Thread: My Aussie Car PC System

Hello All. I am brand new to this forum and I thought i'd start off by showing you all my project that I've been working on.




I reside in Melbourne, Australia. I've always wanted to setup a fully functioning pc in a car. I had the chance as I was able to purchase the parts reasonably cheap.

You don't see too many Aussie cars in here so i though i'd do a first. There's a Ford.. Now It's time for a Holden.. It's most feared rival!

I own a Holden Commodore VX Wagon and I thought I'd install a big stereo system and car pc.



The computer bits:

I bought a Epia 800mhz motherboard system which I figured would play my videos and mp3s well. I am still experimenting with frontends. So far it seems to run alright. I bought a 80 gig Maxtor hard drive which seems to cope ok in the glovebox with bumps considering I have a lowered car with stiffer shocks.

I purchased a Pioneer RCA Input so I can jack the computer directly into the head unit. Sounds way better than a modulator.

I purchased a 80 watt Morex brand 12V Power supply for the project which will power a normal sized hard drive and the motherboard and all other goodies i plug intot he USB such as 54 meg wireless.

I installed wireless so I can pull up in my driveway and it will connect auto to my Access point and I can remote control it via VNC and upload more mp3's and videos to the pc. Alternatively I can plug a Ethernet cable in and copy much faster to the pc.

The screen I bought cheap off ebay. It's no means the best you can buy. I had to hard mount it to the dash until I eventually upgrade to a fold away in-dash screen. I am waiting for the Liliput In-dash touch screen screens. Easy to remove or get stolen, yes but by budget leaves me with little choice at the moment. The cord you can see if the USB mouse. I will swap this over for my USB thumb IR device so It will be hidden and controlled by remote control.

The following are pics of my project as they progressed. I have included pictures of my building of the Sub woofer box for the Kicker Subs also. Let me know what you all think.

This is the best pic i have been able to get of it so far all setup and working.



(The thumbnail pics having problems but most of the pics are still there)
Sorry about the pics. I took many of them at night and they came out a little blury.. You get the idea though.



If you have any questions as I had to find a lot out by myself because nobody realy has a very good documentation on making a full car pc I will be happy to share any information with you.

http://www.cardomain.com/id/vxwagman

and pics here:

http://home.alphalink.com.au/~nbaxter/carpc/