to be about 720x400pixels....A. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trumpy What's happening? Lifetime Members 1,605 Member For: 21y 11m 24d Gender: Male Location: Steel City, NSW Posted 08/12/03 05:30 AM Share Posted 08/12/03 05:30 AM I knew you couldnt be far away from this one Aaron.Top stuff to all those involved. I cant wait to give this a go myself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aaronmihe Upstanding Member Member 759 Member For: 21y 2m 23d Location: Canberra - ACT Posted 08/12/03 06:13 AM Share Posted 08/12/03 06:13 AM I'll beat my own trumpet a little bit then and say - yes there were/are four of us... Xyphoid, DGROMS, Paulwm6 and myself.I did the hard yards on working out the video Sync - I have pretty much always believed that the sync signal was the 'key' to cracking it and yes it is. It's not helped by the fact that most people had a little bit of erroneous info indicating the wrong type of synce was needed etc etcIn the end my method worked Xyphoid found the magic connector to get it plugging in OEM into the bottom of the ICC (which I'm later discovered we can buy brand new as it matches a Toyota stereo loom).....Paulwm6 had the first 'psuedo' working arrangment but the display wasn't right thanks to the sync issue but proved the colours were compatible....He also found out some of the display parameters in his effortsDGROMS came in late bad had the time and patience to put all our rambings together, found the software used at the moment to manage the signals and VOILA!There you go!Work is still very veyr much ongoing. The funny thing is that for my end of the project The X-box (when suitably tweaked) will output the BA screen friendly signals natively.And to answer the question that started this thread!Yes TV Tuner is possible. A PAL unit such as the Pioneer GEX-P7000-TVP could be adapted into the car, but the PAL RGB output and syncs needs to then be recoded back to NTSC.I don't know what the GEX costs, but a board to do the PAL to NTSC conversion will run to about $250.... The rest is easy. That would give you the GEX TV tuner, two AUX inputs, NAV input (in case you already have Ford Nav, all remote controlled through the stock remote sensor and all the stuff like TV coming the through the factory stereo etc etc ....OSD from the GEX would also work fine.Unfortunately I don't have the cash to put this kind of thing together (Xbox or GEX) at the moment as a permanent in-car fixture - so if there's anyone out there in the ACT that would like in car DVD/DIVX/MP3 running on a modded xbox etc please drop me a line....A.Aaron. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aaronmihe Upstanding Member Member 759 Member For: 21y 2m 23d Location: Canberra - ACT Posted 08/12/03 11:42 PM Share Posted 08/12/03 11:42 PM Or - check out the current Repco cattle dog!In car TV Tuna from Sound4 - only $179!!!!!http://www.repcoshop.com.au/ASP/Catalogue/...CatImage_14.jpgComes with remote and antenna A. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cjl Donating Members 65 Member For: 21y 11m 5d Location: ACT Posted 09/12/03 12:46 AM Share Posted 09/12/03 12:46 AM Or - check out the current Repco cattle dog!In car TV Tuna from Sound4 - only $179!!!!!http://www.repcoshop.com.au/ASP/Catalogue/...CatImage_14.jpgComes with remote and antenna A. So aaronmihe, if I was to purchase one of these nice little TV tuners such as the one mentioned do you (or one of your side-kicks) have the time, effort, skill, energy and inclination to make-up the appropriate interface kit for a fellow Canberran?Appropriate remuneration would be provided of course.ThanksCJL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aaronmihe Upstanding Member Member 759 Member For: 21y 2m 23d Location: Canberra - ACT Posted 09/12/03 04:55 AM Share Posted 09/12/03 04:55 AM CJL - I'd be very happy to help out... Renumeration is less important comapred to time and patience as we're breaking new ground ...Keep in mind the costs of converting the PAL output of the device to NTSC which would be not 'cheap' at least as much as the TV tuner itself. The rest though is just a matter of learning about the TV Tuners output and getting it into the BA A. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mitchy_G Umm... Member 176 Member For: 21y 6m 2d Location: North Lake Macquarie NSW Posted 09/12/03 10:26 AM Share Posted 09/12/03 10:26 AM Here is the plan, - Voltage converter- Video converter- XBOX- modchipped, with 40gb hard drive and maybe a more shock resistant DVD drive (smothered with 20gb of MP3 and music videos). With network capabilities for updating in the garage. - Tv tuner, hopefully not too expensive- There was even talk of a simple GPS system feeding live co-ords to a laptop which would plot onto a mapping system. CHEAP NAV (I hope)Maybe I am even more crazy Anything else we need? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aaronmihe Upstanding Member Member 759 Member For: 21y 2m 23d Location: Canberra - ACT Posted 09/12/03 10:24 PM Share Posted 09/12/03 10:24 PM Mitchy_G.....At the moment you'll describing something that's a combo of 'easy' and 'difficult/expensive'.If you want X-box... then do yourself a favour and learn more about the consoles first. You'll need a very good undertsnading of them first to make the system 'workable'.Linking the X-box to the screen is a cinch. Here's how...* Build ICC & AUX Audio to SCART cable (no electronics required).* Buy SCART (RGB not just that hokey thing that comes with Aussie X-boxes) lead for Xbox* Chip X-box* 'Switch' X-box to NTSC mode* Plug and play.For extra points....* Build a notebook DVD room into the area below tissue holder* Use IR port on ICC to let you remote control the x-box which would be mounted in the boot.* Don't waste you time with power invertors go for 12V direct from car* Have the X-box turn on with ACC, off with OFF - but 'delay' line it to count for stalling etc... Say Power off 1 minute after IGN off... Power on 15s after ACC unless overridden.* Allow MP3 playback and control with vehicle moving...BUT Deny Video playback when vehicle is moving (makes the system legal)TV-Tuner:If you're not going to build an in-car PC then this is expensive. See TV tuners themselves are pretty basic devices... They have a tuning function but in the sense of veideo output they output the same signal they get... ie if you get PAL TV like we do in Australia then you get PAL out of it. Now PAL signals aren't compatible (in terms of the timing to draw the picture on screen) witht he NTSC type signals the ICC display requires. This means you'll need a decent PAL>NTSC convertor... these cost about $200 up! While you're at it get one that will give you RGB out as well....More $$ thoughSo instead make a really really basic in car-pc and use a USB TV Tuner device, TV-out configured for NTSC and then just add a Composite/S-video to RGB convertor.... Ofcourse most of the cheap version of these ones include double scan conversion to let the output be displayed on a VGA monitor.... This means you'll want to select carefully! One that just does plain CVBS to RGBS and no line doubling is about $200.....So what of the Blau system.....It's not much different and has much the same limitations.It's here and no though - while it will take us hacking mob a while to fully document the methods we've used, and indeed refine things....We may end up designing our own CVBS to RGB convertors and the like A. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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