Ok... some ppl might buy the ready made car pc like Voom and some other brands in the market that uses Mini ITX mobo.... but no many people can buy those after market car pc with liliput touch screens which is expensive and not available here ... so here i post my D.I.Y car pc which have serve me for 1 year plus already...and have not given any problem so far. here are some pix of my car pc. Might not be much..but it works ..



Here's the CPU unit that i have D.I.Y with acrylic and laminated with checked plate stickers



The internal desktop and laptop part that i have installed... the PSU enclosure have been removed so taht i can fit it in the case...some of the cables have been removed oso... the rig consist of a P4 2.6ghz, 512 mb Apacer DDR ram, 40gb WD Scorpio lap top hdd, Geforce 440mx GC, and a MSI mobo.



I use 12cm and 8cm vizo uv led fan for cooling , 12cm blowing and 8 cm exhausting all the heat from inside of the case


The power switch, reset switch, power LED and HDD LED



My USB ports which i have integrated on my center console.



I use wireless Logitech mouse to navigate.



I bought this LCD TFT indash monitor from Brother, using the svideo output from my GC, running Windows Media Player at that time.



This how the temp like when it is idling, picture was taken around 10am in the morning.



Temp after 45 minutes of drive, I'm running media player in the background at that time.



This the night shot of my TFT screen cool huh?




Some of you might wonder how i power the pc...I use DC to AC (12v-240V) inverters which i wired directly to my battery, i have made some test by not switching of my inverter for 3 day....the inverter that i bought seems to be on standby if the pc is not switched on. After 3 days of not using the car....the battery does not die...which means the inverter doesn't consume power even though it is not switched on... I also made a switch for the inverter which i integrated it on my center console. Well that's all I think.... so far no problem... no bad sectors on my hdd... battery did not die... and NO SHORTCIRCUIT oso, I am happy with it


p/s Sniper dude...as requested by you

Where you get the DC to AC converter and how much?


edit by mod: pls dont quote pictures.

This post has been edited by ianho: Mar 8 2007, 11:59 AM

You can get it from Brothers and E-Life... my advice to you, get a greater watts Inverter...300watts and above is sufficient..last time i use 150 watts on a 350 watts rated PSU...after a month the inverter overloaded...

great diy

*tumbs*

Thanks dude..

just wondering, wat benefits u get by having a com in the car? watch movies? and u use mouse only ar? keyboard?

no offence. i'm seriously turned on by ur DIY and wan to know more

OMG this is insanity, i thought most people only mod a hifi system into a car...

never thought of such mod...

brilliant ...

fuiyooooooooooo extreme.. PIMP MY RIDE.. MALAYSIAN VERSION.. now you only have to fit in some nice speakers and an amp....btw.. what car are you driving??

judging by the pics, i'll say it's a proton for sure

gen2 is my guess

i think is either wira or satria old model

nicely done.. the usb port at the console looks oem.. *thumbs*

or is it a wira? hmmm...

Basicaly...it is tedious having loads of CDs in your car than having a loads off MP3s in your hdd...same goes for movies also... yet you can play games in your car rather then installing a PS in your car oso.... i was advice by Sniper on the roof to use trackball mouse rather then conventional mouse.... basicaly at least my GF can watch movies while in a jam.... less talking to my GF less fights we have...ehehehhe. I'm planning to install a visor LCD screen so that my GF can watch it form her seat rather then watching through the center LCD...she did compalij bout neck pain... as for me having a playlist of my favourite songs in my car is good enough. The best part is surfing the net when i parked the car next to Starbucks SS15 wihtout having to step out of the car..just for a quick surf.

Wira is my guess... hmm....


btw, Nice mod ...... the usb port is greatly fitted... looks nice...

Mind to share the steps of your D.I.Y ?

yes its a Proton wira UK model

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Added on March 8, 2007, 12:05 pmGot influenced by PIMP MY Ride

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Added on March 8, 2007, 12:06 pmThanks dude....

This post has been edited by Zyntherius: Mar 8 2007, 12:06 PM

Its Wira aeroback limited edition.

