wah fantastic thread! I always wanted an in car PC, but never thought of DIY.

You guys can do part time and make some money with this.

How about if i chuck in my own hardware and pay you guys extra for wiring and stuffs?

but how do you integrate that into your car pc?

I'm thinking of joining the club to integrate pc into my car which is a honda city.

Some questions here...

If i put the pc into my trunk, would it risk being hot? I mean, yes when started of course the fan will goes into action, but will there be airflow inside the trunk?

I am thinking of water cooling - but it might be expensive. Think of it again, i'm not going to use a power hungry beast cpu for my car. I am thinking of buying a mobo which have integrated cpu so it will produce less heat.

Power inverter is one of the easiest choice, but how do i plug this straight to my battery? Any links or guide how to do this? Or is it cheaper and easier just to go to any assessories shop and let them do it for me.

If i put the pc inside my trunk.. how the hell i'm going to do the wiring to the front head unit? Do you guys actually took out some of the car body or whatever to do this?

If i use a normal desktop HDD, will i risk breaking it if i were to accidentaly drive into a big hole or whatever that cause impact?

I did thought of placing it under 4 springs, so it will absorb any impact.

future80, have a look at page 2 of this thread for pics

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Added on April 9, 2008, 8:03 pmwah this thread dead already?

I'm still hot in doin a car pc here..

You guys know where to find DC-DC power supply?

Or use power inverter more cheaper? Will it risk draining down battery?

This post has been edited by neato4u: Apr 9 2008, 08:03 PM

Seaedge : what's an UMPC?

RX-78-2 : I heard someone mentioned that LCD monitors (VGA type) are sold @ jalan pasar around rm700 bucks. I wanted to do a Car PC as well, but right now short of cash. If you can survey for me, that would be great!

Actually (for the moment) i'm planning to buy a normal LCD Rca monitor and use this for the Car PC display. If i'm not mistaken, a cheap one costs around 200 - 300 bucks (whoever can survey where to find these cheap please inform me - i think it's at jalan pasar oso) but i don't know whether it's the dashboard type or the double din or the single din type monitor.

For the Car PC, i plan to use a notebook with faulty monitor. As long as the cpu is still functioning, i can output the display to the LCD monitor using tv out cable. However, text display will be blurry because of this - but i've got my gears ready - a magnifier software to zoom in and enlarge that text big enough to read.

Do need a power inverter though. Laptop would be great as it's designed to go mobile. Less heat as well.

If everything goes according to plan, these are estimated at around rm 800 - 900 including labour cost at accessory shop to get the monitor installed and power inverter plugged in directly to battery.

Too bad i don't know how to disassemble my car parts, else this would be 100% DIY.

coldfusion - as i'm planning to use a laptop for car pc, do i still need to look for dc-dc psu?

I'm thinking of buying a power inverter and hide it somewhere in front, together with the laptop hiding under the driver seat.

Seaedge, thats cool man.
But still i think it's just a bit too expensive. In fact, you don't really need that much computing power on the go. However, it would be really nice to own one

And yeah, coldfusionpower, i'm planning to get a normal RCA LCD first, then a VGA LCD monitor and make dual screen on my car pc. I've been doing this with my home pc which sits right in front of my livingroom, beside my 21 inch tv (lucky as my pc monitor is 21 inch as well - so it looks great side by side).

Just think of this, one screen to watch movie / mtv, while the other one displays your GPS. Cool huh.




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runemastertan - this issue was discussed way back in 2006 @ a car pc forum (mp3car if i'm not mistaken). CCTV to look out your car? There is some factors which you need to think about such as :

Battery - as engine is off, your car pc now solely runs on battery and might draw more power - thus, can the battery withstand the operation? Plus - will you be able to start your car when you need to?

Webcam factor - Capturing the right thing at the right angle. Most webcam does not have a wide angle view, thus, you may not able to capture what you need to. Resolution and quality is of concern at that particular time (2006), but nowdays webcams have higher reso. Webcam placement is a factor too, considering where you want it to record. Furthermore, if a thief saw your webcam and manage to break in, it would be just a matter of seconds before they can destroy and find your car pc, which then cost you a bomb to replace the entire thing.

If you're thinking of recording when driving, and to capture that moment of accident - let me throw you something - will your car pc survive the crash? Ther'es a possibility that the hard disk might fail due to shock, etc etc.

And getting back to the eepc, what can you do with 4gb these days??? Maybe back in the old 1990 4gb is huge, but it's nothing now.

now that is a different story

Hey Seaedge, are you planning to built a car pc or do you already have one?

cool if you can afford it.

As for me, i'm planning to built the cheapest car pc ever yet

Because i'm broke for the time being.. heheh..

coldfusion, yeah i know RCA sucks. My TV shows really blur text and hardly readable. But hey, i think of it as a test to see if the car pc worked first. Better to start with low budget first so if anything happens you still have some money to spend with.

why like expensive one... gps for car supposed to be cheap? around rm 200?

is BT gps good enough? I mean for normal city and kampung area in Malaysia. I don't want to go into forest though..

Also i'm searching for those usb cable types GPS. Is there any? I don't want to use bluetooth if possible (battery hastle)

after a year, i still am dreaming about the car pc.. and unfortunately until now i have no budget for it yet

Anyway, let's bump this ol thread back alive! Hahahaha