1999 RX300 - Comments / Suggestions Appreciated

S11D336B · 06-11-2006, 01:46 AM

Ok Guys, this is my second car pc.

The Hardware:
ECS K7VTA3
Athlon 4 Mobile 1500+
Geforce 4 MX440 64mb
Generic RAID card
2x Hitachi 5200RPM 40GB HDD
Kingston 512MB PC3200
M2-ATX
Lilliput 7" VGA Touchscreen 619GL-70NP

Unfortunately this motherboard is a full ATX. I didn't want to drop $200 on an ITX board. So I'm not sure if I'll be able to fit it under my seat as planned. Power is another issue. I think every thing will power up fine on the M2. The processor is well within limits of the 12V rail. If not I have a DC-DC 200W unregulated. I can use it to power aux items such as drives etc to ease the load of the M2. The most difficult decision to make about this car is weather or not to relocate the stock LED based screen. It is necessary for the functioning of climate control and stock radio. I plan on relocating it to the center console drawer and installing the Lilliput in it's place. Relocating is not as hard as others have suggested. There are just 7 wires for the LCD. The main problem I'm having right now is not being able to take off the center console. I might have to call lexus and ask. If anyone knows, either post or PM me. I plan on making a box for the computer. I had a friend offer to make one out of aluminum. But I may just end up doing it myself with some MDF or similar material. Then I could cover it with car carpet and make it look more stock as it will probably end up mounted on the back of the rear seats. Plexiglass would be cool, but then again I don't really have much to cut it with bescides a jigsaw. That might make for a sloppy job and wasted money. I tapped into the audio outputs connected to my CD changer for audio. I was planning on hacking the interface for the Changer, but it seems like a waste of time when I could just tap into the buttons and make my own. Right now I'm waiting for parts. . . They should come Monday. In the mean time here are some pictures.

S11D336B · 06-11-2006, 01:54 AM

I forgot to say that I plan on putting the two hard drives in striping raid. I hope I have enough power capacity to do that. It will almost double the read speed of the hard drive. Hard drive reading is the main thing that slows the booting of a computer. I hope I can get this booting in 25 seconds or under. I just encountered another problem. The CPU is only reading a clock speed of 500mhz. I think the board doesn't recognize my mobile processor. A bios update should fix this. On the other hand, it is idling around 30C/90F. I'm not sure if the processor is actually running at 500mhz or if the bios is just reporting the speed wrong. In any case, a bios update it is.

S11D336B · 06-12-2006, 07:37 PM

I just recieved the parts today. So far everything is going smoothly. I'm getting all of the software work done pre install so I don't have to spend hours in my car. I updated the bios and the cpu is still showing 500mhz on POST. But I'm pretty sure, based on FSB and core voltage, it's not running at that speed. I don't plan on having any sort of optical drive in this thing, though I may add a USB one later. I used an external enclosure to run the CD drive for the install. I slimmed it using N-Lite. It seems to work well. Well, now I'm off to optimize the boot / hybernation.

S11D336B · 06-13-2006, 01:17 AM

I got all of the software finished. N-lited XP, Minlogon, Bootvis, and customized skin. I modified the skin to work with mappoint and created a lexus logo for it. The M2 seems like it's got plenty of power for this system. I have had 0 crashes so far. This is a very stable system. However, I would like to get an amp meter and measure how much current it is drawing. I just timed the boot. The system starts in approx 13 seconds. This is starting after post and ending when Road Runner finishes loading.

S11D336B · 06-14-2006, 12:58 AM

I built and finished the case today. It turned out pretty good. I plan on covering it with carpet that matches my car's. When I turned it on for the first time after the install of the case, I had a little scare. It wouldn't POST!!! Turns out I had one of the connectors backward.

S11D336B · 06-14-2006, 11:24 AM

I ran into a small problem last night. I have one 40gb HDD and one 20gb HD on my striping raid array. The array works properly, but the total reported size is only 40gb! Anyone have any ideas why this might happen? I thought it could be because the drives are two different sizes, but striping arrays are supposed to add capacity even if the drives are two different sizes.

