I don't know much about cases, but in terms of heat there are mini-itx boards w/low heat processors that don't require a fan. I've used this w/a digital picture frame application and they work very well. Cost was very reasonable too.

Here's the link to the board I used. I chose the 600 MHz fanless which was more than enough for what I needed.

http://www.viaembedded.com/product/e...therboardId=81

It has a bunch of features packed into a small form factor. Take a look at what's built in. It blew me away.

If I can find where I bought it, I'll post again.

-Rich

 

If you remove the plastic cubby hole part of the upper glovebox, you do have quite a bit of room in there possibly enough for a mini-ITX board if you take it out of the case. The ITX form factor is 17cm x 17cm. The upper glovebox has about 18cm (7") of depth and about 2" of height. I don't know about the exact width but its probably in the range of 10" or so. Something like this: http://www.xenarc.com/product/mp-tx1.html should fit though. Personally, I would mount the motherboard and power supply in there without a case, you should easily have enough room then.

The single DIN mounting solution I've designed for the upper glovebox is a metal bracket that provides a flat surface inside the glovebox with a few screw holes to hold the device in place, this would probably work well as a starting place to mount your carputer. I'll post pics and specs once I put the finishing touches on it.

Regardless of how you get it in there It will be extremely tight and the one thing that will make this a real pain in the *** is getting all the wires in the crammed space too, which is why I ended up just installing mine in the trunk. Well that and the fact I used a cheaper and much more powerful mAtx solution. If you go with a via, heat probably won't be a major problem, but you will need some active ventilation. I haven't had a problem with vibrations and I don't think its a real issue. Most hard drives can take instant forces of a few g's when on.

Noise might be a problem. I have an extremely powerful and loud fan on mine, but its in the trunk so I can't hear it when driving. You might be able to get away with something less powerful on the VIA. The AC vents are right there in the upper glovebox though, maybe you can use those somehow.

Its real easy to feed audio to the bose just get the PAC-Audio Aux input adaptor or an FM Modulator and hook it up to the PC sound card.

If you want the best looking GPS software, you would be well advised to wait till my software solution comes out around december It will require a 3D card, but it will look far better then anything else I've seen. Best currently available is probably CoPilot, but its relatively expensive.

 

I too have been working on a project like this, i have custom built a case out of plexiglass to fit in the upper glovebox and im using a VIA EPIA board, the hardware install is almost finished except i have to make some minor adjustments for makeing the screen move up and down easier. hopefully i will have it installed this weekend.

2004.5 G35 Coupe 6MT Black Osbidian / Graphite
Soon:
<font color=red> Injen CAI, Crawford Plenum, Kinetix Cats, Greddy EVO 2 Exhaust, Nismo 19" Wheels, JDM Badging</font color=red> <font color=blue> Custom Carputer</font color=blue>

 

Do they sell Mini-ITX cases that have a power inverter--specifically for a car--instead of a power supply? Looking around for one now. Also, what good programs are their to use for interface. Finally, I will use the stock screen--so obviously not a touch screen--is there some sort of mouse controller. Can you think of anything else that might cause strange behavior by using composite video instead of vga? Maybe someone can point me to a good resource for carputers. Thanks,
-Justin

-JustICE

 

The xenarc computer I listed earlier takes 12 volt DC directly, you don't need an inverter for it. OPUS also makes a 150 watt DC power supply, which is what I use, that will power almost any computer.

It will be very hard to read small text on the screen via composite video, but other then that you should be able to use it fine.

www.mp3car.com is the best resource for carputers out there. There also some already released software linked there.

I use my steering wheel controls, voice recognition, remote control, as well as gesturing and regular touch on my carputer. Do a search on this forum for "steering wheel controls" and you will find a link to how I hooked mine up to the computer and the software I wrote to do it.

I just got off the phone with xenarc and apparently they no longer offer the MP-TX1 They replaced it with the MP-SC1 which may fit, but only if its put in sideways since its 9".

<P ID="edit"><FONT class="small"><EM>Edited by god_of_cpu on 09/02/04 03:17 PM.</EM></FONT></P>