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Guest WALFY

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Any other suggestions. I've already sold a kidney and promised both corneas for the PC so far. Can't quite stretch to a ram mount at the moment.

After a budget solution

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Guest WALFY

May have found a cheaper solution on Ebay USA. A lot cheaper and seems to come highly reccommended. I've fired off an e-mail so will wait to see what comes back.

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  • 2 weeks later...
Guest WALFY

Well the company in the US wouldn't answer the phone or E-mails. So went with a homebrew mount.

Anyway here is the build in pic format. Don't ask any tech questions as I relied heavily on Mark90, Pugwash, Diesel Jim and a few mates off the forum.

First off I aquired all these bits

egt001.jpg

incarpc004.jpg

incarpc001-1.jpg

incarpc002-1.jpg

This hard drive turned out to be a duff buy. So went to SCAN an online PC parts place and splashed out on a solid state HD. Not cheap but worth it I think.

Throw all the bits together and you get this

egt002.jpg

I started off with a 7" screen but found that it was a bit on the small side, but then Diesel Jim came up trumps with this. It came with touchscreen facility but as I don't have the software for it I removed this capability. The touchscreen is now stored safely for when I get the software or get rid of it. Thanks Jamie

egt005.jpg

Then came the problem of mounting the screen. As it originaly came from a jukebox ( I think) it didn't come with a surround so I went and found some nylon block. I made the box to fit round the screen and although it's a good plan I'm not totaly impressed with the way it turned out. Nylon block isn't the easiest material to work with. This is what I ended up with.

egt004-1.jpg

Not wanting to part with more cash I ended up making small brackets to attach it to the dash. It can be unhooked and used away from the dash, the leads are long enough to move it about 18" from the mounts. The PC is powered up direct from the batt, the PSU has a self protect thingy in it so it keeps powered up when you turn the engine over to start. I've taken the feed through an ARB style switch on the dash so it all blends in with the rest of dash.

egt003-1.jpg

I started off with a Garmin 12 XL GPS but couldn't get it to talk to the PC. After spending ages trying all sorts of ideas and general pestering of IT whizzkids on the forum I bit the bullitt and purchased a USB GPS. Plugged it in and it worked straight away. Cheers Pugges for the recommendation

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Looks like a nice install.

As an alternative mount for the screen I used this LCD tv wall mount from Vivo. I have a Tough book mounted on mine and had to a brace to stop it wobbling, but I have not mounted it on a vertical surface (it's on the side of the transmission tunnel in my Disco). It's nicely made from cast ally and the head rotates through 360 degrees which allows the screen to be postioned for either the driver or passenger. I'll post some pics when I have taken them.

Pete.

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I'm suprised you didnt use a laptop as a base for your install? How is it all fairing with heavy off roading?

As far as screen mounts are concerned I used a CD player mount (from one of those old kits that hold a CD walkman on a shock plate in your car) I dont think it would support your screen as it looks pretty heavy but its been doing fine with my toughbook screen. Will see if its strong enough for an upgraded touch screen toughbook soon when I fit it.

By the way. there is a seat/lid that covers that gubins in the middle.. its not left out like that.

Only problem I'm having is,when the laptop shares power from the same battery as the amp I get alot of background noise. As soon as either the amp (either an amp or one of those FM transmitter things plugged into the audio out on the laptop) or the computer use their own batteries or the computer uses the 240v inverter all the noise goes away.

Obviously its not fesable to always use batteries or the inverter instead of running the computer and amp off the car (second) battery.

Are you having this problem with your sound? any ideas?

post-7320-1205269634_thumb.jpg

post-7320-1205269687_thumb.jpg

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Guest WALFY

I did look at laptops and toughbooks but nothing came along at the right price, so I purchased it piecemeal. Might of cost a little bit more this way but I got exactly what I wanted.

