tempgp

well it was 105F here in NY, surprisingly my Via M10000 was working jsyt fine along with TM868 monitor. (my comp is in the trunk)

However my home comp stoped wotking caz HDD got overheated

I dont use AC in car nor at home.

So i guess my car pc assembly is much more stable compared to regular desctop tower

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joe_p

A quick anecdote.

I have had a Fujitsu Stylistic 3400S tablet mounted in my car for the past 3 years, two of that in southern California, and the past year in south Florida. Windows are non-tinted.

The machine sits on a post in front of the dashboard at present. Over the years, the machine has been rained on (it's a convertible), it has moisture condense upon it every time I leave the top down at night in the summer, it has direct sunlight shining on it all day when I'm parked at work with the top down, it suffers through immense heat when parked outside at the airport for weeks on end (sunlight on a black convertible top = really quite hot), and is subjected to pretty serious shock and vibration, as it's rigidly mounted to the floor and my car's suspension is quite stiff.

For the most part, everything still works perfectly.

The battery gives about 5 minutes of runtime from a full charge, but then, it's the original. 5 minutes is plenty of time to hibernate, so it's not a problem. When it is very cold (say, 40°F or below) the display is dim, but has never completely failed to energize. The touchscreen is somewhat unresponsive, however this is sort of a known issue with these. When I hit a particularly hard bump, the display will occasionally go on the fritz, requiring a reset. This happens once every month or two, on average. The hard drive, surprisingly, is still error free and performing perfectly. Likewise, the external connectors (power, USB, PCMCIA) have suffered no corrosion and still work perfectly.

In other words, it seems no worse for wear for a computer that is nearly ten years old.

The only downside is that the supposedly outdoor viewable screen isn't all that good. When I have the top up on the car, then it's great. With the top down and sunlight hitting the screen, it's difficult to read. Impossible if I have sunglasses on. For a hardtop car however, it would be fine.

joe_p

A quick anecdote.

I have had a Fujitsu Stylistic 3400S tablet mounted in my car for the past 3 years, two of that in southern California, and the past year in south Florida. Windows are non-tinted.

The machine sits on a post in front of the dashboard at present. Over the years, the machine has been rained on (it's a convertible), it has moisture condense upon it every time I leave the top down at night in the summer, it has direct sunlight shining on it all day when I'm parked at work with the top down, it suffers through immense heat when parked outside at the airport for weeks on end (sunlight on a black convertible top = really quite hot), and is subjected to pretty serious shock and vibration, as it's rigidly mounted to the floor and my car's suspension is quite stiff.

For the most part, everything still works perfectly.

The battery gives about 5 minutes of runtime from a full charge, but then, it's the original. 5 minutes is plenty of time to hibernate, so it's not a problem. When it is very cold (say, 40°F or below) the display is dim, but has never completely failed to energize. The touchscreen is somewhat unresponsive, however this is sort of a known issue with these. When I hit a particularly hard bump, the display will occasionally go on the fritz, requiring a reset. This happens once every month or two, on average. The hard drive, surprisingly, is still error free and performing perfectly. Likewise, the external connectors (power, USB, PCMCIA) have suffered no corrosion and still work perfectly.

In other words, it seems no worse for wear for a computer that is nearly ten years old.

The only downside is that the supposedly outdoor viewable screen isn't all that good. When I have the top up on the car, then it's great. With the top down and sunlight hitting the screen, it's difficult to read. Impossible if I have sunglasses on. For a hardtop car however, it would be fine.

trader007

this caught my attention, because more then a few times already i have noticed how well the new EBY701 sunlight readable budget monitor works in the sun, with sunglasses on. it is a few levels above anything else on my dash or radio, very surprising for basically the cheapest 7" touchscreen out there with 'transflective' properties.


ABOUT THE TRUNK COOLING-

i do not understand the need for a peltier in this case. they consume too much power and work very poorly in open air- they are more suited for direct-chip cooling or liquid cooling, and even in those applications they are inefficient at best.

what you are trying to do is cool the ambient air to the point where the heatsinks that are on the chips themselves can directly cool the hardware.

i would just make a simple induction vent from a cool low spot on the car- one that couldnt let water in even if your car is undercarrige washed. outside air may get to 50c, but that is plenty cold enough because you are constantly feeding it, and the moisture in the air evaporates too- that gives you better cooling. this way, your entire cooling system would be powered by the computer. with a peltier setup, one large enough would likely need external power... meaning it would only be on if your car is running.

the exhaust could be the same, if needed at all.. but if your hardware cannot handle ambient air cooling i would get better hardware honestly.

or, you could even do what your car does- and put a watercooling system on your motherboard and hardware. have the radiator in the front grill...

joe_p

Well, it's a ten year old machine that was not exactly cutting-edge when it was new. I've recently purchased a slightly-used transflective Lily (not sure of model #) which I'm expecting to arrive early this week. Very anxious to see how it turns out- hopefully I'll finally be able to retire the ole' Fuji.




Heh. Actually, you reminded me of a setup I saw once by one of these fellows who is just fanatical about overclocking cheap CPUs. The entire motherboard (and all related hardware) were placed in the bottom of a rectangular fish tank which was filled with mineral oil. The mineral oil was then circulated through a common household freezer.

No reason you couldn't enclose the machine in a watertight ABS enclosure and pump the mineral oil through a small heat exchanger in the front of the car.

Well, one reason I can think of, but that would presume that this whole business of putting computers in the car was grounded in sanity to begin with.

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