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Design 1. Designing the In-Dash PC Before I actually buy the components, I need to make sure they are going to work. My design philosophy is complete the design before I build anything. For personal projects, I take it one step further, complete the design before I buy anything. |
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Design 1
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I started with the EPIA-M Motherboard. I picked one up at Fry's, but learned that it was the older Ezra Core, not the new Nemiah core. I took my measurements and brought it back to Fry's. They didn't have any Nemiah's, so I got a refund. I had a 256MB DDR Ram stick laying around so I popped that in the model. The board is 170mm x 170mm (that's 6.7" square). |
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Next I downloaded some models of a standard hard drive and CD Drive. They are huge compared to the motherboard. I decided to go with a laptop HDD (2.5") and remote locate the DVD drive. I am also considering getting a USB DVD drive since I won't be needing the drive all the time.
I tried to put everything in the dash space, but it looks like a tight fit. I heard that the 7" LCD just fits into the 2DIN opening, so next step was to take apart the dash for some measurements. |
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When I pulled out the stock
head unit, I noticed these nice brackets they used to hold it in to the dash.
These will come in handy. I plan on using these brackets to hold in my
enclosure. I am already assuming that I will need some front to rear adjustment so I may end up slotting the screw holes to fine tune the position of the LCD. |
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I went ahead and modeled the OEM head unit. It gives me a good indication on what size my enclosure needs to be and how to interface to the dash bezel. This is very important as this interface will determine how I interface the 7" LCD and touchscreen. |
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I don't have the LCD yet,
but I did find a datasheet for just the LCD. There are a few unknowns at this
point, touchscreen, interface boards and switches. For now, I just modeled the
LCD panel, but I do know there is more work to be done. I just wanted to see if
I could get it all to physically fit in the 2DIN space. Here the LCD is shown with the EIPA-M and the Subaru radio brackets. |
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Now the moment of truth, I
drop in the radio, turn it into a transparent material. From this I can see that
the EPIA sticks out the back of the radio about 0.300". On top of that there are
cables that need to be connected back there.
Other items not shown here that will have to fit into this space:
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What's Next?
Well, for sure I need
to get my hands on the LCD. Its the biggest ticket item, but I can't
really continue on the design until I get those details in the model.
I also need to get the dimensions for a 2.5" laptop drive. I will be considering using shock mounting methods that we employ in BattleBots. The shocks won't be as bad as we see in battle, but there are some pretty nasty pot holes out there.
I can add in the dimensions of the OPUS 90W power supply, at least the ones they give on the datasheet.
The sound card needs to be chosen, so I can model that up and see if it fits. The goal is to get all this info, then I can design the aluminum enclosure.