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Anees's Car Pc Thread - Advice And Info


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Paul didn't want to do the plastic fab work... he pulled it off after alot of persuation ;)

Its easy... take your time and be patient :)

Thanks guys! :D :D (Blind faith is underated! :lol: )

Since my car doesn't have Sat Nav I really want use the Sat Nav housing and put the screen in there. I WILL FIND IT ONE DAY!

Ofcouse Paul didn't have this option since he already had Sat Nav so made that great integrated screen.

I really would be scared of pulling my car to bits!

I am pretty much clued up and sorted on the PC side - its the CAR side that I am not as clear on. I don't even know how to install a stereo! :blush:

I don't fancy asking on the MP3Car side - they are not as helpful and usually just shout search - hence that fact that I only have 13 posts on there! :lol: This is much nicer :)

I'm sure your Mini Mac will be ace!

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Paul didn't want to do the plastic fab work... he pulled it off after alot of persuation ;)

Its easy... take your time and be patient :)

indeed mr singh, after much persuation from you i went and had a go.... :D

dotn worry abotu takingthe car apart, it really is straight forward. have a go,, you're be surprised.

think of it as a big PC case.. basically all you need to do is runn the wires front to back.

i have a word document on installing a touchscreen into a oem nav housing.. pm me your email addy and i'll send it..

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Looks really amazing.  With the dual monitor support, could you have a screen in the standard nav location for navigation, and another where Fargo has his for selecting songs?

Ian

Ian :D

The plan eventually will be to have the CentraFuse front end for me the driver (in Sat Nav housing) and have have two monitors in the headrests for passengers so that they can select and watch the movie/dvd/tv show of their choice. I can use a VGA splitter to run the same image to the two monitors at the back.

Not sure how the sound would work - may need a second sound card. Ideally the passengers should listen to their selection with headphones and the main car speakers should play whatever MP3 I am playing up front.

Its just an idea at the moment, need to work out the details but hopefully I should be able to pull it off (with some help ;))

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Standard Battery should be fine if your using the opus,I had all sorts running from mine and it never failed me.

there's now a propper DC-DC solution for the mac mini. so if funds come back my way i may get on with it :)

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Thanks for the help Brettster :D Didnt' fancy spending that much on a Battery!

I am really ready to get the PC in the car - the screen won't be mounted in the Sat Nav housing until I can get one!!

Now before I go on i must state that from this point forward - I KNOW NOTHING ABOUT CAR ICE!!

The Opus wiring seems pretty simple (from manual):

wire.jpg

Wire the 3 pins DC input power connector.

Pin 1: Battery Positive. Use RED color # 12 AWG automotive grade wire.

Pin 2: Ground or Battery Negative. Use Black color # 12 AWG automotive grade wire.

Pin 3: Ignition or Switched Battery. Use Yellow #18 AWG automotive grade wire

What's this AWG wiring it is taking about? Never heard of it before. Where would I get it from?

The diagram shows a fuse - how do I know what rating I need? I assume I will need a fuse holder and some way of securing the wires to the Battery?

Would this be ok? https://linitx.com/product_info.php?cPath=8...products_id=588

How am I supposed to connect pin 3 to the Ignition?

How long are the wires supposed to be?

Any tips on running the wires from the back to the front?

Thanks :)

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AWG im not sure what it means but its to do with the thickness of the wire(4 being much thicker than 20 and so on), the wires on the 3 pin plug to the opus are about the thickness they suggest you use. I used a 10amp fuse with mine, got 2 very thick wires for the + and - fitting fitted the fuse to the + wire pretty close to the Battery terminal, I then crimped on some loop terminals to the wires and bolted them to the car Battery terminals the other other ends of the wires were soldered to the opus plug. the 3rd wire I ran to the cig lighter as thats only active when the ignition is on, this wire doesnt have to be so thick as its only used to switch the opus on and off to boot up your pc or wake it up (I used to use the sleep mode for my car PC without any issues).

Getting the wires from the front to the back is quite easy, you may have to cut into the rubber grommet in the bulkhead below the Battery, this will let you get the wires into the cabin behind the glovebox, from there you can run them under the door sills all the way behind the rear seat where you will find some nice holes to poke your wires thru.

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Thanks for the replies. :D

I was talking to a friend of mine and he said why can't I just use normal main cables to connect the OPUS and the Battery since this can carry 240v and is alot cheaper then the cable for sale at places like LinITX!

I couldn't see a good reason why not? Surely this is too easy and sensible to work? :lol::hehe:

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tis all about current vs conducter size vs length vs resistence.

also mains cable is rated at 13amps, so make sure you put say a 5amp fuse inline.

if i remember rightly double the conductor size will increase the resistence but allow more amps..

you could use mains cable for this but WHY, unless you got mains cable sitting around, you may aswell go to maplins or RS and get a more suitable cable, i used the cables from an amp wiring kit (from ebay) this has a decent size earth and power cable along with a nice fuse and holder.

