cables to front of car?

etrik · 04-19-2001, 06:03 PM

ok, i have my setup working well installed in the center council of my car but now i was offered a new car that i really want ('61 checker superba

) for a really good price. my problem is how do i run all the cable from the trunk to the front. i now i can just get an extension for the mouse and serial (irman, gps) but what about the parallel (lcd), the vga (tft), the ide (dvd), and the power to run it (right now i tap into my dc-dc atx psu)? any help would be greatly appreciated.
etrik

Arby · 04-19-2001, 06:20 PM

Heh, I've never even heard of this car before, so I went and googled.

Heh. An old car with a modern computer in it

As to moving it to the trunk, just extend the wires. You can buy extension wires for everything you listed.
http://mp3box.2y.net/installation.html

Arby · 04-19-2001, 06:21 PM

Oh, except the ide DVD is debatable. You might want to install that near the trunk and use a normal cable. There's a thread about that, so search for it.

etrik · 04-19-2001, 08:59 PM

yep thats the car

. except the one im getting is a really light pink (almost white). thx for the info.

smashr2k · 04-19-2001, 09:26 PM

ummm... in MOST cars, there is a sorta "wiring conduit" on both sides under the doors. there is a small panel you should be able to remove.. now on that old of a car, i dont know. you should definitly give in and buy a 1967 Shelby Mustang GT500 Fastback

Caviar · 04-19-2001, 11:21 PM

yo etrik,

go to this page and then click on DVD.
its says to use cat5 to extend the IDE wire to the front.

NuBooJew · 04-19-2001, 11:50 PM

Caviar.... err..

There's no link...

CapnMatt · 04-20-2001, 12:01 PM

I'm REALLY not sure that even cat5ing an IDE cable makes it okay to run it that far. I understand twisted pair could improve the signal degridation over the length, but that's an awful long trip for IDE data. It might work, but I'd be really afraid of data loss.

If this does work for anyone, even partially... setting the drive type to the lowest PIO mode possible (and NO DMA) in the BIOS might make the distance more forgivable? I think the little IDE cables we have now might be pushing it with these new DMA/100 speeds.

Using SCSI is just too expensive, it offends my sense of value in this project. USB would be PERFECT, but it's TOOOOO SLOOOOOW.

Anyone know anything about firewire? Distance? IDE->Firewire converters? humph.

-M

NuBooJew · 04-20-2001, 01:01 PM

Actually seeing as CAT5 is rated for speeds in excess of 1000mbs (re: gigabit over copper) it should work just fine!

I have a friends whose tried it with a cd-rom and he told me it works beautifully over 10'. But I would like to see more setups before I attempt it

Dartman111 · 04-20-2001, 04:33 PM

I don't think that the CAT-5 would be the problem, it would be the strength of the signal sent. Sure CAT-5 can handle a gigabit, but that is probably a much stronger signal so it isnt affected as much by interference. If there was a way to increase the strength of the signal at one end and decrease it at the other, that might work.

NuBooJew · 04-20-2001, 05:26 PM

Ok.. Sorry I misunderstood the post!

There are signal repeaters/amplifiers but they're not exactly cost effective

etrik · 04-20-2001, 07:20 PM

smashr2k: if you can find me a shelby for sub $4000.00 then please let me know.

caviar: can you please post the link.

i will try anything at this point. ive put too much time and money into this for it not to work in my new car. thx for all the info everyone!
etrik

PatO · 04-20-2001, 11:01 PM

I read about someone using Octal Drivers to amplify IDE signals. It didn't matter what type of cable you used (IDE, CAT5). I don't remember the example page, but I have a link to the driver schematic and a good place to pick these things up. Each one amplifies 8 wires, so you'd need 5 for an IDE cable. They cost about 50cents apiece, so no big deal.
http://www.fairchildsemi.com/ds/DM/DM74LS244.pdf
http://www.web-tro nics.com/webtronics/ls244.html

External USB IDE case (pricey...)
http://www.startech.com/parts/HARDDRIVE.htm

NuBooJew · 04-21-2001, 12:09 AM

The usb is unfortunately useless due to its speed limitations (for DVD that is).

You coud check out a firewire (ieee-1394) drive. I know the G4 has an internal firewire port but I dont know if anyone produces an internal firwire DVD drive....

On the other hand if I remember correctly 1394 boards are EXPENSIVE

Caviar · 04-21-2001, 12:27 AM

how freaking stupid of me.........here is the link, sorry
http://www.winwood.net/~oacar/faq/

there is not much on that page though ... doesnt explain in detail.