Car-puter 2011

[Turbocharger]

I've experimented with moving maps before, on a laptop with an inverter and on an Android phone. Both had their limitations bu it was a revelation compared to refolding a 1:50k OS sheet in a Defender cab on the move. Further thought plus an early Christmas present delivered the most modern answer yet: a tablet PC, in this case an Asus Transformer.

The attached images show progress from angle iron to a dashboard mount, with soft points to avoid damaging the tablet and some design cunning to let the camera see out of the windscreen too. Now I've got maps, internet and the option to have a Bluetooth webcam watching the winch, rear wheels, inside the snorkel - who knows?

[steve200TDi]

For the last few months I've been thinking about the same thing having either something like a Dell Inspiron Duo with the flippy screen which turns into a tablet or an android tablet. I was in HMV the other day looking at these and I thought the Asus Transformer was the best. Did you opt to get the keyboard with it, it's quite a good idea really as it also extends battery life. I also saw a windscreen mount for it, but I guess it may have obscured the camera.

Steve

[Turbocharger]

After some research I went for the Transformer with a keyboard, on the weak excuse that I can use it for work too. There's a new version coming out in the new year (Transformer Prime) which will undoubtably be better, and make the Transformer prices fall

[Boydie]

do you ever look ahead out of the windscreen and observe where you are going ?

[Eightpot]

I used a Sumicom carputer hooked up to a lilliput touchscreen for a while, which was great but walloped through the power - have you got this on a power supply in the car or just on battery? I imagine it's much more frugal though.

Centrafuse is a great bit of software for a car PC if you haven't seen it before - gives you a big ipad style graphical interface on screen so you can easily flip between programs on the move, and Garmin maps for mobile was a great bit of software as well, turns it into a massive Nuvi - maplin were selling it really cheap a while back.

[Escape]

I've used a standard, old Dell laptop in both the Defender, with a similar mount as the one above, but with the keyboard vertically under the screen. Worked well enough. In the Range Rover I've removed the storage area above the glovebox, and the same Dell fits perfectly, but now in a traditional layout, keyboard horizontal and screen vertical. And low enough not to be too much in my line of sight.

In Mouse my navigator has installed a Toughbook, very nice setup and very practical! We'll see if we can get some pictures.

[disco_al]

tbh tablets are going to be the way forward for in car installs now. i've got an acer w500 tab - and it's brilliant. there are some nice mounts available too, one in particular bolts to the seatbelt mount on a goose neck, which tbh is much more secure than the suction cup type i've seen.

[elbekko]

I've used a standard, old Dell laptop in both the Defender, with a similar mount as the one above, but with the keyboard vertically under the screen. Worked well enough. In the Range Rover I've removed the storage area above the glovebox, and the same Dell fits perfectly, but now in a traditional layout, keyboard horizontal and screen vertical. And low enough not to be too much in my line of sight.

In Mouse my navigator has installed a Toughbook, very nice setup and very practical! We'll see if we can get some pictures.

Apparently I didn't take any pictures of the setup installed in Mouse, so I guess we'll have to take some later.

It does work very well, just need to get cracking on making that Tripmaster application for events like Pomerania.

I've got one from the test-fit in the mount though, on the left is the mount for my GPSmap 62s, and on the right of course the Toughbook running Windows 7. The Toughbook is secured using Velcro (it sticks so well I have to use a screwdriver to take it off again...).

It's got Garmin Mobile PC and OziExplorer installed, both can run at the same time using GPSgate. In the picture it had Paint open to design the mount

[Turbocharger]

Back from c300 miles offroad around the Peak District and Cotswolds over this festive holiday, and I'm completely sold on the tablet idea. The mount performed faultlessly and I can see where I am, whenever I'm there! The camera works well too - here's a sample of the in-car vid from a lumpy bit near the edge at Stanage:

And here's a shot taken from the car behind - they complained when I rolled the rear screen down because they couldn't see the map any more. A 10" screen is perfect on the LR dash in my humble.