Ok, so it's all pretty simple. First here's a small list of tools that'll make things go smoothly...
Tools:
------
1) Soldering Iron $9.99ish
2) Rosin core solder $3.00
3) Wire, I used red and black 18 guage and 14 gauge speaker wire for power to my amp and they were like $6 each for the 18 and $10 for the 14
4) Regular hand tools, screwdrivers, wrench, etc...
Items for PC:
-------------
1) Remember this is a Car PC...not a gaming rig or Overclocking monster so you don't need a Super Mega 512-bit AMD-INTEL Devil Spawn processor...something around 1ghz is more than enough to run music, video, engine management stuff at a quick pace. These can be had on ebay ... mainboard and processor for like $40-50.
2) RAM is pretty cheap now $30-40 for 256mb to 1gig of slower stuff, but you don't need lightning fast ram. 200-300 mhz is good.
3) A DVD ROM is about $30 or $40 and then you have a cheap DVD player and cd player.
4) Some kind of screen, I managed to get one on ebay for like $40...it's a TFT LCD...kind of an all purpose screen that I made to fit this application.
Any screen that'll except RCA or VGA input is good.
5) A graphics card, these are dirt ...dirt cheap. I'm runnin a Geforce FX 5200 in mine.
6) And then your inputs, I'm tryin to find a touchpad...you can find them for like $15 and a foldable keyboard...maybe like $10-15 on ebay
7) If you plan on running sound from the PC to the car's speakers then you will need an amplifier. I got a 4 channel one on ebay for $15.
8) And finally a DC to AC power inverter unless you put the money down for a 12-volt power supply, they're kind of expensive.
9) Oh actually, if your mainboard doesn't have more than 2 channels and you want more, a 5 channel sound card can be bought for like $20
10) If you go the PC to car speaker route you'll need to either buy (I don't even know where to find them) or make headphone jack to RCA cables. It's easy, PM me if you have any problems.
11) Two things from the stock radio come in handy, the faceplate and the harness adapter on the back (the white adapter)...just dismantle the radio and then cut this adapter out, you'll have to break the breadboard but make sure you still have the bottom pieces where the adapter was soldered to the breadboard, makes soldering A LOT easier.
12) A harddrive would probably come in handy too, hah
Guidelines
----------
1) Make sure everything is in a well ventilated place cause it'll run hotter in the car than in the house ...well mine does thanks to the loverly Florida heat and humidity.
2) Make sure all of your wiring is CORRECT before you add any power. If you solder joints make sure you have electrical tape handy to cover the solders so nothing grounds out.
3) TSRM for the wiring diagram
4) For ease, use the old radio adapter and solder the new wiries to it...run it from the amp to the stock wiring connector
That's basically all I'll say, I kind of want it to be unique and force those interested to research some. That'll hopefully weed out those that would potentially half ass it. If you have any questions and have done some searching on your own, hit me up and I'll try to help you out.
-Derek
Tools:
------
1) Soldering Iron $9.99ish
2) Rosin core solder $3.00
3) Wire, I used red and black 18 guage and 14 gauge speaker wire for power to my amp and they were like $6 each for the 18 and $10 for the 14
4) Regular hand tools, screwdrivers, wrench, etc...
Items for PC:
-------------
1) Remember this is a Car PC...not a gaming rig or Overclocking monster so you don't need a Super Mega 512-bit AMD-INTEL Devil Spawn processor...something around 1ghz is more than enough to run music, video, engine management stuff at a quick pace. These can be had on ebay ... mainboard and processor for like $40-50.
2) RAM is pretty cheap now $30-40 for 256mb to 1gig of slower stuff, but you don't need lightning fast ram. 200-300 mhz is good.
3) A DVD ROM is about $30 or $40 and then you have a cheap DVD player and cd player.
4) Some kind of screen, I managed to get one on ebay for like $40...it's a TFT LCD...kind of an all purpose screen that I made to fit this application.
Any screen that'll except RCA or VGA input is good.
5) A graphics card, these are dirt ...dirt cheap. I'm runnin a Geforce FX 5200 in mine.
6) And then your inputs, I'm tryin to find a touchpad...you can find them for like $15 and a foldable keyboard...maybe like $10-15 on ebay
7) If you plan on running sound from the PC to the car's speakers then you will need an amplifier. I got a 4 channel one on ebay for $15.
8) And finally a DC to AC power inverter unless you put the money down for a 12-volt power supply, they're kind of expensive.
9) Oh actually, if your mainboard doesn't have more than 2 channels and you want more, a 5 channel sound card can be bought for like $20
10) If you go the PC to car speaker route you'll need to either buy (I don't even know where to find them) or make headphone jack to RCA cables. It's easy, PM me if you have any problems.
11) Two things from the stock radio come in handy, the faceplate and the harness adapter on the back (the white adapter)...just dismantle the radio and then cut this adapter out, you'll have to break the breadboard but make sure you still have the bottom pieces where the adapter was soldered to the breadboard, makes soldering A LOT easier.
12) A harddrive would probably come in handy too, hah
Guidelines
----------
1) Make sure everything is in a well ventilated place cause it'll run hotter in the car than in the house ...well mine does thanks to the loverly Florida heat and humidity.
2) Make sure all of your wiring is CORRECT before you add any power. If you solder joints make sure you have electrical tape handy to cover the solders so nothing grounds out.
3) TSRM for the wiring diagram
4) For ease, use the old radio adapter and solder the new wiries to it...run it from the amp to the stock wiring connector
That's basically all I'll say, I kind of want it to be unique and force those interested to research some. That'll hopefully weed out those that would potentially half ass it. If you have any questions and have done some searching on your own, hit me up and I'll try to help you out.
-Derek
