New custom car PC enclosure finished!!!

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Larry Phillips

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I was tired of having my seat up, and a chunky computer enclosure that didn't fit hardly anywhere in the cab, but that came to an end today. Check it out, the rubber lining around the window is split fuel line, the motherboard and power supply board are sandwiched between 2 pieces of plexiglass using 2 inches worth of coupling nuts as spacers, which is then bolted to the jackpanel door. It's great, now I can fold both rear seats down again! And of course, I'm going to install some blue lighting later.



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Looks great. My only concern would be the temperature element. Can it survive drastic heat/cold?
 
It has so far. The temp shouldn't be too much differant in there. But if need be, I can install another system fan and pipe air in from either outside, or from under the seat.
 
When this baby hits 88 MPH your going to see....... :lol::lol:



Looks cool....



Worst case a nice fan cut in would be cool....



Can use 2 fans 1 for intake and 1 exhaust.....



Todd Z
 
Larry,



Looks great.



Did you go with a custom/mobile power solution so that it hibernates when the truck is turned off, and hibernates when back on?



TJR
 
That's really sharp. I assume your running power off a converter. Where is it located?



Did you go with a custom/mobile power solution so that it hibernates when the truck is turned off, and hibernates when back on?
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The long slender card on the left is a specialized DC-DC power supply designed for car PCs that I've been using for some time. It will shut the computer down if the battery voltage drops below a certain voltage. It triggers power on when it senses ignition voltage.



Also, my computer will only let me stand by or shut down. Is there any settings in Win XP to allow hibernation?



Here's what the computer used to look like...



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Again, I might have missed something but what do you use it for? Music storage, or is there a screen and keyboard also located in the truck somewhere? You could get a lot done in traffic:D:D
 
It's used for playing my library of MP3's and WMA's, navigate by GPS, and as a diagnostic tool.



There is a keyboard, but the touchscreen is the main input device.



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The only thing I'd change is to use button head bolts instead of those hex-head bolts, they'd really finish the install off. Of course, I have a strange abhorrence to exposed hex head bolts.
 
Larry,



Regarding your question about XP and Hibernate, I think XP only shows the "Hibernate" tab in "Power Options" if your PC supports it, and that feature is turned on in the bios.



Some PCs (mobos actually) don't support it while others do. Take a look into the "Power Management" section of your carputer's bios.



If it is supported there will be an option for turning it on. Then, once on, the "Hibernate" tab of the "Power Options" utility (in control panel) will allow you to enable hibernation.



TJR
 
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Looking mightly nice, quick question though... If it applies. Is your car-puter connected to the stereo, so when playing stuff on the puter it comes through the ST's speakers? If so, I'm curious what sound card you have and does it use RCA's?



I'm interested in a car-puter, just to save money on dvds, and cds. Burn everything to the hard drive and bam, no more need for the disc's.
 
Shvdnlayd, it looks like from the setup that Larry is using the audio chipset on the mobo of the carputer. Few carputers have any PCI slots, so an additional sound card usually isn't possible. I am sure Larry has routed his audio from the carpc to the speakers of his ST, probably through the aux input of his stereo...that's what I would try.



TJR
 
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Yep, just using the audio chipset. Here's the audio path- Aux in on the headunit (it's a Pioneer, so it requires the proprietary IP bus to RCA adapter). From there it changes from RCA to quarter inch stereo plug and plugs into the green speaker output on the computer motherboard.
 
That's fantastic! I was thinking of putting one into my console but this is a better idea I think. Heat BUILD-UP is going to be your main concern, even when using an EPIA setup, especially if your hard-drives are mounted in the same space. You could, as you said, install a fan to circulate the air but you may want to consider just cutting slits into the plexi instead. This would allow some of the heat to escape while not having to deal with the noise the extra fan would introduce. A fan would also most likely get filthy quick and a dirty fan is an inefficient fan. I would also go so far as removing the HSF from the CPU and the giant heatsink from the mobo and water-cool it. That would get rid of yet another fan for even more noise reduction.



Also remember... heat rises. Mount your hard-drives low in the compartment so that they are away from the higher temps in the top of the compartment.
 
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