I will be posting here to show the install and upgrade to an 08 Mini Clubman.

As many of you know i was not happy with the OEM HiFi Stereo in the car.

So, here goes with the upgrades.

To start i purchased a Car PC and auxiliary equipment. Here it is all layed out.


1. Misc cables, USB, USB Power, etc
2. AM/FM USB Radio Module
3. AOpen Mini Computer
4. P1900 Car PC Power Supply
5. Liliput EBY701 TouchScreen Monitor
6. USB Audio Card
7. More Misc Cables
8. iPod cable
9. iPod
10. ELM327 ODBII Module
11. 19 in 1 Card Reader
12. Bluetoorh Dongle
13. Western Digital Pasport Drives 500GB each x2
14. Keyboard and Mouse
15. Mini 4 ports Powered USB hubs (4 shown 6 innstalled)
16. GPS USB Receiver

Installing Screen - it hangs from the ceiling on a custom made bracket. Wires go thru the Center roof console.



Fully installed


Next Hard drive are installed under passenger side vent


Next computer goes in secret compartment




Wireing for AUX In jack. The OEM Aux jack can still be used as long as the computer is not playing music.


iPod and USB Port in Center Arm Rest

 

Completed Pictures of Car PC install.

Software allows playing of music, DVD's, Video, Backup camera (not installed yet), Local Weather (if connected to internet), Web Browsing, E-mail, ODBII info, Bluetooth Phone, and much more.

Computer in Secret Compartment


Main Screen of CarPC Software


ODBII Readouts


Navigation Screen


Local Weather Screen


The Car PC can also play DVD's

 

awesome, another carpc'er! i've been waiting to see your work. sweet install, especially the use of the secret compartment and armrest.

 

Now for audio upgrades,

I am using the OEM head unit and have added an Apline PDX-5. I have also installed the Crossovers for the Focal 165V3 Speakers.

Amp wiring ins battery compartment - it is nice of MINI to have a space int eh firewall for the heavy gauge wire required for most amps.


Wiring of speakers in doors - not and easy feat




Amps and crossovers installed beneath passenger seat - Thanks MINI for leaving just enough room.



I have an 8" sub that will eventually be mounted in the side panel behind the rear seats. But i do not have time to finish that portion before i leave on vacation on Friday. So that will be added at a later point in time.

 

That is awesome, I'm going to start my "carPC" project at the end of the summer. I like the position of the screen. I was going to do the rear seat delete and do most of the wiring back there, but I think you're on to something here...


Awesome work!

 

Wow, that is two sweet installs.

 

That GPS receiver you have, do you need software to use that or does it come right with the receiver itself?

 

After two weeks of driving with the screen in it's current position I am actually thinking of moving it. It is in a great place if it is not to be used very much but for actual use for navigation it is difficult to use. I have to take my eyes to far off the road to see it. Also it is slightly to close for me to focus on (that is a problem with my eyes lately they are getting worse by the month).


The GPS Reciever only come with the drivers to make it work. You have to purchase the actual map software separately.

 

Okay so i was going to hide a sub in the side panel in the rear but do not have time before vacation so i dropped in the Roadster Sound Box and Sub that i have laying around and hooked that up.

It takes up way to much space but as I am the only one that is going to be in the car for my vacation i really do not need that space at this time.





Surprisingly the "Flat Floor" does not rattle and there is a lot of bass.

 

Since you have the OBDII readings on the monitor, would it work if you removed the tachometer and put your touchscreen behind the steering wheel in place of it?

 

Swiss Miss is coming along nicely. I'm excited to see where you end up moving the screen. How did the mids and highs come out? I know you're still working on the sub.....

 

Sorry for the delay in responding, i have been on vacation on "The Great Ice Cream Run 2 and MINI's On Top 2009.

Unfortunately the Tach has many other functions as well and woudl be missed byt eh cars computer system and my cause major problems with it.

Also the touch screen would be very impractical behind the steering wheel as it would be almost imposible to use becuase the steerign wheel is in thea way.

 

After another two weeks and 2500 miles of driving. I am still unsure of the location of the monitor. I am going to leave it there for a while may be 3-4 months to see how it goes.

As for the Sub Woofer, i currently have the Roadster Sound Box in the back as shown in a post above. I have spoken with many people and have some very good ideas about where to place a sub box in the car. I am not going to let any details of this out until i have actually started and gotten some work done on it as is will be totally custom and amazing if i can get done what i want to do.

As for the over all sound it is "fantastic", great clarity, depth of field, and the bass fills in very well.

In fact I actually one an audio and electronics competition over two other cars at a MINI event (MOT 2009) this past weekend. The two other cars had expensive sound systems in them but they boomed and thumped without clarity. They would have won a SPL competition but the clarity of those systems was horrible.

 

I hate those types of sound systems... Clarity FTW!

