Ultimate car entertainment systems: the carputer

Abstract

So you want to play DVDs in your car, listen to thousands of songs without changing a CD, play Half-Life 2, browse the Internet, and you want a navigation system; but, you don't want to pay more than $400? Well, then you are just like me and what you need is a carputer! A carputer is reasonably simple to make; the hardest part is finding the motivation to start. My project began as a result of boredom in my high school automotives class, and a really great sale on power inverters at Wal-Mart. To start, I purchased a 5.6" LCD screen on eBay and a 350 watt power inverter. I installed the power inverter in the car, designed a custom in-dash plate to hold the screen (see Figure 1), and tested the setup with a Playstation 2. To my delight, everything worked flawlessly.