Some notes on my carputer's progress. Comments? *WITH PICS*

Bailey · 01-15-2005, 10:42 PM

Any advice welcome!! (Please! Before I drill holes tomorrow

Fitting the MII, Opus, and 2.5" in the CD changer case will not be a problem. I need to cut the back of the case for the I/O panel and an exhaust fan. I also need to figure out how I'm going to secure the HDD to the case. I haven't booted it up yet, and I probably won't until I get everything mounted in. Anyways, these are just some little annoyances I need to clear up... I hope some of you can help.

Mounting the 2.5" hdd. Does anyone have any *FACTS* about mounting a hard drive? I'm not looking to start a 10 page war over whether I should use rubber bands or mount it vertically or whatever. I'm just looking for tips on how to mount it. Please only comment on this if you know what you are talking about.. (ie: Ph.D in hdd mounting from Harvard Univ)

Since I'm making a custom case I need to create a 3 pin connector for my Opus's 3 leads for quick disconnecting when I need to unseat the carputer. I looked around at radioshack but I couldn't find what I needed. I almost settled on buying a "disk drive power extension cable" (see http://tinyurl.com/6dh5x) so I could mod it to my needs, but then I realized that it may not be rated to the amount of power I need from it (there were no specs). My 12v, GND, and ACC-ON cables will be routed through it. Does anyone have a better solution?

I'm going to need some additional USB ports. For that I will add a low profile 4 port PCI USB2.0 controller that I have lying around. All of these devices will probably send me over the limit on my Opus 90w's 5v rail, which is too bad.. I guess I'll be shopping for an Opus 150W soon.

The case may have to be mounted using industrial strength velcro stuck to the bottom of the case. Would this be a bad thing? I'm not concerned with the case becoming unstuck, I am concerned with vibrations.

USB Device Layout...

MII Onboard PCI controller
.USB1 radioSHARK AM/FM
.USB2 GPS
.-
.USB3 Soundcard
.USB4 WiFi 802.11g
USB 2.0 PCI Card 4 Port
.USB1 4pt Hub (going to front of car)
..Lilliput TS
..Keyboard (sometimes)
..Card reader (sometimes)
..Etc ??
.USB2 Griffin Powermate

Sorry for the crappy cell phone pics. I had no batteries for my digicam.

The MII and the 2.5"

Another angle

The Opus screwed into the top of the case

Looking inside the rear of the case (Opus up top, hdd on left, MII on right)

Front of the case. Sliding door is open. It will glow red with a cold cathode tube.

Closeup of above.

Dead space around the 2.5" hdd

PatO · 01-15-2005, 11:21 PM

Congratulations! Are you nervous!?!?! It's a wonderful feeling getting this far....

Couple of suggestions:
While I don't have a Ph.D in mounting hdd's, I have had 2 mounted in computers, each with well over 1 year of use with no problems. Mount it vertically - screwed directly to the case. Of course, I've used full-sized hdd's. Notebook drives are more rugged, but if a full sized drive survies years mounted vertically, a notebook would last all that much longer.

Boot it up BEFORE you install it!!! Lay everything out on your kitchen table and plug the sucker in. Put it through the paces. Pull the batt from your car if you have to. You need to verify that things work before you start working with power tools in close proximity to computer components!

Don't trust velcro. If that's what will be keeping it from taking a 3 foot dive to the road below, don't use it. If the computer could go flying across the car if you hit a pothole, don't use it. Bolts or bungee cords work much better! And I haven't had a problem with vibrations, potholes, tree stumps, mud holes, snow banks, -15f, +90f (+100f caused lockups), or other such things.

If your wheels are severely out of alignment and causing massive vibration, you may want to get that looked at, though.

If you add a CD-Rom, that would certainly be more susseptable to vibrations - I haven't put mine through the paces yet.

nFiniteTuning · 01-16-2005, 01:46 AM

You know...to tell you the truth...there is really nothing you can do to stray away from vibrations. Nice CD changer case btw...you got me in the mood finaly to do mine...my CD changer case has been sitting in the same spot for.........ever since I got it. but, do not mount it vertical....that would make the direction the arms move the same as shock...and would make it worst.

