So the air conditioning is out of my car because I dont want or need it. It also isnt driven in Winter so the heat is not needed. What I want to set up is a nice touchscreen in place of those controls. Here are my requirements:

Want to be able to store music (easy)
Needs to be able to control my Megasquirt system

I guess the place I am stuck is putting the actual stuff together. I have tons of room because I can take out my whole hvac system. Shouldnt be hard to piece this together at all and I am wondering if this even needs to be a new thread but if anyone has any suggestions, let me know. Thanks

OK thinking more I thought of some more things.

I would really like to have wifi but that shouldnt be hard at all. Navigation would also be cool but again thats something you can add to any laptop. Just looking for input I suppose. Been looking at mp3car a lot at stuff and reading.

Also, what would be needed to run without my head unit? I dont think I will get rid of it but it would be kinda neat and clean and then have my disc load and stuff like that in its place. I do have three different Amps though so it may be kinda difficult or impossible?

 

I started a Car-PC build awhile ago as some may recall. I am not sure if the pictures are anywhere on the web or not. I molded a lilliput 7" touchscreen VGA into a double din surround. If you wanted to run it in place of your headunit you would just need to get an FM tuner card. I think it would be cool to mount the PC in your center console. You should be able to do it easily with one of the smaller cases.

 

i suggest you start with a laptop. It will be more suited to dealing with the abuse of being stuck in a car for most of its life.

you can pick up good laptops with destroyed screens (you wont need it anyway) for cheap on ebay.

car chargers would also make it easy to power off of a 12v source

 

With no head unit, you would also need an amp for the speakers.

I would keep my eyes on the mp3car for sale forum, I got an incredible deal with a guy who sold all his used stuff for less than half of what it would cost new.

I don't know how much this helps you, but here's what I plan to do. I will be mounting the pc somewhere in the trunk. I have the VoomPC enclosure, it is really nice. The only cables going up front would be a vga cable and a usb cable. The amp(s) is also in the trunk, so the RCA cables would be really short. The touchscreen will be molded in the stereo surround. The usb cable can go to a hub to which I can connect all the things I need (in your case, like the megasquirt - if the MS is using the serial port, there are serial-to-usb cables). I might also get a usb sound card if the on-board sound is noisy or something. Other USB accessories (wi-fi, GPS, etc) can be connected either in the back or in the front.

If you remove your whole Hvac controls, you would have PLENTY of room in there though. The disadvantage would be that if you need to screw around with the PC, you have to take apart those panels every time.

 

I guess all I would need to get rid of head unit is the rcas then. But I would need three outputs and maybe a way to control them? On my Alpine unit I have 3 outputs, 2 for speakers and one for subs and I am using all of them. (one for fronts, one for rears, and the amp for the subs. I could care less about regular radi as long as I can have cds, MP3 and possibly XM I would be fine.

I will probably put it behind the dash where I can get at it. Without all that ventilation back there it will be fine. Then If I get rid of head unit Ill put the disc drive there and mold everything into there. Im starting to really like this idea.

 

Actually, Ericy, if you take out your stereo and LOOK back there with a flashlight, you won't need to take out the HVAC stuff at all. If you remove the brace that's there to hold the BIG OEM stereo, you've got TONS of room man! Then, you can cut into the floor vents up there and use it to cool your system.

Not to mention the fact that if you remove the HVAC...

1. You'll have no venting in the hot/rainy season.
2. No help when you need to defog the windows.
3. Annoying ass sucking sound from the exposed HVAC connectors.
4. 3 big holes to fill in the dash.

You may not use much of the HVAC, but trust me, you'll miss it when it's gone. I did.

 

My system was an old laptop, dc-dc power supply, USB sound card (SB audigy i believe), holux GPS transponder, double din molded touchscreen, 2 amps... I think thats all. I wish I could have used a regular sound card, but with the laptop I was restricted to the onboard sound, which lacked any form of decent EQ (couldn't even use the WINAMP EQ). If the USB card would have worked properly, it would have worked well, however it didn't work half the time, and wouldn't work after the laptop came out of hibernation. And no one makes a decent USB card for a decent price (the audigy is OLD).

I was going to redo my system the way I should have done it in the beginning, I just don't have enough money or time to do it with the turbo build. My ideal setup was going to be with one of the kits on the mp3car store, which you can probably pick up in their classifieds. The mini-itx PC's are perfect for the application, just a little pricey, especially for the more powerful ones. The other issue is the CD rom drive. You can put the PC in the glove box so you have access. If you hide the PC, then you have to go with an external unit. I was thinking of molding/hiding a slot-load CD-ROM drive into the dash, probably right under the screen, using a modified external CD-ROM exclosure (which would convert it to USB). Otherwise, you'll have to do something with a regular external drive with the CD tray, which I would hate in my car.

And I would only leave the HVAC in to defog the windows when it's humid/rainy. Everything else can be fixed/gone without. You can mold a screen into where the controls are, and remove all the HVAC connectors/tubing.

My 2 cents.

 

Im going to look into this a lot more. Theres a real nice setup I found for sale on there. I guess I would keep something for defrost but I really dont plan on ever using it I dont think. It wont be driven in the winter because of the kit and me hating rust. And rain probably wouldnt be to fun with street tires when I get the new motor in. We will see. I definately want to do it though and looking stuff up has gotten me very interested.

 

Last time I was looking at them there were some ready made car-pc's with monitors for $500 or so on ebay.

 

Not DEFROST, DEFOGGING.

Trust me, you'll wish you had it when the window fogs up on a summer morning.

I've looked at this prebuilt unit a bunch. Looks like it would be about perfect.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Carputer-Car-Computer-...1QQcmdZViewItem

I'm interested in replacing the OEM shitty cupholder with a DVD drive that slides out.

Think you can remote mount a DVD drive with the CarPC in the trunk?

http://cgi.ebay.com/CAR-PC-COMPUTER-SYSTEM...1QQcmdZViewItem

Now THAT is a fully loaded unit. Perty nice, but no DVD drive. Could be fixed as I suggested though.

Made by this company.

http://www.vic-ltd.com/products.html

They have a webstore too with all sorts of different levels of work done. Maybe you should look there too? I'm going to.

Another interesting one.

http://cgi.ebay.com/1-DIN-In-Dash-DVD-Car-...1QQcmdZViewItem

And here.

http://cgi.ebay.com/CAR-PC-COMPUTER-SET-SY...1QQcmdZViewItem


A few other stars...

http://cgi.ebay.com/Car-Computer-Carputer-...1QQcmdZViewItem

http://cgi.ebay.com/2-0Ghz-Carputer-Car-PC...1QQcmdZViewItem

http://cgi.ebay.com/Carputer-Mobile-Car-PC...1QQcmdZViewItem