Vendian

Do you guys think it is possible to fit a mac mini inside of the cobalt? I was thinking you could place an aftermarket faceplate where the thin strip where the heated seats and the casette tape looking black part is. Above that, place say whatever size screen would fit in where the stock radio is. Probably about a 7" touchscreen. Then you could place the Mac mini in the glovebox. With build in bluetooth and 40 & 80GB models, you could put a ton of music. You could either use the touchscreen to access iTunes and play music or use a bluetooth wireless mouse and keyboard to search for tunes.

The only thing to get working is to hook up the mini to play through the cars speakers. It would be curious to know how to switch between the mini and the aftermarket faceplate as well. It might also be interesting to know how to power it. I wonder if you could hook it up to go into sleep mode when you turned the car off, and then out of sleep when you turned the car back on. My laptop on sleep mode uses like 2% battery in about 12 hours. It takes next to none, so you wouldn't have to worry about it draining the cars battery.

Here are features that would be cool to see:
-Mac mini in glovebox.
-7" touchscreen display in dash.
-Aftermarket faceplate/stereo.
-Switch between radio and iTunes.
-Mac always on, sleep on car shutoff, return on car on.
-Run diagnostics on engine information etc. through the mac.

Here's some links to look at:
http://www.123macmini.com/news/story/19.html
http://www.i3team.com/

There are a ton more if you look
Just food for thought. Here is a picture of the center dash courtesy of zinner's gallery:

zinner

I have considered this myself actually. However I was going to opt for a mini itx PC based system (around 1ghz or so). You can get a decent setup for about 300 dollars and another 5-700 for a nice touch scree LCD.

I wouldn't want to lose the stock look, this way I might be able to keep the stereo system and put an LCD is that blank filter right below and keep the actual PC unit hidden.

Vendian

You could get one of those aftermarket faceplates with the fold out LCD screen and place that where the area is I was talking about before. That way you could maintain a more stock look. Just hook up the PC to the foldout screen. I added a page to an interface that could be used with touchscreens.

zinner

That Lexus looks nice. Neat place to put the computer.

mken

I don't know much about the Mac Mini (not a Mac fan), but I'm willing to bet it will still generate a decent amount of heat. So just make sure to take into consideration the lack of air-flow inside the dash or glove box, wherever you decide to install it. I'd hate to hear about someone melting a $500 computer this way. But if someone does, make sure to post pics!

Vendian

Lol, good thought. I can just imagine opening the glove box to a toasted mac mini, smoke billowing out.

xtremeGM

I was going to do that with my Grand Am but since I'm getting rid of it I decided not to. But its very possible.

Funky Cricket

i don't know much about the mac mini's as they are pretty much usless in the IT feild and that is what i do.
But i would be worried about 2 things with a "non-automovtive" computer in a car.
One: Power, keeping clean constant power to the computers powersupply, otherwise you start breaking things.

Two: would need to be decently protected against shock, and a laptop harddrive would be a must, even with a laptop harddrive and a shock obsorb system I wouldn't venture near detroit roads.

Heats not that bad with a lower end proccessor and a lower end video card, as long as there is some airflow and venting it would get hot but you wouldn't melt anything.

EDIT: oh, I was thinking of doing something similar when I was building up an early 80's T-Bird. Would be pretty cool.

Voodoosoup

I had an iBook and 7" VGA Lilliput touchscreen in my Alero.
I molded the screen into the radio opening in the dash.
I ran Virtual PC and Routis software for Navigation then used iTunes for music playback.
I had wireless networking so I could pull into the driveway and transfer any need songs or files.
I have to say, I really miss that system. I was using a USB iMic for sound output and had that going directly to a active crossover which fed my amps. I used a standard power inverter which I wired into the electrical system with a relay to supply power to my ext. hard drive and USB hub. I simply had to close the notebook to put the system to sleep.

zinner

I think a lot of heat would be cut out by removing the AC power supply. Is the power supply for the mini mac in the box or is it a seperate power brick like a laptop.

zinner

You can fix the moving storage issue with compact flash. You can pick it up pretty cheap now. I don't think that having a fully functional OS for a car computer is the way to go. I think you need like Windows Mobile or a linux mobile/embedded distro.

Vendian

Everything is inside of the box. I always have the option of hooking up my powerbook to the car. I could remove it for home use it I wanted to too. I thought it would be interesting to put one in the car, but I don't think it's something I would do unless a company came out with the specific things needed to get it done. I'm not all about pioneering something like that .

cctemecula

hmm... you guys have me thinking about a complete glovebox mod now. DAMNIT!

zinner

There are companys that make an ATX compatible car power supply. I just wasn't sure if the minimac is ATX or something apple has on their own.

http://www.mini-box.com/s.nl/sc.8/ca...it.A/id.356/.f

Must be popular cause it's out of stock. I am a build it yourself type of guy and I definetly would want to build my own computer system from the ground up.

cctemecula

same zinner. does anyone have an approximate size of the glovebox in the cobalt?

Vendian

Lol. Once you think of the possiblity of having a full-fledged computer in the car that as a bare bones model cost $499 you can't resist but to dream of how 'great' you could make the car.

scutzi128

Ok Ive been planning on how I can put a pc in my coablt when I get it and I have almost everything figured out besides how to get audio to my speakers effectively. What I would really like would be if someone could take a picture of the amp in the cobalt ss so I could think about some options.

DarthDalla

I have been searching and researching the subject of a PC in my car for weeks now and I am about to start ordering parts. mp3car.com has not only a great shop but great forums where you can find out just about anything about installing a comp in your car, all you have to do is SEARCH and the answers are there.

On another note I think I will be putting an Epia MII 12000 in my car with 512 MB or ram and 100 GB laptop HDD all in a C134 case ( about the size of a 1 din radio) and it will all go behind the dask with a remote dvd drive molded into the dash under the 8" xenarc vga touch screen.... hopefully ill get my SS/SC soon so I can start workin on it and there will DEFINATLY be pics showing the entire process since I will be doing all of the fiberglass work myself on the install. (this is a tentative plan, when I receive shipment on the car and see what I am working with exactly I will come up with a final plan of action)

PS sorry for a tad bit of a long post

zinner

Sounds interesting Dartha. I have been looking at Mini ITX systems simular to what your looking at. I haven't checked out that website you mention but I will be now.

I really don't want to replace the radio, since it's the upgraded 7 speaker system with XM. I will probably try to find a way a way to tap it into the stock radio or us an FM modulator. I am interested in a car PC for GPS and navigation.

I have a Garmin GPS V right now which is a small b&w unit with only 19 megs of map memory. Upgraded GPS's are about 700-800 bux. I figure I can build something to handle the same function as the GPS for about the same and I get the extra functionality of a full PC and a project.

Which brings me to my next question. What does everyone else plan to use their car PC for? To replace the head unit entirely ?

scutzi128

I would reaplce the headunit if I knew that I could hook an output from the computer into the amp, but I don't know if thats possible. I would also consider putting in a new headunit with auxillary inputs. But is it possible to use the stock pioneer 7 speaker system with a new headunit. Zinner could I bother you to take a picture of the amp or is it too hard to get to? My main focus for the pc is gps and mp3/dvd playback.

zinner

Man I don't even know where the amp is located

If it's behind the dash I won't be cracking that open until I actually install the PC.

scutzi128

Also could someone measure the glove compartment's size on the ss?