I'm finally breaking down and starting my plans to void the warranty on both my stereo and NAV system... in other words my Carputer.

I've done some searching on the board for this and so far what I've found is the avelectronic kit hacks into the RGB & 1 sync wire from the NAV system to the LCD. Now my question is which sync is this? The horizontal or vertical? A much much cheaper alternative could be done with an adapter for VGA-RGB provided I knew which sync wire this was. Does anyone know?

 

But what's the native resolution going to come to? 800x400? 800x600?

 

The native resolution of the stock NAV LCD is the same as most Xenarc or Liliput screens you could buy, 640x320.

Anyone help a man out here?

 

Actually the native resolution of the Xenarc and LIliput isn't 640x320. It's 800x480. Check mp3car.com. Anyone there will tell you that.

http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/show...ive+resolution

 

Ok thanks for correcting my resolution misunderstanding... and totally not helping me on my original question.

However, I've figured it out on my own with some diligent researching. The "Sync" line to the LCD is a composite sync... So a smoosh of both the horizontal and vertical syncs. In other words there is no simple way to hook up a vga out from a PC without an adapter. I'm working on creating one for cheap so I don't have to bust out $500 on an avelectronics switcher.

 

Not sure if anyone is following this thread or not but I figure I'll keep record anyway. I've done a little more research and have found that a simple Macintosh video adapter for VGA use will do the combining of the h-sync and v-sync. More on this later after I get things actually working.

 

Keep updating us on this one. I for one am reading with interested.

 

oh yes, definitely keep us posted. that avelectronics is really overkill for what i want to do and i'm interested in seeing what you come up with

 

I just picked up the sweetest deal ever for the first part of my little project... the laptop:

Alienware 51m
2.4ghz p4
512mb ddr
radeon 7500 64mb
40gb hdd
dvd/cdrw
15 xga lcd
firewire & usb 2.0
optical audio out, line in, line out, mic
and intellimouse and a leather case
external creative audigy(extigy)
hp 3550 colour printer
a belkin usb 2.0 hub
a few games, quicken 2004, norton av, and all original manuals n cd's

$850!!!! Go Craigslist!!!!

Now if only www.digitalww.com would get the 7" touchscreen kits in stock I can start!

 

VGA sync requires a few ic's and components to be converted to RGB sync. It's not an easy job unless you're familiar with building integrated circuits on a green board.

 

dude, keep me posted - I am very interested. Also, the alienware stuff absolutely rocks!

 

Yea probably does require a few IC's and other pieces but hell... why build something when you can buy the cheap adapter like I mentioned at the top of this thread...

I bought an adapter like this one on eBay: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...102173058&rd=1

This is a VGA out to MACINTOSH type monitor connector. Not a MAC out to VGA. This is normally a pretty useless piece of crap as most people would be nuts to use an old crappy Macintosh monitor on a PC w/VGA out. However it does the necessary H&V sync combining that we're looking for.

See the diagram here: http://pinouts.ru/data/pin_MacVideo.shtml

I'm going to phluck around hopefully this weekend to see if this actually works. If all goes well I should just need to poke some wires in 2,3,5 & 9 and solder to the LCD leads in the RX. Next is figuring out how I'm going to rig a KVM into this mess...