In true Blue Peter fashion, heres one I made earlier, one of the many things thats delayed work on Serverama. Originally this was going in the Logs section, but its finished before i got around to posting anything. Theres some parts of work missing, basically because I started this on a whim one evening and did loads of work before remembering to start taking pictures. The PDA was given to me for nothing by a friend (Thanks!) as she had no use for it. As far as I can tell its an almost brand new Jornada 540 Series (548 i think) PDA w/ 32MB of mem running Win CE3.0 first incarnation of the PocketPC OS (PPC2000 i think). Because 32MB isnt exactly a lot of music, ive put a 512MB compact flash card in that I had lying around, should give a good few hours of music. While trying to work out how to mount this in my car and hold it securely I started playing around with a bit of crap metal i had left over from the first version of Serverama. After a bit of cutting, bending and hammering i had a cradle that fit the PDA. To attach the cradle to the dashboard/centre console i bought a couple of replacement covers that would have switches and such installed in high models (damn my low spec golf). In the front of one of these I cut a slot which an arm would come through from the pivot behind giving a clean look when done. Attached to the back of this is a piece of 1/8" thick alu angle epoxied in place to within an inch of its life to the plastic so it doesnt come away under the weight of the PDA. Drilled into the aluminium is a 4mm hole for the arm to pivot on. The arm itself is epoxied onto the back of the cradle after both were sanded to remove blemishes and prepared for spraying. The arm, cradle and pivot go together ready for painting (after a few tests in-car) To get the output from the PDA into the headunit i'm using the line in on the back, although there is a 3.5mm aux in on the front, its on the front of the rotating panel so puts extra strain on the motor when its open if theres a cable in. Plus it doesnt look as neat This is made from two phono to phono adapters trimmed and epoxied into the blank. The software i'm using is Hum MP3 player, Its better than most of the other stuff ive found for a few reasons. Some players didnt recognise the CF card I put in, and some were too contrived when it came to doing anything to start/stop/skip tracks. This one is easy to use without looking at the screen and it recognises the CF card to add files from. After a week or so doing tests in the car for fit and operation i sparyed the metal work with three coats of Plasti-Kote BBQ paint, theoretically more durable than some others and, for added bonus heat resistant to over 450C . Even after a day drying, the paint still felt tacky, and slightly sloft, after a couple of coats of spray varnish there was no softness or tackyness apparent and it seems fine. Sorry about these pictures, not sure why they've come out like this, i'll take a few more and upload them if i've got time. The bracket fits well and just clears the gear stick, still easy enough to drive and doesnt block the lever, just means ive got to avoid hitting it with my thumb going for 5th. The whole thing works nicely, however if I leave the PDA off charge fr more than a couple of days the flash memory dies and it resets, its annoying, but unless i'm a fool and forget (very much like i did last week) its not a problem. I have a feeling its the CF card at fault, gradually discharging the batteries, did the same in my camera and irritated me loads. This isnt a problem as the batteries last longer and i can charge it in the car and at home. The whole thing works nicely and lasta about 4 hours constantly playing mp3s, which isnt bad. Just need to buy an in-car charger from ebay (about a fiver i think).
No worries mate! And a damn fine job on the holder you made. It is a very clean and a well executed mod. Love the audio input jacks you added to the dash as well. Makes it real easy to connect anything with an audio output.
Yeah, means i can plug my phone in or someone elses mp3 player and it'll still reach and sit in the stoarage space infront of the gear stick. I'm quite pleased with it all
Sweet mod phat_ass! Is that a VW Passat?? Definitly a VW and it looks alot like the inside of my '91 Passat. I love VW's
Nope, its a '93 1.4 Mk3 Golf done just over 200k now and its going to have to go the distance soon . Dads got a '93 audi 80 avant which will be coming my way next once he get something else, but thats done >215k, but nm. Both are still running well, although the golf's body work is showing signs of age and neglect. If i have to get rid of it, i'm going to germany with it to the Nurburgring, went there earlier this year in my mates jag and frankly, it was awesome. Anyway, i'd give the golf a kind of viking burrial in its homeland with a ragging 'round the ring before its put out to pasture
Yeah, VW's really do go the distance, the passat I used to have had over 275k miles on it when I sold it. To my knowledge its still running great almost 3 years later. I want a golf soooo bad but the old ones are getting rare here in the states. Oh well Ill just stick to my '91 Diesel Jetta GL.
nicee, like the way it came out, right when i saw the plastic piece with the rca's in them , i knew that it was a mk3 vw.
isn't that thing really slow? I had a Jornada 54? and it lagged/skipped/locked up alot when playing music
Media player is dire. Hence why i found some decent software to use whihc doesnt lag/skip etc. Were there any difference in the ram between various models in the 540 series? this was a 548 so could have had more than the one you used.
nice job on that. Why not just use a 3.6mm connector instead of the rca? wtf, why are the pedals on the left side.... edit: i always forget you guys have weird pedals
Thepedals are on the right, not the left but i get what you mean, yeah, we're on the other side of the road As is aid before, i *could* plus a 3/5mm jack into the front of the stereo, but i didnt want it hanging off the front panel. If you mean on the blanking plate, the leads out of the back of the head unit are phono plugs, so i sould have put a 3/5mm jack on there, but i'd have needed a convertor on the back of that too, and frankly this was is far easier.
IMO it is far better to have the rca jacks instead of the headphone jack input. I like it just the way phat_ass has set it up. Also the back of his headunit will probably have input for rca anyway. So why break a standard.
Not to mention if later he adds in like for example a portable dvd player for a trip, it will be super simple to hook it up to the stereo.
Exactly. Don't make things any more complicated than they actually need to be. RCA has been around for far longer than the 1/8'' headphone jacks. There are reasons why sub-amps use rca inputs, and there are reasons why door speaker amps use rca input. Wonder why the headunit outputs normally with rca jacks. Plus IMHO they look much more professional than a headphone jack in the end.
