ON-BOARD PC DVD/NAVIGATION/ more

HELLO TO ALL !

Since I dont get intertained by the idea of paying 2500 for a Navigation system w/ DVD I decided to embark on a project building a system of my own .

I got a used but in great condition BKi80 Board: look here

http://www.reality.net/BKi810/photos.html

it has a AV video out and works perfectly with all the monitors in my house so far. I also bought a Rand Mc'nally GPS antenna and software.

The computeralready has a DVD player and some additional soft will enable me to play my favorite MP3's. I will be using a mini keyboard w/ a touch mouse for this pc.

I have several delemas to find answers for in my project. I thought may-be the vehicross.info community will be willing to help ???

Here are the issues:

1. POWER. The board on the pc itself uses 12v DC transformed by a 110-230 AC w power supply . The battery on the car is 12v DC . I could buy one of those transformers 12 v to 110 and hook it up to a life wire on the car ??? ANy ideas ?

2. SOund. I will be using my Sony deck replacing the isuzu radio w/changer. The sony has only 1 sound in channel for the 10 cd changer. How can I get it to work w/my pc system if I will use a wire with 1 2-channel av out from the pc.

3. Now I need to decide what monitor I will use. I have found some good deals on e-bay. But because I am not sure where I will place the monitor. I am not sure what kind to get. I plan to place the pc itself in stead of the glove compartment.

4. Games ? //Navigation the motherboard has the ability to use a joystick. I was wondering may-be I should look for a jostick controll to play games and use with the nav system.

5. COMMUNIcATIONS. THe board has a modem and a nick card.. Any Ideas ???

6. MIcrophone >>> I can attach one but not sure for what, yet..... may be voice nav controll??

I woukd Appreciate everyones Ideas. BY the way April 4 is my B-day. Everyone is chipping in for my system ...

;Dp;

Ooooo GEEk stuff!! I love it! I'll lokk at this more and see if I can have any suggestions. With all of the brain power that this family has, I'm sure that this could get figured out..

BTW HAPPY Birthday!!

I carry a laptop. Jack power from my cigarette lighter, audio through my Sony head unit, and on ocassion update my Garmin on dash GPS on the fly thru serial interface. I store tons of mp3's on my HDD. Got big screen LCD for watching DVD (15" standard xga laptop display (LOL)). Total cost... not one thin dime, just using stuff I allready had :D, and it all fits in a brief case out of sight, literally and goes where I go :p

OK, you have DEFINITELY hit on a subject that draws me in. I have had plenty of thought on this in the past as I planned on doing someting extreme like this in my next vehicle... which WAS gonna be another Typhoon... but ended up being an Ironman Edition 2000 VX! ;Db; I am now ready to start planning my Audio/Video/Multimedia system.

First off, I was planning to use a mini PC from Bold Data which is slightly larger than a portable CD player... we use lots of them at my work and I know they are very capable. They also now have new models that are EXTREMELY powerful. You can get up to a 2Gig, P4 Processor, DVD ROM drive and tons more. I would defintely opt for the DVD ROM drive.

When planning for my Typhoon, I was going to modify my dash to accept a 10.4" monitor in a vertical format. This would yield a width nearly the same as a standard stereo headunit. This of course was going to require extensive modifications to fit in the dash, but that was fine... looking at my VX dash (only had it for about 12 hours now), I think its gonna be REALLY tough. Also, the monitor I was going to use would have been a touchscreen so for normal usage, you wouldn't need ANY input device... just your finger. ;Db;

I planned on keeping my Eclipse 55090 Am/FM/CD/DVD player in the dash... somehwere... to be my MAIN video source. In addition to this, I plan to prewire for BOTH a Playstation2 AND XBOX... both of my sons console systems. With the above mentioned DVD ROM drive, DVD headunit, and the TWO game consoles, I would have a potential FOUR DVD sources.

I will have two 6.5" Alpine monitors for rear passengers as well as POSSIBLY a larger format (15"ish) monitor in the rear for show purposes. To make the BEST use of the many sources and the many displays, I plan to use a system from the place I work ... the Media Manager. This system was designed as an switching system for video sources at sports bars and whatnot. We have done one such "Mobile" Media Manager for someone that was used at the CES. I have talked to one of the designers/engineers about building the custom system for my car and he seemed to be good with the idea. This switcher would allow for ANY source to be played on ANY display at ANY time TOTALLY independant of each other.

