Hardware Sales in Aust. - Page 2

Gazza · 03-06-2005, 10:50 PM

I also have my carPC in a GU Patrol which I take offroad. It's a regualr desktop P3 PC with 3.5 HDD mounted firmly to a shelf I made in the back against the roof (in case a flood the car it doesn't get wet). No PC problems yet. Buy nearly everything from eBay.

Phobos0001 · 03-06-2005, 11:41 PM

hey gazza and miki, do you guys have some pics of your patrols and the the installs? am anxious to see how some of the off-roader's setups are comeing along, how they are cased and so-fourth

thanks guys

Alex121 · 03-07-2005, 12:27 AM

lol sorry dumb question figured it out,thanks

miki · 03-07-2005, 12:54 AM

I can't get any meaningful photos yet cuz the stuff is still not assembled.
I just got 70% of the components together.

I'm still short of a proper heatsink for the CPU, the (first of a would-be-three) monitor, and a Pioneer dual-zone car-stereo/DVD.

Unlike Gazza, I'll probbably be mounting my rig relatively low (about 30cm above the cabin floor, vertical, to the left of the clutch, unless I get convinced a vertical mount is a bad idea) because connecting a roof-console to 3 monitors in the car, a car stereo, power, etc. is too much wiring.

What I'm in the process of now is making a case that will hold the mobo, PSU, harddrive, and a couple of mini-boards for what used to be the LCD on the front of the small-form-factor PC case.

It should be the size of a flex-atx mobo, about 5-6cm (~2 inches) thick, and it should do some shock-absorbing.

Phobos0001 · 03-07-2005, 01:45 AM

all i can say, is beware of water then dude....., i have lost 2 40channel uhf's offroading....but with 3 monitors i doubt you will be doing anything much more serious then a dirt road that a commodore could navigate with ease

IMO vertical mount is the way to go... sure you might freese up, glitch or even need to re-format, BUT it beats the cost of replacing a HDD that has the heads ride along the platters at 7200RPM, which was my carputer's downfall...... now its vertical all the way, mounted firmly, with rubber gromets i think thats about all i will need

happpyg · 03-07-2005, 02:42 AM

Hi all, havn't posted much here as i'm still sorting out my install but this site has been very valuable in what i've done so far.

I have a celeron 1.1, 256mb, 40gb 7200rpm, 7" Lilliput, a BU-303 usb gps and Road Runner front end (guino is the man!) in my 2003 GU Patrol & am located in Bunbury, Western Australia.

I have made a custom wooden case to go under the drivers seat
http://happyg.mine.nu/carpc/case.jpg
Seagate 40gb hdd mounted vertically on foam mounts, I have modified this a little from the pics but basically the same. I go offroad every weekend, corrugations, bumps etc & don't take it easy, no problems so far after about 2 months.

The screen is a Lilliput 7" mounted where the factory head unit used to be.
http://happyg.mine.nu/carpc/screen1.jpg
http://happyg.mine.nu/carpc/screen2.jpg

The screen is awesome except for the fact that it is unreadable in direct sunlight, I have done some searching & found the same problem everywhere & the brighter screens (1000+ nits) are unbelieveably priced so I am experimenting with angling the screen back in the dash further, otherwise i'm going to mount in the roof at an angle that doesn't reflect off windows. Provided I get it mounted at the right angle the sun & reflections shouldn't be a problem. Have had no luck with antiglare & antireflective films, waste of time, only true solution I believe is a sunlight readable LCD.

BU-303 USB GPS from ExplorOz - http://www.4wdaustralia.com.au/Shop/...kID=&RegionID=

Morex 90W PSU
http://mats-systems.com.au/
7ah 12v tank battery - wes components (this will disappear once the dual battery system gets installed)

I made my own PIC based startup/shutdown controller which seems to do the job OK.

Temp Sensor
http://quozl.us.netrek.org/ts/
purchased kit from Ozitronics
http://ozitronics.com/

I use Road Runner for the front end, DLink USB Radio (guino is just adding support for this now - I originally purchased this because I was going to use mediacar as the front end but is no longer supported, thank god for Road Runner), Destinator 3 for street nav & OziExplorer with CALM 1:50000 MAPS for offroad navigation, seems to all work really well. The only thing I may do in the future is mount a larger screen in the roof so I can see more of the offroad map once prices come down

Still sorting one or two little bugs but just about there. Once i'm happy with the screen mounting & make up a little roof rack like mount for the gps to sit on just above the drivers door it should all be great.

Sorry, pretty big post but hopefully will help someone out there, i've got heaps of info from here!!!

Gazza · 03-07-2005, 05:05 PM

I've taken some photo's during the install but I haven't taken any photo's of the 95% finished setup. I'll try get of my backside and take same happy snaps tonight and maybe list it in the finished-rigs section. I have my Lilliput touchscreen mounted inside the dashbaord (removed the standard double-din). Then I have made a shelf that uses the rear grab handle bolt holes to fasten too. It has enough room on it to fit my PC (slimline case), power inverter, 4 channel amp, 4 relays (for my home made shutdown controller) and about a thousand meters of wire (need to clean that up a bit). I have also hindged the shelf at one end so I can undo one end and it swings down for easy adjustments. I need to also fit on the shelf my USB hub and my webcam for reversing. Cheers.

