In-Car-Compuer(Complete)-

joejs90 · Post by **joejs90** » Fri Sep 21, 2007 2:27 pm

TBH im not sure about the indash monitors but from the pictures it looks like it should fit. even if it requires a few cables. the email service at LINITX is quite good so if you tell them your status on motherboard or graphics card they will give you the right answer!! good luck!!!

nickm · Post by **nickm** » Sat Sep 22, 2007 7:37 pm

Hi,

Ive been thinking of doing this for a while now, and you have inspired me to start!!!

Unfortunatley when I get an idea into my head I tend to go at it a bit like a bull at the gate

so it looks like ill be makeing a start in the next week or so rather than waiting till christmas as i intended

My current plans (sorry I havent thought through all the details yet) are to purchase a touch screen which fits inplace of the headunit. im thinking of the one which is mentioned previousley in this post. ill then find a laptop which has a damaged screen and use the innards as a basis of the carputer. ill then mount these into the glovebox which ill modify to have fans in t6o keep teh whole thing cool. in the indentation below the golvebox im going to mount two DVD drives for easy accesability.

As im going to want to use it when the engine isnt running, to watch TV DVDs ect, im going to need a seperate power source so as to not drain teh battery. For this im going to mount a spare car battery in the boot and run the carputer off this when the engine isnt running. when its running itll run from the car battery and the engine will charge the spare battery.

Well - I think thats just about a rough overview

but im off to start uni tommorow so time might be a bit short

. will keep you posted as the project progresses,
Nick

polo_dude · Post by **polo_dude** » Sat Sep 22, 2007 9:52 pm

Thats great mate, join the wagon for poenital in-car-comps being built. Just a little info about the glove box idea. I was going to do the same, however Alex on here kindly told me keeping the comp in ur case laptop cool will be a hec of a job. If you installed the laptop at the back with the battery, you wouldnt really have a problem as the boot is incrediable ventillated and all you need would be an usb extention cable
http://linitx.com/viewproduct.php?prodid=11037
to connect the laptop to the touch screen
you would also need a dc-dc invertor and thats about it.

Good luck mate

joejs90 · Post by **joejs90** » Sat Sep 22, 2007 11:12 pm

good idea about the laptop... keeping the inards is a good idea... you could maybe wire one of those incar laptop chargers into your cig lighter and run it off battery when engine is running and battery from the laptop when engine is not running... one of the pain in the dairyaire about carputer is that is takes time to boot up... my fave idea is to fibreglass a 6" monitor into where the CD/CD changer goes (this may only apply to mk5 upwards) and go for a carputer.. my only problem is where to put the casing.... anyway good luck guys and you have me onto something now as my brother has one for sale... fully built and optimized might give it a try in a couple of months unless anyone puts offers on it...

nickm · Post by **nickm** » Sat Sep 22, 2007 11:14 pm

Thanks for the tips. I did think about installing it in the boot but i believe that there is a inherrent problem with this

;

The cables will need to be run from the boot. For the USB this wont be a problem as (this is all from memory so may not be entirely correct) it can be extended to over 12m in length. Unfortunatley I believe that the maximum length for the display cable is about 2.2m, which is obviousley going to be too short to reach into the boot. the reason for this is the way in which the signal is transmitted, and any longer than this will distort the signal too much. Also I would like to have a DVD drive in the front and the IDE cables will not reach into the back (for the same reason as above, except more extreem) unless I use a USB drive which is more expensive and im trying to keep the project as low cost as piossible (hence the use of an old laptop rather than buying one from new).

With regard to the heat dissipation in the glove box, I recon that a fan in the back will move more than enough heat away to keep the components at opperating temperature. If you think of how crampt they all are in a laptop, and then only the CPU gets cooled by a fan, the rest is just done passivley.

Still, ill think a bit more about it first and do some more reaserch.

