Car PC

Clareman

Bit of a weird request I know, but I'm toying with the idea of building a PC for the car, I'm thinking of getting a net book to use as the motherboard and hard drive, not sure about where to get a case or a touch screen for it, just wondering if anyone has ever attempted anything like this?

Tea_Bag

I've always been mildly interested in this. hook it up with a cheapo Android phone and you've got internet and a GPS too.

I'm not sure how well a HDD will work though, unless you do a slinky mod to it. way too much vibration in the boot, cause its over the back of the Axel. SSD would work perfectly, but you'll limit yourself to storage. maybe an SD card reader full of 32gb SD cards, which are cheap enough.

you get some pretty cool USB monitors that work well, but USB loses its signal over long stretches of wire ie from boot to panel. Bluebooth?

Clareman

I wasn't going to put it in the boot, I was going to put it in the dash, I've an Avensis so there's plenty of space. Good thinking about the SSD though, they are getting cheaper and cheaper now as well

Clareman

Something like this I'm thinking

daz801

if you don't use the glove box you could fit in an itx case possibly. What would your budget be on something like this?

something along these lines
Item|Price
LG GH24NS bare schwarz|€16.96
ASUS P8H61-I Rev 3.0, Intel Sockel 1155, ITX|€72.41
Thermaltake Element Q, mini-ITX, 200W-Netzteil|€52.76
4GB Corsair Valueselect DDR3-1333 CL9|€17.84
Crucial M4 256GB SSD 6,4cm (2,5")|€212.09
Intel Core i3-2120 Box, LGA1155|€103.77
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€494.82

Clareman

I might be missing something, but there doesn't seem to be an input on that setup that you have?

Serephucus

If you're fitting it in the dash, do you need a case at all? I don't own a car, and I've never pulled one apart, but I'd assume they're reasonably enclosed, right? Maybe you could stick the motherboard (and other stuff) on a sheet of metal and stick it to the body. You'd probably get better ventilation that way too.

uberpixie

Just remember you will need to buy a Dc to Ac converter that runs off the ciggie lighter socket in the car if you want to power the pc of the cars battery.

I do know someone who did make a car pc and he used a 7 inch touch screen for input. All worked well from what I remember.

Clareman

This looks like way way way too much hard work

http://www.toyota-tech.eu/aimuploads/%7B383A1385-1EA5-EEA0-C0DC-907F61471EA5%7D/Mice_LHD_PZ486_00370_00_AIM_001_051_0.pdf

U_Fig

Depending on the uses for this maybe looking into raspberry pi. Might be an option small, cheap. If the things you are planning on using this for run well on a Linux os then might be an option.

_AVALANCHE_

Do you live in your car?:pac:

When are you ever gonna be able to use 99% of what it'll do?

vibe666

plenty of people have an in-car htpc, you can customise it how you like, use any one of a number of different os'es/gui's to suit your needs and upgrade it down the line if your needs change.

it looks like the avensis has a double din stereo socket, so you can get an adapterto put a standard double din fitting stereo in it here: http://www.ebay.ie/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=m570&_nkw=avensis+double+din

which means that you can get a double din pc case something like this: http://www.amazon.com/Double-Nano-ITX-Carputer-Enclosure-Generation/dp/B005TX3MUI/ref=pd_sxp_f_pt

add a liliput 7" touchscreen https://store.mp3car.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=MON-001 and a nano-itx motherboard http://www.mini-itx.com/store/subscribe.asp?s=8 and ram, storage etc. and you're pretty much there.

if you can plump for an SSD then all the better, but you could just as easily run the OS off a flash drive or SD card and use a laptop hdd for storage and it should manage fine as due to their usage, laptop drives are built to withstand being moved around in a way that desktop drives aren't.

something a lot of people do is have them driving additional screens in the backs of the front headrests http://www.ebay.ie/sch/i.html?_nkw=head+rest+monitor+9%22&_sacat=0&_odkw=head+rest+monitor&_osacat=0&_trksid=p3286.c0.m270.l1313 so that kids etc. in the back of the car can be watching movies and stuff on long journeys.

glynf

Clareman,

Is this a project build tha tyou want to? If not and your car stereo accepts a line in or an android/ipad/other tablet connector cable, would a decent tablet on a proper mount with wifi do?

If you're happy with stripping the dash, you could also mount it directly into the dash-plenty of guides & products online re. same.

The wifi would give you web browsing and 64Gb of storage for music is a lot of tunes. If it goes tits up it would be a lot easier to sort than a PC built into oyur dash:)


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESqJhnfSk80

glynf

.

Clareman

Thanks folks, this will be a project build, my car stereo acts up from time to time so I might have to get a new 1 at some stage, I also have a old net book that I could use for parts. Thanks every for your suggestions

Serephucus

Problem solved!