Thread: 2007 Camry CarPC - Australia

Ok ppl, I haven't made much progress this weekend due to other commitments. I have, however, managed to find time to do a dress rehearsal, so to speak. I've put the car PC together inside the case and I'm looking for suggestions. Below are some pics, with questions at the end of the post.


Here's the system, showing the HDD and cooling fan on top. (I plan to mount the HDD on a small metal shelf inside the case.)

A close-up of the HDD, fan and M2-ATX.

Here, taken from the opposite side, you can see the back of the M2-ATX. Note the molex connector on the bottom left which will be used to power the Lilliput LCD.

Questions:

1) Should I use a blower fan to extract heat from the case, or should I use a cooling fan to blow air in the case? I plan on using no more than two fans. The CPU already has a fan, so one case fan or blower fan is fine.

2) Any criticisms of the positioning of components (apart from the HDD and fan just sitting there on top.) The HDD will be mounted properly in its current position on a small metal shelf, or maybe just metal brackets. I've got some rubber grommets to put around the screw holes so it will reduce HDD vibration. The cooling fan will need to be positioned such that it can cool the PSU effectively (or extract heat from the case). Any ideas?

By the way, the metal flaps shown behind the M2-ATX will be cut/shaped to allow for easy mounting of the M2-ATX.

Regarding the installation of the Lilliput, I've pulled the factory headunit out and after doing some measurements, I've found out that I have enough space in my dash to mount the car PC and in front of the car PC, I can let the Lilliput sit there in its original casing. All I'd need to do is wire it up correctly, and push the double-DIN fascia into place, and that will hold the Lilliput in place. Might sound a bit dodgy to some, but I reckon it might just work. Again, any suggestions, fire away

Originally Posted by MeeM

1) Should I use a blower fan to extract heat from the case, or should I use a cooling fan to blow air in the case? I plan on using no more than two fans. The CPU already has a fan, so one case fan or blower fan is fine.

I'd suggest checking the flow of the CPU fan and matching it with the case fan; that way they work together. If the CPU fan is blowing down onto the CPU, make the case fan blow into the case; if the CPU fan is pulling air off the CPU, make the case fan pull that heated air on out of the case.

Originally Posted by MeeM

2) Any criticisms of the positioning of components (apart from the HDD and fan just sitting there on top.) The HDD will be mounted properly in its current position on a small metal shelf, or maybe just metal brackets. I've got some rubber grommets to put around the screw holes so it will reduce HDD vibration. The cooling fan will need to be positioned such that it can cool the PSU effectively (or extract heat from the case). Any ideas?

Just remember the hardest bump you've ever gone over, and design your mounts for more than that. Shock mounting is a great idea.

Originally Posted by MeeM

Regarding the installation of the Lilliput, I've pulled the factory headunit out and after doing some measurements, I've found out that I have enough space in my dash to mount the car PC and in front of the car PC, I can let the Lilliput sit there in its original casing. All I'd need to do is wire it up correctly, and push the double-DIN fascia into place, and that will hold the Lilliput in place. Might sound a bit dodgy to some, but I reckon it might just work. Again, any suggestions, fire away

That's sort of the Nirvana of monitor installation: putting it in case and all. If all you're using to hold it in place is pressure, you can augment that with Velcro placed a bit back from the edges of the bezel. It's completely removable later on, and is an added measure that provides more hold and a bit of cushioning. Once agin, "jounce" protection is crucial; make sure you have good vertical-motion support in mounting the Lilliput to the chassis, and it will likely be fine.

Hey all.

Today I pulled out the workbench and began to make the double-DIN chassis. Since I'm using two single-DIN chassis units, it's not too difficult to put it all together. I've stacking them on top of each other, with the top unit's floor removed, and the bottom unit's ceiling removed. Today I pulled out the centre console and tried to mount the double-DIN chassis in the centre console brackets. Initially I had made the screw holes in the wrong positions, so when I put it together, the whole chassis was sticking out of the dash about one inch. I realised my mistake and made new holes, and the chassis now fits fine. There's enough room behind the chassis for cables to be plugged in to the motherboard, and there's enough space in front for the Lilliput.

