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There are quite a few places in Australia, USA and UK that you can get complete computer systems specifically for cars...

A Complete ready made system works out cheaper and easier at the end of the day, but you can save money by building and sourcing parts yourself but not that much and that is a heap to do to catch up to the specifically made car pc systems out there, in built everything...

http://www.incarcomputers.com.au

http://www.in-carpc.co.uk

http://www.gizmosis.com.au/

http://www.mini-box.com - complete bare bones systems including internal car specific power supplies

http://www.downtown.com.au/hpc1013.htm

http://carcpu.com/

http://www.xenarc.com/product/index-pc.html

http://www.cappuccinopc.com/ - just mini pc cases and systems

http://www.cartft.com/ - Car Computer Parts & software - A system builder matrix - Best layout and most complete systems...

Edited by 75coupe
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And also a quick question on monitors.

Has anyone found a good place, bar ebay, to source 7" touchscreen lcds, be it lilliputs, xenarcs or others!

Thanks

I got mine from pandainnovations.com, i think they were a bit cheaper than other online stores.

yay this thread is alive again!

Hydie, may i ask what you are using for GPS if you are!

Cheers

And also a quick question on monitors.

Has anyone found a good place, bar ebay, to source 7" touchscreen lcds, be it lilliputs, xenarcs or others!

Thanks

Haven't even tried GPS yet, but will be using either iGuidence4, or MapMonkey. MapMonkey is apperently easier to integrate with RoadRunner, the frontend that i'm using. Up-to date Australian maps will be the largest hurdle im expecting.

As for LCD's, I highly recommend Vastute.com or Mobile Computing Solutions. Both usually have sales on eBay, which is where i got my Lilliput through Vastute for $269 delivered. :)

I have been in contact with MCS, they are an international company, BUT, they have got a sales person in Australia, so you can email them and ask for his details, which in turn, im sure you could get it cheaper without paying some of postage costs from the USA.

Haven't even tried GPS yet, but will be using either iGuidence4, or MapMonkey. MapMonkey is apperently easier to integrate with RoadRunner, the frontend that i'm using. Up-to date Australian maps will be the largest hurdle im expecting.

I'm running RoadRunner with MapMonkey... give me a hoy if you need Australian maps. ;)

  • 2 weeks later...
  • 1 year later...

Apologies for bumping an old thread, but the images were still on the server, I just had to edit all the BBcode. Since I did all that work, its going up here for future reference.

Hey hey,

Started this project a little while ago, and now that its done thought I'd put some pictures up...

Basically I originally wanted sat nav in the car, but when having a look at the prices I kinda thought that it was a bit much just for sat nav, and I checked out what other possibilities there were… GPS usb receivers :(… I then decided that I’d just get a computer in the car and that could run everything, as in sat nav, music and whatever else (if there would be anything else)… Used the MP3Car forums heaps to get a good idea of how others had done it and designed my own little PC…

Hardware:

Via EPIA Mini ITX Motherboard (1.3Ghz)

M2ATX power unit

1Gb Ram

80Gb SATA Hard Drive

USB GPS Receiver

7” Touch Screen

Software:

Windows Xp

RoadRunner

FreeDrive

Winamp

Started off with the screen… I bought another dash surround so that I wouldn’t have to drive my car around for weeks/months without a dash :P

gallery_22969_1095_401040.jpg7" Touch Screen 1

gallery_22969_1095_40527.jpg7" Touch Screen 2

gallery_22969_1095_60552.jpg7" Touch Screen 3

Took the screen apart so I could mould the front of it to the dash and once finished I could screw the rest of the screen straight to the dash, the idea was that I wanted it to look like one piece, and that the same time there is no way you could steal unless you broke the screen…

For it to fit nicely under the climate control I had to cut part of the dash at the bottom, also has to take a couple mm off each side.

gallery_22969_1095_434893.jpgDash 1

gallery_22969_1095_232526.jpgDash 2

gallery_22969_1095_19312.jpgDash 3

gallery_22969_1095_240718.jpgDash 4

Once I got it fitting nicely in the dash I used Araldite to glue it in and the used putty to bog up the sides and sand it back to make it look like one piece.

gallery_22969_1095_55681.jpgDash 5

gallery_22969_1095_300122.jpgDash 6

This came out pretty good, so I put it in for painting…

gallery_22969_1095_216735.jpgPainted Dash 1

gallery_22969_1095_271286.jpgPainted Dash 2

When I got the dash back, I popped the screen back into it and with the moving/playing around with the dash over the next couple days the front of the screen that was glued to the dash cracked and eventually with a little bit of force it came apart completely. Took some advise from someone in Bunnings and got it plastic welded to the dash… this time before I puttied it all up and made it look good again a gave it some severe testing to make sure it wouldn’t crack again (sorry no pics of this part…)

While the dash was getting re-painted I started to build the case. I wanted to build it in aluminium, but cost and putting it all together (or bending it) just put me off using it… I used persplex instead :)

I wasn’t too sure where I wanted to have the case, couple of options… in the boot, under the seat behind the screen (in the dash)… Decided to go with fitting it under the seat, so I made a model of the case and had it under the seat until I realised that every time I went over a bump I could feel the case, so scraped that and decided to put it in the dash… Took the dash apart and again made a model of what I wanted it to be like and made sure everything fit nicely then made the case…

gallery_22969_1095_106188.jpgCase 1

gallery_22969_1095_95853.jpgCase 2

gallery_22969_1095_462341.jpgCase 3

gallery_22969_1095_404202.jpgCase 4

Note that its actually sitting the other way around now, can see this in a later pic…

