? for car PC guys
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Joined: Nov 2005
Posts: 74
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From: Bloomingdale Illinois
? for car PC guys
I have a pent. 4 laptop with a broken screen. Is it possible to install a 7" touch screen and connect it to the laptop ?
I would think that all i have to do is run the VGA cable and the USB cable, will this work?
I would think that all i have to do is run the VGA cable and the USB cable, will this work?
Burning Brakes
Joined: Feb 2001
Posts: 793
Likes: 2
From: Milwaukee & Long Beach WI & CA
I was considering using an old lap top for a car PC but decided to go with a nice HU. These are some issues I found you need to deal with when using a laptop.
Ideally you want it to power up and power down when the car turns on. There are products to do this (see mp3car.com) for like $75 IIRC. If your laptop has a "wake on LAN" feature there are some cheaper ways to hack this feature dicussed at mp3car.com. Of course you'll also need a 12 DC power adaptor. For the Dell I was thinking of using that was gonna be another $60.
You'll want add a sound card as the on board sound will be pretty low quality. Creative Labs and M-Audio make some USB and PC card sound adaptors. I think the good ones run about $100. Peoples opinions vary on their quality when compared to a HU. I found that with the USB and PC card versions you are limited with what the drivers let you do as far as DSP goes. If you've got a PCI sound card there's software to make the Creative cards do all sorts of things like EQ, crossover and time alignment. But with the laptop stuff I couldn't find anyway to do anything that advance.
If you play CDs, you probably will want to get an external cd drive to make it easier to access the drive. That can run you another at least another $50.
There currently aren't any good FM tuners for PCs. Forget about AM at all.
One of the best touch screen displays out right now is the Xenrac 7". It has an odd native resolution and chances are a laptop's onboard graphics aren't going to support it. You can still use that touch screen, but it will scale the resolution and degrade the picture quality which could make small fonts very hard to read.
So I was looking at about $200 to make my old laptop into a car PC with no AM/FM tuner and the need to buy an external EQ and active 3 way crossover, plus not being able to drive the screen I wanted in native resolution. I'm going to do an traditional HU and add a portable MP3 player or possibly just hook the laptop into it. I can get a head unit that gives me a parametric EQ, active 3 way crossover, in-dash CD player and AM/FM tuner for around $300. With the laptop car PC, I still needed to get the EQ, crossover, in dash CD and hope someone would finally come out with a decent tuner down the road.
Ideally you want it to power up and power down when the car turns on. There are products to do this (see mp3car.com) for like $75 IIRC. If your laptop has a "wake on LAN" feature there are some cheaper ways to hack this feature dicussed at mp3car.com. Of course you'll also need a 12 DC power adaptor. For the Dell I was thinking of using that was gonna be another $60.
You'll want add a sound card as the on board sound will be pretty low quality. Creative Labs and M-Audio make some USB and PC card sound adaptors. I think the good ones run about $100. Peoples opinions vary on their quality when compared to a HU. I found that with the USB and PC card versions you are limited with what the drivers let you do as far as DSP goes. If you've got a PCI sound card there's software to make the Creative cards do all sorts of things like EQ, crossover and time alignment. But with the laptop stuff I couldn't find anyway to do anything that advance.
If you play CDs, you probably will want to get an external cd drive to make it easier to access the drive. That can run you another at least another $50.
There currently aren't any good FM tuners for PCs. Forget about AM at all.
One of the best touch screen displays out right now is the Xenrac 7". It has an odd native resolution and chances are a laptop's onboard graphics aren't going to support it. You can still use that touch screen, but it will scale the resolution and degrade the picture quality which could make small fonts very hard to read.
So I was looking at about $200 to make my old laptop into a car PC with no AM/FM tuner and the need to buy an external EQ and active 3 way crossover, plus not being able to drive the screen I wanted in native resolution. I'm going to do an traditional HU and add a portable MP3 player or possibly just hook the laptop into it. I can get a head unit that gives me a parametric EQ, active 3 way crossover, in-dash CD player and AM/FM tuner for around $300. With the laptop car PC, I still needed to get the EQ, crossover, in dash CD and hope someone would finally come out with a decent tuner down the road.
Le Mans Master
Joined: Jun 2004
Posts: 5,572
Likes: 4
From: Los Angeles Ca
Originally Posted by mathia
I was considering using an old lap top for a car PC but decided to go with a nice HU. These are some issues I found you need to deal with when using a laptop.
Ideally you want it to power up and power down when the car turns on. There are products to do this (see mp3car.com) for like $75 IIRC. If your laptop has a "wake on LAN" feature there are some cheaper ways to hack this feature dicussed at mp3car.com. Of course you'll also need a 12 DC power adaptor. For the Dell I was thinking of using that was gonna be another $60.
