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long time no post but thought i would mention this.

just in the process of making the shonda a bit better

ive seen a few people do this before and i quite like the idea
in the proces of collecting all the parts

so far ive got....

Via Epia 1500 mini itx motherboard
M2-atx 12v power supply
lin itx 7" vga touch screen

the plan is to mount the screen on the center consoule
where the digi clock is on the accord, then add a cd/dvd drive
to the pc so i can watch dvd's/store cd to hard drive etc
the limits are pretty endless as its a pc, seen ppl with system
that have wifi, custom car pc software, digi tv, DAB radio

all i need to have it running is a hard drive some RAM and a case

Opinions??

Did you get lost in Cyberspace when you stumbled accross this site Shaun

Have a word with Chris and Andy - maybe get FrozenAudio back up and running

lmbo, its aint a had job to wire to the car, just like wiring an amp, the had part is gonnabe fitting the screen into the center consoule!!

was originaly gonna try an squeeze the screen here to make it look a bit more oem


but a bit of a pain in are arse as my heater controlls are there

so decided to mount here like this one

nice

heloooo again lol

i wanted to do this in my golf. looks good.

Tidy job, nice one!

yeah, it would be better where the heater controls are, but should be a good job.

What you doing in terms of storage? a hardrive or solid state memory for shock resistance?

where you going to have the motherboard/case? in the boot?

Should be a good mod, keep us informed of the progress

goin well, keep us all informed how the project goes...

goin to use the glove box as the pc case and will be using 2.5" laptop harddrive

Make sure you get some very good cushioning and shock absorbtion for the hard drive if using a laptop hard drive, as they are extremely compact designs, everything is crammed into them and the slightest shock can damage them, a bad shock can be fatal.

Depending on your budget, 8-32GB solid state drives are beginning to hit the market now, i think the 16 and 32's are rather steep (last time I check the 32GB ones were like £270incl VAT) but the 8GB are quite affordable although hard to find a suitable one that can run a bootable DOS as standard.

Extra storage can easily be added using USB drives, so if your budget stretches to solid state drives, dont worry too much about them being considered "low capacity" hehe.

Good luck though fella!

shawn, not being funnny mate but why !

You can get Solid State IDE cards which act as hard drives, not sure on the cost or size available though, might be worth checking eBay.

I think its a good project to give a go and it shouldn't be too expensive to do.

y not ? lol

just seems like a complete waste of time to me !

dunno, could do allsorts with it i suppose apart from the usual satnav,dvd,cd stuff...

its main use is goin to be as mp3 player hense y im looking at 100GB plus HDD, im doin it because i want to have all my music in 1 system, for those of u who know i'm still using mini discs! im reluctant to got portable mp3/ipod or mp3cd coz i dont like them so this is the logical step for me plus the dvd and sat nav options are relitivly easy to incorparate into this system and if ever i wanted wifi or MS elcel then the option is there, even running pc games is possible. yes it aint gonna be cheep, (400£ mark) but when u weigh up what the sony hard drive head unit would cost?

just buy a blue tooth head unit mate, put all you music on your phone, and stream them across

i once found very small lowish spec pc towers for like 200 squiddles that i thought would be perfect for a car, but i'll be damned if i can find em again

well sceen has ben glassed in place for now not perfect but will give it a second attempt when i hace some more time!

after a bit of cutting with the dremil got it to sit in sung





i didnt take n e pics with just the fiberglass on it
sanded down ready for glassing


painted and finished
(sumdged the paint putting the screen back tho!! :m) will be re doing this at the weekend probs

Looks alright that mate

good stuff

coming along nicely

shawn, you know i love you, therefore i shall pass my judgement on the final product !

looks good mate, just worried by that statement....

pmsl, yer the less said the better

ok then..

lmbo! erm............... n e way! to be honest i need to re do it properly get the finish perfect!

pc is in.....