Also....it would be best to mount the motherboard on the other side...keep the side of the face free for hard drives...cdrom/dvdrom, anything else you would wanna put in this to make it fancy. I am installing a slot Panasonic DVD/RW in the door with my own custom carbon fiber face plate....and I'm also installing a really nice system monitor that will have a spectrum anylizer on it to play along with the music...it will tell me when I have email n what not. Not just the system speed, temp and stuff like that. Really fun stuff....all the USB and firewire stuff is being mounted around this so I can play games, since I have a shuttle xpc mobo with geforce and nview and nforce.

Car cd players are designed to play ahead of what they let you hear, so if they skip, it can fix the error before you hear any skipps.

PatO · 01-16-2005, 02:29 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by nFiniteTuning

do not mount it vertical....that would make the direction the arms move the same as shock...and would make it worst.

Would cause lockups, yes, but would save the platters from being gougued by the heads - thus, causing bad sectors.
However, as I said before, notebook drives tend to be more reliable than full sized drives. Need more input from other members...

nFiniteTuning · 01-16-2005, 02:42 AM

I have a laptop drive...but I dont wanna use it cause its 5400rpm

Teknoledgi · 01-16-2005, 07:56 AM

Whats wrong with 5400 rpm Laptop Drives?

Bailey · 01-16-2005, 02:45 PM

Mine is like 4200rpm, we'll see how it does. I think most are 4200rpm, and the laptops I've owned weren't so bad at all.

You're right I'm going to mount the mobo to the other side. I'm not planning on installing a CD drive inside but it will help if I want to in the future.

This is what it will look like when it is finished. The car came with a nice carpet cover and brackets to mount it to the car's body. PatO changed my mind about the velcro.

nFiniteTuning · 01-16-2005, 11:36 PM

I'm settin mine up for gamming, so I have to have mine in the glove compartment....

But hey, I got some news....I had these fans sittin around, I didn't know what they were, but the fins looked like they would blow some air....they looked really high quality. So I just put my CD Changer case to a air flow test exactly how I told you I was going to do it (one intake and one exhaust side by side to give a nice circular air flow patern......WOW!) I had to make some smoke and let the intake suck it in while I had a light inside....and the air flow rocks! It should cool the system off perfectly. I'm thinkin about doing research on air temp..cause I'm thinkin of bolting on a hose to the intake side, and modifying the hose to go through the dash and firewall into the vent area infront of my window....so it sucks in fresh air.....and have a air filter on it. So it sucks in cold air also....OR I might just have it go to the hole in the side that goes to the pass side fender...with a dust filter on it. After I get all crevices fully clean, and move into town, dust shouldn't be a problem. I have 3 fans, so I could probably put one fan at the end of the intake duct, and the other at the other end....just so the filter doesn't restrict the air.

nFiniteTuning · 01-16-2005, 11:39 PM

One more thing why you should install a cd or DVDrom.....you can rip mp3's instantly...say a friend has a cd you like, and you dont wanna buy it or download it, and he wont let you borrow it, just pop it right in, rip it, and update your playlist.

Bailey · 01-17-2005, 12:46 AM

Oh it will have a DVDROM, just not inside the case. I'm going to route it to the front of the car so I don't have to get out to swap discs.

What kind of smoke did you use? I always wanted to try some colored smoke to test air flow but I dunno where to get any that is safe for electronics... I wouldn't use cigarette smoke.

I tried putting the mobo on the other side, and it just doesn't look right. I'm probably gonna keep it the way it is, if I ever want to add a DVD drive I'll just drill new holes and move things around.

This question of mine wasn't answered, can someone comment on it?

Quote:

Since I'm making a custom case I need to create a 3 pin connector for my Opus's 3 leads for quick disconnecting when I need to unseat the carputer. I looked around at radioshack but I couldn't find what I needed. I almost settled on buying a "disk drive power extension cable" (see http://tinyurl.com/6dh5x) so I could mod it to my needs, but then I realized that it may not be rated to the amount of power I need from it (there were no specs). My 12v, GND, and ACC-ON cables will be routed through it. Does anyone have a better solution?

0l33l · 01-17-2005, 12:53 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by Bailey

What kind of smoke did you use? I always wanted to try some colored smoke to test air flow but I dunno where to get any that is safe for electronics... I wouldn't use cigarette smoke.

Besides being bad for electronics, cigarette smoke is also expensive