my Car PC, Phase I completed!

[twistedGTS]

OK so i finally have my car PC running nicely in my car. I freaking love it!Such a cool toy. I installed in in the glove box.

I did the whole installation myself :)

Hardware:
VIA MII 12000
512 RAM
40 GB HDD
M1-ATX power supply
6.5" LCD screen

Software:
Frodo/RR (mp3s)
Log-works (Lm1 wideband logging and gauge display)
E-manage support tool (E-manage tuning)
Voice command

future plans:
VGA touchscreen, GPS, Phone Control, Wireless Internet, rear view camera, xm radio, movies and games

http://vts.us/gts/gts_radio.jpg

http://vts.us/gts/04-10-05/carpc1.jpg

http://vts.us/gts/04-10-05/carpc2.jpg

Lm-1 (Air/Fuel and RPMS)
http://vts.us/gts/carpc_screen1.jpg

Froddo Player (mp3s)
http://vts.us/gts/carpc_screen2.jpg

Greddy eManage
http://vts.us/gts/carpc_screen3.jpg

[RATIFIED]

Nice!!!!!:thumbup: Do I see a how to guide in the future!?!?!

[TRD StreetRacing]

Originally posted by twistedGTS
OK so i finally have my car PC running nicely in my car. I freaking love it!Such a cool toy. I installed in in the globe box.

I did all the installation myself :)

Hardware:
VIA MII 12000
512 RAM
40 GB HDD
M1-ATX power supply
6.5" LCD screen

Software:
Frodo/RR (mp3s)
Log-works (Lm1 wideband logging and gauge display)
E-manage support tool (E-manage tuning)
Voice command

future plans:
VGA touchscreen, GPS, Phone Control, Wireless Internet, rear view camera, xm radio, movies and games

http://vts.us/gts/gts_radio.jpg

http://vts.us/gts/04-10-05/carpc1.jpg

http://vts.us/gts/04-10-05/carpc2.jpg

Lm-1 (Air/Fuel and RPMS)
http://vts.us/gts/carpc_screen1.jpg

Froddo Player (mp3s)
http://vts.us/gts/carpc_screen2.jpg

Greddy eManage
http://vts.us/gts/carpc_screen3.jpg

mine beats ur fooo...... mine drives the car too ;) . i'm the next knite rider :chuckles:

on a serious note. that looks pretty damn impressive fabian :thumbup:

[evil eye]

Damn thats cool. Wanna build me one? :)

[S|Lv3rBu||et]

Wow... seriosly very very nice. The e-manage/lm-1 sh|t is just awesome!! :drool:
Supercool.
:thumbup: :thumbup:

[Jun Jun]

It looks :cool:
Building PC's is really easy. Nothing too it.
But I don't like how you have the PC installed in the
glove box. Looks sloppying and it doesn't look like it actully
fits. The HD is laying on top of the door. What kind of
cooling are you using for the PC? Why don't you just
install the motherboard and all the hardware in a case?
It will be way safer. You will not have to worry about ESD.
Or the PC from overheating.

[twistedGTS]

Originally posted by RATIFIED
Nice!!!!!:thumbup: Do I see a how to guide in the future!?!?!

thanks! there are way too many ways to go about doing this but i'll be glad to answer any questions :)


Originally posted by TRD StreetRacing
mine beats ur fooo...... mine drives the car too ;) . i'm the next knite rider :chuckles:

on a serious note. that looks pretty damn impressive fabian :thumbup:

damn, minde doesnt do that.. yet!... hehehe thanks mike!


Originally posted by evil eye
Damn thats cool. Wanna build me one? :)
sure Joe, but i won't be held repsonsible if your car goes on fire! hehehe


Originally posted by S|Lv3rBu||et
Wow... seriosly very very nice. The e-manage/lm-1 sh|t is just awesome!! :drool:
Supercool.
:thumbup: :thumbup:
thanks bro!

[twistedGTS]

Originally posted by Jun Jun
It looks :cool:
Building PC's is really easy. Nothing too it.
But I don't like how you have the PC installed in the
glove box. Looks sloppying and it doesn't look like it actully
fits. The HD is laying on top of the door. What kind of
cooling are you using for the PC? Why don't you just
install the motherboard and all the hardware in a case?
It will be way safer. You will not have to worry about ESD.
Or the PC from overheating.

thanks,
it does fit very well. I can close and lock my glove box. when i first started doing it i was doing it very carefully but it wouldn

[J5ISALIVE]

where you keep your owners manual and registration? why not buy a small PC box and put in in the trunk.

John

[Oo DaRk StAr oO]

Awesome.

Id worry about ventilation though.

[twistedGTS]

Originally posted by J5ISALIVE
where you keep your owners manual and registration? why not buy a small PC box and put in in the trunk.

