FM Towns Car Marty: How was it installed in a car?

Started by RobIvy64, October 16, 2020, 10:54:43 PM

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RobIvy64

I recently purchased a 1991 Toyota Crown Royal Saloon from Japan, my largest import to the USA so far. It's the type of car that would (and should) have a Car Marty installed.

I want to make this happen by sourcing and installing a complete Car Marty setup into the Crown. I have not been able to find any references as to how it is installed. Does anyone have any documentation or photos of a unit installed in a vehicle?
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kendrick

So I only know a little about this, but enough to know that this is easier than you think. The Car Marty was consolidated into a little unit that had the right dimensions for installation between the seats, and takes CDs in through the narrow side rather than the wide side for that purpose. It also ran on the standard 12 volt input you'd typically have available on any car in the 90s, so there's no need for any sort of power conversion. The only issue is that the video output is a custom connector meant for use with proprietary monitors, but you can easily tap composite and S-video off of the thing.

Our friends at Re-enthused have a pretty good write-up on the thing, and include a pinout of the video connector:

https://re-enthused.com/information/fujitsucarmarty/

Speaking as a gearhead, it looks like you might be able to get one of these running in a center console but I can't tell just from the pictures if it's a DIN-compliant size. Oh, one other thing? Apparently there's a later unit with model number MVP-10. It differs from the earlier MVP-1 in that the CD drive actually doesn't break if you tilt it or breathe on it.

mez

in the instrutions :

i can give you the complete .PDF

RobIvy64

"Console Mods" lurker