LAS2K, who drove all the way from Louisiana for Fall Colors, showed up with something that took my breath away -- A StreetPilot III GPS screen mounted in into a custom-molded plastic roof rail trim on the drivers side, with a V1 radar detector mounted on the passenger side. I wasn't able to take pictures, but I hope someone else was and can post them here. Here's a photo just posted by LA S2K;



The control switches for Street Pilot are located in the cup holder lid, and look perfectly integrated, like they are stock. The motherboard and associated brains for the system are mounted in the secret compartment, with the ribbon cable connections to the screen running under the console and up under the a-pillar cover.



Frankly, I like the system LAS2K created this way better than the dash-mounted systems I've seen. The screen is just over the line of vision for the road, so it's much easier to watch and read without taking your eye off the road. And the size of the screen seems more apppropriate for our car.

I was so fired up about this, I took my StreetPilot III apart when I came home from Fall Colors around 1 AM last night. Here's what I found:

 

Damn, this was absolutely the nicest set-up I have seen and yet in admiring it so much. I forgot to take pics as well.

 

turbo_pwr, this is a bit off topic, but I'm going to be in Hawaii next Wednesday through the following Monday. When's your wedding?

 

Rick,

I've been keeping my fingers crossed for this one...

 

Rick, I saw Mike's setup in Indy just before Fall Colors when he was here for the F1 race. I couldn't get over the workmanship on his car. Did he show you the trunk? The vertical panel, behind the seats, with S2000 embossed on it. Also the amp mounted in the well with the plexiglass window with the light over the amp.

Really a great setup.

Bob

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Rick Hesel
[B]turbo_pwr, this is a bit off topic, but I'm going to be in Hawaii next Wednesday through the following Monday.

 

Thanks for all the compliments on my setup.
My installer did a great job on everything. I
will post pictures of everything i did on Wednesday
or Thursday when i get back home. I am in Nashville
tonight. Rick did a great job on Fall Colors. I look forward
to next year.


LA S2K

 

Rick, for some reason your pics aren't working tonight.

 

The picture I posted of the guts of the system shows very fine ribbon cables that connect the screen and controls to the motherboard of the system. The ribbon cable to the LCD, for example, has 20 connectors but is only 1/2 inch wide. The cables are stripped about 3mm on both ends, have special tape reinforcement under the stripping, and slip and lock into special board-mounted ZIF sockets on the LCD, control board, and motherboard.

The key for remote mounting of the LCD screen and controls is roughly a 10 foot run of the ribbon cable for the LCD and 2.5 feet or so for the controls (assuming that the motherboard is kept in the original case -- a must, really) and mounted in the secret compartment. Soldering standard ribbon cable to these very fine cables is a bitch, as Mike told me, and very time consuming -- not a good idea if we're going to produce these.

Fortunately, I found the source for the cable -- a company based in France. I spoke to one of their engineers here in the US yesterday, and they are now making up 6 sets of prototype cable of the proper lengths for us to try out. Since they are being made in France, it will probably take a few weeks to get them, but by then we should have a few sets of the specially molded roof rail trim from LAS2K's guy in Texas. If all this works (and I am quite confident it will), we should be able to develop a kit of parts so that people can do this mod themselves. The kit would include the special roof rail with the LCD screen mounted, the cup holder cover with the controls installed, the motherboard mounted in the origina StreetPilot case, and all the necessary ribbon cable and other connectors to wire it all together and power it up. I have no idea about price at the moment, but it should be well under the price of a dash-based system, some where around $1,600-1,800 (the StreetPilot alone is nearly $1,000 retail). Stay tuned.

 

Hi Rick, any updates on this project?