2001 Mitsubishi Eclipse Spyder "The Project That Never Ends!"

**soundman98** · 07-05-2009, 11:25 PM

so like the title says, my daily driver, and never ending project:
one of the most current pictures of the car,as of 7-5-09, outside hasn't changed at all...

I had been wanting to do a car computer for a while, but just never had enough time or money for it.

I started off with a intel 945gclf motherboard, 320gb hdd, m4 power supply(i really liked the 'smart' usb monitoring features), gps reciever, and then, after having problems with the m4(wouldn't power on), so i eventually returned it, and got a dsatx. i also have installed a 'smaller' usb wireless keyboard, and a usb wireless internet dongle.

for audio, i started with a sound blaster audigy card, but then had issues where it would not respond using a flexible pci extender, so I moved over to a usb x-fi 5.1 card, and am now having problems with the drivers causing a BSOD(specifically ks_aud.sys). so am looking at some other solutions.

I planned on mounting everything behind the display in the dash, even created a bracket to hold everything, but then decided that it would have been near imposible to hook anything up when there was only 1-2" of clearance behind the mo-bo.

so I quickly changed gears and put everything under the passenger seat, most of the components are mounted on a piece of plexiglass, with only the usb soundcard mounted behind the display, and usb wireless card, gps receiver, and keyboard receiver, behind the digital clock on the top of the dash.

the build is not finalized right now(audio card drivers causing a BSOD) here is the progress so far:

the plexi board with 320gb hdd, dsatx, and motherboard:

dvd r/w drive mounted in the center console-with power and hdd lights installed in bezel. Also visible is the usb ports and aux in:

the reset and power buttons mounted to the underside of the dvd drive:

a severly dremeled ide connector from a old cd drive for power, hdd, and reset lights and switches:

using AudioCat cabling for dvd-r/w drive power, and cat5 in use as power/reset/hdd cabling-- uses 2 rj11 jacks plugging into old modem ports(best use of a modem so far) that is wired to the mo-bo pins:

after starting to mount the whole thing in the car-- i found a bolt point to sercure it, and decided to drill it, with too much force, and a dull bit, but recovered:

some pictures of the wire routing before and after carpet:

that is about it for now-- more to come later

**Xygar** · 07-07-2009, 03:17 PM

Looks pretty good so far. I'm curious about some details if you've got 'em:

Are you planning on covering the PC (ie a case of some sort)?
What are the plans for the screen (type/size/custom fabs)?
Are you doing audio through the HU, or is it a strictly car PC audio job?

Keep us posted, looks like a sweet ride!

**soundman98** · 07-09-2009, 04:24 PM

Originally Posted by Xygar

Looks pretty good so far. I'm curious about some details if you've got 'em:

Are you planning on covering the PC (ie a case of some sort)?
What are the plans for the screen (type/size/custom fabs)?
Are you doing audio through the HU, or is it a strictly car PC audio job?

Keep us posted, looks like a sweet ride!

Sorry, i got so involved in commenting on the pics, i forgot to list the parts that i did't take a picture of!

the pc is going to stay as it is-- there is only a tiny bit of room between the seat and the gpu fan, so for the sake of cooling there will not be a enclosure.

I have bought a bybyte frame kit for a lilliput 7" touchscreen that will be mounted in the dash to conceal the mess of wire.

I have been 'planning'(key word, time will tell if it works though) on using a usb audio card, that will be placed behind the screen, mostly because i ran out of room under the seat, and i was lazy and decided to leave all my rca cables in the dash.

my hope is that i will be able to process(crossover and eq for 6 channels) the signal before it leaves the computer. i had tried to use a creative x-fi usb soundcard, but it usually gives me a blue screen every 5 min when everything is setup correctly. i'm not sure if it is me or the drivers, for now i blame both.

so i ordered a pro audio card that has 8 outputs and is asio compatible, so hopefuly it works better...

**soundman98** · 02-24-2010, 12:39 PM

it is about time to update this more.

warning, huge post-- i really will start trying to update this more!

shortstory: i pulled the old motherboard out in the fall because it was too slow, and in the process of swapping it, winter hit, and it became too cold to work on my car any more(me, wire cutters, and cold don't mix well). the never ending project will continue when the temp goes above 50 degrees consistantly...

for now, my newer traxxas e-maxx is getting heavy snow bashing use--4ft. tall snow jumps

, i have broken the parts almost every time i run it

. and i keep trying to get my eflight blade 400 heli into the air with little success, though i have done well to familiarize myself with what a rc heli sounds like hitting the ground blades first :LOL:

the 945 has now be resurrected as a home pc, and would be doing better if everyone else in my family didn't use it...(viruses, and spyware, oh my!)

i have since purchased a zotac 9300, with a pentium(i want to say a 5300 series?) dual core processor, and a low profile silverstone heat sink

i have also started using audiomulch for audio processing. it is a little easier to use, and works with my newer(another recent purchase since the last post) esi gigaport hd usb audio card better. it allows me to indiviually select which outputs i want to use, where console required me to use asio4all to get all of the inputs available.

