My current car PC consists of a MCS Enclosure fitted with a Jetway C7 2.0 GHz Mini ITX Motherboard with 1Gb of RAM and uses a 16Gb CF Card for a main OS drive. I also use a 32Gb USB Flashdrive to store music, maps and other necessary data.

I fitted an internal USB controlled HQCT Radio Tuner that’s controlled with CPCTuner software. This gives excellent AM/FM radio reception. Sound comes through the factory Patrol Speakers via a 560watt 4 Channel Amp.

The Monitor is a Lilliput 629GL-70NP/C/T fitted to a Bybyte LCD Frame to match the Patrols Dash Facia and give it the OEM look.

It runs a USB GPS Mouse, Wireless Internet and MCS-WRC Wireless Remote Control from a 4 port hub and a USB Slot Drive DVD/CD Burner Combination.

At this stage I’m not running a front end, but may in the future. Software consists of Freedrive,  OziExplorer, GPS Gate and Visual GPSXP for Navigation. Winamp, VLC Media Player and CPCTuner for entertainment, NISTune for OBD monitoring and Freefone for Mobile Phone control.

A special thanks to Chris W. of Mobile Computing Solutions for his help and advice.

Nissan GU 3.0Di Patrol OBD Interface.

Nissans 3.0Di Patrol isn’t OBD-II compliant, so in order to set up an interface I used the older Consult interface combined with an OBD-II plug to interface a PC with the Nissan Zexel ECU. This is simple enough to do and you start out by ordering a PLMS Developments interface box and cable from Pete at PLMS Developments (http://www.plmsdevelopments.com), but you don’t need the DataScan Software. Then you’ll need to change the 14 pin Consult plug over to a 16 pin OBD-II plug that can be sourced from http://www.obd2cables.com You’ll want the plug (J1962M open plug 220501) and some pins (240401) to do the job and the pinouts are as follows;

You only need 12V ignition, Ground, TX and RX lines into the OBD-II plug because we don’t need to use the timing line, but I still fitted the Clock wire although it’s not needed.

This should get your laptop or car PC communicating with the ECU provided you have the correct software. NISTune & ECUTalk both work well on Windows PC and on a 3.0Di Patrol. No other OBD or Consult software, to my knowledge will work on the 3.0Di Patrol. NIStune is available from http://www.nistune.com/ and ECUTalk from https://www.ecutalk.com.au/

Many of the features aren’t compatible because we can’t use the Nistune boards on our vehicles, but we can read some of the vehicles sensors and log and play back events while driving.  We can monitor sensors, but can’t make any changes to settings or maps. I find this useful to keep tabs on MAF voltages and Coolant Temperature. There's also a gauge view screen that gives us MAF, MAP, Coolant Temp, Fuel Temp, Charge Voltage, TPS, Speed, RPM and Injection Timing. Also Boost is available on later models with Bosch Injection Pumps and ECU's.