John

in the arm rest compartment! plenty of room there to put all the crap.

having a computer in the trunk has it benefits like more space, but then you might have problems running cables to the front specially VGA and IDE. I really need my trunk space to put the groceries :chuckles: Plus a small PCbox is at least $150, I'd rather use that for something else.




Originally posted by Oo DaRk StAr oO
Awesome.

Id worry about ventilation though.

thanks man, so far so good but it hasnt been too hot around here yet. we'll see.

[Jun Jun]

Awesome!
I like it. Good job.
But I would still mount either a 80mm or 120mm fan on
each side of the glove box. Facing the motherboard and
hardwares.
You can buy a HD box. To put your HD in and mount it hidden
from eyes view.

[hi ho silver]

awesome... what are you using to power yours? power inverter? or did you get a dc-dc powersupply?

[twistedGTS]

thanks!, the PSU is a dc-dc called m1-atx. It works great. I start the car and the PSU turns on the PC I shut off the car and it send a shutdown command to the PC, very nice.

[hi ho silver]

oooh where'd you get that bad boy and how much?

[twistedGTS]

I got it from here:

http://www.mp3car.com/store/product_info.php?cPath=42&products_id=67

make sure you ask them if you are getting the latest firmware. The old ones have problems. If they only have them with the old firmware you can get the new one from the manufacturer for free. I'm sure they would tell you how.

[Thumpin00gts]

so can you use the comp with the car off if you use that power supply?

[hi ho silver]

74 bux? im there.. how do i know if 90 watts is good enough for my setup?

[twistedGTS]

Originally posted by Thumpin00gts
so can you use the comp with the car off if you use that power supply?

yeah you can use it but of curse it will drain your battery eventually.

Originally posted by hi ho silver
74 bux? im there.. how do i know if 90 watts is good enough for my setup?

yeah it's awesome, only problem is that you can not run too many peripherals with it. it's only 90w. Some guy that tried to run two HDDs couldn

[hi ho silver]

thanks bro... i've built a few computers but i never understood how many watts would be sufficient for what.

[iMouseGTS]

SO COOL!! :thumbup:

[dennis]

Very nice. Is that the JDM console? If it is, in your opinion, do you think 7" would fit? If its custom fabricated, where did you have it done?

Once again, the setup looks really nice

[shOX]

I would so do that if I didn't winter drive. Looks awesome!

[twistedGTS]

Originally posted by iMouseGTS
SO COOL!! :thumbup:

thanks bro!

Originally posted by dennis
Very nice. Is that the JDM console? If it is, in your opinion, do you think 7" would fit? If its custom fabricated, where did you have it done?

Once again, the setup looks really nice

thanks! yeah that's the JDM console with a 6.5 wide LCD. a 7" is too big but i'm going to try to modify it so that I can try to fit a VGA screen. I think if i trim it enough I can get it to fit a 7", we'll see.


Originally posted by shOX
I would so do that if I didn't winter drive. Looks awesome!

thanks, I drive in the winter too. we'll see how it works then.

[speedeeGTS]

wow fabian! thats insane! nice job!!! cant wait to see that setup this summer!

[twistedGTS]

Originally posted by speedeeGTS
wow fabian! thats insane! nice job!!! cant wait to see that setup this summer!

Thanks Matt! hell yeah man, you should get back to modding... there is still time!

[flyimages]

the hardrive doesn't look too secure.. i recommend securing..

[emotart]

link (http://www.cybernetman.com/default.cfm?DocId=602)

http://www.cybernetman.com/images/product_images/p_zpc_main_large.jpg

cool alternative idea

[NeverGod]

wait, where i can i get this JDM console?

[iMouseGTS]

Originally posted by flyimages
the hardrive doesn't look too secure.. i recommend securing..

Originally posted by twistedGTS
The hard drive is not just sitting there, it is bolted down.

[TRD GT-S]

link (http://www.cybernetman.com/default.cfm?DocId=602)

http://www.cybernetman.com/images/product_images/p_zpc_main_large.jpg

cool alternative idea

Wow that seems very cool.

[IScrewedUp]

My only problem with going the carputer route is the thought that if any one computer component goes out , be it ram , overheating , videocard ( if not onboard) your whole system is down. Also on a side note, what would you guys think about having something like this ( the computer parts/guts ) actually molded into a fiberglass sub encloser , like on the surface of it ?

[twistedGTS]

link (http://www.cybernetman.com/default.cfm?DocId=602)

http://www.cybernetman.com/images/product_images/p_zpc_main_large.jpg

cool alternative idea


with all that money you can make something much cooler. Plus it looks kinda big.





Originally posted by flyimages
the hardrive doesn't look too secure.. i recommend securing..