You'll want add a sound card as the on board sound will be pretty low quality. Creative Labs and M-Audio make some USB and PC card sound adaptors. I think the good ones run about $100. Peoples opinions vary on their quality when compared to a HU. I found that with the USB and PC card versions you are limited with what the drivers let you do as far as DSP goes. If you've got a PCI sound card there's software to make the Creative cards do all sorts of things like EQ, crossover and time alignment. But with the laptop stuff I couldn't find anyway to do anything that advance.
If you play CDs, you probably will want to get an external cd drive to make it easier to access the drive. That can run you another at least another $50.
There currently aren't any good FM tuners for PCs. Forget about AM at all.
One of the best touch screen displays out right now is the Xenrac 7". It has an odd native resolution and chances are a laptop's onboard graphics aren't going to support it. You can still use that touch screen, but it will scale the resolution and degrade the picture quality which could make small fonts very hard to read.
So I was looking at about $200 to make my old laptop into a car PC with no AM/FM tuner and the need to buy an external EQ and active 3 way crossover, plus not being able to drive the screen I wanted in native resolution. I'm going to do an traditional HU and add a portable MP3 player or possibly just hook the laptop into it. I can get a head unit that gives me a parametric EQ, active 3 way crossover, in-dash CD player and AM/FM tuner for around $300. With the laptop car PC, I still needed to get the EQ, crossover, in dash CD and hope someone would finally come out with a decent tuner down the road.
Ideally you want it to power up and power down when the car turns on. There are products to do this (see mp3car.com) for like $75 IIRC. If your laptop has a "wake on LAN" feature there are some cheaper ways to hack this feature dicussed at mp3car.com. Of course you'll also need a 12 DC power adaptor. For the Dell I was thinking of using that was gonna be another $60.
You'll want add a sound card as the on board sound will be pretty low quality. Creative Labs and M-Audio make some USB and PC card sound adaptors. I think the good ones run about $100. Peoples opinions vary on their quality when compared to a HU. I found that with the USB and PC card versions you are limited with what the drivers let you do as far as DSP goes. If you've got a PCI sound card there's software to make the Creative cards do all sorts of things like EQ, crossover and time alignment. But with the laptop stuff I couldn't find anyway to do anything that advance.
If you play CDs, you probably will want to get an external cd drive to make it easier to access the drive. That can run you another at least another $50.
There currently aren't any good FM tuners for PCs. Forget about AM at all.
One of the best touch screen displays out right now is the Xenrac 7". It has an odd native resolution and chances are a laptop's onboard graphics aren't going to support it. You can still use that touch screen, but it will scale the resolution and degrade the picture quality which could make small fonts very hard to read.
So I was looking at about $200 to make my old laptop into a car PC with no AM/FM tuner and the need to buy an external EQ and active 3 way crossover, plus not being able to drive the screen I wanted in native resolution. I'm going to do an traditional HU and add a portable MP3 player or possibly just hook the laptop into it. I can get a head unit that gives me a parametric EQ, active 3 way crossover, in-dash CD player and AM/FM tuner for around $300. With the laptop car PC, I still needed to get the EQ, crossover, in dash CD and hope someone would finally come out with a decent tuner down the road.
Burning Brakes
Joined: Feb 2001
Posts: 793
Likes: 2
From: Milwaukee & Long Beach WI & CA
Originally Posted by scott_fx
you're dead to me
Well, many of the issues that discouraged me are particular to using a laptop (onboard graphics and no PCI slot). I'm not willing to spend the money (and tinkering time) on a dedicated car PC yet. No doubt you've got one of the coolest in car entertainment systems around. Maybe when you start selling a C5 car PC kit complete with console piece I'll jump ship!
Thread Starter
Advanced
Joined: Nov 2005
Posts: 74
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From: Bloomingdale Illinois
I understand all the thought and appreciate the advice, but I will have a seperate head unit.
My thoughts were for 2 things: navigation (sound will go through HU), and logging. I have been using HP Tuners for the last couple of years, and i want an installed unit rather than a laptop on a stand. since the display boke i thought this would work out well for me.
and perhaps in the future I will follow in the footsteps of the Great Scott FX and build my own car pc (the screen will already be in
)
My thoughts were for 2 things: navigation (sound will go through HU), and logging. I have been using HP Tuners for the last couple of years, and i want an installed unit rather than a laptop on a stand. since the display boke i thought this would work out well for me.
and perhaps in the future I will follow in the footsteps of the Great Scott FX and build my own car pc (the screen will already be in
)
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Burning Brakes
Joined: Feb 2001
Posts: 793
Likes: 2
From: Milwaukee & Long Beach WI & CA
That will be a cool setup. In car HPTuners is slick. Be sure to post pics when you get it running. Just be sure your laptop supports the native resolution of the display you want to use and you'll have an awesome setup. 
Burning Brakes
Joined: Feb 2001
Posts: 793
Likes: 2
From: Milwaukee & Long Beach WI & CA
Originally Posted by scott_fx
keep your eyes open, i have one console that i'm going to discard, maybe i'll make an all in one package piece
