In car computer

[asylum24]

hmm do they make tochsreen screens to fit in visors?..... idea brewing

[jnorion]

As far as I know nobody on clubprotege has one yet... there are quite a few spread across all the forums that do though.

I have no idea about the touchscreen for visors. Probably someone does, but it might be tough to find.

[traitorhound]

hey guys. . ive had one in my car for a while. . but i only check this forum about once a week so yea here i am. . i posted about it before a while back but im pretty sure i put some pics up and whatnot

i have a xenarc vga touchscreen molded in where the radio used to be. a mini itx nehemia 1ghz mobo with a laptop dvd drive and gps. .. .yea that's about it

rich

http://www.msprotege.com/members/traitorhound/carputer/?type=&s=&page=1

these are pics from about 8 months ago and show my old setup and eveything is now different except for the screen but you get the idea

[Lil Freek]

damn.. as if i JUST saw this thread today!

i've been looking to do this for a few months now... the only part that concerns me is the touchscreen.. everything else can be built relatively cheaply... load winXP offa RAM to increase boot speed (to just a few seconds).

i'm still debating on rackmounting a comp under the passenger seat... but now that you all mention wifi.. i didn't even think of that... maybe the trunk is suitable.. i just dunno how bass would affect it?
My friend had a comp in a tupperware in his old Colt under the driver's seat... was hooked up to his palm pilot.. very nice idea. but that car died and the comp was dismantled

as for your current HU... if you don't mind losing your cup-holders and want to play with lots of bondo, you can remove the lighter and ashtray and put your HU there... i've only seen that once in my buddy's SER SpecV.. am yet to see the finished product.. was still just a big gaping hole in the dash last i saw.. but he was workin' away on it.

[jnorion]

Personally I wanted to move the HVAC to the spot where the lighter and ashtray is, and put the HU where the HVAC is now. That way you can still use your cupholders and mess with the stereo at the same time. I'd much rather have easy clear access to the stereo than the heater.

[Lil Freek]

touche.
that would require a hefty amount of modding, though.

[jnorion]

I actually don't think it would be that bad... no worse than moving the HU down there anyway. If you just take the existing panel and cut out the spot where the HVAC controls are, you can make space for the HU. Then take the ashtray and lighter and get rid of them or move them somewhere. That part I think is the most difficult... I haven't looked closely at it yet but I know the outside trim is all one unit with the rest of the dash, and I have a feeling the frame underneath is too.

[bud_d]

where do I relocate my existing deck? I was thinking like glove compartment or the storage box on the armrest or something. I'd like to keep that deck if possible... any ideas? If not possible, what do I need to hook my computer(laptop) into my car's audio system.

[Lil Freek]

put your LCD screen in the double-din area.. put your cd deck where your HVAC is .move your HVAC to where your cig lighter is.. and move your cig lighter into the glove box.. no need for ashtray - smoking is dirty.
if you don't really care about the cd deck. then you could just move it into the glove box. but if you use it alot, then it's nice to have it out in the open

i've wanted to try my hand at fiberglassing for a while now.. i have 1 project with FG to do prior to this.. so if i don't screw up to bad on the hot tub, then i'll have the nerve to try on my car.

[bud_d]

u, but if I relocate everything doesn't that encompass a lot of custom molding?

[Lil Freek]

yeah.. all stuff you can do yourself in your spare time.
but if you want it all done fast and without any hard work.. then yeah. the glove box is the best place.

[jnorion]

u, but if I relocate everything doesn't that encompass a lot of custom molding?

Doesn't it sound fun though?

[asylum24]

very much so... unless you have long hair and it drips into the resin!!! grrrrr

that and sanding blows

[Lil Freek]

hmm. now it's a race for all of us to design this..
mini-itx seems to be getting really popular, really fast..
they have 1.8ghz celeries for CDN$600... that includes a 40gb HDD 'n all the rest is onboard.. enough to run WinXP and a few apps.

I think it'd be fun, but really tiresome to have to put on like 20 layers of FG and sand each layer... luckily it's a small project in comparison to a custom FG sub-box.

Now for my next Q... you can't install a Nav system with a carputer, but i could store a map database, right?

[jnorion]

Why can't you do a nav system? You can get GPS things that plug into a laptop, I'm sure it's not that hard to adapt them to this. I don't know about software for windows, but on the dashpc web page they have all the software for linux available for free download. It even says that if you have an internet connection in your car you can connect to a "friends" server and anyone else on that server with gps appears as a dot on your nav map.

By the way, I think I'm going to be out of the race for a while... I'm having money problems and I think I have to sell my car. So once I get a new car and take care of some other stuff I'll come back and show y'all up