Carputer Setup

[NicsR33]

Greetings all. its 10pm and I just finished installing my carputer into the skyline. i successfully made this carputer on a budget of $600 and wished to share my experience on here for others wishing to try out the same thing.

Despite everyone having different opinions about what is best, if you are after a basic carputer with plenty of performance whilst maintaining mimimul cost then please continue to read below. I have broken down the list of items in terms of what you WILL need, and what are optional goodies.

NEED:

Computer, duh! Whilst most ppl will recommend buying those small single din mother boards, etc etc etc. it is not worth it. why? here are the below reasons:

PROs

- small, powerful and can be consealed nicely. Also allows for all your custom hardware.

CONs

- WTF do you do with it once ur over the carputer? most parts would become superceeded and its not the prettiest thing to have lying around in your living room as a stand alone computer. another issue is COST.

MY ANSWER:

LAPTOPS!!!!1

With a laptop you can't go wrong. Manufactures spend millions designing the laptops so you dont need too. They come with all the necessary hardware needed plus they are slim and basically ready to go. not to mention its got an inbuilt battery, so no need for fancy "power supply which puts the computer on hibernate" and all that bs. However the best feature is that they are easily removed and if your over the whole scene just take it out and use it in the house for watever. Laptops are cheap and if you keep ur eyes peeled you will find a good one. For example i managed to get a Compaq 11" n410c for only $250 in perfect working order. only thing needed was an operating system (windows xp ftw) and a 12DC charger. Also would help to have AUX-IN into the back of your head deck for the LINE-OUT of the laptop.

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NEED:

LCD Screen.

PROs

Smaller, lighter and clearer than other conventional screens (if using VGA).

CONs

Expensive, not all are suited to fit within the single dash din.

MY ANSWER:

Keep a look out! If you are after a touch screen 7" single din screen be prepared to pay around $400 for a no name HK model. Normal non mechanical screens with only a couple of video inputs can go for as little as $100. I managed to buy a 7" LCD screen with 2 video inputs for $90 off eBay in perfect working order. Again depending on what you wish to use will depend on how much clarity you want. If you wanna read small text whilst driving then get a model with VGA, otherwise a standard VIDEO input will do to play movies, etc. dont forget ppl, its only 7" not 32". The other alternative is to get an 8" touch screen and mount it someone where in the car. If it is not a DIN player then it's cheap. 8" touch screen with VGA connection can go for around $200.

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NEED:

GPS antenna

PROs:

Pulls teh chiks, plus pays itself off in fuel money saved

CONs:

Not the easiest of gadgets to setup originally.

MY ANSWER:

Keep a look out. Try to avoid those HK antennas as they might not be as good. I managed to a HOLUX GPS receiver with a CD containing Aussie maps in Destinator and map monkey for around $70 off eBay. The maps can be downloaded from the net however if it comes with a CD then why not use it.

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NEED:

12DC Converter

PROs:

Powers you up!

CONs:

Require the cigarette lighter to draw power, which isn't a problem till you wanna use that port to supply power to another object.

MY ANSWER:

Talk to JayCar about a DC charger that will suit your car. Be warned as not every generic converter will work with some brands. I scored my converter for free off my gf's parents because it never worked on their Dell laptop. These chargers normally set you back around $50 max. Also to hide the cables and also allow your cigarette lighter to be used with something else, why not hardwire the charger to the back of the cigarette lighter? This is what i've done so no cables are visible and you can also use the cig lighter for something else . . . . not smoking though thats bad.

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NEED:

Fish style mouse

PROs:

Controls your carputer. Cheap and fun to look at

CONs:

Takes a little getting used too. If coming from HK may take a couple weeks.

MY ANSWER:

Have a look on eBay for fish style mouses. they are essentially a normal mouse in the shape of a fish to fit in your hand with a trackball to move the curser. You can pick these up for around $10

And thats basically it. In terms of software this is what you should need:

Windows XP. dont bother with the nLite or XPlite version they are more problems then they're worth. if uve been around computers long enough you know how to press the right buttons with XP. my full copy of XP is ready to go in only 40 seconds from a cold boot. just dont install unless stuff like MSN and Office and ull be set.

Map Monkey. It's great once its working, takes a lil playing around with but its worth it.

Some sort of media player. You can use Windows Media Player otherwise Winamp or Frodo is not bad too. Just depends on what size you want your text to be.

INSTALLATION:

For those who do not know how to install anything (guilty!) i would highly recommend Cronulla Car Sound, no not in Cronulla actually in Kirawee. Friendly staff and top work too! Dont think you can beat their prices either. more info see: www.cronullacarsound.com.au

CONCLUSION

Would i have done anything differently? Yes. i wouldn't have bothered with the TV capture card but ill keep it in there anyways. Also kinda wish i got a VGA screen but its not worth the $300 difference.

END RESULT

[Trav33]

When i first read this thread, i thought you were asking for ideas on how to build a carputer for under $600, i was going to post a sceptical reply - but you've actually done it! Well done!

I'm 90% thru my carputer build. I heard lots of bad things about cheap LCD touch screens, so tried to stay with a reputable (Xenarc) VGA monitor. But if your on a budget, you cant always get what you want. Fish-ball thing looks handy.

[NicsR33]

cheers buddy! i think the key to these carputers is patience. i spent over 2 months just keeping an eye out, researching and waiting for parts to arrive. i told myself that if anything happens to this screen ill get a nice motorised vga screen to replace it.

[ceedub]

Laptop is the way to go :laughing-smiley-014:

carputer under 600 bucks now that is impressive, I still prefer a touchscreen though

Interested to know how the GPS is working - I haven't bought that bit yet. Might get the one you have if you recommend it.

here's my attempt

http://www.skylinesaustralia.com/forums/in...howtopic=136894

[Rekin]

nice job

So you opted with a laptop, with video out connected to lcd screen, audio out connected to headunit?

headunit connected to speakers/amps in car?

Where do you store the laptop when car is in use? I presume you turn on/off the laptop as you enter/leave the car?

- Patrick

[NicsR33]

ceedub your setup looks siick! wish i had the know-how to do what you did.

Rekin yeh thats exactly it! video to AV1, Audio to AUX on head deck. because the compaq is only 11" its got a on/off switch on the side. so i simply told the laptop once it reaches 20% battery to shut down so i dont have to worry about shutting it down when i turn the car off i just let the laptop battery drain a lil. then when i get back in the car its just a matter of reaching under the seat and flicking the on/off switch on the side (i dont need to open the laptop screen or anything).

[Stitch]

I'm trying to set up something similar to this but I can't get a good sound out of the laptop. Did your laptop have a line-out aswell as just your normal headphone output. What is the sound quality like on your setup?

[NicsR33]

I'm trying to set up something similar to this but I can't get a good sound out of the laptop. Did your laptop have a line-out aswell as just your normal headphone output. What is the sound quality like on your setup?

im getting CD quality. its all about the head deck. my SONY head unit cost $800 and gets works wonders on the AUX inputs. the laptop connection to the head deck is just a simple RCA to 3.5mm cable.