Whoa, It's almost been 2 years since the first install and the baby is still going strong.
Heere are some updates, esp. on the issues that irked me and how I solved them
- To save costs, I started with a DC-AC inverter. DO NOT repeat the same mistake if you are planning one. The restarts you face after each crank is enough to drive you nuts (not to mention making you prone to keep the engine running even on 5 min long traffic lights) Within a few months, I switched to a DC-DC SMPS and life is good ever since
- The Via processor , although a capable one two years ago just doesnt cut it anymore. An upgrade to the Intel Atom board has worked wonders with the performance
- As good as Roadrunner is, it doesn't beat the ease of use offered by Centrafuse..which is what I have been using for over a year now
- Satguide maps still leave a lot to be desired, although they do give you a decent idea of your co-ordinates, thus making it less than a perfect turn-by-turn direction GPS but better than say a Eicher paper map
- I was worried about the poor 2.5" HDD not being able to withstand the jerks and shocks of a moving car (not to mention the heat in a parked vehicle) but it's been running well for 2 yrs now so no reason to complain
- Covering the LCD with a cover when parking in the Sun is a MUST... I ignored it on a couple of ocasions to be straddled with a LCD with an erratic touchpanel (resistive touchpanels are stuck by adhesive and the heat from direct sunlight is enough to melt that adhesive) a bit of DIY helped me revive the panel and now am always careful about shielding the LCD from direct sunlight when parking (I just throw a magazine over it)
- Phone integration is a PITA. Although I was able to make it work, the calling party gets a lot of echo, since the calling party's voice is routed via the car audio system which the microphone picks up, and there is no easy way in Windows to handle Echo cancellation (at least I wasn;'t able to figure out a way).... So i took the easy way out and got a visor mounted BT speakerphone
Minor niggles apart, the whole car PC idea turned out to be a great decision.. Not to mention it's a chick-magnet
(Something that I can't take advantage of anymore though
)