In Car-Computer

ollie240585

ollie240585

Ex. Club Member
Well kind of got bored and am in the process of building an in car-computer into my car.
I am using the M1-ATX PSU to power the beast, Excellent PSU designed for car use (boots on Ignition - Shutdown when ignition off or when battery falls below 11V - the choice is yours) It also has an attachment to power the remote for amplifiers, although to stop the "pop" you hear through a computers speakers when you first turn it on - the remote is on a delayed timer - clever!!!!
Using some random small motherboard 17cm x 17cm with an inbuilt 1.5GHZ processor with 512MB of DDR2 ram
Using a 60GB laptop HDD running windows 2K.

I'm actually using the set up at the momeent to write this, although running off a standard PSU. I've purchased an 8" Touch Panel TFT monitor (which runs off 12Volts) which i'm going to build and fiberglass a holder on to my dash. with also the monitor being removeable. The system is very quiet which is nice.

Does anyone know if a Standard sized DVD rom will fit into the place of the Head Unit? Would go check but not got my car at the moment.
If not then it's going to be a laptop DVD-ROM which is going to fit below the TFT. I hope to have this unit installed within the next few weeks. Would have done more but been working in Switzerland and it's killed me!!!

Anyone you thinking why build a computer into a car?
In Car media (no CDs laying around)
Can use it to store videos, films and the DVD-ROM as a standard DVD player.
And just why not, lol.

I know this thread is useless without pictures but i'll update it soon.

EDIT: Maybe I should have put this in ICE??
 
Sounding good mate. Another benefit is you can put a USB GPS receiver in there and you've got a built in sat nav! Keep us updated with progress
 
If your going to do it i would highley recommend mediacar software, its free and has a very friendly GUI.

ive drawn up my plans for my incar pc and i cant wait to do it ! Nex has done a car pc on here i think there are pics somwhere.

cant wait to see the pics


also with regards to GPS, autoroute and destinator 3 both have support for lots of usb gps units
 
Paddy,
Do you have links to this media car software??
Cheers for the info though Paddy, think the hardest bit is getting everything to fit and run together properly. I know I'm going to end up with some long wires somewhere.....just not too sure where everything is going to fit

I've seen NeXs PC and i love the way it's just been thrown in his boot in-between some rags. lol
 
Well once Windows 2k has updated itself (57 of 62) then about another 4-billion-trillion-gazillion updates after that, i'll re-build my main PC and post some pictures of my current set up.

P1_5W4D said:
standard din size is 50mm x 180 mm
standard desktop dvd drive is 43mm x 148mm
so should fit will need a custom cage to sit into though
Click to expand...

Cheers buddy.
 
good stuff man, how much did u get your touch screen for ? i take it its 7"

also i would advise you to try and get a Pioneer DVD 106 (like gold dust) its the best slot loading DVD IDE drive you can get. i found mine on ebay for £16 but will look alot better than a tray dvd drive
 
paddymarsden said:
good stuff man, how much did u get your touch screen for ? i take it its 7"

also i would advise you to try and get a Pioneer DVD 106 (like gold dust) its the best slot loading DVD IDE drive you can get. i found mine on ebay for £16 but will look alot better than a tray dvd drive
Click to expand...

Well at the moment just as this is my trial, i'm just using a standard CD-RW just to get everything work, software installed ETC.

I was planning on trying to get a slot load DVD drive, but not really fussed what one, coz I'll probably spray the front fascia anyways, lol.

I have purchased an 8" off of e-bay, but the muppets claiming i've not paid for it, so got a minor dispute going on at the moment. But the screens going to be the last thing to actually go in the car.
 
ever considered a palm top instead.

its all in one then and you can put a sim in it and its your phone as well as a media centre. Can get GPS and speed camera software for it too. all you got to do is just design a way to hold the palm top in the dash.
 
I have one....they're the biggest pile of steamy doo doo ever!!!!

There is another reason i'm going for the PC, but it's very secrative at the moment, only a select few know.
 
