So the carPC is finally going in tomorrow. Lotsa delays have been setting me back since September.
In the meantime I was able to mount the small form factor PC into the old cd changer bracket. I lucked out and it fit perfectly. I test fitted it in the trunk and it also fit perfectly in the trunk liner hole where the cd changer was.

Looking at other people's carPC builds on mp3car a lot of the PC's were mounted in the glove box (no room for other things), under the passenger seat (too much heat), in the tire well (looked bad and use of spare tire is gone), or simply mounted it on a slab of plywood which looked terrible. So I VERY happy with how this is going to turn out as it looks totally stock!

I'll try to take some detailed pics tmrw during the install and make a nice build thread on this. Maybe encouraging more of you guys to try it since I think there are only 1 or 2 other SC's on CL with carPC's!

Worst part is that since my SC is now parked for the winter I'm not gonna be able to play with it!

 

tiny box! what will you utilize for a mouse and kb?

 

Dont need one. 7" touchscreen is going upfront running Centrafuse 3.

 

Are you running a SSD? also, what processor is in there? An Atom?

Let me know what your boot times are like and how smooth things run.

 

^ no its a Core 2 Duo, and Sata HDD, not solid state..

 

you should get SSD is 1000X faster

 

I've looked into building a carpc with my dad, seeing as it can be cheaper than putting in a nice double din. My plans were to put in a SSD though, any reasons as to why you're not?

 

Wow, core 2 duo in that little box, plenty good performance. I've been interested in doing something like this but it's further down the list. Keep us updated if possible.

 

Yea the core 2 will suffice for what I need. The SSD is a lot more expensive and I dont need all that performance. And to be completely honest this is what came with what I bought from another member here. I contemplated an SSD but figured I'd try this out first and see how it works.
Initially I was worried about the vibrations from the car having an effect on the computer, but a lot of guys on mp3car say they've been running theirs without any problems. The cars suspension does a good enough job of cushioning it.

 

A car PC can also double as a stereo system right?

 

And GPS, and IPOD, DVD player.


The possibilities are endless.

 

My goal is to end up with something similar to 'Sync' in Ford vehicles..

 

Glad to see your finally going to be getting your CarPC in the SC soon bro! Nice idea on mounting your PC in the old cd changer spot. Should do just fine. You will LOVE centrafuse 3. Definitely the best software out there. Mind you Sync in ford vehicles is better but they had corporate dollars to develop that.

Can't wait to see the pics! Welcome to the exclusive club of CarPC in an SC!

 

^ Heh ya I know, I've played around with my friends new Ford that has it and loved it, which is why I wanted decided on a carPC. Centrafuse looks like the closest thing I can come to it lol

 

So the install commenced today. I ended up having an electrician, a computer tech and another guy with endless internet knowledge helping out with the install; all of which have completed countless stereo installs in various vehicles they've had over the years.
So here's a short photo history of the night..

A mess of wires needed:


Workbench:


Beginning of the attempt:


Splicing the PC power cord into the Carnetix P2140 power supply. We decided to locate the psu in a rather unique spot; we put it inside the custom made touchscreen located in a stock Pioneer headunit case. There was enough room behind the screen in the case for the psu (sorry no pic of this just yet). We did this because it would save us from running a lot of wire to the back of the car (just PC power wire instead of both PC and Screen power wire), and the center console has moving air in almost every vehicle whereas the trunk does not, leaving the psu susceptible to overheating.


Splicing the other end of the power wire to the psu connector:


Splicing the secondary psu connector to the headunit:


We then managed to tap into the cars harness and locate the pin which powered the stock headunit; we then spliced a connector from this to power the entire system. This saved us from having to drill through the firewall to hardwire the system to the cars battery. We fluked out (as the CL member who I bought parts of the carPC system from) already had a connector for this in his harness which we were not using, so we cut it off and used it for this instead:
(Sorry, I know how much you guys would love for me to tell you which pin this was, but this was 100% done by the electrician of the group which was not me. I'll try to get this info for my complete build thread once the carPC is complete.)


We then hit a major roadblock which stopped our smooth progress for the night. Here is us trying to figure it out online..


So our problem is: The headunit starts fine when the car is put into ACC, however the PC does not want to start up. It instead flashes a red light and emits 4 short beeps. We looked it up on the HP website and 4 short bursts meant a variety of things (video card problem, system board error, or power error which it specified a reversed polarity).
We came up with a few theories:
1) We thought we wired the polarity of the power cord wrong so we switched that, but after attempting to crank the system again the computer did not even give any beeps. So that meant our original splicing was correct.
2) HP computer power cords have 3 wires within them; power, ground, and a 'Smart Pin' which is the centermost wire within the power cord. It sends a special signal to the motherboard which is only generated from the power cord; without this signal the PC wont power up. Basically unless we figure out what type of signal this third wire emits (constant or a type of pulse) and at what voltage in order replicate it somehow, we're stuck.
3) We had another theory that since the psu comes with a program called 'PSUMoni' (Power Supply Monitor) which runs in the background keeping check on the psu's power usage, we thought that the program had to be set up on the PC before firing everything up. But because we had already spliced the PC's power cord we were unable to do this.
I have an old Sony laptop sitting around which we're gonna try getting power to on our second attempt. The theory being that since its a Sony and since its a laptop it would not have this third power wire that is needed for the PC to identify itself (as apparently HP's commonly have).

If anyone has any insight into this please let me know!!