Thread: Concorde Version 2

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Tuesday April 21st:
While trying to figure out what case I wanted to get I remembered I had an old HP Thin Client sitting collecting dust.

I pulled it out and started taking it apart. Come to find out, this Thin Client from over 2 years ago used a mini-itx standard board. Props to HP for not custom fabbing something for their device and standing behind an existing standard!

The board fits PERFECTLY in the case. I am going to have to custom mount the hard drive and the power supply inside the case, but I think both can easily be mounted inside. The difficult and possible deal breaker would be the heatsink/fan combo for the processor as there is only 2" of clearance between processor and roof of the case (Which is vented!)

I've got JUST the processor, no heatsink/fan combo but I found varying information. 2", 2.5" for the size of the heatsink/fan combo. I've got a Scythe Shuriken low profile heatsink/fan combo in my desktop that I'm going to pull off and see if it will fit inside the Thin Client. It clocks in at 2.5" with the fan and 2" without the fan. It's also quite a bit more beefy of a heatsink than the stock heatsink/fans out there, and because the roof of the Thin Client has slits in it ventilation won't be a problem!

I had to do some slight cutting (snipping) to the I/O shiled to make it fit in the Thin Client, and the Thin Client groves aren't matching up quite 100% in this shot, but it does sit pretty.

By the time I got through all this it was about 1AM and I decided to head to bed.

I've got the above photos and more on from today on Flickr.

Will sit down tonight and get the processor in and checkout the heatsink area to be sure. I also found the RAM I had in storage - not much just 512MBx2 for 1GB total. Would like 2GB or 4GB in the final version but this will get me started.

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Wednesday April 22nd:
What a productive day. I picked up an Intel stock heatsink/fan - it's what I would consider low profile, and fits PERFECTLY in the case. Win!

I surfed Craig's List this afternoon and found a Western Digital 320GB laptop hard drive for $50. Score!

I also called in a favor from one of my friends, he had 2GB of of Kingston Low Profile memory. Triple Play!

So tonight I strapped the hard drive to the vent slits in the roof of the case. It is close to the fan, but doesn't appear to get in the way of the blades.

Next I removed the motherboard from the case, and setup shop to get Windows XP installed. I had to borrow the power supply and an extra SATA cable from my son to get it working on my desk. I owe him a pop, for being able to use them for tonight lol.

It is a slimmed down version of XP Professional - I was a fan of nLite before starting this project so I already had a slimmed down version already in mind.

I had found the Visteon HDZ300 HD Radio on eBay for $30 last night. It had about 6 hours left on it - so I set my account to watch it. This afternoon I watched as someone else won it, it went over what I wanted to spend for a used one. *sigh* there'll be more chances though.

I'm going to pickup a shorter SATA cable, the one I want to get is about $4 from MonoPrice. I'll wait to buy it though until I'm closer to a final version in case I need anything else from MonoPrice. It's only a few inches shorter than the 24" one I currently have, but it is a nicer cable and would make managing the power and data cable for the hard drive easier.

I decided on a skin for Ride Runner. I'm going to go with eLite Lite by suavecito.

After all this I cleaned up, put the computer back together and marked off where I'll need to cut to make the power supply fit.

All photos from last night.

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Thursday April 23rd:
I didn't have a lot of time tonight to work on the Carputer, however I worked through some of the wiring thoughts today. I took a look at my car, and bounced some ideas off my cousin who helped me install a new exterior door on the back door (What a pain - whole nother discussion, previous door frame was set in wet concrete. Idiots.) and he suggested I "cheat" and not bother drilling through the firewall, as we couldn't find any precut holes. He had the thought of securing the wire inside the body of the car - there's enough room to run the cable through and into the cabin that way. I'll have to actually sit down and do a dry run but that should work and I'd be just as happy with that.

