2006 Pontiac Pursuit SE : Non permanent install

**deathguy** · 06-28-2006, 07:35 PM

Ever since I've heard about Mini-ITX and related projects. I wanted to do something. I finally decided to go on and make a car PC. Initially I was planning to do this in my first car which was a 1997 Pontiac Sunfire. It's not mine since the 22 June, day I've received my brand new 2006 Pontiac Pursuit SE. Before going any further, here are some pictures of this car:

I do admit it's not the best front pic ever, but you get the idea.

You can see a little the old Sunfire behind the Pursuit. I've sold my old car to my mother that will eventually sell it to my little brother once he get his licences.

A look at the inside.

And now, a look at the computer I'm putting in there :

Case: Travla Casetronic C134
Motherboard: VIA SP1300
Memory: 512MB DDR
Hard Drive: Fujitsu 60GB IDE
CD/DVD drive : Samsung SN-M242C 8x DVD/24x Write/ 24x Read
GPS : the one that comes with Microsoft Streets & Trips

Monitor: Xenarc 700TSV

Since it's working well so far, I'm using an iRiver FM Transmitter to get the audio to my sound system.

Now that all the basics are down on the table, some pictures on how I'm putting the computer in the car:

My father as a motorcycle and helped me with this idea. There is a motorcycle shop in Ottawa that sells cargo net strong enough to hold luggage on any motorcycle. They have various sizes, but I took the smallest one. If you look at the roof of the trunk in some car if not all, there are various holes. The cargo net as 6 hook. Just find the correct places to put them all and you have something resistant enough to hold a computer case. I had to put an extra extendable elastic (bungee) cord to make sure the cargo net is perfectly holding itself.

Close up view of the case's front. I've put some foam (caulking) to proctect the computer from the metal roof.

Close up view of the case's back. Some foam was also applied on a screw that was coming out from there and could be damaging for the case.

Close up view of underneat. Like the last image, you can see that I've added two extendable elastics cords to properly hold the computer in place in the cargo net.

Now, why did I do this?

1. It's easy.
2. Shocks are absorbed by the foam and cargo net other than behing absorbed by the case stuck in a box.
3. In theory, this should protect the computer quite well as it's able to take shocks and have a margin of maneuver to compensate for the shocks.
4. I have access to my emergy tire.
5. I'm able to remove the computer from there anytime I whant (to then either use into another car or as a media player at home).

Now, let's see how I've put the screen.

I've used 4 pieces of wood in total. Yes, the top one is a baton used to mix the paint.

And the first stage result. So far, nothing has been screwed anywhere in the car and none will be in the coming images. All the screws you see are to hold each pieces of woods together. My father told me I went a little be overkill with the screwing (16 screws in total).

I'm lucky to have a car with 2 cup holders right next to each other up front. My old 97 Sunfire only had one. So this is where the screen is gonna go.

Now I've added to this the black metal holding that came default with the Xenarc monitor. At the right you see the stand that comes with it. Only 3 screws hold everything together. I did required to buy longuer screws to be able to screw thrue the wood since the original ones are extremely short (since I forgot to take pictures when it was in the car, pictures are from in home).

The actual monitor is positioned exactly just like it was intended to be.

The wood support is strong enough to hold it up standing even when it's not in the cup holders.

The good thing with this is that I'm able to hide the screen somewhere to prevent too many people from seing it. I prefer not taking any chances.

I was able to make a test drive with everything hooked up. Only problem is that I need to first start the power inverter and then the computer in the trunk. The wiring are in a mess also at the moment. So my work is not quite done just yet. I still have to make the necessary buttons to be able to start both the power inverter and computer without leaving the driver seat.

Once I get the wiring corrected and buttons in places, I'll take more pics and show up the final version.

Feel free to leave comments/suggestions/questions!

**breaker021** · 06-28-2006, 08:51 PM

wow man, that is pretty slick with the display mount. A+ from me on that setup.

I also wanted a carputer setup that i can remove and even take with me. Check out my setup if you wanna see what i did.

Props to you though ;]

I am wondering how to mount a similar monitor in my h2 hummer and guess what? it too has 2 side-by-side cup holders... but they're not like "horizontally" lined up like yours. in the hummer they're one behind the other. one facing the dash and on the other side facing the passengers like thos:

anyway, still gave me a good idea. thanks playa!

- sh00k

**deathguy** · 06-28-2006, 10:06 PM

Thanks breaker!

In your case, if the inside of your hummer the cup holders are identical to the ones show in the image, the biggest problem comes from the automatic shifter. That thing is kind of huge. If you would use the same setup as me, it would work but only the driver would have access to the screen.

Unless the monitor comes with a base that can be turned 360 degrees. This is the case with the one I have. I can turn it in pretty much all around. This means that you could position the monitor base in the first cup holder and turn the screen once you have shift to D or wathever else than P. I would suggest to still stick with 2 round wooden base (or any other material you wish to use that is strong enough to hold everything) as it would help with stability. It would even be better if the second round base be a little big heavier since the other base would be prone to fall because of the screen weight.

So, by using the same concept, but by putting the monitor base more into one of the cup holder other than in the middle of the two, you could make something work. There is still the big automatic shifter that is in the way. My manual shifter doesn't get in the way even when I'm in 1, 3 or 5 because it's quite small compared to some automatic shifters (my old Sunfire which was automatic had something big enough to cause some problem with the positionning of the screen).

I took a look at your setup for your tablet PC, that's real sweet man! Good luck with the new concept your trying to make.

**breaker021** · 06-30-2006, 11:45 AM

LOL @ the 16 screws... now you know that when a tornado hits the interior of your car, the monitor isn't going anywhere@@!@@@ lol
- sh00k

**deathguy** · 06-30-2006, 01:06 PM

Originally Posted by breaker021

LOL @ the 16 screws... now you know that when a tornado hits the interior of your car, the monitor isn't going anywhere@@!@@@ lol
- sh00k

Ya, that's real overkill. lol Well, what I was thinking is that the wood I'm using is quite lightweight and I'm using it to support something that is heavy to some point. So, I putted a lot to make sure everything will be able to support itself without any problems.

**double-0-newb** · 06-30-2006, 04:04 PM

deathguy; I like your setup; like me you are going for removable.

breaker021; I took the liberty of searching for mounts for all H2's
http://www.proclipworld.com/default.asp
They have a swivel center mount clip you might like.

**Redian** · 06-30-2006, 06:42 PM

that computer is going to break... you cant just have it hanging like that...

slightest bump and BOOM somehting is going to break...

why dont you drill a few holes in the case and bolt on and mount it to the trunk

**deathguy** · 06-30-2006, 07:13 PM

Originally Posted by Redian

that computer is going to break... you cant just have it hanging like that...

slightest bump and BOOM somehting is going to break...

why dont you drill a few holes in the case and bolt on and mount it to the trunk

While you might see it as hanging and moving all around the place, it's not moving that much even when they are bumps. That's why I took the smallest cargo net and added some foam on the frame of the roof. While it's not perfectly stable in place, it should prevent in theory from anything to get broken by it banging on the metal frame of the car. The bungee cords are also preventing the computer from moving all around within the net. Those are real tight on it.

At this time I do not whant to have a permanent solution. For now I prefer behing able to remove the computer when I whant. Probably in the future I will make a permanent casing, but not for now.

I did made a road test of about 1h-2h with the computer running and rolling pretty much anywhere to see how it was going. So far everything is working well. If something break in the future, I'll learn my lesson.