Hello. First post. Woo. Just a random question, thinking about trying to run a low-end pc (p166/200/233) in the car for a variety of reasons. Pimpage, mainly, but also to see if I can rig up some MP3 software and a HD full of tunes. Was inspired by the Ebay Items post about the biscuit boards. Have seen a couple of boards on sale as secondhand in the US that will accept 9-14v unregulated, so that should be fine on a 12v battery.....but I don't have one of those mobs. Just wondered what might happen if I just bunged a straight 12v into my board. Well, I can guess what might happen. The board will fry, or the cpu will die. So, without directing me to a circuitboard for a 12v or 5v regulator I must build myself (due to the fact they all look like a roadmap of Chelsford to me...), does anyone have any suggestions about how I might go about running a mobo, 128mb dimm and a (possibly laptop 2.5", else 3.5") HD in a car? I'm in the UK, so UK based help is good Ta
Welcome to Bit-Tech, you've come to the right place! Well, it's not quite an answer to your Q but why not get an old laptop, 233, about £20 tops, the power port will take 12V and you'll have a nice LCD you can pimp up and slap somewhere else in your car, or you could just bung it under the seat and attach an lcd or another moitor to the Serial/VGA port.
the main prob is u dont jsut need +12 and 0 u need a whole host of other voltages +12, +5, +3.3, 0 , -12, -15, +15? and a few otheres :-( theres a link somewhere on these forums to someone who did it with an old amiga tho
One way is to use a 240v inverter on the car battery, then use an ordinary PC psu to get back down again. Not the most efficient, but if you can keep the system wattage to under say 200W it's maybe the cheapest way. Think mATX or smaller boards. edit: looks like you're in the US, so 110v invertor
for most laptops, the complicated power cicuitry is inside the computer so you only need a single input. This isn't true on really old laptops (i mean 486, 120MB HDD laptops), but should hold for P200ish lappies! and a battery is the the cleanest supply you can find, its just that the voltage may vary. That said, a car battery trying to power a car might be temperamental! g
ne one know if theres a list of computer fairs in the uk? (especially the south theres hardly any i hear about down here )
If you are still wanting to put a PC in your car and need to make a PSU... look at www.sproggy.com they've got plans for a DC-DC PSU there. EDIT: Whoops... looks like the site's down at the moment...
just did some google(its your friend) searching and turned up some sites that wernt around a few months ago http://www.computer-fairs.co.uk/ has a big list of events with 2 near (ish ) me in the next month
Sproggy Http://www.sproggy.freeserve.co.uk But still too complex for me. Am thinking of going down the "laptop-in-the-car-running-off-the-cigarette-lighter" route. Nothing says 'Pimp' like an LCD
