Mac Mini Install

[EBlend]

Well here is my latest audio project, this time I am doing everything right and this is my last audio system in this car. Here are some pics of the mini being mounted in the glovebox. I used an aluminum ruler to make a braket for it and just padding material to keep it in there. It looks like it hangs a little sideways right now but I was taking those pics before I tightened down the upper bolt that holds the braket in place

more pics here
http://www.dmitribobko.com/Dmitri/Ca...ini%20Install/

[ndprunner22]

wow man this looks like a sweet project im very interested keep posting up!

[Exodus]

nice craftmanship but why do you have a mac in your car?

[nascarnate326]

Originally Posted by Exodus

nice craftmanship but why do you have a mac in your car?

So he can create custom graphics, dua! JK JK

I love mac mini's and having one in your car is sweet. Apple Pride!

[Exodus]

sorry, i had to fart
Open the windows for that one

[Ajaxus]

Originally Posted by Exodus

nice craftmanship but why do you have a mac in your car?

ever wanted gigs worth of mp3's hooked up to your sound system? maybe get a screen and hook up some gps, or put in a ps2, the possibilities are endless. thats why i rigged my car up for laptop installs.

[HiFiCarGuy]

So, are you just going to connect that to a touch screen? Also, the audio is digital out isn't it? How are you going to make the sound work? I've wanted to see that done for a long time. Awesome job. Please keep us posted as you make progress.

[EBlend]

Yah i got a nice touch screen with custom mount and all that fits right into the ga 2 din slot without any cutting and all that. I will take pics of it later. I am myself a pc fan and find macs pretty weird, but it will work best for the application. There is a car power supply that plugs right into this thing and have a start up shutdown controller build in and all that. Its just the easierst package to go wtih, and once u run the front end software noone really cares whats in the background for an OS it all looks the same. Yah its mainly for GPS, wireless wardriving, tons of mp3s, xvids, dvd watching, internet browsing. It has build in bluetooch as well so once i get my bluetooth phone i answer the phone without taking the phone out of my pocket and use the car stereo for talking. It hooks up directly to the amp via rca.

This isn't my diagram but someone else made it as they installed it in their car, mine will be the same with same components (not including the amp and speakers)

[BadBlack00Ga]

Looks great so far. Make sure you give it proper ventelation in there, I've heard those mac mini's get pretty hot.

Is that an intel mac? When your projects all done or you have everything bought could you PM me or post a build cost? I was thinking of doing a similar project with a mini ITX CPU but with all the components I wanted and the screen it was gonna be way too much. If this is somewhat affordable I might attempt it.

[DevilDriver]

i like the xenarc 700tsv's. i think you'll enjoy it.

You stole my idea you SoB!

[EBlend]

Originally Posted by BadBlack00Ga

Looks great so far. Make sure you give it proper ventelation in there, I've heard those mac mini's get pretty hot.

Is that an intel mac? When your projects all done or you have everything bought could you PM me or post a build cost? I was thinking of doing a similar project with a mini ITX CPU but with all the components I wanted and the screen it was gonna be way too much. If this is somewhat affordable I might attempt it.

This is not an intel mac, its just a g4 mac 1.43 ghz. I haven't had any heat issues with mine at all and it doesn't seem to get any warm at all. I haven't had it in an enclosed enviroment yet but we will see how it goes in there soon enough. Here is the pic of what my lcd mount looks like. Mine is almost identical except button on the right side and it they glow red to match the rest of the car.


I will take actual pictures of the screen later. My progress would go faster but my car is sitting on jackstands right now and i don't feel too safe crawling all over the inside of it, and wheels won't be here for another 3 weeks or so.

[ndprunner22]

awesome thread this is a bad ass project i like that wiring diagram too

[EBlend]

I will be buying all parts from www.mp3car.com
I got my lcd from there about 1 year ago now, never got around to palying with all this until now. I am just waiting for a mac power cable to come out (plug and play into the p1900 psu) so that I don't have to cuz up my house powerbrick and wire it up. It should be out by the end of may at which time I will order everything I need in relation to power. As you can see the p1900 needs an additional $25 dollar attachment to get a 3rd output which will power the usb hub and all that. And the great thing about this mac, it comes out of sleep mode in 2 seconds flat and because the psu has all the build in features it will wake up just like any other deck would

Why don't you just get a power inverter, instead of waiting for a car adapter.

And where can I find an LCD like that?

[DevilDriver]

Originally Posted by Shad0wguy

Why don't you just get a power inverter, instead of waiting for a car adapter.

And where can I find an LCD like that?

www.mp3car.com
www.ebay.com

it's a fairly common LCD from xenarc.

[EBlend]

Originally Posted by Shad0wguy

Why don't you just get a power inverter, instead of waiting for a car adapter.

And where can I find an LCD like that?

Because power intervert doesn't do me any good, i need automatic startup and shutdown and a host of other features that a p1900 psu does, plus why go dc to ac just to go back to dc when car already has dc

Screens are available everywhere, the custom mount was made for me custom

[Ajaxus]

very nice, and in a moment ill have a decent fan that could solve any potential heat issues. its very compact, powerful, and quiet.

http://www.cardomain.com/item/STISF4

Less than 6" long and flows 43 cuft per minute. What I would do is dremel out a hole in the glove box and mount this behind it so there isn't too much bulk in there. iirc there is enough room behind the glovebox to fix this baby in.

[EBlend]

Originally Posted by Ajaxus

very nice, and in a moment ill have a decent fan that could solve any potential heat issues. its very compact, powerful, and quiet.

http://www.cardomain.com/item/STISF4

Less than 6" long and flows 43 cuft per minute. What I would do is dremel out a hole in the glove box and mount this behind it so there isn't too much bulk in there. iirc there is enough room behind the glovebox to fix this baby in.

Thanks man for the tip. I haven't tried to see the spacing behind the glovebox yet, but you mean there is about 2 inches back there?

[Ajaxus]

Originally Posted by EBlend

Thanks man for the tip. I haven't tried to see the spacing behind the glovebox yet, but you mean there is about 2 inches back there?

gotta be. i'll take a look tomorrow and see what kind of mount you can rig up in addition to a cut. i'll make a point to work with your picture of the mac mini mount to figure it out.

worst case scenario, if you have the money, you can have a liquid cooled system designed for it...but this could run you a few grand so we'll ignore it for now, .

either way ill see what i can crank out for you tomorrow. I actually have my glovebox pulled right now so i can finish some stuff up.