fatboydan
Member
- Joined
- March 19, 2018
- Messages
- 12
- Reaction score
- 1
- City, State
- Nastytown, WA
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- 1993 Ranger XL 4x4
Being my first non-introductory thread, I'll just leave a quick summary of what I did, how I did it and what drove me to do it:
I installed a 'rugged' industrial passive cooled PC in my ranger. I found the cheapest option possible, so that if I screwed it up upon install or even after, I wasn't going to be out that much. I ended up with an Acrosser AR5403FL I believe it was. Core 2 Duo 1.6ghz, 4gb ram, GPS/4G-LTE/WIFI and bluetooth all built in. Equipped to handle laptop sized hard drives. I ended up putting a 128gb performance SSD in there. Chose windows 10 as my OS in case I couldn't get a frontend to work (frontend obviously being the visuals that make it look like it belongs in a car.) Frontend software is Centrafuse - latest version (4.49 I think, I forget a lot)
Monitor is a liliput 7" 12v widescreen with resistive touchscreen. It works okay, though it's actual max resolution and that which the OS reports as max are 2 different things and something I'll have to tackle later. In hindsight, I should have gone with a capacitive screen. More on that another time.
The idea behind it was to add a touch of modern to advanced tech to a vehicle never meant to have it. If the truck were OBD-II I could have utilized it for performance specs and diagnostics too, but.. oh well. The PC is tucked into the 'cubby' behind the drivers side jump seat and the monitor is mounted where the ash tray used to be. Enough to be visible from any forward facing position, but out of the way enough not to distract while driving.
If anyone is interested in more details of this kind of project, even a how-to and pictures, please let me know. I've been tinkering with computers and even on a professional level since 1986, and working on vehicles and small engine OPE stuff since the same year. This just seemed a logical culmination of all that knowledge
I installed a 'rugged' industrial passive cooled PC in my ranger. I found the cheapest option possible, so that if I screwed it up upon install or even after, I wasn't going to be out that much. I ended up with an Acrosser AR5403FL I believe it was. Core 2 Duo 1.6ghz, 4gb ram, GPS/4G-LTE/WIFI and bluetooth all built in. Equipped to handle laptop sized hard drives. I ended up putting a 128gb performance SSD in there. Chose windows 10 as my OS in case I couldn't get a frontend to work (frontend obviously being the visuals that make it look like it belongs in a car.) Frontend software is Centrafuse - latest version (4.49 I think, I forget a lot)
Monitor is a liliput 7" 12v widescreen with resistive touchscreen. It works okay, though it's actual max resolution and that which the OS reports as max are 2 different things and something I'll have to tackle later. In hindsight, I should have gone with a capacitive screen. More on that another time.
The idea behind it was to add a touch of modern to advanced tech to a vehicle never meant to have it. If the truck were OBD-II I could have utilized it for performance specs and diagnostics too, but.. oh well. The PC is tucked into the 'cubby' behind the drivers side jump seat and the monitor is mounted where the ash tray used to be. Enough to be visible from any forward facing position, but out of the way enough not to distract while driving.
If anyone is interested in more details of this kind of project, even a how-to and pictures, please let me know. I've been tinkering with computers and even on a professional level since 1986, and working on vehicles and small engine OPE stuff since the same year. This just seemed a logical culmination of all that knowledge