 

What did you have to remove to get to this area? How about on the dash side?

Would you mind describing what is involved in getting speaker wires into the doors?

 

I will do a write up on this with pictures and post it back here in the next day or two.

 

For wiring thru doors.

1. Disconnect the battery

2. Remove door panel and interior foot well side panel. Pasanger side is rather difficult to get the wire thru because the fuse box is in the way.

3. use 10 mm socket to loosen screw parked with green arrow in picture below. this is the screw that holds the wiring connector and its waterproof cover in place.

4. press up on bottom of the cover and pull out both parts of the connector should be able to be pulled thru part way. this will release the hook (blue arrow) connection at the bottom of the cover

5. Pull the connector apart.

6. There are two ways of gettign the new speaker wires thru this connector. Drill all the way thru the connector somewhere where there are no wires, this is the difficlut way as in my case wires were in just about every pot ont he connector. The second way is to cut a notch in the tab at the top of the connector show at the red arrow. This is what i did and I was able to get two 16 gauge wire pairs or one 14 gauge wire pair to fit there.

7. Pull the rubber gromit our of the door at the other end of the wiring loom.

8. Using a piece of stiff wire or coat hanger run it thru the rubber loom being carefull not to damage any o f the other wires in the loom. This is shown by the copper wire in the picture.

9. pull the wires thru and sneak then thru the door and the door jamb.

10. put everything back together in reverse order.





Fire wall wiring:

1. remove battery cover

2. remove battery

3. Remove wire loom cover that covers the area where the wires go thru the firewall. It is sitting in the lower right corner of the picture below marked by the green arrow ( it has already been removed in this picture)

4. Squeeze the three larger white tabs on the gromit that goes thur the firewall. I believe it will pop into the car (it has been a while since i did it)

5. From inside the car you should be able to see the hole in the firewall. It is between the air filter box and the side of the car. Light should be shining thur it.

6. runn enough wire up thru the hole so that it can connect tothe battery cable and we wire tied to it later. do not connnect it to the battery cable at this time.

7. Mark aline onthe wire so that you know how much you need. Now come the hard part.

8. Cut the end off of the large rubber tube on the gromit.

9. This step is done form the out side of the car. Push the wire thru the gromit from the inside of the car. How I did this was to push the gromit in and turn it 90 degrees so that i could start the wire thru it and then when i had enough thru to pull on from the out side i turned the gromit back and pulleed the wire thru.

10. Pull the gormint back into inot place until it snaps back in as it was before you pushed it thru the firewall.

11. Make your wire connections and put the cover back on. Replace the battery and the battery cover.






This picture show where the wire is on the inside under the dash. The red arrow show where it comes thru the firewall.
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WOW! I am impressed! Nice mods! This is insane!!!!

 

Thanks, and when winter is over and the weather warms up there is more to come.

 

Good! I have all of my carpc stuff removed right now, but can't wait to put it all back in. I got a Griffin Powermate too for quick volume/track changes without looking at the touch screen. Still waiting for Centrafuse 3.1 (hopefully with playlists back in).

 

The only problem I am having now is that when the temps drop below 0 the monitor does not want to display anything but a fully white screen.

Other than that I am running CF3.0 and it is much better than 2.X.

Ir runs much quicker and has IMHO a better graphical interface right out to the box.

You folks have had some really cold weather up there lately, was up at Stowe this past weekend and it was -13 when we left the hotel to head for the mountain and it was -7 when I hit the slopes both days

Good luck with putting all your carpc parts back in.

 

yeah, it's been pretty cold although honestly I'd rather have minus temps than slightly warmer with lots of snow

That's weird about your monitor, I thought the LED models would be ok at that temp...

CF 3 is nice, as long as you don't need playlists The Griffin Powermate is cool, I finally got around to configuring it this weekend and it'll let me skip tracks and pause/play without needing to look at the touchscreen. While I'd prefer to integrate with the steering wheel controls, it's a cheap and fairly attractive solution, I'm going to mount it under the e-brake.

I'm still unsure about what to do for power....the cigarette lighter solution is working but I want to re-wire everything in spring and I'm still thinking about putting in a dedicated power solution like you did. At least that way I'm not tied to the Artigo when I decide it's just not powerful enough anymore. I know I'm going to run into issues when doing ODB II + playing music....

 

but i like skiing and we need snow for that but it was pretty nice up at Stowe this past weekend.

They are but if there is a connector that is not fitting together well at those temps it could cause this. I had this problem with the hard drive connector when it first started getting cold. I had to modify the mounting bracket and the connector to make it work below 38 degrees.

I have not had time to play with play lists yet as it is so cold out and work has been keeping me very busy. but after it warms up i will wnat to get back to working on the system.

 

I need to subscribe to this thread........... my Clubby is in line for the audio upgrade ........... soon................