I'd given this a lot of thought over the last 4 months, and now finally things are starting to come together
The general idea was a Car PC which can be a DVD player, MP3 player and hook up to the car's electrical systems allowing me to have digital dash gauges and controls from a touchscreen. This is going to be a lengthy project but we are aiming to have it completed by September in time for one of the big UK modified car shows (Trax 05).

Anyways, here are a few shots of the PC in various stages of being built (i know the case isnt modified but...)

Case with just 12V psu board fitted


The motherboard, Mini-ITX Epia M 1ghz embedded Nemiah core CPU


Motherboard fitted, power regulator (black box sticking up) fitted, put in 256MB Crucial DDR 333, drive tray not shown but this sits over the motherboard and is fitted with a 20GB Hitachi ATA133 2.5" drive and a slimline DVD rom drive taken from a donor Sony VAIO laptop.


Finally, the completed case with the monitor sitting alongside it,it's a NewVison 8" 1024*768 Touchscreen monitor (usb interface for touchscreen).



We've already built two of these interface boards that will tie the cars electrical systems into the software we are writing in visual basic, these are supplied i kit form from a Belgian company called Velleman


The board can accept 5 digital inputs and can supply 8 digital outputs fro switching stuff on/off, in addition it can read 2 analog inputs which can be connected up to various stuff on the car i.e Boost sensor, coolant temp sensor etc.

Hoping to get the monitor installed over this weekend in the car's centre console, the software however will take a little longer although we already have a basic version running.

what kinda car is this going in?

Quote: Originally Posted by greekplaya what kinda car is this going in?

Rover 800 Turbo, bit like this one only mines white



2.0L 16V T-series turbo engine, running 11psi Boost, around 210BHP

Ahhh Rover...since they folded, your cars probably shot up in price. I know my mini has - parts are now only done through 3rd party aliases to Rover (those that can afford to stay alive or sell to other manufacturers).

So are you intending to make a slide out area for the screen? So its out of site when your parked or somthing?

well, i could hardly believe it really, the prices have really tumbled lately with dealers trying to shift their forecourt stock they are virtually giving them away but the spare part market has rocketed

I'll never sell mine tho, even if i blow my engine i'd rather put another one in than replace the car

Good stuff, nice car and i love the project, ill be doing the same rather soon. Keep this up to date on the site im intriged

Finally got it installed in the car

Here's a few piccies

The boot build and PC fitted
http://www.performancextreme.com/tom/bootpc1.jpg

Close-up of the front of the PC
http://www.performancextreme.com/tom/bootpc2.jpg

Messy Wiring -- Never guess i was an electrical engineer by trade
http://www.performancextreme.com/tom/bootpc3.jpg

Shot of the screen mounted in the centre console, still needs some finishing around the edges
http://www.performancextreme.com/tom/bootpc4.jpg

Kewl! I'm thinking about using a miniITX for one of my upcoming projects. What's you're word on them? They good and stable?

Pretty stable, depends what you want to do with it, that one only has a 1ghz processor and sems to do ok. The only dowside is that if you're running off a very small PSU you may need to use a 2.5" laptop HDD and laptop CD drive as they require a lot less power (i know this is true of ones running from 12V vehicle PSU's but unsure with regards to larger PSU's).

I managed to get a pretty good deal on the parts from www.mini-itx.com

Yeah, mini-itx is actually the website I was looking at for the board. I'll probably go to NewEgg and Ebay for the laptop drives and converters. If I could find and entire laptop that I could use for spare parts, that would be pimp.

But, wait, this is your worklog.

Its cool mate

A secondhand laptop is where i salvaged my drives from (my laptop met its bitter end when my missus decided to let it drink a pint of cola....by accident), just one word of caution Sony Vaio CD drive trays are fout 5mm too big to fit into a standard slimline drive slot without the front tray fouling, I had to use the dremel to trim a small amount off the edges of the drive tray to make it a snug fit.