Thread: New Project w/ 2002 Toyota Corolla S

Wow, I'm glad I stumbled across this forum while I was looking for more information on products for making a carpc. I've been reading up on this forum for a while now and trying to get everything together for me to get started with this project of mine.

Basically I would love to hear anyone's input on what I'm considering to build.

I have a 2002 Toyota Corolla S (one damn year short of the larger model) which I want to make into my carpc. I'm still debating between an in-dash monitor or to build one to hold the screen. I do like the idea of being able to hide the monitor, however I'm a little concerned about which monitor to get since I saw on some of the in-dash versions the vga input was a little round cable that you attach to a vga adapter (such as the Liliput 701PCT). I never actually used a device like this or even seen one so I'm just worried about the quality to be able to read texts and whatnot.
It'll be in the common place, the center of the dashboard,



If I get an in-dash monitor I'll swamp out the stock CD changer near the air vents and put the monitor there.

I'm going to be using an emachine M5309 to run everything. Haven't really decided where I want to put it yet. Maybe the trunk, or I might see if there is enough room behind the dash somewhere since I'm not planning on taking it out or anything.

I have a wireless pci card for the laptop that I'm going to see if I can hack into adding an external antenna.

I do have a handheld Magellan GPS that I'm going to try to sell since I never use it and buy a GPS receiver for the laptop.

I would like to get the rooftop antenna that I can use for the GPS and wireless but I haven't seen a GPS when a connection for the antenna. Any idea what kind of GPS would that be?

Would be getting that mini-keyboard for the PS3 to use with this system. As well as some USB game controllers to run some emulators.

All of the above I'll do for sure. I was also messing around with a few ideas such as removing the laptop screen and using it to make a roof mound display for the passengers in the back. Might also add a webcam to see out the back window while the screen is down since it'll cut off all my view.


My main concerns are only these,

Which display to get
How much power I'll be taking from the system and how to wire everything so I don't burn up my car
How to attach the sound to the stereo

I'll appreciate anyone's input to help me get this project into gear quickly so I can start ordering parts to make the system.


2002 Toyota Corolla S all stock with CD changer and radio

Emachine M5309
Windows XP Home
CPU: Mobile AMD Athlon™ XP-M 2500+ Processor QuantiSpeed™ Architecture operates at 1.8GHz
266MHz Front Side Bus and 512K L2 Cache Display: 15.4" Widescreen TFT LCD WXGA (1280 × 800 max. resolution)
Memory: 512MB DDR SODIMM (PC 2100)
Hard Drive: 80GB HDD
Optical Drive: DVD/CD-RW Combo Drive

Video: ATI® RADEON™ (Integrated)
64MB DDR shared video memory
Sound: PC2001 Compliant AC '97 Audio
Built-in Stereo Speakers
Internet: Linksys wireless pci card
Ports/Other: 3 USB ports, 1 VGA external connector, 1 Parallel Port, 1 S-Video Out, Microphone In, Headphone/Audio Out, PCMCIA Slot (Card Bus type I and type II)
Dimensions: 1.36"H x 14.0"W x 10.0"D
Battery: 8-cell Lithium-ion (Li-ion)


Soon to buy:
Touchscreen display
Laptop auto shutdown/startup system
GPS reciever (if able to sell my Magellan explorist 500)
Mini-Keyboard
Webcam
Whatever little gadget that interests me!