Tomorrow, I plan to finish off the chassis by joining the side pieces together. Remember, the side pieces of the top single-DIN unit need to be joined to the side pieces of the bottom unit. They bolted together internally with short nuts and bolts so as to minimise the risk of electrical shorts. I'll post pics of the empty chassis when it's done. While I'm at it, I'll also make holes for the motherboard mounts (I'll be using some risers, 8mm I think), and if I get time, I'll make a start on the PSU mounting and HDD shelf.

Alrighty folks, today I pretty much completed the fabrication of the double-DIN chassis for the car PC.

Here's the front of the chassis. You can see some of the motherboard risers:

Another front view:

And a view of the rear. This is where the motherboard ports will be:

Regarding the risers, I initially used silicone to hold them in place (hence the gooey look of the areas around the risers). They seemed to hold quite well when I mounted the motherboard in place, but I felt it needed some additional support, so I bought some epoxy bond and applied some of that to the risers and it has helped somewhat.

Also worth noting is that I will be sticking some anti-static film to the bottom of the chassis. This will prevent the underside of the motherboard from contacting the chassis.

The hard drive will be mounted on a couple of hinges with rubber grommets. It's very steady and the grommets seem to provide ample cushioning.

I'm interested in mounting a secondary temperature sensor to monitor the overall car PC temperature but the motherboard doesn't cater for a temperature sensor (other than the one for the processor).

Anyways, over the next few days I hope to finish building and testing the car PC, but I anticipate that my other commitments may come in the way of this endeavour.

i love how you got all the components in the case..... looks nice. I do have to say though that on some of the pictures, I noticed parts making contact with parts of the PSU. Make sure there is a slight gap between the MoBo and the case underneath, and same with the PSU. You don't want to have a short and kill something.

Thanks for the suggestions. Yeah, The risers the motherboard are 10mm high and I've put a sheet of anti-static film under there for extra protection. I've also cleaned up some of the wiring around the PSU so that nothing makes direct contact with it. The PSU is also mounted with a couple of risers. I guess this is the caveat when working with a metal enclosure, but it's still fun nonetheless

So far, I've mounted all the components in the case, apart from the hard drive. I need to connect up the PSU to the motherboard and then connect it all up in the car for a test run.

I have one slight problem. I want my LCD to turn off when I turn the key in the "off" position. I searched this forum the other day and found a circuit diagram which explained how to do this with a relay. I bought the relay, but it doesn't say which pins are which. Below is the relay diagram, followed by a diagram of my relay (the photos of my relay come up blurry for some reason):

My relay (12V 2 amp) looks like this from the underside:

If someone can please point me in the right direction, I'd appreciate it I figured now that I'm going to put the system into the dash, I might as well integrate this relay circuit as well.

UPDATE: I think the pin with the red dot corresponds to pin 30.

Nice work mate, The relay pins shown are for a standard Automotive Relay that you can pick up from Jaycar for about $5 and probably a bit more at Dick Smith. You could get a Bosch one from any automotive outlet, I get this electrical stuff from a guy on the corner of Moss Street at the Highway end in Slacks Creek. I bought them for about $6-8 the other day. Some relays have 2 x pin 87's for driving lights (one for each light) and some have a pin 87a instead which is a normally closed connector. This link might help map your relay to the automotive pinout.
http://www.teamrocs.com/technical/pa...lay_basics.htm

I am using an OPUS power supply and I power the monitor from that which looks after the startup/shutdown of the LCD as well. Xenarc support told me it is best practice to use regulated power to power the monitor. If the MT-ATX2 has enough grunt, you'd be better off picking up power from it.

As far as mounting the CD, I have yet to tackle that bit but I purchased an armrest from a wrecker and plan to mount it in the armrest which forms the lid of the Toyota Hilux console. The tray will come out to the rear. I've got a Buffalo unit on hand I picked up for $100. Good brand with a 3 year warranty. Made by Uniden. Got it at Myer one day but Harris Technology also sell them (Fortitude Valley)

Looking good though. The idea of using the car radio cases is a good one. The Toyota radios are terribly unreliable. Mine did not even last the first CD after I drove it off the showroom floor.

