carputer

[pred8r]

http://www.letscommunicate.co.uk/carputer/images/webv2/index_01.gif
http://www.letscommunicate.co.uk/carputer/index2.htm

[Vectracious]

Have seen this before, looks like he ripped it out of his B and has installed it in his new C

[Clint]

i was starting something similar, have it all here in my room ready to be put int he car... but i started something else in the car and this god slightly delayed..

[bill142]

I've often thought of doing something like this. I suppose there are two ways of doing it, to build it independent, or try to integrate it. Integrating would probably be hard and you would probably need clint's expertise to do that. Independent, you would need half a brain of how computers work to put it togeather since it would essentially run on windows.

[Clint]

i had briefly thought about it a while ago, probably for a minute and thought that would be awesome but i dont want the whole desktop pc in my car, even if built into a custom box and hidden, its too bulky, and too prone to interference and stuff. and a laptop is too expensive for that even tho well suited...

a few months back i kinda got my pc to put in the car.. i had my laptop sitting on my desk as usual, and i was cleaning my room (is a very rare thing lol) and bumped the desk, and a bowling pin fell from the top of the desk onto the laptop... the screen shattered similar to a mobile phone if u break one of them.. i thought oh crap i hope it works, but if it doesnt work ill know why! and yea opened it up and it was stuffed. hige cracks starting at the top middle of the screen where the pin hit leading out in every direction from there to each edge of the screen.. so i figured id chuck that in the car when i get the time. so far its still in my room sitting on the floor, but the windows is fully set up for it, i have the steering wheel controls in the car modified so they work with winamp on the computer, and ive been trying to decide if its worth getting a touchscreen lcd instead of a headunit, its a really tough decision, i think the only way to see is to use the car for a few weeks without the headunit and see how it goes.

but the advantages of a car pc are huge,
no limit on music
music videos (hehe i have get all the latest ones for free each month.. working at a bowling alley comes in handy sometimes)
gps navigation fairly cheap
bluetooth mobile phone handsfree through pc speakers (car speakers) and mic
steering wheel controls work again, only cost less than $5 for that
is possible to use the MID radio line with the pc, but i have other plans for that screen now
can hook the ecu to the pc to read out engine data and other stuff (another opelaus member in qld is working on that :)
also many many things to do with audio, there are millions of plugins for winamp, some very good equilisers and sound enhancers that sound 1000 times better than a headunit, sound quality was one thing i was worried about but ive tried the laptop in the car before and the sound quality is amazing, sounds from the speakers are much clearer, also sounds great with things like SRS wow effects and other sound enhancers, and bass can be a lot deeper and louder, i played a bass tester and the difference is huge, the very very low tones <30hz that normally are quieter on the headunit were as loud as the other bass, no distortion either.
digital tv and radio via usb reciever
fm radio (but who uses that anyways lol, im sure some do but i very rarely do)
free wireless internet at some places around brisbane / gold coast, and i think most maccas now have it too
thats all i can think of for now but there is much more than that

[pred8r]

i have a toshiba laptop thats CCFL tube died so i just removed the screen altogether, its great, like a whole keyboardPC thing. Looks odd though

[Clint]

haha yea i did that. it looks a little dodgy tho lol, theres that line of leds on the bottom of the screen, i just glued that to the top of the laptop lol. i would think u could get parts for a toshiba tho?