The new Nokia N96 has a FM modulator plus 16GB storage . anywhooo it looks good mate

you had it all running yet?

Yeah, but with 30 minutes battery life when in use, half a day on standby, id rather just buy an MP3 player and keep my existing phone lol.

not bein funny mat, but my n95 is charged ever night when i go to bed. the next day it lasts and im on it all the time, endless phone call for work etc, and never one has it let me down,

And you dont have a charger in the van mate? Cos mine could last 12 - 18 hours without a charge and 1 hours worth of a call and it was gone.

Still, 1 day battery life is far from impressive. And nobody gets more then 1.5 days with the N95 and that is leaving it alone in GSM mode and without using it for a single call or text, it inherited the same battery drain problems that plagued the N80, in fact, it took battery drain to a whole new level.

Ill stick with my K800i, it can squeeze a week without a charge just about, with moderate usage... if you really need a PC on the move, get something real like an HTC device, or a Blackberry instead of Nokia's lame excuse for a PC lol. It doesnt excel at anything at all, why people think it is so good is beyond me.

Imho, it is Nokia's biggest let down, they hyped it for months, and the entire industry was stunned upon its release because it has so many shortcomings compared with what Nokia promised. It should have been a benchmark phone; instead it represents nothing but a modified N80, albeit with a worse camera for photography.

just charge it every night. problem solved

now now ladies this is a car PC thread not another N95 thread lol. anyway the N96 has a60% better battery and more ram

Back to the PC then, why not use the laptop disc to run the OS, and have a portable/external firewire/usb2 drive in the centre armrest for example and use that to store all your media on, that way you can take it into the house and "fill it up"

well i will be adding an external slot load dvd drive when i have some more cash. so can just take what i want into the car and stick it on the hdd

re-done the firber glass on the screen today looks better not perfect but will do for now. all fitted and working properly only 2 more things i need in line fm modulator and usb dvd drive. will post up some pic and vid when i get some time!

Sweet cant wait to see it matey!!

yeh sounds good, lotta work already gone into it, lookin forward to seeing the finished item..

should have come over and had a look last night jonah.

i got my slot load dvd drive now just having issues getting it to work from my usb hub. wifi works great just need to find connections that allow me to use it(Mc d's free wifi is handy!)
i have now got just ove 60gb of music on it. still having problems with dvd player on wmp but i think i may just use a diffrent program.

next project for the pc will be sat nav and hands free phone kit through bluetooth
any 1 know of a usb 2.0 hub, with 4 usb 2.0 connections?

and a big thanks to mark for showing me were the on screen key board is!! its ment i can now get rid of the keyboard!!

well done on this shawnmoan, i was well impressed last night with it, even chris said he wants on in the proton now lol.

Cheers andy. like i said a few issues to sort and things to add but its up and running at least

Yeah, well done on it Shaun, looks great.

I want one now


Uh-oh sounds like another job for me lol

Cheers joe. u interested in putting one in the beemer? would go well with the rest of the tech in your car

had a couple of questions on cost last night

Total cost so far
Screen £38 (should have been £150+)
Motherboard £60
M2 atx(12v power supply)£40
2.5" 120 gb sata HDD £36
1gb DDR2 ram £11
Usb slot load Dvd writer £50
paint, fiberglass, ect about £15
fm modulator £10
total £260

not bad when u consider somthing like this
Sony HDD head unit
is selling for around £750 + the pc has the dvd playback, internet, sat nav, you can even have it read ur ecu to give you all the info from that and a snip of the price.
i did it as i hate portable mp3 players(namedly ipods) and didnt fancy the idea of hooking 1 up to my head unit.

that not bad at all that mate

video of boot time

Very smart install mate.

Works perfect and starts faster than my comp lol

I'm very jelous lol


Well done with it

yeah well done

a lot of hard work there and its paid off

will have to see this in action at the next meet if you are there

Yeah, looks mint that mate; what was the cost on software?

total cost of software including xp £0!

