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mounting laptop as entertainment system 

 

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 Post subject: mounting laptop as entertainment system
Posted: Mon Oct 12, 2009 10:58 pm 
Parts Gopher
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so ive decided to mount my little asus eee pc in my car so i can use it to watch movies, and do away with cds and ipod by pluging it into my aux port.
can anyone see how i will be able to mount it?
anyone seen it done before?
im really quite stumped
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 Post subject: Re: mounting laptop as entertainment system
Posted: Mon Oct 12, 2009 11:55 pm 
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What sort of car have you got?

 

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 Post subject: Re: mounting laptop as entertainment system
Posted: Tue Oct 13, 2009 8:44 am 
Parts Gopher
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it will be going into an au falcon but i would also like it to be interchangeable between vehicles so it fits my sahara
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 Post subject: Re: mounting laptop as entertainment system
Posted: Tue Oct 13, 2009 10:03 am 
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Can't help you with mounting but I put my 7" EEEPC in my car and it was near impossible to read the screen. You'll need to use larger fonts so you can actually see what you're doing. Also, charging is a problem. The EEEPC car charger is quite expensive. I could only find one that was $199, nearly as much as I paid for the EEEPC.
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 Post subject: Re: mounting laptop as entertainment system
Posted: Tue Oct 13, 2009 3:41 pm 
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Stone wrote:
Can't help you with mounting but I put my 7" EEEPC in my car and it was near impossible to read the screen. You'll need to use larger fonts so you can actually see what you're doing. Also, charging is a problem. The EEEPC car charger is quite expensive. I could only find one that was $199, nearly as much as I paid for the EEEPC.

This is true, apart from buying straight from the USA or Japan, they are very expensive. Better off getting a $50 ac-dc inverter from BigW because the chargers draw bugger all power anyway.

As for mounting, if you want to be able to monitor the engine and trans through say a Wolf ecu or similar in live time and actually see what you are doing, it will look very stupid and gets in the way very much. The only set up Ive seen that works well is still major and heaps in the way

That setup has a stand mounted in the same bolt holes the right hand side of the passenger seat uses, and a big pillar coming up to a docking station for the laptop. Messy, yes but it does do a good job and in the perfect position to see and use the screen.

The eeepc's are simple though, a lot of people are pulling them apart and extending the few internal wires, then mounting the actual screen in the dash somewhere or in the console, as in flush with the surface (this is why you want a touch screen one), and having all the internals underneath with a USB port coming out somewhere for any peripherals. Works very well, looks very good but not interchangeable.

My advice: f**k the eeepc. Theyre just too bloody small to read anything without really taking your eyes off the road and focusing on it. The question has to be asked why do you need a computer now when head units can do everything anyway. Unless you're wanting live updates through ecu software its just not worth it.

HOWEVER, if you DO need live updates through the ecu or something else that only a computer can do, which I doubt a sahara would. Get an external docking station for the eeepc, mount it under the passenger footwell (so you would need 2 docks, 2 cars), and something like an external reversing monitor or something for the display and wireless k/b and mouse. Really cant see any easy clean way for it to be totally interchangeable between both cars. I looked into it heavily but for a few hundred bucks I got a head unit that did all the things I wanted anyway.

 

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 Post subject: Re: mounting laptop as entertainment system
Posted: Tue Oct 13, 2009 6:48 pm 
Parts Gopher
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93_eb_fairmont wrote:
Stone wrote:
Can't help you with mounting but I put my 7" EEEPC in my car and it was near impossible to read the screen. You'll need to use larger fonts so you can actually see what you're doing. Also, charging is a problem. The EEEPC car charger is quite expensive. I could only find one that was $199, nearly as much as I paid for the EEEPC.

This is true, apart from buying straight from the USA or Japan, they are very expensive. Better off getting a $50 ac-dc inverter from BigW because the chargers draw bugger all power anyway.

As for mounting, if you want to be able to monitor the engine and trans through say a Wolf ecu or similar in live time and actually see what you are doing, it will look very stupid and gets in the way very much. The only set up Ive seen that works well is still major and heaps in the way

That setup has a stand mounted in the same bolt holes the right hand side of the passenger seat uses, and a big pillar coming up to a docking station for the laptop. Messy, yes but it does do a good job and in the perfect position to see and use the screen.

The eeepc's are simple though, a lot of people are pulling them apart and extending the few internal wires, then mounting the actual screen in the dash somewhere or in the console, as in flush with the surface (this is why you want a touch screen one), and having all the internals underneath with a USB port coming out somewhere for any peripherals. Works very well, looks very good but not interchangeable.

My advice: f**k the eeepc. Theyre just too bloody small to read anything without really taking your eyes off the road and focusing on it. The question has to be asked why do you need a computer now when head units can do everything anyway. Unless you're wanting live updates through ecu software its just not worth it.

HOWEVER, if you DO need live updates through the ecu or something else that only a computer can do, which I doubt a sahara would. Get an external docking station for the eeepc, mount it under the passenger footwell (so you would need 2 docks, 2 cars), and something like an external reversing monitor or something for the display and wireless k/b and mouse. Really cant see any easy clean way for it to be totally interchangeable between both cars. I looked into it heavily but for a few hundred bucks I got a head unit that did all the things I wanted anyway.



mate i can say nothing more apart fromthae fact that you re pure genous! ill deffinatly be coming back to you for advice int he future :)
thanks anyway
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 Post subject: Re: mounting laptop as entertainment system
Posted: Tue Oct 13, 2009 7:27 pm 
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Lol, nah not really mate, just gone through the same thought process as you are now and thats what I ended up with. Let us know how you go and what you do.

 

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