Equipment: The Goods and The Bads

Today proved challenging for me.  I decided to take motocompy out for a spin to make sure everything was working well before the long trip tomorrow.  I’ve done a lot of work on the system in the last few days, with the help of my brother, Jon, and I wanted to make sure it was ready to go and there were no nasty surprises as I was leaving.  I took motocompy out to the bike, set him down, turned him on, started using things…started trying to use things…and found that things weren’t usable.  My touchscreen, which had worked so well since I had purchased it in November, had chosen the afternoon before my departure to go cold to my touch.  Long story and I’m not really even sure what all happened…it was a flurry of driver installs, driver uninstalls, driver reinstalls, system reboots, etc.  Somewhere along the line it decided to work again and as of now I have a working computer with a working touchscreen.  We’ll see how long that lasts.  So, while on the subject of system components (both working and non-working), I might as well list out some info about the bike, the computer, and what kind of programs I’m running.  If you’re not into the technical stuff then you can just skip to the video at the bottom.  I filmed it tonight on a quick trip to ensure the computer was working properly.  Here goes…

Bike:

• 2003 Yamaha FJR-1300  (Yamaha calls it a “Super-Sport Touring” bike)
• 1300cc, 145hp
• Mileage at trip start: 7230
• Approximate mileage at trip end: 17700

Motocompy:

• Motherboard: Via MII (Mini-ITX form factor)
• CPU: embedded 1Ghz
• Memory: 1GB RAM
• Hard Drive: 80GB 2.5”
• GPS: Holux Slim 236
• Webcam: Logitech Fusion
• External Audio: Creative USB
• Headphones: Shure E2C
• Optical Drive: DVD/CD-ROM
• Touch Screen: 7” Newision (formerly Lilliput)
• Inverter: 200Watt cheapo from Target
• Case: from Solar PC
• Miscellaneous: Case fan mounted on top, 4-port USB hub, PCMCIA wifi
• Mobile Connection: Cingular 8125 (aka HTC wizard) 

Software:

• Primary Navigation: iGuidance (modified for easier use with iGmod)
• Trip Planning: Microsoft Streets & Trips 2006
• Frontend: Centrafuse
• Video Capture: Capture! (look on mp3car.com for more info)
• GPS signal splitter: xport (also talked about on mp3car.com)
• Online Services: www.GPSvisualizer.com, www.youtube.com, www.flickr.com 
• Miscellaneous: GPSBabel (used to thin out the gps files to make them smaller for upload)
• Video Editing: Windows Movie Maker
• Blogging: Subtext (online), PostXING (offline client)

Finally, I should mention some folks who have helped me out with this project, whether directly or indirectly.  So, in semi-particular order: brother Jon, Phil Haack, Robert Lipe, everyone at www.mp3car.com.  I’m sure there’s others but those are the standouts.  If you’ve read this far, good on ya…and now for the video.</p>