My Revamped Carputer Setup

[f1ce]

oh ya that is the passenger side... hehe well you'll needa run the cables to the left then

[SchmilK]

Hot damn!! Besides the tupperware case this wins the carputer award in my book...mostly just cause of the keybaord I currently roll wih either my work laptop, HP Compaq NC6000 windows 2000 or my personal Toshiba Portege running Linux laptop in the passenger seat It's getto, but the seats in the WRX hold the laptop almost as nice as it holds my ass! Both laptops play mp3z, dvdz, cdz, wardrive, and run better GPS navigation than any car gps units I've seen! I've never taken the initiative to replace my stock headunit with a fold out screen to mount a computer like I want to...now that I see the capability of a visor keyboard, my interest just peaked!!!!


GREAT JOB!!!

[Chunks]

Ah one question

Did you hard-wire it into your car's electrical system? or did you use an inverter?

[RayfieldsWRX]

Originally posted by SchmilK
Hot damn!! Besides the tupperware case this wins the carputer award in my book...

GREAT JOB!!!

Thanks. I'm on a budget, so the "tupperware case" was my only good option for a super small case to fit under the seat.

[RayfieldsWRX]

Originally posted by Chunks
Ah one question

Did you hard-wire it into your car's electrical system? or did you use an inverter?

My first generation of the computer used an inverter, but I didn't like the noise that the inverter introduced into the system, and I didn't like how inefficient they are. I looked around a bit, and found a 12VDC to 12VDC power supply that's designed for this purpose. It takes car power, regulates it, and generates the 5V and 12V necessary to power the mainboard. If you look at the 3rd pic that I posted, you can see it. It looks like a small, inverted board that plugs directly into the power supply plug. No fans or anything...

[BongMonster]

RayfieldsWRX - NICE! job. Kudos!

[RayfieldsWRX]

Thanks man!

[complexx]

Originally posted by RayfieldsWRX
The MediaEngine screen while playing a tune...

Aside from your carputer being kick-azz, other than me, you have the best music taste on the whole board. Excellent stuff! Dream Theater is my favorite band.

-Frank

[RayfieldsWRX]

I was wondering if anyone else out there liked DT. They're generally a musician's band; most other people don't seem to "get" them. The raw talent and imagination of the band is unheard of...

[Weapon wrX]

holy sh!t man!! very nice...how much did that set up run you?

[RayfieldsWRX]

The computer setup itself was relatively cheap; probably 2-300 dollars in parts. (mainboard, power supply, hard drive) The pricey part of it is the Sony multimedia center receiver, which gives me a screen. That set me back a cool grand, but does other things as well...

[Roffa]

How do you feel the HD are handeling the hard driving of a WRX pilot I know it has been a subject with alot of talk on many forums.. But what are your experince ? I'm afraid I will ruin alot of HD's in my wrx... I plan on driving the car hard with the carputer running....

[RayfieldsWRX]

Originally posted by Roffa
How do you feel the HD are handeling the hard driving of a WRX pilot I know it has been a subject with alot of talk on many forums.. But what are your experince ? I'm afraid I will ruin alot of HD's in my wrx... I plan on driving the car hard with the carputer running....

I worried about the same thing, but I've been driving around with this same HD in place (over 2 different generations of carputers) for a year now with no issues. And I'm on aftermarket springs, so my ride is fairly rough.

[Roffa]

What have you done with the HD's to prevent damage?

I'm more than worried as I plan to use the carputer on track for storing data input from onboards cameras...

[RayfieldsWRX]

I've done nothing. It's basically mounted inside of a plastic box. Seems to take the beating in stride. I work in controls engineering, and have speced out industrial computers that have shock mounted HD's. I've considered getting one of those shock setups for my pc, just for good measure. It definitely couldn't hurt...