There is of course lots left to plan on this and since I JUST got my VX, it could take quite a bit of time before it gets done. I have plenty left to plan. I also have my work cut out for me to get even a 7" widescreen monitor flush mounted in the dash, let alone a 10.4" in a vertical format.

Now, the Navigation system was there at the back of my mind due to the fact that my Eclipse 55090 has a nav system that can be integrated with the ECom module... then again, having it based on the PC would free up that DVD source for use elsewhere... hmmmm... this is sucking me back in... time to go stare at my dash.

TTYL!

Coach... aka Randy!

So far the dashpc yahoo-egroup seems to be the best place to talk about this kind of stuff:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dashpc/

You can search the archives to find a high-quality 12-volt (non-switching?) PC power supply I think it is about the equivalent of regular 150 watts, or maybe the price was $150, not sure which...

Myself, I've been thinking of putting a 10.4" or larger 1024x768 tft touchscreen in the dash too, I think it is going to require some custom fibreglass work. I am thinking about removing the head unit, halving the height of the vents and then putting it in at an angle. I am still looking for the right display, I want one that has adjustable brightness up to at least 600-800 nits with at least 1024x768 resolution.

I think I will get one of Tone's rear lockers and use that to house the computer, running digital video (either DVI or LVDS) to the panel in the front. I also am seriously looking at distributing 6-8 miniature CCD cameras around the vehicle for surveilance, precision manuovering (aka 'parking in tight spaces') and anything else you might do with all those cameras. I've found a hardware mpeg4 encoder board used for security cameras that can handle up to 16 video sources simultaneously and it claims the software can do motion detection so I'm thinking it can be set to record only when people actually come close to the vehicle.

I am also looking at using an m-audio sonica theater usb based 7.1 channel decoder to drive a bunch of Bohlender-Graebener ribbon speakers via blaupunkt digital amps (almost 100% efficent so little to no heat and very small and light-weight). I have fullsize B-G speakers at home and love their sound quality. I'm still contemplating mounting the 8" ribbons in the A, C and D pillars, I think the A's will be the hardest due to the slope, and then what to do with the front center - in the dash I guess. I think I'm also going to need 700Hz x-overs to go with them for mid-bass re-inforcement and accompanying traditional drivers to go in the current speaker mounts - I think I will let the D-pillars just use the sub (in the rear-tire well) for bass reinforcement. The sonica has good, per speaker, bass management and should be trivial to upgrade to future generations. I wish it were 11.1 channels so I could do all my x-overs in the digital domain, but I doubt that even the next couple of generations will have that many channels.

Of course I plan on hooking up a GPS receiver and using some sort of mapping/directional software. Also I want to plug into the OBDM and at least track car status information. I'm planning on putting both firewire and usb2 hubs in the dash below the LCD for in car temporary hookups, will probably also stick a firewire DVD drive in the dash to play the odd music disc and maybe a movie (though I don't really buy into the in-car theater system, other than as a child pacifier and I have no kids to pacify) Wireless 802.11g 52mbps ethernet for in-garage connectivity and maybe war-driving. Some sort of cellular type system (gprs, aprs?) for on the road connectivity (my own lojack, car gets stolen, it takes a picture of whoever is in the driver's seat along with images of the surrounding area whenever it stops moving and then emails that along with gps coords to me).

I'm trying to make up my mind between going with a VIA EPIA-M1000 system, it has everything, including LVDS video on the board, 1GB of ram, ethernet, IDE, USB2, FireWire, etc -- but only 1 PCI slot and the 1ghz Nemeiah cpu is slow, but ultra low power, so minimal cooling and smaller power supply and the board is tiny, only 6.5x6.5 inches. Or a larger, faster, hotter board, if someone would build a micro-atx board with all the features of the EPIA but 3-4 slots and using one of those new speedy but low-power Pentium-M chips that would be ideal, but I doubt anyone is building them, a least not for general purpose use.

Either way, I think I am looking at a second battery at least to power it when the car is off without killing the main battery plus the benefit of being able to survive one of those fuse blow-out attacks by car thieves that people have been talking about in another thread here. Maybe a roof-mounted solar panel to trickle-charge the system on sunny days too.

Some things I don't know if are possible but I think would be totally cool:
I'd really like to use a second LCD display to replace the gauges and go for the fully programmable digital dashboard, or even cooler, get one that is super bright and use it to reflect off the inside of the winshield as a HUD. If that could work it, I think it would need a replacement windshield with a special reflective coating else you get double-images (one reflection off the inside of the glass and one off the outside of the glass). I think all the information needed to do a digital dashboard is available via OBDM.