I wish i had made a worklog for this... but you can ask me if you need help on how to built one...dun mind sharing at all

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Added on March 8, 2007, 12:08 pmIts a Sedan... bought in 1999

This post has been edited by Zyntherius: Mar 8 2007, 12:08 PM

yay, wira it is.. i think if u do a guide for this diy, most ppl would be interested. might be pinned too =))

btw, ur usb slot doen't interfere with ur handbrake? looks scary from the pic angle. just a thought

nope...does not at all.... can even plug in my removable hdd case there...

very very nice setup there.....looks like those old skool PC does come in handy after all....

did you wire the sound output to your car audio system also ??? it must be really cool coz can play songs directly from the PC and have a VU effect on the screen......

the part which i worry is the inverter part coz not sure whether its the real quality ones coz inverters can go kaboom and if not wired properly, it might fry other things together also.....


btw, dont make it so obvious........nowadays a lot of car thief around....

wow, seriously nice job.. i wonder whether i can fit it into my kancil. u did the wiring urself?

Yeah...did it my self.... can why not.doesn't take much space oso..

just like allngap said.. since they have tools to know whether u hav a lappy in to boot, wouldn't urs b at risk too?

edit: spelling

This post has been edited by noobiedonkey: Mar 8 2007, 12:14 PM

That's the risk we have to take...but so far nothing hope luck doesn't change.... but you can always mount it firmly...give them thiefs the idea that it is bolted on ..they won't waste time on it..

wow.. i'm totally impressed by your work. This is really Pc modding + pimp your car. you got all my respect dude. Wonderful work.
Wanna ask, how much it cost u to do everything like tat?

Thanks dude... , Less than 1 k I think..... some parts i have it laying around in my room... as for the acrylic i got it from a sign board that was thorn down nearby my office..ehehhe

This post has been edited by Zyntherius: Mar 8 2007, 12:27 PM

damn nice dude .. what speaker did u connect to ur pc?

wow, seriously damn cool. If you can pls put up a guide. I am sure many here are interested to do the same thing.

Bravo

The onboard soundcard is connected to my pre amp....i use Sony speakers.. which i can't remember the model.... some unknown brand of amplifier to power my Front and Rear Sony speakers

Hey dude, nice setup. Fun for long drives. A suggestion though, you might want to suspend the hard drives as heavy vibration kills the HD.

This post has been edited by seveneleven: Mar 8 2007, 12:32 PM

I will dismantle everything when i have the time..and i will start from the beginning of my D.I.Y including the wiring to the car ..when i have the time...

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Added on March 8, 2007, 12:33 pmThe HDD is mounted on a bracket which i have out silicon dampeners... and i choose laptop hdd.. coz it is more durable compared to desktop hdd

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Added on March 8, 2007, 12:35 pmYeah i kena one time..coz the watt rating on the invertor was low.... bought a 500 watts one recently... yeah it is connected to my car sound system...

This post has been edited by Zyntherius: Mar 8 2007, 12:35 PM

dude, thats awesome =)
but hor, isnt it the same if u can put a notebook in ur car =)
somemore its a fully complete set, keyboard included... wifi included
somemore its portable, u dont have to leave it in ur car to prevent from losing.
didnt mean to say urs is bad..... im truly impressed with ur work bro

Well that's why it is called Car PC...ehehhehe.. thanks.... but if a notebook used in the car...meaning less accessibility and if emergency brake sure fall one....i won't sacrifice my notebook to that extend..... yeah thats a risk we have to take.... but usually thiefs won't have the idea that we have a pc in our car unless if they monitor us from the beginning....

no le, i heard they got tools to know whether u have anythin electronic or so in the trunk but i must say that this for Enthusiast ppl and not what's better. it's the satisfaction of achieving it. once again, tumbs on this project.

i'm just wondering where to fit the lcd and how bout wifi? got antenna?

ohh i get what you mean... depends on the car oso if you wan to mount the lcd....mine is indash.... currently using USB wireless card ...but all component u saw in the pix...gonna be upgraded soon....thinking of scrapping the onboard soundcard and buy creative audigy ... sound quality better...

