thanks man, the screens typickly run a VGA resolution which is 800 X 600 i bought the cheapest screen i could find, once i refine the system some more and maybe by april or may i might upgrade,
if any of you guys are thinkin of doin this i recomoed buying a better screen than i did....
i own a Liliput 7" VGA which has ok resolution, ok color, ok touchscreen resolution, aparently they are made in china out of old japanses game consoles (when the thing gose to sleep after 15 min i can see a bunch of japanese writing and the jarasic park sybol). anyways, this is the bargan basemnt entry level screen, at $280, i belive the next step would be to a Xenarc 7" touch screen for $420. i

ill keep this subjet updated with any more advancements

some links worth further study for any newbees (which i still am, in the car pc area)

www.carbotpc.com
www.mp3car.com (excelent forums)
www.karpc.com

neekolasssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss sssssssssssssss

Be careful with that spare tire install. You are only running an AMD 1800, which is nothing that is going to create tons of heat, but if that thing is on all the time, you could run into problems. If it'* on when the car is on.. and you don't drive that much, you should be okay. Just make sure there is proper ventalation. Maybe installing a fan or two on the cover, and a hole in the carpet.. eh that would look like ****. But, you get the idea.

Nice case though, I will give you that. and the lights on the what appears to be mobo.. what are those? But like I said, you don't want this sucker overheating, you'll do a lot of damage, trust me.


-justin

thanks for the advice opensource, i was contenplating weather or not to put in a fan that will vent into the trunk to disipate some of that heat. When i was finished building the case i unpluged and coverd the external fan cutouts, and then proceeded to play a dvd that i looped all night long, and whene i got up the next morining the inside of the case was toasty but the cpu heat sink was luke warm, but the harddrives (whene they were still in the case) were the warmest (now they are mounted just out side the case in that cooled suspension box) i think i will take take your advice and invest in a heat monitor/alarm. i dont want any smoky suprises!!!!!!
the lights your talkin about on the mobo are you talkin on the mobo iteself cause i think thats just the falsh, or the red an green ones on the outside of the case, green is power on and red is systems status..............
thanks agian for the comments and advice,
neekolasssssssssssssssssssssss

That battery back up is awsome. It'* a nice touch. But why did you put a full blown computer in your car? That is a lot of heat and power. For mine I am going to use a 600Mhz Epia board that is passivly cooled (though I am going to add one exhust fan to the case).

Just an update on my work, i think i am going to use the Beyond Media for the MP3 and video playback, and I found my case at an Ikea in College Park Maryland last weekend. Also I have read an artical about how weak the Microdrives are so now i am double thinking that setup.

Has anyone ever used a MicroDrive in any device? PC, MP3, or camera? I would like some feedback. I may go with a 4 gig CF card if I have to. I just don't want to put two laptop harddrives in my car. CF would cut down on heat also. Well that is where I stand. I still have to buy the Epia ME60000 next!

i used a full blown computer cause i got it from my friend for 100 bucks, all of the micro atx and stuff that your using i might do in the futcher after i fry out or just get sick of my current one, i am basicly using this one as a test bed keeping costs down and seeing how much i can imporvise........i like your idea of keeping everything on the mini, micro, compact side so you dont have to deprive yourself of a damn spare tire like this one nutbag i know did!!!! lol.............i have had zero experiance with the micro drives, again i stuck to large desktop drives runnin 7200 rpm to keep cost down, simplistic and a hell of a lot of storage, im totalling 160 gigs between both drives, i got about 1200 songs and 16 uncompressed dvds, all set to go at a touch of button.
now.......power managmment this fullsize comp (6 PCI slots) + video slot, sucks about 1 amp at 110 vac, thats 110 watts......to get to this power level i need an inverter which must take 12vdc and take it to 110vac, so 12vdc at 110watts thats 9.2 amps its pullen of the battey/charging system...........yeah shes power hungery, and this is an ideal situation the iverter im using is probablly only at best 70% efficiant..........
here is my prob, i have a relay set up to select power sources for the comp,
(acc off) comp powered by rear battery and iverter
(acc on) comp powered by main battery and inverter in addition to the comp, the main bat and inv. charge the rear battery with an onboard battey charger........
you may think this is all hunky dorry, not so, wene i turn the key to acc, it switches the comp appropriatly to the main power source but then i start the car....wham the voltage on the main bat drops to turn the engine and the main inverter cuts out due to an undervoltage and the comp $hits the bed. anyone got any ides on how do dealy the switching of power or to make power swithing automatic, or to switch back to rear power wene the stater is engaged?????? best idea ill use......

