Wiring up a HDD in the boot

platypus

platypus

platypus

Caporegime
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I used to row with a guy that built his own stereo & entertainment system in his car. He had a flip up touch screen that was connected to a hard disk in the boot, with a huge music collection on it.

Just vaguely wondering if anyone has done it.
 
Yes I have, though I built the system into a double DIN headunit rather than in the boot. The boot install is more common.

System specs:

Via EPIA M10000 MiniITX motherboard (1GHz C3 CPU)
512MB DDR2
laptop HD, currently in the process of replacing it with a 2.5" SSD
M2-ATX PSU, though I'd recomend an M3-ATX for a new install as it's much smaller.
7" Lilliput touchscreen, removed from stock casing and put in the Mechatroniks double din aluminium case.

Some pictures: (Edit: The company hosting my site appear to have just fallen over, hopefully these will appear soon)

kit1.gif

That Mechatroniks case (though I got the black anodised one). Motherboard bolts into the bottom of this.

steel_chassis.jpg

The lid I designed and had CNC'd. This bolts to the top of the above case and contains cooling, the HDD, the M2-ATX and in that shot a small amplifier which was not actually installed in the final version.

test_back.jpg

The PC assembled, well apart from one fan

test_front.jpg

and from in front, just a test fitting though, didn't bother screwing it together

Installed.jpg

Installed in the car

SoundCard.jpg

USB soundcard mounted behind the handbrake (amps are under the seats)

Image(100).jpg

Final install

more info and some good forums at www.digital-car.co.uk
 
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I got really pretty far building a Carputer, even spent a fair amount of money on a special wireless PCI/PCMCIA combo card that had "wireless wake on lan" (could boot PC up remotely with no wires, idea being I could start PC up from within house if I wanted to transfer music, etc across).

You can get special PSUs that are designed to be used in cars to handle cranking (i.e. so PC doesn't keep restarting when you turn the key) and a delayed shutdown, etc. I had an Opus 150W one, again not cheap but worth it.

Another thing to consider is using a 2.5" hard drive instead of a regular one as they're built to withstand the sort of knocks you get when they're installed in a laptop, which would be similar to a car.
 
Carputer or CarPC is the phrase you're wanting.

As Lum has already posted, Digital-Car is a great site :)
(BTW, nice to see you over here as well, Lum!)

I've got one in my 'lude, and one in my GF's Galant too.

Some great bits of software now available, some are really pushing the boundaries again after a bit of a plateaux over the last couple of years :)
 
A lot of people make cases for putting a car PC in the boot if you don't want to go double-din, then you can get one of the flip out touchscreens. linitx.com are UK based and sell all this sort of stuff.

I quite like the look of the "Ampie" Car PC case, it's a Mini ITX case that also has space for the M2-ATX, and a laptop HDD, you can shove that under your seat and run the VGA+USB cable up to the motorised touchscreen but really any case works. I've seen installs built into the bit of useless space to the side of the wheelarch in the boot such that the boot side becomes flat. I've seen them done low profile under a false floor, one guy built his into the factory fit first aid kit box and one guy has even done a motorbike install (though it's a Honda Goldwing, so not as hard as you'd think).

Mine's been up and running since 2006, though it's currently removed from the car as the Legacy got written off and I don't really want to install 2 grand's worth of kit into a £275 Volvo whose idea of car security is who wants to rob a Volvo.
 
I've actually found a much simpler solution; a car stereo with USB input and file search support and a 300gb notebook hard drive.

I'm still interested in a computer though, will see what I can come up with :).
 
^Easy, if you want to use a 3.5" hard drive you'll need a dc-dc PSU tho. Just use a 2 metre USB cable and a USB - SATA enclosure...
platypus said:
I used to row with a guy that built his own stereo & entertainment system in his car. He had a flip up touch screen that was connected to a hard disk in the boot, with a huge music collection on it.

Just vaguely wondering if anyone has done it.
Click to expand...
Did it a while back for a Uni dissertation back in 2004 (needed to code something)

It wasn't really very well known back then, so I had to pretty much make everything myself (eg PSU), but now you can get all the parts pre-made so it's much easier.

Hard disk in the boot is a piece of cake, just use a long USB cable if your computer or headunit is in the dash....
 
MikeHunt79 said:
^Easy, if you want to use a 3.5" hard drive you'll need a dc-dc PSU tho. Just use a 2 metre USB cable and a USB - SATA enclosure...
Click to expand...

Although you can get things like WD Passports that run off the single USB for power and data, and as far as I'm aware work in decent head units. :)
 
InvaderGIR said:
Although you can get things like WD Passports that run off the single USB for power and data, and as far as I'm aware work in decent head units. :)
Click to expand...
Yep 2.5" drives need no PSU, they are far easier. Flash memory is best tho, no more waiting for the headunit to scan thru tons of tracks...:cool:
 
Only thing to watch for is thouse USB->2.5" IDE adaptors often draw somewhat more power than officially allowed by USB. I have one and it has two USB connectors in order to get enough power.

Now some of my devices will happily power it of just one USB port, others wont. Might be worth checking what that head unit supports before you buy it.

I think the chances of actually killing the head unit are very low, I've only killed one PC with my USB 2.5" drive and that was one of those tiny little Dell optiplexes belonging to a customer (oops) turned out they had a batch of a few thousand of them that were made with those dodgy capacitors (I'm sure everyone on this forum is very familiar with the capacitors in question)
 
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