Just wondering how difficult it would be to convert an old laptop into a carputer? Powering it shouldnt be too difficult as there seem to be plenty of invertors around, but how would you get the machine to auto start with ignition on? Also what about shut down? Any other issues that could be thought off?

 

(Guessing a decent spec P3 (plus 256 / 512mb should boot quick to Windows ME)

Myself my carputer will have a seperate power on swtich next to key ignition. Main thing i am worried about is that the hard disk does not get juddered to death as my car is lowered. A 2.5" laptop hard drive would be more resiliant to shocks but i would still think about some buffering.

what about shutting down the machine? Just tryign to find some cheap laptops on ebay with broken screens, not any of a spec i want at the moment, but this seems a way to go to get a carputer for around £200

Shutdown will be manual as well from the same power switch. I want to keep a manual carputer power switch so i dont have to worry about voltage wobble when the car starts up. Once i turn key, i use a finger on my right hand to press a little carputer power switch a second later.

I may get a £60 APC mini 400VA UPS that could allow me to have auto power on and shutdown. But not to begin with.

all i need to do now is find a decnet laptop with a dead screen and buy it cheap lol

It’s easy, that what I’m in the process of doing, I use old laptops for lots of apps at home. You just take the laptops on/off switch external and set XP to do a controlled shutdown when switched off, you can then choose to change this switch to a relay and drive it from the ignition. So then with the ignition on the laptop starts, and when off the laptop shutdown. The battery within the laptop will cover the controlled shutdown.

I’m looking at adding a solar panel charger to one of my targa, so that I could even leave the laptop on/standby, or do a wake-on-lan to it when its parked outside and like today pouring down.

 

Your laptop already has a UPS, its battery!

 

David

With the laptop you get you need to be sure when it boots up it will output the video to the Video DSUB adaptor. As far as i know the laptop display fires up first then u press FN+ some function key to get the external video output working. If you have a particular laptop in mind PM me and i can try and check it out.

i saw something a few years back where someone had made a pc case that fit into a stereo head-unit hole. not sure where i saw it or if it is any gaood but i remember thinking it was a pretty good idea

was under the impression that most laptops would send the signal to which ever screen it used on last shut down.

I tend to use Compaq M700s and they will always boot displaying to both the connected VGA device and the built-in flat panel, most laptops when closed will turn off the built-in display.

 

Got to look at customizing the double DIN to accept a 7” panel

I got a Compaq Small..ish P3 1ghz 512MB 120Gb HD custom spec for £120 for my carputer project. Worth thinking about

thats the sort of thing im looking at although wondering if its that much cheaper now thana custom carpc, £100+ for the laptop, same for the screen, then extra for the power unit / invertor.. guessing your looking at around £300 all in so might be a bit cheaper

I was lucky, my laptop was an old work one, so about 3 years old but working well and free, I think that a carputer will cost about £600ish, but you still need to add the display device to that cost, £180ish for a static 7” one and £250ish for a motorized 7”one, cheaper on eBay but not sure about the quality.

 

Or you could build your own for about £150-200ish, you could build a mini tower based system, or if you can make do with just one PCI card and use USB for most connections then you could use an angled PCI riser adaptor and build your own slim line case in the boot.

thats what i was thinking as surly a p3 550 or upwards running windows me 256 (or 512mb ram) decent nvidea geforce 2 type card would be fine in a car? Obviously biggest area to spend would be HDD to keep the mp3/mp4 pictures on

I'm planing to do the same thing, instead of an Inverter i've got a power adaptor that runs of the cigarette lighter, similar to:

 

Adaptor

 

Works perfectly with my laptop, but ideally would like to somehow wire it directly to the car's power (but dont have the know-how to do this).

Depends on where you are planning on installing the laptop. You could always just wire it directly to the bottom of the cars power (as in under the ask tray) but depends on where you want the laptop installing.

I'm a real cheap ass, you're going to hate me!!!

I got a DVD headunit and motorised Screen for 135 notes on ebay. I had to repair a faulty mode switch on the screen but it now works a treat.

I got an Acer travelmate 220 in THE shittiest condition you ever saw for 35 notes also on Fleebay. missing keys, broken case no battery or PS you name it (I call it my Craptop), anyway the important thing is it's a P3 with upgraded 20gig HDD and it works... mostly... well the screen is on it's last legs but it's comming off anyway!

Anyway got a DC car charger and powered it up... It's running 98 which is plenty good and it boots up much quicker than XP. The graphics driver has an option to set the VGA socket to TV-out by default. I've removed the touch pad from the case and I'm in the process of building it into the recess where the ashtray is at the moment.

As for power i'm gonna have to invest in a battery (£50 :( ), then with ther DC charger hardwired to the ignition the power management options are set to switch to standby within 1 minute of being on battery power alone. It's then set to wake from standby when i touch the touch-pad in the centre console.

It's running DATASCAN without any trouble at all and I'm hinking of getting a GPS dongle and a TV card and maybe an external HDD for music and vids.

I will take pictures when i'm finished if it doesn't all go tits-up.

 

Sorry for going on but I hope that with so many of us now doing the carputer thing we can all help each other out with our experiences.

Would it be possible to strip my DC car adaptor and connect it to a live wire under the astray or seomthing?, the laptop i got is a very small vaio, thinkning i might put it under the seat...

that's where i plan on putting mine but must make absolutely sure the t-top doesn't leak down to there!!!

 

If you can open up the cigar lighter plug and as long as there isn't any circuitry inside you should be able to connect it directly to the + & - wires to the lighter socket. I think mine has a fuse built in which i'll get an inline fuse holder for.

 

HTH

Thanks for the advice, keep us posted on how your installation progresses.

 

snx.

There is no circuit in the cigarette plug, just a fuse on the positive wire, you can simply remove the cigarette light plug, and install the power adaptor like you would any other new accessory; you’ll need to install a fuse somewhere in the circuit to replace the one in the plug.

Thanks for the advice, keep us posted on how your installation progresses.

 

snx.

No problem... you too ;)

In fact I'll take some pics later of my Craptop in it's current state and post them here... keep this thread going.

da fox sounds good to me, was thinking about a similar install myself. Just trying to find a p3 laptop under £50, dont even care if its screen works or not as ive no intention of using the laptop screen!

da fox sounds good to me, was thinking about a similar install myself. Just trying to find a p3 laptop under £50, dont even care if its screen works or not as ive no intention of using the laptop screen!

 

Pictures attached of my Craptop, My screen and DVD installed (shut), My screen and DVD installed (open). :hyper:

 

As you can see I've removed most of the casing from around the craptop screen ready for removal before fitting in the car. The touch-pad is also detached ready to go in the centre console.

Looks ok to me mate, think a craptop is the way forward probably, il keep you updated how i get on with mine

Most important is you need to make sure you get one with a TV out connection or has a graphics card that can send a conventional Video signal out the VGA socket. Otherwise you'll need a convertor and they're about £40 and about the size of an invertor.

Good luck mate.

Oh and i forgot to mention the DC power supply was a tenner shipped off ebay!