Shuttle XPC into trunk of car & running 6 feet of VGA/Firewire & other cables to the front, your thoughts?

[THELAIR]

I'm planning on doing this later in the spring/summer but i basically want to build a decently powered high end PC and mount it in my vehicle.

The three primary functions it will serve while in the vehicle are:

* video capture
* GPS Navigation
* mp3/sound/stereo

secondary functions of the PC will be to power and control

* 2 way computer controlled HAM radio equipment
* computer controlled radio scanner equipment
* wireless access transmissions, and reciever
* other various electronic doodads and thingah-mahjigs


My thoughts are as follows:

The vehicle is a new ford crown vic police interceptor. I would mount the shuttle XPC system into the rear top shelf of the trunk, in a semi vibration proof mounting bracket. In order to control the system, a RF based wireless keyboard (mini keyboard if possible with no keypad on it) and RF wireless trackball mouse.
Instead of having a high end stereo deck/receiver to power the car stereo system, I would simply have a flush mounted multi function CD-Rom/CD-RW/DVD player connected via firewire back to the PC.
For the display, there would be a 15 or 17" (17 is probably to big) LCD monitor, connected either via a 6' extended VGA or DVI cable to the video card in the system. The video card would be a ATI Radeon AiW model, in order to output TV to the LCD monitor.

There would also be two micro video camera's mounted in the vehicle as well. One located to capture the rear view with as wide an angle as possible to see as many lanes, and the other facing forward in front of the rearview mirror. These would be capturing video 24/7 only when the vehicle is powered on. There would be no audio recording.

I'd also have mini LCD's mounted into the rear headrests of the two seats for rear passenger entertainment. Not sure how somthing like that would connect, or if further video cards would be needed to power them. If i throw a DVD in, id like the ability to choose which screens it is displayed on.

There would also be an Xbox thrown into the mess in the car as well at some point.

I'm thinking the shuttle may be to small for my grandiose requirements, that's not really an issue as any standard full tower case would fit in fine. It would also be connected/powered through a spare APC SMART UPS 1400 KVA battery back up system + line conditioner.

What would the heat issue be, seeing as how in an area like las vegas for example, the trunk would get a tad warm. I may even ahve to pipe in some ducting to the trunk and provide some cold air conditioning to the case in order to keep it cool.

Any good websites on people who have thrown a PC into their car and the kewl stuff they have done with it?

The vehicle's interior will be stripped out as new bucket seats and rear bench seat are going in, plus new carpetting through out, so that will be the time I'll do all this. Might dynamat the interior as well... we'll see.

Peoples thoughts? What have i missed, or what may be some problems?

 

[Geniere]

 

[Geniere]

OOps! Try again

Quite a project. I would suggest using a cat5 video extender kit from catalog.balckbox.com to bring monitor and keyboard connections to dashboard area, as it uses a single cat5 cable and should be immune to noise. Since the system would be off unless the car was running, I don?t think a USP would be necessary; the car battery would be the UPS. It would be nice if you could locate a PSU that could be powered by 12-14 volts dc. Failing that, you?re going to need a hefty dc/ac inverter to get 1400 watts. I?ve seen these for about $300.00. A line filter would be a good idea, as I don?t think the inverters put out a good sine wave and it would help reduce ignition noise. Lastly to get 1400 watts from a car battery means the current will be over 100amps, so you will need about an 8 gauge wire from battery to inverter. If you use an on off switch, couple it to a horn relay, letting the relay contacts carry the load current.

Regards

 

[compudog]

WHY? I think heat would definately be in issue. Car interiors get very hot in the sun, even in winter. The XPC is probably not the way to go and you really have to think about extra batteries to power your rig. In theory, it should work, but practical application is another thing entirely.

 

[Viper96720]

Why the trunk? Unless you could redirect ac and run it right into the computer case. I would try under the seat or a more central location if possible.

 

[THELAIR]

"Why? "

I knew someone would ask that.

Simple, direct and polite answer: Because I can, and because I want to.

a 1400 watt UPS wouldn't be neccessary but its just what I have handy. I could buy somthing a little less hefty.

The reason I chose the trunk was due to the room available and that the radio rack is also located there. Trying to mount a computer in a midtower case anywhere else in the vehicle would prove problamatic.

I dont wnat to use RJ45 to connect the keyboard, it has to be wireless, the mouse/keyboard will be wireless based on radio frequency.
My only other concern in regards to that would be radio interferance from the other radio devices.

Any webpages that people here are aware of that detail others various attempts at installing a PC in a car?

 

[THELAIR]

Also I shouldnt have to worry about another car battery. This vehicle is meant to power alot more than 250 watt power supply or whatever wattage the power supply has in an XPC. Those lightbars ontop of police cruisers eat up alot of juice, along iwth all the electronic equipment now commonly found in police vehicles. I think these vehicles come standard with a 200amp alternator. If not then an upgrade will be in order along iwth a heavy cranking battery.

Heat would still be an issue, but could possibly try to snake a duct down to the rear of the vehicle to blow down cold air.

nothing like going extreme to mod your vehicle to keep your computer cool in it

of course a laptop would be a more simpler solution, but it doesnt provide everything that I need or want

 

[jonmullen]

Linky