As a primary goal, I wanted to make the car PC small enough to fit in the dashboard on my 1999 Honda Accord.

The Accord has double-DIN stereo and I wanted to replace it with a PC. Because I was going to remove the CD player and the car radio, I had to put together some hardware, which would offer no less than a CD/DVD player and a radio. A music library and MP3/WMA(I like the sound of WMA better than MP3), as well as a navigation system would be an obvious improvement.

The LCD that I originally purchased, was 4:3 6.4” VGA and had no enclosure. It would have fit very tightly in the dashboard bay. That is why I asked Daniel - a friend of mine, who helps me with all hardware related problems, to put the LCD in a plastic case. The case itself had to be able to move up and down to open just enough room to allow the CD (or DVD) to be put into the DVD drive.

Unfortunately, my lease expired and I decided to return the Accord - it had too many problems from day one and I did not want to keep it. Anyway, this is outside the car PC topic and I won't discuss it here.

The double-DIN version is now put on hold, because the change of the car meant a change of the size of the case - my car now has a single-DIN dash opening. Here you can see some pictures of the double-DIN project.

Apart from the display, the main question became what main board to use.

I looked at some SBC boards. They sure are small, and some are small and powerful. Unfortunately, a common characteristic is their high price.

Subsequently, I decided that I could hack one of those Net Appliances, which were available on eBay or UBid and everybody wanted to get rid of. I bought a Virgin WebPlayer, which is a fine unit, but the LCD was not up to the job. Now it is at my father’s and is his main e-mail station.

Next, I bought this yellowish thing, called 3COM Audrey. Another nice looking unit, which proved to be completely useless too.

I wanted to use the Audrey’s touch-screen LCD, but it turned out the LCD controller, the touch-screen controller and all the other controllers were embedded on the main board. So was the memory. It runs QNX and all of my attempts to ‘brain wash it’ and convert it to Windows failed miserably.

Audrey now is in the kitchen and sits on the microwave. It is a part of the kitchen interior and little more, except a when it occasionally act as a phonebook.

Then I discovered the infinite world of mini-ITX. Everything on one board and with the right form factor. Best of all, it fits perfectly into the car dashboard opening.

Of course, I couldn’t put a radio card inside the case now (remember? – single-DIN height), because it was too small. The case now measures 7” x 7” x 2”.

What is inside the case anyway?

EPIA 5000 @ 533MHz; KingMax 256MB SDRAM 150MHz; 20GB 2.5” HDD; Slim DVD drive; DC-ATX power converter; 2.5” to 3.5” HDD converter; Slim CD to 3.5” converter;

I put a power regulator board in  it as well, but it turned out that I was shortening the circuit on the board,  so it had to go outside.

As you probably noticed, I was very specific about the memory. The reason is that the Kingmax memory is only 1" in height. All other memories are at least 1.25", which again, is too big. Another very good thing about this memory is that it runs on breath-taking speed of 150MHz and runs very cool. It is even cooler when it runs on 133MHz. Good stuff.

Another problem that I encountered was that when everything was inside the case, there was no room for cables. The solution was to separate all wires in the ribbon HDD cable and make  my own version of rounded cables.

The DC converter is from www.mini-box.com. I had to remove the ATX connector and solder the wires directly to the board, because there simply was no enough room for the ATX connector. This is part of the fun. Except that I soldered 20 wires on the wrong side of the board and had to do it all over again. Then I changed the position of the DC converter in the case and had to re-do everything one more time. Fun, fun, fun.

All parts inside the case are mounted on a special metal holder. The holder has a very complex shape, because it needs to hold the DVD, HDD and have an opening for the CPU radiator. Without this opening, everything shifts up with about 2mm, which is way too much.

One very big problem designing the case and putting the parts inside was that no screws could go anywhere else but to the front and back panel. This may not sound like something difficult to do, but believe me – it is not easy either.

The LCD now is a 7” touch-screen with VGA input. Looks great and so far works fine. The touch screen is a bit problematic, but ones you set it up, it works great.

To mount the LCD on the dashboard I use a special holder designed for cell phones. These holders are specificly designed for each car brand and model. The metal that is used for the holder is strong enough to hold the LCD. As everything else, I had to modify the holder a little bit, because I wanted to be able to mount and dismount the LCD with ease.

For the navigation system I use a 12 channel RS-232 GPS. Nice looking. Acceptable accuracy. Now I’m looking at a newer unit that has WAAS.

To upload new versions of the software, as well as to get on the Internet when I am in a ‘hot-spot’, I use SMC USB 802.11b adapter. Great unit, works fine right out of the box.

After my first test drive, I decided that until everything is bug-free I need a keyboard and a mouse handy. I had Logitech Wireless Desktop somewhere at home and they now are in the car as a touch-screen back up. I never use them while I drive, as you guessed.

The audio output from the motherboard goes into a Audiovox FM modulator. I tried 2 different wireless FM modulators, but the quality of the sound was terrible. Now everything is controlled from the car stereo and the quality of the sound is OK.

I am planning to upgrade the sound of the EPIA 5000 and put an amplifier and an audio-source switch, but that will be something to do in the next couple of months. I will probably upgrade to an external USB sound card of better quality (for example Creative MP3+ or Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2), as many people do in their car PC projects. EPIA has good sound card on board, but when you put a PC in your car, I am sure you are going to look for a splash.

Next on my list is the main board. VIA put on the market many new Mini-ITX models and there are few of them that are better solution for my project.

After I change (and if I change) the motherboard, I will have a better idea about what room will be available in the single-DIN case. I plan to make a PCB that will hold the DVD and the HDD and have IDE connectors right on the board. This will eliminate the need of HDD and slim-CD cable converters. The long cables will be gone too, because all IDE wires will be on the PCB. I will also put on this PCB DC converter integrated with power regulator, if possible. More info will be available soon. The DC converter with integrated regulator is in development and will be ready as a product soon. Stay tuned.

My car, as many other cars out there, has 2 single-DIN bays. The PC goes in the second bay, but I still think my radio should be gone forever. Then I'll have some more room to put a TV/FM card and probably second (text) LCD. This idea is still not very clear, but is developing as I am adamant that a regular car radio has place anywhere in my car!