GPS System - Dashmount 7" touchscreen

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Originally Posted by p38arover

Hmm, very nice!

It's giving me ideas. I've an old 233MHz Pentium laptop that doesn't have a working screen (OK on external monitor).

How expensive are the 7" VGA touch screens?

Ron

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Check out ebay for touch screens there are loads of them.

I'm seriously looking into building one of these things from scratch, PC as well.
I have the basics, donor PC, 12DC power supply, I'm planning to make a custom, (read:DDIY) case I just need to get my ???? into gear.
Once I have the basic PC running I'll get the GPS reciever & screen.
I want to try and get a mobo with an intergrated video card, it would make the PC case much smaller/flatter; "but beggars can't choosers" so I might just end up with a bit of a 'bump' in the top of the case.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by p38arover

Hmm, very nice!

It's giving me ideas. I've an old 233MHz Pentium laptop that doesn't have a working screen (OK on external monitor).

How expensive are the 7" VGA touch screens?

Ron

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Hope you are sitting down. At the time they were around $700 for this model. They had cheaper ones without the composite video inputs or touch panel. I decided to purchase from an Australian distributor. Probably could have got it imported for less. Most likely cheaper now.

My research showed there were a number around at the time but the Xenarc/(rebadged Xenarc) may have had a little better reliability. While I'm sure there are many happy campers with other screens, there were also more people with problems. Have a read through the mp3car.com forums.

I have heard that stuffed cd stacker cases work well for a car pc and they have a sort of suspension built in.

The 8" touch screens have come down a fair bit in price. A good one can be bought here in Australia for $450-500 or do as I did and get exactly the same unity form Hong Kong for about $200 including freight. Has all the plugs etc usb, vga, rca etc. I think I need a bigger inverter to run the lap top 150w does not seem to be enough.
Whats a better option inverter or a regulator??

top job

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Originally Posted by CraigE

The 8" touch screens have come down a fair bit in price. A good one can be bought here in Australia for $450-500 or do as I did and get exactly the same unity form Hong Kong for about $200 including freight. Has all the plugs etc usb, vga, rca etc. I think I need a bigger inverter to run the lap top 150w does not seem to be enough.
Whats a better option inverter or a regulator??

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My laptop uses a 12v supply (normally from a 240v power pack) so I just run it off the vehicle's 12v.

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Originally Posted by CraigE

The 8" touch screens have come down a fair bit in price. A good one can be bought here in Australia for $450-500 or do as I did and get exactly the same unity form Hong Kong for about $200 including freight. Has all the plugs etc usb, vga, rca etc. I think I need a bigger inverter to run the lap top 150w does not seem to be enough.
Whats a better option inverter or a regulator??

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Regulator...

Avoid 240v systems in vehicle wherever possible.

(Pop!!! There goes the can of worms)

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Originally Posted by tombraider

Regulator...

Avoid 240v systems in vehicle wherever possible.

(Pop!!! There goes the can of worms)

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Totally agree


- you should easily be able to convert any computer to operate on 12v

The internals run on 12v and 5v anyway, there is nothing in a pc/laptop than needs 240v

There are quite a few ciggy adaptors available to run laptops - and the more expensive seem to have the bits in to remove spikes and troughs

Hi, nice setup.

I have something similar with a Liliput sceen (7" in the Disco and 8" in the Rangie) which plug into the laptop which is powered by a DC-DC converter. The main problem is that it is not a good enviroment for the laptop.

How much was the computer you use?

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Originally Posted by Graeme

My laptop uses a 12v supply (normally from a 240v power pack) so I just run it off the vehicle's 12v.

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I'm not keen on running straight from the vehicle's 12V. It's not very stable for electronic devices.

First off it may drop a fair bit when cranking over the engine. Some systems will drop out due to low voltage. Maybe it will just freeze up every now and again. Then again you might not notice anything but be stressing internal componants which may fail down the track (no pun intended).

Once the engine's running you are going to be feeding in about 14V. Your equipment may cope but then again it may stress the innards and cause problems later.

You'll find many people coming up with solutions to the problem of "surviving the crank". Personally I solved all my problems with the DC-DC regulator. It also handles startup/shutdown and abnormal power conditions for me.