so I have an old tuneing laptop that needed a new harddrive, and I just got a 4 gig one for $5 haha. Anyway, I have had the laptop apart a bunch of times and its pretty modular and compact.

So I got this crazy idea of integrating the laptop into the car! I could use megatune whenever, could sell my boost gauge and use megatune, I could use it for my music, and whatever else, wouldent have to worry about battery life, or pulling out the laptop whenever I need it. The biggest problem would be the screen, I think its a 13 inch, I dunno where id put it. The computer itself can go wherever, thats not a problem, and I could use a flexible keyboard that id stick in the glove compartment.

I can get a 90w power inverter off ebay for $10 to power it, and like I said the hardest part would be extending the 30 some wire that connect the display to the pc, but thats just a few hours of soldering.

So what do you guys think?

 

I know tons of vw guys that have done this in their cars.

 

I'd suggest talking with joe, I believe he mounted one in his car. But honestly "integrating" it with the interior would probably be more more work than its worth. Making a simple mount that makes it easily accessible from the driver seat would be nice, but by the time you integrate it and solder in all the wires, you could've tuned the car, disconnected the laptop and be done with it.

 

You could probably find a cheap small LCD panel online that would be easier to install in the dash or console and just hook it up to your laptop. A touchscreen would probably be better.

 

Touchscreen would be best but I would imagine expensive... can you get a like 9.5 inch touchscreen for cheap? How would a touchscreen interface with my laptop anyway, its pretty old?

 

the standard 7" touch screens have been dropping in price recently

 

Icant spend $180 for a 7" monitor right now lol. I do have a PSP screen (4.3 inch) and the inputs on the screen have a similar number of wires on it as the laptop screen.. if only I could adapt it.

 

google "car pc" Also visit MP3Car.com - Your source for mobile computing solutions! - All Blog Entries.

 

I know for a fact you can get touchscreen overlays in 9" and 10" sizes made for netbooks for very little.

 

I used to have a integrated setup, PC in the trunk and touchscreen in the dash. It was really sweet but If I did it again I'd find a way to mount the monitor up higher. MP3car.com is a great resource.

 

Its a 13 inch screen, is there any place that makes touch overlays for that size?