Outer Limits 4x4 Board

Just purchased a new truck, and wish to run a small lap top (or remote pc/touch screen) with GPS, display reversing camera's (2) play DVD's and hopefully use as hands free for my phone, I have searched, but as technology is evolving rapidly, I was wondering what is the latest and greatest?
Peter.

Cheap way is to buy a HP e-vectra (they run on 12v) and then grab yourself a touchscreen.

the following link has a few different ideas...

http://www.4wdmonthly.com.au/forum/show ... hp?t=43584

A guy at work bought one of these:


http://eeepc.asus.com/global/product.htm

http://www.digitalhome.com.au/Computers ... hite/20807


Seems to be tha goods for a small laptop.

I have an asus eeepc there 8gig harddrive, i use it for doing quotes and invoices on the move, they don't have a cd drive you have to use an external usb type device i have 2 other mates that have them and they have theres set up primarily for GPS capabilites, and they are cheap mine cost $475

Ben

Why not something like this, it has everthing you want and no boxes to store or screens to mount. Plenty of them on Ebay from Aus sellers to overseas.

A guy in our club uses one and runs both street maps and oziexplorer.

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/7-inch-Car-Navig ... dZViewItem

http://www.catchoftheday.com.au/Asus_EE ... p-691.html

this will come back up in a few days

I got one of these .. and think it is awesome
http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/index.php ... ;4981;pt;1

mate i use the evectra, awsome little cheap pc's for in car use

whiteknight wrote:Cheap way is to buy a HP e-vectra (they run on 12v) and then grab yourself a touchscreen.

Im running the same setup.
A HP e-vectra, hooked up to a 10.4in touchscreen.

Although the e-vectra only has 2 usb ports, so I have used a 7 port usb hub to plug in any extra bits I need.
ie, cable for touchscreen, the usb gps, external speakers, cable for downloading photos off my camera etc etc.
I have also bought a reversing camera which I have to hook up.

Had it in the car a few months now and seems to do the job fine.
All up (including the touchscreen) it has cost about $300 to set up.

Luxy wrote:

whiteknight wrote:Cheap way is to buy a HP e-vectra (they run on 12v) and then grab yourself a touchscreen.

Im running the same setup.
A HP e-vectra, hooked up to a 10.4in touchscreen.

Although the e-vectra only has 2 usb ports, so I have used a 7 port usb hub to plug in any extra bits I need.
ie, cable for touchscreen, the usb gps, external speakers, cable for downloading photos off my camera etc etc.
I have also bought a reversing camera which I have to hook up.

Had it in the car a few months now and seems to do the job fine.
All up (including the touchscreen) it has cost about $300 to set up.

What touchscreen are you using and how much was it?.. I have the e-vectra just trying to work out which screen to go with...

Could a laptop be used as the brains, hidden away under the seat, and use the touch screen to control it.
May need to cut off the little switch that shuts it off when the top is down.

What do guys do for the power supply for these, just leave them on all the time on the aux battery, or shut it on and off ll the time??

thanks

killalux wrote:Could a laptop be used as the brains, hidden away under the seat, and use the touch screen to control it.
May need to cut off the little switch that shuts it off when the top is down.

What do guys do for the power supply for these, just leave them on all the time on the aux battery, or shut it on and off ll the time??

thanks

or you could just go into the power settings and set it to "do nothing" when the lid is closed

whiteknight wrote:What touchscreen are you using and how much was it?.. I have the e-vectra just trying to work out which screen to go with...

Hiya mate, using one of these from ebay, got it delivered for about $230...

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/10-4-Inch-Stand- ... dZViewItem

He normally has a few for sale

Cheers,
Phil

Phil,

Do you find the 10" too big at all? I was thinking of getting an 8".

Im driving a 2000 model hilux now, and the screen slots straight into the top glovebox, as this is where the airbag is fitted on this model as a option.
But since I dont have one, and instead of using it as a 2nd glovebox, its now used to hold the screen.

Even though I cant twist it towards me while im driving, being larger screen it doesnt really matter as I can see it pretty clearly anyway.

Best part is, when im not using it, I can take the touchscreen out and lay the dashmat over the top again so it all looks standard again.

Thanks guys the lifebook looks good (maybe a bit small in the display though), I like the touch screen, the fact that it is (almost) "all in one" I just have to mount the port replicator in the truck, I may look at a larger tablet style puter, they start to get a bit pricy though.
Peter.

Looking at this
http://www.scorptec.com.au/product/25927

any coments?

I have a fujitsu ultraportable, getting a bit older now but I still love it. you will not be sorry if you go for that option as long as you find the price acceptable.

I have a short list,
the Fujitsu life book 1620,
and the HP Compaq 2710p
The HP is a bit on the big side but as my sister works for Hp it will cost under 2k so I have to consider it, but as the Fujitsu comes with a docking station and the Hp doesn't, it may work out the samein which case I will probably go the life book.

Another question regarding GPS, I have a Garmin Nuvi660 that I love what do I need to do to control it from the tablet?
and can anyone direct me to a mobile phone car kit manged by the tablet?
thanks guys you all rock.
Peter.

Ok a new question,
how do I get the signal from the 2 reversing cams onto the tablet?
Peter.

droopypete wrote:Ok a new question,
how do I get the signal from the 2 reversing cams onto the tablet?
Peter.

You would have to use either a PCMCIA or USB product that allows streaming video inputs. Some video cards do, but the ones used in the Tablet wouldn't.

Try this web forum, it's a Australian car pc forum, there is also a bloke who runs this sort of stuff as a buisness and builds systems to people spec's.

http://www.hostingphpbb.com/forum/everythingcarpc.html

I run a 7" touchscreen in my cruiser. It sits in the double din spot in the dash, the stereo is mounted in the roof console and the car pc feeds into it via the aux inputs at the rear.
The computer is a advantech 1.8Ghz with built in graphics and sound. It is running a 80Gb HDD. I have a four port USB hub under the dash, a usb roll up keyboard and wireless mouse is located in the glove box for the very few times I need it.
All up the system cost less than $300. and tha everything from go to whoa.

I'm running centrafuse as a front end for all my music, video and street nav gps. I run oziexplore fir my out of town stuff. A wifi dongle lets me surf the net for emails while away and synch's the music and photo files when I pull into the driveway before the system shuts down.

Chucky how do you find the clarity of the screen mounted like that during the daytime? Is there much glare?

I was going to mount mine the same way but thought it would be clearer on a bracket directed towards the driver..

Sorry about the late reply.

I dont have a issue with glare etc. My touchscreen seems to work quite well i all but a few angles. On the very odd occasion I quite see whats happening I wait until I go around the next bend. The screen is also my reversing camera, I ought a IR camera off ebay for less than $30. I have never been on a angle that the camera has not shown me whas behind clearly.
All in all, I cant fault the setup. The touchscreen did fail, due to about a million corrugations, but it cost be less than $25 for a replacement touchscreen panel off ebay. I recently also lost the carpc, but since my alternator was putting out over 21VDC, and it also took out my stereo and UHF, I cant realy blame the carpc for failing either. But thats what we have insurance for isn't it?