Honda Insight Computer Project

[Getshocked.ca]

Ok, i have had this in the back of my mind for awhile and with christmas comming up I think i will be going ahead with it.. heres what i had in mind

Xenarc 700TS 7" TFT LCD Monitor W/ VGA & Touch Screen - $569

DFI K8M800-MLVF ATHLON 64 S754 MATX DDR AGP 3PCI SATA RAID 1394 VIDEO SOUND LAN - $107.39

AMD 64bit 2800+ - $159.99

Western Digital 200gb HD - $133.98

2x512 Crosair Value select - $213.98

Linksys 54G adapter - $60

Enermax 350 PSU and 400watt CND tire Power inverter

Any ideas/Suggestions??

Also anyone have an idea where this could be mounted?

[Getshocked.ca]

BTW those are Canadian Prices

[bigtrouble77]

A system like that may be a bit too powerful for an insight. I personally would go with a micro atx, like one of those shuttle XPCs. You're gonna want it to be small anyway.

I finally hooked up my Athlon64 3700 laptop directly to the DC outlet with no issues, but the laptop has a battery backup so it may be stable when a desktop machine wouldn't. I would buy the electronics (inverter?) for the power and see if you can stabily run your regular PC in the car.

You also may want to look for a case that has shock protectors for the HD. Regular IDE/SATA drives are not designed to take the same amount of shock as a laptop drive, plus they generally run constantly which could be a major issue if you hit a pot hole.

Finally, what do you plan to use it for? For the amount of money your planning on spending you may be better off picking up a used laptop from ebay and buying a laptop mount. You won't have the touch screen, but you'll have a keyboard and a touch pad.

-BT

[Getshocked.ca]

The motherboard listed above is a Micro Atx board (MATX)

When your laptop is plugged in it shouldnt be drawing any power off the laptop battery (which is good news to me since you are running a higher system)

I plan to use it for

DVD
GPS Navigation
MP3
Fun Gadget / project

All together this is cheaper then a decent indash LCD Deck, and this will be capable of a heck of alot more

Hmmm the hard drive thing is interesting, I could design something to smooth the bumps ,,,

[dazey]

I'm just trying to figure out what you would do with that much computing power in a car. I know it's getting harder to find retail CPUs under 2GHz now, but why 64bit and a gig of RAM other than the cool factor? I'm not saying it would be bad (it would be a kick-ass system after all), just a little overkill for something to play music, movies, and "war driving".

I've been looking at the Mini-ITX boards, and now the Nano-ITX (same page)(only 12cmx12cm) Most of these boards have built-in audio, video, LAN, and MPEG decoding, and a lot are fanless. They're kind of like an Insight, small, quiet, and efficient They don't offer much above the 1GHz mark, but you can also get away with a 50-70watt power supply, some of which can run right off 12v.

Looking at the fold-out designs for LCDs it looks like a fold-up mount would hit and block the air controls. Folding down would be too close to the shifter. I'm convinced I could live without the cup holders and just fill in that area like a few other people have done.

As far as the computer itself. I figured either behind the passenger under the rear deck, but then you can't really access it. Or get a nice looking case and mount it behind the passenger seat, maybe with an option to quickly remove it. And if you get a wireless NIC that supports an external antenna, you can mount the antenna on the roof for better reception.

[Getshocked.ca]

I found this Power Supply that runs off of 12 volts

http://www.orbitmicro.com/products/powe ... DX250H.htm

I decided to go with the 2800 64 bit because it runs really cool (temp wise) which will be better for summer computing, Also it is not as power hungry as p4's

I want a system powerfull enough to run DVD's smoothly and GPS without a sweat, Also I figure who knows what I am going to want to add in the future

[Foxpaw]

Hrm. Seems a bit excessive. The most demanding software it sounds like you'll be running is the operating system. System requirements for playing DVDs and GPS is virtually irrelevant - even old Commodore 64s can be made to have smooth DVD playback.

If it was me, I'd get a $200 800MHz system, which is still more than you'd need. If you're looking for a place to put it, you might consider putting it in the space intended for the GPS computer. GPS isn't an option on export models (to my knowledge) but the little hollow where the computer goes is still there.

[Getshocked.ca]

Where is this gps place??? ( i never knew about it)

I know it is excessive, but I dont mind

here is my stereo system at http://www.getshocked.ca 1300+ watts, thats excessive too

[Chris]

Yeah just what are you planning on doing with all that stuff in your car anyways? Unless you plan on turning your car into something that looks like this:

[Aaron Cake]

I've been putting computers in cars for years. My first was my MP3 player in my RX-7, which I think was 1998 0r 1999. Can be found on my website at http://www.aaroncake.net/projects/mp3player.htm

I'm currently running this old machine in my Insight since the RX-7 is off the road for a few modifications (for the last 2 years ), but my plan is to build a new system for the Insight.

I don't have any specifics, but the general plan is to use a 1.8 GHz+ MB and CPU, probably mini-ATX or ITX, with a 7-12" touch screen mounted near the glove box facing the driver. I have some small keyboards which will mount perfectly in front of the cup holders and flip out of the way on the rare occasions when I actually use the holders. I also have the elements of the laptop "pointing nipple" which I intend to add to the top of the shift knob. Power will be via a DC-DC converter, perhaps the Opus unit or a custom 144V unit.

No idea when I'll actually get this done, as I've been saying "this year" for two years now. And I would prefer to get the RX-7 done before the end of time...

Regardless, you should check out http://www.mp3car.com . Lots of info.