2002 Mazda Protege

**Doodsmack** · 07-07-2004, 11:57 AM

The case you see isn't finished yet. Soon it will have a panel for buttons/LEDs/ports and plexiglass on the front.

VIA EPIA M-10000 w/ 1 ghz C3
Maxtor 80GB
Lite-On DVD-ROM
256MB PC2100
OPUS 150 watt
DWW-7VGA
SS2000CSS (rear-view camera)
Sony CDX-MP80 head unit

Windows XP Pro/Media Engine/Street Atlas USA 2004/8,000 mp3s

**lgbr** · 07-07-2004, 08:59 PM

Not bad.

But if I'm in the passenger seat, where do my feet go?

**Avalerion** · 07-07-2004, 09:27 PM

Holy Crap! You gutted your Protege!

I just got my Opus 150, so on Saturday I'll be installing it in my 2000 Protege. I tried pulling out the glovebox to see if there was any room... I don't see how you can fit it in there.

A few questions:

How did you manage to hang that sucker upside down?
Where is the hard drive?
Did you think about removing your passenger airbag to put the carputer inside?

Is that an in-dash housing holding the LCD? (I bought the ProClip set since I couldn't find a better way.)

**Doodsmack** · 07-08-2004, 09:47 PM

There's actually plenty of leg room when the seat is put back.

Avalerion - The case we built is an extremely tight fit. The hard drive is behind the power supply, where you can see a round IDE cable going...the parts are just bolted to the case in the locations they're normally mounted to a standard tower. I thought about putting a PS2 in the passenger air bag location w/ plexiglass to replace the panel that pops off to let the air bag out. The computer is in a good location though because the A/C blows on the back of the case.

**dbzeag** · 07-16-2004, 05:07 AM

Hey fellow Protege owners!

I was thinking about cutting out the CD compartment insides in the center console and mounting the system in there and run the wires through the center tranmission tunnel.

I am going to mount the screen in the DIN slot and I thought I could fit the Eden board behind it. Stupid fuse box! Then I thought I could put it in the glove box but of course there isn't a flat surface in that thing

I was going to go for 100% continued use of the passenger space and trunk space, ie no intrusion of the system into usable space. The Protege just doesn't let you do that very well

Keep me posted on how well you guys are doing.

**Avalerion** · 07-16-2004, 07:41 AM

I just put it in the trunk. Make life simpler. The Protege doesn't have the most room inside the dash. My idea is to take out the passenger air bag - who needs it?

**dbzeag** · 07-16-2004, 07:58 AM

Originally Posted by Avalerion

I just put it in the trunk. Make life simpler. The Protege doesn't have the most room inside the dash. My idea is to take out the passenger air bag - who needs it?

I wanted to save as much space in the trunk as I could. And I want to access the DVD drive from the driver seat (that means 36" max from the motherboard location). And I would like to keep the VGA cables shorter than 15', so the trunk might be too far back.

**Katya** · 07-16-2004, 08:05 AM

How much are you looking to spend? I'm starting work on mine this weekend and I plan to fit it all in my dash. But I am using all laptop drives, M10000, small power supply, and sticking a USB hub in the glove compartment. I'm going to see if I can mount the DVD-RW under the ashtray. I've got an extra bezel to mount the screen in. I also don't want to give up the trunk space or mount under the seat since I autox and you can't have anything loose and I don't want to have to remove it. As it is, I'll probably have to mount an amp under the passenger seat since I'll be going headless.

**dbzeag** · 07-16-2004, 08:12 AM

Originally Posted by Katya

How much are you looking to spend? I'm starting work on mine this weekend and I plan to fit it all in my dash. But I am using all laptop drives, M10000, small power supply, and sticking a USB hub in the glove compartment. I'm going to see if I can mount the DVD-RW under the ashtray. I've got an extra bezel to mount the screen in. I also don't want to give up the trunk space or mount under the seat since I autox and you can't have anything loose and I don't want to have to remove it. As it is, I'll probably have to mount an amp under the passenger seat since I'll be going headless.

Well, I have side air bag componants under my seats so I can't use a conventional case under there. I was thinking about mounting the DVD drive under the ashtray, too.

How were you putting the system in the dash, though? In a double din case?

**gameboy** · 12-26-2005, 10:48 PM

Originally Posted by dbzeag

I wanted to save as much space in the trunk as I could. And I want to access the DVD drive from the driver seat (that means 36" max from the motherboard location). And I would like to keep the VGA cables shorter than 15', so the trunk might be too far back.

an external usb drive case would work for longer runs