Anyone ever put a PC in their Nova?

[ade]

Just bought a 7" TFT/LCD flat screen monitor and mini small form factor (hp e vectra PC with keyboard and mouse) on ebay for ?80 - with the intention of wiring up some form of in car PC.

idea is to build the lcd into my custom dash (when I get round to doing it) and then rig the pc to the lcd and incorperate the cars sound system (speakers, sub, amp and head unit).

PC will run mp3,s games, download images from shows and possibly a few other bits but I just like the idea of being able to have a pc in the car with thousands of tunes (and yes i know an i pod can do this but whats the point!).

Anyway - just wondering if anyones ever stuck a pc in their nova and if so how easy/hard was it, what other components did you use (eg inverters, power surge dampners or what ever) and got a wiring diagram?

I've scanned the interweb and found some good sites - the best being -

www.mp3car.com

seems pretty comprehensive even if it is 90% all american!

Ade

[General Baxter]

lol

you should know most people on this site think a 4" speaker is to heavy let alone an entire PC system, altho you might be Lucky and some people might have done it, iirc there that fibreglass thread in styling where he mounts a pc in the boot ect!

[Ash]

i was thinking of fitting an apple mini mac into a car one day, and then i could wire in my phoenix gold digital eq, whilst playing mp3's and being able to do cool computer things at the same time, as for doing it, i was going to figure that out as i did it. so no help at all - sorry

Ash

[draper]

i put 1 in once, but i was taking it home from pc world, was a tight fit to get it all in but i managed it, hope this helps ??

[Matt2107]

Good deal on the 7" ade any more going?

[db_1.2]

just use one of those dc to ac converters or whatever way round it is! (not good with electronics) if your only running the moniter and tower or w/e then all you would need is 2 plus, wire the converter to the batery, or if you wanna be a bodge just put it in the cigerette lighter, hey presto youve got a pc in your car? as for the sounds all you need is phono to headphone jack lead you can get from any electronic store running from your sound card to the phono input in the back of your headunit ( presuiming you have one as some cheapy stereos dont!) hope this helps:thumb:

[draper]

id of thought the hardest part is hiding the tower, you could always get a bluetooth/infared keyboard that could be hidden away when not used ??

[Jack]

Has the screen got touchscreen capability?

A guy on CCUK did this to his Celica, I'll see if I can find out all the gen when I get a spare mo this weekend.

[General Baxter]

im sure this one done in quad conversions calibra?

[mikey14sr]

digital-car.co.uk (http://www.digital-car.co.uk/forum/) is the best uk site for stuff like this.

[Lee]

This months TV has a feature of a corsa with a pc built into it. Pretty trick, but way ott for my liking. He even fitted the clocks in the back with a camera so his dials are on display on the TFT in the front!

[ade]

yeah I saw that - cant really see the point of having all the funky electronics only viewing an analogue dash???

The 7" screen isnt a touch one however I'm looking at either getting a touch pad or building a track ball into a centre console (or on the drivers door card arm rest).

ade

[draper]

yeah I saw that - cant really see the point of having all the funky electronics only viewing an analogue dash???

The 7" screen isnt a touch one however I'm looking at either getting a touch pad or building a track ball into a centre console (or on the drivers door card arm rest).

ade

on the arm rest would look good ! have you started making model novas again yet ade ??

[Welsh Dan]

Consider a griffin powermate over a trackball.

[starkmotorsport]

Marv from CorsaSport fitted a PC into his green Corsa van a few years ago, I think he was one of the first to do it. He did all the work himself, so would be the guy to ask about how to do it.

[ade]

cool.

Models - I'm actually remaking the master again - the mould for the shell died so I took a final cast and I'm reqorking it again just to make it as slick as I can (part of the problem is the refinishing work once its cast - I need to reduce the faffing about time!).

Hoping to start making them at the end of the month again - and this time I should be able to rattle them out pretty quick - if all goes to plan...

griffing powermate (wasnt sure what this was until search on ebay) - looks cool! like one of them controller knobs you get inn bmw's