The plan: Car PC++++++ (on a budget)

[MasqUAP]

Mine is going to be a Acer Aspire One mounted in the back with a 7" in dash touchscreen and 3G wireless internet

I've got the Acer Aspire, the 3G dongle and the power transformer, now all I need is the right screen (and a Legnum to put it in of course!)

I figure that way, worse case I can just rip the Acer out if I need to use it but it still has a 160Gb HDD, bluetooth, wireless and a USB GPS

 

[Fully]

Why use a laptop?

My car pc using a mini mac with xp lite 85mb for super quick loading.
Touch screen and Im using Freeice as the software.
http://www.freedrive.co.uk/

 

[king_panther]

I don't know whether this has been posted before, but I came across this on Youtube & thought it was worth putting in this thread.

This guy (who appears to be from VR-4 Russia) has TWO screens in his car !

Unfortunately, he's running Vista ;

How do all these guys from Russia have the money & time to do these things with VR4s ????

 

[dimi_108]

Interesting videos, Brad.
I still think Hugh's one is the best. It looked very factory and streamlined.

The first video you showed is cool, but that screen poking out of the top of the dash looks retarded

 

[king_panther]

Yea nah Dimi I wasn't having a go at Hugh's Car PC at all, it's still MAD !

I just happened to come across those videos when looking up VR4s. They are from the same guy. The second video shows the PC he's running in his boot.

No way would I put Vista on a Car PC though.

 

[minik1971]

I had seen these videos as I have looked at all different you tube videos as ideas and to see what carpc front end people as using. I just need to get motivated and make a surround like hugh to mount my screen in like his.

 

[Guest]

did you end up getting the bluetooth hands free working hugh?

 

[minik1971]

I think he is at the same stage as me with that, it is a bluetooth module that is a 3rd party company to the centrafuse software. It is a known problem that most people are having troubles getting to work properly. Although I might be wrong and Hugh might have it working perfectly, in which case I want to know how!

 

[Peanut™]

This is awesome..i will attempt to fit my Dell mini9 when i get my legnum!!!

but your fitment is MINT! excellent work!!!

 

[matchtheclown]

I never got bluetooth handsfree working with it well. When I did have it working with a hacked version of the BT stack s/w it was really laggy and the sound was very average.

So in answer > problem un-resolved. I'm thinking of putting windows 7 on the car PC though. It might solve some of the issues. It's either windows 7 or trying the new version of centrafuse. It would be great if it worked :/

 

[Pants]

Any more updates? Looking through your thread has me inspired to go the 10" instead of the 7" double DIN route when teh car arrives. I also cant seem to find the thread re: getting one of the surrounds made up in poly either. might be interested in that

 

[matchtheclown]

I really didn't get enough interest in molding the center surround so I didn't follow it up.

Currently, the dodgy hdd mount I made failed and killed my hdd... so I'm rolling my ipod currently.

I would recommend a pico-itx board if you were to do this. The micro-atx is small but not really small enough!

 

[Pants]

not having the car yet i take it theres not much room to mount it? you went the glove box is there anywhere else apart from under back tray/seats that it could go? how did you find its performance? (when it was working ;p)

edit: VIA ARTiGO looks like it could be a good size.

 

[matchtheclown]

A pico-itx board woudl probably fit in behind the glove box. or even in behind the screen. There is room below the drivers and passengers seats my passenger seat has an amp... also an amp in the rear tray.

It's brilliant when working, just havn't found time to get another HDD and get it all re-installed which is lame.

But the GPS / music works a treat. Movies too!

Minik recently put the leatest version of centrafuse on his and he has proper working phone support also.


Worth doing if you are into this kind of thing imo.

 

[Pants]

Yeah thanks for the reply. Definitely encouraging. I have a pair of 120.1 radiators inside an Antec case cooling a Q6600 so this is right up my alley. Well the electronics side is. Fabricating a housing for the touch screen on the other hand...

 

[Tom]

With this system, how do the harddrives do with all the bumping and bouncing of the car? Do you need to get a solid state hard drive (they're expensive =/ )?

 

[matchtheclown]

You use a laptop hard drive 2.5", they are designed pretty robust.. laptops are portable of course.

My problem is that I had a 2.5" > 3.5" converter board on my hdd which was secured with electrical tape. There must have been movement because with time a couple of solder joints cracked and killed it. If I had put it in an enclosure and the converter had been mounted solid it would still be good now.

Solid state might be a good idea if you were running it in a rally car or fighter jet.

 

[Nitephyre]

Hey mate, do you have a template for your fascia? I'm doing pretty much the same thing now, but mine is a bit tighter as I'm using an IR touch panel which has a thicker bezel.

 

[Nitephyre]

Prod... My measuring & cutting skills are teh suck

 

[matchtheclown]

I did mail a template to Minik.. I don't have one now though...

I shaded / traced the gap through a big sheet of a3, cut it out and played with it until it was pretty close to the shape... I then did the same thing with cardboard because it was obviously stiffer and made a better template...

I then put that cardboard shape onto MDF, which I spent a fair bit of time sanding down so it fit just right. Then I cut out the hole for the screen (and routed the inner edge) after the mdf was pretty much totally shaped to what I wanted.