Electronics Suite - Preliminary Decisions

Every guy I know love their gadgets. The GTM electronics suite is a vast opportunity to devise, scheme, plan and plot a digital cornucopia. With the order date for the kit a mere three and half months away, it is time to start making decisions. As with everything, decisions begin to narrow your options - this is a good and bad thing.

The CarPuter or Car PC is a powerful option. Mobile Computing Solutions is a great site to research the available options. Centerfuse Auto provides software framework to load apps (similar to iPhone and Droid) to a XP, Vista or Windows 7 environment. 

The CarPuter idea is seductive and extraordinarily powerful. Unfortunately, there are some red flags. Many of the apps rely on an external board connected to the CarPuter via a USB 2.0/3.0 cable (in some cases up to 10 possible inputs). I live in this world professionally, and my experience has been that trying to push a Windows OS with 6 USB inputs is iffy at best. This is going into a car. I need it to be reliable. The other warning flag was that people are relying on hacks to make things work (e.g. hand soldering boards). Again the reliability/kludge factor causes me to pause -  especially in a car capable of 200 (or better) mph.

I went with an independent TPMS system offered by Orange Electronics.  Most systems are rated to 7 years on the Lithium Ion batteries. This is a direct monitoring system. The pressure monitor is mounted on the inside of the wheel rim. I plan to mount the screen on the lower left hand side of the dash. This becomes critical in the build, as I want to get the car up on wheels no later than July. Therefore, I need a TPMS solution ready to go by then. This also means I have to decide on tires and tire sizes.

The electronic suite consists of the following:

• Parking Assist Sensors
• TPMS (My buddy Vern hates these things)
• AM/FM/DVD/BT/MP3/GPS/XM
• HomeLink
• Automatic Headlight Sensor (under $30)
• Auto Dim Mirror
• Compass
• Temperature
• Trip Computer
• Forward and Rear Cameras (Night vision is a plus)
• OBD II Diagnostics
• Cruise Control
• inTouchMax
• Seat heaters (this is a Minnesota car - needed for late and early season driving)

Directed Electronics 545T Nite-Lite System uses a photo electric sensor to measure light and automatically turns on/off the headlights, tail lights and parking lights as necessary.

The goal of the electronics suite is functionality. This means I need to pack a lot of functionality into a small number of versatile interfaces. One of the major driving factors is space. The GTM is not a Chevy Suburban that has boat loads of room. It is basically a cockpit strapped to a rocket motor inside an exotic body shape. The center console has room for a double din unit and the ISIS inTouchMax screen (after I move the shifter towards the rear). The ISIS system already has 1 Master Cell, 3 Power Cells and a inMotion Cell. These all need to be deployed out of sight, and they require flat mounting surfaces. ISIS localizes 95% of the controls to the inTouchMax screen. Add to this speakers and an amplifier (I'm thinking of hiding this under the passenger seat) for the sound system and there aren't many places to stick a CarPuter.

This is a Bluetooth enabled scan tool that is compatible with Droid, Android and Torque. Torque is an Android app that directly monitors the vehicle's ECU. I plan to use this with an Android (Samsung Galaxie II) tablet on an as need basis. I will test it on the Corvette and see if Torque lives up to its billing.

Since space is at a premium, you start asking questions:

1. Does the GPS and/or cameras get deployed to the rear view mirror or the sound system controls?
2. Does the sound system use a fixed screen double din solution, or a single din with a motorized screen solution?
3. Does HomeLink get deployed to the rear view mirror, or is it an independent 3 button solution? If so, is there room on the headliner?
4. Does the parking assist system use 4, 6 or 8 sensors? And how does it interface to the screens?
5. Do the OBD II diagnostics get pumped to a really ugly instrument panel (looks like a cheap 1980's Nintendo system)? 
6. Is a 7 inch touch screen large enough to adequately display the information?
7. Where do the compass, temperature, trip computer and map lights get deployed?
8. Is there even room to go with a paddle shift controller behind the dash or inside the tunnel?
9. Does the GPS software have a built in trip computer? If so, how good is it?
10. Is there a reliable vendor and method to update the GPS map and software?

For the parking assist system, I am going with  a 2 speaker, no display, 8 sensor system. One sensor on each corner, and two sensors on each bumper. I plan to deploy the speakers so I can differentiate the front from the rear. The rear sensors activate when the back up lights engage. The front sensors activate when the brakes are applied. The stated range is five feet. Each has an independent controller.

This is what planning is about. In the final analysis, the only place left for the CarPuter was under the driver's side seat. I'm not sure how much space there really is down there. I've started making decisions (without putting a lot of money at risk). None of them are cast in concrete - that's the beauty of building your own car. The thing I like about the decisions I've made is that they are simple, modular and easy to replace.