theSteve

okay so here's the deal.

i'm building a car-pc for my trans am... the computer part is easy-schmeazy.

my problem lies in location.

I want the LCD screen to be where the DECK and Heating Controls are. (pic 1)

it'd be easy enough to relocate the deck somewhere else (pic 2) - which would be great... but the heater controls are the problem.

I DON'T want to locate the screen by the pouch (pic 3).

my question : Is there a way to relocate the heating controls at all?

i'm willing to do a lot of work, but i just dont know if its possible at all... i've never really looked back there, and i just dont know how it all works.

PIC1 :

theSteve

PIC 2

theSteve

PIC 3 : (BAD)

Fade00

I replaced the controls in my bird awhile ago. I wouldnt see any problem with moving it besides extending some wires and tubes possibly.

FLYNLOW92rs

iTrader: (53)

What not just get an in-dash LCD unit....

one that flips out??..seems to be the easy solution....

They are down to $700 for a Sony 7" Widescreen model....

theSteve

It's a great idea, yeah... but i dont want one.

i dont know why really.. but i'd just rather have the other kind.

i guess i just really like my deck.

Diggler86

i think theres at least a wire that controls the heater door that would be a real problem. maybe depending on the year of your car.

CrazyHawaiian

Take a look how the K1 guys made their interior kit for the Evo or Evo II. The placement for the HVAC, the deck, and the optional LCD screen is pretty good. They fit the deck up top centered, the LCD screen on the bottom left off center and the HVAC controlls are horizontal next to the LCD screen on the right. No matter what it will probably require some sort of custom plate to make it fit. So you might as well just remove the entire HVAC/Deck area and fit it all in there.

theSteve

is this the layout you were talking about?

if it is, theres really no room to do such a thing with the existing dash. the deck/hvac area is really small, which is why things have to be relocated (i think)...

cant see the hvac being too easy to use mounted vertically like that either.

[ the pic doesn't quite match your description but its the closest i could find on the k1 site ]

theSteve

>> does anybody know the actual mechanics behind the hvac controls (ie. what would be involved in extending wires / tubes / etc.) ??

CrazyHawaiian

Yeah thats the one. My description was off. Well it was a good idea anyway. Maybe you should come join us on the dark side and start planning your 4th gen dash swap

theSteve

believe me, friend... its in the works.

but 4th gen dash STILL has a small little console for deck and HVAC!

It's No Better!!

btw. love the new sig, crazy -- your car is sweet.

SLAYER6669

iTrader: (1)

I was thinking of doing the same thing, but I'm too lazy to go through all that trouble to relocate the controls, I have absoutely no clue how to go about it to begin with aside from the fact that there isn't much of a place to put them in a camaro unless i stuck it under the center airvents or something.. I can't even get to my hvac controls right now Until winter is over I just stuck my screen to the dash with 3M adhesive :sillylol: and I've had my heat on for like 2 months now and just never shut it heh.. I may just play with fiberglass sometime with a friend and see if we can come up with something to put the screen under the center airvents or possibly some sort of fold down operation where i can just pull the screen down use the controls then flip it back up.. Unsure at the moment but I do know it loooks like $hit right now with all the wires hanging around!

CrazyHawaiian

I see WinAmp. You have a PC in the car too? Pretty cool.

loomdog32

i noticed winamp too.. i thought about doin something like that, but w/ the kenwood music keg out now, it didnt make any sense to me unless u have a dvd player or something like that..

assuming ur havc controls are the same as mine (they SHOULD be), here is now its set up.. there is a wire connector that has 4-5 wires (controls blower motor) and 5 vaccum lines (controls vents?) and 1 insulated wire line (controls temp?) and 1 light bulb w/ 2 wires..

the only problem w/ putting it where u show it in pic 2 (again if ur duct setup is like mine, which it SHOULD be), is the main duct is rite there and there is almost no clearance.. here is a crude diagram of the ducts..

blue=ac vents
red=def vents
yellow=heater core

Jay87Z

iTrader: (2)

I was thinking of doing this a couple years ago. My plan was to relocate the HVAC controls down to where the ash tray is in front of the shifter. I'm not sure if there is enough room between the top of the console and the floor though.

