Thought I would share my little project I did to get some offroad navigation. I'm using a 10" Asus Eeepc T101MT Touch screen netbook for the computer and Nroute and Mapsource for the mapping software. I'm using a single USB cable that connects to the computer, that cable runs behind the dash and connects to a 4 port hub. The hub connects the Garmin GPS puck, a bluetooth dongle, and a headphone jack that is hard wired into the aux port of the factory stereo so I can listen to mp3s and video stored on the computer over the factory speakers.

 

Nice work - I like the quick release bike hub fitting! Did you do all the fab work for the brackets? I use a 7" tablet for the same things - Right now I have it visor mounted but want to move it around where you have it also.

 

The brackets are an 18ga steel and I just shaped them with a grinder and bent them using my vice. I first made a couple templates out of card stock until I got the fit just right. I scavenged the quick release off of my wife's bike and haven't replaced it yet... of coarse she wanted to go for a bike ride today lol.

 

Well done! I like the dual function of the flip. Biggest headache about a carputer is how to hook it to audio. If keeping headunit, where do you put your screen. If using a dedicated amp, then the headach of where to install it etc. I have a done a good number of carputers from simple laptop/headunit/screen setups to fully integrated pc desktop/amp/screen and its always a unique challenge. Been considering putting one in my jeep for a bit now but cant decide yet on what path.

 

Thanks! It really does function very well albeit lacking a bit in the aesthetic department... but not too bad lol. I really like the cop4x4 ipad mount ( http://shopcop.cop4x4.com/content/ip...ocking-station ) But haven't looked into the functionality of an ipad vs a real computer yet. If the ipad can give me what I want I may go that route for the cleaner look.

 

Looks cool. I mounted my 7in tablet using RAM mounts attached to the Vector e-dock. The tablet is an Acer A100 running Honeycomb and I am using OruxMaps, which lets you download all different types of maps from street to topo.


In this case I downloaded Google Topo maps for offroad use in places with no cellular networks.

I can also mount a Viliv S5 UMPC running Win 7. So have all bases covered. I just could not make the Garmin maps work with the Viliv's embedded GPS. Garmin told me their maps only work with Garmin GPSs. Boomer...

 

How did you download the google topo maps?

 

The OruxMaps app has an option to download some online maps for offline availability.

Only limitation is that I can only download a max of 512MB per area. Meaning that if I want to cover a large area with max definition and zooming capability I need to download several smaller areas that add-up to the area I want.

So, for example, I have the State of WA in several small areas. The whole State takes several GBs in Google Maps.

Google Earth was even worse. You would need TBs just for a city. :-) So I just left it alone. Only got the Topo areas I was interested and saved in my tablet.