S11D336B · 06-14-2006, 09:21 PM

I decided not to hack up my dash. I might eventually sell the car and I don't want to have to sell my car pc with it. So, I created a mount for the Lilli. It looks pretty good considering. I have pictures below. BTW, the box doesn't fix under my seat. After I built it I knew there was no chance. Right now I'm thinking of alternate mounting locations. The best one that comes to mind is in the back. There is a 12v accessory outlet there so thats some of the wiring already done. I just have to check the fuse in the fuse box to make sure it can take 15 amps. It should be no problem though. It will be a pain wiring the constant 12v, video, USB, and sound. . . . I think I'm just going to get some CAT 5 and wire it with that. Except for the constant 12v that is. I have some 8 guage for the 12V constant.

You can see the wood I used to make the mount in one of the pictures. It's barely visible. If it bothers me, I'll add some ridged rubber to seal off the area.

I decided to put the old LED screen on the floor infront of the center console .

Also, I ordered a wireless card for file sharing. It should be here tomorrow.

What do you guys think so far?
Any suggestions for the location of the computer?

You can barely see the wood in the picture below.

Now if I only knew where to put the computer.

S11D336B · 06-15-2006, 12:26 AM

The PC box needs to be painted / covered with something. . . ..

Sidewalksalvage · 06-15-2006, 12:34 AM

Looks great thus far

Since my pcs thus far have been made of older components i like to a nice one made!

I love the relocation of the original information display!

dsballer2000 · 06-15-2006, 09:58 AM

Nice work so far. I have the same concept for the actual computer. I am going to carpet it like a sub box. that should make it look a lot better.

Anyway, as for the drive striping(raid 0). Since they are two different drives 20gb and 40gb it is striping the 20gb with 20gb of the 40gb of the second drive, therefore making a raid of 40gb in total. That means 20gb of the 40gb drive is not being used because of this raid setup.

I say just use one as primary and the other as secondary in which point you will be using all 60 gbs.

S11D336B · 06-16-2006, 12:59 AM

I wonder if I can drop a partition on the second drive of 20gb. then I could use that for music storage and the rest for software / movies. I'll have to look into it. The wireless card didn't come today

. The tracking still says out for delivery. It's 2:00am, lol. I hope it didn't get lost.

I was thinking along the lines of carpeting it like a sub box too. Thats one of the reasons I made it out of wood. Just need really short staples so I don't peirce anything. It'll be awile b4 that happens though. My staple gun is 400 miles away at my parents' house.

Sidewalksalvage · 06-16-2006, 10:59 AM

Maybe you want to just pick up a cheap staple gun at home depot or sometihing. I think you can get one for under $15 bucks. It wont be anything profesional but will get the job done...

S11D336B · 06-17-2006, 12:39 AM

Yah, thats true. I think I'm gonig to get it installed and working before I cover it. I got the computer installed for the most part. It's going on and off with the ignition anyway. I still need to run wires for the audio and VGA. Getting power to the computer worked out better than I thought. I didn't even have to run any wires for it. It was amazing. I used the cigarette lighter plug in the back for ground and switched +12V. For constant, I tapped into the power to the dome light in the back. I wasn't sure it could handle the amperage. But it did just fine. It's a fused line. So if I was exceeding the line's capacity the fuse would have blown.

Anyone have a package stolen off of their door step? I think it just happened to me. UPS says my wireless card is delivered, but it's not at my house. So, either someone stole it, or it got delivered to the wrong address and someone kept it. Hopefully someone will bring it by tomorrow.

Sorry for the crappy picture. It was dark outside.

S11D336B · 06-17-2006, 02:47 PM

A kind soul delivered my wireless card today. Yess!!

I just had a really awesome thought. There's a material called monokote thats used to cover wood model planes. I have a bunch laying around. Maybe I'll cover my box with that.

S11D336B · 06-18-2006, 02:07 PM

I finished the car computer install yesterday. It works / looks very good. I still need to work on some cosmetic stuff tho. Things like cable bunching, covering the box, and an LCD shroud. I'll post some pictures later.

I think I may have set a record for the fastest car pc install, lol. 7 days!