Hey Im putting together a car-pc, and to put my touch screen monitor in, I need to move my trip computer screen. Obviously I would still like to be able to see my trip computer, so Ive had an idea to mount it in an empty speaker slot in the centre back of my dash. However it would be quite visible and would look like a sat nav to passers by so don't really want it on show. And thus my idea is to have the screen pop out of the slot at the touch of a button (almost like a vertical eject CD drive). The only problem is I have no idea what sort of bits I would need to achieve this. Does anyone have any ideas? Cheers
Funny you should mention that, if you have any old CD-ROM drives lying around the motors and gearing in these are actually perfect for lifting screens. I've done a couple of screen installs in cars using parts from old optical drives and the speed and linear action is pretty much perfect.
It all depends on how much room there is inside your dash. the more room you have the easier it will be. It can also be tricky getting a neat finish on top of the screen when it is closed, as this all depends on the shape and texture of your dashboard. Getting it to open and close is the easy part lol. The ones i've done have been powered from the car.
I dont have any pics unfortunately, the screens were installed many years ago at my old work. I can show you these simple pics of an already gutted cd-rom i took for someone else asking the same question on a car forum: These pics show how the drive will look prior to riveting on some brackets to hold the screen in place on the tray. Hope they help.
That`s sooo cool! But then the LCD would only "eject", with the surface facing the roof? Could you make a guide for this, i know a lot of people would like to try this on in their car or computer!
I would probably stay away from taking power from the car's Computer. I have worked automotive electrical for more than a few years and the smallest things can make your car quit running or start acting funny ( You would be suprised how little it takes and how long it can take to find the problem). I would probably take the power from the cigarett lighter/ power outlet, or you could run a line off of the fuse block and put a inline fuse in it. Either option would be much better than running a line off of the computer in the car. (Unless you modded the computer in to the car itself and it has nothing to do with making the car run Or you have $1000's of dollars to spend on "i cant understand why my car is doing that")