Gazza · 03-07-2005, 05:15 PM

Happyg, I don't mean to change the topic but I have to ask about the morex power supply. I don't quite understand the power output of these 12v units. Most PC's have a 200-550W power supply and yet you seem to be running yours from a 90W unit?? I understand that the DC units are more efficient, but how do you know if your going to have enough power to run the PC or not before you buy it??

Cheers.

happpyg · 03-07-2005, 06:16 PM

Yeah gazza, i'd be keen to see your pics when your done. I've got my screen temporarily taped up further back in the dash just testing for a week before I custom mould a new panel to mount it.

The power supply I use is actually only 80W, my bad - typo! I hooked everything up on the test bench including screen, all usb devices (wireless, gps etc) and it draws 3.5A when running with hard drive doing a defrag to simulate load. Therefore P=V*I (P=13v * 3.5A) I get about 45W. It does spike to about 5A when I first turn it all on but the 80W PSU copes no probs at all. I was going to hook up a 5.25in slot load DVD drive under the seat but this pushes the power consumption too high (if you do go too far with this PSU it will simply drop out - self protection) but since I have all my CD's ripped to the HDD & have divx movies on there I don't see the need for a CD Drive. I transfer new music wirelessly from my home pc.

Going to put mine in the finished section too but not until i've got it all sorted out.

Cheers

miki · 03-07-2005, 09:20 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by Phobos0001

but with 3 monitors i doubt you will be doing anything much more serious then a dirt road that a commodore could navigate with ease

I do quite a bit of fairly aggressive offroading, as well as take trips that require long drives. I'm not talking only about dirt roads, rather about nice high-incline 4WD tracks. It's a Patrol, not a softroader.

Regarding what the hardware can take, the primary driver screen will be an automotive Liliput 8'' touch-screen. I see no problems there, they're built to take punishment.

The second display will likely be an El-cheapo (somewhat cannibalized) desktop 15'' with a touch matrix on it for the passenger, that will fold upwards into the ceiling, and detachable. I want a large screen for the passenger, with ability to interact with it (hence touch interface), and large-screen automotive displays cost too dear.

The third is an automotive rear display, headshroud-mounted, possibly will not have touch capability, and will either hook up to the CD/DVD stereo player (to show the kid DVD movies) via RCA and maybe additionally serve as a second display via a passive KVM to the front two consoles (so kid in the back can "use my console" while my wife watches movies or navigates using GPS via hers).

All displays will be mounted high, the only "low"-mounted component is the PC itself - low is a relative term, the car is big, has a 3-inch suspension lift on top of that, flooding it to the point of the PC assembly requires parking in a fairly deep ford, as the PC assembly will be about a foot off the floor.

The motherboard isn't as small as a micro-ITX - it's a FlexATX (I think that's what it's called), so finding a nice out-of-the-way spot without sacrificing storage compartments is not trivial.

Phobos0001 · 03-07-2005, 09:41 PM

sounds like a solid setup miki, and you even concidered things outside of the center of the universe... yourself!!, much more generous then my setup, its for me, and me only....heh heh

i have a 2 inch lift on the hilux with 33" BFG muddies.... so i get a numb *** on long drives and a massive headaque... not to mention the joy of beying sucked into the dents in the road that trucks make... enough of that.. even with all that hight i have seen pretty nasty things in cars with similar setups, my uncle's 80 series hat to get his dash cluster replaced coz it had water and mud trapped in it..... but i suppose it serves him right for not checking the track out first ey?.. if fuel prices where lower id want to drive up there for a 4x4 carputer meet... that would be cool

Rainbow Pony · 03-07-2005, 10:02 PM

I found an Australian dealer at www.cdt.com.au who do in-vehicle PC's, however I decided to use salvageable parts from old systems and friends' PC's and order monitor from eBAY (7" lilliput) and powersupply from mp3car.com (opus150w)

Just need to get all the cables sorted out, install the software then work out how to secure it in my car-boot...

Then it will be time to track down the problems with it because I suspect it won't be as easy as I think it might be.

icc · 03-08-2005, 06:27 AM

Thanks very much everyone for there assistance... great to see there is such a large aussie community out there. Thanks very much to phobos, happyg and everyone else for the inputs and www links, they will be very handy for my project.

I will post details later with photos.

Cya.
Lee

tja · 09-03-2005, 03:37 AM

i used CDT for my xenarc - even though its more expensive than importing from US, it's easier for returns...

OPUS was from mp3car store...

Mobo was from ebay

CPU was frm some cheapo place in paramatta on victoria road can't remember the name

HDD/RAM was from msy in auburn.

NiN^_^NiN · 09-03-2005, 05:19 AM

all u melbourne boys come check out the melb meet thred to show off your installs or look at other peoples installs

We do have afew 4wd guys come to the meet so u can see how they set theirs up

http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/mp3car-gatherings/58602-melbourne-australia-meet-october.html