Car mount for Asus EEE PC ?

**Babybadger** · Thursday 16th April 2009, 11:20

I must admit , mine is slightly weird at holding the asus 1000 eeepc , and I have not had it working 100% how did you mount the eeepc in the cradle?

**cornclose** · Thursday 16th April 2009, 12:29

Originally Posted by Babybadger

how did you mount the eeepc in the cradle?

It doesn't have a cradle as such. It uses the V-slot mechanism shown in the pictures above. It's a little difficult to visualize, I'll get some pics asap.

**Al115** · Thursday 16th April 2009, 12:57

Interested to see how this works out, might try to get my EEE into my T4...

**Babybadger** · Monday 20th April 2009, 11:15

My solution will be :-

Asus EEEpc 1000 in holder, streaming music via bluetooth to Sony MEX-BT3600U (awesome) especially with films now with sub in the boot)
Nokia N95 linked via wifi over Joikuspot lite or bluetooth over Nokia PC suite
Holox BT-541 GPS bluetooth linked to N05 over bluetooth (good cold start times)

**cornclose** · Monday 20th April 2009, 12:14

My solution is similar in some ways. It is :-

Asus eeepc 900 (WinXP/1GB/16GB SSD)
Mounted using Brodit mounts
12v Power Adapter permenantly cabled
USB hub on right angled USB cable (located under driver's side dash/footwell)

Connected to the USB hub are;

1. USB Sound card (connected to which is an FM transmitter for audio from the eeepc through the car's sound system)
2. USB memory stick (16GB, for audio storage)
3. OBDII interface (ELM327) for realtime dash/gauges and diagnostics

The eeepc also has an 8GB SD card for additional storage, in addition to the onboard 16GB SSD (1x4GB and 1x12GB).

I'm developing my own front end software to control it all at the moment. So far it's pretty neat, quick release and looks/sounds great.

I'll also be creating an 'in-car' ad-hoc WiFi network with an iPhone 3G, so as to use the iPhone's internet/data features and allow the eeepc to be 'online' when required (for traffic/weather/satnav/browsing/email etc).

Toying with the idea of a touchscreen conversion for the eeepc, but at present my own software uses a three button system for navigation and selection. Any key down the left-hand side of the keyboard is 'previous', any key down the right-hand side is 'next' and any key along the bottom row of the keyboard (in line with the space bar etc) is 'select'. This way it's easy to navigate around without taking your eyes off the road and without worrying about which key you're pressing.

I'll post pics and progress updates as and when, perhaps starting a new thread. So far though, it's the neatest and most functional quick release CarPC system I've seen.

**Al115** · Monday 20th April 2009, 12:19

A quick-release car pc system is just what the world has been waiting for (IMHO)

Interested in why you chose a USB soundcard for the eee. Was it because the onboard sound is sh*te?

I made a (permamently-fitted) version of this about four years ago - everything tucked away under floor panels / in glove box - when the very idea of "mobile broadband" was a distant hope!!!

**cornclose** · Monday 20th April 2009, 12:22

Originally Posted by Al115

Interested in why you chose a USB soundcard for the eee. Was it because the onboard sound is sh*te?

No, it was simply because I only wanted to connect/disconnect two cables when mounting/unmounting it. Any more than that and it becomes a pain.

Everything is on the USB hub which sits below the steering column, above the footwell under the lower cover. So the only two cables to connect are a single USB cable and power (no 3.5mm audio, no USB memory sticks poking out the side etc...).

**Baj** · Monday 20th April 2009, 13:29

The trouble with a system like this is you have to remove it when you leave the car.

A built in system like mine is unnickable in normal circumstances (a thief would need a good hour alone to get my screen out).

Hardwired power will cause problems too. Look at something like an M2ATX or M3ATX. They have preset shutdown capabilities.

An EEE is a little underpowered especially if you want to add satnav capabilities.
I am running an Intel D201GLY2 but most people now are buying Dual Atom boards. They are pretty cheap.

Corny, have you had a look at freeice? It is a free frontend for carpcs. Saying that it may run like a dog on the EEEs as it is Flash based.

I am interested to see pics.

**cornclose** · Monday 20th April 2009, 13:55

Removing it from the car is no trouble as I actually wanted something that I could remove, as I didn't want to go to the trouble of a permenantly installed system. Plus, it allows me to take out the eee for meetings etc, and generally have it with me wherever I go. Only two cables to connect/disconnect and a slot mount system makes it a breeze...

Hardwiring of the power to the eee is not full-time power, only when the key is in the accessory position. I have already written code to auto-detect whether the system is running on internal batteries or not so that I can do various things. There are tools out there already that do this but none of them did exactly what I wanted, so like most things I ended up writing my own.

I havn't looked at freeice, but I will, thanks. Most of the others though (centrafuse, roadrunner etc) didn't do what I wanted in the way I wanted it to, so again, rather than write plugins I decided to write my own.

I'll post pics as soon as I take some!

**Babybadger** · Monday 20th April 2009, 20:01

Originally Posted by cornclose

No, it was simply because I only wanted to connect/disconnect two cables when mounting/unmounting it. Any more than that and it becomes a pain.

Everything is on the USB hub which sits below the steering column, above the footwell under the lower cover. So the only two cables to connect are a single USB cable and power (no 3.5mm audio, no USB memory sticks poking out the side etc...).

How are you running the power by the way? Is it a genuine asus adapter or a chinese jobby?

**Baj** · Monday 20th April 2009, 20:27

I have to say the power issue is concerning me too.
Taking 12v straight from the car is not a good plan as it is not 12v and unregulated which means you can fry the PC.
Running a 12v powerblock through an invertor isn't a particulary great option either.

**cornclose** · Monday 20th April 2009, 20:56

Calm down calm down!

It's an Asus car adapter - I never said it was connected straight to the 12v system unregulated! All I've done is removed the cigarette lighter plug and hard wired that into the aux/accessory line via a inline fuse.

**Babybadger** · Tuesday 21st April 2009, 10:11

Originally Posted by cornclose

Calm down calm down!

It's an Asus car adapter - I never said it was connected straight to the 12v system unregulated! All I've done is removed the cigarette lighter plug and hard wired that into the aux/accessory line via a inline fuse.

Linky to asus adapter?

**Baj** · Tuesday 21st April 2009, 13:16

Fine fine, just warning that the 12v form a car is unregulated and can vary from 8v to over 14v which can cause problems or even damage.

**cornclose** · Tuesday 21st April 2009, 15:51

I got mine from amazon, it's the same as this one :-

[ame]http://www.amazon.co.uk/Car-Charger-Asus-Mini-Laptop/dp/B001GCFFZ6/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1240325317&sr =1-4[/ame]

Mine is an Asus adapter, the one above might not be, but it looks the same.

It takes input voltages from 8-30v and puts out 12v at 3.5A max.

**cornclose** · Monday 27th April 2009, 13:39

I was out in the car yesterday and changing the brightness of the eee's screen became a bit of a pain. In bright sunlight I had to max it out. At night, it needs to be at it's lowest brightness.

So, I had an idea, and a few hours later I have a working program that takes a snapshot image every so often from the inbuilt webcam, calculates the average light level from it, then adjusts the eee's backlight accordingly - an auto brightness control!

It works really well!

**Al115** · Monday 27th April 2009, 15:15

Share share share please?

**Baj** · Monday 27th April 2009, 18:39

You love the over-engineer dont you?

I have an autodimming screen which uses a lightsensor.

Sunlight will always be a problem on LCD screens unless you get a TMR or transflective screen such as these http://linitx.com/viewcategory.php?catid=1004
They bounce the sunlight back through the screen.