Carputer

[Crawdaddy]

Anyone put a carputer in a 'burb before? I'm a n00b to it, but I think I have some pretty good ideas for it. I'm still learning all the mechanics of what you have to do to run, but I'll get it figured soon enough. I'm going to be putting the carputer in the center console extension I'm going to try to build. I find that in the 91 body style the stock radio position is VERY bad. You can't do anything with the radio without taking all your attention off the road and putting it on the radio because you can't see or feel it. So, Im going to build the console extension to house the video reciever I am going to put in (reccomendations on video recievers anyone?) and the carputer, which will have a 10.4" LCD touchscreen for the display. I'm going to mount the LCD at the bottom of the upright for the console and the video reciever at the top of it. Here's a pic of the side view of the console design so far: http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a3...onsoleside.jpg . Any opinions are welcomed and wanted!

[TrailLeadr]

Anyone put a carputer in a 'burb before? I'm a n00b to it, but I think I have some pretty good ideas for it. I'm still learning all the mechanics of what you have to do to run, but I'll get it figured soon enough. I'm going to be putting the carputer in the center console extension I'm going to try to build. I find that in the 91 body style the stock radio position is VERY bad. You can't do anything with the radio without taking all your attention off the road and putting it on the radio because you can't see or feel it. So, Im going to build the console extension to house the video reciever I am going to put in (reccomendations on video recievers anyone?) and the carputer, which will have a 10.4" LCD touchscreen for the display. I'm going to mount the LCD at the bottom of the upright for the console and the video reciever at the top of it. Here's a pic of the side view of the console design so far: http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a3...onsoleside.jpg . Any opinions are welcomed and wanted!

I've got an old Toshiba Portege I plan on fitting into my 'burb once it gets on the road again. You'd probably have luck finding someone who's done an install in a burb on www.mp3car.com. Last time I looked no one had done one, but that was about a year ago. So maybe someone has by now.
There's one guy who did an install in a k1500 truck, that has a similar dash. But he did a wooden box-like console that goes under the dash for his LCD. Not exactly the cleanest install, but it gets an "A" for good use of space.
Sorry my ISP is constipated today, and everything is going really slow, so I can't post a link to that install.

[Crawdaddy]

I have already perused mp3car's collection of vehicles. I saw the K1500 job, it was nice, but I'm building the console to serve at least 2 purposes anways. Unfortunatley, all the jobs I was on there that involved suburbans were very much custom everything and were of the later model vehicles. It did give me some ideas, but nothing too horribly useful. I think I have settled on a 20 degree angle on the face of the console upright, but I still haven't decided on a at method of finishing it, paint it or stain it. I love the look of stained wood, but I don't think I could get a match on the "wood" interior inlays that came with the silverado level package from that year. I may stain it regardless, and may even eventually replace the faux wood with real wood. I'm also going to have to relocate 2 switches off my dash, the rear A/C and rear defrost, but moving them shouldnt be hard, and I could put some nice trucker-style toggles in the panel to replace the stock ones. This is going to be a fairly long and intensive project, but in the end I think it will be very much worth it. I'm also considering removing the existing spacious center console and going all the way with wood. That way, I can also custom mount a screen for the second row passengers. There's just so much I want to do with this truck, it's overwhelming at times.

[Cableguy]

Sorry I couldn't resist posting my work van laptop set up...















Home away from home with wireless internet...

[Steve]

Sorry I couldn't resist posting my work van laptop set up...

Ok, but where do you put your coffee?

[Cableguy]

Its hanging from the door. One of Those cup holder thingys

[Crawdaddy]

that's a really nice work setup, but it's not so great when you want to say, watch a movie on it. However, I'm not knocking your setup since if I had to do a work vehicle, that's exactly how I'd do it. Just out of curiosity, the motorola 2-way radio you have hanging off the dash, that bouncin' off a city-wide repeater? Ok, I went over to cardomain to check out setups I saw there too. I'm liking the whole replace the whole center console idea, it would create better continuity, and also allow me to put things like the cupholders exactly where I want 'em.

[Cableguy]

I was just being goofy posting my van, sorry. That is all work related to communicate between trucks and dispatch. I spend enough time in it to set it up like that. and yes the two way is a listed frequency V0X 769 Rogers Oshawa.

[TrailLeadr]

Jamie, Steve made you a mod because he thought you had the site's interests at heart. You're expected to live, and breathe GMTruckClub.com
So that being said why would you post a pic of your work vehicle's latop turned on, and logged in, and not have a screenshot of the site? Hmmmm???
You should hang your head in shame

Just kidding.

Crawdaddy, once you start your install be sure to photo document your progress.
Start a thread in the "how to" section.