MW520 as replacement for car stereo

[CheapXJ]

bought one of these silly things for $20, after replacing the hard drive, loading XP (it's a 5203a, p2 333, 128mb ram 12gb HD)

I have two issues:

1. I'm having trouble finding a USB 2.0 PCMCIA card that will actually fit in the f'n CPU box (so I can use USB audio in/out, a DVD player/burner and an external wireless adapter for connecting to the house and the office, as well as adding some external hot-swappable hard drives)

2. I can't find the right video driver for windows XP. I really want this thing to be able to play DVDs, and it will if I can find the right drivers.

I already have cooling taken care of, so it's a non-issue for me.

and what's the deal with the big red button? I couldn't find any hex codes coming in on any of the interrupts or other port assignments, all the other buttons are just extended keyboard, so that was stupid simple.

I would like to use the red button as a relay trigger, is there somewhere I can easily tap the output of that button or should I just tear into the monitor (I'm probably going to do that anyways to fiberglas it into the dash.

I need to make it pretty yet, but here's a crappy picture of it in place:


and I'm putting it all in a 96 Buick Roadmaster Wagon, so i have PLENTY of room. (if this one works good, I'll install one for the back seats too, already have another.

[Pj]

The red emergency button is mapped differently. There is some informtion in the MW520 product information post.

The MW520 (and the MW800 to a point) is NOT optimized at all for video. Even with a correct driver, it really cannot playback DVD video with any real quaility. The video processor cannot work fast enought to play smooth video. I tried.

The PC Cards install "upside down". Additionally, when using XP on these machines, you lose on of the card slots. Don't know why, and haven't found a work around. Both work fine under win95/98/NT/2000. Just not XP. Have not tried with SP3, but I would expect the same result.

[CheapXJ]

yeah, the bottom slot works, I've tried two USB 2.0 cards and the casing of the cpu box gets in the way. the one that I could make go in would pop out now and then. (the big plastic end holding the plugs gets in the way of properly inserting the card.

all I saw in the "informational post" is the same thing I found, the big red button has no standard keyboard mapping. I'm running XP so the old software won't work (downloaded and tried it)

what I want more than anything is a video driver for XP.

[Pj]

The video is the "Chips and Technologies (Asiliant) 69000" standard video driver.

I was using a Verizon card, and I think I removed the door, and or drimmeled a small notch in one of them.

Other than that, your just going to need to find a card that's slimmer where the USB ports are. Never had good luck finding one, but ended up not using it anyways (ditched the VZW USB modem and went back to a PC Card).

[CheapXJ]

got the video driver in and working, the whole system just runs so much smoother now.

I'm on the lookout for a usb 2.0 card that uses a dongle instead of having plugs built in.

if that doesn't pan out I'll just chop the whole damn front off the case, bury it in the center console around the inverters and the dvd/cd drive, which, by the way, the thing plays DVDs just fine video wise, the audio hardware just can't handle it right

this is a surprisingly well running machine.

[nukedude]

I had the idea of using this for car stereo and video as well. Mine is the F5207A running Windows XP Pro SP2, and it is still a bit slow on video. Looks cool, and does work, but video is low resolution and choppy at times. Audio into the cars stereo sounds good though through and aux input.

Going to Classic view and doing the standard optimization for WinXP helped video go a little smoother though. The RAM has also been maxed out and I make sure that the car is giving this computer clean power with a second battery (yellow top Optima) running it.

[KB9LUK]

This is a question for you guy's. I am a ham radio operator and i have been running the Mw-520's for meny years for APRS in my personal car, in the simi, as a home station and also have one for emergency field work when training for said isuues (Ares/Races, Storm chasing). Anyhow to my question "right", I have just started looking into moding the dang things a little bit. Like getting the soft keys set up for my use ( How to do this and where to find the text / hex to be done?) But the biggest this i would like to get done in to remove the car's mw-520's factory monitor and use the AUX plug for a 7" monitor ( Smaller car these day's), But the issue i have ran into in get this done is that the POWER UP Key is on the factory monitor. And it needs to be plugged into the CPU to power up the system. And i can not find anything anywhere that would/could tell me how to bypass this power switch or do a mod to the plug on the back of the CPU so i can add a simple moment switch to power up. I would like to find the pin code for that plug. can any of you help? James KB9LUK (kb9luk@live.com) Thanks

[Pj]

There is an extra key app for the MW520 floating around. I'll see if I have it. There are also documented "scan codes" for the softkeys if you know how to modify software to see them. Basically they are extended F keys IIRC. See http://batboard.batlabs.com/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=76035

There is also a pin out of the AUX connector that I cannot find for the life of me on what pin does what, but one can be used as an ign switch. FDNY used this to power up the computers in the Bat Chief rides.