Thread: 2000 Pontiac Trans Am carputer install

Oh, THAT sucks. When I was loading all the drivers and software, I had the motherboard sitting on the pink foam, as I thought only the black foam like IC's are packed in was conductive. I put the foam between the ABS plastic and the board to act as a vibration dampener. I'll remove it tomorrow and cross my fingers, hope it still works.....

good lord....now i know why my very first car PC back in 2000 died....oye...god damn thing used to reboot all the time too....always figured it was shorting on something else.........I even wrapped my HDDs in that crap!

Okay, frigging SP-1300 is toast. I tried to power it up using my ATX power supply, and same symptoms appear. It's definately not the M1-ATX. Thanks to all those who tried to help me.
NOTE TO SELF: DON'T USE FOAM PRODUCTS TO CUSHION ELECTRONICS. INSTEAD, USE THE PROPER PLASTIC OR BRASS STAND-OFFS.

I'm going to go cry in my beer now.

Sorry to hear that man, better call and get a RMA

Well, I figured i'd post pics of what else i'm doing while i'm waiting for a new mobo.

Back of my 8" Lilliput, I spaced the driver circuit board off the back of the module itself using hot glue, 3/4" square dowel, and velcro:



Here's a pic of the front of the trim piece with LCD mounted:



I then took the DC filter/fuse box and soldered it to a ATX power extender. Then, I shortened the DC power connector on the other side. This is how i'm powering the screen off the M1-ATX:



Going back to the dash, Here's a pic of the ABS plate with the mobo removed. The black circle is a rubber plastic piece I glued on there to cover the metal screws attaching the plate to a bracket. Don't want any short circuiting going on. The 250Gb hard disk is thru-mounted to another piece mounted on the right, and the M1-ATX is mounted above the mobo. You can see the red twisted pair wire connecting the M1-ATX to the power switch pins on the motherboard, then from there, it goes to a momentary normally open switch mounted in the center console I put in there in case I have to manually re-start the PC:



Finally, a finished pic of the dash with the LCD mounted:



Some pics of the mounting of the XM antenna, and Terk XMD1000 tuner:

Closeup of mounting location:



Further away with plastic cowl put back in place (the antenna is still visible through the vents in the cowl:



And an even further away pic showing where this is in relation to the car, and showing that it can't be seen:



Once I got the antenna wire inside, I decided to find a place to mount the tuner. Directly below and behind the console/LCD there proved to be enough room to stow it there:



Tucked in place:



I'm still waiting for my 8 pin DIN cable to show up so I can finish my XM Direct cable, and also a new motherboard. Hopefully be the time I get the whole thing running, Centrafuse 1.5 will be out, and i'll have enough $$ to get a GPS mouse. More pics as I work on it....

Looks good! Sucks about your MB...I'm sure you itching to use the whole system...I am currently fiberglassing and can't wait until it gets to the stage yours is in!

- Jeff