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Billsy's Car Pc


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I have finally got my car pc installed and working :D I thought I would post some pics to show how I did it and hopefully help others. At present it’s only got music, videos and games (N64 emulator) but I am currently looking into satnav, reversing camera, Bluetooth phone control and GPRS internet.

Here’s some daytime shot’s

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Here’s the spec so far:

LinITX Plus 7" VGA/Composite Monitor with Touch screen mounted in a modified facia plate with CNC machined aluminium insert.

Carnetix CNX-P1900 140W Dual Output PSU

Travla C158 Mini-ITX Case

Via Epia SP13000 Nehemiah Mainboard

120 GB Seagate Barracuda SATA 7200rpm 8MB cache HDD

512MB PC3200 RAM

Panasonic Slot Loading DVD/CDRW

Alpine 4 Channel Amp

To get:

GPS receiver

Reversing camera

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The first job on the list was to make the aluminium insert for the facia plate. This pic shows the blank loosely fitted

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The next pic shows the insert fully machined and being trial fitted in the dash

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Then lots of filling and sanding

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The LCD circuitry was stripped out and mounted on a piece of plastic

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Our Kenwood toaster had to give its life for that bit of plastic :whistling:

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After some primer and a few coats of satin black, this is the result

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Back

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Bottom

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The PC and amp are in the boot so as you can imagine the hardest job was wiring it all up. Any way after double checking all the connections, I switched on the ignition and it fired up first time….amazing.

What do you guys think?

Billsy

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You've done a really good job there. Well done.

Fargo has his in the same place. Looks just right there.

Anees was one step ahead though - he never used the bits FROM his toaster, he actually turned his INTO a toaster a few times :lol::lol: It wasn't his fault though to be honest. (Sorry Anees, please don't poison my Jaffa cakes)

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Dear gord that looks amazing!!you gonna b at the jap show next weekend?once again amazing! how did you make/fashion the alu face plate?

I was wondering that too - you've done a very good job. Was it pressed in?

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Looks very nice .......... looks just like Alex's ... (ukazn) ........ I'm not too sure about the noticeable colour variation between the A/D controls and the screen though ..... I'm fussy like that !

Nice computer specs ........ well done! :D

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You've done a really good job there. Well done.

Fargo has his in the same place. Looks just right there.

Anees was one step ahead though - he never used the bits FROM his toaster,  he actually turned his INTO a toaster a few times  :lol:  :lol:  It wasn't his fault though to be honest. (Sorry Anees, please don't poison my Jaffa cakes)

Thanks Geoffers that made me laugh out loud (sorry Anees). Just what I needed as I'm in work for 12 hours today and so the number of replies I do depends on my pocket pc Battery.

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Anees was one step ahead though - he never used the bits FROM his toaster,  he actually turned his INTO a toaster a few times  :lol:  :lol:  It wasn't his fault though to be honest. (Sorry Anees, please don't poison my Jaffa cakes)

:shifty: You better double check anything I offer you now..... :lol::lol::lol:

That looks absolutely brilliant....I mean seriously good. :D :D

Your touchscreen is in the ideal place for using it too. Personally I'd change the Road Runner skin to the Brushed Metal one, but that just me being fussy.

Are you an engineer or something to access to a CNC machine?

So you've completely replaced your headunit? If so, what are you going to do about radio? I know that the USB radios you can get to use with Car PC's are not supposed to be very good and can have driver issues which may prevent hibernation.

Good Luck with GPS software mate. I'm pretty disappointed with most the stuff available for PC - I just wouldn't trust it to get me where I want to go - unlike Tom Tom 5. A Europeon verson of iGuidance has been released which looks good (but no postcode routing) but it will integrate nicely into Road Runner and can be skinned. Routing is good too apparently. Expensive however..maybe if a few of us split the cost we could try it out..... :whistling:

If your getting a GPS make sure you buy one that uses the SiRFIII chipset. LinITX have a new GPS mouse that uses the new chipset.. ;)

If your after a reversing camera the best one I've seen (and I mean BY FAR) is the one Prolex/Geoffers are currently testing. It blows any of the camera I have off eBay out of the water! Expensive compared to the eBay cameras but definetly worth it. Can't wait to get mine. I have played about with the LinITX screen you have too and it is impressive. Really bright nice colour, clear and the touchscreen drivers are exactly the same as the ones for my Xenarc. Only thing I found was that at certain angles the image had a slight greenish tint, but you wouldn't notice that in the car.

