Well, I had planned on doing an indash install, with a custom fabricated 7" LCD Touchscreen in place of the HU. I got scammed out of my $200 from some member of mp3car.com, so that threw me away from the whole project. I did, however get my cash back a few months later. Now I want to persue the project again. However, I won't be doing an indash LCD Touchscreen.

My plans for right now are to use my laptop, at first, until I can gather the rest of the components. I've got a GPS receiver on its way, as well as a Matrix Orbital LCD screen (not an LCD monitor, but like an ink LCD screen 2"x4" I think) I plan on making it display mp3 track information, as well as temperature (USB temp probe or something like that), time, maybe even a compass if possible... any other random useless things that I can. I'm looking into LCD visor-mount monitors, if I can't get those, I'll mount the Matrix Orbital LCD on my visor. If not, I'll put it in the dash one way or another. I've also got a $100 best buy card that is going to be invested into a nice power inverter... looking at a $90 700watt one... hopefully it can charge my laptop.


That's my plan for the next few weeks... as it gets closer to summer, I plan on doing a complete carpc setup. Custom case fabrication and a dedicated rig . I've got a couple 10ft USB extension cables for this. Planning on mounting wireless mouse and mini keyboard receivers in the front of the car somewhere. Maybe eventually I'll get a touchscreen for mp3 control, but right now I think that a wireless keyboard and mouse, and maybe even voice control will be all that I need.

Thursday I'm out of school, and I should have ample time to get pictures and get my plans all drawn up... I'll keep the thread updated over the next couple of weeks.

Questions or comments would be appreciated.

 

that sounds real cool man, but i got a question for you, what is the purpose of this, i;m cluelesss to this, what can you do with it, or what can it be used for???

 

that sounds real cool man, but i got a question for you, what is the purpose of this, i;m cluelesss to this, what can you do with it, or what can it be used for???

 

Glad to see more people diving into the carPC craze. I just finished updating the bezel on mine. Once I'm done with the whole interior (only got two more peices left to work on and install like 7 that are all sitting in my basement) then I'll take some shots, but here's a glimpse:





My carPC has all 600 mp3s that I have, GPS navigation, and wireless internet access. Those are really the only three things I wanted. Capabilities, though, are only as endless as the capabilities of a computer. I could hook up a bluetooth adapter to the carPC and control my phone through the computer, touchscreen dial would be cool. I could hook up a DVD-rom to the carPC and have DVD capabilities for movies, etc. With cars that have tuning software available for them, you can easilly hook up the tuning cable to the carPC and run software on the carPC every time you drive around and have great logging capabilities of what's going on with the engine. I've even seen some well thought out carPC's have the capability of entirely controlling the car's alarm system through the touchscreen... and the alarm system had the window roll up module, so he literally could roll his windows up and down just by touching the touchscreen.

 

i'm wondering the same......what ever happened to just driving and not worrying internet or the phone and whatnot

i just don't see a use for it unless you spend that mush time in your car

 

All this talk makes me hot. Not a project Id try on my own though.

 

The MAIN purpose is for GPS and MP3 playback. Why carry 20 CDs and sort through them, when I can play MP3s over my stereo system from this computer. Also, I tend to drive around alot... randomly. GPS is cheap, and a very neat feature to have.

Items should be coming in by friday... guy backed out of my GPS deal, so I'm still looking for another one.

 

Wireless internet access is also a great plus. You don't need anything more than a $20 USB wireless adapter from the local computer store. Comes in handy when, say, you're in a parking lot and want to lookup someone's phone number using the white pages or such. I like it because the frontend I use connects to weatherchannel's website and imports the data for my city. You'd be surprised at how many homes AND businesses are basically giving away their wireless connection by not protecting or configuring their wireless routers.

 

Yes, but that is theft. :-D

Anyway, around here (a small town) most people who use DSL don't have wireless, those who do usually secure it. But I've found a few hot spots that are open.

I'm anxious to see your final install... I'd like to go the touchscreen route, but I'm too tight on cash right now... as soon as I receive my items I'll start posting pictures.

 

I think you'll like it either way, but once you get the touchscreen and run a good front end on it, it makes all the difference. Oh and don't forget the dvd+rw , friends get a kick out of copying dvds in your car!

 

I'll post my sneak peak pics in a different thread, I don't mean to hijack yours.

 

Does anyone have a part list and how to to do this?

 

There's a lot of information on mp3car for fbody specifically: http://mp3car.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=63949

 

If I may ask, why are you using a full sized PSU? Why not get something smaller?

 

The PSU that I'm using is specifically for carPC's, it's about the same size as a regular PSU, but it can survive and regulate the power going to the carPC even through the cranking (which regularly would kill the PC after awhile) of the engine, and it also has bootup and shutdown automatically.