In car PC's

Hello there people!

I have a big question for you. I heard something about in car PC's, but can't really find one. If you guys can help me find one I would really apreciate it. I had a regular set up in my car for data logging, using a com pilot, but I managed to burn it by overclocking it. And I also can't say that it was the best tool out there. Right now I am planing to run a DSM link on my car but still don't feel good about having a space taking laptop in my car. As soon as I heard about car PC's I got very interested, but failed to find one.

If you guys have any expiriance with those, sharing it would be apriciated. something like pros and cons.

Thank you for you time.

This is the setup I will be installing in the spring along with an in-dash motorized 7" touch screen to control it.

http://www.mini-box.com/s.nl/sc.8/category.101/.f

Only thing I'd worry about....damaged harddrive. The bumps wont be nice to it. Maybe use a laptops harddrive? or fab sometihng so it has its own suspension? Ask PPG what he did or if he has problems with his.

I've had one in my car for years (see my webpage link)

I've got a new setup going in this year. I got it from www.dsmloggers.com

I've got no in car experience with this new pc, I'm still running it in my basement for Beta testing/software installation.

My old one was a P200 MMX running Win 98. the thing was great. I put a wireless card in it for file transfers from my house. DVD drive, GPS, Cell phone internet. Only real problem was the hard drive. Every so often it had trouble and I had to run a thorough scandisk and it would flag off some sections of the HDD as unusable.

I say do it

Thanks guys.
Now I feel very positive about it.
Gonna order one;)

www.mp3car.com

Very cool site, for in car PC's

I've been piecing together the parts for a car-PC over the last few months.

Reccommendations:
- Definately use a laptop hard drive as they won't as easily loose sectors from bumps.
- If you use a laptop HDD you will need a 2.5" to 3.5" adapter such as this: http://cgi.ebay.com/2-5-to-3-5-HP-L...7896QQcategoryZ31513QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
- Use a MiniITX Motherboard. They're small (8.5" x 8.5"), and work very well for CarPCs

Good luck with your CarPC Kevin!!

Thanks a lot Luke.
I am actually thinking about building one of my own, because to get all the features in ones these web sites sell it will cost me around $1500 for that money I can build 3 very powerfull Car PC's


I already figured out all the parts that I will need and I got some connections that will help me get them parts no tax and with big discounts.

Great, I'm glad to hear you're building it yourself. They're easy to build and lots of fun to play with.

I've priced mine out to be around $400 without the monitor. That's also including a USB connected GPS module.

If you need any help, feel free to PM or e-mail me!

The one thing to keep in mind, to help keep the costs down is that you don't need a superfast computer to run MP3's and GPS software. Hell even a DVD player can run on a PIII less than 1 Ghz just fine.

My old P200 ran everything fine (I had a DVD decoder card in that one).

Spend your money on a good screen. I've got a new touchscreen for mine and I connot beleive how good it looks compared to my old non-vga screen. It's even a touchscreen

The guys who sell them as a package will charge more cause people who can't build em will pay that much (IMHO)

I'm itchin to get mine done and installed now...

what do you guys run for power supply?
12>110>ATX?

My old setup used an inverter to go from 12v to 120v. My new pc takes 12v direct, as does the screen.