Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Modifications Audio On board mini computer (aka PDA)

Ok guys I've been struggling over what I've been wanting to do with my stereo and this post will be long so I apoligize, but please bare with me here. When I bought the car the stereo wires where all cut the speaker wires where replaced with your standard home speaker wire and I didn't have a head unit.

My first plan was to buy the wire plugs that where cut off and restore the origial premium audio system.

Then I decided why not install a small computer and hook it up to a touch screen LCD display and play off my mp3's and if I decided I wanted to listen to the radio I could switch over to the stereo function on the LCD screen. So I began looking at what Kenwood and Pioneer had to offer, but with the LCD touch screen/DVD/CD/radio decks costing over $999 I started to look at other options. For a while I was looking at old school tablet PC's that had screens that where 10" displays. However the overall dimensions of the tablets where pushing the limits at 13"x15" so installing it reasonably in the car now became a hassle.

However with all this mess I overlooked the simply solution... why not hook a cradle to support my PDA? Only problem was how would I listen to the radio or a CD if I wanted to. The solution was simply after I thought about it on my couch for a while. The audio/Video selectors people use to hook up more then one thing to their TV audio jacks would work perfect.

So now that plan is to hook up an aftermarket CD player and then build a cradle for my PDA to fit in next to the CD player. Only thing is I need a 4 channel amplifier that will replace the current factory unit and be able to mount in the same place. Anyone have any ideas fo an amp??

the only problems you might run into are level matching issues. also, the limited capacity that pda's have (i.e. 1GB card limits).... it could get expensive

I already tried hooking up my pda to an amplifier that my brother is running in his car. Sounded just fine to me, so I might be ok on that end of things. I can pick up a 1GB SanDisk SD card for about $45 off eBay, and that should be enought to hold at least 500+ mp3's. I can just change out songs as I get tired of them.

I just need to find a small enough audio selector that only has two inputs ans small enough to fit under my dash along with a small enough amplifier to fit in the old factory amps spot.

so are you basically just using the pda for mp3? if so, why not just spend $200 for a 20 gig mp3 player (vs. 4gb worth of memory cards for the same $200) and be done with it?

Why not just get a hard-drive based jukebox for your car? I just installed my omnifi and it is the bomb. $149.00 for the DMP1 AND DMS1 with wifi from www.geeks.com.

20 gigs at your fingers plus wireless streaming to your home stereo via the DMS1. Can't beat it for the price.

Thats probably the best option I have seen other then what I'm doing. I'm not worried about how much music I can really store, a 1gb SD will be plenty. I want the touch screen option and the ability to make playlists up and play them through media player rather then have to look through 1000's of mp3's. This is why I just didn't want to mess with getting an mp3 player. Otherwise I probably would have bought an ipod especially since there are multiple decks out there that accept interface with the ipods. But this way I don't have to spend a dime minus the fabrication for a mounting system, because I have everything already.

you can make playlists with the omnifi. limit searches by any ID3 info, plus have an progressive favorites list that is as easy to make as pushing one button.

have 2 AUX inputs would be the bomb tho. that way you can have an extra line out for portable mp3 players that your friends or you have.