Anyways, that's what I'm thinking. So far it is only talk because I am a super procrastinator (and a leg injury that has kept me almost house-bound other than work for the last couple of months while I try to let it heal-up). But I certainly welcome any comments, suggestions or warnings. I can assemble a regular PC in my sleep, but my experience with 12-volt car systems is pretty limited, so I could easily be missing something major here.

Here's some more useful info on do-it-yourself LCDs -

http://www.eio.com/ - this the place for bare and kit LCD panel discussion.

One of the posters there has put together a good-sized list of LCD display controllers, some with the required power circuitry for the backlighting also built in. He keeps it updated at:

http://www.geocities.com/p9019/lcd/lcd_controllers.html

and here are the contents as of today should the site ever fade away:

I am a regular reader of messages on the EIO LCD Hyper-email Discussion group and I see the same types of questions posted all the time. I created this web page and a couple others to help answer these questions. I hope this helps.

Aurora IT Systems, Sweden
Most if not all of these controller are made by and distributed in the US by Digital View. See their listing a little further down. One nice thing about Aurora's site is that they list model numbers of panels each controller is compatible with.
AC-1024V3 - for color TFT up to 1024x768. Inputs: analog VGA, video (opt.)
AC-9511V3 - for color TFT up to 800x600. Input: analog VGA
AC-9511VGA - for color TFT up to 640x480. Input:analog VGA
AV-0800 - for color TFT up to 800x600. Input: analog VGA
AV-1280 - for color TFT up to 1280x1024. Inputs: composite video & S-video.
DC-P550 - PCI video card, supports panels up to 1024x768..
SV-1024 - for color TFT up to 1024x768, TTL intf or LVDS intf. Inputs - analog VGA, composite video and S-video.
SV-N705 - for color TFT up to 1280x1024. Inputs: analog VGA, video (opt.)
AC-0800 - for color TFT up to 1280x1024. Inputs: analog VGA, video (opt.)
ACM-1024 - for color TFT up to 1024x768. Input: analog VGA.
AV-1024 - for color TFT up to 1024x768. Inputs: composite video & S-video.
SVP-1280 - for color TFT up to 1280x1024. Inputs: Analog VGA, composite video and S-video
ST-0800 - for color TFT up to 800x600. Input: analog VGA.
SVP-1600 - for color TFT up to 1600x1200. Inputs: analog VGA, composite video and S-video.
PDP-1280 - for panels up to 1365x768. Inputs: Analog VGA, composite video and S-video.
MAV-1280 - for color TFT up to 1280x1024. Inputs: composite video & S-video.
ACL-1024 - for color TFT up to 1024x768. Input: analog VGA
ACL-1280 - for color TFT up to 1280x1024. Inputs: Analog VGA, video (opt.)
DVI-1024 - for color TFT up to 1024x768. Input: DVI.
AV-9512VGA - for color TFT up to 640x480. Input: analog VGA
SV-1600 - for color TFT up to 1024x768, TTL intf or LVDS intf. Inputs: analog VGA, composite video and S-video.
ACG-1024 - for color TFT up to 1024x768. Input: Analog VGA.
AVT-1024 - for color TFT up to 1024x768. Inputs: Antenna for TV tuner, composite video and S-video.

bbs bild- und lichtsysteme
DVI receivers, LCD and plasma display controllers, LCD projector modules, LCD projection panels,
font size=+1]Data Display AG[/size]
Prisma10 - for color TFT up to 1024x768, TTL intf or LVDS intf., Inputs: DVI, analog RGB, composite video, S-video.
Prisma20 - for color TFT up to 1280x1024, TTL intf or LVDS intf., Inputs: DVI, analog RGB, composite video, S-video.
Prisma30 - for color TFT up to 1600x1280, TTL intf or LVDS intf., Inputs: DVI, analog VGA, composite video, S-video.

