Hello!

Hi people! I've just found this site while doing a search for a digital dash, and have to say it seems pretty cool.
Quick intro, I've recently worked on making a 2-seater Min with the roof across the back - it worked overall, but I turned it into a trailer coz the underneath was too rusty to economically save.
BUT, I've bought another one instead, and it's gonna be a bit of a street car. I'm working on modifying a Calibra(!) bodykit, got a 1-piece plastic dash from years ago, lights for underneath and some mad ideas.
The PC is going in (with bluetooth for easy xfer of songs) and a bit of a thumping sound system.
HOWEVER, the one thing that I have GOT to have is digital displays for the dash, so if anyone has any hints/tips/CIRCUITS that they can guide me to quickly, it'll be appreciated. Of course I'l search the forum while I'm here too :-)

Anyways, enough gassing from me, thanks for putting up with my drivel.
Mike

welcome :)
what part of the world are you from? are you concidering building a 16v mini at some point?

steve

[ChadH]

Hi Mike,

Welcome to the site.

Just so you know, hard drives do not take very kindly to the bumps and vibrations of being in a car, so you need to do something to mount your hard drive in such a way to prevent this happening.

I'm toying with the idea of putting a PC in mine mainly to communicate with the ECU, and as gay as this sounds, I'm going to experiment with mounting the hard drive with suspension from a radio controlled car :lol: :lol: :lol:

Definitely something you need to consider!

Oh and please, for the sake of all humanity, don't put lights under your car!!! I think FatKev might be able to get away with it with his pink mini, but that's about it :twisted:

in the "ICE news" an edition of mini mag i seem to remember an american company planning to import a computer specialy designed to be put in a car. the CPU went in the boot, or somewhere else out of the way, and a touch screen to go in the dash somewhere. it had all the functions of the average computer (so it would be possible to plug it into the ECU to show lots of useless but cool info such as fuel maps), and also had Sat Nav capabilities. but more importantly, an 80GB hard drive for saving LOADS of music on! i have about 40 something albums on the laptop, and that's only just 2GB :shock:

steve

[FatKev]

Oh and please, for the sake of all humanity, don't put lights under your car!!! I think FatKev might be able to get away with it with his pink mini, but that's about it :twisted:

LoL! :lol: :lol: :lol:

Guess I got myself an exemption from the no lights under a Mini rule :twisted:

Glad to see you udnerstand my whole pink Mini idea Chad! :D

As for the hard drives mounted in car, I read a lot about the Mstation (has different names sometimes - google it :P) which is esentially a pc hard drive and an mp3 player. A bit steep at £150-200. A lot of people using the mstation said they did all sorts to save the hdd - wrapping it in foam padding and securing it down and so on. However, Chad your idea of using remote control car suspension bits is sheer GENIUS!

Personally I was wondering if a small solid state mp3 player could remotely be used in conjuction with a head unit? I'm not quite clued up regarding (a lot of things...) ICE and the cans, cants, dos and donts :(

I want to lighten the car as much as possible (cos I can't be arsed going on a diet!), so I wouldnt be using a big bulky ICE install. However enough to be heard somewhat in the stripped out interrior :shock:

Kevin

Cheers for the welcome guys :D
Steve, I'm gonna be a bit of an outcast - I haven't got any intentions of 16v'ing her....yet. I've had a 1300 block sitting around for a few years and recently fitted it, but the bugger just refused to start so I've hauled it back out for now. (Plus with her being a second car I had to start off again with the no-claims bonus shit for the insurance, so I'm keeping it low for a couple of years.) Oh, and I'm from near The Toon. (Newcastle)

Chadh, yeah, the hard drive thing is something I've been looking at. The model car suspension sounds clever - my own idea was to suspend the drive hanging on springs with dampening material around it. Roll on the day when we can buy decent sized USB drives - save the hassle and space! And sorry, but the lights HAVE to go on... hmmm, wonder what their reaction time is? If it's fast enough I might be able to get them to flash to the beat...... :wink: Only kidding - I'm not THAT sad........

Kev, nowt wrong with Pink Minis...... erm *cough* not that I'd own one myself, like, but, y'know, they're.... they're ok.... I'm sure any 'girlie colour' comments are completely unfounded. :D

(",)

[FatKev]

I've heard it all before about pink... I just love pink :P

So screw all y'all! :D I want to be tacky, I want to be "flash", I even want blind gay men to be able to say "Oh my god what were you thinking?"

I want the neds\chavs\boyracers and all to laugh at my car with its tacky stylee :D Then I'll teach 'em to fear the "Pink Rider"... Only arses I'll be chasing are those of Imprezas and the like.

I'm not gay, honest.

Kevin

[ChadH]

I love pink too...

...well, much more than brown anyway :wink: :twisted: :wink:

[evolotion]

scour e-bay for a cheap in-car CD player, or preferably multi-changer. these have special damped shock absorber thing sot ho;d the actual "drive" .. be ideal for a hard drive id imagine ;)

[FatKev]

I love pink too...

...well, much more than brown anyway :wink: :twisted: :wink:

Dirty bugger! :D

When the pink track is red, take the brown one instead :shock:

That saying always makes me feel ill.

Speaking of brown, my other dream Mini is a totally stock looking BL Brown (whats the colour name really?) Clubman GT with the dodgy brown leather interrior (or is it sorta tan?) with a big engine in it :D

Hmm I really do have issues I think - I seem to like the worse colours for cars :(

Evo, thats a very good point about the stuff in the changer units. However, hit a big enough pump and it'll skip (guess it depends how good the changer is). Would imagine that could still bugger a hard drive up.

So could anyone give me any idea if a solid state mp3 player could be used with a head unit in a car? I'm a n00b with ICE :D

Kevin

[ChadH]

If you get a stereo with an Aux input, you could wire it to that and then select that input on the stereo. The other alternative would be to get one of those radio link things that allows you to connect a device to it, and then you listen to it on a certain frequency on the radio.

Only drawback with solid state is the price/space cost.

[FatKev]

I'd rather have a small, not going to break, runs on 1 AA battery solid state mp3 player. :D

As for storage space, yeah they aren't great for that, but I dont want gigs of music in my car. Could use an Ipod or Creative Zen (Xen?) player if you wanted big space. They are quite tough! :D

I was thinking that I could do the whole AUX thing, Just use one of those jacks with the two males connectors at one end and headphone jack at the other and bingo!

Then, once you get out of your car - take you music with you!

Kevin

[ChadH]

IPod's aren't solid state, they have a hard drive - I'm not sure about the creative one. You can buy an in car kit for an iPod - one that plays through the radio. Not sure how well it would deal with bumps, etc.

[evolotion]

use an i-pod in the 106 on a glorified mobile phone holder.. its fine. but thats soggy standard 1.0 106 suspension. can drive over speedbumps @30mph without spilling your McDonalds carryout.

[FatKev]

I know the ipod isnt solid state. Nor is the Zen, but they are both meant to be good at coping with bumps and so on. Yet still loads of space. Not as cool as having a pc in car, but much more compact and fitting in with my light Mini idea. :D

Kevin