Current status:


Monday March 29th:
Neglected to update the page for a few days, as you can see...
Currently have almost everything done. The case is covered in fabric, all the internal crap is installed and has an OS installed (XP for now as there are no decent Linux drivers for the touchscreen)...
At any rate, its nearing compleation. The LCD needs some adjustment, and I need a socket for the antenna to pipe it to the FM card.. and I need to make a back plate to cover some of the trunk... and I need to make a top for the case.. so maybe it isn't almost done.. whatever.. .. ..... i like dots..

Friday March 19th:
Currently working on the case. At the time of this writing, the bottom, and all four sides have been initialy cut, and screwed together for a test fit. Which fit perfectly, I might add (whew). The supports have been glued and re-screwed to the bottom and two sides, while I cut the shit out of the front panel to fit the three drives (CDROM/DVD, Removeable HDD, and the SoundBlaster LiveDrive) and whatnot. If I have time I'll cut the holes for the front and back fans and drill the holes for the switches/LEDs on the case. Cross your fingers, back to work!.

Thursday(PM) March 18th:
Installed the PS2 connector into the storage area with the USB ports, and made sure it all fit. Started fabbing the box, got the bottom and sides cut, then I ran out of plywood... and the store closed already, which is my luck. For thoes familiar with 300zx's I am replacing the entire stock tray thing in the back (between the two removable humps) with the computer case, as my stock tray thingy was already modified to hell for the amp that was mounted there, and fell apart when I tried to un-modify it... whacha goona do..

Wednesday(PM) & Thursday(AM) March 17th & 18th:
Epoxy has cured, and everything was mounted in the center console, and was tested. Looks freakin awesome in the car (connected to the laptop). Added some pics (in the same dir as this file) but they look like ass. In person it looks 100x better.
Installed the Power button and Power/HDD LEDs for the computer, will take pics when i steal the digi back. Also mounted some USB connectors in the storage compartment. Going to HSC tomarrow, will pick up a ps2 connector for the keyboard.
All in all things are going well, other then not starting the case, which is what I had planned on starting today, but got sidetracked with the cable running and testing. Such is life.
Placed order on the rest of the components, yay waiting for packages.

Tuesday March 16th:
Glue on buttons has cured, and the buttons and IR reciever have been tested (and work!). Entire setup was test fitted, and once everything checked out, the bezel was epoxied to the center console. I will give it over night to cure before final mounting and alignment of the display.
The boost controller was also relocated to make room for all of this, the turbo-timer will remain in its original location (where the stock clock went).
At this rate, I will begin construction of the case and place the order on the remaining pieces tomarrow.

Monday March 15th:
Got the wiring done for the buttons and IR reciever, glueing them into place... this glue is super-adheasive, unfortunatly it takes 24hrs+ to dry.. untill tomarrow after work, the buck stops here... And I was soo looking forward to test-fitting the bezel.. ohwell, this is the price you must pay for buttons that don't fall off after two weeks (or less) of use.

Sunday March 14th:
Painted bezel, ripping up the button PCB from the original LCD frame to extract the IR reciever and to tap into the Power and Video buttons. Made holder for the main PCB for the LCD, Gheto-fab but it gets the job done. Once the paint has time to fully dry, will add a few more coats if necessary, and if not, its going to be glued into the center console. Got the holes made for the two buttons, waiting for the glue to dry so i can mount the PCB into the console.

Friday/Saturday March 12th-13th:
Constructing the bezel for the LCD. After two failed attempts I finally came up with a design that seems to work, will finish it over the weekend.

Overview:

Here is the the idea... might be modified. A ' *' indicates an item that has already been obtained. Anything else will be retrieved at a later date.

Hardware:


7" DVD ratio touch-screen LCD *
Mini Keyboard (hide-away) *
Wireless (not X10) Color CCD camera for evilness *
Duron 1.2ghz *
256MB DDR *
Soyo SY-K7ADA *
NVidia TNT 2 *
Home-brew GPS device *
Sound Blaster Audigy2 ZS Platinum *
Hauppauge PCI TV/FM Tuner Card, Model "WinTV-dbx(WINTV401)" *
XM PCR for supr-spiffy satt radio *
Cirque TouchPad *

Software:


Win2k and/or Linux (depends on what ends up being most compatible with everything. *
Street Atlas 2004 Plus *
Winamp (2 or 5, haven't dicked with 5 yet tho so..) or XMMS

There will be provisions for mounting additional units on top of the computer itself, be it a PS2, XBOX, GC, whatever. There will be hide-away inputs for the units as well as an outlet from the inverter.