OK, just quickly threw some photos up.
They're rubbish but you get the idea.
I've put in the CD case to give a representation of size.

Thats the PSU, Mother Board and HDD

What ya think?
 

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excellent

that looks like a ECS mini ITX board (good choice)

loooks good to me, if you need ideas on case mounting then look on the mini itx site.
 
God dayamn thats some next level Do not evade the swear filters... v.v.cool!!!! *bookmarks thread*

You know what though? How many GB is that HDD?? and Id go for more RAM... as much as you can get away with...
 
HDD is 60 GB.

I don't need a high level of RAM, I have 512mb DDR2 which is more than enough.
It's running windows 2000 and mainly for music. I could have used a windows 95 Machine with 16mb ram to do this. 512mb is more than enough!

There is also only one RAM port which supports DDR2 up to 1GB so this is my limitation. But i honestly don't need that amount, I imagie i could have probably got away with 256.

Also anyone where to go with this??? The guy I purchased the TFT monitor off is claiming he never got payment, paid by paypal. What can I do chaps and chappettes??
 
You paid by paypal and he's still disputing it? Surely if your end says payment sent, his end will say payment received! Double check the transaction your end just to confirm it hasn't failed, or been declined for any reason.

512MB ram will be fine on Windows 2000, especially for in car use.
 
Arnold said:
512MB ram will be fine on Windows 2000, especially for in car use.
Click to expand...

Exactly!!! I'm doing updates, running Internet Explorer, and playing music and everything is fine. And processor/memory wise I can't imagine i'll be running much more than that.

Just downloading Direct-X 9 so I can test full screen visualizations which will be a good test - but AOL keeps flaking out - bet thats a shock to you all!!!!
 
cool hope it all goes alright slight problem that you`ve got me wanting to make one now but i have to finish rebulding my desktop first then rebuild my spare
 
Nice :)

I was going to do this, but realised that a) I now dont have the time and b) the money could go towards something more useful!

I still do however have the 7" touchscreen :)
 
James said:
You thinking of selling it at any time Pete? ;)
Click to expand...

I am actually....I've never actually used it (only to plug it in to see if it works).

What type of £££ would you be looking at spending?

It comes with S-Video input, VGA input, USB (touchscreen), Composite input, Audio Input, plus stand, 12V power adapter, 240V power adapter, remote control, etc.

Boxed, etc.

Let me know if interested.
 
fair play... im just someone who likes to max out the FSB though.. and get the best performance.. Win2k went up to Service Pack 4 didnt it? Thats a lot of updating to do... still soundin cool though
 
It's fully updated now - even down to the other updates I really didn't need to do, lol.

But look what turned up today :)

8" Touchscreen
 

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ohhh ive seen that screen before, looks like its going to be difficult to mount but im sure it will work out. you going with mediacar ?
 
I was thinking of trying to do a cheap car pc install
Where can you mount the screen on a K11? I thought of putting a motorized one but the overhanging bit just above the cage would stop it opening
If i put a standard 7" screen it's going to cover the dials which control the blower/heater
any ideas?
 
Mines going to be installed onto the dash, I was contemplating a motorise one, but thought this would be easier and less agro to install.
 
Pete, I may be interested in the screen what are you looking for it?
 
What a muppet. If u were old and wrinkley u might have paid twice! Not good!

And why is everyone so interested in a 7" screen? Are they rare or something!!
 
OK, this is very much a bodge at the moment, but you get the idea.

I have the whole computer running off of a car jumping pack 12 Volts. PSU soldered and wired up, got the remote and live linked together at the moment but this is fine for test purposes.

As you can see it all works fine :)

yay.
 

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Have I become the official photographer for Ollies modifications now? lolol

Anyway, here's the pics! (The last one is my favourite! ;))
 

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That is indeed the secret plan from the beginning!!!!

We now have drunken entertainment for JAE!!!!!

Please note the total build time was about 3 hours, the wiring will be tidied up, but just running it around at the moment, make sure everythings works properly before hiding wires n "all that Jazz"

Vengaboys RULE!!!!!
 

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