In Car PC / 'Carputer'

[sdl]

Geeeez, guys, I'm impressed!

I'm just happy if I don't leave a trail of smoke as I trundle along or don't have oil every where in the engine bay!

Just one question before I put one down on my wish list (item number 698....), how do these systems fair off-road?

I can imagine the hard drives aren't to happy being bounced around muddy tracks on Salisbury Plains...

Hard drive would probably not like too much bashing around, and the touchscreen would not like gritty, muddy paw prints all over it either. Interested to find out though, but not with mine thanks.

[andy_enuff]

I'm thinking that the HD would need to be enclosed in foam... hmm. wonder if there's any good heat transferring foam around...

[Morr]

I'm thinking that the HD would need to be enclosed in foam... hmm. wonder if there's any good heat transferring foam around...

There are products available to assist in builting a quiet PC which may help here, I'm thinking of this type of product http://www.quietpc.com/uk/harddrive.php#hdrubbermounts
designed to prevent transmission of vibration/noise.

Also when I eventually get around to doing this myself, I'll be using a laptop HDD, not just due to its size, but primarily for the reduced power consumption and increased vibration/shock resistance.

[Big Jonah]

Just found this.

http://www.karputer.co.uk/karputer.php

£1400.00, and it does every thing, DVD's sat nav (inv Europr software) Win XP, radio tuner, wireless keyboard & mouse, bluetooth etc.

And fits in a single DIN space!

Considering PDA based GPS system and a decent head unit will cost £700.00 easy, and does every thing I want, seems ok....

[Morr]

Just found this.

http://www.karputer.co.uk/karputer.php

£1400.00, and it does every thing, DVD's sat nav (inv Europr software) Win XP, radio tuner, wireless keyboard & mouse, bluetooth etc.

And fits in a single DIN space!

Considering PDA based GPS system and a decent head unit will cost £700.00 easy, and does every thing I want, seems ok....

Yea, but apart from £1400 being shed loads more money than I could afford at the moment, I reckon at least half the fun is in designing and building it yourself. Somehow I doubt I'll get it into a dingle din slot tho.

[DGraham]

Has anyone done this in a 2nd gen surf?? has anyone an pics or Info??

Thanks,

[wibblywobbly]

Not trying to be cocky but....

Yea, but apart from £1400 being shed loads more money than I could afford at the moment, I reckon at least half the fun is in designing and building it yourself. Somehow I doubt I'll get it into a dingle din slot tho.

Wouldn't a laptop do all of this and take up a lot less space? In would probably slide straight under the seat. I assume that the LCD screens will run off a 'TV out' from the laptop. The SatNav software will run on the laptop and you only need a USB receiver and a power inverter (all cheap on Ebay).

Ok, so you might have to forego the touch screen but the rest should all be there? The big plus is that you can take the laptop out of the Surf and use it as normal.

Mind you, I find that the free map book that I got from the RAC when I joined 4 years ago is almost as good!

Cheers

Rob G

[Morr]

Wouldn't a laptop do all of this and take up a lot less space?.......

Yep, you're quite correct, in fact you could still u could still have the touchscreen facility using a laptop with and external monitor.
For me there are however still other reasons for going the normal PC components route.
As I say, the fun and the challenge of building it.
The use of standard PC parts makes it far more economical to build initially and to upgrade/repair/replace in the future.
Greater availability of available upgrades due to availability of PCI slots etc.

Just my 2 cents.

[truckarms]

Hey guys for all of you interested in getting a in dash (single din) vga touch screen for about 250 quid (price still to be finalised) drop me a PM/email,
I am in the process of trying to sort out a few samples from this firm
vga in dash

I Currently have a 2nd gen with a travla mini itx with a VIA EPIA M10000 (i think cant remember now) with just an indash tv screen and the picture is no good so want to upgrade, just been sorting the funds out.
Cheers

[wibblywobbly]

Now even I am getting intrigued

Hey guys for all of you interested in getting a in dash (single din) vga touch screen for about 250 quid (price still to be finalised) drop me a PM/email,
I am in the process of trying to sort out a few samples from this firm
vga in dash

I Currently have a 2nd gen with a travla mini itx with a VIA EPIA M10000 (i think cant remember now) with just an indash tv screen and the picture is no good so want to upgrade, just been sorting the funds out.
Cheers

Now I have a question, I have a trusty Dell 2650. Nice laptop though it is, it doesn't have a TV Out socket, but it does have a VGA lead. Having read the spec on the mini-screens, and bearing in mind that the appeal is SatNav, am I correct in thinking that this will not be a problem??

In other words, if I am running a VGA screen, do I need to worry about the PAL/NTSC spec on the mini-screen?

Cheers

Rob G

[4 Runner]

In car PC

Here is a German company that makes PC for cars

http://www.karpc.de

Also another good form for in car PC is

http://www.digital-car.co.uk/forum

4 Runner

[Morr]

Now I have a question, I have a trusty Dell 2650. Nice laptop though it is, it doesn't have a TV Out socket, but it does have a VGA lead. Having read the spec on the mini-screens, and bearing in mind that the appeal is SatNav, am I correct in thinking that this will not be a problem??

In other words, if I am running a VGA screen, do I need to worry about the PAL/NTSC spec on the mini-screen?

Cheers

Rob G

Correct, using the VGA (ie normal monitor) output from your laptop will give you the best possible picture quality, assuming of course its going to a proper VGA screen such as those mentioned above. Using a TV out would result in a degraded picture at a lower actual resolution that any you can normally select on your PC, making it hard to display text or fine detail with any decent level of clarity.

[truckarms]

I agree with morr, using vga will give you the best picture, I have been using a standard indash tv that you can buy off ebay and the s-video out on my computer, the picture is not very good, and you have to use a very large font to be able to read anything.

[Morr]

Hey guys for all of you interested in getting a in dash (single din) vga touch screen for about 250 quid (price still to be finalised) drop me a PM/email,
I am in the process of trying to sort out a few samples from this firm
vga in dash

I Currently have a 2nd gen with a travla mini itx with a VIA EPIA M10000 (i think cant remember now) with just an indash tv screen and the picture is no good so want to upgrade, just been sorting the funds out.
Cheers

BTW, that looks like a great deal, motorised, in-dash, VGA and touch for 250! If only I had a few shillings to spare...

[surffreak]

have a look www.mini-itx.com and have a brouse at their projects page.one of these systems could be put together for about £400 upwards.