I've had some sort of car computer or plan for one since 1997. I've finally settled on a design for my prelude, so I thought I would document its construction here.

On a budget I decided to craft my own case for this car computer, so here are a few pictures of the progress.

Mix 1 150Watt regulating DCtoDC Power Supply:

+ 1 Mini ITX VIA C7 based motherboard (with 512MB DDR2 RAM)

+ an assortment of hand crafted metal pieces (with cross flow fan for cooling)


and let simmer at 350 degrees for a few hours...

instant car computer!
heres another shot:

note the PCI slot for expansion (I might get a nice sound card to put there, who knows).

Even though it is not entirely unattractive, I intend on placing it out of sight in the center console where the head unit used to be, and covering up the double-din opening with this:


fancy touchscreen.

I intend on practicing my fiberglass in the near future, so hopefully I can make the final install look nearly OEM. Intended uses include: 150GB of MP3, satellite GPS/mapping, Wifi internet, fancy visualizations, and of course a 1/3 octave equalizer to fine tune everything.

Thoughts? I'll update when I do something interesting with it.

looks good, running linux?

a buddy of mine was looking into doing this years ago for mp3 reasons. i guess the biggest hassle would be having to shut it off before the car shuts off.

I used to run linux, but now both my front-end and map software are windows based, so I'm going to use XP this time. Using hibernation, I can get boot time to around 10 seconds.

With this power supply, I have alot of flexibility. I dont have to turn off the computer at any time. It can survive engine cranking dips down to 8 or 9 volts. But I do have it set to power down a few minutes after the ignition is turned off. That can be bypassed easily if I'm going to be parked and listening to music for awhile. Also, if it is powered on, it will monitor battery voltage and shut down before it kills the battery.

That's pretty cool man. I have a friend of mine that took out his CD player so he could use the space for gauges and VTEC controller. So for music he plugs his MP3 player into his amp. Sounds real clear and saved space.

Thats pretty cool but I bet it adds some weight with all the equipment and wires. LOL Who cares though right? I think its cool as hell

cool, but a computer in a car is kinda wierd. i dont ever wanna pull up along side someone chatting on aim and posting comments on myspace...

ROFL thats is worse than some old woman in a lincoln on a cell phone

Dude, yesterday I had to make a delivery about 125.9 minutes north of my work. So I hoped in the truck and headed out.

I get on the highway and I look over into the passenger seat of a, I think it was a Blazer or some sort of SUV...

The mothershitdiddle was doing work on his LABToP/LAPTOP (whatever), in his lap driving 65 in the rain... I had to do like a double take... except it was more like a 12 take...

Shit boggles my mind...

Yeah thats shit sucks. Makes you feel real safe huh?

The weight is negligable compared to my subwoofer box and amps and crap. This car is a nice cruiser, and thats what I wanted.

Also I dont plan on doing anything with the computer while im driving except changing tunes. Thats where the frontend software comes in.



Just use the touchscreen to change modes/CD's/tracks. I'd like to make it as nice as somthing Honda would put in their cars as an option. Except better/cheaper.

VERY COOL!! I guess I know now what will be my next project!



How did you do it?

It is a function of the power supply itself, and can be set with a jumper on the PCB. Look at http://www.opussolutions.com/index.php?p=product&id=25
for more info. Thats practically the same supply as I have, except mine was sold as an industrial use unit with no casing or fan.
They have even better versions now, such as a 180 Watt unit, but my setup isn't nearly that power hungry.