F-Body Ideas - Camaro and Firebird - Page 7

JasonWW · 06-30-2006, 01:03 PM

Sorry, I guess we only get 100. I'm used to a 200 limit.

Curiosity · 06-30-2006, 03:40 PM

I think the idea with putting it under the spare tire cover would be the easiest, at least to try first. One side or the other behind the rear speaker. Mine is just to the right of the instrument cluster at the top of the dash and works great. That instrument panel frame just pops off to push it up in there.

meissenation · 06-30-2006, 11:31 PM

I mounted mine right at the top left corner of my windshield, out in the open (as far as visibility is concerned, not out in the open to the weather.. it's on the inside of the windshield). Double sided tape, sticks well works well. Plus you get the fun of answering the "What is that" question when they don't realize the 7" screen in the center of your dash (when the carPC is off, atleast) is the screen for literally a full blown computer.

thine_èan · 07-21-2006, 03:55 PM

Has anyone tried putting solar panels (photovoltaics) between the T-Top headliner inserts, and the glass?

I don't drive my car often, even in the summer. (most of my travel is to and from work over frequently rough roads and in lots of traffic, why waste the car on that? That's the abuse the daily driver is for - if you can afford one, I had 2 3rd Gen T/As as daily drivers (only car) before I got this one, and this time I was adamant that I would have a second car and "do it right". lol)

I'm thinking that some solar panels might help the electrical system, and maybe even let it be useable more quickly, or perhaps help run a cooling/heating system so there is no delay.

As far as I know, one doesn't have to wait to use the OEM satnavs, nor should we have to wait to use our PCs (even for boot). This might be a way to get around that. (works out well for us since so many have T-Tops

)

FC3S · 07-21-2006, 04:08 PM

i dont think many solar panels that are cost-effective right now, can run anything for that long, and the size your talking about restricts the power output..

so keeping the pc on?, dont know if u can get that, maybe let it stay suspended if it doesnt draw too much, but, dunno too much about that idea, although if u connect it to your battery, you could leave it longer without having to worry about the battery draining so fast, lol

thine_èan · 07-21-2006, 05:24 PM

How much does it draw in standby? That's the kind of thing I was thinking of. Just enough power to keep the battery up by charging the battery to replace the trickle pull, via the panels.

JasonWW · 07-21-2006, 09:10 PM

Using S3 suspend/STR my PC takes about 6 seconds from turn on to music and it draws abour 300mA. With a fresh Red Top Optima it lasts at least 2 days straight (which is the longest I can go without driving it) and cranks up just fine without any slowness. Now a week might be pushing it, but I haven't been able to test that.

I'm thinking the solar tint or whatever it is in the T-tops may prevent a lot of the power from getting to the solar cell. If you keep your car exposed to the sun this may be a good idea, but I think the better location might be the dash. If you don't drive the car Mon-Fri, then you could just set a panel on top of the dash and plug it in. If you want a more permanent install, I would cut a hole in the dash pad (a new panel should be fairly cheap or get one from a wrecked camaro or TA) and mount the panel under it and make it flush around the edges. I think if done properly it could look real good.

Of course the simpler solution is to use suspend when your driving it and then on Mon, just power the PC off and then flip a toggle switch cutting all power to it. I really don't see the point of keeping it ready to go when you don't need to.

thine_èan · 07-21-2006, 10:46 PM

That's a good point. I normally start it up and let it warm up a bit anyway before I leave the driveway for the first time, often using that time to hit it with the Kalifornia duster. That could be initial boot time, and then from that point, just use whatever form of power off state is the quickest to recover from until it's time to put it away for the week again.

Still, it's nice to keep no drain on the battery.

Another thing I mentioned was the possiblity of heating or cooling the unit while it's waiting outside in the parking lot. That would take much more power than standby, but much less than having it running.

JasonWW · 07-22-2006, 08:47 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by thine_èan

Another thing I mentioned was the possiblity of heating or cooling the unit while it's waiting outside in the parking lot. That would take much more power than standby, but much less than having it running.

What are you talking about, keeping the cars interior cool or warm? I don't follow you.

thine_èan · 07-22-2006, 02:21 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by JasonWW

What are you talking about, keeping the cars interior cool or warm? I don't follow you.

No, I meant the PC. For instance, if it gets over X temp, kick the (PC) cooling system on (processor, PS/u, and HDD). Likewise, vice versa, one could hook up a heating system and use, say, peltier coolers flipped over, to warm it up if it gets below a certain temp.

The latter is less of an issue, and you could switch between the 2 as part of winterizing or summerizing the car.

Basically just running some fans over the computer if it gets too warm inside so that you don't have to wait for the A/C to bring things down to the operating range.

JasonWW · 07-23-2006, 08:04 PM

The PC doesn't need any of that. If built properly they don't need much cooling at all. The heatsink on my setup stays at room temperature with the fan off. On a hot day the CPU fan may cycle on and off at low speeds, but heat isn't really an issue.

You shouldn't need any kind of heating setup for the winter either.
Where do you live, some place really cold?

walstib · 07-23-2006, 09:20 PM

20watt 12v solar panel for $175
Or a VW solar panel, 3.2 watts for $2 on eBay

thine_èan · 07-24-2006, 10:27 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by JasonWW

The PC doesn't need any of that. If built properly they don't need much cooling at all. The heatsink on my setup stays at room temperature with the fan off. On a hot day the CPU fan may cycle on and off at low speeds, but heat isn't really an issue.

You shouldn't need any kind of heating setup for the winter either.
Where do you live, some place really cold?

Really cold is a matter of perspective. lol

Possibly not too cold for the system, and possibly not too hot either. I just read somewhere (on this site IIRC) that said it's often necessary to wait until interior ambient temp drops or raises to a certain point before being able to use the PC.

That and I thought it would be kinda cool, so I may have gotten carried away. lol n/m, carry on.

JasonWW · 07-24-2006, 10:42 AM

I have a black car in Texas and haven't had any heat issues yet. Although I didn't have the PC in there during the coldest of winter. It may also depend on your particular mobo. Some mobo's might have some kind of heat limit that will prevent it from turning on if the surrounding air is too hot, but I haven't had any problems with that.

JasonWW · 07-29-2006, 11:40 AM

We had an excellent discussion about replacing the climate controls on the Trans Am in order to fit a larger screen. It's on another forum though. Just go here:
http://www.ls1tech.com/forums/showth...7&page=9&pp=20

and start reading at post #168.

The best solution (I think) that we came to was replacing the controls with a single knob (selector mode) mounted in the TCS/cig lighter area and then have 2 buttons for the fan speed and 2 buttons for the hot and cold selector.