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Hiya,
Nice to see someone else local on the boards!
OK, then your best bet is a touchscreen mounted in a proper location, such as the Lilliput or Xenarc/Gain, from www.linitx.com, this also allows you to control the laptop/PC without the keyboard/mouse.Originally Posted by Jinx
If you get two mounts from www.dashmount.co.uk which will be suited to each car it should make moving the screens between the two cars quite trivial, along with the laptop wires. Ideally you'd have room for your laptop under the seat, using a laptop DC-DC power supply plugged into the lighter power socket to make moving between cars easy.
You'll need to check if it has a USB/Serial connection that outputs standard NMEA data. Alternatively, look for a GPS mouse of EBAY (BU303 from Hong kong, approx £30) which you can keep in the cars permanently.
Have a look at Destinator or MS MapPoint with something like VOICES on top for in-car use. If you're looking for something a little cheaper, Navigator 4 is also a good bet (http://www.pcmediastore.co.uk/)
The above depend on how you want to use the system. I've had the Ford TIS equivalent on mine, but took it off because I don't need it. I'd assume it's the kind of thing you put on and use in emergencies; once again the storage and journey diary is the kind of thing I imagine you can do in normal Windows while the car is stationary, or in the hotel room etc.
Have a look at Frodoplayer or MediaCar, even VOICES as a touch screen front end to make it easy to control the music while on the move.
You can either chop the laptop up and wire in an extra power button, alternatively, use it's standby mode and configure it so you can wake it just by tapping the touchscreen.
Laptop HDDs are usually tougher than desktop HDDs; I use a desktop HDD in my car PC and it's survived driving over a brick some tw*t put in the road in the underpass by the Swan, Cov road if you know it; and general pot-holes on roads out past coleshill on my way home.
Yeah I know, second hand laptop prices are stupid!
You could consider building a proper Car PC. If you go into WH Smiths tommorow, you should be able to pick up a copy of Custom PC magazine, which features my car over 8 pages and has a two page How To Build a Car PC, in which they have basically written all the best advice they've read on these forums to tell you how to get a decent set - up running. The entire of my setup cost around 800 quid, including screen and bits for audio, GPS etc
Sounds good. If you're looking to move the setup between two cars you will end up with maybe one laptop and two sets of everything else - the car audio integration and engine monitoring are often model/manufacturer specific (The ELM scantool that's very popular on these boards comes in different version for different manufacturers, if you have a standard stereo, something like the Connects2 AUX in adapter will do you proud, but you'll need a different kind for each car as far as I know) and items like revering camera require a lot of wiring in, drilling to look as if they are standard.
HTH
Steve
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