Thread: carputer for miata

The Opus 150W will easily power all that. The Celeron is a low power processor anyway, and the 150W Opus has been used by others on P4 2.8GHz and faster systems.

I personally can't recommend the Lilliput, as the newer Xenarcs are much better for text, and general use, have less glare and are built to a higher standard than the Lilliputs.

The old adage stands true: "You get what you pay for"


Garry

Originally Posted by brandt

Hi, first post.
I drive a 93 mazda miata...

That and does anyone have any suggestions for in-house security for such a bold move...seeing as how it's a convertible.

If I get this off the ground, i'll be sure to post pics of the final setup. Thanks

I'm working on putting a carputer (with touchscreen and the works) into my 97 miata. in fact, back in '99 when i was putting a carputer into my camry, i was searching around on the net for LCDs and such and the first carputer i found on the net? you guessed it - a miata. apparently the tunnels on either side of the trunk are ideal locations to mount computer parts, as they are pretty well shielded from everything, especially on the left side behind the fuel filler lines (unless you have a roll bar like i do, which case the rear braces for the roll bar take up a lot of these tunnels).

security... shortly after i got the car, i installed a clifford alarm myself. i added a bunch of goodies like multiple shock sensors, a radar type proximity sensor, and a few other little custom triggers, including mercury switches. the alarm brain is buried so deep in the car that whoever wants my car is gonna have to take the whole thing with a tow truck. but before they figure that out, while the thief's head is up under the dash looking for the alarm brain or ignition kill circuit (neither of which are actually in the dashboard of my car), a 120dB siren inside the dashboard will be making his ears bleed.

so far so good. i got the miata in 2002 and replaced the back window only because it was turning brown and cracking. i have the prox sensor set up so that if someone's within a foot of the cabin (top up or down) it will give a couple warning chirps, and if they actually touch the car or reach inside (top down) it goes off full blast.

i'm only marginally concerned about putting a "bling bling" screen into the miata. i'm trying to make it look as boring and unattractive as possible once it's actually in there. i hope that when i'm done, it basically looks like i don't have a radio, rather a blank black panel in the radio opening. at least, when the screen/pc is off. my next biggest concern is going to be the screen washing out with the top down on a bright day (which is most of the time around here). so because of that, i'm gonna try to recess the screen into the dash a little ways so that the dash itself will provide a bit of shade to both protect the screen and to keep it readable on bright days.