Cool, thought of it myself but never got around to even putting it on paper. Gotta try it when I've got free time (which I don't know when that will be). Thinking perhaps can hack a PSU to directly regulate power from the car's 12v supply? Can then get rid of the inverter for better power efficiency. A single core A64 or sempron would be great for this setup, very low power consumption, possibly 50-70W for the whole system with the PSU efficiency factored in.

Alternatively can get a IDE card reader and pop in some flash memory. Completely vibration/shock proof

wala0 wehhh, never tot got ppl mod pc to fit into car lehh
nice effort there

ps: izzit wira? tot it was GTi

Yes dude its a Wira Sedan...

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Added on March 8, 2007, 1:16 pmyeah i was told by Sniper On The Roof that AMD less power consumtion... i dun think you can wire your PSU directly to your batt..if you manage to do it..mind sharing with me... Once you built a car pc for your self..you can post it here also...this thread welcomes all car pc owners too

This post has been edited by Zyntherius: Mar 8 2007, 01:16 PM

Finally post... really dig the central console usb.

Hey..use remote control lar... mouse bahaya sial

ehehhehe..dude...yeah thinking of it..any suggestion?

seriously, i dont dare to plug them into my PC.....PC devices are really sensitive to fluctuations expecially HDD.......

although you can tap out 12V to form 3.3V , 5V, you still need -5V and alot of features which a normal PSU will have.....might as well get a better inverter and a back-up accumulator

Allngap should know he's an expert in this...

Of course.... the front end is no biggie but I like the remote... and its RF so you can hide the receiver.

http://www.soundgraph.com/Eng_/Products/im...u=1&leftMenu=12

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Added on March 8, 2007, 1:31 pmYup... car's 12V output can fluctuate from 7V to 17V or something like that... huge fluctuation.

This post has been edited by sniper on the roof: Mar 8 2007, 01:31 PM

Cun!.... available here or not? you know how's the pricing?

err..on the contrary, my knowledge on electronics is actually little.......but basics must be strong in order to understand what is going on.....


first of all, our car battery supply is not always remain on 12V alone...

this depends on how strong is your accumulator(age, type, how many amps, load) and the things which you use, like audio system, aircond, lights, modified spark plugs.....

usually when you rev your engine, voltage will go up a lot and when its idle the voltage will drop below 12V, this also depends on the age of your accumulator as well.....

hence its not really economical to actually tap out from the DC source because there are way too many factors which needs to be overcome in order to gain a stable DC supply......

seems that percentage of fluctuation is high doesn't it?

sweet.........
the brothers screen actually i also wanted to buy, but nissan sunny have only 1 slot....
impressive work

Thanks dude..... you can buy the visor type though cost about RM 199 i think..

yea, i bought the visor type, but china brand ler, no brothers one.....

you reply to your topics fast, you stare at IE and just keep refreshing the pages lol?

No larrr.... have nothign else to do in the office...browsing lorr..eheheheh

Respect! What a good inspiration!

Thanks man...built one for your self and post it here...would like to see others oso..

have u try booting ur pc after parking in the sun in the afternoon?...can overheat a?

yess... no problem...the highest temp i got when i park under intense sunlight was up to 47 degress only...no problem didn't even hang...

hi bro, can u gv ur hp number to i contact u.. i want see ur diy pc in ur car.. actually i hv coustomize my pc n wanna put into my car, i still searching the best inverter.. surveying at jln pasar there hv much electronic shop so... my system hardware is only celeron 2.4ghz, graphic card is nvdia 5500 256mb ddr, RAM 768 mb DDR, msi mobo, but i juz use the desktop 40gb Hdd. i use svideo output at the graphic card. i juz try connected at my tv at home it can be done there but the display at the tv is not clear like pc monitor. I use 1024x768 setting resolution. if i use 640x480 its same still blur. Its that juz only at TV not clear o same if i buy the motorize monitor ..so what ur suggest ... do help me bro .. tq.. here is my hp number 013-6665696 zaly

I've been measuring power consumption of a number of PCs lately, I'll share it in another thread soon about how much power does a PC need. Learnt a lot from my experiences with PSUs blowing out. AMD does consume less power than Intel (especially on idle) starting from AthlonXP and Pentium 4 onwards.

