I finished installing my computer in my G35. I constructed a case out of MDF and covered it with carpeting then stuck it in the trunk. I also moved the buttons for my xenarc screen into the upper glove box along with my phillips aurillium sound card and FM Modulator. They are mounted in a piece of aluminum I custom cut with just tin snips and a file, then gave it a brushed look with rough sand paper followed by a clear coat. The blue led is 5v and I just spliced it into the power lines for the additional USB port that I also put in there. The power switch is just for the FM Modulator, eventually it will turn the monitor and computer on and off too. Haven't gotten around to putting the panels back on I still got lots more to do...

 

Thanks for sharing! What are the specs of your carputer?

Good job!

Blksnake

 

The computer specs so far:
Xenarc 700TS TouchScreen
OPUS 150w power supply
AOpen MK79G-N http://usa.aopen.com/products/mb/MK79G-N.htm
AMD Anthlon 2000+
512mb Ram
Philips Aurillium USB 2.0 External Sound Card
Griffen Powermate Controller
KeySpan USB Remote Control
OBDC II thing from Scantool.net,
3.5" 10gb IDE Hard Drive
30gb external usb 2.0 2.5" Hard Drive

Still working on installing:
a relay board, a few usb webcams for rear/side view cameras, a bluetooth adaptor for my cellphone, a microphone for voice control, and a wifi card.

 

sweet job on the stealth of the actual computer.

One concern though... the wood for dissipating heat.. I see the fan, but metal would probably dissipate it a little better. What about putting the fabric on top of a metal case?

Especially with that hot AMD2000+ cpu (same choice for my carputer), you gotta be careful.

Overall definately looks very pro I must admit.

How hard was it to cut up and fix up that area where the factory nav dvd-player is? The "2nd glovebox" if you will..

My stupid cd-rw/dvd-rom won't fit into there, so I'll have to cut it too sometime.

For my power on/off button and all my other buttons, i was gonna put it into the ashtray, kinda like what trentaclique (sp?) did. My garage door opener remote is already in there anyways.. haha.

Twlight blue/Willow 6mt.
It's here

 

Yeah, I'm also concerned about the heat, espcially in the trunk, I'll really have to wait till the summer to see what happens, but the outlet fan is a quality very high rpm fan that adjusts it speed based on temp. If it does get too hot, I'll just take the easy way out and put a few more fans on and maybe under clock it I've had more problems with freezing temps then overheating in my previous carputer though.

The glove box was easy to work with once I got it off. The whole job took me a day to do, mostly cutting the aluminum sheet metal to fit exactly into place. Cutting holes in the plastic of the glovebox is real easy if you have a dremel. To remove the glove box you have to take the center console off with the radio which means you have to take pretty much every front panel off to remove the radio. After that 'i think' there are just 2 screws on the bottom. The top and sides just clip in. Once you take the radio out, all surrounding panels, and screws out just pull back on the glove box towards you real hard and it should come out.

I was gonna put my buttons in the ashtray too so they would be a bit more accessible, but there wasn't enough space for the 6 buttons I needed. I'll have to find some other toy to put in the ashtray now, don't want any wasted space

 

Hey that looks sweet.

For cooling you might want to consider water cooled. Will be plenty cool and silent. Also, you mentioned cameras and I started thinkin security. Might be cool to get yourself a capture card ( I have this one ), which you can use as a motion detector that starts recording with movement.

Anyhow, good job.

 

I really like your system. It has more power than my desktop! Im new to the carputer and was hoping you could point me to some good websites that could help me get started. Thanks in advance.

 

Most modern AMD motherboards include a thermal protection circuit and cut power to the processor if it gets too hot (because Athlons do have a nasty ability to fry themselves in less than a second if you power them up without a heatsink).

Pentium 4 might be a better choice for a carputer for anyone concerned with heat.. as the processor has internal thermal controls and will throttle itself down to avoid overheating.. even continuing to run with no heatsink (though dog slow).

Going with a 2000+ shouldn't be too bad. AMD definately makes hotter chips than that one. NOTE: I'm jealous too.. my desktop is a piddly Duron 600 running at 880. Forget the car, I need more houseputer. [img]/w3timages/icons/smile.gif[/img]

 

yeah my carputer (not exactly installed in the car yet) is amdxp2000+
The shuttle mobo can shut the thing off at either 60 degrees C, 65, or 70. Currently set to 70 for me.

As for good webpages to do car computer stuff... www.mp3car.com

I know i've seen god_of_cpu on there, and I have a very limited number of posts on there myself (mostly me bitching about receiving a faulty LCD).

It's a good forum overall. Definately has some informative and helpful people on it.

Twlight blue/Willow 6mt.
It's here

 

Hey man, that's a nice setup you got there. I'm still working on my ccarputer. My car has been in the shop a lot recently so no time to actually get in there and put it all together. I just had a question about the audio. How are you getting the sound to the factory radio? I was planning on using the PAC box that will be coming out soon but no word on that yet. Please let me know. Thanks in advance.

-Noa

 

Theres also an FM Modulator behind all the buttons in the upper glovebox. My biggest problem with the modulator is that it creates more interference in the regular radio, but theres not a whole lot of other options. I'll be upgrading as soon as PAC or somebody comes out with a direct hookup.

 

I'm planning on using a tape adapter. I think you get much better sound quality.
I think you can run the cable between the deck and the face so you don't have the ugle cable sticking out. just be sure to leave some slack incase you hit eject by accident!

 

These might be newbie questions but. Here i go

Did you buy a 12 volt power supply or did u get a 120 volt converter and just plug in the PC?

And did you relocate the power button of the PC and put it in the car and or how do you have the PC power on and off.


A little off the subject
How long of a ribbon cable can you get "the one that hooks into a computer dvd ROM" because i want to put it in the car with the rest of the PC in the trunk + USB ports in the center console next to the heated seat button

by the way love your setup

AKA SET ROK

 

I believe the max length in the specs for ATA cables is 18", though they make 24" and 36" cables -- may or may not work in all situations, though, and even then I don't think you'll be able to do what you want to do with 3 feet of cable. If you want to split it up like you're talking about, you may need to look at getting a Firewire external-type DVD drive. You can go up to 15 feet on Firewire with a good cable. The downside is the DVD drive will be more expensive that way.