| Author | Message | ||
     Michael L. Palmieri (Great_pumpkin) New Member Username: Great_pumpkin Post Number: 6 Registered: 01-2004 |
I was just wondering if there are any options to improve/extend my D2's cubby box besides the $220 cell box lid from Atlantic British. | ||
| Craig Kobayashi (Koby) Dweb Lounge Member Username: Koby Post Number: 978 Registered: 02-2002 |
Not really. Depends on what you want to do with the center console, I suppose. What did you have in mind? | ||
| Donald McFarlane (Dsmcf) Member Username: Dsmcf Post Number: 78 Registered: 11-2003 |
one of the first things I did with my one was to trash the lid, and take a dremel tool to the plastic insert on the box. That way you can mount things inside of it easily, including electrical connections. I have a linux box and a handheld radio charger mounted in there, along with some other bits and bobs. | ||
| Craig Kobayashi (Koby) Dweb Lounge Member Username: Koby Post Number: 979 Registered: 02-2002 |
Linux box? I gotta see pics of this. | ||
| Erik G. Burrows (Erik) Senior Member Username: Erik Post Number: 311 Registered: 04-2002 |
Donald, What kind of system do you have to run Linux? What did you use for a power supply? Did you use a hard disk, or flash card? If hard disk, did you shock mount it somehow? | ||
| Jamie (Rover_puppy) Senior Member Username: Rover_puppy Post Number: 784 Registered: 05-2003 |
Michael, Back when I checked with AB they only had the lid for the D1. I went with the cubby box lid that the dealership can get. It replaces the stock lid, I think it is called a cellular phone cubby lid or something like that. I lose things in my truck so it's been great for me. The only downside of the lid is that it does not have the magnetic pull to keep the lid closed that the stock lid has. When I would flip it open to access the bottom level of the box (the stock section), everything would fall out of the lid and onto the rear passenger floor when the cellular phone lid when it was open and faced downward. My solution was to put hook and loop tape on it and it stays closed ok as long as I don't put heavy items in the lid. Jamie | ||
| Donald McFarlane (Dsmcf) Member Username: Dsmcf Post Number: 80 Registered: 11-2003 |
Erik, There are some nice flash drives out there that talk IDE (developed for aviation and military), and I would really like a few of them, but for any significant capacity they are *really* expensive. So for right now I am just using regular laptop hard drive (two actually). My current installation suffers from three flaws. Although it is shock mounted (just rubber anti-vibration nut/washer assemblies) they are not as protected from shock as I would wish; more importantly the axis of mounting is non-ideal. Ideally the platters would be horizontal, whereas I have them mounted vertically, which puts additional stress on the heads; and most important of all, I do not have a hard drive heater. I do have a small amount of flash with the bootstrap code, but both the code and data for my application are on disk. The upshot of all of which is that it needs to be warmed up by the car's HVAC before it will boot. And, seeing as I use a customised kernel that only accesses the disks intermittently and spins them down between accesses, I feel the shock situation is fine. Except off road, where an abundance of caution has me turn it off altogether. All of which is more than adequate for my application, which extends mainly to just playing MP3s and acting as a small fileserver... see www.empeg.com. for more info. | ||
| Erik G. Burrows (Erik) Senior Member Username: Erik Post Number: 312 Registered: 04-2002 |
Interesting! For mp3 playing, I bought a cheapo mp3-cd player, and use a tape adapter. I'm looking for the perfect in-car computer for a pretty heavy application: xastir, the leading Linux APRS mapping program. The problem is, I've got 4 gigabytes of map data, and xastir is REALLY painful on anything less than a 1ghz CPU. I'll let you know if I find a good hard drive mount. (Although I need not worry about heating, living in So cal.) | ||
| Craig Kobayashi (Koby) Dweb Lounge Member Username: Koby Post Number: 985 Registered: 02-2002 |
Donald- That is bad ass. | ||
| John Brazelton (Florida_rover) New Member Username: Florida_rover Post Number: 13 Registered: 07-2003 |
I just got a Siemens SX56. It has windows so you can add maps, MP3's, PDF's. You can plug it in to your stereo via RCA's and an adapter. It's got a nice display. Internet, E-mail, IM, IR. It cant skip and it's expandable. Seems to be working well so far.>JB | ||
| Victor (Vabiro) Member Username: Vabiro Post Number: 178 Registered: 10-2003 |
If you're interested in Linux-based stuff for vehicles check out the DashPC project at http://www.dashpc.com For MP3 players, check Yampp3 (http://www.myplace.nu/mp3/index2.htm) and if you want to connect it to your Pioneer IP-Bus head unit look at http://www.vitat.spb.ru/eng/index.php?L1=ip-bus Victor | ||
| Michael L. Palmieri (Great_pumpkin) New Member Username: Great_pumpkin Post Number: 13 Registered: 01-2004 |
Jamie, What did the cubby lid from the dealership cost you? Do you have any pix of it. --Michael | ||
| Jamie (Rover_puppy) Senior Member Username: Rover_puppy Post Number: 787 Registered: 05-2003 |
Michael, I've had it for quite a while and I forget the cost. I can try to look it up. I do know that it was lower than what AB had the D1 cubby box priced at. No, I don't have any pics of it. I can take a few to post if you would like me to. Jamie | ||
| Michael L. Palmieri (Great_pumpkin) New Member Username: Great_pumpkin Post Number: 16 Registered: 01-2004 |
Jamie, If you wouldn't mind, can you post a few shots for me. That would be great. Thanks in advance. --Michael | ||
| Jamie (Rover_puppy) Senior Member Username: Rover_puppy Post Number: 803 Registered: 05-2003 |
Michael, I'll be happy to do that for you. Jamie | ||
| Frank Rafka (Mongosd2) Dweb Lounge Member Username: Mongosd2 Post Number: 361 Registered: 02-2003 |
Donald, that's awesome... | ||
| Jamie (Rover_puppy) Senior Member Username: Rover_puppy Post Number: 804 Registered: 05-2003 |
  The little black squares on the forward portion are the hook and loop tape that I added. Sometimes I need to access the bottom portion while I am driving. When I do that, the cubby box portion is upside down over the backseat floor. The tape helps to keep it closed so that the cubby lid contents do not end up on the rear floor. Jamie | ||
| Michael L. Palmieri (Great_pumpkin) New Member Username: Great_pumpkin Post Number: 19 Registered: 01-2004 |
Jamie, Thanks for the picks. Looks like the AB unit. And, it sounds like the Velco is a good idea. --Michael | ||
| Stephen Hawkins (Madmole) New Member Username: Madmole Post Number: 38 Registered: 07-2003 |
I've one on mine and it has a proper catch on the from where Jamie has his velcro, Same catch as the normal lid, so it doesn't open when you lefy both Cost £60 (approx $90) direct from rover dealer. Its a listed accesory. $200 is a rip off The extra height also makes it a much better elbow rest | ||
| Jamil Abbasy (Jamooche) Senior Member Username: Jamooche Post Number: 305 Registered: 05-2003 |
Here's the one from Roverconnection.com with the lid catch you mentioned. http://www.roverconnection.com/Disco%20Acc%20Pix/discophonebox.htm I would get it, but it's $225 there! |
