After a great deal of time searching the magazines and shops for a decent head unit for my car, I decided it was going to be more cost effective to install a computer in my car instead. The capability of playing MP3's was on the top of my list, but I've got over 65Gb's of music so I had to have a hard drive. Who wants CD's or DVD's laying around the car anyway? I found a few head units that had built in hard drives, but if I wanted DVD movie playback it would have cost thousands of pounds.
It's not a new idea, and it's not stupid... I decided to install a powerful computer into my car for MP3's, DVD's, DivX movies, games, GPS Navigation, the lot!
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The Computer - No point having a touch screen without a computer to use it with! This Athlon XP 2500, 512Mb RAM (DDR400), 200Gb SATA Hard Drive computer does the trick with 802.11b&g wireless, 100Mb LAN, DVD Drive, etc...
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The TFT Touchscreen - Mounting the 7" Liliput TFT touch screen inside my Honda Accord Type-R, I had to get this looking like a 'factory' fit. Here's how I did it...
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The Boot Install - The finishing touches to mount it all nicely in the rear end of my Accord Type-R in black vinyl, carpet and blue neon. (Building this was hard work, see the photos!)
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The Power Source - My new deep cycle battery by Deta Orbital (Exide) gives me plenty of electrical current when I need it! I used to have Optima, but this is identical and at half the cost!
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The Finishing Touches - Some of the extra bits like my engine start button used to turn the PC on really finish the job nicely.
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www.mp3car.com - Go to the forums, and find the software & software development, then front ends. Some great software here such as MMC (Mobile Media Centre)
www.cartft.com - Germany based car computer supplier that can ship worldwide. This is where I got my PSU and TFT!
www.msdist.co.uk - Super friendly service, and my source for the 2.4Ghz WiFi mag mount antenna. I couldn't find a better made product anywhere else!
www.digital-car.co.uk - Another great forum for in-car PC discussions |
If you have any questions then feel free to send me a message! (Contact Me)
Back to the In-Car section
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