PC fitment in Disco

embedded linux system, 6 inch tft touch screen on dash,and others in vehicle if you fancy, 120 gig drive, 1gig RAM, works great!!

J> Hi All

Twas Tue, 11 May 2004 00:22:54 +0000 (UTC) when "Jinx" put finger to keyboard producing:

I've looked closely at this as I intend insatlling a computer for an entirely different reason. And a laptop is certainly the way to go IMHO.

Regards. Mark.(AKA, Mr.Nice.)

Have a look at the Sterling XS website; they've got some ruggedised laptops with DVD drive, although the CPU is a bit feeble for DVD playback. Pentium II 350MHz should be ample for anything else, but the downside is that you'll be relying on old parts which may be very non- standard.

(Don't everybody rush, but it looks a good answer to the computer-in- Land-Rover problem.)

I'd go for a laptop, probably a smallish one like Fujitsu-Siemens S Series. Recently saw a very tiny JVC unit that looked very nice, but probably TOO small.

Your GPS software will depend what you want to do. I run a basic Etrex sending NMEA data to Microsoft MapPoint. It's fantastic, but sod all use if you can't get maps for where you are.

I'd carry printed Land Rover manuals. If your car breaks, you may also lose laptop power, and you won't read a laptop screen in full sun and with oily hands. Fine for browsing late at night though.

Setting aside DVDs, you could do all of the above with a Palm / PocketPC device.

I'm using a Morex Cubid 3688 case with a VIA EPIA M-II 10000 (Nehemiah) motherboard, 80Gb disk, slot-in DVD. It has 3 x USB2 ports, composite video and S-video outputs running XP Pro and MediaEngine front end. It has an inbuilt DC-DC PSU and an ITPS power sequencer that regulates the incoming DC and boots the PC up a few seconds after the ignition is turned on and shuts it down after the ignition is shut off. The same ITPS also powers a 250Gb USB2 external hard disk for DVD/MP3. It's a great piece of kit and very compact. Check out

where I bought mine.

7" touch-screen XGA monitors can be found on Ebay.

Malcolm.

What about a TFT under the bonnet with USB oily hands keyboard screwed to the slam pannel... could play solitare whilst waiting for parts to ship out ;-)

Lee D

Cheers for all the info peep's

The above link have a small PC that should fit in my disoc cubby box easy and this would allow me to use the track pad and XP's on screen keyboard function easily.

Screen wise Maplin have a offer for a 7" tft with built in tuner for £150.

I would like the idea of touch screen but the prices are higher and i have little experience of them and have the belief (wrongly maybe) that using Linux platform would get more out of it.

mini-itx i have red about and do likethe idea alot and will probably end up going down that route at some stage once i'm confident i know what i'm doing.

I definately like the idea of a laptop base and agree picking a cheap unit up should be easy. Mounting under the disco drivers seat would be ideal for this too. The cd/dvd drive i would like to mount in the plastic shelf thing above the drivers head. Also a track ball could then be used just infront of the cubby box.

Well i know there are many possibles to this idea and i have my self thinking there will be many versions until i get exactly what i may need. I've got a PDA (palm TC) but i feel it will be compremise after compremise, software is expensive too. The Car PC should allow me to connect many periferrals to it i.e. phone, camera, GPS, Pda even. The picture and map storage should be a problem with a PC where as with the PDA i'm currently restricted to 128-256Mb.

Jinx

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If your looking at mini itx thentry here for inspiration

Chris

1990 200Tdi Disco

Look there for ideas, then buy the bits from

Steve

Some mini-ITX cards also have a PCMCIA slot so you can do what I do and put a WIFI card in there and pull down your MP3's and DVD as you pull into your driveway :-)

Malcolm.

Hello, thought I would add my 2penny worth. I've got GPS in my old SIII and it is fantastic for locating the hard to find green lanes, you'll not get lost again either.

Laptops are by far the easiest way to go. A home assembled PC would be nice, but I've yet to find a power supply that will take in 12v and give out the

12/5/3 etc volts that you need for ATX and all the drives. The Espresso Mini Computer on does look good though, and plenty powerful enough. Normal laptops are light and flimsy. I've broken the screen on one driving down a byway.

I'm now using a Panasonic Toughbook CF-25, it really is tough and water proof. It cost £49 off of eBay. Only a Pentium 150MHz, but it runs Memory Map well. The GPS mapping software is far less CPU instensive than you would expect. It cant do any of the nice 3D landscape views, but it scrolls smoothly and tracks the location OK. I would like 250/350 MHz for cleaner MP3 playback, but basically it's fine.

Memory Map sell 50,000:1 maps for the UK and some 25,000:1, don't know about overseas.

That's how I do it, Regards David

cheers

Dave W.

You can get 60W 12 V PSUs which will drive an ITX card, a floppy, hard-disk and CD-ROM drive just fine.

Try this lot, for LOTS of power.

Steve