calling all PC Bufties

[ade]

This is a bit of styling/ice and general chat all in one.

I'm interested in setting up a pc in my car - nothing fancy just summut small enough to allow me to plug a USB memory stick in it so I can transfer music to the hard drive. Then using a 7" lcd/monitor etc have summut like winamp or similar (dont need the pros and cons of the software) to play in car tunes. Will need hooking up to car power supply and speakers obviously.

So - I'm a techno muppet - how do i go about it - anyone supply a wiring diagram and the best option for parts, power supplies etc and how do you connect an ocd to it?

JUST NEED A SIMPLE SYSTEM - NOWT FANCY

Anyone help with SENSIBLE advice? Pics would be great!

Ade

[krobinson]

Buy a small laptop and docking station. Dell do the docking stations. Then you can put this somewhere in the dash, and dock the laptop (when closed) into it. Link a small in car TV to the station, you can have this moulded into the dash. and you can use a small wireless keyboard.

This means you can take the laptop out and use it at home, but just click it into the car when your in that.

Wireing is easy, just use a normal power inverter for the supply of the docking station, plus the laptop will have good battery life and will only be charged by the car.

Keith

[bump]

i wouldn't bother with the laptop,

i have machines all round my place that are p2 233 machines with 128Mb ram and 80Gb disks in them all runing win 98 and playing mp3's through Musicmatch Jukebox.

get an old machine off ebay, or phone your council and ask about their PC recycling scheme (they get shot of old machines for about a tenner). strip out the board hard disk etc. bolt to a piece of mdf and bolt under seat or on passenger side parcel shelf.

hack the loom off the PSS and run it to a 12V switched live.

nice and easy and cheap too.

[ESXrugbyplaya17]

two ideas u can custom build the components into ur dash which not too sure how tricky it would be but its a idea none the less, another more simple solution would be to buy somehitng called a shuttle now this would probably be the best solution they are small but unfortunatley not as cheap as normal computers they come ina variety of different designs as well so do sum research into them.

[jkhilton]

just from a quick search on google, I found this...

http://www.customcarcomputers.co.uk/index.php?main_page=

it's based in scotland aswell, may be worth having a chat to them.

I thought about fitting a pc into my evo, but in the end didn't bother. More to do with not having time to fit it than anything else though really.

I have a mate with one in his car, it does all the usual MP3,DVD etc, but also he can use the wireless network card to get access to his email etc when in wireless hotspots and to copy movies from his home pc to the laptop when his car is parked outside his house!! :)

[bump]

the shuttles are relativly high powered machines, for playing music through you can use much older hardware that is less forgiving of being bounced around.
the dash idea is possible. the only issue i can see could be the overheating of the components.

i used to have a stripped board mounted in my boot under a false floor and an external hard disk caddy bay up front with the 7" screen.
worked a treat

[boredbloke]

ade why not just get yourself a wifi car stereo and you can transfer the music straight from inside your house to your car,

u can constantly change your playlist etc,

will cost ya a little more but it'd save alot of work ...and weight!!

[Jack]

ade why not just get yourself a wifi car stereo and you can transfer the music straight from inside your house to your car
I loooooooooooooooooooooooooooove the wireless


:roll:

[novaco]

If you get a docking system like keith said instead of running it with a lap top why not use a pocket PC??

You can store songs on it and even use it as a SAT NAV system if you wanted?

[ade]

mmm

This all came about after seeing fifth gear the other day when they inserted a usb key into the dash of a new car (forget what it was now)

just thought it'd be funky - have summut like win amp up on a touch screen monitor with all the swirly patterns on it...

I mean - surely its just a case of having a skinned down mini tower system (doesnt need to be state of the art - its probably gonna live in the boot anyway) - so when you turn car on it comes on automatically (could it be wired up through ISO stereo socket - 12v?) and then have the monitor mounted on dash somewhere...

[bump]

you could use the iso easy enough as most are only about 5 amps on the board. any old skinned down tower will do. if you can get a board with intergrated graphics and sound will make the job easier as it makes it a smaller form factor to put in.

i used my amp power wiring feed and had the hu remote complete the turn on for the board. monitor run up the signal cable side to a 72 screen and wireless trackball and micro keyboard.

[ade]

cool!

got an pics - wiring diagrams etc...

[bump]

i'll have a nosey to see if i've got any pics left on the server.

i can certanily sort out the wiring diagrams for you. shame i dont have the setup anymore, it was greatly distorted by a transit van violating my boot.

[bump]

right, have you got any ideas as to which board your likely to be using? if not then go for an inverter in the boot wired to the psu from the tower.
you need a board with the auto turn off feature when you shut down windows. chop the wire from the power switch and connect to hu remote then take remote to the inverter.
run your monitor feed down the signal cable side and connect to screen.at same time run the signal out leads from the soundcard.

bolt down the motherboard, hard disk and psu and your pretty much redy to run from that side. just got to put the audio feed into the head unit and plug in the keyboard and mouse.

p.s. if you put a wifi card in then you can use other idiots broadband for free.

[bump]

scrub the inverter bit

http://www.watt-power.co.uk/page7.html

this is basically what i made for my setup. it'll easily do what you want and will be much more power efficent