89RallySport

I was going to do the same thing with the computer but I am going to have a fold down screen instead. I was just wondering how you guys did the cpu's, I was building mine (atx) in a titanium box, now my problem is wireless scroll mouse/laptop folding keyboard.

FyreLance

Heh wow, I planned on doing this too. Thought of it a long time ago but just now wanting to really do it, also don't know where to mount my LCD though.

theSteve

well i've been wanting to do this for a long time.

i have a computer (less a video card and a hard drive) thats sitting in parts around my basement. depending on whether or not i get everything sorted out soon(the screen mounting, etc) that computer will either be for my car, or for my girlfriend.

im not quite sure yet.

anyway, every little while i find something cool and exciting that gets me extreemly riled up about the car pc idea.

this week, it's the Linux Car. This guy went completely buck nutty with his setup. His screen is touchscreen - which mine will be, eventually. He has a microprossesor that controls everything automatically. He starts the car, the processor turns on the power inverter, waits 4 seconds, boots up the computer, waits till it's booted, then turns on the LCD screens. When accessory power is turned off, the processor shuts down the computer, shuts off the lcd screens, and shuts off the power inverter, then waits for the car to be turned back on. he also designed a custom touchscreen interface to control the major functions of his car pc. his keyboard is an infared hotkey-keyboard (with onboard mouse) that allows him to control most functions with programmable hotkeys.

this guy has put a LOT of work into his jetta's pc. suffice it to say that he's way smarter than me. and although all this stuff would be cool, i intend to do the power thing a little differently.. just have the inverter wired to the accessory power and turn on when the car starts, and have the computer power button up front with me somewhere, and i'll start / shut down the computer. it's all planned out in my head and i'm looking forward to setting it up.

As far as the whole heating duct problem with the dash... I don't know what options this is going to leave me. I dont terribly want to interfere with the ducts... and it's aggrivating how LITTLE space there is for ingenuity here.

i'll keep you guys posted, and if anyone has some ideas, please, let me know.

CrazyHawaiian

I think its cool and all but its something I would never do (even working in the computer industry). I just dont see the need now that they make regular din sized mp3 capable players. But hey other people might want to do other stuff (like that touchscreen dealie) so I still think its a cool idea. I know Clarion makes a player with a fold out touch screen and Windows CE (the handheld version of Windows) called the AutoPC. For those of you planning on building your own box and putting it in the car there are some things to consider. Unlike a desk, your car will vibrate and move around alot while you drive (especially if you have suspension work). In extreme situations (say going 60 and accidentally hit a pot hole) alot of impact force can cause the harddrive to break. They are only rated to handle a certain ammount of impact, and it is possible to go over that limit and break the drive. This happened to one of my old co-workers at a past job. He had two drives in his PC in the car. A 40 gb for his mp3's and a older 6gb for his OS. The 40gb drive physically broke and he lost all his data. Somehow the 3 year old 6gb drive survived. There is a solution however. You can use media that isnt as complex and fragile .. CD-R's for example. You can build a stripped down version of Linux (any distro) and X-Windows running Winamp and fit it on one CD. Then fill another CD with your mp3's and with two CD-Rom drives you can go off-roading if you want. The worst thing that can happen is they skip when they read and give you an error on the screen. But hey maybe they might have come out with something to solve this problem since I last checked it out. Maybe some kinda harddrive brace inside the case that will protect it from hard impact. I dunno. Another thing to consider is heat. Be sure to put more fans that normal inside your case since it will be kept in an enclosed area. Also really make sure your cars electrical system can handle the powersupply.

Just some stuff I picked up from reading and listening to other peoples experiences.

theSteve

cool. thanks crazy.

i never really entertained the thought of the harddrives busting. it'll be soemthing to consider.

cheers.

