For those interested, post pruning, my JDM Nav unit arrived from Japan today. Thanks Mazdaparts for coming through. I'm happily installing the unit tonight.

 

and a bunch of pictures of the finished product... no I did not take pictures of the entire process, no I didn't do anything new -- with the exception of the stereo jack, usb port, and deadman switch (gotta love Windows) to simulate ignition kill -- doing so signals my PSU to shutdown.

 

Which JDM NAV unit did you pick? When I've looked at Mazda Japan's accessory catalogue, it seems they have a number of options. Unfortunately, I can't read the kanji, so I don't know in what ways they differ.

 

This one...

 

shell dude, that looks awesome! Nice touch for anyone with a carputer monitor up there.

 

How long did it take? Did you already have your Car computer made?

 

Hey Guys,
Yea mine came yesterday too, great to see Mazdaparts came thru with the goods! Started putting it in last night, got it all in just need to power it up from somewhere, I think ill just tap into the lighter. My GPS i got is 211mm wide and it fits perfectly. The power wire comes out of the side which is a pain so i had to modify the power jack to turn on a right angle and also make up a custom bracket as the gps unit has no mounting hardware.

 

I've had the computer for a couple years. It's a VIA EPIA-M 10000 1ghz mini-itx in a Casetronic C134 case... mounted in the center storage area in the back, like others have done.

I've got two powered usb hubs boxed in the trunk hosting wifi, bluetooth, car2pc, touchscreen, forward usb conneciton, gps, my carnetix 2140 power supply, and a wireless touchpad.

It's been ongoing for about the past 6 weeks, mostly gathering the necessary hardware specific to the RX-8, writing a little bit of custom code for the power supply and car2pc to properly handle hibernation, and then the long wait for the retractable lcd tray.

In addition to mounting the LCD last night I also did the final wiring and mounting for the deadman switch and stereo plug. I started at around 9PM and got to bed a little after 5AM.

I was dead tired at work today. I told a friend about it and his response was that it would've been a nice weekend project lol.

 

lol damn. I'm looking at http://store.mp3car.com/ for basic car stuff. I want to put it in that black box too.