Cheap PC in Car project

[CthulhuLuke]

Well I currently don't have the cash, but I was thinkin any other mamers with the extra dough and the wiring skills might find this interesting.  So I was thinkin to myself, how could I cheaply put a PC into a car?  Cause all those screens I was looking at were like 600-700 bucks a piece.  Ebay of course.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3031538189&category=14946  -$199 for a monitor that hides itself into the dash when not in use, and looks like a radio, and comes out full screen.
http://www.pricewatch.com   for a cheap computer with an ATI video card, you'd probably only need up to like a 1ghz processor, because the most you're going to be doing is playing movies.
http://www.ultimarc.com  for an Ipac to make your own control panel on the front using either radioshack buttons or even possibly arcade buttons.  You could also try to integrate a trackball for the mouse, that might be kinda interesting.
     You'd also have to buy a wiring harness which is only like 15 bucks, and some type of shock absorber, such as those aerospace foam pillow things for the hard drive so it wouldn't accidently delete some data when going over a pothole or something.  You would probably also want to mount the whole thing on something like a wood block, maybe a triangle or something like that to prevent dust from getting into the processor fan, etc.  You'd also have to buy the cables to connect the computer to the lcd screen if the one they include is super short, and also probably some other stuff I missed.

[SirPoonga]

ACtually, in the future I planon putting a pc in my car for gps, mapping, mp3s.  I think I have showed you http://www.arbytech.com/carmp3.php

We're not talking expensive 10" touchscreen lcd.  They go for cheap on ebay.

[meta87]

I thought about doing this before. Good site about it:

http://www.thisstrife.com/carproject/index_chapter_3.asp

I believe he used one of those mini-itx fanless mobos.
Pretty cool project!

[Odonadon]

Y'know, that eBay item could be something awesome to include in an arcade cab.  Not sure what you could use it for exactly, but imagine hitting a button on the front of your cab, and out folds this screen  My buds would be im-bloody-pressed.

Odonadon

[kspiff]

I want a sit down arcade cabinet that can be used as a car.. now that would be impressive.. kind of like in Get Smart the movie, only with a cabinet B)

[Sasquatch!]

ACtually, in the future I planon putting a pc in my car for gps, mapping, mp3s.  I think I have showed you http://www.arbytech.com/carmp3.php

We're not talking expensive 10" touchscreen lcd.  They go for cheap on ebay.

HOLY HELL that's cool!  Must...resist...

[SirPoonga]

ACtually, in the future I planon putting a pc in my car for gps, mapping, mp3s.  I think I have showed you http://www.arbytech.com/carmp3.php

We're not talking expensive 10" touchscreen lcd.  They go for cheap on ebay.

HOLY HELL that's cool!  Must...resist...

Isn't it though.  Iwant to do that with a linux box.  There is some very good mapping and gps software for linux.  

[ashardin]

I read a project online a year or two ago about a guy doing this so he could have an mp3 player before they had mp3 head units (maybe it was 3 or 4 years ago, now that I think about it).

Anyway, I guess the main problem he had was the bootup, and starting the car.  When he started his car, it would give an interruption to the power in his power converter, and turn off the pc.  Kinda like when you turn the car on now and your radio goes dead for a second.

He ended up wiring an elaborate circuit to overcome this.  Just something to think about.  The smallest detail ends up being a pain in the ass in a project like this.

[nighthawk2099]

I guess the easies way to overcome that would be to put a small UPS on it.... Just for those brown out periods.

[AlanS17]

Well there's a simple solution for a funky problem.

[F|end]

Wierd!  

[solocon]

Done this! Very easy! I did this cause I got tired of my music DVD'S getting scratched. Not hard at all. If you al want, I could but some pics up. The power issue, Wire a switch to the fron of the car so you have a "power" button upfront! :-)

[loksenna]

Here's what you really need:
A mini-ITX computer http://www.mini-itx.com/reviews/b860t/
Its got built in graphics, sound, tv-out, s-video out, its low wattage (can take straight dc power with an adapter), and you can get a 800mhz machine for $90 on pricewatch.
They have all the standard connections (PCI, DDR, IDE).
You can learn more about this stuff at http://www.mini-itx.com
Mini-ITX is the shizznizzy, just don't get ripped off.



Did I spell that right?

[loksenna]

The review I gave is for a Jetway.  If you go looking, look for a via, they are easier to find (ex. pricewatch).

Hmm...
100 bucks, built-in TV-out, these might be good for MAME!