SLAYER6669

iTrader: (1)

There have been harddrives which have broken before too, the best position to mount them is vertically.. This isn't always the case though, there have been people who have been using their car pc's for years and have had no hard drive problems, I myself am up to over a year and sofar so good.. I had one problem where windows would not boot so I had to reinstall windows but all was fine after that... I'm using NTFS filing system so if I want I can just turn the key off and the computer loses power but when I reboot scandisk won't run.. My power inverter turns on with a relay, and I have a switch which I use to turn the computer on/off.. I actually do shutdown windows before I shut the car off unless I forget, bootup time is only 33 seconds and shutdown time is 8 seconds.. My friend is working on a shutdown controller, which basically when the ignition is turned off, it gives the inverter power for a certain amount of time (thats also settable) and sends a pulse to the computer to shut down, then after the set amount of time is up it cuts the power to the inverter.

My screen is a touchscreen which to be honest I don't usually use while driving cuz its too hard to tell where your pressing whiling your driving since my winamp buttons aren't big enough.. I have a mini numerical keypad that I use for controling winamp.. Pretty soon I'm buying some CarPC software created by one of the MP3 car guys, I'm not sure if anyone here has heard of Cobra software, well the newest version is called Cobra 4 and/or Carplayer.. It's not out just yet though they are working on some part for the GPS..

I don't think I'd ever by the clairon CarPC.. it costs like 1000$ I think right? My whole computer setup and the screen was like 600$ and I have a 60 gig hard drive and to date about 3000 songs on it.. I also have a DVD rom so I can play movies, with my old screen (7" widescreen) movies looked cool, but on this one it's only 12 bit color so theres a little wierdness in the texture of say peoples skin etc. but I don't even care, I've never watched a movie in my car before and I probably never will

92Transam

Ive seen the problem of the PC getting shaken around solved with springs or struts something of that sort, just like a suspension to suspend it. ( like a car!)

theSteve

i would like to see this "hard drive suspension system"

i suppose if all else fails i can just make one

92Transam

K found it http://ryan.andersondairyfarm.com/Po...closemount.jpg it was on Mp3cars.com, Kinda looks like RC car shox. Here is the car http://ryan.andersondairyfarm.com/Portfolio/mprix3/ its a grand prix.

Jay87Z

iTrader: (2)

For a mouse, I was planning to mount a touch pad on the center console right behind the window up/down switches.

theSteve

A TOUCHPAD! Of course!!

i immediately thought of a trackball, but a touchpad would probably be even better!

excellent.

if anyone else has cool ideas, post post post.

TTT

89RallySport

Touchpad in the steering wheel center? just an idea

theSteve

that IS a cool idea.

but personally, when my momo wheel arrives, im not gonna want to rewire and relocate the touchpad.

that'd be damn cool though to have it right there on the wheel. good call.

RaGe

I'm also thinking about putting a PC in my car.


Check out www.miniitx.com .

The Mini ITX standard requires the motherboard to at most be 6.75 x 6.75 inches. It also uses a standard ATX power supply.

I have the VIA C3 800 Mhz with integrated video, TV out, sound, and lan. It takes SDRAM (cheap), has Ultra ATA 100 for a pretty quick drive, and takes less power then a standard ATX motherboard. The processor benchmarks about equal to a Celeron 400.

My system has a 40 gig 5400 RPM ATA100 Samsung drive (quiet but slow), 256 megs of ram and runs Windows XP Pro. Rock solid and damn quick for what is.

I'm using a power supply out of an old E-Machine. I had this power supply laying around and liked it becuase of its small size. You can get small power supplies for probably around $50 bucks.

This board cost me $135 at a local computer store, and I'm sure you could get it on the net cheaper then that.

So I think this is best bang for buck, and they even have a model with the VIA Eden processor which requires no CPU fan! It runs at 500 Mhz and benchmarks close to a Celeron 266 (from what I've been told).

I can imagine that suspending the hard drive some how would take care of the majority of the vibration problems.

I am still undecided as to weather I'll put a stand 15" flat panel monitor somewhere or to get a small LCD.

