Thread: Aspire One carputer - 83 Mitsi Sigma

update:

Car was checked to find out what needs fixing. Besides the rust in the boot, also the headlights don't work and one of the brakes is sticking.

Taking it to the garage was my first time driving it. It drove nicely, although there was a bit of a smell. The radio worked fine despite missing two speakers (i guess a family member "borrowed" them), and the digital tacho might take some getting used to.

Still waiting for that Garmin GPS.

Other than that, no change.

Haven't updated this in a while.

I have recently become interested in PICAXE microcontrollers, so I have decided as my first project I'll make a PICAXE car alarm. I could just buy a car alarm, but I think I can do one cheaper, and customised for what I want. I might add a computer connection or connections to other devices later.

I'm finally getting close to starting on this!
The car's getting rust repaired and should be done in about a week.
The USB GPS finally showed up, and works fine.
Built a PICAXE car alarm. I'll eventually get a real alarm as my one lacks advanced features and has a bulky remote.
Tossing up whether to hack up the rear speaker tray or sell my 6x9's and buy round speakers.
Still need to figure out how to disassemble the dash, and how I'm going to wire up the existing HU.
Also thinking about mechanical upgrades, and the possibility of eventually installing a real carputer, as the constant plugging/unplugging won't be good for the netbook.

Pictures shouldn't be far off.

I'm also going back to uni, so I'll have to work on the project in evenings and weekends, might be slow going.

Finally some pictures:

My stuff waiting for a car to go in.



The car.


The Garmin GPS is visible and yes, an old Celeron CPU.


And the carputer:



The vacuum fluorescent awesomeness is not my work, it's Mitsubishi's.



Some illuminated switches I added:


The minifridge:


And the socket I installed for it and the inverter:


The audio gear:


Custom 6x9 speaker boxes:


The audio amps are on the rear seat backs:



That PICAXE car alarm, still not finished or installed:


Well that's mostly it for now, until I can afford a real carputer.