Thanks I don't need an external DVD drive because the drive in it is a DVD-RW. The USB hub is going to go in the lower glovebox. No, I can't fit a full sized graphics card in it, but I don't forsee a need to do so... although I really would have liked to just for the over-the-topness. Price I pay for perfect fit in the upper glovebox.

I'm going to be cutting the faceplate to cover the entire opening, even over the carPC. Going to cut a slit over where the DVD-RW slot is now and drill a hole where the power button is. Should look super integrated, which is what my motto is witht his car (sound system is another example).

Thanks for the kind words, feels good after a long day of work to see other people like it too.

 

Great work amthar. Even if it is hard work, I can see you are enjoying yourself... What are you going to use to cut the aluminum faceplate? Cutting "perfect" with a dremel is hard!

Looks great - looking forward to seeing the finished project.

 

Going to use a metal nibbler. Same tool people use to cut the sides of their computer cases (http://www.allelectronics.com/cgi-bi...__CUTTER_.html) - radio shack carries them too. God_of_CPU says it makes clean, straight cuts possible. I need to go to Home Depot or lowes and try and pick up some extra thin aluminum to practice with the nibbler before I bite into (hahaha, pun) the faceplate.

But if I can make a straight slit that lines up with the DVD drive and drill a clean hole where the power button is, I'll be happy

 

Everything looks great! Try to get more pics and maybe a step by step thing? I'm really interested in this but I'm confused since you kept changing things around. Maybe once you get your final setup you can post up exactly what you bought and what not?

Anyways, great job. I'm sure this is waaay cheaper than getting a double-din setup with an expensive head unit.

 

Yeah, I'm going to get a whole lot better about taking pictures. Really the pictures I just posted are the first carPC related ones as I hadn't started installing it into my car until this past weekend.... All the carPC stuff is in pieces and parts in my house. I'll take pictures this weekend while I take the car apart and run wires.

Wait till you see my aftermarket alarm DIY

 

Heh, thats the one I am waiting for, if I don't get around to doing that myself...

Still undecided which alarm to go with. I don't want to thread jack your CarPC thread, though, so I won't discuss my current options here...

Dave

 

I should be getting the alarm (Clifford G5 Concept 450) in sometime next week (I hope). I'll begin locating the wiring in the car then (using the DEI cheatsheet).

In CarPC news, I got in one of my 500gb SATA drives (seagate) today so I am FINALLY able to test my SATA-USB drive swapping system tonight. Really it's more proof of concept then testing as all I have to do is hardwire the drive's power to a P1900 and a 5v PoL and connect the usb data cable to a PC.

And I'd like to see what happens if I disconnect the drive from the SATA-USB adapter without stopping the drive in windows first. Heh, yeah, bad things probably.

 

What were you going to be using 500gB for, again?

I mean, my mp3 collection, from over 200 CD's, ripped at 320 kbps, is only about 25 gB, and movies, well, they take up a good bit of room, but still...

On the other hand, I heard once upon a time that nobody would ever need more than 640 kB of memory...
Dave

 

nonon, 2TB of storage. Same reason you have your bass **** And for movies, more movies, more movies, some mp3s, and um... more movies.

But really it's to say I have 2TB of storage in my car.

I just got my packages... this 7 port hub is freaking hot. I'll post pictures in a second. Sexiest USB hub I've ever seen...

 

Zonet 7 port hub (powered) from newegg.com I think it was like $17. FREAKING TINY. 5V, 2a, makes it hella easy to power.

 

Dayum, I don't even have a single terabyte on my desktop, much less 2, and I have a pretty high powered desktop!

Anyways, that rocks, and I fully understand.

Dave

 

per some people's requests to see more pictures and more details steps, here is some of the (if not all of the) power infrastructure for the system. I already have a 4ga. wire going to the trunk and a 4ga ground wire in the trunk. This is for bringing power back to the dash and grounding items in the dash. The cat is an attention *****, please ignore her.

 

Ran 4 ga. wire to a distribution block in the passenger kick panel for power. Also install a distribution block for ground in there too. Soldered 8 ga. wire to the ground and 12v battery wires from the Carnetix P1900, ran them to the distribution block. PC successfully powered up in the car. I stuck the P1900 to the left side of the DIN converter and will zip tie it in place when all the wiring is done.

Need to cut and solder some more 8 ga. wire for the second P1900 (going behind the shifter).

Mainly just waiting for my screen to come back from being repaired/replaced by mp3car.com Once that happens, I should have the PC fully functional in the car.

I'll take some pictures as soon as I get some decent light and time. Finally I can almost taste completion

 

Congrats!

Please list what you bought and how you wired stuff up if you can. That would really help those of us who have no clue!

 

Ordered all the remaining hardware (except the 3 additional 500gb SATA drives). Should be compeltely up and running this coming weekend sans aluminum faceplate for the upper glovebox opening.