At any rate, cool topic. I hope to get something in my car pretty soon!

theSteve

well i just met up with a buddy who has an RS.... he took his hvac controls and moved them to inside the armrest console... build a fiberglass mounting bracket for it and just cropped it a little bit so that it would fit.

it looks real nice and he says it works just fine, it was just a matter of getting some extra lengths of vaccum hoses (and the other cables) so that it would reach up into there.

he had his deck mounted in the central heating vents bracket (fits like a glove with a little bit of modification).. unfortunately the vents of trans ams are a lot different and im gonna have to use a little bit of ingenuity to mount mine somewhere.

anyways, just letting you guys know my progress.. i'll be getting to work on moving everything probably next week.

all i need is a screen and a vid card for the computer.. and im set!

(its all very exciting)

David Blalock

If the hard drive problem hasn't been fixed yet... I was thinking about my other hobby/soon to be profession, music. There are rack mount cases for amps and things that have coiled wire run to the rails that the electronics bolt to that absorb a suprising amount of shock, they're designed to help prevent busting tubes in all-tube amps so I'd think they'd help quiet a bit.
David

FyreLance

Would you be able to give a little more info (pics!) on the HVAC relocation? I've been pondering for quite a while on what to do with my HVAC controls when I do my in-car PC and I'd like to see what he did.

theSteve

sure thing. i'll be sure to carry my digicam along with me next time we meet up. i'll post a new topic when the time comes so you wont miss it

FyreLance

Thanks! Would much appreciate it. I have an idea on what I want to do but I want to see what he did first.

reborn92rs

After seeing this post and looking over at dashpc.com I now know what I'm gonna do with the spare computers I got laying around.

Few questions I have for anyone with a camaro handy. Mines in the shop still so I cant take measurements. How many inches is there between the center vents and the top of the Hvac/console section? And how many inches from the vents all the way down to the shifter/ashtray plate??

Ive been looking at LCD screens the past few days and I'm not really impressed with the tiny stuff. I was looking at the 700V Xenarc for about $270. I dont think I need to spend $200 more to get the VGA version, I could buy a very good TV-out graphics card for that.
Does anyone have any recomendations for nice (yet cheap!) LCD screens?

theSteve

Okay so i have a new question.

I've been looking around at touchpads for the CAR PC... and the only ones that i've liked are those that are replacement parts for LAPTOP TOUCHPADS. i dont know if any of you have noticed.. but laptop touchpads are some pretty sleek looking units , and would look really nice on the center console of our cars.

OTHER non-laptop touchpads are usually rather unsightly and do not peak my interest in the least.

my problem is this. I want a laptop touchpad, but it needs to be able to plug into PS/2. So i need to know if ANYONE here knows how i could make this happen. I have an old Microsoft Intellimouse that i can use as a donor for any of the ps2 wiring that i might need.

Can anyone help me out?

reborn92rs

Buy the external one and take a hacksaw to it? I bet you could ditch the case and mount the pad into your console or whatnot nicely.

theSteve

yeah.. i thought about that.. but i REALLY hate the buttons on the external one. those stupid little thin strips .. i cant really do much with those.

reborn92rs

true, they are kinda crappy looking. Keep searching, maybe theres one out there with better buttons that you can hack up instead.

I think Ill just go with what that guy used, $40 bucks aint bad for a kb and mouse.
http://www.cwol.com/keyboards/sk7100.htm

theSteve

oh yeah... his keyboard is pretty much all you'd need..

i just cant get over how cool the idea is of a touchpad mouse RIGHT THERE on the center console.

theres a keyboard/touchpad combo on ebay.. starting at 0.01.... kinda unsightly, but cool if you like "natural keyboards" and touchpads

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...tem=2084308706

IROC_5796

where can i get this interior, is it custom or is there a kit, isaw somone mentioned K1 body kit thought maybe they made somthing fo the interior

theSteve

http://www.k1-styling.sk/evo1/finance.htm

A complete K-1 EVOLUZIONE "CAMARO" interior kit costs 750.- USD

A complete K-1 EVOLUZIONE "FIREBIRD" interior kit costs 700.- USD

here you go.

IROC_5796

kewl thanks I emailed them today, Im gunna get the interior kit It looks too sweet, and being able to keep al the factory junk is way better than chopping up a 4th gen dash to make it fit, may as well spend the extra couple hundred and get somthing that fits...

theSteve

sounds good man.

all i ask is that you post pictures when you're done