Data Modul Inc.
C111 - for color TFT up to 1280x1024, TTL intf or LVDS intf., Inputs: analog RGB, composite video, S-video.
C112 - for color TFT up to 1600x1280, TTL intf or LVDS intf., Inputs: analog RGB, composite video, S-video.
C114 - for color TFT up to 1280x1024, TTL intf or LVDS intf., Inputs: DVI, analog RGB, composite video, S-video.
DVI-02 - DVI receiver to TFT panel display. est. $185

DiCON Electronics
LCD1024E - up to 1024x768, TTL or 6-bit LVDS. Input: analog RGB
LCD1024G - up to 1024x768, TTL, 8-bit LVDS, TMDS. Input: analog RGB
LCD1280E - up to 1280x1024, 2 ch LVDS, TMDS. Input: analog RGB
LCD1280G - up to 1280x1024, 2 ch LVDS, TMDS. Input: analog RGB
LCD1024F - up to 1024x768, TTL, 1/2 ch 6/8-bit LVDS, TMDS. Inputs: analog RBG, composite video, S-video
LCD1280EI - up to 1280x1024, 2 ch LVDS, TMDS. Inputs: analog RBG, composite video, S-video
LCD1280F - up to 1280x1024, 2 ch LVDS, TMDS. Inputs: analog RBG, composite video, S-video
LCD1280FI - up to 1280x1024, TTL, 1/2 ch 6/8-bit LVDS, TMDS. Inputs: analog RBG, composite video, S-video
LCD1600A - up to 1600x1200, 2 ch LVDS, TMDS. Inputs: analog RBG, composite video, S-video
LCD1600F - up to 1600x1200, 2 ch LVDS, TMDS. Inputs: analog RBG, composite video, S-video

DIGIT Touch Systems BV
Lily - TTL or LVDS up to 1280x768. Inputs - analog VGA, composite video.
Callar JR up to 1600x1024.
Lotus - up to 1920x1280.
FB300U
Eclipta - Inputs - analog VGA, DVI, composite video. On-board tuner.

Digital View
ACG-1024 - for color TFT up to 1024x768, TTL intf. Inputs - analog VGA.
ACL-1024 - for color TFT up to 1024x768, TTL intf or LVDS intf. Inputs - analog VGA.
AVP-1280 - for color TFT up to 1280x1024, TTL intf or LVDS intf. Inputs: composite video and S-video. No VGA input.
MAV-1280 - for color TFT up to 1280x1024, TTL intf or LVDS intf. Inputs: composite video, S-video, component video. No VGA input.
SVP-1280 - for color TFT up to 1280x1024, TTL intf or LVDS intf. Inputs - analog VGA, composite video, S-video & component video.
SV-1600 (est $645) - for color TFT up to 1600x1024, TTL intf oor LVDS intf. Inputs - analog VGA, composite video, S-video & component video.
AV-0640 - for color TFT up to 640x480, 3.3V & 5V TTL intf. Inputs - composite video and S-video.
AV-0800 - for color TFT up to 800x600, 3.3V & 5V TTL intf. Inputs - composite video and S-video.

(because of message length limitations, this post was split into two messages)


EarthLCD
EarthVision/PC104 - $199. PC/104 form factor, supports color & monochrome panels, including STN, DSTN and TFT up to 1024x768. C&T 65545 chip.
EarthVision/ADC - $199. for color TFT up to 640x480, TTL intf. Input - analog VGA.
EarthVision/AD2 - $249. for color TFT up to 1024x768, 3.3V TTL intf. Input - analog VGA.
NTSC (Video) - $399. for color TFT up to 800x600. Input - composite video.
EarthVision PCI - $199. PCI video card, supports color & monochrome panels, including STN, DSTN and TFT up to 1024x768. C&T 65550 chip.
LongVue Controller - LVDS intf. for long cables. greater than 10M.
EarthVision ISA - $199. 16-bit ISA video card, supports color & monochrome panels, including STN, DSTN and TFT up to 1024x768. C&T 65545 chip.
EarthLCD/M - $149. 8-bit ISA video card, supports monochrome panels up to 640x480.

EVDisplays
Talon Analog Controller - for color TFT up to 1024x768, 3.3V & 5V TTL intf. Inputs - analog VGA. Sage Cheetah4 chip.
Talon Digtal Controller - for color TFT up to 1024x768, 3.3V & 5V TTL intf. Inputs - DVI. Sage Cheetah4 chip.
Condor II - for color TFT up to 1024x768, 3.3V & 5V TTL intf. Inputs - composite video & S-video. Sage Cheetah4 chip
Flight - for color TFT up to 1600x1280, TTL intf & LVDS intf. Inputs - analog VGA, DVI, composite video & S-video. Sage Jaguar chip.