Just FYI, my gf's PC which is similarly spec to your car PC takes ~120W on full load for the whole system except display. My own Athlon64 X2 AM2 takes up ~110W on full load (using onboard GeForce 6100 display) and ~70W on idle, both excluding monitor.

You guys are right about that, but actually I mean use the PSU to regulate the car's suppy. It DOES fluctuate like crazy-not that I've measred, but with all the stuff that draws from it I'm sure its not pretty. PSUs actually produce all the seperate voltages/rails from a single rectified (but poorly regulated) DC source, so I was hoping can adapt the circuit to accept the car ~12v as the DC source. To compensate for severe voltage drops I could even include a sealed lead-acid as a form of UPS (the grey ones you can find in electrical hardware shops). The problem is adapting the circuit in a PSU. I've been working on it for a while now but its giving me a headache. Should be able to get it eventually. Planning on a fully portable desktop with battery(meaning not too heavy to carry).

Btw allngap, if I use the method I think you're suggesting I doubt it can supply anywhere near the required current for a PC. Easy to find electronics that can handle <1.5A (enough for any fan available) but with PCs we're talking 10A++ even on a ultra low power consuming PC; parts that can handle that much are ridiculously hard to get and expensive.

unrelated: Btw, did you know ppl used to 'overclock' hard drives by increasing the motor voltage to make it spin and hence read faster?

This post has been edited by lohwenli: Mar 8 2007, 06:06 PM

if you over spin you hdd by adding extra voltage to it might reduce the motor life span and will make it heat more?

Correction to your statement, with current HDDs spinning at 7200rpm you will probably kill it almost immediately (try rev your car that much ). That was in the 3xxxx-5400rpm days (or perhaps earlier).

walao geng, u pro la... super wiring there. ya install GPS system then more geng

Thanks dude... but i have no use for GPS....

Guys really salute with ur work. Can give a guide how to make it.

From what I've read, those laptop scanners r scanning to detect the battery of the laptop, PDA or mobile phone. So if u dont have the battery in it, they're blind.

How bout wireless? also can detect rite?
btw, great work there bro zyntherius...!!!

Thanks dude...

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Added on March 9, 2007, 10:04 amPlanning to make the case slimmer...i'll post the guide later on

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Added on March 9, 2007, 10:06 amThanks dude... dun think they can detect wireless....like uncle Ianho said... they only detect batteries..unless if they can detect the cmos battery then it's gonna be a different story then

This post has been edited by Zyntherius: Mar 9 2007, 10:06 AM

It should actually be quite easy to detect wireless, as long as the adapter is on. I doubt they can detect the CMOS battery, the car's alarm system also produces more electrical signals than that.

pc in a car? is it practical as there are too many sensitive hardware that will spoil anytime due to road friction? i cant imagine hdd working under a driving condition or hot weather.

have ts encounter any problem with the setup so far?

did u experience any problems when u drive the car on a rough road such as the rural road or bump onto a hole on the road?huhu...coz PC parts is damn sensitive...

Nope.. nothing at all..... especially on those yellow lines at Sunway Pyramid area there...dam those lines are tick....

At least you're not in Europe.. even bigger temperature range.

In Malaysia, only need to keep things cool and vibration dampened niah

Like i told ryudox... one year already..no problem at all.... but dun go high speed on a hump larr.... that's why i use notebook hdd... more durable

nice mood..... so creative

Thanks... dude.. it is quite easy to build oso..... anyone can build one.... it's just whteher you want to or not...anything can do one..

not only easy to build.. the wiring.. going inside the car.. show us abit how you did the wiring.. like the usb you did..