Good luck with your project, when are you thinking of starting?

joejs90 · Post by **joejs90** » Sat Sep 22, 2007 11:23 pm

its a shame its a bit tight for room under the seats... there must be somewhere apart from the boot.. my brother originally had one in the boot and it looked crap... with a bit of work and plenty of imagination it could go some where awesome... it also needs to be out the way of the dreaded TWOCERS!!! happy thinkings!!!

polo_dude · Post by **polo_dude** » Sun Sep 23, 2007 9:19 am

ahh i see didnt think about the distortion bit and for the IDE cables i see where your coming from now , i've already started up my progect just getting bits and peices together now.

joejs90 · Post by **joejs90** » Sun Sep 23, 2007 9:37 am

using some shielded cable to stop interference will be fine for most of the wires... there must be somewhere that sells the extended IDE cables try maplin.com/ dabs.co.uk or anyother networking shops online...

as for distortion it wont really be enough to notice.. the cable of computer screens is around a meter... when i get home from work il connect the 7" touch screen up and see how that is on some long cable if i can find it....

Post by **alexperkins** » Sun Sep 23, 2007 10:36 am

IDE cables cant go that long as the speed will just drop - remember they transfer data at 3GBp/s over a longer distance, that will greatly decrease

nickm · Post by **nickm** » Sun Sep 23, 2007 10:59 am

Just had annother look in the glove box, and it looks a lot smaller than I remember! I recon I could fit in the motherboard and HD but the PSU might be a bit big. Its a shame that its not a bit bigger as I have lots of old PCs arround which I could just nab the bits out off (and I know more about the innards of PCs than laptops) which would save a lot of Â£Â£Â£

.

Might have a look later on...

joejs90 · Post by **joejs90** » Mon Sep 24, 2007 11:34 am

suppose it will slow it down but it shouldnt distort it... i think its better to have everything upfront makes it easier to install/takeout + fix when it breaks its just making the room for it...

polo_dude · Post by **polo_dude** » Thu Sep 27, 2007 6:33 pm

Just a little update Will be getting my screen Tomorow, from LinITX will put the good and bad points tomorrow for you and a few pics

BTW thanks joejs90 your defo correct on LinITX store excelent serivce and a Top place

joejs90 · Post by **joejs90** » Thu Sep 27, 2007 11:43 pm

no worries bud... hope your screen is good.. do you know where your main computer case is going yet???

Post by **alexperkins** » Fri Sep 28, 2007 10:44 am

lol Im doing this project too, but instead im using a Mac Mini - so all the hard work is already done

polo_dude · Post by **polo_dude** » Fri Sep 28, 2007 10:03 pm

Hi, guys got my screen!!

but i havent connected it yet

i'm just a bit baffled with the wiring, this is what i've done so far i've taken an block conector that i've had spare and cut it in half and used the input bit to connect to the car. So far i've done the following:

Headunit...........................-.....................Block connector
Front Right Postive ..................................Front Right Postive
Front Right Negitive..................................Front Right Negitive
Front Left Postive ....................................Front Left Postive
Front Left Negitive ...................................Front Left Negitive
Back Right Postive...................................Back Right Postive
Back Right Negitive .................................Back Right Negitive
Back Left Postive .....................................Back Left Postive
Back Left Negitive.....................................Back Left Negitive
Battery +.................................................Battery +
Ground....................................................Ground

Now the problem that i've reached is that on the orignal block connector there are three wires left and i dont know if i can leave these alone and not connect it to something or to connect it.
The 3 colours left are:

Red wire- Ignition/ Switched
Orange wire- Dash Light (illumination)
Blue wire - Power Antenna

The wires left on the headuint are:
Phone in control cable
Reversing light
Light switch cable
Pc power control cable
Pc reset control cable

Would i need to connect these wries to something on the headunit/ screen or would i be able to gt away with it, left alone??

Thanks guys, Will put up a few pics on once it's up and running there istnt actually anything to take a picture of at the moment