At some point in time while I was making the PC I got the dash back…

gallery_22969_1095_201391.jpgFinal dash

When I was happy that everything was going to fit nicely I finished the case and installed all the software on the machine… tested everything to make sure it would work. As I had the dash back and I’d put it all together I was running it on the 7” screen to see what it would give…

gallery_22969_1095_106412.jpgCase 5

gallery_22969_1095_165817.jpgCase 6

gallery_22969_1095_211877.jpgCase 7

gallery_22969_1095_363168.jpgCase 8

gallery_22969_1095_373178.jpg7" powered off car pc

Finally got to the stage when it was all ready to go in… spent a good couple hours messing around with it all to get it to fit like I wanted… (very tight fit J) cables everywhere in the pic but was nice and neat once it was all in…

gallery_22969_1095_403208.jpgmess!

Put the dash back in and bingo…

gallery_22969_1095_289938.jpgFinal setup 1

gallery_22969_1095_304041.jpgFinal setup 2

Pics aren’t the greatest and the glove box still on in on the pic… once I have given the interior a good clean might take a final pic and post it…

At the moment ironing out a few little issue… the main one is sound… playing only MP3s on the hard drive (have 2 USB ports so this is how I add music etc when needed)… the prob with MP3s are the recording levels they are recorded at.. some songs sound awesome, others sound like c#@p! just trying to find some other 3rd party software that will regulate the output of the sound… but yeah… apart from that everything is working sweet… :D

  • 3 weeks later...
I got win 7 on my incar pc, its doing good atm, might run into trouble because microsoft blows, haha

A very cut down, basic version of Win XP is all you need. I dont understand the point in putting a newer OS in there. It's not like you're connecting to the internet, or using any of the advanced functionality of Win7. WinXP is a hell of a lot faster, more hardware and software works with WinXP anyway..

Only legitimate reason I can think of is Vista & Win7 handle hibernate/resume a bit better and dont mind being run for 6 months without a full reboot, but thats it..? Any other reasons why you're putting Win7 on there?

its my compatiable with the mouse volume scroller i have, and the touch screen is more responsive with windows 7, the boot times and stuff isnt that different anyways cos i got such a high powered computer in there... i use to for internet purposes aswell so 7 is best for what i use it for

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    • perhaps i should have mentioned, I plugged the unit in before i handed over to the electronics repair shop to see what damaged had been caused and the unit worked (ac controls, rear demister etc) bar the lights behind the lcd. i would assume that the diode was only to control lighting and didnt harm anything else i got the unit back from the electronics repair shop and all is well (to a point). The lights are back on and ac controls are working. im still paranoid as i beleive the repairer just put in any zener diode he could find and admitted asking chatgpt if its compatible   i do however have another issue... sometimes when i turn the ignition on, the climate control unit now goes through a diagnostics procedure which normally occurs when you disconnect and reconnect but this may be due to the below   to top everything off, and feel free to shoot me as im just about to do it myself anyway, while i was checking the newly repaired board by plugging in the climate control unit bare without the housing, i believe i may have shorted it on the headunit surround. Climate control unit still works but now the keyless entry doesnt work along with the dome light not turning on when you open the door. to add to this tricky situation, when you start the car and remove the key ( i have a turbo timer so car remains on) the keyless entry works. the dome light also works when you switch to the on position. fuses were checked and all ok ive deduced that the short somehow has messed with the smart entry control module as that is what controls the keyless entry and dome light on door opening   you guys wouldnt happen to have any experience with that topic lmao... im only laughing as its all i can do right now my self diagnosed adhd always gets me in a situation as i have no patience and want to get everything done in shortest amount of time as possible often ignoring crucial steps such as disconnecting battery when stuffing around with electronics or even placing a simple rag over the metallic headunit surround when placing a live pcb board on top of it   FML
    • Bit of a pity we don't have good images of the back/front of the PCB ~ that said, I found a YT vid of a teardown to replace dicky clock switches, and got enough of a glimpse to realize this PCB is the front-end to a connected to what I'll call PCBA, and as such this is all digital on this PCB..ergo, battery voltage probably doesn't make an appearance here ; that is, I'd expect them to do something on PCBA wrt power conditioning for the adjustment/display/switch PCB.... ....given what's transpired..ie; some permutation of 12vdc on a 5vdc with or without correct polarity...would explain why the zener said "no" and exploded. The transistor Q5 (M33) is likely to be a digital switching transistor...that is, package has builtin bias resistors to ensure it saturates as soon as base threshold voltage is reached (minimal rise/fall time)....and wrt the question 'what else could've fried?' ....well, I know there's an MCU on this board (display, I/O at a guess), and you hope they isolated it from this scenario...I got my crayons out, it looks a bit like this...   ...not a lot to see, or rather, everything you'd like to see disappears down a via to the other side...base drive for the transistor comes from somewhere else, what this transistor is switching is somewhere else...but the zener circuit is exclusive to all this ~ it's providing a set voltage (current limited by the 1K3 resistor R19)...and disappears somewhere else down the via I marked V out ; if the errant voltage 'jumped' the diode in the millisecond before it exploded, whatever that V out via feeds may have seen a spike... ....I'll just imagine that Q5 was switched off at the time, thus no damage should've been done....but whatever that zener feeds has to be checked... HTH
    • I think Fitmit had some, have a look on there (theyre Australian as well)
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