no screen shots yet of the new setup, but they will be coming in the spring/summer when i start this project again.

the other updates is that the aux port in my dash has been re-routed to send audio to a active 3-way clarion crossover in the trunk(it used to be attached to the aux-in on the motherboard), both the clarion and the audio card are using rca y-adapters to simultateously feed into 3 jl audio cl-rlc preamp/volume controls, using a 4th for sub volume. the reason for using the y-adapters is that that i now have 2 semi-independant audio systems, so that i can always have music, and won't go crazy while driving...

i ended up getting the preamps after the audio out of the sound card was too low to create any adequate volume in my car(before, it was audible, but never loud, now, the cl-rlc's add so much, that i have never had issues with lack of loudness

)

these are all old screen shots-- from the now-old atom setup, but being that i never posted them here yet...

old console audio setup. moving to audio mulch, but maybe it will help

being that i don't have any here at all, i'll post a couple of my amp/trunk setup too(one day, i will bolt down those amps...)

the finished trunk setup with my highly professional sub box holding technique :LOL:

another angle for those that want to make their own :LOL:

and finally, the reason i haven't bolted the amps down-- they got nowhere to go!

**eclipse02** · 03-11-2010, 11:36 PM

i like the idea of the flat plexi under the seat for a platform, due to the lack of space in the cars, i was wondering though, how did you secure your hdd to the plexi? i didnt notice any screw holes or anything on it

**mista_sage** · 03-21-2010, 05:27 PM

Hey nice ride and great progress!
I got an 02 GT. Does your bybyte frame for the lilliput 7" touchscreen fit in your dash ok?
I got one too but when I tried installing it it's a few millimeters too tall for the double din opening in my dash..
Can you show me some pix of how you installed your touchscreen into your dash?

Thanks!

**soundman98** · 03-21-2010, 05:59 PM

Originally Posted by eclipse02

i like the idea of the flat plexi under the seat for a platform, due to the lack of space in the cars, i was wondering though, how did you secure your hdd to the plexi? i didnt notice any screw holes or anything on it

sorry, haven't checked this thread in a while...
i took the hdd to a hardware store, and found some screws that threaded into the bottom side of the drive-- i want to say that they were metric thread, and either 2 or 3mm diameter, and then drilled and countersunk the holes-- if you look closely at the (blurry)pic of the underside of the plexi, you should be able to see roughly where the screws are, otherwise, if you need a little bit better pic, let me know and i will post another one up-- the one i originally posted was taken at night, in poor light, and took about 4 shots to get that clear...

Originally Posted by mista_sage

Hey nice ride and great progress!
I got an 02 GT. Does your bybyte frame for the lilliput 7" touchscreen fit in your dash ok?
I got one too but when I tried installing it it's a few millimeters too tall for the double din opening in my dash..
Can you show me some pix of how you installed your touchscreen into your dash?

Thanks!

thanks!

i ended up dremeling the top of the dash bezel a little to make it fit-- i am kind of embarassed by it though-- i only needed to take about 1-2mm off, but ended up taking about 6mm off, so now i have a huge gap on the top...

**soundman98** · 09-07-2010, 08:01 PM

a little of a long-overdue update:

i was finally able to get some new speakers!!!

after almost 2 years of debating what to get, i finally ordered everything..

my new mids--the 6.5" peerless hds series:
http://www.parts-express.com/pe/show...umber=264-1092

and after demoing 2 different tweeters, i settled on these dayton audio tweeters:
http://www.parts-express.com/pe/show...number=275-040

in case anyone is curious, these were the other tweeters i tried--some vifa-branded models:
http://www.parts-express.com/pe/show...number=279-168

i found that the vifa's had a lot of the same qualities as my current pioneer rev-series components, so they are off to be in some other project...

these speakers seem to be way better then any car audio speaker set under $400..

i ran the mids all the way down to 20hz, and they never distorted, even at higher volumes-- i even briefly considered ditching my subs... but couldn't do it

and the gas door is finally getting some paint (that gun-metal grey bothers me, as there is no other color like it on the car..)

**thekl0wn** · 09-08-2010, 08:01 AM

Nice looking setup. And great speaker choice. I've been eyeballing some hds's myself for a while... You should've swung South to pick me up and made an OH trip to hand pick them. What part of IN/IL are you in? Because I'd like to hear that combo sometime.

**soundman98** · 09-08-2010, 04:49 PM

lol, part of the reason i waited so long was because the company i work for has some clients in OH, so i kept hoping i could bypass shipping, but no such luck..

i am pretty much right on the border--munster, highland, schererville IN area...

The tweeters still need some tweaking, and i got a cold over labor day week end, so the tweaking isn't working very well(or they really don't need tweaking, and my head is just messed up..)