I am in the process of trying to install a carPC. A small low power PC in the boot, connected to a touch screen monitor in place of my car's double din CD/radio.
In theory it is simple:
Buy a 160w PSu transformer and wire it to the battery, ground & 12v ignition from the car. Attach it to your PC, connect the touchscreen, add an AMP and there you have it, a do it all solution to stuff you never realised you needed!
That was before I realised I am hated by all things computer. I am on my 4th computer attempt, with parts nicked from two others. All previous PCs used to work fine, but now just flat out refuse to accept an OS being installed on them. I have tried every possible combination of parts & settings and yet all i find is that CD/DVD drives work in some computers, but not in others, hard drives work in some computers...then refuse to in others. I can install Windows XP...but not Windows 7... literally every simple task is blocked for some reason.
Even with the donation of an entire Dell computer from Kalniel (using RAM & DVD drive) and graphics card, hard drive, windows XP home from barker967 I am still stuffed. I can't even imagine where I would be without their donations!
Having finally butchered XP onto a computer (windows 7 will not install for no apparent reason) I am harshly reminded just how useless Xp is compared to windows 7. Gone are the plug it in & watch it work days, gone are the simple updates downloaded & installed, and gone are the idiot proofing of everything.
I have spent 9 hours working on it today, and 5 hours yesterday and £300...not including the last 2 weeks of planning & experimenting leading up to it! Sorting out the hardware was meant to be the easy step, I still need to wire everything up (PC, AMP, speakers etc) in my bloody car, then test it all!
I hate my life! [/rant]