Thread: Pseudo-FAQ: What Do I Need For A Carputer?

I knew this has been addressed, I figured I'd go into a bit more detail. Most people that visit this site look at a $300 project and don't see the small things that go into it like extra wiring, not to mention the blood and sweat.

Tools
- pliars
- wire cutters
- wire stripper / crimper
- lots of screwdrivers
- flashlight
- full socket set
- hex keys

Computer - yes you can use desktop parts, but this FAQ is about doing it right.
- small case
- mini-ITX motherboard to save space and for low power consumption
- 80 hard drive for all those music videos
- 12 volt DC-DC power supply - this will take power straight from the battery as opposed to using an inverter which is the wrong way to go
- startup / shutdown controller to make it turn on / off with the ignition. Most DC-DC PSU will have these and be labelled as smart or intelligent.
- upgraded RAM. Windows XP requires about 512 megs.
- enough USB ports for your devices
- 4 5/8 inch screws
- 15 feet of red power wire
- 15 feet of white switched wire
- 15 feet of black ground wire

I bought the prebuilt Ampie computer from the mp3car store here. Basically all I did was upgrade the RAM to 512 and the hard drive to 80 gig. the rest is perfect for what I want, it comes with everything I listed above. If you want, you can add what I didn't and have Wi-Fi with a PCI card using the one PCI slot this board comes with, or even a radio receiver to continue using your radio. Basically just pop the computer together, load the software onto it, wire the red wire to the vehicle wiring harness for constant 12 volt, white wire to the harness for switched 12 volt, and black wire to the harness for ground. Screw it to your car with the screws or insurance won't cover it under theft.

Screen
- I went with the Xenarc 700TSV from the mp3car store
- No, you cannot use a regular flip out screen, it has to be VGA so the touchscreen will interface with the computer
- single female molex connector
- USB extension cable
- VGA extension cable
- 15 feet white power wire
- 15 feet black ground wire
- car specific dash mounting bezel
- fine tooth saw
- sandpaper
- double sided tape

Take the cigarette lighter adapter for the unit and cut the cigarette adapter end off. Strip back the wire jacket and you'll find a wire wrapped in a white jacket, and outside that will be just a bare wire. The wire in the white jacket is your positive and the bare wire is your negative. Using the 15 feet of black and white wire, extend these and run them to the yellow/black wires on your molex connector. Yellow is positive, black is negative. Plug these into an empty molex connector from your PSU and you're set. Then use the VGA and USB extension cables to plug the rest of your screen into your computer. Take your screen completely apart, tape the circuit board to the back of the screen with the double sided tape, put the screen in through the front of the dash, hack up the factory bezel so it'll lay over the front of it to cover the edges, and then use your vehicle specific double DIN bezel to lay over top of that and cover the edges of your hacked up bezel. Screen's done.

Speaker Amplifier - you need an amp, your sound card cannot power the speakers alone
- less than 50 watts per channel if you have stock speakers.
- 4 channel for all 4 speakers
- I went with the MTX 4244 4 channel 120 watt and it works fine.
- 100 feet colour coded speaker wire
- 3 feet of switched wire
- stereo harness specific to your vehicle
- amp wiring kit including at least 8 gauge red power wire with an inline fuse no more than 12 inches from the battery terminal
- at least 8 gauge ground wire, 12-14 inches in length
- 4 1 inch screws
- 2 1/8 to RCA Y adapters
- 2 ground loop isolators - must be compatible on one end with the Y adapters (male/femaile)
- nut
- bolt

Run the switched wire from the computer harness to the switched port on the amp so it comes on with the computer. Then run 12.5 feet of speaker wire for each speaker +/- making a total of 25 feet of wire for each speaker. Run all 100 feet for 4 speakers up to the front of the vehicle and connect them with their respective wires on the harness and make sure each is labelled/colour coded properly and grounded properly. Mine sounded like crap at first because I had one that wasn't grounded properly on the amp. Then run the power wire from the amp, through the firewall, and connect it with the battery. Then run the ground to bare metal and use the sandpaper to sand the metal prior to connecting the wire. IT HAS TO BE BARE METAL. Use the nut and bolt to connect it. Now that your amp's hooked up, let's get sound to it. Change your sound device to 5.1 output instead of regular 2 channel so that it makes 2 of the ports for separate front and rear output. And since they're both stereo, they give you left and right for a total of 4 channel output, 1 for each speaker. So plug the 1/8 end of each Y cable into the sound card on your computer (I used regular on board) and then each Y adapter goes into a ground loop isolator so your speakers don't make you want to kill yourself. Each ground loop isolator plugs its 2 RCA plugs into the 4 ports of the audio in on the 4 channel amp. Don't kid yourself, all the wiring for this amp was pretty expensive. Then screw it to your car with the screws or insurance won't cover it under theft.

GPS
- receiver - I went with the Holux 213 receiver from Ebay. It's cheap and works great.
- sticky velcro
- USB extension cable

Connect the receiver via the USB extension cable and place the receiver under either the front or rear window so it can see satellites. It doesn't matter if there's a layer of plastic between it and the sky so I put mine inside the dash and fixed it with the sticky velcro. The holux 213 is also magnetic so you can place it anywhere under the rear deck lid too I guess.

Software
- operating system - buy Windows or learn Linux. Or get a Mac.
- frontend - Road Runner, Fredo, there's lots on this board
- GPS - Destinator, iGuidance, there's lots on this board
- Skin - this overlays your operating system and is basically a GUI for easy media playing and GPS view. Whichever skin you choose, you should never have to leave it to access something.
- CD ripper - rip all your CD to your computer (why continue using discs?)

I installed Windows, stripped it using a website showing how to take out all the unnecessary stuff, installed Road Runner, downloaded the Steel Blues skin to run over that, got iGuidance to run in that, and used a ripper to rip about 150 of my CD onto my computer. You can use an external CD ROM if you like but I figured, "Why when I have 2000 songs?"

I'll continue to add to it as I finish up my system and as I remember where I spent $5 here and $10 there.