Silvia Club of NSW

Has anyone on here done this yet?

I basically wanna build myself a nice tiny pc to bolt down in the boot, boot up windows on a screen in a front with a wireless keyboard & mouse. no drama's, can do it all, will be cool to connect into my system & play dvd's & music..

Now the 1 thing I cannot work out is the monitor situation.. I need a small lcd screen that I will be able to input from either a monitor out on a pc, or an svideo out.. looking at 6-10" lcd screen for cheap.

anyone know of anything?

why dont you just get a PS2 and use that?
modify it so it fits into the glovebox and hook that upto a lcd screen?

that can play dvd's etc..

info/instructions

Its not hard to do, you can get some particular hardware that will do it nicely.

Snezy - Put a laptop into his old 180sx.
Myself - Put a computer in my mates old car and about to put one into my own S13.

If you want to do it with a 6-10" LCD, just get one that has RCA inputs. Then you can use a Mini-ITX system in the boot, this is what I am going to do.

The only main problem for a standard computer is the Power Supply, they have a 110v/240v input, and to buy a 12v input PSU is rather costly.

I am getting a custom power supply created 12v - 12v and from there its all good.

If you want any more information please feel free to email me.. mayhem@silviansw.com

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Co-Founder, President & Webmaster
mayhem@silviansw.com - www.silviansw.com
Why drive when you can drift?

I have a 5.6" LCD that I got to use on my VCD / MP3 head unit, which I've also used on a mini-ITX (http://www.mini-itx.com) motherboard and it works pretty well.
I haven't decided whether or not to put that in the car yet

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The Engine Whisperer - fixer of things

Another PSU solution is to get a micro-atx PSU rated at about 100-150w and get an inverter to power it up (you could also use a normal 250-300w psu but would need a decent inverter).
Also you get get an adapter for the s-video to rca for the monitor.

The great thing about the Mini ITX solution is that :

a) its small
b) doesn't use much power (100Watt probably is all you need)
c) doesn't generate much heat
d) comes with s-video, rca, vga, 6 channel sound output etc

_________________
Co-Founder, President & Webmaster
mayhem@silviansw.com - www.silviansw.com
Why drive when you can drift?

wouldn't it skip when the car is moving, cause i think cdroms on PCs don't have shock protection. Am i right??

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If you use notebook components then you should be fine

I am going to use a notebook Hard drive, but a standard DVD drive as I wont be watching DVD's while driving Can always make a DivX of the DVD anyways

_________________
Co-Founder, President & Webmaster
mayhem@silviansw.com - www.silviansw.com
Why drive when you can drift?

And people called me stupid when I put one in my car
Its certainly WAY better than any headunit you'll buy on the market.

I ran my EMS realtime software, and full screen videoclips on mine. Was pretty sweeeeet...

_________________
Co-Founder
www.silviansw.com
snezy@silviansw.com
Why Drive When you can drift?????

Was it worth all the time and effort considering you dont have the car now?
Are you putting it into diff car?

50-50 wether it was worth the time and effort...
But I did it the VERY hard way

Hardware
I used a notebook computer, pulled it completely apart and modified it. I.e unsoldered and removed components from the motherboard and soldered wires on it to run switches ect mounted inside the car..(with help from dumhed )
Then I handsoldered and extended the screen wiring (about 30wires) by 1.5m using cat5 cable (as it is twisted pairs wiring to minimise resistance over length).
Egrezz bodykits then made up a fibreglass screen mount for the 14.1" LCD to sit around the dash completely covering where the stereo and aircon sit.
Then I extended all wiring (about 50 wires) running to the aircon and stereo and moved the air and stereo units into the glovebox mounted in a cusom carpeted face plate.
On top of foam which was underneath the carpet (shock absorbing) underneath the drivers seat the notebook base was mounted , then the motherboard, cd, FDD,HDD and PCMCIA 56k modem and 10/100NIC card was installed ontop of the base and the notebook was screwed back together.
CAT5 cable (ethernet) and telephone lines were run from the notebook to behind the passengers side headlight with a 10metre extension, so I could get home and 'plug' the car in for me to transfer play lists and Video clips to and from the car to my home (and friends ) PC's
It was then fed 12V through a custom 12V noise and surge filter (thanks once again Dumhead Which was wired to constaint power (i had a switch as well which would allow me to charge the battery when I wanted..) This was added so I wouldnt send big surges to the notebook during startup with a flat battery.
I had a small keyboard stuffed down beside the drivers seat next to the shifter and a wireless mouse that looked just like a TV remote control.
The notebook sound output was then wired into the stereo through RCA AUX input and the stereo had a remote so I didnt have to lean over to turn it up or anything.

Software
It was running a very light install of Win98
It ran the real time software for EMS so I could do data logging and adjustment of maps, boost ect while driving around.
and it ran Windows media player 7 for full screen video clips and MP3's.

As you can tell it was a HELL of a lot of work, it was well worth the experience..

Would I do it again?
Probably not. Especially not THAT way

_________________
Co-Founder
www.silviansw.com
snezy@silviansw.com
Why Drive When you can drift?????

Finally found at least a couple of pics to post.

http://www.silviansw.com/upload/Before%20wiring.jpg

http://www.silviansw.com/upload/temp%20install3.jpg

http://www.silviansw.com/upload/mould1.jpg

These pics are obviously not of the finished product, but thats all I can find

_________________
Co-Founder
www.silviansw.com
snezy@silviansw.com
Why Drive When you can drift?????

can we see some pics of the finished product ? with the screen in and stuff

The screen is in on one of the pics, although it was only held in by inulation tape and half the wiring was running over the front of it. cos it was just a trial fitment/test.
I would love to give you a pic of the finished product (as I had it b4 the car was sold) but I cant find them ANYWHERE.... Trust me IM SPEWING........I took like 100 photos and did a full write up explaining every single step that was taken with a photo to match...
I think I must have accidently deleted them

I must note, the screen mould was never actually sanded perfectly and painted.. Never acually got around to it as I only had the car on the road for like 2 weeks after it was completed

_________________
Co-Founder
www.silviansw.com
snezy@silviansw.com
Why Drive When you can drift?????

Hmmm when i get the 200 on the road again, i have an old laptop i might rig up. hmmmmm nice idea guys!!