MicroPak Industries
These guys don't really belong on this list by I thought their products were interesting and wanted to provide a link to them incase someone was interested.
MPI S133 - ($50-75) This board interfaces with LCD displays using the SED1330 or SED1350 controller and provides high level command support through a serial RS-232 link.
MPI S1335 - ($42-47) This is a board will control most monochrome LCD displays up to 640x256 with 4 bit column drive scheme.
Many of the Seiko G-series displays (without on-board controllers) are supported.

Microversal
UV880 - PCI card to LCD display controller for color & monochrome TFT & STN panels up to 1280x1024. Chips & Tech. 65555 chip.
UV870 - PCI card to LCD display controller for color & monochrome TFT & STN panels up to 1024x768. Chips & Tech. 65550 chip.
UV670 - 16 bit ISA video card to LCD display controller for color & monochrome TFT & STN panels up to 1024x768. Chips & Tech. 65545 chip.
UV765 - PC/104 bus video card to LCD display controller for color & monochrome TFT & STN panels up to 640x480. Epson SPC8106 chip.
UV665 - 16 bit ISA video card to LCD display controller for color & monochrome TFT & STN panels up to 640x480. Epson SPC8106 chip.
UV668 - same as UV665 with limited simulateous CRT & LCD support.
TFT Display Buffer - Multipanel display controller. To be used with UV870 or UV670.

NewCommWorld
ASX-1 -
ASX-2 -
AXG5 -
AXG6-01A -
AXG6-02A -

Reach Technologies, Inc.
PLRC - DVI receiver to TTL or LVDS TFT panels, Resolution up to 1600x1200.
PLRT1 - Single Channel DVI receiver to TTL or LVDS TFT panels, Resolution up to 1280x1024.
PLR2 - Single Channel DVI receiver to TTL or LVDS TFT panels, Resolution up to 1280x1024.
DVO Direct - Connects to the DVO port found on some Intel 815E Chipset based motherboards. Supports TFT panels up to 800x600.
Analog LCD Controller - for color TFT up to 1024x768, 3.3V & 5V TTL intf. Input - analog VGA.
RTI-545 ISA Board - 16-bit ISA video card, supports color &ammp; monochrome panels, including STN, DSTN and TFT up to 800x600. C&T 65545 chip.
RTI-550 PCI Board - PCI video card, supports color & monoochrome panels, including STN, DSTN and TFT up to 800x600. C&T 65550 chip.

Spectrah Dynamics Inc.
ARV-462 - for color TFT up to 1600x1280, 3.3V & 5V TTL intf. Inputs - analog VGA, DVI, composite video & S-video. Genesis GM5060 chip.
ARV-400 - for color TFT up to 1280x1024, 3.3V & 5V TTL intf. Inputs - analog VGA, DVI, composite video & S-video. Genesis GM5020 chip.
ARV-300 - for color TFT up to 1280x1024, 3.3V & 5V TTL intf. Inputs - analog VGA. Genesis GM2120 chip.
ARV-350 - for color TFT up to 1280x1024, 3.3V & 5V TTL intf. Inputs - analog VGA. Genesis GM5120 chip.
DRV-200 - DVI Receiverfor color TFT panels up to 1024x768. Inputs - DVI. SiI161 DVI receiver chip.
LD-S372 - AGP video card for color TFT panels up to 1280x1024. Outputs: Analog RGB, DVI, TTL panel and LVDS panel. S3 Savage MX chip.
LD-S370 - AGP video card for color TFT panels up to 1280x1024. Outputs: Analog RGB, TTL panel and LVDS panel. S3 Savage MX chip.
LD-S272 - PCI video card for color TFT panels up to 1280x1024. Outputs: Analog RGB, DVI, TTL panel and LVDS panel. S3 Savage MX chip.
LD-S270 - PCI video card for color TFT panels up to 1280x1024. Outputs: Analog RGB, DVI, TTL panel and LVDS panel. S3 Savage MX chip.

Trident Display
These guys seem to mainly deal with kits where they package their controller with a panel, inverter and cables.

United Services Applications
($180) Inputs - Analog VGA, DVI, composite video (optional).

9X Media
X-Top Video receiver - up to 1600x1280, Inputs - DVI, analog VGAA, composite video & S-video.

Glyn LCD
products - Toshiba LCD controllers & Sony projection panels.

Whoa! That's alot of info!! Just one question, which one do I want? (Kidding ;Do; )

Thanks for your troubles, this should help alot.

Quote:

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Originally posted by valenki
.... 3. Now I need to decide what monitor I will use. I have found some good deals on e-bay. But because I am not sure where I will place the monitor. I am not sure what kind to get. I plan to place the pc itself in stead of the glove compartment. ...

