Putting a computer in my '09 sedan's center console
 

Hey guys,
I have not seen this on the forum before so I guess I will start the thread.

So I am trying to figure out how I could go about putting a low power tiny computer in my '09 G37's center console. The console has the AUX inputs for the display, a 12V power supply and a AC duct running on the back side. As a computer person looking at this I see a perfect place to put a tiny computer. I was wondering if anyone has tried this yet with any success? I am thinking I could drop a Beagle Board with a 320GB WD Passport running Ubuntu to serve music while I drive and movies when I park (unless I also perform the "mod of which we do not speak.") My trouble is figuring out how to get the video from the Beagle Board to output to the composite video for the AUX in. Composite video is 480'i' by nature and VGA (what computers output too) is always 'p'. You can get an adaptor but they don't usually work very well and cost around $150. Any Ideas?
~Flury

I had a carputer in one of my cars for a while and it was fantastic until I ran into some issues with the HD because of my large system. I realize what you're trying to do is quite different and I'm sorry I don't have any suggestions regarding your questions. However, I'd be very interested to see what you come up with and you're local so maybe you could help me out with something similar if it all works out for you.

forget that and just do this

http://www.hpautoworks.com/index.php...4a40f87c3fab4d

Not looking for an auto computer
 

I am not looking for an Auto Computer, I am looking to make a media server.

I hear Ipods work well!

^ +1 save your money and just buy an iPod

I have an iPhone, it is more about doing it than just having a server.
 

Hmmm..... the thread here is more about just doing this to be unique, I guess I will just suck it up and get an iPod touch if I can't make it go, but I would really like to get this to work, it will also allow internet and the such.

This is a nice system

http://drivendynamics.com/shotgun.html

Not always is being unique a good thing.. We had a fellow member strip his car out and put purple velvet as his interior.. Yes he was unique but there's more into it

Why do you want internet in your car? Or even need a server? I'm not trying to demotivate you, all I'm saying is what you're trying to do can be achieved at a cheaper & easier/less headache way.

i love ur idea, and do what u want to do, and if ur install goes well enough ill probably do the same, as i am possibly thinking of going a bit further with this setup and hook a highspeed broadband, wireless keyboard/trackball for wutever purposes. though the factory screen is small, it's intergrated, but i've been thinkin of tinkering with a slide out monitor that comes out of the glovebox. these are all just ideas, but with some manhours and some $$$ it's not that difficult :D

Really for me anything less then 15" and a full keyboard is useless computer wise. I just can't think of any situation where I'd rather watch a movie in the car then in the home on a 61" set with 7.1 DTS. Now for passengers I can see it, but there's solutions for that and the G isn't the best platform... a van yea.

^ perhaps something like this:

http://www.ratemyride.com/uploads/2130.jpg


You're going to laugh at this but in my previous SUV, I had a scrolling text display thing mounted onto my rear windshield which you could program via a remote control to say whatever you want. What I wanted to do was hook it up to a PC so I could type to display live lol rather than use the gay remote control and trying to remember where each phrase was saved lol

There are lots of reasons to put a full computer in the car. And I am a Geek. :-p

oh btw u asked about the rca output, u can jsut buy a cable that goes dvi > rca(component) or svideo > rca(component) both work fine for low res.
and cost is about 5-10bucks

No, will not work. The signal coming from the computer is digital so you have to have a converter, not just a cheap cable.