By the way if you need to get some plastic welding done I used Peter at C&P plastic Repair in Nujooloo Road, Slacks Creek. He opens at 7:00 am so I sneak in there before work. He charged me $30 for what he did for me.

Originally Posted by rodweb

Nice work mate, The relay pins shown are for a standard Automotive Relay that you can pick up from Jaycar for about $5 and probably a bit more at Dick Smith. You could get a Bosch one from any automotive outlet, I get this electrical stuff from a guy on the corner of Moss Street at the Highway end in Slacks Creek. I bought them for about $6-8 the other day. Some relays have 2 x pin 87's for driving lights (one for each light) and some have a pin 87a instead which is a normally closed connector. This link might help map your relay to the automotive pinout.
http://www.teamrocs.com/technical/pa...lay_basics.htm

I am using an OPUS power supply and I power the monitor from that which looks after the startup/shutdown of the LCD as well. Xenarc support told me it is best practice to use regulated power to power the monitor. If the MT-ATX2 has enough grunt, you'd be better off picking up power from it.

As far as mounting the CD, I have yet to tackle that bit but I purchased an armrest from a wrecker and plan to mount it in the armrest which forms the lid of the Toyota Hilux console. The tray will come out to the rear. I've got a Buffalo unit on hand I picked up for $100. Good brand with a 3 year warranty. Made by Uniden. Got it at Myer one day but Harris Technology also sell them (Fortitude Valley)

Looking good though. The idea of using the car radio cases is a good one. The Toyota radios are terribly unreliable. Mine did not even last the first CD after I drove it off the showroom floor.

By the way if you need to get some plastic welding done I used Peter at C&P plastic Repair in Nujooloo Road, Slacks Creek. He opens at 7:00 am so I sneak in there before work. He charged me $30 for what he did for me.

On my setup I have alot of stuff that has their own power regulators so I connected then all to direct 12V power. I then placed a relay on the 12V line, and connected that to the PSU 12V line. Basically when I turn on the PC, it activates the relay and all the devices turn on. This keeps me from maxing out the PSU. I too have a OPUS, and currently it powers the MoBo, Front screen, Sirius XM, HD Radio, and the relay.

On my setup I gutted the center console in the front and placed the XM, HD Radio, Line Selector, TV tuner card, HDTV card, and two 7 port hubs. I also placed the DVD ROM in there facing upward. All I have to do is flip the console open and there is the DVD.

Thanks for the replies guys.

I bought my relay from Jaycar. It's SY-4066 ... not automotive, but it's spec suggests it's more than adequate to do the job. I just looked at my Jaycar catalog and for each relay, it shows the internal schematic, i.e. where the coil is and where the switch contacts are. So I compared the schematic of an automotive relay to that of my relay and I was able to work out which pin is which. In all honesty, it wasn't much different to the way I was going to connect it up to test anyway ... but I figured I'd rather be safe than sorry

So today's plan is to mount everything in the case. I've also begun modifying a molex connector I found in my junk box. I'll be soldering the barrel connector onto it, and I'll have to wire it up to the relay. Instead of leaving the relay uncased, I might solder it to a PCB and solder the wires onto the respective pads, and then mount the said PCB inside a small translucent plastic case and mount that on my car PC case at the back.

Thanks for sharing your DVD mounting ideas. Believe it or not, there is room under my car PC inside the console to fit my DVD drive. The problem is I'll have to cut a thin slot in the fascia in order to load/unload the CD, and I'll need to mount some sort of eject button on the front. Between the bottom edge of the fascia and the bottom edge of the double-DIN opening, there's about 22 mm of plastic. The hole for the CD will need to be 2.5 - 3 mm in my opinion. I doubt I'd be able to do it myself so I might enlist the services of your plastic welder or someone else in Slacks Creek ... considering I live five minutes from there and it's like an automotive enthusiast's heaven

HiJackZX1, I like your setup. The DVD mounting is a neat idea. I was thinking of mounting my DVD drive in my glove box. I mostly listen to MP3s and they'll all be on my hard drive, so I'll only need the DVD drive occasionally for an audio CD or DVD, so I figured it's not too bad if it was mounted in the glove box. But I'll see how I go with the centre console idea.

Will post pics of everything mounted in the case before I mount it in the car.