I'm new here, first post. I've had some carputer ideas for a long time, but it was just a fantasy until I found this site.
After 2 days of research here, I came up with a setup that's very similar to this one. I have a power inverter and 8 gauge wire with a built in fuse a foot away from the battery connector (it's from some walmart amp kit). I have the same relay as posted, as well as a 30A SPST automotive switch which would be going to the relay. I want to be able to kill the current to the inverter manually and completely, just in case. I don't think my cheapie 30$ power inverter shuts off when the battery gets low, although it sounds an alarm.
Hopefully I've got this right.
If this first newbie project works out, in the future I'll add an amp & sub to my car, a touchscreen, and write some software for the carputer. Since I'll be including WIFI, I have some great ideas about synchronizing. Using a desktop pc at my house or office, I'll prepare driving directions, maps, playlists, new mp3's, etc. When I enter the car, the WIFI connection is made to the home/office, and the carputer software will download all that data from the desktop computer. This would also be possible using a USB thumb drive instead of WIFI.
I've also successfully made an auxiliary power button for my laptop which plugs into a 3.5" audio jack that's mounted to the laptop case and wired to the power button on the laptop. I got the idea from someone here on the forum. I had to solder directly to the default power button's prongs on the circuit board though. They were super tiny.
Linear Mode
