I just bought a z1 and don't even have it yet (bought it online) But I was wondering if anyone has any info that would help me.

I want to add a mac mini to the unit, but since I know so little about it I'm not sure it is even possible. I was hoping I could swith the Z1 to an aux setting and use the touchscreen with the Mac. It sounds a lot easier than I'm sure it is.

Can anyone help?

Thanks

I got the unit today and was looking at the cables. I see that there is an aux video and audio input cable, so it looks pretty simple to hook up a Mac, but I was hoping there was a way to get the touch screen to work with the Mini.

Any ideas anyone?

There is no way that you will be able to get the touch screen input out into the mac or any other device, witout ripping apart the unit and doing som major hacking.

I figured.

I've also recently ordered a Z1 unit, and should have mine by the end of the week.

I'm considering adding a carputer as well, but I won't attempt anything until I break the unit in for a month or two. (Just in case anything goes bad, I'd want warranty service before I void it..) In the pictures posted on this site, I didn't notice any standard connectors that would deliver the touch-screen coordinates to external devices -- unless there's some kind of bus adapter like the one used for the Mac Mini in a Toyota Prius hack.

So, I'm preparing my lab for some warranty-voiding and mad soldering -- hook the Z1 up to the bench, identify the touch-screen controller chip, and see if I can find any useful signals that could be routed out to an external circuit.

I'm also working on a few ideas to sniff the IDE bus to grab the ATA Passwords used by the Z1; or (at the worst case) build a "hot-swap" board that can be inserted into the Z1 (basically a long board or ribbon-cable with a 44-pin, 2mm connector on the end), with something to hold the notebook drive, and a standard 40-pin connector for a PC.

The worst-case design would at least allow the notebook drive to be powered (by an external power supply), temporarily connect to the Z1 for unlocking; and then move the (still powered, and now unlocked) drive to a standard PC for file manipulation.

Anyways (I'm rambling, sorry...) If you find something that exposes the touch-screen coordinates before I start on this project, though, I'd be interested in following your progress.

glad to have people like pulp and urself joining this forum...

we await your good news

I have a mac mini and a Z1 in my '02 Avalanche but I just added a xenarc TSV 7" touch screen http://www.xenarcdirect.com/product.php ... 249&page=1 to my console and audio thru the Aux in. I'm not brave enough to break out the soldering iron on my Z1...but would love to see pics from someone who is.

macalanche said:

I have a mac mini and a Z1 in my '02 Avalanche but I just added a xenarc TSV 7" touch screen to my console and audio thru the Aux in. I'm not brave enough to break out the soldering iron on my Z1...but would love to see pics from someone who is.

That is B-E-A-utiful! Pretty cool. I like the install and the name on the forum! :)

ducatiboy said:

That is B-E-A-utiful! Pretty cool. I like the install and the name on the forum! :)

Thanks. And thanks for the flasher circuit, I'm impatiently waiting on mine to arrive :shock: Hopefully today/tomorrow, I think I ordered Mon or Tues and we're on the same coast. I haven't had my dash apart in a couple weeks now...starting to stress.