In need of advice. Dump the carputer? Continue the project? Long read..

mattress · 07-28-2006, 07:12 PM

I have a long story about the history of my car computer project. I'm about to dump the whole project, and need some advice..

So since I was in higschool, and had my first car, and my first job, I've been working on an mp3 car project. It's been a hobby of mine.
It has been an off-and-on project/hobby of mine for almost 10 years now. My first car was a 76 Mustang, and I never made enough money to actually get anything installed in it. (the first computer consisted of a pentium 133, 128mb ram, WINAMP autoloaded at startup, no visual display, and used a numeric keypad to cycle songs ... basically what an ipod shuffle can do now ... very very sad LOL)

Then in 04, I bought my second car. A brand new 04 Chevy Cavalier. A few jobs later, I land a job at an electronics retailer, and get HUGE accomodations off car audio stuff. I ended up getting Infiniti kappa's all the way around, a 4-channel infinity amp, a Pioneer headunit, and an Eclipse Subwoofer & Amp, box, capacitor, RCA's, etc. I have a full blown car audio system that peeks out at about 1000watts -- but the carpc project was collecting dust in a closet...

I finish buying & gathering all the parts of my carputer over time, and have everything completed. I was able to wire everything up temporarily in my car as a test, and it worked! I was never able to get everything permanently mounted, because I abosuletly SUCK at fabricating stuff.

It consists of a pentium 4, 2.0ghz, 512mb ram, 1gig highspeed CF card + IDE adapter, GPS, WiFi, etc, all the goodies! To control the computer I had planned on using an IR remote, and a tiny playstation keyboard.

For my display, I was going to use a few sony psone lcd's. I hacked one to VGA to use as the "main display", and was going to wire up a back-up camera with a switch to toggle between the cam and the PC display. The other screens would all display the computer. I wanted to put them everywhere, dash, visors, headrests, etc. lol..

So an AWESOME deal comes my way, and I trade the cavalier in for a truck. 2006 Chevy Colorado extended cab z71. I never saw myself driving a truck, lol.

So, needless to say, I have a LOT less space to work with now, no trunk, etc. Now I have to come up with a way to put my sub in the extended cab. I can fit the amp under the back seat. I have no idea what to do with the 4-channel amp, since it's so long. and then my car pc MIGHT fit under a back seat, i'm just worried it's going to be too tall..

and if I DO end up putting my car pc in the truck, using a keyboard or remote is a terrible way to control the computer. I'd REALLY want a touchscreen. If I do keep the carpc, I'd probably end up getting a motorized flip up usb vga touchscreen.

So that brings me to this. If I'm going to spend nearly $450 on a motorized usb/vga screen, why not spend a little more and go for the all-in-one double din nav unit, and forget about the car pc all together?

:Sigh:

I need some advice.. I can't find anyone locally to help me fab anything up, adn the guys that ARE willing to do it want soo much money..

Sorry for the long read, but thanks for any advice!

Cliffs:
-------
1) My carPC project has been a hobby of mine off and on for almost 10 years. It has never seen a day in car STILL...
2) Recently traded in the car, and bought a truck with an extended cab
3) Not much space to work with now, since I don't have a trunk, it will be difficult to install the CarPC
4) If I do keep the CarPC, I will want to buy a motorized flipout touchscreen vga/usb screen from this site.
5) if I do that, I will end up spending like $450. Why not spend a little extra money, and buy an all-in-one double-din unit and forget about the carpc?

Thanks for any advice or comments..

FC3S · 07-28-2006, 07:50 PM

1. no time like right now to get it in the truck!
2. good, trucks = sweetness
3. most people don't have a lot of space, dont know about the size of your mobo, but a lot of people put it in the glovebox, the sub, on an extended cab.., somehow behind the rear seat? +_+ (might require fab, u said you arent good at fabbing stuff, but its really pretty simple, jus try a few times on some random shapes, then move up into the truck
4. motorized flip out, dont see why thats a problem, lot of people have them
5. dont buy a double din, they end up being about the same money as a GREAT carpc, but with a lot less features and upgradeability, carpc can run mp3/vid/nav/radio/xm/internet.., 1000's of things, double din nav?, gps/mp3/cd/MAYBE VID, maybe 5 options

carpc is the way to go, imho

mattress · 07-28-2006, 08:48 PM

thanks for your kind words. I'll try to get back into the carpc mood

As soon as I make my first car payment, and pay off some bills (I've already spent a grand on accessories for the truck and haven't made the first payment, LOL) I'll look into putting the motorized screen on a credit card

FC3S · 07-28-2006, 08:55 PM

haha, ur still ahead of me

i dont have any parts yet!, mind you im not in my country at the moment, and wont be for a couple more months, but planning, its always about planning

yrean · 07-28-2006, 08:58 PM

yeah really theres now need to fabricat. just get the din kit for your car like your putting a 1 din radio in and get a motorized screen. then just hide the pc somewhere power in and hide the cables.

youve came so far, no need to quit over a fabrication issue. post some pics of the dash when you have time.

FC3S · 07-28-2006, 09:05 PM

the sub will be a harder issue in a truck, there really isnt anywhere but behind the seats to put it, and unless you can fibreglass, then ur kinda screwed

yrean · 07-28-2006, 09:35 PM

2006 Chevy Colorado extended cab z71

not true. you can also get a sub that goes under the seat in a truck, kinda like this(http://www.pavementsucks.com/tech/stealthbox.php or http://cgi.ebay.com/MTX-THUNDERFORM-...QQcmdZViewItem), but then again the extended cab tells me hes got all the room in the world for subs.

FC3S · 07-28-2006, 09:57 PM

sub under the seat? is there even enough room for that?

must be one hell of a high seat

walstib · 07-28-2006, 11:00 PM

Or one extreme hemorrhoid inducing ride!

yrean · 07-30-2006, 06:25 PM

lol if you look at the links i provided it goes under the middle part of the seat where the armrest is. or under the rear seat. only the passengers will get hemroids. :P

FC3S · 07-30-2006, 07:04 PM

ahh, i guess that makes sense then, lol

but still, if its under a seat, that doesnt really give the sub enough room, for the amount of air it needs, no?

so basically, it doesnt get an enclosure?

walstib · 07-31-2006, 04:50 PM

The MTX box (2 x 10") looks pretty cool.

breaker021 · 07-31-2006, 05:03 PM

Good lord, dude. Just get a laptop, a power invertor (to be cheap), and (depending on your car+stero) a way to connect your laptop to your current headset and POOF! you get all the functionality of a carputer in almost no time. The only thing you'll have to really worry about is how to mount the sucker.... and get a usb gps puck for navigation while you're at it...

this isn't the cleanest install but by far, this is the quickest and fastest way to get all the carputer functionality with almost no hassle... You can easily spend like less than $600 on all the materials and be ready to roll in no time...

and if you want to move to an in dash solution down the road, all you'll have to get is a power supply (maybe) and a touch screen...

OF COURSE - the fully installed carputer is the best and nicest looking solution. But just to get you into gear, you can try the suggestion above... You can find awesome p3 laptops on craigslist for like $200-$300 even... depending on what area you're in...
- sh00k