Hey! May be installing a new CarPC form a laptop for now.

Josho · 01-22-2009, 09:47 AM

HELLO! Sorry for long post. Skip to bold for CarPC plans.

Right, I'm 15, living in the UK and have been given a Golf MK3 with only 65K on the clock. A few little engine problems, a serious oil leak, but I can fix them no trouble.

I've always loved the idea of putting a PC in the car, then Googled it and found these forums.

I've built countless in the past. If anyone wanted a new one, I'd always build it cheaper then I could buy it.

Anyway, my brother dropped his laptop that I have only just replaced the motherboard on! Perfectly good Dell. 1.6GHZ Centron Mobile and 512MB of RAM. Now, the screen is fubar'd. Split straight down the middle, half working half not. He wants to get a new laptop as I have found one really cheap for him. I'm thinking of buying his old laptop off him. Then throwing a 2GHZ mobile processor and 2GB's of RAM. It has an 80GB hard drive, but if I can afford it, it will be upped to a 10,000 RPM one.

I'm seriously interested in this, and these are my plans. I am currently stripping the interior for serious cleaning and then I'm doing suttle OEM mods to it. It's a 1.4 (biggest I could insure in the UK) and will put some alloys on it ect. All OEM so the insurance don't put the prices up.

I'm upgrading the sound system. A small but punchy 10" sub in a custom box in the back. I'm not a major bass guy, but love sound quality. Then upgrading the other speakers in the door and putting in some tweeters. Just turning 16 so will work soon, then I've got wages to spend.

SO, my plan for the CarPC is this:

Pull the laptop apart (agian). Upgrade the processor and RAM.
Make a custom steel or aluminium case for it with the help of my dad.
Secure it under passenger seat.
Putting a 7-8" touchscreen, probably Lilliput in the dash.
Make it look as factory as possible, or atleast a smooth clean install.
Wiring it up to Amps for the music,
Using it for: GPS, DVD, Internet, Music ect.

Using Centrafuse I think. I have just got a trial and running it on my laptop. Really good app.

Now, I plan to put an alarm and immobiliser in this car, and am thinking of getting one with another button that controls whatever you want. (Seen these alarms in shops) I'll wire that up to a relay that goes onto the power button on the laptop. I'm then planning on making the laptop Hibernate when the power button is pressed, so when the car is locked, the laptop goes off on it's own battery power.

I have a few questions though:
My laptop, when I plug it into my home sound system, it's clear, great quality. If I plug the power cable into it, I get a lot of inteference. Sounds bit like a hard drive whirring. If I wire my future laptop up into an inverter, will I not get the same problem?

How can I remove this?

If I use an invertor, do I wire it up on a relay to the ignition feed so that when the ignition is on, the invertor comes on, and when cranking the starter, the inverter is off to allow the starter motor to have full current?

I'll keep the laptop battery in so that it can hibernate while ignition is off.

Also, my PLAN is to buy a blanking plate for my factory radio, then with help from my dad, fabricating a slot loading DVD player and a couple of USB ports on it, along with a power switch for the laptop (overide) and a kill switch for the invertor. That would be on the relay line, not the actual invertor, or there would be 150W right near the steering wheel.

Keyboard in glove box.

Sorry for long post again, but thank you very much for any info!

Bugbyte · 01-22-2009, 03:42 PM

Don't use an inverter. Get a cigarette lighter power adaptor for the laptop and wire it from there. You can cut the plug off the end and wire it straight to the car. That ought to help with noise, but grounding one end of that power adaptor to the same point as the radio will reduce the likelihood of noise.

Josho · 01-22-2009, 04:27 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by Bugbyte

Don't use an inverter. Get a cigarette lighter power adaptor for the laptop and wire it from there. You can cut the plug off the end and wire it straight to the car. That ought to help with noise, but grounding one end of that power adaptor to the same point as the radio will reduce the likelihood of noise.

OK thanks!

So that would go onto a relay that goes on an Ignition wire? So that it would turn off when the car is cranking?

The ground near the radio ground? OK cool!

Thanks!

Bugbyte · 01-22-2009, 06:18 PM

Depends on how you want it to work. If you want to supply the power only when the car is on (or key is in the accessory position), wire a relay to the accessory line so that it powers the PC only when the accessory line is hot.

Don't wire the adaptor to the accessory line. It isn't designed to supply a lot of power and who knows if your adaptor draws too much or not?

Ground near or to the same ground as your audio system, most likely your radio ground.

Josho · 01-23-2009, 04:42 PM

OK thanks. I was planning on using a relay to the accesory line. I want the adapter to turn off while the car is starting, so since I'm getting rid of my stock radio, I'll take your advice, wire the adapter to a distribution box that goes from the battery to a relay. The relay is controlled from the radio accessory wire, so all the equipment goes off while the car is cranking. The laptop will be powered on start up by it's own battery, so it won't slow down start up.

Thanks for the info on the ground, had no idea about groundingon the radio ground, cheers!

navmaxlp · 01-24-2009, 01:27 AM

I got a buddy with a spare dash panel designed for his R32 that I'm sure he wouldn't mind selling to you if you'd rather not fab the blanking plate. It's made for a Xenarc display though and I'm pretty sure it has a spot for a slot loading dvd player. Won't be any room for a radio but it's apparently really nice. He got it from the R32 forums.

Josho · 01-24-2009, 06:48 AM

Thanks for that! Only problem is, mines a MK3 and the R32 is MK4 and MK5. Unlikely to fit.
Thanks for the thought though!

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