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Guest WALFY

Not sure. Only got it all in and working today. It was sunny between the showers. When viewed from both seats I could see the screen clearly. Time will tell when I'm out and about

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Guest diesel_jim
Then came the problem of mounting the screen. As it originaly came from a jukebox ( I think) it didn't come with a surround so I went and found some nylon block. I made the box to fit round the screen and although it's a good plan I'm not totaly impressed with the way it turned out. Nylon block isn't the easiest material to work with. This is what I ended up with.

It certainly did, one of these:

musicmicro_fullshot.jpg

They're meant to go into pubs & clubs, so work pretty well in bright(ish) light. we've certainly had no problems from pished customers who can't stand upright customers complaining they can't read the selections.

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I managed to get a few pictures of my home brew toughbook mount tonight.

Tough book in place ;)

CarStuff013.jpg

Close up

CarStuff012.jpg

The mount minus the laptop :ph34r:

CarStuff011.jpg

The swivel allows for the Toughbook to be positioned easily for the passenger or driver. Large white bit is an amplified set of speakers to allow the voice navigation from navigator 7 to be heard.

CarStuff010.jpg

Basically I found a suitable bit of ally sheet at work to make the mount and use Velcro to hold the Toughbook to it. The original idea was for the mount to be easily removable however I found that it was a little unstable when on the move and have had to add brace to stabilise it a bit. Hopefully over the next few months I will be able to make the brace quick release so that the mount comes out easily.

I suspect that if it was a manual the mount might be a bit intrusive when it comes to changing gear but cos it's an auto I don't really notice it.

Pete.

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  • 2 weeks later...
Guest WALFY

Well after a lot of inernet searching SWMBO sat at the PC for 5 mins and came up with this

http://www.cybermarket.co.uk/ishop/923/shopscr6795.html

We saw the same bracket in the Sony shop in Street Viiage for 70 Quid. It comes to me all in for a tad under 40. It'll be mounted on the passenger side but still be allowed to swivel round for me to use when going solo.

Will drop some pics up when it's fitted.

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  • 3 weeks later...
Guest WALFY

Well finaly got the mount sent through.

I started off with this style but SWMBO bent the arms that I lovingly crafted.

egt003-2.jpg

So I trawled the net and found this arm. Got it fitted and it doesn't look that bad.

incarpc010.jpg

incarpc011.jpg

So now my original screen is spare. 7" touchscreen, but I haven't downloaded the software yet. Comes with all leads.

incarpc006.jpg

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Nice options in this thread.

Heres mine

Compaq Tablet TC1000 with Homemade Version 1 Multifunction display

with active pen input (means the screen ONLY takes commands from the PC pen +and - on this option...

Looks like this

Its gives me :

  • Ability to 'Datalog' the Megasquirt / see and view ECU and MegalogViewer
  • GPS for Greenlanning ie Memory Map for Off Road Eventing
  • To have a 'Road Stylee' Turn by Turn "Tom Tom" stylee GPS Sat Nav

With Thanks (in no particular order :) ) to Tonk, Moglite, Ian G, and Jon White.............

Software :

Memory Map with 50 and 25000: 1 Mapping

Navigator 7 Road GPS

Megatune for MS

MegalogViewer (with XLS) for Datalogging (Also has Excel and Java Loaded for MLV to work and datalog)

All now working after some messing about with the GPS and COMM Porting and PC Software :)

post-22-1208121397_thumb.jpg

Boot Up screen :lol:

post-22-1208121426_thumb.jpg

Road Stylee GPS Navigator 7

post-22-1208121458_thumb.jpg

Memory Map

post-22-1208121511_thumb.jpg

Megatune For MS

Mount is 3mm Ali care of a £300,000 NC Folder :) ....

Oh if only I had the room (and the money :lol:). easily removeable just leaving a back mount plate, later this will get painted etc, but runs 2x USBs - 1 to GPS 1 to Megasquirt, and has a Maplin Car Adapter hard wired into the fuse box, through the ignition, so powered from battery if Ignition off (saves whatever on screen) car charger takes over when engine running etc

Thanks to all on the forum for the help and advice to get me this system up and running - and for not much £s either :)

Nige

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