Doubt this has been discussed before

[imported_waldo]

Ok, here is a question that I haven't been able to answer. I am trying to devise a mount for the ceiling of a van, for a laptop. It is for my brother. He wants to be able to install the laptop and pull it out fairly easily, and on long road trips the kids can watch movies or whatever. The tough part is the installaition of the laptop. Can't find any mounts or whatever that would work. And, we are thinking a widescreen monitor, was thinking that a 14in widescreen would work (the screen can't be more than 10in tall, because it will obstruct the rear view mirror), but may have to go with a 12 in widescreen or something. Any thougts? Best ways to integrate the audio?

We were thinking that if we put an fm modulator swithc in the hardwiring we would get the sound that way, and we could run a power cord of the ignition key. (we realize the conversion of AC/DC)

I was thinking it may be good to mount a docking station, becuase then all the wires are "permanently" connected, and you just have to mount the laptop. But no ideas as to how to mount the laptop. Can't find any products out there, so we are thinking of constructing our own.

Any thoughts? Post em all..even if you think it is just silly!

 

[Tostada]

How do you intend to mount a laptop on the ceiling? Wouldn't it have to be upside down? And if it's upside down, what are you going to do with it? The keyboard would be pretty much useless. You'd have to get a laptop with dedicated graphics so you could use something like NVRotate to turn the screen upside down and watch movies. If all you really want to do is watch movies, it would be a lot simpler and cheaper to just get a dedicated DVD player.

You can get a really nice portable DVD player with a 10" screen for under $300. I suppose that wouldn't work without some hardware modifications if your actual plan is to mount the base of it to the ceiling.

 

[imported_waldo]

As I agree that it would be somewhat cheaper to mount a dvd, it is the combined usefulness of being able to use the laptop outside the car f as a normal computer, combined with the added ability to watch movies and play mp3s through the stereo (it will be integrated into the car system). That being said, I am sure that there is dvd software that will flip the picture, so that isn't such a big issue, and as far as the keyboard goes, yes it would be useless while plugged into the mount, but you could get an infrared remote.

 

[fbrdphreak]

You really are barking up the wrong tree.
(1) Laptops don't like shock. Mounting it to the chassis of your == shocks from hell. Good way to crash the hard drive or shake something loose.
(2) You will have to have this custom created. A local car audio/customization shop MIGHT be able to do it depending where you live. It will be expensive, and it will be permanent in your car.
(3) To connect it to your car stereo you will need to either use an RF modulator (which sucks) or hard wire it (which is expensive and a PITA).

Just have them install a drop-down 15" mobile video system. If you like, you can not have a DVD player installed and just convert the S-Video out from the laptop to the RCA inputs on the screen. Audio will suck 'cuz you're adapting a mini-stereo to RCA's, but it will work and your whole scheme of having a lappy instead of a DVD player will work. or just pay the little extra for the DVD option on the mobile video system and move on.

 

[imported_waldo]

Thanks for the htoughts...I realize the shock issue, but we drove around the other day, and there was no skipping, and when watching a DVD, the hard drive doesn't skip right? But you are right about the risk of killing the hard drive...I was hoping to think of a good solid state drive, we'll see, perhaps I will use XP off of a thumb drive

 

[Tostada]

A good solid state drive would cost about as much as the whole van.

I don't think the ability to play MP3s should be a deciding factor in this whole plan. You can get a car stereo that plays MP3s for about $100 new, and you'd actually be able to change tracks easily while driving.

 

[fbrdphreak]

Originally posted by: waldo
Thanks for the htoughts...I realize the shock issue, but we drove around the other day, and there was no skipping, and when watching a DVD, the hard drive doesn't skip right? But you are right about the risk of killing the hard drive...I was hoping to think of a good solid state drive, we'll see, perhaps I will use XP off of a thumb drive

HDD's don't skip, but they crash. There are rotating magnetic discs in their and an arm that reads the data on the discs. You hit a big pothole and I could see the potential for that head to crash into the disc and FUBAR all your data.
Unless you get a Thinkpad

 

[imported_waldo]

Originally posted by: fbrdphreak

Originally posted by: waldo
Thanks for the htoughts...I realize the shock issue, but we drove around the other day, and there was no skipping, and when watching a DVD, the hard drive doesn't skip right? But you are right about the risk of killing the hard drive...I was hoping to think of a good solid state drive, we'll see, perhaps I will use XP off of a thumb drive

HDD's don't skip, but they crash. There are rotating magnetic discs in their and an arm that reads the data on the discs. You hit a big pothole and I could see the potential for that head to crash into the disc and FUBAR all your data.
Unless you get a Thinkpad

I have a thinkpad :smile;

 

[fbrdphreak]

Originally posted by: waldo

Originally posted by: fbrdphreak

Originally posted by: waldo
Thanks for the htoughts...I realize the shock issue, but we drove around the other day, and there was no skipping, and when watching a DVD, the hard drive doesn't skip right? But you are right about the risk of killing the hard drive...I was hoping to think of a good solid state drive, we'll see, perhaps I will use XP off of a thumb drive

HDD's don't skip, but they crash. There are rotating magnetic discs in their and an arm that reads the data on the discs. You hit a big pothole and I could see the potential for that head to crash into the disc and FUBAR all your data.
Unless you get a Thinkpad

I have a thinkpad :smile;

Hehehehe :thumbsup:

 

[Liver]

my 700m can rotate the screen image by 180, it does not have discrete graphics chipset.

 

[Tostada]

Originally posted by: Liver
my 700m can rotate the screen image by 180, it does not have discrete graphics chipset.

The Intel driver lets you do that?