Many more hours on google I think I have a plan.
Some interesting things I've found include this blog post from someone putting a raspberry pi in a 370GT. Looks like hes gone on a similar journey of discovery as I have. He is actually switching between his pi and current system, that won't be needed in my case. The jap satnav is basically useless.
https://colebrinsfield.com/car/
The aforementioned RGBs video signal seems like its really much harder than I'd anticipated, I can't see to find anything commercially available that does the conversion I need.
The pi has a composite and HDMI port, seems like the path of least resistance is converting HDMI to VGA. This gets half of the way, but VGA still has an HSync and VSync wire. The factory screen uses a combined sync wire, this really gets me as this standard for video hasn't been used in so many years. When you search for information the results are all around old video arcade cabinets which used it. I know these cars are old, but they aren't from the 80's and 90's, what the heck Nissan.
I'm going to order parts and build my own converter for the sync signal, same as the other fellow did in his 370GT.
http://www.epanorama.net/circuits/vga2rgbs.html
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What has become clear is that I will also need to build a little development/break out board for the plugs so I can work with them. I really really don't wanna cut the factory ones, it'll be super nice if I can build everything as a plug-in replacement.
I've spent far too long on google looking for the same plugs that Nissan has used in the back of the nav unit. For the life of me I've yet to find them, there are plenty of results for the later model cars. But what I want are connectors to match the back of the stock nav unit, as seen in my photos from my posts above. If anyone knows of a way to find part numbers or anything I would greatly appreciate it.
I have a backup plan for that on the way if all else fails.
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In the meantime. What I'll need is something to mount my gear in where the old unit was, I've started with designing a simple 3d printed bracket to match the factory mounting holes. I'll take any excuse to break out my vernier calipers.
The first layers still going down, so not a very impressive photo.
This is just my starting point, once the project is further down the road I'll revise the design with a faceplate etc. Its about a 9hr print atm, if you are interested my shoddy designs are all publicly available. (Happy to provide files if anyone is interested)
https://cad.onshape.com/documents/7a5b8 ... 4f9033e3dc