I did have a chance, however, to cut the case to allow for the power supply to be connected. I didn't have a dremel so I used a Skill Saw with a metal blade to cut the case, because of the saw I couldn't cut straight down to expose the whole area - but this will work for now. Down the road if need be I can cut it down more, but this shouldn't be a problem. After cutting it I did use a metal file to smooth it out a bit to prevent me cutting myself.

I'm hoping to get the wiring figured out by Friday afternoon so that I can get the materials I need ordered. Would like to spend next week installing in the Concorde.

Photos from tonight.




Friday April 24th:
So tonight I got in the backseat with the camera and the Thin Client. Trying to see how the Thin Client was going to fit under the seat.

Then I found out, it's not going to.

So I moved up front. I'd like to avoid the trunk. My next thought was to mount it on the side of the console on the passenger side.

While this might work it doesn't sit tight against the wall of it, there's a big gap. My next thought was just above, the glove box.

But that's not going to work either - it's too big for the glove box.

Up further - roof?

But how would I mount the Thin Client to the roof? *sigh* running out of options here.

So I am not sure where to go from here. My only option might be the trunk. I'm just concerned because it's only April and it's already 85 out.

I popped the hood to snap a few pictures of the engine. It's crowded too.

There's a big enough gap in the body that I can run the cables into the cabin without going through the firewall.

I'm going to have to continue doing some more thoughts into where exactly to put this. Maybe tomorrow I'll pull off some plastic parts of the console to look under it and see if there are any options under there.

All Photos From Today.

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Sunday April 26th:

Well crap. I typed up a nice work log in here. I made a typo, hit the backspace key and LOST it all. I was not happy. Sigh, so here it is, retyped.

So this afternoon I got out in the car, and started pulling apart the center console. I wanted to see how much room was behind the console and whether or not a slot load DVD drive would fit without issue.

When I opened it up I found there was quite a bit more room than I originally imagined. So I set the Thin Client in there and replaced the plastic. It wouldn't fit all the way back so I looked closer and found that the ash tray and cig lighter were preventing it from sitting back all the way.

It was here I realized I either commit to the Thin Client in this location and cut the plastic ash tray support and cig lighter support out or I look for a different location. Cutting the plastic meant accepting the fact that if this doesn't fully fit here I might have to live with no cig lighter or ash tray. I don't use either very often, so let the cutting begin.

I had a wire cutter handy and attempted to make the first cut. I didn't fully realize just how strong this plastic was, and ended up neither cutting the plastic nor keeping the tool.

You can see, in the unfocused area with the white stress mark, that I didn't make any progress with this attempt.

So I went inside and got the proper tool, a razor blade. I spent about an hour cutting, sweating, and got the ash tray support and cig lighter support removed.

While it doesn't look pretty, it won't be facing the passengers.

The Thin Client sits perfectly in place. I'm going to glue the ash tray cover in place, and fabricate a single USB port where the cig lighter is. I don't think I could fit two, I might try and do some small cutting to get two ports in there. The other option would be to put a nice kill switch in that location. Either way I'll have to fabricate some sort of cover around it to make it look pretty as well. I might have to get my hands dirty with some fiberglass work.

I'm pretty confident that it will have plenty of air circulation due to the climate controls being so short.

However, I might fabricate some fans into the side of the console to pull air over the area that the Thin Client will sit. I'd put filters and fan guards on 'em to keep it protected as much as possible, but we'll see.

Overall I am happy with where the Thin Client is. It is secure, it's hidden, and close to the controls. I won't have to run too long of wire overall.

I've got my wiring plans pretty close to complete. I am more a visual kinda guy so here's what I'm planning.

I'm still not solid on it, and waiting for some additional feedback on the final idea. However I'm pretty confident that I can do the wiring myself. I'd still like to find a factory hole that I can fit the wire through, but I haven't found one. I'm going to have to do some more looking this week.

All Photos From Today.

Hows the boot time on this board? they're such nice board for the price.
If i was to replace my board i'd definitely get one too. That is, if it has zero or close to zero second POST time.