hi bro zyntherius.. nice n thumb up what u mod ur pc in ur car.. rite now i hv i pc i juz mod to pun into my car too..can u gv suggestion to me 4 better n nice look.. in my car.. 1st one.. i'm driving wira gsr, if i wanna put the mobo at the back like ur picture, is nicely place.. my problem is i want to use dvd rom pc to put at the dashboard combine with the motorize monitor at the passenger beside driver, u know wira model 2001 n laterst hv place there.. my dvd rom is use ide cable so ide cable not long enough to pull from the bonnet to the dashboard, 2nd is i use plug in sound card at pci slot bcoz builtin sound not function already, so from the jack port at the sound card the cable must go to power amp o where. i confiuse at that thing. can u advise and if u hv any best suggestion bro share with me. if u not mind can u gv ur hp number to me do contact u. can meet at 1 cool place o teh tarik stall to see ur pc mod... my number is 013-6665696 zaly.. tq.. b4 that my place is Shah alam area but i can go to puchong area ...

This post has been edited by b@i: Mar 9 2007, 05:38 PM

snap some pics man... let us see...

Ok firstly can i have a look at you pc that you've install in your car.. 2nd bout the ide cable not long enough...you can make your own actually..but you must get your hands on some connectors... 3rd about your sound card you can plug it to a pre amp 1st..like what i did..and pre amp to amps.... well i live in shah alam oso....i'll call you whenever i am free..

I think for audio cables if you get some good ones to connect from the sound card to the car's audio system it should be ok, Zyntherius should be quite experienced in this by now. However for IDE cables you can't use cables longer than 1m, in fact at that length you may have data transfer issues already. Check the ATA specification for details-google for it.

Can try USB ones oso..... but those things need power though

Ah but that is good news for b@i because power cables can be pretty long as long as the connections are sound and the cable resistance is low enough. Even cables similar to our 240V electrical wires would suffice.

Btw, USB regulation is 5m (includes length of electrical traces on circuit boards). Should not be a problem unless you own a bus and have the PC on the opposite end form the audio system

This post has been edited by lohwenli: Mar 9 2007, 06:59 PM

good info dude... might try myself too...dude you seem to know a lot bout electronic and stuffs... you study bout them?

Do a lot of reading on the subject for interest; electonics & PC are kinda like hobbies for me. Currently studying applied physics in USM, so have a bit of underlying knowledge to fill in gaps (mostly in electronics-my course has heavy emphasis in the physics of semiconductors & electronics).

So that means..i can consult with you bout stuff that i won't understand?

Well, my course doesn't focus on actual electronic device application, but sure, I'll try my best to help you with what I know. I'll say my knowledge in electronics is around the level of a amateur electronics hobbyist. Best people to ask would be those studying computer hardware or electronics engineering.

Still your opinion can be put into a count dude....

Thanks, I'm flattered.

tq all the power minded..bro... especially to zyntherius.. so when can we meet around shah alam area to see what U done it man.. n also i wanna asking to many question about da project.. tq..

Shouldn't be a problem dude..... why dun we meet at the lanparty this coming 25th march at ss15 (Autosurf) i'll give you a call

nice ideas......

how u put the usb port into console box?

quite worry for yr hdd.

Like i post earlier..laptop hdd are more durable to shock...and i am not worried bout it.... i cut the console to the size of the USB header... and use 5 meters usb cables

Besides, I bet the only things you store in there you can afford to lose/have other copies..HDD can replace but data no backup means bye bye.

true..true....

yoo bro nice mod you got there
been thinking of doing this quit some time ago
got some question here. How do you lock your modo power supply on ? is it on the acrylic board ? mind to show the picture or any diagram . cause you need to ground the modo right ? "acrylic is plastic. please advice

thanks !

cool,but how do u maintain the temp of ur com?because in malaysia the weather is damm hot,the temperature may cause damage to the motherboard.
anyway nice diy i love it.

omG... everything nicely done.. superb!
if i were to DIY stuffs like what u did...
my car sure go KABOOM... lol

great mod have always wanted to have one in my car but too lazy to do so and mp3 players are abundance nowdays but i'm still toying with the idea so I can have video in the car. How big is the screen you are using and what is the resolution set on the pc ?

Kudos for a job well done

the screen is 6.5" and the resolution is 800 x 600...the most suitable reso for the screen... but can go higher.