Well Done..It is really impressive. :D :D

Anees

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Thanks for all the comments so far everyone.

Vinokirk and Geoffers I machined the ali insert on a cnc machining centre at work (hope my boss doesn't read this). I'll post a picture later when I get home. The insert was a tightish fit so was just glued into the AutoLeads facia then filled over, sanded and painted. Oh and I had to drill and tap the rear of the insert to take the screws for the circuit plate

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Very nice indeed :), did you replace the cars speakers too?

Cheers Brettster. I think I will need to replace some speakers cos don't the front and rear's have different impedence's on the IS/Altezza? And I'm sure I read somewhere that they should be the same when using a 4 channel amp?? I'm getting plenty of bass but mostly from the rear.

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Looks very nice .......... looks just like Alex's ... (ukazn) ........ I'm not too sure about the noticeable colour variation between the A/D controls and the screen though ..... I'm fussy like that !

Nice computer specs ........ well done! :D

Yeh I'm not very happy with the colour variation either. I need to re do it when I have the time. Can anyone recomend a paint that is a better match?

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Anees was one step ahead though - he never used the bits FROM his toaster,  he actually turned his INTO a toaster a few times  :lol:  :lol:  It wasn't his fault though to be honest. (Sorry Anees, please don't poison my Jaffa cakes)

:shifty: You better double check anything I offer you now..... :lol::lol::lol:

That looks absolutely brilliant....I mean seriously good. :D :D

Your touchscreen is in the ideal place for using it too. Personally I'd change the Road Runner skin to the Brushed Metal one, but that just me being fussy.

Are you an engineer or something to access to a CNC machine?

So you've completely replaced your headunit? If so, what are you going to do about radio? I know that the USB radios you can get to use with Car PC's are not supposed to be very good and can have driver issues which may prevent hibernation.

Good Luck with GPS software mate. I'm pretty disappointed with most the stuff available for PC - I just wouldn't trust it to get me where I want to go - unlike Tom Tom 5. A Europeon verson of iGuidance has been released which looks good (but no postcode routing) but it will integrate nicely into Road Runner and can be skinned. Routing is good too apparently. Expensive however..maybe if a few of us split the cost we could try it out..... :whistling:

If your getting a GPS make sure you buy one that uses the SiRFIII chipset. LinITX have a new GPS mouse that uses the new chipset.. ;)

If your after a reversing camera the best one I've seen (and I mean BY FAR) is the one Prolex/Geoffers are currently testing. It blows any of the camera I have off eBay out of the water! Expensive compared to the eBay cameras but definetly worth it. Can't wait to get mine. I have played about with the LinITX screen you have too and it is impressive. Really bright nice colour, clear and the touchscreen drivers are exactly the same as the ones for my Xenarc. Only thing I found was that at certain angles the image had a slight greenish tint, but you wouldn't notice that in the car.

Well Done..It is really impressive. :D :D

Anees

Thanks Anees

I know what you mean about the positioning of the screen it's ideal. I use the brushed metal skin at night it's a bit dark for daytime use I reckon

Yes I'm a self employed CNC programmer by trade.

I might look into radio I'm not that bothered really. The original jap stereo was crap at radio and I didn't really mis it.

I to have been spoilt with tom tom on ppc. I'll have a look at iguidance and get back to you on that one. Thanks for the headsup on the new gps chipset

Anyone got a link to the prolex reversing camera? save my gprs!

Thanks again Anees

Billsy

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Could you take an original piece of fascia trim to a hardware store that does paint matching (a bit like Dulex et al do in B&Q)?

They just scan it and mix you up a batch.

I'm sure hammerite or another large 'industrial' brand would have the capabilities somewhere.

Worth a try? :)

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Well done on the install there, looks like a professional job, and well worth the effort. It's good to see people doing things like this themselves rather than taking it to Audio/Visual shops and have someone else do it for them. I'm impressed, and the craftsmenship is shown clearly in those photos.

Keep up the good work, and let us know of any developments. :)

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