Originally posted by twistedGTS
The hard drive is not just sitting there, it is bolted down.


exactly :thumbup:


My only problem with going the carputer route is the thought that if any one computer component goes out , be it ram , overheating , videocard ( if not onboard) your whole system is down. Also on a side note, what would you guys think about having something like this ( the computer parts/guts ) actually molded into a fiberglass sub encloser , like on the surface of it ?

yeah, but like anything else on my car things going bad is part of the fun.
You can do something like that, it has been done before and it looks great. Just make sure you have enough ventilation and you are good to go :) .

[IScrewedUp]

Eh , fixing it once , maybe fun . Fixing it everytime you hit a bump is a problem. Also that leads to another question , how well does the carputer take the abuse of the road being with all the bumps and everything?

[evil eye]

Eh , fixing it once , maybe fun . Fixing it everytime you hit a bump is a problem. Also that leads to another question , how well does the carputer take the abuse of the road being with all the bumps and everything?


:werd: I never thought about that. The hard drive would be my biggest concern.

[twistedGTS]

well some people have been using the same hard drive for years and had no problems, some others have had thier drives fail within months. It really seems tho like most people really dont have major problems with that.
I've read seagate HDDs seem to be lasting pretty long so that's what i got. Small HDD's are cheap too, that's why i only got a 40GB HD and not something bigger so if it goes bad just get a new one, no biggie I'm not storing anything important and they go for like $40.

But yeah, like a turbo this is not for everybody. You have to like working on it and be ready to deal with all the little problems that come up. So far i havent had any :knock on wood: As long as you know what you are doing you should be ok.

[IScrewedUp]

I suppose so , my problem is that in the past 4 years I am always spending spare cash on computer crap , be it building a new rig all together or just in pieces. Doing this mod makes it seem like the same old stuff to me, I guess if I bought some nasty altezzas i would be able to get back to that........hmmmm i dunno

[twistedGTS]

I suppose so , my problem is that in the past 4 years I am always spending spare cash on computer crap , be it building a new rig all together or just in pieces. Doing this mod makes it seem like the same old stuff to me, I guess if I bought some nasty altezzas i would be able to get back to that........hmmmm i dunno


Hey I'm not tryin to convince you. If it's not your thing, don't do it :thumbup:

[IScrewedUp]

Honestly, Twisted, its been something I have been pondering for years . Its not you at all, completely me ( I am sure you've heard this before lol ) . I want the idea of being able to browse while I cruise or listen to mp3s or dvds and play roms. But , at the same time , how often would I really be doing any of this? I might as well just get a Kenwood DDX and not have to worry about the problems of a computer going wrong. But then no internet , BLAH!!! You see what I am saying , its hard to say which way to go.

Back to thinking.....

[brian63]

Not only is that a fire hazard but the vibrations will kill the hard drive.

[canton_ph34r]

if you line the interior of the glove box with a fire resistant padding then he should feel safer and could bubble-wrapping keep the HD safe from vibrations?

Anyway really nice job. Gives me inspiration.

[sscarbongts]

sweet :thumbup: :thumbup:

[twistedGTS]

if you line the interior of the glove box with a fire resistant padding then he should feel safer and could bubble-wrapping keep the HD safe from vibrations?

Anyway really nice job. Gives me inspiration.


the padding is not a bad idea. I dont think the bubble wrap would work. Anyway I'll let you guys know how long my HDD lasts.



sweet :thumbup: :thumbup:

thanks!

[brian63]

I think there is a setup for securing the HDD so it will reduce vibrations. I will look into it for you.

[jayspeedy24]

i wonder if dynomat would work? it'll take the vibrations out but i dunno how soft or what it is...but the computer setup is sweet man! its a great touch up and an awesome show car quality even if you dont plan on going that route!!!

[IScrewedUp]

i wonder if dynomat would work? it'll take the vibrations out but i dunno how soft or what it is...but the computer setup is sweet man! its a great touch up and an awesome show car quality even if you dont plan on going that route!!!


are you ****ttin me here lol. Dynomat?!?! Dynomat is a sound deadener . Personally if it was just me , I would just lay the hdd on a small pillow or something in the dash and tape it to the pillow so it cant bounce around against the mobo or glove box if it bumpin into stuff is your issue.

[brian63]

http://www.amtrade.com/pc_mounting/anti-vibration_hddmountingkit.htm

Anti-vibration mounts.

[SuuPaSeDan]

http://www.amtrade.com/pc_mounting/anti-vibration_hddmountingkit.htm

Anti-vibration mounts.


sweet thanks!!!

[AbsolutlyRed]

Yo, that looks f'n hot

[twistedGTS]

http://www.amtrade.com/pc_mounting/anti-vibration_hddmountingkit.htm

Anti-vibration mounts.


cool i'll might give that a try if my hdd fails. only problem is going to be finding space for it. thanks for the link.

Yo, that looks f'n hot

thanks!

[brian63]

I am sure you can find alot more sites but that was just the first I stumbled upon.