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Plan to connect OPUS Power Supply to Car Battery

Thanks to Fargo’s link I have learnt that 8 AWG is thicker and better insulated then 12AWG. The lower the number the thicker the cable. I seem to be able to get 8WG easier so I may as well just use 8WG cable.

Pin 1: Battery Positive.

Battery Terminal connector

http://linitx.com/product_info.php?cPath=8...products_id=586

Fuse Holder

http://linitx.com/product_info.php?cPath=8...products_id=586

Fuse

http://linitx.com/product_info.php?cPath=8...products_id=587

8AWG Cable

http://linitx.com/product_info.php?cPath=8...products_id=589

Thinking that 5m cable will be long enough!

Pin 2: Ground or Battery Negative.

Earth terminal:

http://linitx.com/product_info.php?cPath=8...products_id=591

8AWG Cable

http://linitx.com/product_info.php?cPath=8...products_id=590

Just going to get a 1m cable – since the PC will be in the boot I hope there is something I can ground to such as a bolt.

Pin 3: Ignition or Switched Battery.

Remote cable:

http://linitx.com/product_info.php?cPath=8...products_id=592

As Brettster suggested I can connect this wire to the cigarette lighter.

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Getting the wires from the front to the back is quite easy, you may have to cut into the rubber grommet in the bulkhead below the battery, this will let you get the wires into the cabin behind the glovebox, from there you can run them under the door sills all the way behind the rear seat where you will find some nice holes to poke your wires thru.

I had a look at the car today and tried to see how I would run cables! :D

Is this the rubber grommet I am supposed to cut into to run wires from the Battery to behind the dash?

Would using a metal coat hanger be the best way to get the wires through?

I managed to take the plastic around the door sills off too (its a big thing for me! :D)

I assume the wires will come in through the fuse box at the passenger side?

I also managed to take out the area around gearbox.

Not worked out how to run wires to the space under the heated seat controls however - I need to run a USB cable and power here for my DVD drive? :question:

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yes thats the Rubber Grommet I used, I just sliced into it with a knife (carefully) and poked them thru, the thickness of your cable means you wont need a coat hanger

you can get wires to the seat heat buttons from either behind the radio or from under the center console where the gear stick is, there's a couple of screws under the arm rest and a couple on the sides then the whole lot lifts out. its very easy to hide wires in the IS

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yes thats the Rubber Grommet I used, I just sliced into it with a knife (carefully) and poked them thru, the thickness of your cable means you wont need a coat hanger

Cool....thanks mate!

Taking my car to bits is worrying but satisfying at the same time! :lol::lol:

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yep, agree with brettster..

however when yuo run the power cables, i suggest you remove the seats so that you can get access to further under the carpet so that you can run the cabel on the very bottom of the floor, unde the thick sound deadening material, you will also see that there are some nice holes in the seat suppporting cross member on the floor to pass the cable through.

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This is a great thread and I must admit it's got me thinking about a Carputer.

Is there any way you can get the sound from your PC being played directly to the car speakers without going through your existing stereo?

Anees is keeping his stereo, I was thinking of getting rid of the stereo altogether (if possible). :unsure:

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short answer ifraz...no. well not without lots of hassle.

if you keep the oem headunit then simply get the AUX input from prolex (once the oem connectors come in)

if your going to fit an aftermarket headunit then make sure it has AUX input then simply plug into there.. thats what i have done. easy peasy..

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short answer ifraz...no. well not without lots of hassle.

if you keep the oem headunit then simply get the AUX input from prolex (once the oem connectors come in)

if your going to fit an aftermarket headunit then make sure it has AUX input then simply plug into there.. thats what i have done. easy peasy..

Ah...I see. So I'll need to use a headunit of some description. :yawn:

Did SteveAudioX ever market his motorised screen?

Thanks for the quick response. ;)

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Guys, :D

I am waiting for LinITX to get a fuse and a Battery terminal holder instock then I will order the wires.

To power the Xenerc screen I want to run it off the OPUS PSU so the power is nice and regulated. To go this (according to Chris@LinITX) all I have to do is cut the end off a Molex connector, strip the yellow wire and the black one next to it and extend these cables for as long as I need. Then to connect to the OPUS I cut the end off the cigarette ligher adapter, strip the wires and join with the red and black off the Molex connector.

Does +ve or -ve matter with these cables?

I had a look on the marking on the molex connecot wires and it says 20AWG on them. I need to get about 4 - 5m of 20AWG wire to extend the length of the power supply.

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I had a play with the Dual VGA features at the weekend. I installed a a great piece of software called UltraMon that allows great control of dual screen setups.

I had CentraFuse running on my Xenarc with a movie playing in VLC Player on a spare 15" TFT I have.

It was really cool :D

The obvious problem with this setup is sound however, I'll probably need a second soundcard and applications where I can choose which sound card the sound should be played through.

Not a big issue at the moment since I don't plan on using this feature for a while (have to save up for headrest screens).

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