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If your project remains ongoing and you are not decided yet which monitor to get for your setup, I would recommend to check this web site www.xenarc.com This is the only one mobile VGA monitor available on market. I got one off eBay and pretty much satisfied.

Ooops ... Sorry! I found topic where Whaleboy already mentioned this monitor ...
http://www.vehicross.info/forums/sho...6337#post16337

I did check out the xenarc but I think it's kinda expensive and too small. I recently bought a LMV 10.4 fromd datalux on e-bay, now trying to finds a way to mount it. It turned out to be alot bigger then the dashboard were I planned to place it earlier.



http://www.vehicross.info/gallery/da...c-002f-med.jpg

I really like the monitor. My cpu will go in the glove compartment area. The monitor ??? Not sure, perhaps take out the stock head unit and uses some kind of brackets to suspend the monitor, what do you guys think?

Quote:

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Originally posted by valenki
[B]I did check out the xenarc but I think it's kinda expensive and too small. I recently bought a LMV 10.4 fromd datalux on e-bay, now trying to finds a way to mount it. ....

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Well ... My vision on this - I think 7" widescreen (16:9 aspect ratio) is more than enough for basic mobile multimedia needs such as GPS navigation and watching DVD movies. But If you need something bigger, I would simply go with laptop and RAM-MOUNT mounting system. All in one and no headache how to mount big screen in VX cockpit. Just a thought.

Quote:

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Originally posted by valenki
I did check out the xenarc but I think it's kinda expensive and too small. I recently bought a LMV 10.4 fromd datalux on e-bay, now trying to finds a way to mount it. It turned out to be alot bigger then the dashboard were I planned to place it earlier.



http://www.vehicross.info/gallery/da...c-002f-med.jpg

I really like the monitor. My cpu will go in the glove compartment area. The monitor ??? Not sure, perhaps take out the stock head unit and uses some kind of brackets to suspend the monitor, what do you guys think?

---

... kudos on your tireless efforts. Sure any modern laptop would be an easy alternative, but you built this from scratch to your specification, so I give you praise for sticking to your convictions and seeing your vision thru.

Quote:

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Originally posted by Virus-VX
If your project remains ongoing and you are not decided yet which monitor to get for your setup, I would recommend to check this web site www.xenarc.com This is the only one mobile VGA monitor available on market. I got one off eBay and pretty much satisfied.

---

Well, there's actually many mobile VGA monitors out there, ranging from 6.4" to 7" widescreen, to 8.4", and 8" widescreen... the list goes on and on. Usually the ones you'd buy are just modules and require the cards to run'em. A good place to start, but most certainly not one of the more cheaper options is http://www.earthlcd.com/skhome.htm

Constantly scouring on EBAY is a good alternative and you usually can find some pretty good deals. Make sure whatever LCD module you get has a dimmable inverter, simply adjusting the brightness is still gonna give you a disco like interior at night. This is still the Xenarc's greatest weakness.

There's also one other mobile VGA monitor exactly like the Xenarc that just recentely came out, and this one is rated at 400 nits (very close to sunlight readable). This guy is about to start selling them soon, you can preorder. it uses a hitachi lcd module, unlike the xenarc which uses the panasonic.

http://digitalww.com/VGA_TM_710VG.htm

also being sold on ebay:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...tem=2433530968

here's a side by side of the two displays:
http://digitalww.com/lilliput_vs_xenarc.htm


I've had my pc/xenarc system installed in my VX since like july of 2002... and I'm probably gonna upgrade to an NEC lcd 7" 16:9 as it has a more complete viewing angle and better contrast ratio. I don't have the model number handy at the moment.

Quote:

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Originally posted by Whaleboy

There's also one other mobile VGA monitor exactly like the Xenarc that just recentely came out, and this one is rated at 400 nits (very close to sunlight readable). ....

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400 still not be enough. It should has at least 1200 - 1500 Nit.
Just an example of fully sunlight readable and nighttime dimmable monitors ->

http://www.vei-systems.com/cart/items/8sunlight.htm

http://www.vei-systems.com/cart/items/12sunlight.htm


PS: Look at their price! ;eekr; ;Db;

Quote:

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Originally posted by Whaleboy
.... Make sure whatever LCD module you get has a dimmable inverter....

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Yes, and also make sure that LCD module is a real TFT Active Matrix but not an STN one like almost most of them on the eBay. :madr2: