Trailblazer Carputer Project - COMPLETE!!!

we87 · 08-16-2006, 03:58 AM

Well, after many many months of planning, waiting, anticipating, and finally making it all happen... Here it is: My Carputer!

Specs are as follows:
Lilliput 629 7inch LCD Touchscreen
Gigabyte 7VM400M Mobo
AMD Athlon XP 2100+
512mb DDR 2100 Ram
60gb Western Digital 7200rpm HD
NEC DVD-RW Dual Layer 16x Drive
Airlink 802.11G WiFi PCI Card
On-Board Video and Sound (soon to be upgraded)
USB Bluetooth Dongle by Actiontec
RF Wireless USB Keyboard + Mouse In One (Works Really Well, link)
300watt Standard ATX Power Supply
600watt XOVision Power Inverter
400watt VR3 4-Channel Amp

All of this in a 2002 Chevrolet Trailblazer LS

The first real big challange was trying to figure out how to mount the touchscreen in the dash of the Trailblazer. At first I was going to use the GM Mount from www.humount.com, but I decided against it since it was made for a Xenarc, and not a Lilliput. (But they do have Lilliput mounts now, and the guy that runs that site is very very friendly, and helpful. I think anybody looking to mount a screen in a GM vehicle should give them a try first.)

So instead what I did was use a normal everyday clipboard and cut it to fit, and used that to mount my Lilliput screen to it, and put it in the car. It actually ended up working really well... I had alot of issues with using the dremel to cut it down, but all in all it was worth it.

After the screen was all mounted, everything was pretty much down hill from there. I bought a wiring harness for my car, it plugged right into my factory cables, I ran those directly to my amp, and everything worked just fine. Sounds great on the factory GM speakers believe it or not. Ill add some sub's later on... I probally wont mess with the speakers themselves though since I'm happy with the way it all sounds.

All in all, I am very happy with my install... It works really well, except for not having any actual buttons, which is kind of a pain when your in day to day driving conditions. Ill eventually get a Chevrolet steering wheel with the media buttons on it and wire it up to my carputer. But the next big step for me is trying to get a startup/shutdown controller working for my inverter. That has to be done, because getting out every time I want to start up is really annoying. And ofcourse, painting the clipboard mount for the screen, and building a nicer box for it all to fit in.

Below is the completed shot of the screen mounted in the car. Scroll down to the next post for step by step pictures.... And please, let me know what you think. Comments are most certainly welcome!

we87 · 08-16-2006, 04:07 AM

First Step, Building the mount.

Now its time to fit the screen to the mount.

we87 · 08-16-2006, 05:47 AM

Next step, hiding the wires.

Towards the end of the night, its all complete.

pepsibobby · 08-16-2006, 09:30 AM

lol a tower. sweet!

4u2n · 08-16-2006, 10:27 AM

good ilustration of you instalation and very nice

we87 · 08-16-2006, 07:46 PM

Thanks, I apreciate the warm comments

canadiandream · 08-16-2006, 08:37 PM

Looks good, great for a 1 day project. If you ever feel like it...painting the clip board part the exact same as the rest of the interior - or black would improve things. With the tan/brown interior it does not look that bad as is though.

we87 · 08-17-2006, 02:43 PM

I have every intention to paint the clipboard mount, I just havent got around to it yet...

What I am aiming for in painting the mount is for it to look as close to the factory bezel as possible.... With that almost bumpy texture and everything. I'm just not that good with painting as I should be, so I dont know how exact im going to get it. But if it all comes out the way I want it to, it will look like GM put that mount on themselves

breaker021 · 08-17-2006, 06:35 PM

You awful, awful man! That clipboard never had a chance, did it?

LOL! =]

What I meant to say was - awesome job, dude! and Awesome use of the clipboard - very ingenious! I wudda never thunk it!
- sh00k

Pathos · 08-17-2006, 08:19 PM

good thing that is a dual din, plenty of room to work with and using that clipboard is pure genius......since you are using a inverter what are you using as a inverter controller and is there any noise from the inverter?

~Rob · 08-18-2006, 05:27 AM

Looks sweet! I hope the case doeesn't roll about too much!

we87 · 08-19-2006, 06:40 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by breaker021

You awful, awful man! That clipboard never had a chance, did it?

LOL! =]

What I meant to say was - awesome job, dude! and Awesome use of the clipboard - very ingenious! I wudda never thunk it!
- sh00k

Clipboard. Dead.

The clipboard was a great idea actually, but it wasnt mine. All credit goes to my father for that one (Thanks Dad!). It was very easy to cut, and sand down, and lightweight... Really a great building block for the mount. Now providing that after I paint it, it looks the way I want to, I will have absolutely no complaints.

Quote: Originally Posted by Pathos

good thing that is a dual din, plenty of room to work with and using that clipboard is pure genius......since you are using a inverter what are you using as a inverter controller and is there any noise from the inverter?

As of right now, I dont have any controller working for the inverter. I have to actually get out and turn it on by hand. But I'm working on getting the "Ghetto SDC" working as I'm typing this message...

As for noise, knock on wood, I have none what-so-ever. The sound quality from this whole project is actually outstanding. And keeping in mind that its all on stock speakers, with the onboard audio card, going thru a $50 dollar 400watt amp, I am majorly impressed....

Quote: Originally Posted by ~Rob

Looks sweet! I hope the case doeesn't roll about too much!

Its not too bad... The next big step in this whole project is to build a much nicer looking case for the computer. I'm not sure if I want to go stealth, or show it off yet... But either way I'm probally going to use the little area where the amp is right now, and move the amp somewhere else. But for time being, everybody gets a kick out of seeing an actual tower in the back

hehe

we87 · 08-27-2006, 03:24 AM

Well I got some great ideas from the MP3Car meet that we had today (link here) So I will be doing some work on my machine these next couple days...

I did get the Ghetto SDC working, and everything shuts down the way it should. The caps keep the relay powered for around 2:30 and it just works flawlessly. However, Im not sure if its due to my car or my inverter, but when I crank my inverter dies and has alot of problems with turning on. So the simple part, turning the PC on via inverter, is actually turning out to be the hard part

Im working on a time delay circuit as I type.....

we87 · 09-02-2006, 04:54 PM

I finally painted the clipboard mount. I was going for a very specific look, and I feel that I came close. I am happy with the texture thats on the board right now. Here are some pictures below of the final product...

Epon · 09-02-2006, 07:16 PM

That looks great.

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