thanks for haveing the patiance to read my post.....

neekolassssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss

TIPS AND SUGGESTIONS THAT I ADVISE PEOPLE READING THIS SUBJECT AND INSTALLING A COMP IN THERE BONNE, (THIS IS THE CRAP THAT FRUSTERATED THE PANTS OFF OF ME)

1. Ground everything to the car'* frame, ground loop = nasty static in sound system.
a. ground sound card directly to ground
b. ground comp case and motheroard, directly to ground
c. ground the ac out side of the inverter directly to ground
d. i recomend using a filter/power sergg protector and yes ground this too
the gouding of all of these components is essential.....i am using my origonal car stero with a xm radio fm modulator......and wene i had nothing grounded, a nasty eritating static overwhelmed any sound.....grounding solved it completely.

2. If your music occatinally skips its typicly not your hardrive doin the skippin
a. my wetern dig. HD can take 97 Gs whene not operating and 20 Gs whene it is so these suckers are pretty hardy.
b. my issue was with my wireless pci card, everytime it would look for a connection it would skip the playing music like a cd skips without skip protection, i spent a damn 4 days looking for this prob trying everything, im glad i found out whats wrong.

3. Mouting of your harddrive/*
a. mount the hard drive verticly with the axis of the drive parralel with the axles, and the long sides facing up and down, this seems to be the easiest on the drive and reduces the chances for a head to plat impact which can kill the drive.

thats all i got for now, if i run into any other probs, ill be sure to post em,
thanks

neekolasssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss

To trouble shoot this you may want to add more RAM or fastest RAM your board can handle. Or get a sound card that has it'* own dedicated sound processor. This would take the load off the CPU and would stop the skipping.

I like your idea with the harddrive mounting, it makes sence but idk if i'll be able to set mine up this way. i'm going to take a chance with the microdrive and just make sure I put something on it to absorb the shock. All else fails I'll just boot the machine from a USB harddrive.

Timmay

sounds good man, once i get some cash together, ill try the ram thing first then becsase i should do that anyway, running XP with 256 MB is kind of like putting a 2.8L into a Bonneville (man would that suck) anyways, ill try that first then the i might do an external sound card like one of those USB ones, thanks for the advice man,
thanks for the compliment on my hardrive mounting, although i dont think i need to shock mount them, but i belive that verticle is essential......best of luck using a micro drive i hope you get that workin good, it will be more resiliant than my system and true i ahve heard of gusy booting there ops systems off a usb jump drive, like a 512 or 1giger, thats crazy but cool.............cant wait for pics of your comp and install, ill keep ou posted on any new discoveries i come too.......right now im workin on switching cell phones from sprint to (t-moble or AT&T GSM networks)......they offer Bluetooth phones that way ill be able to just get in the car, turn on the computer and the bluetooth of the PC will use the cell phone as a modem..........cant wait to get that workin!!!!!!...........

check out this video its from microsoft geeks who have a club of putting comps. in their cars...........its were i got the idea for the cell phone modem thing

http://download.microsoft.com/downlo...r_as_hobby.wmv

nickyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

I'm going todo the same thing with my Treo 650 (you can get that with T-Mobile, ATT/Cingular, or Sprint). It has bluetooth and I am going to take full advatage of that. If you get a good phone you could get a Bluetooth GPS device. This way you could use the GPS on a smarthphone or your computer. I think I may do this, still thinking it out in my head.

I cannot wait til i get a real job and don't have to be a **** poor college kid... I hear money is popular nower days...


Timmay

i hear ya man i finish up in the spring of 05'.......................i have sprint now and am swithcing off of that cause none of their phoes use bluetooth, an i owul like to use that in more of my experiment...........what dose your treo look like, is it a smartphone/pda?
ttyl

nickyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy