Screens.
The number and type of screens that you use for your Carputer is only restricted by your budget, your car’s interior and the number of video outputs on your Carputer. Realistically, most Carputers only use one monitor which is located within site and reach of the driver, usually on (or in) the center console.
A quick search on Google will bring up any number of 7″ touchscreen monitors which are ideal for controlling your Carputer as well as being the primary display.
Being 7″, there are plenty of opportunities to fabricate them into the dashboard, the sun visor or the headrest (for the back seats). There are also flip down units available which fix to the roof of the cabin, allowing them to be kept out of site when not in use.
If you’re going to be using a screen that is mounted on the dashboard, make sure that it can be easily removed from it’s mount and stored in the glove box. Most thieves will not know the difference between a screen and a sat-nav and will be off with your screen before you can say “go”.
In my view, a touchscreen is the best way to control your Carputer, but we’ll talk about other control options in a little while.
Audio.
Your car already has speakers and a stereo, so getting some form of audio output from your Carputer could be relatively simple.
Most car head-units (the stereo) will have an auxillary input on the back of them, the same as most home stereo’s do. If yours does then a simple 3.5mm to RCA lead will be enough to get the audio from your Carputer to your cars stereo.
If your car stereo doesn’t have this facility then it’s going to be a bit more work to get the sound working properly. You have two main options:
- Buy a new car stereo that has an aux-in on the back, that way you can just connect your Carputer straight up. The other advantage of this is that you don’t have to use your Carputer all the time, you can just listen to the radio or a CD.
- Buy a separate amplifier for your car, which uses your Carputer as an input and outputs directly to the speakers. This requires quite a bit more cabling work as you’ll need to run new speaker cable from the new amplifier to your speakers, but the result is that most standalone amplifiers are of a better quality than the ones used in head-units, so you should get better sound quality this way (even with your cars original speakers).
Both of these methods are fine, but it’s worth considering which one you’re likely to use at an early stage. There’s a knock on effect to the amount of work that will be required, as well as affecting the amount of free space, power consumption and the overall cost as well.
Controls.
As mentioned earlier on this page, the best way to control a Carputer (in my opinion) is via a touchscreen. Most major operating systems will support a touchscreen and it makes navigation of menu’s and the desktop an absolute breeze.
But, if for some reason you don’t want to use a touchscreen, there are other options.
Bluetooth or 2.4GHz wireless keyboards and mice are perfectly good at controlling any PC, including Carputers. What’s more, with a wireless keyboard you have a greater level of control than you would with a touchscreen. Text entry is obviously a lot simpler, though it’s also illegal while driving, so don’t do it.
You could also make use of voice control technology via a microphone positioned in the cabin and some form of voice control software. The advantage here is that you get a true “hands free” experience which is a lot safer than using any manual form of control. The downside is that car cabins tend to have a lot of background noise, mainly from the road, which can make it difficult for voice control software to understand what you want it to do.
There’s nothing to stop you making use of all of some, or all, of these technologies. Only you will know the best combination for your Carputer. As with the audio equipment, think for a minute about how you want to be able to control your machine. It may be that you don’t need a keyboard, or it may be that a touchscreen won’t work for you.
But, in the end, changing this part of your build is going to be quite simple, so don’t get too caught up about it early on.