computer in car question.
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computer in car question.
ive got a laptop computer i want to hook up in my car. im gonna buy a coleman power inverter that hoks straight to the battery. but my question is how can i put it in there and still have it out of my way when i need it to be with out using the floor board?
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I've been working on putting one in my car for the past few months. Are you planning on having this be a permanent item in your car that turns on on it's own, or are you wanting to just use it sparingly whenever you need it?
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Well, in my opinion, your best bet would be to use a DC DC power source coupled with an ITPS regulator. The DC DC power source should supply the computer with the power you need (there's many different sizes from 30w to 150w) and then the ITPS regulator is kinda like an inline switch from your battery. The ITPS makes sure that it's always 12v's as output, and normally the ITPS would hook up to your ignition so it would turn the computer on and off with the ignition and it'd survive engine cranking, in your case what you could do is instead of hooking it up to the 12v ignition wire, just wire it to a switch and you'd be set. It'd mean some soldering on your part, but if you're comfortable doing it you could do a pretty kickass setup.
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Yeah, being that you're using a full blown laptop, that's the hard part. My computer is all taken apart, so it's easy to just shove the motherboard and everything where they have to go. If you really want something custom, maybe shave off room from the side of your console that's up against the driver seat... and make a sliding bracket so you could literally slide the whole laptop up, and then flatten it out. Give me a minute, I suck at photoshop but let me try to put what I'm talking about in to pictures.
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ok, I know this is kinda Pimp My Ride-ish but it'd be ****** cool. If you have a 97+ style console like I do then I think this would work best... You carve out half of the console from the side closest to the driver side seat, then use two sliding brackets on either side of the laptop, with sliding brackets ontop of the INSIDE of the console. When you open the console door, you slide the laptop up and then slide it against the console so it would lay on top of the open inside of the console... alright, here's some pictures.. hopefully makes it more clear.
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its a great idea and way to get your point across.lol but wouldnt it be kinda close and in an akward position to be using it? idk i just think that you would have to turn a lot and idk if the laptop would be too close or not? im sure you could do it somehow that would be awesome but yea idk.
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yeah I have been thinking about that since I posted the pictures. It depends on how much he plans on using it? If he wants to keep it as a "laptop" it doesn't sound like he will be using it too much, maybe just for diagnostics? Again, not sure. If it's going to be used a lot, as much as mine, I'd say pimp it out and custom enclose it. By the way, that reminds me I should probably go take some pictures and post to my carPC thread.. later peeps.