Whats the media centre alike software ya using?

Click me

this guy creats all the softwafe, hes done a sat nav program, and a hands free program for you phone top fella. and best of all its all free

Nice one

you'll have to come down on thursday and have a go mate try it out for your self,

FreeICE Frontend 1.9 Release

http://www.digital-car.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?s=8a7c10e7d72fb5f6aadb45bf13321390&t=9516

thats the 1. credit to the guy who wrote the program its great. try it on you pc and u will get wot i mean

well ive done it at long last all the usb gismo's are working all at the same time!

took the 5v feed form the power supply to run the usb hub, and had to cut up a nokia charger to get the correct conector

the car now has bluetooth, and i have a BT GPS reciver that pairs up nicley to the pc, just having issues with getting the software to run correctly(i.e for free!)

how much has it cost you all together?

the pc or the software?

the pc

well just a little update after living with the usb dvd drive
i decided that it was shite! was taking 10mins+ to see the drive when running thorough the hub.
the hub its self is being powered by the pc power supply (5v dc) and has bluetooth already in it, so ive got 8 usb 2.0 ports now

hub:


so ive gone done the ide cable route and mounted the drive in
the glove box with the rest of the gubins. runs exelently now instant from start up, again this is being powered from the psu.
drive:





its getting a little tight in there now! need to think about cooling and air flow but temps are still running fine for now.

ive used the secondary fuse box as a place to stash my buletooth gps reciver (for when i finally get a sat nav programe working!!! ) and my wifi dongle
Stash:


also got rid of the fm modulator now as ive upgraded my head unit to something more powerfull and it has aux input. perfect sound out of it now!

head unit:


o yea and a still need to fit a a kill swith for the pc! as when it crash's (all be it quite infequently) its a pain to disconnect the battery! lol

Lookin good. All stashed away nicely.

How hot does it actually get?

Hows the bluetooth GPS work?

its just a gps reciver that insted of using usb to send signal it transmits via bluetooth. the only reason im using it, is that i already had one from an old phne i had with sat nav

brill topic m8;) may do this meself

cheers mate, if ur gonna do it your self i would start with the most expensive part the screen

Link to screen These are by far the best and most reliable screen, and its a uk supplyer with loads of spares.

not cheap but well work the money imho, as the cheap screen i got overheats after about 2 hours use and the thouch function stops working when its too hot!

cheers bud

better job then mine i used at USC

lol good effort, i like the oem touch there wheels!!

on a serious note the a lot of ppl are doing it with laptops, they just hack off the screen and wire in a power supply, and use a touchscreen like mine. all the parts ive use are essentailly laptop parts anway.

p.s. did u have sat nav on ur laptop? is so delatils please

sorry mate I used my tomtom

sat nav now up and running! after months of trying!
using a program that was only ment as a demo.
its called igo 8, its written by nav n go. great program with 3d building and lane assist. will post up some screen shots when i can be arsed!

interesting link

for any one how wants to try this out have a look, this is just the bare programe tho, no buildings, lane assist.
the problem im having at the moment is that its using a big chunk of the cpu! hitting 100% cpu usage often when this programe is running. no caused me any mp3 playback issues yet but im trying to find a way to cut the cpu usage.
any way enough of my bable! here are some picsand vid!

[youtube]kiLLSTyV01E[/youtube]

finally got it sorted lol

That program looks spot on, how you going to get cpu usage down?

is there an option to decrease the visual quality?

after a bit of digging round in the setting file ive figured out how to turn down the visual quality! so it all runs smoothly now!

just found a tiny keyboard aswell linky
i think it will sit perfectly under the drivers seat

next on the list is a reversing cam. any one recomend a decent web cam?

all gone now!

How come??!

sold it mate, new project on the way

Sold just the car PC or the Honda?

just the pc for now

whats the new project?

new car all will be reviled soon