I’ve finally finished my car PC project that was started almost 4 years ago. After many upsets and dragging my feet, the only thing left to do is tweak the software.
So much has changed since this project first started and I’ve replaced almost everything at least once with newer equipment. The quality of off the shelf car PC power supplies, LCD displays, and software has improved drastically since 2003. It has made the second install much cleaner.
My first car PC had a Xenarc display that was tapped to the dash of the Z. Although it looked good, the whole screen was supported by the double-sided tape on the touch-screen. It only took a few months before the touch-screen stopped working and a car PC isn’t that useful without a touch-screen. I also fabricated my own power supply to turn the computer off and on with the ignition. Now you can purchase power supplies that do this for you.
The main goal in this car PC was to limit its power consumption and space. I didn’t want to take up any space in the glove box and since I’m not a big PC gamer, processor speed didn’t matter that much. Here are some specs and pictures of the final PC:

Power Consumption:
MP3 playback: 2 Amps, 24W
Max consumption when CD spindle starts to turn: 4 Amps, 48W
Idle: 1.6Amps, 19.2W
Suspend (only RAM active): 160mA, 1.92W


Equipment:
1) VIA EPIA-SP13000 1.3GHz motherboard and processor, 512MB RAM
http://www.via.com.tw/en/products/ma...erboard_id=261

2) Travla C134 Mini-ITX case
http://206.14.132.88/products/Travla/c134/C134.html

3) Dynamix 706 7” LCD screen
http://dynamixcomputers.com/7_dynamix_ultra_bright.html

4) M2-ATX 160W smart car power supply
http://www.mini-box.com/M2-ATX-160w-...=8&category=13

5) Road Runner freeware
http://guino.home.insightbb.com/roadrunner.html


Problems I encountered:
1) The SP13000 motherboard does not fit inside the Travla case without a lot of cutting. The layout of the connectors do not line up with the holes in the case. The M1000 motherboard from VIA fits fine though.

2) The M2-ATX power supply works great with the SP13000 motherboard and has enough power left over to power the external DVD-RW drive but the switch that shorts the power button on the PC blew up on me. I contacted technical support to find out the manufacture part number of the switch and they speedily replied back within 10 hours. I replaced the switch again only to have it blow up one more time. I fixed the problem by wiring in a better switch.

3) I could not screw in two screws that hold the console to the dash. The Dynamix LCD screen prevented me from getting to the screw hole locations.

 

This is the layout of the Mini-ITX computer. It is a really tight fit...I had to remove the extra power supply conenctors since they wouldn't fit inside the case. The M2-ITX power supply is shown next to the motherboard.


Here is the layout of the compartment behind the driver seat. It contains the car PC, Basslink sub, Alpine amp, and power distribution unit. I haven't had any problems with heat or vibrations....yet.


I will probably move the DVD player to another compartment sometime. The wireless keyboard receiver is also shown.


I purchased the cover from the bose system to hide everything. It also provides holes to remove some heat.


The display showing Road Runner. You can also see the six buttons I installed under the display to control the PC and LCD power plus the LCD display adjustments.

 

nice job!

 

Nice! How is your LCD display in direct sunlight? I can't see crap on my Xenarc when sunlight hits it

 

cliffart where are you getting ACC signal? The rear cigarette lighter? I just switched to a M2-ATX and I am having some odd shutdown problems using the rear cig lighter.

 

The Dynamix has an anti glare film on it that helps a little bit. I can see an improvement over my original Xenarc screen but that might also be from the brighter backlight. One thing that I liked about the Xenarc screen is the variable backlight adjustment. This seems to work better than the brightness adjustment on the Dynamix but overall, the Dynamix fits and looks great.

I routed the switched power signal from the head unit back to the rear compartment when I installed the audio amp and sub. I just tapped off of that for the M2-ATX. I would think the cigarette lighter would be fine though. It should be on the same circuit as the head unit's switched signal. What is the M2-ATX doing?

 

Thanks for sharing.
Your basslink compartment looks like mine - a wiring nightmare. Haha (no offense).

I see you have the parrot also - I have one here I got a year ago for my Razr but havent installed- how do you like it?

I have the PW-70 power supply (haven't installed in car yet ha ha). I have the EPIA W1000 motherboard, laptop hard drive, laptop dvd player.

Do you think it is too small for the job?

I had (have) the lilliput screen - that is what put the kabash on the whole project - the touchscreen went bad right away. I am still looking at monitors to replace it. I am considering a newer Lilliput or a Xenarc, hadn't seen the one you have until now.

 

The Parrot works well and is worth the install. I put the main controller box behind the temperature control *****. There is just enough space there and it makes routing the wire for the LCD display really easy. The only thing I could complain about is that I can't use the voice recognition when I go above 10 or 20 miles an hour because of the background noise.

I have a PW70 for the M1000 motherboard which was the original motherboard for my car PC. It worked fine and should be able to power everything. I would recommend changing to a smart power supply like the M1-ATX or Opus since they monitor your battery voltage so you don't drain it all the way. My car battery died a few times with the PW70 if I didn't start it every three or four days. A PC will consume about 1 to 2 watts even when it's off so you need a power supply that will cut all power to it when it's off.

Sorry about your touchscreen...I know what that feels like. The Dynamax fits without taking it out of the case so the touchscreen should not break.

 

My friend got the lilliput at the same time, and his stopped working totally in a week, not just the touchscreen.

Thank you for the information. Very helpful.

 

Update:
Once again, I had to jump my car because the battery was dead. After rebuilding the whole system to take care of the power supply issues of the last system, I still had to jump my car after being gone for a week. It must be the Dynamix LCD with the auto-on feature. I might have to move the LCD power to the car switched power supply....or something like that.

Other than that, the whole system has worked great....